A new world is being born before our eyes. Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has opened a new era – and in three dimensions at once. And of course, in the fourth, domestic Russian. Here begins a new period both in ideology and in the very model of our socio-economic system – but this is worth talking about separately a little later.
Russia is restoring its unity – the tragedy of 1991, this terrible catastrophe of our history, its unnatural dislocation, has been overcome. Yes, at a great cost, yes, through the tragic events of what is essentially a civil war, because now brothers separated by belonging to the Russian and Ukrainian armies are still shooting at each other – but Ukraine will no longer exist as anti-Russia. Russia is restoring its historical completeness, gathering the Russian world, the Russian people together – in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians. If we had refused this and allowed the temporary division to take hold for centuries, we would not only have betrayed the memory of our ancestors, but would also have been cursed by our descendants for allowing the collapse of the Russian land.
Vladimir Putin took upon himself – without a bit of exaggeration – historical responsibility, deciding not to leave the solution to the Ukrainian issue to future generations. After all, the need to solve it would always remain the main problem for Russia – for two key reasons. And the issue of national security, that is, the creation of anti-Russia from Ukraine and an outpost for Western pressure on us, is only the second most important among them.
The first would always remain the complex of a divided people, the complex of national humiliation – when the Russian house first lost part of its foundation (Kiev), and then was forced to come to terms with the existence of two states of not one, but two peoples. That is, either renounce your history, agreeing with the crazy versions that “only Ukraine is the real Rus’,” or helplessly gnash your teeth, remembering the times when “we lost Ukraine.” To return Ukraine, that is, to turn it back to Russia, would be more and more difficult with each decade – recoding, de-Russification of Russians and inciting Little Russian Ukrainians against Russians would gain momentum. And if the West consolidated complete geopolitical and military control over Ukraine, its return to Russia would become completely impossible – it would have to be fought for with the Atlantic bloc.
Now this problem is gone – Ukraine has returned to Russia. This does not mean that its statehood will be liquidated, but it will be reorganized, re-established and returned to its natural state as a part of the Russian world. Within what boundaries, in what form will the alliance with Russia be consolidated (through the CSTO and the Eurasian Union or the Union State of Russia and Belarus)? This will be decided after the end is put in the history of Ukraine as anti-Russia. In any case, the period of the split of the Russian people is coming to an end.
And here the second dimension of the coming new era begins – it concerns Russia’s relations with the West. Not even Russia, but the Russian world, that is, three states, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, acting in geopolitical terms as a single whole. These relations have entered a new stage – the West sees Russia returning to its historical borders in Europe. And he is loudly indignant at this, although in the depths of his soul he must admit to himself that it could not have been otherwise.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220226051154/https://ria.ru/20220226/rossiya-1775162336.html
Comment: This article appeared in RIA Novosti at exactly 0800 on 26 February 2022. It also appeared on the Sputnik News Network websites. Its release was planned in advance in anticipation of a lightning victory over Ukraine. Things didn’t work out as the Kremlin anticipated, but the preplanned victory lap was published as planned before being quickly taken down. How embarrassing. But this short lived article did us all a great service. It laid out the Kremlin’s true reasons for launching their invasion and its plans for the new world order.
I was going to wait for the two year anniversary of the article to write this, but the recent Putin interview convinced me the time is now right. I’m impressed by the consistency between this article and the world view laid out by Putin. That’s not a bad thing. I think it’s admirable, but it does explain in stark terms why the Ukrainians are continuing the fight. If they lose to Russia, they will cease to exist.
In addition to ending Ukraine as a country and an idea, how did the article’s author, Petr Akopov, envision the Russkiy Mir after the total defeat of the government in Kyiv? He envisioned a Europe free of the Anglo-Saxon yoke aligned politically and economically with Russia. He spoke of the rise of a multipolar world with “China and India, Latin America and Africa, the Islamic world and Southeast Asia” assuming their rightful place alongside the “Russian world, that is, three states, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, acting in geopolitical terms as a single whole.”
I don’t think it’s the worst of world visions, except if I were a Ukrainian. I wouldn’t be too thrilled if I was a Belarusian, either. A renewed “Pax Americana” should also give us pause. Besides, such a unipolar world existed only for a few years, if at all. I don’t think it existed at all except in the minds of neocon true believers. We’ve been in a multipolar world throughout the course of modern history. A true multipolar world should be comprised of many independent countries, big and small, not a few empires lording it over the smaller countries, not a Pax Americana nor a Russkiy Mir.
