anthony

A Site for "Rag tag bunch of conservative misfits". Scenes included of St. Petersburg and poor, repressed Russian citizens. Don't they realise there's a war on? Who'd not wish to travel there and maybe live a while? Sunday Talks - Anthony Blinken Spins a Tale of Woe for Vladimir Putin - The Last Refuge THECONSERVATIVETREEHOUSE.COM Well, I have not written about the events with Wagner in Russia, in part because coincidentally I have a good source in St Petersburg who told...

Elation in Rostov's streets at the peaceable conclusion. Quick sighting of Prig. (A metaphysical comment about entrenched, irrational Russophobia: "They" aren't any different from "us".) https://youtu.be/7qvFQJEyjwA

Maskirovka or mental crackup? Who knows. Russia's Academy Award Winning Performance For Best Coup, Prigozhin Scores Best Actor - A Son of the New American Revolution SONAR21.COM What if the Prigozhin “Coup” is Maskirovka? I want to explore that possibility. Earlier today (Saturday on the east coast of the U.S.) I was...

Prigozhin has become notorious for his madly erratic effusions, usually castigating the RF high command for being too restrained and sabotaging Wagner's operations. Many on the Russian side think the hardliner egomaniac should be disciplined. Most often, he seems to be yanking the media's chains, telling them what they want to hear. Believe him you can believe anything. But - of course - Kyiv and NATO had been building a formidable army for no particular purpose, in all innocence! How could they be accused of the motive of using it to finally defeat the Donbas and retake Crimea? Ten years now of uninterrupted bombardment of E. Ukr civilians is proof of intent. And who could not predict that Putin might take exception to more imminent aggression coming and counter-aggress?! No surprise. There's the UAF's "purpose", readied to 'defend' against Russia when - with 100% certainty - it took the bait and invaded.

When questioned, Putin has reiterated often that Russia's policy is "no first use". BUT, specified the 4 conditions for use. Naturally the media jumped on that, out of context. Headlines: "Putin threatens nuclear weapons!!! How the MSM consumers are hoodwinked. Unfailingly, writers told us that obviously Putin has no "red lines". He didn't respond to hostile provocation, here or there. Then we can push him over the limit with no reactions. Such people don't get others' self-restraint: Russia has been constantly ultra-cautious to not be the cause of escalated war. Whatever the propagandists and/or military 'experts' assured everybody, the 'winning' by Russian forces was an eventual foregone conclusion. (Even Obama remarked in 2016 that Russia "...has escalation dominance" - i.e. fighting in their front yard, no one will beat them). So what would rational people have done with the reality of certain defeat? Or, second best - even a long drawn-out war without certain victory? Clear - diplomatically end the conflict, soonest. One has to have zero value in human lives to welcome a losing (or Pyrrhic) war by one's supposed ally. Are human sacrifices the enlightened "Western values" the (undemocratic, corrupt and semi-Nazified) Ukraine regime are "defending"? (So long as Russians are dying also, we don't mind you being killed...) Only the insane wanted this war to go on. But being crazed, they have avoided and blocked Zelensky from partaking in two peace initiatives agreed to by Russia early in 2022, and still want it to go on today. To gain a "better bargaining position"! (Blinken, I think) Russia is winning by conventional warfare means. They have no need for nukes. The loser is always the one desperate to escalate. Everybody knows that repeatedly doubling-down until broke is the loser's strategy, known as the Gambler's Fallacy. Their last throw of the dice, the promoted Ukr counter-offensive is failing. Western publicity has been 'prepping' the west for human 'survivability' in "a limited" nuclear war. It's been raised in high level discussions, you can bet on it. If a tactical nuke is used, perhaps as a false flag, blamed like all previous incidents upon Russia, odds are overwhelming it will be by NATO. Right this moment is the critical time for saner heads to prevail.

I tried to dig into where Russia has - in that post Cold War period - explicitly threatened European and western countries - and come up short. With all their predictable growth pangs away from hateful Communism, their ideology has been mostly eliminated. Largely my impression is Putin has acted in good faith, and been receptive of and conciliatory to the West, and been rebuffed. My question: prior to 2022 what was the threat that Russia posed to others?

I fear NATO.

The one-sided view of IOF. It doesn't wash, simply finding excuses for the status quo. I've made a fair explanation backed by the facts for Russia's intervention, one in part, to immediately rescue lives from force initiated by Kyiv, fallen on deaf ears. The broader and long term cause is against NATO pressing to Russia's borders, and all this implies - fixed military bases and icbms a couple of kms over the border aimed your way. The implicit hostility of which should be self-evident. No self-respecting people would tolerate it. Most countries would not be powerful enough to prevent it. "Rule-based international order" is useless to stop such grievances. But who makes the rules? (Visibly, Putin is most aware of "implications" - pragmatic like most leaders, but irrational he isn't). NATO is culpable for 'creeping' or incremental initiation of inherent force. That's the potential threat nearby nuclear weapons bring. Even unused, they are a permanent psychological constraint to the freedom of action by citizens of a country. (A hold-up man never needs to 'use' - to fire - his gun at anyone he robs; pointing it at the victim is enough to get anything he wants). Striking first, a pre-emptive (and defensive) force is wholly objectively moral : One is not required to wait for and receive the blow that you can see is coming. Of course with many who believe that other (lesser) countries should never have a "sphere of influence" which extends even to their immediate vicinity, while the USA/NATO can and should extend its "sphere" faraway across the world, one is going to meet an impasse. Then we can go into what nations/collectives/individuals are - intrinsically- superior, as contrasted to objectively better.

