October 2023

Oct 31, 2023

Featured • The War Is Lost - Zelenski Will Leave - The White House Has Failed, Moon of Alabama, Oct 31, 2023

Time's big new story is quite revealing:

‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight - Time - Oct. 30, 2023

That offensive has proceeded at an excruciating pace and with enormous losses, making it ever more difficult for Zelensky to convince partners that victory is around the corner. With the outbreak of war in Israel, even keeping the world’s attention on Ukraine has become a major challenge.

Quoting a soldier on the front of the counter-offensive, the Economist agrees...

Still, Zelenski is urging them on...

The war is lost. They know it. But they are unwilling to give up.

Zelenski's people put the blame everywhere but on the those who have caused the mess. It was the 'victory' messaging by Zelenski and his crew that has led the public into utter complacency.

Napoleon, Hitler and several other folks who had sought war with Russia, had to learn to never underestimate the depth of its resources. Now NATO, the U.S. and its European proxies, are learning that lesson.

Zelenski still hasn't. He won't concede...

The Ukraine's old problems, foremost corruption, persist:

Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” he says. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”

Knowing that the ship is sinking, this its probably what I would do too. Bring anything available onto my personal life raft and prepare for cutting its lines to the mother ship.

The Time piece is a signal. It announces the end of Zelenski's regime. I am sure that the National Security Council, as well as the State Department, is feverishly looking for an alternative - and for a face saving way to install it.

Someone seems to protect and promote Alexey Arestovich for exactly that purpose (machine translation)...

In a recent talk in Australia John Mearsheimer takes a deep dive into this dilemma (video). He doesn't foresee a good outcome. (gm emphasis)

Lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht, who has consistently criticized the German government, previously announced her intention to found the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - For Reason and Justice (BSW) - which united lawmakers who had quit The Left, highlighting the need to “return to political sanity”.

Despite the fact that Germany’s new political party conceived by lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht has yet to become official, it has already overtaken a member of the ruling coalition government in a poll.

Around 14 percent of Germans are ready to vote for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - For Reason and Justice (BSW), according to a poll commissioned by Bild am Sonntag and cited in media reports....

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party is only one percentage point ahead of Wagenknecht’s brainchild, one of the polls showed, and two other members of the ruling coalition - the Green Party and the Free Democrats - lag behind at 12 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has become robotic after feeling betrayed by his Western backers, Time magazine reported, citing members of Zelensky’s inner circle.

“Now he walks in, gets the updates, gives the orders, and walks out,” one of the sources said, with a second source adding that he feels betrayed by his Western allies.

“He deludes himself … We are not winning. But try telling him that,” the source reportedly said.

Earlier on Monday, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that the Ukrainian armed forces are experiencing a critical lack of quality medicines and medical equipment, as the number of injured soldiers has tripled amid the crumbling counteroffensive.

Last week, UK media reported that medical staff of the Ukrainian armed forces are complaining about faulty medical equipment and the lack of supplies, leading to an increase in the death toll in the wake of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

Moreover, corruption is rampant among Ukrainian officials, a top advisor to Zelensky reportedly said.

Oct 30, 2023

 • Russian Air Defense Downs 8 Ukraine's Storm Shadow Missiles Over Crimea - MoD, Sputnik International, Oct 30, 2023

 • Russian Forces Pushing to Encircle Eastern Ukrainian City of Avdiivka, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Oct 29, 2023

 • Western Media ‘Cancel’ the Ukraine Conflict as Palestinian Genocide Exposes Their Lies and Fake News, Editorial, Strategic Culture Foundation, Oct 27, 2023

The horrendous violence and suffering in Gaza have dominated the global news cycle. That is not untoward given the dreadful scale of disaster where over 7,000 people, mainly civilians and nearly half of them children, have been killed over the past three weeks by Israeli bombardment and siege...

In any case, the point here is how remarkable is the sudden cessation in Western media coverage of the war in Ukraine. For the past three weeks, there has hardly been any mention of that conflict. This peremptory absence is phenomenal. For months on end, the war in Ukraine was given non-stop, saturation coverage – albeit with an anti-Russian propaganda spin – and then just like that there is a void in any attention to what had been previously billed as an existential crisis for Europe and Western democratic civilization.

Oct 29, 2023

Featured • Why US Aid to Ukraine May Fade Slowly and Then All at Once, Ekaterina Blinova, Sputnik International, Oct 28, 2023

The newly elected House speaker has called for splitting Ukrainian and Israeli military packages, prompting the US mainstream press to raise the alarm over the fate of Team Biden's aid to Kiev.

GOP Representative Mike Johnson, who has been tapped as the new House speaker, has a record of voting against sponsoring Washington's proxy war in Ukraine.

Thus, unsurprisingly, when President Joe Biden requested a $105 billion package encompassing aid for Tel Aviv, Kiev, Taiwan and border security from the US Congress, Johnson insisted that those issues should be "bifurcated" and voted on separately.

"We’re not going to abandon them," Johnson asserted to the press while referring to the Ukrainian military. "But we have a responsibility, a stewardship responsibility over the precious treasure of the American people and we have to make sure that the White House is providing the people with some accountability for the dollars."

GOP Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, who serves as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the US press that despite Republicans being willing to support Kiev, it's highly likely that next week the House may pass an emergency spending bill "covering only Israel."...

Still, Woodard believes that the White House won't cut Ukraine's aid abruptly: Team Biden does not want to look weak and susceptible to the GOP's pressure.

"For a time the US will try to fund both [Ukraine and Israel], but only for a short time. The withdrawal from Afghanistan by the Biden administration was a catastrophe for the president, he doesn't want to be seen as being weak after that incident and cutting from Kiev would be a public relations disaster," the political scientist concluded.

Ukraine is “one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told reporters on Friday following an EU summit in Brussels, raising doubts about the bloc’s unprecedented funding to Kiev.

In particular, Fico questioned the wisdom of an additional €50 billion ($52.9 billion) earmarked for Ukraine in the EU’s proposed budget, asking rhetorically, “Did the financing of Ukraine change the outcome of this war? So let’s invest another 50 billion, and it doesn’t matter what happens?”

Noting that the EU had no “peace plan” and that the leaders of several member countries had been “driven into a dead end” due to a lack of coherence on how to move forward, he said that a blank check to Ukraine would be a hard sell back home in Slovakia.

“If the strategy is to continue to pour money there, €1.5 billion per month without any result, and we have to cut our own resources? After all, we have huge problems, and public money is in a difficult state,” Fico explained...

The Slovak PM is not the only EU leader who has balked at the bloc's continuing efforts to bolster Kiev financially. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared at the summit on Friday that the strategy of sending billions in aid had failed. “The Ukrainians will not win on the battlefield,” he said, vowing not to endorse the budget revision allocating another €50 billion.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto earlier this week condemned what he described as the EU’s “war psychosis,” accusing Brussels of planning for four years of conflict with massive arms spending, including possible military investment in Ukraine, without any funding or effort put toward resolving hostilities.

Oct 28, 2023

Featured • New House Speaker: Russia, China, and Iran Are New Axis of Evil, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, Oct 27, 2023

Representative Mike Johnson vowed to support the wars in Ukraine and Israel in an interview after becoming House Speaker. The Congressman told Sean Hannity that China, Russia, and Iran make up an “axis of evil” that poses a huge threat to the US.

The Speaker presented Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran as a trilateral threat to Washington. “Big priorities in this moment right now. We have Israel being attacked, we have unrest, we have the Ukraine situation we’ve got to deal with, we have China being aggressive, we have Iran with all the meddling, and China, Russia, and Iran working together. This is a dangerous time.” he said.

“Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies of Iran, and they’re tied in now with Russia and China. I mean, it is a new axis of evil. That’s how we see it, “Johnson continued, the states posed a “huge [threat to the US.] It’s it’s the biggest threat since World War II.”

On Ukraine, Johnson stated that the support for Ukraine must continue. “Now we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to Prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” he said. “And it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them.”

The Speaker noted he would like to see more oversight over additional aid but did not say it was a requirement to pass a multi-billion assistance bill for Ukraine.

Johnson explained that he does support the White House’s proposed $105 billion bill that would fund the War in Ukraine, Israel’s war on Gaza, fund Washington’s military buildup in the Pacific, and provide funds to increase security at the southern border. The Speaker said the consensus among House Republicans is to split the funding into different bills.

As well as supporting future aid for Ukraine, the Speaker is willing to send American soldiers to the Middle East in defense of Israel. “Watching it very closely, one thing that House Republicans are resolved on is that we must stand with our most important Ally in the Middle East, and that’s Israel.” He added, “I hope that it doesn’t come to boots on the ground.”

Today all the arms control agreements that reduced tensions and the danger of nuclear confrontation are erased. The last one–never ratified by the US–was revoked by the upper house of Russia’s parliament last Wednesday. Tass, the Russian news agency, reported that “Achieving the goal of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is not deemed possible in the current international situation, given the destructive position of the United States.”