TTG
For a comparison, here’s a transcript of Putin’s recent interview with Carlson.
https://www.miragenews.com/full-text-transcript-of-tucker-carlson-putin-1171489/
TTG,
I agree with a lot of what you say here. Countries like India are evolving and will have to have a serious presence on the world stage. Russia is engaged in some local regional fights against the neocons so as to ensure its survival and rightful place on that stage. That is all normal and inevitable. Just as history shows us that the climate naturally changes, dramatically over time, so do empires and world powers. Only a those possessed of a maniacal amount of hubris believe they can stop the course of naturally evolving megasystems – and they cause a lot of harm in course of their misguided efforts
Eric Newhill,
While I agree that India will continue to grow in importance, I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about people overestimating India’s prospects in comparison to East Asia. The projections I have seen from economists like Tom Orlik suggest that East Asia will soon dominate the globe.
Look at the PISA rankings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment
East Asian countries dominate the top 10. If one looks at cultures that outperform economically one sees that they are cultures that place a heavy emphasis on education. India is not one of those cultures. India ranked 72nd out of 73 countries tested by PISA in 2009 and so India pulled out of PISA in a huff. You would never see Vietnam do something like that.
James,
Sure. Probably true about E. Asia. I was just tossing out one example.
Sir I beg to differ with your assessment of Indian education. Do you know CEO of the most Tech Industries are Indians. That is the dumb Indians hired by Mega corporations. Oh well what can I say. Thanks
Eric Newhill,
Just to be clear – I agree with everything you wrote … it is just that I have been looking for a chance to get up on my hobby horse about India and you happened to mention India.
Eric Newhill,
“Just as history shows us that the climate naturally changes, dramatically over time…” True enough that it’s natural. But it can still be an extinction. There have been six mass extinctions in geologic history. We are in the latest, probably the final one, right now.
How do they know? If interested, to start with, please read Wikipedia on Roderick Murchison and Edouard de Verneuil. Just to have gotten to Perm krai in those times is amazing enough, if you ask me. But they knew how to read what they found there. It is one of the great detective stories. Quite a case! Damn close to everything killed dead back then–the Big Wipeout 250 million years ago. They call it the Permian extinction. Now we niggahs got a new one going. Just as natural at it can be. We done murdered ourselves.
TTG,
In my view the US has long been pursuing a “first among equals” strategy. Americans are not an imperial people – the neocons were and are an aberration.
Please tell that to the Iraqis and Libyans, Oh I forgot may be the Syrians too.
I believe Russia’s aim was and still is to repatriate the provinces with a large Russian speaking population and to leave a rump state in the west and this will likely still happen. Putin has often talked about the impossibility of trying to govern people who hate you, I recall seeing this in Stone’s interview which is now almost a decade old. This is a long standing belief.
I don’t know what the final map will look like but I would not be surprised to see Kharkiv and Odessa added to the list. Since I believe in being honest, that outcome doesn’t bother me so much but I do fear that western Ukraine will more or less become a Gaza strip. To me a ‘Gaza strip’ represents an area that is dominated by a strong neighbor, one that is not truly sovereign. A Ukraine reduced to a Gaza strip would be a sad outcome.
How close the actual outcome matches what I have just stated will be the final piece of evidence that I need to determine who has been telling the truth about the war vs those willfully deceiving us. I am not pointing fingers, I will wait to see it.
There is no scenario where I would put TTG in the ‘willful deceivers’ list. TTG has an opinion and has tried to acquire corroborating facts to support his views. That is the reason I still visit here.
I am referring to the people who are paid to report on Ukraine. Western sources and Russian sources give completely different accounts of the war. They cannot both be right.
A bit off topic but this caught my eye. We all know the huge civilian casualty numbers in Gaza especially grievous because it is comprised for the most part of the bodies, limbs and futures of tens of thousands of children, their mothers, aunts and grandmothers. And many of the children themselves are young girls and adolescents. But sometimes a single tragedy carries more emotional impact than does recitation of statistics. This may be such a case. George Floyd was only one man, but his death set a country and a large part of the world on fire. Maybe the death of this poor Palestinian girl, begging for help for over a day and shot to death by the Israelis along with several of the United Nations assistance workers who tried to rescue her will have a similar effect. Have a look yourselves at Brianna Joy Gray’s first few minutes of presentation, see what you think and feel, and we can all wait and see.
Briahna Joy Gray: Israel MURDERS Six-Year-Old Girl in SICKENING Example of WAR CRIMES.
https://youtu.be/-T_MHhqIj74
F&L
I don’t suppose the 1.5 million Amalekites packed into Rafah enjoyed the Super Bowl.
Indeed. I shall not watch the video, but only because I don’t need to. Justice of one kind or another will be visited upon the people doing this. Speaking of body parts, here is a rendering of the poem Bani Adam by Saadi Shirazi. A copy is on display in the UN’s HQ:
Human beings are body parts of each other,
In creation they are indeed of one essence.
If a body part is afflicted with pain,
Other body parts uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you shall not retain.