Michael, this is correct. And since the newly enlarged (with NATO arming and training) UAF Army was poised for a fresh attack on the region, early 2022, Putin was faced with a hard choice. Now or never. Wait longer and the Donbas would be overrun, the resident inhabitants (property and business owners and others who'd lived there for generations) would have had to flee for their lives into Russia as some millions had already done. The territory would be 'ethnically cleansed' of Russian Ukrainians, and you can bet the predatory corporates were ready to move in on valuable land, mining concessions, etc.,when emptied - de-Russification, terrorising and expelling the locals as well as killing some was the point of sustaining that civil war. Publicly and to their discredit, a blind eye was turned on this ongoing injustice by western politicians. Much is made of NATO "expansion!" as Putin's main rationale. True, but people also forget - and are seldom directed to by MSM - the plight of the Donbas citizens. Ukraine's admission to NATO was still years away, not an immediate threat. The Donbas situation was urgent and impending, what I think "pulled the trigger" for rapid invasion before they were invaded. Those separatists appealed for help, and after refusing to earlier, Putin eventually obliged. Legally by UN Charter (and "R2P"- UN's 'responsibility to protect' to prevent genocides). In his words and by his non-actions for 8 years, it seems most plasuible that Putin was counting upon Minsk to be implemented. The ex-Ambassador Jack Matlock is on record for his conviction that Putin wouldn't have invaded if MInsk (autonomy within Ukraine, etc.) had been implemented, bears it out. Did Russia need the headache of gaining territory and people at huge, somewhat predictable, risks and expense? "Unprovoked and unjustified invasion", the unquestioned, genius product of psy-ops propagandists, and false. Anybody mention "Initiation of force"?: IOF: the overthrow of a democratic govt. and Maidan, aided-funded by the CIA's "National Endowment for Democracy" (- Ha!) IOF: The repression and rights abuses of, and a lengthy and illicit war against, their own people by the non-democratic Kyiv regime IOF: (Fraud) - The sabotage of the Minsk protocols agreed to by all participants (we know now, a farce, only a ploy "to buy time" for the Ukr Army buildup, as Merkel and the other two admitted lately. The militias at that point were whipping the Ukraine forces and had to stopped by a ceasefire trickery. Putin was duped). IOF: The concentration of Kyiv troops and increased shelling in preparation for the final assault at the Donbas borders in early 2022. As consequence, "pre-emptive/defensive force" - by Putin's SMO. Of course Putin (or any Russians) can never be seen - in part explanation for the conflict - to have been acting humanely for a population's protection. Western indoctrination eliminated that. "Evil!" doesn't correspond with humaneness.

A fabulous speech which "...would seem subversive" today. I guess, because you don't "appease your enemy"--don't enter into dialogue, don't seek the end of conflict (especially one that's not self-defensive) don't understand the other side's concerns, don't make concessions, keep ramping up the war regardless whoever gets to pay the human cost because 'winning' is all (Hollywood shows us) . Really? Is that the O'ist position? A 'principle' that drops context is rationalism.

A worthwhile background roundup from the soldier-scholar. Everything seems to return to power and domination, global or local. Col. Macgregor - "other people's success is not our misfortune..."

Tucker at 1.05. (Not you - too - Nikki!!)

The lies, propagandizing and "staged theater" isn't slowing. Just to keep Ukrainians fighting on to the bitter end, a barely upright boxer who never had a realistic chance against his opposition, but might still strike a lucky punch before he goes down with brain damage. And to keep the West's public compliant with the massive aid still flowing into the black hole. Latest propaganda: "Success!" "The Patriot battery outside Kyiv just shot down Russia's touted hypersonic missile!", in effect has appeared on news channels. I said half-seriously a year back, you could divide (or multiply) anything which came out of government-controlled media on Ukraine by a factor of ten. More, any claim they made about victories/atrocities/casualties/culpability etc should be subject to the inversion method. The exact opposite of what they told was more often close to the truth. Indeed, all off-msm accounts report a Kinzhal missile penetrated defenses and severely damaged the expensive Patriot system - now running out of weapons options, Nato is scrambling.

https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html/ Ukraine on Fire: The Real Story - Full Documentary by Oliver Stone (Original English version) WWW.BITCHUTE.COM Ukraine, the 'borderlands' between Russia and 'civilized' Europe is on fire. For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between...