Also last Wednesday Gilbert Doctorow reported from the Russian media that Russia had just completed a successful test of its land, sea, and air launched nuclear missile triad. “Considering the location of the missile launches and the radius of possible strikes, it does not take much imagination to conclude that the enemy being attacked was the U.S. of A. . . . The capability being tested was for a massive retaliatory strike.”

The White House fool, his insane neoconservative regime, mindless European puppets and whore Western media have convinced Russia that there is neither intelligence nor reason to be found in the Western World and Russia has no alternative but to prepare for war. I have long warned that this was the conclusion toward which our irresponsible leaders were driving the Russians. What this means is that the slightest mistake, the slightest false warning can now ignite nuclear Armageddon.

The prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia opposed a €50 billion ($52.8 billion) aid package for Ukraine during the European Union summit on Thursday, Politico has claimed, citing an unnamed diplomat.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reportedly argued that the bloc’s support for Kiev isn’t working, while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico referred to concerns over corruption in Ukraine.

Oct 27, 2023

Featured • Behind the Curtain: Rattled U.S. government fears wars could spread, Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, AXIOS, Oct 20, 2023

Officials tell us that inside the White House, this was the heaviest, most chilling week since President Biden took office just over 1,000 days ago.

Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates — who ran the Pentagon under presidents of both parties, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — tells us America is facing the most crises since World War II ended 78 years ago.
He explains the White House's system overload like this: "There's this gigantic funnel that sits over the table in the Situation Room. And all the problems in the world end up coming through that funnel to the same eight or 10 people. There's a limit to the bandwidth those eight or 10 people can have."

At the beginning of the conflict, the victory for Kiev seemed like a realistic scenario, but now it is absolutely obvious that this will not work out and the Ukrainians will not win at the front, the prime minister said...

Orban further suggested that the current leadership of the European Union should be replaced, as it is not able to cope with crisis situations.

There are now "not good enough leaders" in Brussels who cannot solve the problems that have arisen in connection with the conflict in Ukraine, the leader said.

"Maybe in times of peace, when the water is not rough, the wind is not blowing and you can sail on a boat, they are good leaders. But now, during a storm, huge waves, when pirate ships are encountered, we will not be able to prosper with this leadership, that is for sure. Change is needed in Brussels," Orban said.

The panicked White House is over-reacting – sending huge convoys (100s) of heavy-lift cargo planes loaded with bombs, missiles and air defences (THAAD and Patriot) to Israel but also to the Gulf, Jordan and Cyprus. Special Forces and 2,000 marines are being deployed too. Plus two aircraft carriers and their attendant vessels.

The U.S. thus is sending a veritable full-scale war Armada. This can only escalate tensions – and provoke counter-moves: Russia now is deploying on Black Sea patrol, MiG-31 aircraft equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles (that can reach the U.S. carrier force off Cyprus), and China reportedly has dispatched naval vessels to the area. China, Russia, Iran and Gulf States are engaged in a frenzy of diplomacy to contain the conflict, even were Hizbullah to enter deeper into the conflict.

Strategically, however, the conflict has created severe problems for the US. The main one is the loss of Russia as a possible ally, or at least as a power that does not interfere with Washington. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, all the conditions for such a bond with Moscow were in place. Moreover, Russia itself was ready for equal partnership relations with the US, provided that its interests, especially in the post-Soviet space, were considered. Moscow has not set a goal of “reviving the USSR” nor sought to reformat the ex-USSR. On all key issues on the global agenda, Russia has either cooperated with the US or refrained from active opposition for a long time. One can argue about who is to blame for the growing mutual confrontation – but the positions of the parties are diametrically opposed. What matters are the results: The US has ended up with a major power among its implacable opponents in the form of Russia....

It cannot be ruled out that under such conditions, the US and its allies will reconsider their notions of defeating Russia in the Ukraine conflict at any cost. The big question is whether Moscow will change its approach. Russia is determined to fight for its interests in the long term. Trust in any Western proposals is close to zero. The burning up of American leadership on the stove of the world political kitchen further reduces the motivation to support any compromises without the full consideration of Russian interests. The outcome of the Ukrainian conflict, whenever it comes, will be a pivotal stage in the order that is taking shape before our eyes.

Oct 26, 2023

Featured • ‘Good For American Jobs’: US Reportedly Changes Tactics on Ukraine Aid, Oleg Burunov, Sputnik International, Oct 26, 2023

The Joe Biden administration is privately speaking to each representative of both political parties in Congress to justify the need for further aid to Ukraine by the fact that it will allegedly become the key to economic growth in the US itself, media reported.

The White House aides are “quietly” distributing talking points among the lawmakers to make the case that shoring up the Kiev regime “is good for American jobs,” the outlet reported.

“As we replenish our stocks of weapons, we are partnering with the US defense industry to increase our capacity and meet the needs of the US and our allies both now and in the future,” a copy of the talking points obtained by the outlet reads.

So, the first category of enemies Russian soldiers face are hardcore Nazis and professional foreign mercenaries. These are the terrorists and war criminals who torture and slaughter P.O.W.'s and serve as "blocking troops" who even execute Ukrainian conscript soldiers who refuse or even hesitate to commit suicide by obeying impossible orders.

As noted by Vostok Batallion commander Alexander Khodakovsky, the second category of troops – forcibly mobilized Ukrainian conscripts – is much “larger than the Bandera lovers who hate Russia, whose ancestors licked the boots of the Nazis, leaving a will for their descendants to lick the boots of anyone who opposes Russia.”

“Look at these prisoners (Ukrainian conscripts). Who do you see? There are no swastikas, like on the bastards from Azov - there are not even tattoos. On his neck one has a large cross with the Savior, who brought him alive from the hell created by his fellow tribesmen," he explained....

What conclusions can be drawn? Simply this - that what is left of the Ukrainian Army is a two tiered system of cannon fodder and blocking troops, that sees untrained conscripts thrown onto the front lines, with battle hardened Russian troops in front of them, and blocking troops made up of foreign mercenaries and hardcore Nazis behind them, who will kill them if they retreat or refuse to advance when ordered to. So, the common Ukrainian citizens, primarily from the ethnically Russian and Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine, are kidnapped from the streets by press gangs and thrown directly into battle without adequate training or weapons, where they are forced to face impossible odds in combat.

US President Joe Biden’s $106 billion national security funding request, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel, is in “big trouble” as senators prepare to block or significantly alter the bill, Politico reported on Tuesday.

The outlet noted that many in the Senate, including Republican supporters of Biden’s initiative, are “uncharacteristically pessimistic” about the bill’s chances. “The package that the White House sent over really is dead,” South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds was quoted as saying. “The appropriators in the Senate can begin by basically starting over.”

The House on Wednesday approved a resolution that expressed strong support for Israel, the first bill brought to the floor after Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected as the chamber’s new speaker.

The resolution passed in a vote of 412-10 and says that the US “stands” with Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack and as Israel is relentlessly bombing Gaza. The resolution reaffirmed the US commitment to providing military aid to Israel and said Congress will work to pass more....

President Biden has requested $14 billion in new military aid for Israel as part of a massive $105 billion spending package that also includes $61 billion for the Ukraine war, $7.4 billion that will go toward military aid to Taiwan, and other spending in the Asia Pacific, and funds for border security. It’s not clear if the House will take up the entire spending package or if it will seek to divide it into individual bills.

Johnson has previously voted against spending on Ukraine, earning him a grade of “F” from Republicans for Ukraine, a neoconservative group that’s trying to rally GOP support for the proxy war.

Oct 25, 2023

Featured • Russia Receives Proposals From US on Arms Control, Oleg Burunov, Sputnik International, Oct 25, 2023

Russia has received proposals on strategic stability and arms control from the United States that are currently being studied, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a news briefing earlier in the day.

According to him, there are no new elements in these proposals and Moscow will respond to Washington in due time.

Ryabkov added that the US is "proposing to discuss strategic stability and arms control on a systematic basis" and "in isolation from current events". The Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow is "not willing to do that."

"We believe that a return to the dialogue on strategic stability, including the issue of strategic offensive weapons and other issues, is simply impossible in its previous form without a change in the fundamentally hostile attitude of the United States towards Russia," Ryabkov pointed out.

“I think they are beginning to realize that further military aid to Ukraine is a lost cause and that the only way the war will end is with a negotiated compromise peace agreement. I think they understand that the time is fast approaching when Ukraine will have little choice but to seek peace negotiations with Russia to end the conflict as Western willingness to support Ukraine continues to decrease particularly in terms of the popular support of the American people to continue to do so,” according to Pyne.

Oct 24, 2023

 • Kiev’s top university bans Russian language coursesRT, Oct 24, 2023
Angling for money from the West, in addition to whatever his ideology-generated confusion level may be.