Ms. Barbara Ann you are so right. So sad to see such suffering inflicted on helpless people. But Karma is ever present. What goes around comes around.
But George Floyd was a lie. Floyd died from the combination of an overdose of illegal drugs and a bad heart, bad because of a long history of drug abuse. There was no evidence of asphyxiation. The coroner stated as much in no uncertain terms.
Floyd was not killed by Chauvin, who used a department approved technique (which you can test out yourself with a friend and see that it is a safe and effective way to control someone who is out of control). It is easy for an image to be misconstrued, for a story to omit important facts and invent others to further a narrative. You are concerned about magicians fooling the gullible in matters of psi and mediumship, but you should be more concerned about media magicians.
War is a sad event and people die when it occurs. Hamas started this.. They try to use the people of Gaza as a shield.. If they were to surrender, innocent children would cease to be caught in the crossfire.
Eric Newhill,
The coroner report clearly stated Floyd did not die of an overdose or because of his drug use. It concluded that it was a homicide due to “cardiopulmonary arrest” from “law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” That doesn’t mean Floyd would not have killed himself through his drug abuse eventually.
TTG,
The coroner hired by the family for their law suit was the more adamant that Floyd was murdered by police, of course. The County Coroner, not so much. That coroner determined Floyd’s narcotic levels and it would not have killed him some day. Rather, the levels were high enough to kill him right there and then.
That said, I was going off a recent piece by Tucker Carlson. Maybe I got duped, but I don’t think so. I think Carlson is right. That much Fentanyl would be lethal.
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-tucker-carlson-george-floyd-death-1568615
TTG,
If only the politicians that ran Minneapolis had provided police oversight and training for all those years they ran the city. Oh, wait, they still do!
“a department approved technique”
Compliments of police training from the IDF.
Putting your knee on someone’s neck is not safe. The neck is a narrow pathway for breathing and your central nervous system. It would be very sensitive to how much pressure you apply and you can easily lapse into using your full body weight.
Did you test this with a friend, did the test last more or less than a minute?
Christian,
“The neck” is a perception put into your head by the media. So is the scary idea of asphyxiation. The technique involves the knee across the base of the neck, not the neck (brain subconsciously translates to throat, oxygen, etc) per se. Try it. You can do this technique on someone for an hour and more without harming them.
Understand that one is not putting one’s full weight o the base of the neck. Rather, one modulates the amount of weight applied as needed. The other knee/leg complex that is on the ground bears most of the weigh; maybe 80/20 to 70/30 as needed to control the suspect. Having a hand resting on a car, wall, table, chair, etc provides even greater stability and weight control. Note that Chauvin was doing exactly that.
I have performed this exact technique on a resisting individual. It worked beautifully and no one got hurt. I have also demonstrated for friends who didn’t believe me because the media convinced them, without basis, that it would be otherwise.
The media stated that Chauvin put his full weight on Floyd’s neck and basically ground him into the pavement, cut off his oxygen and killed him. I can tell by simply looking at the film and comparing to experience that nothing like that happened. It’s pure BS.
Tell you what, before trying on a human confederate, try kneeling on one knee and put some object under the other, maybe a piece of fruit (i.e. assume the Chauvin position and the fruit s a stand in for Floyd). Note that you can totally avoid squashing the fruit.
Try it. Let me know how it goes.
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/3ed4ab12e7213ad2248b2788473efbed?src
I don’t know how much more on the neck you can get. I forgot to mention that cutting off the flow of blood through the Carotid artery is yet another risk.
If you are holding this position for several minutes one should assume that using your full weight is a distinct possibility even if it doesn’t start out that way.
I guess Chauvin was just unlucky. Many are saying that Floyd died of a drug overdose and it’s just a coincidence that he was pinned under Chauvin at the time of his OD.
Christian,
That is the base of the neck. It is nowhere near the carotid artery. The county coroner did not find any bruising, etc that would indicate excessive pressure applied by Chauvin. Why would I assume full weight was applied just because it is “a possibility”, but not assume that a drug OD occurred when it is a real possibility with real evidence?
Have you tried the technique yet, or are you just going to remain impressed and convinced by pictures? I have some pictures to show you and some some stuff to sell you based on them.
It is (or was at the time) an approved department technique even though some people lied about that in court. It was even present in the department manual, which gives it a name. It did not come from Israel. All of the armchair cops who have never been in a street situation in their lives can’t refuse to explain how a large dangerous man full of mind altering drugs is to be handled. All I hear is stupid ideas that very well may not work and might put more people than just Floyd at risk. The technique deployed by Chauvin works. You don’t want to even explore that assertion because you want to believe a socially accepted narrative as opposed to fact.