The best yet, imo. Long essay but worth reading. Understanding The Great Game in Ukraine | by Seshadri Kumar | Medium MEDIUM.COM Synopsis

The normal diet of half-truths, deception, leaving out significant facts, minimising and magnifying deeds etc, for mass emotional appeal which is only found in the main media. Think: *A Hostage Situation*. It is very apparent in retrospect, Putin was faced with staying out - and letting the Donbas Russian-Ukrainians be brutalized, (the Right Sector and neo-Nazi thugs) slaughtered, driven out or rounded up in camps - or going in to rescue them. Hard decision, assuming he understood the high price Russia would have to pay. But he's intelligent and apparently rational, future-oriented. He must additionally have known the situation would only worsen re: Russia's security by doing nothing - once the Donbas inevitably fell this year. With a rampant, victorious, large and well-trained and -armed UAF directly at the Russian border. And eventually with Ukraine's NATO admittance and what that implies. So he went in. With his minimal invasion. Still counting on Kyiv recognizing the good sense of peace negotiations along Minsk lines. Which was a near outcome until Boris Johnson the immoral little sneak more or less black-mailed and bribed Zelensky into dropping out of the talks: Because we can beat Russia! (Who is this "we" white man?) Boris must take a large part of the blame for all the deaths that transpired afterward. Yeah, what's been fed to us is "a fake story". That left out most. Predicated on "Russians-evil".

"The former ambassador [Jack Matlock] noted that Kiev had multiple opportunities to avert war. He believes that Russia would not have sent troops into Ukraine in February if Kiev “had been willing to abide by the Minsk agreement, recognize the Donbas as an autonomous entity within Ukraine, avoid NATO military advisors, and pledge not to enter NATO.”" Oct 18, 2022 US should not listen to Kiev, former ambassador to Moscow warns — RT World News WWW.RT.COM Jack Matlock, the last US ambassador to the USSR, has called for a change of Washington’s policy toward Ukraine

34m. Ukraine war crimes ... and Covid vaccinations https://youtu.be/Bb9ApQ8MSrA

Comes that time the created celeb believes his own constructed image is for real. Polish farm, "Russian" missile, crying wolf and other tall tales (that theater): Zelensky and Media Lackeys Caught in Most Dangerous Lie Yet - scheerpost.com SCHEERPOST.COM With Kiev exposed for a lie that could have triggered a third world war, it is time to examine past deceptions that Western media promoted.

https://www.rt.com/news/566937-nato-ukraine-stoltenberg-talks/ Send more arms to achieve peace... How does an amoral concretist become NATO chief? He hasn't heard of 'guns don't kill people, people kill people'. You need men with the will and the skill to fight, along with the tools. And Ukraine's soldiers are running low after huge losses, some disobeying orders or deserting, and there are less experienced men able to use the weapons and will get themselves killed trying. From the beginning to pump in weapons only intensified and lengthened the fighting and delayed the inevitable. Now the outcome is dawning on Stoltenberg it seems, in order to attempt to gain parity, some bargaining position at the negotiation table, Ukrainians must suicidally fight on, to hold - or win back - territory, apparently. But it was always crucial to not arrive at the point where either Russia or Ukraine would be forced to capitulate. Anyway whoever 'won', parts of Ukraine would be wrecked. The Kremlin has kept its doors open to a ceasefire and a realistic settlement at every stage - but the warlike Alliance believed they would gain a glorious battle victory and rejected them. No one has realized that Russia's efforts have been tightly self-restrained this far. Now, with the first conventional offensive by sufficient Russian troops coming this Winter, having eventually laid the ground work and badly degrading the Ukraine power grid, military infrastructure, transport and communications (as 'normal' warfare specifies), the gloves come off and it might be too late to talk. Another warmongering fantasist, Josep Borrell, EU: "This war will be decided on the battlefield". Quite, but not how he envisaged.

By the democracy that's defending our Democracy: Kiev executes 39 pro-Russian activists in Kherson - reports ENGLISH.ALMAYADEEN.NET Ukraine is committing mass executions in Kherson to intimidate the region's pro-Russian activists.

A "Russian - built missile" from the Soviet era, is true but irrelevant. That's apparently the system Ukraine have stocks of and still uses for air defense, the old Russian S300. The Russians exclusively use an updated version today. Albeit that Kyiv has been steadily and deliberately killing civilians until now in Donetsk with the expensive US-donated Himars. "Russian-built", as stated accusingly by the Polish PM, is a sleazy trick to inflame ignorant people of guilt by association, i.e. therefore, it may or could also have been "Russian"-aimed and fired. English commentator A. Mercouris points out. https://youtu.be/6nODdPlw3PU

Col. Macgregor https://youtu.be/r8EVMSqbvzU

Dmytro Kuleba @DmytroKuleba - 21:35 UTC · Nov 15, 2022 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine "Russia now promotes a conspiracy theory that it was allegedly a missile of Ukrainian air defense that fell on the Polish theory. Which is not true. No one should buy Russian propaganda or amplify its messages. This lesson should have been long learnt since the downing of #MH17". See here, (the tweets are amusing). https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1592632386751434752 'The boy who cried "Wolf"', comes to mind. Gradually the realization might sink in that Kyiv has incessantly been crying wolf for its propaganda value. The very start of the PR campaign, the Snake Island 'massacre of Ukraine heroes' which was a surrender and capture, no lives lost.