 • Report Details How the CIA Is Backing Ukraine’s Assassinations Inside Russia, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Oct 23, 2023

A report published by The Washington Post on Monday revealed how the CIA has supported covert Ukrainian attacks inside Russia, including the killing of Darya Dugina, daughter of the prominent Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin.

The report said the killing of Dugina was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and that it was one of many operations inside Russian territory involving special units the CIA helped form in the wake of the 2014 coup in Kyiv that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The report reads: “The missions have involved elite teams of Ukrainian operatives drawn from directorates that were formed, trained, and equipped in close partnership with the CIA, according to current and former Ukrainian and US officials. Since 2015, the CIA has spent tens of millions of dollars to transform Ukraine’s Soviet-formed services into potent allies against Moscow, officials said.”

Oct 23, 2023

Featured • The Penny Drops - The World Is Multi-Polar, Moon of Alabama, Oct 23, 2023

 • Joe Biden’s Hideous $106 Billion War Package, David Stockman, Antiwar.com, Oct 23, 2023

Today we live in multilateral world. We see Russia, China and many smaller countries united in their will to preserve their rights and security. The cold-war is gone. The somewhat unilateral decades which had followed it are now over. We are in need a new world order.

In the U.S. that penny has finally started to drop.

It has not yet reached the ground. We do not know on which side it will land.

Two days ago U.S. President Joe Biden spoke at a campaign even. Among lots of the usual blah-blah this paragraph stood out:

We were in a post-war period for 50 years where it worked pretty damn well, but that’s sort of run out of steam. Sort of run out of steam. It needs a new — a new world order in a sense, like that was a world order.

...[Multilateralism] does not mean unilateralism with a different country in the lead. It means a somewhat democratic UN system, with an expanded Security Council that includes the large population countries of each continent.

It means to follow international law.

Will the U.S. come back into that system? Or does it need a global war to decide the outcome?

Oct 22, 2023

Featured • Biden gives booster dose to the faltering Ukraine war, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Oct 21, 2023

The prognosis of “war fatigue” on the part of the United States and its allies in the proxy war in Ukraine was greatly exaggerated. On the contrary, the war is acquiring a new swagger.

The Biden Administration is riding a tiger and a dismount is fraught with the danger of being devoured by the beastly consequences of defeat in the war, which could only lead to the discredit of trans-atlanticism and the disintegration of NATO, and spell the doom for US’ global hegemony.

Biden’s formal address to the nation from the Oval Office on Thursday can only be seen as the launch of a new phase of the Ukraine war carrying forward the the demonising of Putin to a new level, Biden weaves together a new narrative claiming that Hamas and the Russian leader both want to “completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy — completely annihilate it.”

The bedrock of Biden’s argument was that resolute support of US allies is essential for preserving American primacy in the world. The main plot was that the hybrid war in Ukraine will continue so long as Biden remains in office in the White House. It has morphed into a “forever war”.

Who can say now that what happens in Ukraine, which is 10000 kms away, does not concern the United States? Biden began his speech on Thursday on a Churchillian note: “We’re facing an inflection point in history — one of those moments where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come. That’s what I’d like to talk with you about tonight.”

He went on to say, “American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with. To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, if we turn our backs on Israel, it’s just not worth it.”

So, Ukraine war is no longer about the Westphalian principle of national sovereignty and the UN Charter — or even about this being not an era of wars. It is actually about American leadership, American alliances, American values — plainly put, hegemony, NATO, exceptionalism.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has argued in a newspaper interview that the US government didn’t “allow” any compromises that could have brought an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict just weeks after Moscow’s military offensive began in February 2022. Speaking in an interview published by Germany’s Berliner Zeitung newspaper on Friday, Schroeder said he was asked to help mediate the March 2022 peace negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Istanbul. He said that although representatives of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky were open to making concessions on such key issues as renouncing efforts to join NATO, “the Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they were not allowed to. They first had to ask the Americans about everything they discussed.”

Russian officials have repeatedly claimed that the US and other Western backers of Ukraine discouraged Zelensky’s government from agreeing to a peace settlement. Schroeder, who has defended his continuing friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, essentially confirmed that allegation in the Berliner Zeitung interview. “My impression: Nothing could happen because everything else was decided in Washington,” he said. The ex-chancellor described Washington’s strategy as “fatal,” saying it resulted in closer ties between Russia and China. “The Americans believe they can keep the Russians down,” Schroeder said. “Now, it is the case that two actors, China and Russia, who are limited by the USA, are joining forces. Americans believe they are strong enough to keep both sides in check. In my humble opinion, this is a mistake. Just look how torn the American side is now. Look at the chaos in Congress.”

Washington’s allies in Western Europe “failed” to seize the opportunity to push for peace in March 2022, Schroeder said. At the time, he added, Zelensky was open to compromise on Crimea and breakaway territories in the Donbass region. Since that time, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian troops have been killed as Western military aid prolongs the conflict. Putin estimated earlier this month that Kiev lost over 90,000 soldiers in the failed counteroffensive that began in June. “The arms deliveries are not a solution for eternity, but no one wants to talk,” Schroeder said. “Everyone is sitting in trenches. How many more people have to die? It’s a bit like the Middle East. Who are the victims on one side and on the other? Poor people who lose their children.”

Schroeder argued that only French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz can revive peace talks in Eastern Europe. “Scholz and Macron should actually support a peace process in Ukraine because it’s not just an American matter, but above all a European matter.” He added, “Why did Scholz and Macron not combine the arms deliveries with an offer to talk? Macron and Scholz are the only ones who can talk to Putin.” Russian leaders were threatened by the US push to bring NATO to Moscow’s western border by adding Ukraine to the Western military alliance, Schroeder said. However, he claimed that one of the justifications for arming Ukraine – alleged Russian expansionism – had no basis in reality.

“This fear of the Russians coming is absurd,” Schroeder said. “How are they supposed to defeat NATO, let alone occupy Western Europe?” He added, “That is why no one in Poland, the Baltics and certainly not in Germany – all NATO members, by the way – has to believe they are in danger.” On the other hand, Schroeder insisted, Western leaders must understand that no matter who is in power in Moscow, Russia won’t allow either Ukraine or Georgia to be absorbed by NATO. “This threat analysis may be emotional, but it is real in Russia,” he said. “The West must understand this and accept compromises accordingly. Otherwise, peace will be difficult to achieve.”

The Ukrainian military is experiencing a serious shortage of anti-aircraft defenses. This is because of the Russian forces’ use of long-range Lancet kamikaze drones, and the Russian Aerospace Forces deployment of precision-guided glide bombs, which have greatly thinned the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ frontline air defenses. To protect infantry and equipment, Kiev has been forced to move its air defense systems closer to the front, where they can fall prey to cheap Russian FPV drones. Consequently, Kiev’s requests for advanced air defenses from its Western patrons have become increasingly urgent. The armed conflict that has broken out in the Middle East has exacerbated the problem. Israel asked for help from the US on the first day of hostilities.

The Pentagon is on the horns of a dilemma – whether Israel or Ukraine is more deserving of its support. The latest rhetoric would suggest that Washington is more inclined to help Tel Aviv, with Ukraine left scrambling for whatever scraps are left. Step forward the FrankenSAM (a portmanteau word of “Frankenstein” and “SAM” [surface-to-air missile]) program. The plan involves the development and production of improvised air defense systems using components and materials from Ukrainian, US and allied stockpiles. Old decommissioned anti-aircraft missiles will be repurposed as ammunition for these “chimeras”. According to one major international news agency, the US Department of Defense believes this approach will quickly provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with some much-needed air defense capabilities. This, in turn, will prepare the Ukrainian army for the winter campaign.

In this way, Washington hopes to achieve three goals at once: it will load its defense industry up with orders for “FrankenSAMs”, get rid of obsolete explosives, and demonstrate “support for its ally” to the world. According to the media, the Pentagon is working on three projects as part of the FrankenSAM program. The first is almost finished: Ukraine will initially receive a ground-based short-range air defense system with AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, according to the news agency’s source. Without going into detail, the source explained that the chassis, launchers, radar and other equipment for the system will be provided by the US and its allies. This, the media outlet noted, will help “meet Kiev’s vital air defense needs” and tackle related issues.

...The forthcoming short-range air defense version of the system will be equipped with the 9M variant, introduced in 1983 and actively used during Operation Desert Storm. The period of most extensive production coincided with the years of this conflict. In the early 2000s, this modification was replaced by the more advanced AIM-9X, with the Reagan-era AIM-9M variants stored away. It’s unknown how effective these 30-year-old missiles will be against modern Russian aircraft, but the fact is that the US has enough of these munitions to supply Ukraine for months.