Same with anything coming from Hamas. You just believe their pictures and narratives. Strangely, if Zelensky or Israel shows you pictures and tells you narratives, you don’t believe them and imagine how it could be fake/propaganda. So I guess, in reality, you just believe pictures that exist, unexamined, in your own head.
Try the technique. Lol, I know you won’t. No one who believes the narrative will. I mean they absolutely refuse. Too funny. What is so damn frightening about fining out that once and a while you spoke without knowing and were wrong? I’ve done it. I admit it. It’s the first step to doing it less often. It’s not so hard.
Eric, the former Minneapolis Police Chief, Medaria Arradondo, disagrees with you. He called Floyd’s death at the time a “murder.”
He testified at Chauvin’s trial that the kneeling was a violation of the policies around de-escalation, objectively reasonable use of force and requirement to render aid.
He testified at the trial that “once Mr. Floyd stopped resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped.”
A jury of Chauvin’s peers, after hearing all the evidence, convicted him of murder. There will always be apologists for police criminality, but Chauvin is in prison where he belongs.
David Kissinger,
Sure. Of course he said that. It’s was all politics and fear by that point.
Anyone who has health with criminals knows they lie. Just because Floyd had stopped resisting didn’t mean he wouldn’t start resisting again as soon as he was free to move. Also, people having reactions to large doses of drugs can begin to have seizures or similar reactions and flail uncontrollably and hurt themselves.
Lots of armchair experts seeing what they want to see and hearing what they want to hear, but having no relevant experience or understanding whatsoever.
Floyd was overdosing. He had consumed a lethal drugs. He stated he could breath before he was on the pavement because of the drugs (or as an excuse to be allowed to escape the situation). The only thing that could have possibly saved Floyd was a faster EMT response. He was not killed by Chauvin. Chauvin was nearly killed by the Lynch mob and probably will be one day.
“…who has health with criminals”
Should read, “….who has dealt with criminals”
Autocorrect strikes again
The relevance here is for “news” coming out of Gaza and Hamas sources. I don’t want to debate Floyd. People were duped at the time it happened and they sure aren’t going to ever admit that on the internet.
F&L,
George Floyd was a criminal who died of a drug overdose but was turned into a martyr by the same political part that lead the city that trained the police force that was attempting to arrest poor George for using funny money and assorted other crimes. He got three televised funerals but nobody gives a damn about his legacy now, unless they can score some cash by using his name.
Poor Hind Rajab. If HAMAS had not launched a terror raid that killed 1,400 hundred, and then committed that WAR CRIME of kidnapping hundreds more, she would still be alive. Hopefully someone will ask the leadership in Qatar (Hamas and Qatari both) if they would like to make amends and release all those other people taken during that WAR CRIME? Then maybe they can ask the UN when the leaders of UNWAR first found out about all those tunnels and assorted rooms being built under their UNRWA headquarters in Gaza? I’m sure Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave of Hill TV won’t being doing so.
F&L,
You know what? The girl reminds me of Lizzy Warren, just one of the many children killed (along with her father) when Sherman surrounded Atlanta with artillery and began firing into the city ruthlessly. Civilians with back yards dug holed to live in. Entire families lived like moles. Eventually, Sherman’s troops went block by block knocking down doors and burning homes.
The first victim of the ceaseless attack was a free black man whose was torn apart by shrapnel. Ah well, it was a Nobel cause, right? The Rebs had it coming, the evil bastards; not like the innocent Palestinians. Is Sherman a Jewish name? Funny, he doesn’t look Jewish.
Number one issue :
Petr Akopov is nowhere an important guy in Russia.
Only a journalist with no connections with The Kremlin.
Not Wolf Blitzer or Rachel Maddow
His idea was already widespread in Russia among Dugin’s followers.
Sorry but year 2024 you can’t find out what Putin was thinking in 2022 from similarities based on an article written by some journalist in 2022.
Many things have changed since.
Number two :
War began 24 February 2022.
Article published 26 February 2022.
Nothing prove that ” Its release was planned in advance”.
Any journalist can write such an article in less than one hour.
aleksandar,
So all this Russkiy Mir stuff is just a bunch of horseshit? Putin was claiming Ukraine does not exist even before his invasion.
The use of the term ”Little Russia” and ”Great Russia” by Akopov and Putin is a falsification and complete bastardization of the meaning. The medieval Kyivan Rus adopted the term Little Rus from Constantinople where “Little Hellas” referred to the Greek homeland, the Mother Country, which was the cultural and political center. Whereas “Greater Hellas” referred to Grecian colonies in the Aegean, Italy, Sicily, Southern France, Corsica, Cyrene in North Africa, Eastern Anatolia, the Black Sea Littoral, and Tanais in the Don River Delta of Russia’s current-day Rostov Oblast. Plus the heavy Greek influence in Cyprus, the Nile Delta, Antioch, Southern Anatolia etc. Kind of like saying Greater Miami, a 6,000 square mile area of counties, towns and cities adjoining the 40 or 50 square mile City of Miami.