The current US-led world order has “sort of run out of steam,” but Washington will shape the system that replaces it, US President Joe Biden told supporters on Saturday. Leaders in Moscow and Beijing, however, have argued otherwise. ...“So, I think we have an opportunity to do things, if we’re bold enough and have enough confidence in ourselves, to unite the world in ways that it never has been,” Biden declared. “We were in a post-war period for 50 years where it worked pretty damn well, but that’s sort of run out of steam. Sort of run out of steam. We need a new, new world order in a sense,” he continued.

...China’s economy was the world’s eleventh largest in 1991, but is now second to only the US’. With Beijing expanding its nuclear arsenal and modernizing its military, President Xi Jinping has referred to the US-led West as “declining” on multiple occasions, and hailed the emergence of a “multipolar world,” in which international relations are governed by laws and treaties, rather than US-enforced “rules.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also spoken at length about building a multipolar world, describing such an order as one in which individual “civilization-states” are free to pursue their own interests free from the dictates of a hegemonic power like the US. Russia, China, and their partners in the BRICS group and across the Global South all share this goal, Putin told China Central Television (CCTV) last week. “We proceed from the fact that all people are equal, everyone has the same rights, the rights and freedoms of one country and one people end where the rights and freedoms of another person or of an entire state start. This is how a multipolar world should gradually be born,” Putin told the Chinese network.

Oct 21, 2023

 • Judge Napolitano interviews Professor John Mearsheimer on the Biden administration pulling the plug on Ukraine's long-term funding after pushing Ukraine into a war and a failed counteroffensive that resulted in significant Ukrainian casualties, Judging Freedom, Oct 13, 2023 (posted on X by KanekoaTheGreat)

"Admiral Kirby's comments that we won't continue funding Ukraine for the long term means they're finished. As everybody understands, if we pull the plug on the Ukrainians, they're doomed. They don't have the weaponry, they don't have the financial resources to continue this fight, and the Russians will roll over them.

President Biden and others have argued that we're behind the Ukrainians until the end, we're not going to bail on them. Well, we're bailing on them now. And it's hard for me to see, especially in light of the failed counter-offensive, how the Ukrainians don't collapse.

It actually kind of turns your stomach to see this. As I've argued from the beginning, and I know you agree with me, we've led the Ukrainians down the primrose path. Yes, it's totally horrible. I mean, we push this country into this war, we're principally responsible for it because of our efforts to make Ukraine a Western Bulwark on Russia's borders.

And we encouraged the counter-offensive. We forced them to attack week after week when they suffered enormous casualties. And now, when they're in deep trouble, we're pulling the plug on them. It's just It turns your stomach, it's really horrible."

The Biden administration released details about its massive proposal to provide arms to Israel and Ukraine, as well as funds to build up military assets in the region surrounding China.

On Friday, the White House rolled out its proposed $105 billion bill to arm Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The legislation also includes funding for the border and humanitarian assistance. US officials say over $50 billion will go to American weapons manufacturers.

The Biden administration is proposing a massive aid package as it has struggled to get Congress to appropriate more funds for the proxy war in Ukraine. The largest portion of money is for Ukraine at $61.4 billion. The White House wants enough money for Ukraine to fund Kiev through the 2024 election.

Oct 20, 2023

Featured • US Declares ‘War', Michael Brenner, Consortium News, Oct 20, 2023

The upshot is that Putin and Xi seem puzzled by feckless Western counterparts who disregard the elementary precepts of diplomacy. That should be a concern as well — except by those who intend to conduct the U.S. “war” in a linear manner that pays little attention to the thinking of other parties.

The vitriol that is thrown at Putin with such vehemence by his Western counterparts is something of a puzzle. It is manifestly disproportionate to anything that he has done or said by any reasonable measure — even if one distorts the underlying story of Ukraine.

Obama’s condescension suggests an answer. At its core, their attitude reflects envy. Envy in the sense that he is subconsciously recognized as clearly superior in attributes of intelligence, knowledge of contemporary issues and history, articulateness, political savvy and – most certainly – diplomatic skill.

Try to imagine any U.S. leader emulating Putin’s performance in holding three-hour open Q & A sessions with citizens of all stripes — responding directly, in detail, coherently and with good grace. Biden? Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? German Chancellor Olaf Scholz? British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak? French President Emmanual Macron? Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission? Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallis?

Even Obama, from whom we’d get canned sermons cast in high-minded language that distills into very little. That’s why the West’s political class assiduously avoids paying attention to Putin’s speeches and press conferences — out of sight, out of mind....

At the moment, there is no chance that American leaders can muster the gumption, or have the vision, to set out on this course. Neither Biden and his team, nor their Republican rivals are up to it.

In truth, American leaders are psychologically and intellectually not capable of thinking seriously about the terms for sharing power with China, with Russia or with anybody else – and developing mechanisms for doing so over different timeframes.

Oct 19, 2023

 • West's Pro-Israel Position Accelerates Its Loss Of Power, Moon of Alabama, Oct 18, 2023

Oct 18, 2023

 • US Secretly Provided Ukraine With Cluster Bomb ATACMS, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Oct 17, 2023

 • First Ukrainian Attack with US-Made ATACMS Missiles Hit Russian Berdyansk Airfield, SouthFront, Oct 17, 2023

Oct 17, 2023

Featured • U.S. Deploys Large Force - Eyes On Syria, Moon of Alabama, Oct 17, 2023
This is plausible. Biden and his idiots -- idiots, all -- have a lot of reasons to "do something" right now, in addition to the massive debacle they have created in Ukraine. There is the overwhelming evidence that he, Biden, is a crook. There is also the rising lack of confidence in his capacity to, uh, walk across a stage or read lines correctly from a teleprompter. His brain function is declining, giving more sway to primitive impulses. At this rate he will not make it to the election, and his party has nobody popular to fall back on. All the king's men are running scared -- what will put Humpty-Dumpty back together again? How will he show "vigor"? A military master-stroke in the Middle East, they may be thinking, since they have no diplomacy that's worth a damn. With oil as the master resource and the world now past peak production of that, and the dollar slowly (?) going south, and household finances screaming, and all the other immediate problems they face, these are desperate times -- more desperate for them than for the rest of us, really. Like Biden, the current crowd in the White House does not think strategically very well. They are arrogant, insular, entitled, and not very smart. Peace is their enemy, because it allows awareness of their crimes and failures to dawn on more and more people, and they mean to prevent all of that. They have "gone over to another order" (Plotinus) having violated so many moral and treaty laws, each one worse than the last. They have "broken bad," as we say. Hiring murderers to kill protesters in Ukraine in 2014, going on to mass murder for years in the Donbass, betraying allies in Europe with Nordstream, the on-going ethnic cleansing in Israel and now supporting straight-up genocide there as well. Killing Assange and trying to politically if not physically kill the 77-year-old Trump. Preventing debate within their own party, so no populist challenger can rise. What will that old man and his gang of criminals NOT do?

 • US faces defeat in geopolitical war in Gaza, M.K. Bhadrakumar, Indian Punchline, Oct 16, 2023

Oct 16, 2023

 • Putin Berates NATO Over Eastward Expansion as Alliance Launches Nuclear Drills in Europe, Oleg Burunov, Oct 16, 2023

13 NATO members are expected to take part in the war games, which the alliance says will involve some 60 aircraft, including advanced fighter jets and U.S. B-52 strategic bombers, conducting "training flights over Italy, Croatia and the Mediterranean."

NATO called the exercise "a routine training activity that has been conducted annually for more than a decade. The alliance argued that the exercise "involves fighter aircraft capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but does not involve live bombs.

The war games also involve conventional jets, as well as surveillance and refueling aircraft. (emphasis added)

Ukraine has never enjoyed the status of a US ally, meaning that Washington has no obligation to defend it per se, ex-Pentagon defense strategist Elbridge Colby has argued. The former official, who now heads The Marathon Initiative, a think-tank, put the leadership in Kiev on the same level as the now-defunct Afghan government, which was overthrown by the Taliban back in 2021.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers have been voicing skepticism over the continuation of US aid for Ukraine. The issue lay at the heart of McCarthy’s removal, as some fellow GOP congress members suspected he had cut a secret deal with the administration of President Joe Biden to approve more funding for Kiev.

Meanwhile, an opinion poll by Reuters-Ipsos published earlier this month indicated that the number of Americans in favor of giving Ukraine more aid had dropped to 41%, 24 percentage points down from the figure recorded in June. The survey showed that the trend was noticeable both among Democrats and Republicans.

Oct 14 & 15, 2023

 • Ex-Zelensky aide calls for new government in Ukraine, RT, Oct 14, 2023

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed, its troops have built no defensive lines, and President Vladimir Zelensky has allowed corruption and incompetence to flourish, former adviser Aleksey Arestovich said on Saturday. New elections are the only way out of the impasse, he argued.

Oct 13, 2023

 • Struggle for future of world order ‘intensifying’ – Moscow, RT, Oct 12, 2023

The world is facing a “classic revolutionary situation” in international relations, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, claimed on Thursday.

An ever-increasing number of “rising powers” want more independence in their foreign policy and are resisting the crumbling hegemony of the West, he added.

“The West, led by the US, can no longer ensure its dominance on a global scale,” Naryshkin told a meeting of intelligence chiefs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Baku. “The rising centers of power do not want to put up with an aggressive Western dictate.”

In its efforts to maintain a unipolar world, the US deliberately tries to destabilize key world regions, he believes. Washington and its allies in London and Paris do not hesitate when it comes to manipulating various destructive forces on the international arena to achieve these goals, he stated, adding that the list of such forces includes international terrorist groups, radical Islamists, and ultranationalist movements.

Ukraine on Wednesday received a $1.15 billion tranche of direct budgetary aid from the US that’s disbursed through the World Bank.

The budgetary aid the US has been providing Ukraine funds government services and salaries, subsidizes small businesses, pays farmers, and provides other types of economic support.

According to Ukraine’s Finance Ministry, the country has received $10.9 billion in direct budget support from the US in 2023. Since Russia invaded in February 2022, the US has provided Ukraine with a total of $22.9 billion in budgetary aid.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US was running out of money to fund the Ukrainian government. The report said after the $1.15 billion tranche was disbursed for the month of October, there would be nothing left.

Congress is expected to authorize more Ukraine aid soon, but if there’s a long delay, it’s not clear how Ukraine will be able to fund its government. The EU is providing significant economic assistance but has acknowledged it cannot fill the gaps that would be left if US aid dried up.

Oct 11 & 12, 2023

Featured  • Ukraine SitRep: Storming Andivka - Ukrainian Losses, Moon of Alabama, Oct 11, 2023

Other reports have confirmed that the Ukrainian military has long lost its middle officer and NCO corps. Smart kids fresh from senior high school are leading platoons of men mostly in 30s or 40s and 50s. Brigade commanders give direct orders down to platoons because the staff of battalions and companies in between is no longer there.

The Ukraine lacks artillery. The Russian counter battery fire has become more and more intense.

The advantage the HIMARS systems with their 70 kilometer reach had given Ukraine is also gone. The U.S. delivered HIMARS systems, which previously had been positioned safely out of reach of Russian counter-battery fire, are now easy to reach targets.

Russia's new versions of the Lancet kamikaze drone have destroyed Ukrainian fighter planes on the ground some 90 kilometer behind the frontline.

Smaller Russian First Person View (FPV) suicide drones now come with thermal night vision.

The new Tornado-S Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS) provides a reach of 120 kilometer with GPS guided missiles.

It is pretty much over for the Ukrainian military. The only sensible action it can now take is to shorten the frontline and to retreat behind some natural defense barrier like the Dnieper river.

The provision of such a large arms package demonstrates that NATO is preparing to support the conflict for another year. In Washington, the White House and hawks in Congress are considering authorizing a giant Ukraine aid package to get through the 2024 election.

After initially being reluctant to go all in on the proxy war, Germany has become one of Ukraine’s top NATO backers, second only to the US. According to the German-based Kiel Institute, Berlin has provided Ukraine with about $18 billion in military aid, compared with about $44.5 billion provided by the US.

Oct 10, 2023

Featured • Sustained Peace With Russia? Is It Possible?, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Oct 9, 2023
Alastair Crooke digs deep and connects dots well. Even with some typos and difficult sentences, he is well worth the careful read. The "full meal" includes the links Crooke provides and draws from, "for further reading."

Featured • Scott Ritter: Russia Throws Down the Nuclear Gauntlet, Sputnik International, Oct 9, 2023

The Russan academic did not disappoint, asking the Russian President whether it was not time for Russia to change its approach to nuclear arms and restore its deterrent strength in the eyes of Western elites who repeat endlessly that Russia is weak. It was a trap. “I have read your article,” Putin responded, before laying out a detailed answer that made it clear to all who listened that the Russian president did not agree with Karaganov’s thesis. “From the moment the launch of missiles is detected,” Putin said, “no matter where it comes from—from any point of the world ocean or from any territory—such a number, so many hundreds of our missiles appear in the air in a retaliatory strike that there is no chance of survival there will be no single enemy left, and in several directions at once.” Putin urged America to understand that any threats against Russia are “absolutely unacceptable for any potential aggressor.”In short, President Putin was reinvigorating the Cold War-era nuclear posture of mutually assured destruction as Russia’s go-to nuclear doctrine.

Moreover, Putin noted, Russia would launch a nuclear attack against any country or countries that threaten its continued existence as a sovereign state, regardless of whether the threat posed is by nuclear arms or conventional arms. Since there is no such existential threat to Russia today, the Russian President concluded, there is no reason to threaten the use of nuclear arms. However, Putin said, there was one aspect of Russian nuclear policy that could, and indeed should, be changed—Russia’s ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The United States, Putin noted, had signed the treaty, but had never ratified it. Given Russia’s modernization of its nuclear arsenal, which included, in addition to the Burevestnik cruise missile, the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear torpedo, and hypersonic delivery vehicles, many in the Russian military were demanding that Russia resume nuclear testing to be sure that the new cutting-edge strategic weapons systems that constitute the heart of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces perform as intended.

Putin observed that this very same question had been discussed in the United States by its military officials, who were, de jure, unrestrained by a treaty that had not been ratified, and as such never entered into force. Thus, the big news out of the Valdai Discussion Club isn’t a new Russian missile or nuclear posture. The big news is that the Russian president will be sending a bill to the Russian Duma that would revoke Russia’s ratification of the test ban treaty. Russia won’t be the first to resume testing of nuclear weapons. But if the United States were to go down that path, then Russia would respond immediately. The important point here is that any US testing would be done in support of either legacy nuclear weapons that are in dire need of being replaced, or future nuclear weapons which have yet to be developed and fielded.

Russia, as Putin underscored, has already modernized its nuclear force. If the United States were to resume a nuclear arms race by returning to nuclear testing, Russia would begin such a race with an insurmountable lead in nuclear delivery systems. Game, set, match—Russia.

Oct 9, 2023

 • Ukraine reveals failed attempts to capture Europe’s largest nuclear plant, RT, Oct 9, 2023

Ukrainian commandos have failed on three occasions to gain a foothold in Energodar, the city in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region where Europe’s largest nuclear plant is located, Kiev’s military intelligence head has admitted...

The first attempt to seize control of territory in Energodar, which took place in August 2022 according to the outlet, involved commandos crossing the Kakhovka water reservoir on civilian speedboats. The most recent effort was a major operation involving hundreds of troops, including foreign fighters.

Oct 8, 2023

Featured • Hyping Ukraine Counteroffensive, US Press Chose Propaganda Over Journalism, Bryce Greene, FAIR, Sep 15, 2023
Brief, accurate outline of media prostitution and failure.

 • Biden considering huge ‘one and done’ Ukraine aid package, Tony Diver, The Telegraph, Oct 7, 2023
The criminals in the White House aim to utterly destroy Ukraine because they are too egocentric, power-hungry, and stupid to recognize and accept their massive intellectual and moral failures. If they had a scrap of integrity they would resign now.

 • Nord Stream syndrome: One year on, EU states and the US collude to sweep the pipeline attacks under the rug, Chay Bowes, RT, Oct 7, 2023
As we said back in February, Joe Biden and the cabal around him which perpetrated this monstrosity should be impeached over this, post haste.

 • Western media being pressured over Ukraine coverage – WaPo, RT, Oct 7, 2023

The newspaper claims government officials have told outlets to “lift up the conversation a bit” on Kiev’s faltering counteroffensive.

Western officials have urged the media to depict Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive in a more charitable light, the Washington Post has reported. The US newspaper claimed the efforts are aimed at preventing a decline in public support for providing further military aid for Kiev in the coming months.

In an article on Saturday, the Post alleged that “Ukrainian and Western officials in recent weeks have focused on reshaping the narrative” amid Kiev’s underwhelming progress so far. The implementation of the supposed new strategy presumably has to do with increased criticism in some Western countries, which has called into question the continuation of military aid for Kiev.

Tucker Carlson reports that the U.S. government prevented him from interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Carlson told the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche that he had sought to arrange an interview with Putin, but U.S. officials blocked him. “I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, but the U.S. government prevented me from doing so. Think about [the implications],” Carlson told the newspaper on September 24. Worse, according to Carlson, no one in the U.S. news media supported his right as a journalist to report on the Russian leader’s views regarding the Ukraine conflict.

Such obstructionism reflects a growing contempt on the part of officials in the United States and other supposedly liberal democratic countries for freedom of the press. It is merely the latest episode in a lengthening parade of restrictions, ranging from petty to truly alarming. The highest priority targets are critics who dare condemn or even dispute the accounts that Western leaders put forth regarding key foreign policy objectives.