Ukrainians in the 11th and 12th centuries regarded being called “Little Rus” as a high honor since it meant they were the traditional center of a vast territory of colonies, settlements and city-states. Their influence extended from the White Sthe ea in the north, the Baltic Sea in the west, the Black Sea in the south, and the Volga River in the East. Putin and Akopov turned the term upside down, demeaning Ukraine by doing so.
The term “Kievan Rus” is an invention of the 19th century. Even “Malorossia”, Novorossia” and Belorossia” are 18th century inventions.
Peter Williams,
The United States of America is an 18th century invention.
James,
And it did not exist prior to that time. Neither did Kievan Rus.
Peter W –
The name may have been coined then, but it existed starting back in the 9th Century.
As for “Malorossia”, you are correct. That term was coined in 1783 by an ethnic German princess who overthrew and murdered her husband to take the throne.
“A renewed “Pax Americana” should also give us pause.”
You mean the Project for the New American Century? It’s been driving US foreign policy for a couple of generations. Or did you forget who Victoria Nuland is married to, or perhaps they’ve renounced their beliefs after all these years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
Fred,
That’s exactly the crowd who have been pushing the “Pax Americana” shtick. They’ve been around a long time, at least as long as the Monroe Doctrine and Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet.
TTG,
Ukraine! their latest extension of Pax Americana. Who here has been cheerleading loudest about the need to keep the money going? The Senate certainly agrees. America’s border? Not so much.
TTG
Putin’s glossy marketing brochure for the BRICS is selling the true multi-polar world you describe. The League of Nations was promoted along similar ideals. I doubt very much that the reality would bear much resemblance to the hype, given that power is accretive and those with it will always endeavor to deny it to everyone else.
But looking at power polarity through the old prism of nation states is becoming increasingly irrelevant in world where the top 5 US tech companies have a combined market value in excess of $10 trillion. Or take the central banking system under the BIS: Although Russia has been temporarily ejected, Russia already has a working CBDC – as do an increasing number of nations all over the world. CBDC’s represent an incredibly powerful control mechanism, not in the hands of politicians, but bankers. Even military power is controlled at the supra-national level within NATO, with the US in overall effective control. And who has overall effective control of the Executive we must increasingly ask?
Multi-polarity, BRICS and even Pax Americana are all distractions from what we are likely to see next; a mono-polar world run by global corporate technocrats (primarily financiers & Big Tech). Perhaps China has the will and power to retain its own system. The combined West certainly looks ever more vulnerable to a hostile takeover by these folk, who let’s face it already exert huge power and influence over what is left of out democratic institutions. Pax Technocrata.
Barbara Ann,
You speak the truth. Big business and now international conglomerates exert much pressure on states and world events. Look at the power exerted by the seven sisters of oil back in their day. Now financial and tech seem to be ruling the roost often with key controls in other industries. I think the main problem is that these global corporate technocrats operate with all the advantages offered by nation states, but with few real restrictions. Neither Russia nor China is immune from this. Oligarchs have damn near hollowed out the Russian economy. Even China’s CCP has trouble controlling the corporate set.
Maybe the current push to bring industries back to America, a push started by Trump and now championed by Biden, will have an impact on this trend. Surely Russia is now painfully aware of the dangers of relying on imported technologies. And China is watching this closely.
TTG
relying on imported technologies is difficult to avoid
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler/2024/01/09/americas-carriers-rely-on-chinese-chips-our-depleted-munitions-too/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/08/27/why-the-us-and-europe-still-buy-russian-nuclear-fuel/23474ddc-44cd-11ee-b76b-0b6e5e92090d_story.html
Ms. Barbbara Ann I partially agree with you about Big Tech controlling the world. Though they have $10 Trillion Market cap but what is it they actually produce? I mean something tangible and physical? Also after witnessing the color revolutions these Big Tech Guys promoted over the past few years, countries have put strict restrictions on their behavior. If you noticed after the Ukraine war, African countries started to flex their muscle and slowly kicking out their western masters. It is not easy to overcome 500 years of Western dominance. However I think the greed of the western elites to outsource their productive enterprises to make a killing has done them under. As we can see in the current situation Russia produces say 1 million shells, where as combined west is struggling hard to produce 500k. Once you outsource your production you are loosing your own talent pool and believe me it is not easy to create that talent pool in a fly. Then you have the educational system, where great stress is put on gender identification rather than reading, spelling, arithmentic etc. Sad to say we are in a real deep…………..