Oct 7, 2023

Featured • And So It Begins… The Great Unravelling, Finnian Cunningham, Strategic Culture Foundation, Oct 6, 2023

Featured • U.S. House of Reps Meltdown Puts Ukraine's Future in Jeopardy, Simplicius, Oct 6, 2023
Simplicius floats, in detail, the "sudden change" possible that I mentioned without elaboration on October 4th.

 • US escalation pushes Russia to take extreme measures — Belarus’ Lukashenko, TASS, Oct 6, 2023

 • Watch: Left-Wing College Kids Demand More War Funding Even As Polls Confirm 'Ukraine Fatigue'ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2023

 • Russian Strikes and Kiev's Lies, SouthFront, Oct 6, 2023
Hard to know what happened here. We may be seeing a conscious escalation on the part of Russia's denazification program.

Oct 6, 2023

Featured • Ukraine: Financing The War About Hegemony, Moon of Alabama, Oct 6, 2023

If the U.S. stops financing Ukraine its people will have no choice.

But the war is about more than Ukraine and the U.S. will finance it because its neoconservative leaders believe in its larger cause.

The war in Ukraine is a proxy-act for the U.S. in support of its quest for global hegemony.

For Russia, China, and much of the rest of the world, the war is thus about the elimination of that quest.

As President Putin explained in his recent Valdai speech in Sochi:

The Ukraine crisis is not a territorial conflict, and I want to make that clear. Russia is the world’s largest country in terms of land area, and we have no interest in conquering additional territory. We still have much to do to properly develop Siberia, Eastern Siberia, and the Russian Far East. This is not a territorial conflict and not an attempt to establish regional geopolitical balance. The issue is much broader and more fundamental and is about the principles underlying the new international order.

Lasting peace will only be possible when everyone feels safe and secure, understands that their opinions are respected, and that there is a balance in the world where no one can unilaterally force or compel others to live or behave as a hegemon pleases even when it contradicts the sovereignty, genuine interests, traditions, or customs of peoples and countries. In such an arrangement, the very concept of sovereignty is simply denied and, sorry, is thrown in the garbage. (MoA emphasis)

The irony of these developments is that the Ukrainian war may end for entirely arbitrary reasons within the U.S. power structure. All the efforts of Jeffrey Sachs and John Mearsheimer that brought to the attention of millions of youtube watchers the guilt of the West for this supposedly “unprovoked” war will have played no role in the denouement. Nor will one even be able to say that those in Congress who opposed further aid to Ukraine did so not because they are peace-niks but because they prefer to do battle with China. No, the collapse of support for Ukraine will be attributable to the true collapse of American political culture.

Pundits have spoken for more than a year about the risk of a civil war in the United States because all interest in the art of politics as the art of compromise and search for pragmatism evaporated long ago. The scandalous judicial persecution of Donald Trump to remove him from the electoral race in 2024 has been playing out for all the world to see. The scandalous, shall we say treasonous behavior of the sitting president when he served as vice president under Barack Obama is coming to public attention as the judicial process is applied to his son and collaborator in bribe-taking from the Chinese, Hunter. Many have asked how long this can continue without the system collapsing. Well, friends, it has just collapsed and I say that is a godsend in the literal sense of the word.

A growing number of Americans are opposed to supplying additional military aid to Ukraine, according to a new Reuters-Ipsos survey, with Democratic support taking a nosedive since the start of Kiev’s counteroffensive in June.

Published on Thursday, the poll shows just 41% of respondents agreed that the US government “should provide weapons to Ukraine,” while 35% said they disagreed, and the rest stating they were “unsure.”

The figures mark a sharp decline compared to a prior Reuters poll conducted in June, which showed 65% support for further arming Ukraine.

While Democrats have been more vocal in backing arms shipments to Kiev, support appears to be waning within the party. A slim majority of 52% said they still supported military aid in the latest poll – a steep drop from the 81% recorded in June, around the time Ukrainian forces began a major counteroffensive.

Some 35% of Republican respondents said they backed weapons transfers in the new survey, down from 56% in June.

Continued aid to Kiev has become a political flashpoint in the US Congress, as lawmakers battle over a long-term spending package to avert a government shutdown before November 17. Though a stopgap measure was originally slated to include billions in aid for Ukraine, Republicans successfully pushed to remove that funding from the legislation.

He calls out Biden, Soros, and the EU for trying to push their agenda on Hungary He says his country will not fund an endless war Ukraine, turn into a migrant ghetto, or allow gender ideology in schools.

According to one of the officials, the Biden administration is considering using a State Department program that provides financing for foreign governments buying US-made weapons known as the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. It typically provides loans or grants to foreign governments. The State Department has allocated $4.65 billion for the FMS program to support Ukraine and other countries impacted by the conflict. According to a State Department factsheet dated September 21, roughly $650 million of that allotment remains. One official added that even if the Biden administration uses this method, they will still ask Congress for additional funding. Last month, Biden requested $24 billion in additional funding for Ukraine. A smaller package was initially put into a stopgap funding bill intended to keep the government open while Congress debates a full funding bill.

In the wake of Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as House speaker, pro-proxy war lawmakers in the House and the Senate are mulling ways to authorize more Ukraine aid.

According to Defense News, multiple senators have proposed passing a massive aid package that would fund the proxy war through 2024 so it would not be impacted by next year’s elections. This plan would mean passing significantly more funding than the $24 billion President Biden has requested.

Jodie Evans, Co-Founder of CODEPINK, reminded Senator Sanders of his antiwar roots, “We are showing up to remind Bernie of the values he espoused that made his name what it is. And call on him to stand for peace, to call for diplomacy and to again lead for peace,” said Evans.

Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder of CODEPINK and author of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, expressed her disappointment in the lack of Democrats calling for peace talks. “I am appalled that NO Democrats are saying what the majority of American people are saying: We need peace talks, not more war. This is NOT a MAGA issue or a Republican issue but an issue of human survival to stop WWIII and possibly a nuclear war. We need Bernie to be with us on the side of peace,” said Benjamin.

Oct 5, 2023

Featured • The End of Zelenskyy Presidency? w/Scott Ritter, Judging Freedom, Oct 4, 2023

Featured • SITREP 10/4/23: The Beginning of a Long Fall for Ukraine, Simplicius, Oct 4, 2023

 • Ukrainians ‘freaking out’ over US funding ‘disaster’ – Politico, RT, Oct 5, 2023

MPs in Kiev complained to the outlet about becoming “hostages” of domestic politics in Washington.

While Ukraine has publicly distanced itself from the congressional chaos in the US, officials privately admit that there is a lot of anxiety over future deliveries of weapons and financing by its key Western sponsor, Politico reported on Wednesday.

“We are freaking out. For us it is a disaster,” MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze was quoted by the outlet as saying.

Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum.

Ollongren was asked whether the US and its allies can continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” given the political in-fighting in Washington.

“We cannot pretend that we’ll just wait and see how the American elections are going,” she said. “Because they have the same interest, in a way. Of course, supporting Ukraine is a very cheap way to make sure that Russia with this regime is not a threat to the NATO alliance. And it’s vital to continue that support.”

“It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” Ollongren noted, while admitting that NATO has “skin in the game.”

Ollongren explained that she had recently visited the US and that political developments there are cause for concern, but that Western Europeans need to talk with their American colleagues and persuade them to stay the course.

“The European Commission is preparing to unfreeze around €13 billion in funds for Hungary to try to avoid Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vetoing EU aid for Ukraine, in a move likely to draw criticism from the European Parliament,” Politico reports Tuesday. “The Commission needs the unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 countries for an update to the EU’s long-term budget, which includes a €50 billion funding pot for Ukraine,” the report adds. Akin to what’s currently going down in Washington with a group of Republicans holding up Ukraine funding, Brussels may soon have its own Ukraine aid blockage problem. EU aid for Kiev which was previously approved runs out in December, hence the urgency for EU leadership in wanting to push through a new package.

A week ago, Orbán gave a speech declaring Hungary will no longer support Ukraine in any way unless certain significant policies are changed both in Kiev and in the European Union. He stressed in the words given before parliament that “Hungary is doing everything for peace” but that “unfortunately the Russian-Ukrainian war continues, tens of thousands of people are victims.” Thus, he continued, “Diplomats must take control back from the hands of the soldiers, otherwise it will be in vain for women to wait for their sons and fathers and husbands to come home.” The Hungarian leader has stood against ratcheting Western sanctions on Moscow, instead choosing to maintain a generally positive diplomatic relationship with the Kremlin. He also a week ago charged that Kiev and its backers have cheated Budapest by “Ukrainian grain dumping” into his country.