Muralidhar Rao –
Putin doesn’t produce a million shells. He has to import shells and missiles from North Korea. He also has to import drone components from Iran, electronics from India & China.
You’re right.
Russia produces TWO millions shells/year.
And have all raw materials to do so them.
Don’t forget that Russia has never dismantled his MIC even during the Dark Years (1990-2000).
Factories were closed but remained untouched.
Muralidhar Rao
How does it go? “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product”. Big Tech’s product is ultimately exactly the same as the product of the banking system (just ask a Canadian trucker); a powerful means of controlling people. Just imagine what these companies collectively know about you.
When the CBDC’s are rolled out the digital prison gates will slam shut. The CBDC app on your smart phone will be needed to buy anything. Everything you do online will be tied to your biometrics (also on your phone). Your electronic wallet can then be locked in the event of any Wrongthink – by you or anyone you associate with. Where did I read about all this – oh yes, Revelation 13:16-17*.
If this scares the bejesus out of you then that is the correct reaction, this cannot be allowed to happen. I heard one country has already banned CBDC’s, Kenya I think. That is the way to go.
*”forehead” or facial recognition?
Barbara Ann,
I rented a room from an Indian professor when I was in university. He used to talk about how his family had problems because most of their wealth was stranded in the “black market”. I did not fully understand what he was talking about at the time but what I took away was that because of oppressive currency controls and government attempts to dominate the economy there were two parallel economies in India – one legal and one illegal. And pretty much everyone had a foot in both.
The government can introduce CBDCs but I am cautiously optimistic that we will find ways to resist them.
@Barbara Ann
“Just imagine what these companies collectively know about you.”
This is not the worse of it, there is a HUGE investment in research and development of “behaviour change” technologies (i.e. compliance), all this of course for good causes…
Muralidhar Rao,
While it is true that Niger has expelled the French and trying hard to shake off the chains of the colonial franc as currency and all that entails in locking them into EU economic constraints, the colonial revolutions were in the 1960s and ushered in decades of Marxist control, along with native corruption.
Sir those Marxist revolutions you talk about are in fact true, unfortunately they didn’t survive for too long, just think about Patrick Lumamba of Congo Or the other revolutions they were suppressed sometimes slowly but mostly immediately by funding the locals bought by the west. Just look at the current situation in ECOWAS, the rulers of those countries tried to kill Niger, Bukrina Faso etc but because of the changed circumstances brought about by Ukranian war (this is my personal opinion), the west couldn’t. But don’t worry the west has another ace up their sleeve the Zihadists who want to bring Allah to the locals. You can’t make these things up. But my feeling is the Zihadists may themselves will have audience with their beloved Allah soon enough. Thanks
Djihadists, but which ones ?
Those paid by Qatar ?
Those paid by Algeria ?
Those paid by USA ?
Those paid by Saudi Arabia ?
Smiling.
We wanted to get rid of Franc CFA long time ago.
Useless thing.
But Africans Leaders wanted to keep it to stabilize their economies.
I’m glad it”s over.
Let’s them have a taste of liberalism, devaluation and speculation.
The Russian neurologist Pavlov demonstrated salivation in dogs through a series of experiments where he paired the sound of a bell with the presentation of food. Over time, the dogs began to associate the bell with food and would start to salivate at the sound of the bell, even when no food was presented.
In Tucker’s interview , Trump surely heard “Pavlov” Putin ringing the bell and Trump soon started licking his greedy [“got to be something in this for me!’] chops!
Putin works it perfectly with Trump! Over the weekend, Donald Trump heard Putin’s bell and publicly agreed that, if elected in November, Trump would “encourage” Putin’s historical pursuit of a Greater Russia.
Al
Putin’s puppets! Bow wow wow. Tell us more about Russia collusion, it’s sure more enjoyable than listening to Biden. Why is it that he gave up free media in a super bowl interview? It can’t have anything to do with that special council’s White Privilege wash of all those classified documents he illegally kept?
Fred you might want to add the weapons of mass distruction in Iraq as well Assad gassing his own people since he had the Zihadists on the run. I really don’t understand how these educated and intelligent people can fall for these scams? Thanks
Fred
The Putin’s puppets theme looks like coming back with a vengeance in the coming election. Get this:
That’s Chatham House helpfully explaining to us that Musk and his platform are just a part of Putin’s propaganda machine and need muzzling. God forbid the impressionable citizenry get access to any information from outside of the MSM propaganda machine that might cause them to vote incorrectly (i.e. for Trump).