On the same day that the party of pro-Russian populist Robert Fico emerged victorious in Slovakia’s parliamentary election, potentially destabilizing European unity for Ukraine, Ben Wallace, the former UK Secretary of State for Defence, penned a zinger of an opinion piece in The Telegram where he argues without a hint of irony that “Ukraine’s counteroffensive is succeeding.” “Whisper it if you need. Dare to think it. But champion it you must. Ukraine’s counteroffensive is succeeding. Slowly but surely, the Ukrainian armed forces are breaking through the Russian lines. Sometimes yard by yard, sometimes village by village, Ukraine has the momentum and is pressing forward.” There’s just one problem with Wallace’s hyperbolic pep talk – it’s absolute malarkey, yet so many people are lapping up the war propaganda and asking for seconds.

EU countries have given Ukraine all the arms they can without compromising their own defense, Politico has reported, citing a European official. Kiev is facing cuts to both arms supplies and cash injections as “cracks appear”in Western support, according to the outlet. “We cannot keep on giving from our own stockpiles,” the European source said as quoted on Monday. There may still be robust political support, but “we’ve given everything that will not endanger our own security.” The comment was made to Politico as part of its coverage of last week’s International Industries Defense Forum in Kiev, during which the hosts went on a “charm offensive directed at weapons-makers,” as explained in the report. In a separate story on Tuesday, the outlet said that support for funding the Ukrainian government was “showing more cracks than ever.”

The failure of the US Congress last week to allocate aid money in its stopgap budget, the election victory of former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who vowed to stop assistance to Ukraine on the campaign trail, and Kiev’s ongoing diplomatic row with Poland all send “a chilling message.” The Ukrainian government expects to receive at least $42.8 billion from international donors next year, as outlined in its projected budget. An expected fight over the EU’s joint budget means that “no one dares to predict anything” at this point, a diplomatic source told the news outlet. Another diplomat said the “big elephant in the room” in Europe is the concern that Washington could abandon Ukraine. The event in Kiev was part of its effort to ramp up domestic military production. Germany’s Rheinmetall and the UK-based BAE have made some commitments to open production facilities in Ukraine.

Kiev’s goal is to become “an Israel in Europe – self-sufficient but with help from other countries,” Daniel Vajdich, a Washington-based advocate for Ukraine, told Politico. President Vladimir Zelensky floated the idea of paying for the proposed build-up with “confiscated Russian assets” when he spoke at the forum. Prime Minister Denis Shmygal indicated that the proposed plants would not be safe. He said 37 of Ukraine’s own facilities have been damaged by Russian strikes. Russian officials have stressed that foreign-funded arms manufacturing sites in Ukraine would be treated as legitimate military targets. Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, reiterated the policy during an interview on Monday.

The world outside Europe does not share its position on the Ukraine conflict and does not understand European double standards applied to conflicts in other parts of the planet, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. “I can say that the world outside Europe is already really looking forward to the end of this war, because they do not understand many things. They do not understand, for example, how it can be that when a war is not in Europe, the European Union, looking down with fantastic moral superiority, calls on the parties to peace, advocates negotiations and an immediate end to violence. However, when there is a war in Europe, the European Union incites the conflict and supplies weapons, and anyone who talks about peace is immediately stigmatized,” Szijjarto said in an interview on Monday. He also said that other countries do not understand why Europe “has made this conflict global” and why people living in Asia, Africa and Latin America have to pay for it due to growing inflation, energy prices and unstable food supplies.

Oct 4, 2023

 • Activists call on Berlin to stop arms shipments to Ukraine (VIDEOS), RT, Oct 4, 2023

 • Ukraine - Fatigue Sets In, Moon of Alabama, Oct 4, 2023

Letting the war continue until the West gives up was and is obviously part of Russia's political strategy. A short war and a Ukrainian capitulation to Russia's demand for it to stay out of NATO would surely have been better. But the Biden administration wanted to 'weaken Russia' and thereby a prolonged war. It had thought that Russia could not sustain a long fight.

But only people who did not know Russia or were misinformed about its resources would have believed such nonsense. It was obvious to others that Russia has everything one needs to sustain as a nation: land, people, energy, food, minerals and an industry that is capable of making nearly everything it needs. The only way to weaken or even defeat Russia was on the battlefield. But none of the western wonder weapons was able to do make a decisive difference. Russia found counter measures to all of them.

The way out of the war requires U.S. negotiations with Russia. But the Biden administration as well as the current EU leadership are too deeply invested in Ukraine to launch serious talks. To find an end to the war will necessitate regime-change in Washington and Brussels.

The process has started. But it will still take some time. Unless the Ukrainian army suddenly collapses I do not expect any real change before the U.S. election or before a new administration has settled in.

Q (Scheffer): You recently said that "Biden's phase" of the war is beginning. What do you mean by this?

A (MacGregor): Ukraine has done all that it can do. The Biden phase means that Ukraine has become the 51st state of the United States in a financial, economic, and military sense. There's a lot of talk about the "Ukraine fatigue", which is real and more serious than at any time since the outbreak of the war. Developments in Poland and Slovakia indicate this, and Washington is sending signals to Kyiv that unwavering support is under threat. Should Zelensky be worried? Zelensky owns substantial homes in the West and has bank accounts to support them. I am sure he's planning his eventual exit with these things in mind.

There is a small group of Republicans that are completely fed up with the incestuous corruption that infests the House and the Senate. It smells when career politicians like Pelosi, Biden, and Mitch McConnell wind up as multi-millionaires after spending years in DC. They want to put an end to the practice of going to Washington to get wealthy.

This upheaval increases the risk that the U.S. Government will shutter its operations in 45 days because the Republicans first have to sort out who will be Speaker and that is likely to involve arduous horse trading. Once you have the Speaker then you have to re-start negotiations with the Senate on how to keep the Government operating.

I believe that Ukraine is on the chopping block. There are enough members of the House who are furious over spending billions in Ukraine while the security of the southern U.S. border is ignored. There are even some Democrats miffed over the paltry sums allocated to assist the decimated residents of Maui while Zelensky and his crew are rolling in dough.

The Biden Administration, in my opinion, will be tempted to do something dangerous and provocative in Ukraine, such as launching a false flag attack. For example, rupturing the Zaporhyzhia Nuclear Power plant and blaming it on Putin in order to create a physical disaster that would be used to accuse Republican holdouts of helping Putin rather than sending much needed cash to Ukraine.

Oct 3, 2023

Featured • PATRICK LAWRENCE: Tampering with History, Consortium News, Oct 2, 2023

 • Watch Matt Orfalea Bitch Slap Those Who Said The Ukraine Invasion Was “Not About NATO”, Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 3, 2023

 • UK Runs Out of Weapons to Send to Ukraine, Sputnik International, Oct 3, 2023

The United Kingdom has run out of weapons which can be sent to Ukraine, and should encourage other countries to boost their efforts, UK media reported, citing a senior military official.

"We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford … We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition and we’ve run dry on all that," the report cited a source as saying.

The West’s “hope” strategy also bet the farm that the West could easily isolate Russia on the international stage and devastate its economy with sanctions. Whoops!! Instead of isolating Russia and inflicting economic chaos, Russia quickly responded and re-established itself as a leader of the Global South, coalesced with China in a de facto alliance, and ramped up its defense industry to levels not seen since World War II. I think the quote attributed to Admiral Yamamoto at the end of the movie, Tora, Tora, Tora, captures the unexpected results of Western hubris — “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

The West was put on notice over the past week by Russian leaders. Foreign Minister Lavrov, Defense Chief Shoigu, former President Medvedev and Speaker of the Duma Volodin all communicated a simple message — Ukraine must capitulate or it will cease to exist as a nation.

Graham does not represent the interests of the American people, let alone the interests of conservatives. He only represents the special interests of the establishment and a handful of far leftists.

Oct 2, 2023

Featured -- Highly recommended! • Jumping the Shark of Altruism – to Ethnic War, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Oct 2, 2023

The crux of it is, there is no excitement. No-one in the Global Majority is particularly interested to listen to western leaders, with their litany of cultural fixations, whilst their societies’ ‘Life’ problems spiral down into real crisis. “Boring” was how one commentator described western discourse; “the real excitement is in Asia”.

Such comments reflect how – to outside observers – western politics has become the dreary takeover of state institutions by high or middle-ranking bureaucrats, with the remit to enforce new cultural/moral norms, with little or no mass participation or protest. These bureaucratic ‘revolutionaries’ re-fashion old state institutions to transform the state from the top-down, in in pursuit of a Gramscian-like cultural hegemony.

Initially they may accomplish this without violating the old system’s laws and constitutions, but increasingly this is what is done today. At this some point on this journey, altruism is lost, and law is weaponised against the people.

The general ennui – so visible at the UNGA – stems from the ruling strata’s failure to provide purposeful, reasonable or effective solutions, at a time of palpable crisis.