John Adams’ view was that a constitution must be grounded on “the knowledge and good sense of the people”. In a free democracy it cannot be otherwise. Brecht’s excellent satirical poem Die Lösung poked fun at the fact that East German voters in 1953 had “squandered the confidence of the government” after an ‘incorrect’ vote. In 2016 the American People squandered the confidence of the Deep State and all it now sees are Putin’s puppets. Sad.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/02/putins-carlson-interview-shows-links-between-trump-talk-and-russian-messaging
Quite a deflection there, Fred. You should go into politics! lol
Al, what’s the name of the hooker from Moscow? Surely Christopher Steele put that into the fabrication that Hilary’s campaign paid for.
Fred, you certainly have the deflection makings of a top “rank” politician!
Well…China was packing up everything in Ukraine…including Pigs and Corn..And High Tech Industrial Equipment For Applications in China…So Russia Though China should
go back to Asia…And Kahn the Rest of the World From There…Leave Europe to Get Gassed by Russia..and Ukraine to return to the stone age..
..While the United States…Brings all things India into Play…Strategic…Economic and Into American Politics..and ..and Layer’d around Agencys…including The Defense Department..and The Executive Bathroom..
.In Fact..This Matter put up by TTG…Makes that ClearBig Wheels Keep Turning..
Tucker had Vladimir Putin Explain The Process..To Justify The Cost and the DEAD..
jim
Nuland was good pushing over rump USSR states back in the day. Also more than semi-attractive and well spoken. Everyone loved her.
Unfortunately she got morbidly obese and uncommonly lazy. Plopped a McDonald’s combo meal on the table in Ukraine with an extra large coke and thought it was business as usual. It was not. By the way, McDonald’s is still in Russia. The name is gone but it’s called something else. Same food. I think it’s Duckies or something with all the franchise fees either. Not a bad deal.
MacDonalds has left Russia, being bought out by a large former franchiser, and renamed «Вкусно – и точкo». I won’t translate it as almost no-one can agree what the correct translation is, apart from the first word “Tasty”. The food is similar, but with many more Russian menu additions. And most people think that two years later, the quality of the food has improved.
Babelthuap –
Not Duckies. It’s called ‘Вкусно – и точка’. Not the same – they reportedly stopped serving french fries due to bad potato harvest in 2022 but may have started up again. Franchise owner is oligarch Alexander Govor, although he undoubtedly has to give a cut to thief-in-chief Putin and/or Patrushev.
Here is the complete menu – https://vkusnoitochka.ru/menu
Rostic’s has reappeared to take over from KFC, though some KFCs remain, depending on the franchisee’s contracts. Burger King remains
When glasnost returns they’ll get a Chick-fil-A!
You noticed too, about Nuland! She has a mostly-vanished North American / Atlantic seaboard accent. She was pretty and bubbly in 1995, then promoted from Defense Dept spokesperson to a real job at State. This surprised people at the time, as she wasn’t qualified for it.
Nuland looks like an ogre now. It is her late Dorian Gray stage; she’s been an ogre uh, neocon, causing strife, for decades.
The “Rus” was my ancestral clan and they did establish a political entity in the Kiev area at one point. That is one reason why the Ukrainian and Swedish flags have the same colors. But the idea that the Russians are the modern ” herrenfolk” is probably overstated and pervasive corruption is one reason for that. It now seems to be most prevalent among the Trumpserfs in Congress, but then, illusion is a feature among them.
I expect the Ukrainian aid package will pass and be added to what EU has provided, regardless of what Mini-Mike is claiming. Most people understand why Putin has to be stopped, since the consequences of not doing it will be much more costly and eventually bring the US military into the fight.
The Swedes didn’t adopt the Blue and Yellow flag until the 14th century, so a link to Kiev is highly unlikely. Blue and Yellow flags were used in Galicia and Lemburg.
Peter Williams,
The sharing of blue and yellow on those flags is just coincidence. The Swedish colors represent gold and the sea. The Ukrainian colors represent the sky and the fields.
Those colors were symbolic long before they were officially adopted.
An update to my post of yesterday on the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
The King of Jordan and Biden address the audience at the Whitehouse. Evidently dozens of civilians were slaughtered as a result of a hostage rescue effort that freed two hostages.
President Biden Warns Israel not to Mount Offensive in Southern Gaza.
https://youtu.be/nHG3gg6D9FA
Burns is in
MexicoEgypt, presumably to push US open border policy there for when Israel goes ahead with the ground incursion into Rafah. I wonder what the price will be for accepting an exodus of 1.5m Amalekites into the Sinai? I can’t see Bibi stopping now before he’s cleansed the whole of Gaza.On the lighter side, he is a Haaretz article (in the ‘food’ section) explaining how the IDF are making the best of it in Gaza by cooking with ingredients from Gazan’s kitchens. Heart warming stuff.
https://www.haaretz.co.il/food/2024-02-13/ty-article-magazine/.premium/0000018d-82c5-d6dc-ab9f-cffd1ebc0000
Barbara Ann –
An update to my update below. According to the NYTimes this morning, Lebanon may be jumping off soon. If this reporting from Politico is accurate then I’m baffled except to wonder if an invisible demonic goblin is hovering over these lands who works the Horror genre because, well, because he’s a demonic goblin I guess.