Ben Wallace, who once called the country a “battle lab,” has urged Kiev to “reassess the scale” of its mobilization.

The sheer total impunity over the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines raises an appalling vista of the lawlessness and barbarity in today’s world.

The United States and its NATO accomplices are recklessly and callously pushing a war in Ukraine against Russia which has seen up to half a million Ukrainian soldiers slaughtered and is putting the world at risk of a nuclear conflagration. The criminal insanity stems from the lack of any legal accountability for the United States, which grotesquely declares itself the custodian of “rules-based order”.

“As a result of the resounding defeat of Ukraine, the West is frantically searching for an opportunity to try and escape the coming judgement and potential crimes against humanity charges for the death and destruction the Biden Administration has recklessly unleashed. And the nearest opportunity for distraction may be the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant,” Bennett argued. He recalled that many perceive this facility as “a target for destruction in a kind of ‘doomsday’ button that the US might try and push, in an attempt to generate sufficient chaos and destruction to distract the world away from the small scale battles of Ukraine, to the global implications of a nuclear disaster.” According to the former psychological warfare officer, the potential destruction of the Zaporozhye NPP would be the “ultimate expression” of this chaos.

The Slovak Social Democracy (SMER-SD) party will not support further military aid for Ukraine, its leader, Robert Fico, told journalists on Sunday. Fico’s party took the lead in the parliamentary elections held over the weekend and is now poised to start talks about forming a government. “Slovakia and the people of Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine,” he said at a press conference following the announcement of the election results.

Oct 1, 2023

Featured • Biden demands uninterrupted cash flow to Ukraine, RT, Oct 1, 2023

“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” Biden said in a brief statement on Saturday night, shortly after Congress passed the measure.

Biden had requested an additional $24 billion for Ukraine, but critics argued that Washington has more important priorities and should have stronger safeguards against the misappropriation of the funds and supplies it sends to Kiev.

The US leader, however, blamed “extreme House Republicans” for causing a “manufactured crisis” and “demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans.”

All this propaganda energy is going into normalizing the act of war profiteering because if you let the idea stand on its own, it would make people scream in horror. The fact that a deliberately-provoked war is being used as a giant field demo to show prospective buyers and investors how effective various weapons systems can be at ripping apart human bodies in order to profit from all this death and destruction is more nightmarish than anything any dystopian novelist has ever come up with.

Ukraine is a giant advertisement for weapons of mass slaughter, and the cost of that corporate ad is not money but human blood. If you look right at this thing it absolutely chills you to the bone. Which is why so much effort is being poured into making sure people don’t look at it.

Newly appointed Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has unveiled ongoing discussions about expanding the UK-led training program for Ukrainian troops, and potentially sending British instructors back into the country, while offering Kiev unspecified naval support in the Black Sea.

“I was talking today about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well,” Shapps told The Telegraph after a visit to the Salisbury Plain training ground on Friday.

The head of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has spoken in favor of providing Ukraine with German-made Taurus cruise missiles. The lawmaker also argued that Kiev has the right to strike targets in Crimea, and on Russian soil in general.

So far, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been reluctant to supply the long-range rockets to Kiev, despite its repeated requests.

 • ‘The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets.’ Now It’s Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? – July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023

 • Bulletin 330: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?" A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick and Greg Mello in Los Alamos, July 22, Jul 7, 2023

 • Ukraine War Makes it Harder to be a Nuclear ‘Dove’ | Our Land, Laura Paskus, New Mexico in Focus, Jun 30, 2023

 • Bulletin 329: Russia rules out nuclear disarmament negotiations; second week of Ukrainian offenses fail; what will US and NATO do? Build 60 projects in LANL's Pajarito Corridor?, Jun 17, 2023

 • Ukraine; Biden's Manicheism; the U.S. cannot even conduct a nuclear arms race, let alone win one, LASG friends ltr, Mar 16, 2023

 • Ukraine protest and updates, pit production delays and cost increases in NNSA's new budget, LASG friends ltr, Mar 14, 2023

 • Antiwar rally 2 pm Saturday in Albuquerque; LANL pits delayed, endorse the "Call for Sanity"; Ukraine update; the Nordstream investigation (and likely impeachment) "imperative" LASG friends ltr, Mar 11, 2023

 • Ukraine losses mount toward critical point; ANSWER rally against the war is now 2 pm (not 1 pm), March 18, Albuquerque; nearly half U.S. citizens believe WWIII is near, LASG friends ltr, Mar 7, 2023

 • Ukraine news and views; antiwar rally March 18; pending guest editorial; pit production precis, LASG friends ltr, Mar 3, 2023

 • Bulletin 325: Understanding the Nordstream sabotage and punishing those responsible, Feb 18, 2023

 • Ukraine news with comments and excerpts; bookmark for future reference if desired,LASG friends ltr, Feb 8, 2023

 • Bulletin 324: Opposition to Ukraine war gains visibility in New Mexico and via our web site, more broadly, Feb 6, 2023

 • Anti-nuclear activist opposes helping Ukraine, encourages peace, Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb 5, 2023

 • Bulletin 323: "Nuclear Hotseat" interview / Ukraine war updates, Feb 4, 2023

 • Bulletin 322: Right and Left To Join in D.C. Protest: ‘Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine’ / Bulletin of Atomic Scientists resets clock, blames Russia, Jan 25, 2023

 • $10 Trillion for Nuclear War: Racing to the Nuclear Cliff, The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, Jan 10, 2023

 • Bulletin 321: Last day for 2022 donations! / A few quick updates, Dec 31, 2022

 • Bulletin 320: Neocon humiliation -- or nuclear exchange / The centrality of war resistance in moral politics / 3 days left for 1:1 donation match!, Dec 29, 2022

 • Bulletin 319: Ukraine; NDAA: omnibus appropriations bill; fundraising --thank you; some matching funds still available, Dec 21, 2022

 • Stop the war now, Jean Nichols, The Taos News, Dec 19, 2022

 • Bulletin 318: Speak out now against further U.S. escalation in Ukraine; daily updates for your use, Dec 14, 2022

 • Agenda for tonight's emergency Ukraine meeting in Albuquerque, and by Zoom, Nov 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 314: Reminder re next week's antiwar, disarmament, & nuclear safety events: come if you can or tune in, outreach needed; pit interview on KNME tonight 7 pm; fundraising drive continues; erratum, Nov 11, 2022

 • Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more, Nov 7, 2022

 • Biden Administration releases aggressive nuclear strategy envisioning "first use" of nuclear weapons in wars like Ukraine, press release, Oct 27, 2022

 • Bulletin 310: Speak up! We urge you to take up the call for peace in Ukraine, Sep 25, 2022

 • Pope Francis: "World War III has been declared." We agree. Stop LANL's pit factory; Stop the U.S. war against Russia, presentation, Jun 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 301: Oppose the war! Demand and create accountability for lawmakers who fund and promote more war in Ukraine, May 16, 2022

 • Grave dangers loom in Ukraine war votes and escalations; opportunities open for journalists and citizens; We urge news media to widen debate, pose questions, create accountability, press release, May 16, 2022

 • LASG friends ltr: Thursday evening public discussion in Albuquerque: Ukraine, propaganda, progressives supporting Nazis and war, May 10, 2022

 • Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real, Brian Becker & Greg Mello discuss the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia, BreakThrough News, May 4, 2022

 • Bulletin 299: Emergency call to action: stop Biden's proposed $33 billion war escalation, Apr 28, 2022

 • Bulletin 298: Talk on pits & renewed U.S. nuclear weapons production Tuesday evening 4/26/22; antiwar billboard; what you can do, Apr 25, 2022

 • The core debate, Searchlight New Mexico, Mar 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 294: Please consider forwarding this fine statement from UNAC re Ukraine, Mar 23, 2022

 • Nuclear expert speaks on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Website, Mar 15, 2022

 • A Proposed Solution to the Ukraine War, Consortium News, Greg Mello, Mar 7, 2022

 • Bulletin 293: Ukraine conflict: If you want a ceasefire (as we do), stop firing, Mar 5, 2022

 • Bulletin 292: Statement on the Ukraine conflict and war with Russia, Mar 1, 2022

 • "What can we in New Mexico do?," LASG letter, Feb 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 288: US nuclear weapons since 2020: continuity and change, Dec 7, 2021 (see discussion of US, NATO, and Russia)

 • Nuclear experts speak on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Web Site, Apr 15, 2017

 • US Leaders Reject “Nuclear Winter” Studies, Ignore Existential Danger of Nuclear War. Turn a Blind Eye towards Armageddon, Steven Starr, Global Research, Nov 1, 2016

 • The Ukraine Conflict: What's Behind It? Why Is It Important?, Sep 26, 2015

 • Bulletin 200: Warhead budget bloat; U.S.-caused Ukraine catastrophe at the brink; hello peak oil, Feb 8, 2015