US gives Israel blank check to massacre civilians in Rafah.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/14/nsxw-f14.html
Excerpt:
To drive this point home, Politico reported on Tuesday, based on statements by three US officials, that “The Biden administration is not planning to punish Israel if it launches a military campaign in Rafah without ensuring civilian safety.”
Politico continued, “No reprimand plans are in the works, meaning Israeli forces could enter the city and harm civilians without facing American consequences.” (see link for more)
Barbara Ann,
Words are failing me so I refer you to these below. I don’t know if you can access the Haaretz piece wo a substitute so I’ve included this unz review text which has an active working link.
——————————-
The Crisis at the New York Times ..
From Israeli Propaganda to Page One.
https://www.unz.com/article/the-crisis-at-the-new-york-times/
It has been evident to many of us since the genocide in Gaza began Oct. 7 that Israel risked asking too much of those inclined to take its side. The Zionist state would ask what many people cannot give: It would ask them to surrender their consciences, their idea of moral order, altogether their native decency as it murders, starves and disperses a population of 2.3 million while making their land uninhabitable.
The Israelis took this risk and they have lost. We are now able to watch videos of Israeli soldiers celebrating as they murder Palestinian mothers and children, as they dance and sing while detonating entire neighborhoods, as they mock Palestinians in a carnival of racist depravity one would have thought beyond what is worst in humanity—and certainly beyond what any Jew would do to another human being. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, as American media do not, that the Israel Defense Forces covertly sponsor a social media channel disseminating this degenerate material in the cause of maintaining maximum hatred.
It is a psychologically diseased nation that boasts as it inflicts this suffering on The Other that obsesses it. The world is invited—the ultimate in perversity, this—to partake of Israel’s sickness and said, in a Hague courtroom two weeks ago, “No.”
——————-
Graphic Videos and Incitement: How the IDF Is Misleading Israelis on Telegram.
The IDF unit responsible for psychological warfare operations operates a Telegram channel called ’72 Virgins – Uncensored,’ which targets local audiences with ‘exclusive content from the Gaza Strip’:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-12-12/ty-article/.premium/graphic-videos-and-incitement-how-the-idf-is-misleading-israelis-on-telegram/0000018c-5ab5-df2f-adac-febd01c30000
In the 1930s leftists wrote positively about the Soviet Union.
Now in the 2020s it is conservatives who write positively about Russia.
For today’s example, see
“Tucker Carlson is not wrong about Moscow.
I know. I lived there”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/2854211/tucker-carlson-is-not-wrong-about-moscow-i-know-i-lived-there/
by Christopher Tremoglie.
This is really quite remarkable.
Kieth,
Why is this so mysterious? Russia is not the Soviet Union.
As Tucker notes, the cities are clean and safe and the are aesthetically pleasing. The people are well educated and generally satisfied. None of that can be said about or cities (or about the Soviet Union). You don’t think such basic things are worthy of observation? Remarkably, these Russian achievements occurred in a mere 20 to 25 year time span.
The leftists and technocrats (democrat party) who worshipped the Soviet Union are the same mindset that is destroying the US. Conservatives resisted them then and now.
Is it really so remarkable? The USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or something close to that, with “socialist” being the operative word. Makes sense that leftists would have been fans during the 1930s.
21st century Russia isn’t socialist. It is a conservative country with a lot of religious citizens (although they aren’t the same; Russian Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, others). Religion was illegal in the USSR.
You’re right about some of today’s conservatives writing favorably about Russia. The salient commonalities between the USSR and Russia are authoritarian leadership, limited freedom of speech, and entrenched corruption.
Another person who hasn’t a clue about modern-day Russia. Entrenched corruption? Try taking USD 45,000 into Russia. As an Australian, I can only take cash. I declare it, as the bank requires a Custom’s Declaration for large amounts. Every Custom’s officer has a personal camera, and there are fixed cameras throughout the Custom’s area. The money is counted under full view of cameras. Multiple cameras! I explain the source of the cash, and my intended purpose in Russia. I get copies of all the paperwork. When I deposit the cash into my Sberbank USD account, they merely tell me to file the paperwork, they know me!
USD 45,000 is the maximum amount that I feel comfortable travelling with. If it was stolen, it would hurt, but it wouldn’t devastate me.
As for religion, it was discouraged in the USSR, but never illegal. The West’s beloved President Yeltsin, was renowned for blowing up churches in his fiefdom of Sverdlovskaya.
And as for freedom of speech, try saying that there are only two genders in the US!