Monday, February 28, 2022

Financial & Information Warfare

 Cognitively Assaulted.


   There is a restriction of information about troop positions in Ukraine. The maps today are the same maps from 48 hours ago. Negotiations are finally underway between Ukrainian and Russian teams in Belarus. Last Friday, Russian forces slowed their advances and softened their attacks, ahead of negotiations, which Ukraine (directed by Washington) decided not to attend. Russian, Crimean and Donbass troop advances were reported Saturday morning, and Ukrainian Armed Forces defenses and counter-attacks, but good information stopped, replaced by social media feeds, which are shaped by all parties, to support their narratives. 

  Following the money is now the better strategy in these early days of WW-3. Great global wars are fought to adjust global financial regimes which have become terminally unstable, in my view (which is not only my view). I think this qualifies as WW-3 now, because that is quickly being put into place. The $US is the tool of extraction of global wealth, but has also been used as a punishing weapon for the past decade, which is a factor in it's declining use in global financial transactions, which is now under 50%. In Friday's UNSC vote on sanctioning Russia for invading Ukraine, Russia exercised veto power, but Saudi Arabia and UAE failed to vote the US stance, in favor of sanctions. https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/sc14808.doc.htm
China buys more of their oil, and China abstained, too. The "Petro-Dollar" is not on firm footing any more...

  John Helmer, at Dances With Bears, has this view of the financial war from inside Russia, from a very senior Russian Finance Minister , Sergei Glayzev, with views in opposition to the Russian Central Bank Policy, yet he has remained since the 1980s, because of the value of his views. 
  Russian assets in the West are being "frozen", which is confiscation. In return, Russia can cease payment on all debts, and could later seize foreign-owned assets within Russia, which would imply a fairly permanent break from $US finance. The west might permanently seize Russian assets, while declaring all Russian debts payable at interest. Russia might have to wait this out, wait for the $US regime to decay. 
  China would initially benefit. Europe would be harmed, and the US would also be harmed, which harm would be progressive, as international trade moved more rapidly out of $US. Russia is certainly placed in a tight spot, and Russian savings have already been much reduced by attacks on the Ruble.
  It seems to me that the world might soon split into 2 trading blocks, with some non-aligned nations, as in the old cold war days. 
China might find the most advantageous position in this, but will need to be very careful to be able to maintain trade with all parties.

Moon of Alabama (German) calls this Day #1 of "Money War on Russia":  (Money is a form of "information".)
The U.S. and its proxies in the EU and elsewhere have put up very harsh sanctions on Russia to damage its economy.
The final intent of this economic war is regime change in Russia.
The likely consequence will be regime change in many other countries.
  This war is waged at a financial size that is unprecedented. The consequences in all markets will be very significant to extreme. But experience from Iran shows that such financial wars have their limits as the targeted country learns to survive. Moreover Russia is in a much stronger position than Iran ever was and is better prepared for the consequences.

Even Switzerland sanctions Russia. It is WW-3.

Glenn Greenwald:    "TRAITOR!"    (How does that word feel, folks?)
​  ​There is no propaganda as potent or powerful as war propaganda. It seems that one must have lived through it at least once, as an engaged adult, to understand how it functions, how it manipulates and distorts, and how one can resist being consumed by it.
​  ​As I examined in the first part of that video discussion, war propaganda stimulates the most powerful aspects of our psyche, our subconscious, our instinctive drives. It causes us, by design, to abandon reason. It provokes a surge in tribalism, jingoism, moral righteousness and emotionalism: all powerful drives embedded through millennia of evolution. The more unity that emerges in support of an overarching moral narrative, the more difficult it becomes for anyone to critically evaluate it. The more closed the propaganda system is — either because any dissent from it is excluded by brute censorship or so effectively demonized through accusations of treason and disloyalty — the more difficult it is for anyone, all of us, even to recognize one is in the middle of it.
When critical faculties are deliberately turned off based on a belief that absolute moral certainty has been attained, the parts of our brain armed with the capacity of reason are disabled.

​  John Ward, at The Slog​, looks again at the US bioweapons labs in Ukraine, all apparently captured by Russia at this point, and containing information about bioweapons, some of it very tangible. Moderna stock is plummeting, and Pfizer stock is following. Revelations about mRNA injuries, death and now reverse-transcription of gene-therapy "vaccines" into human DNA keeps mounting, and can no longer be hidden from financial investors. These labs will provide information which can be readily censored in wartime, but monied interests usually find access. Since these topics are already open to scrutiny, and "smart money" is reportedly safely out, damage control may not be possible. He lso looks at more traditional propaganda tactical strikes from MI6 and WEF, among others.

Zero Hedge has these updates, as Russia announces financial "countermeasures", which I cannot yet find fully explained.
U.S. BANS TRANSACTIONS WITH RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK
SENIOR BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL SAYS U.S. SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK WERE MONTHS IN THE PLANNING, 'WE WERE READY' U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK HAS BEEN ATTEMPTING TO BRING ASSETS TO RUSSIA, OTHER SAFE HAVENS SINCE SATURDAY'S SANCTIONS ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS TODAY'S ACTION TO PROHIBIT TRANSACTIONS WITH RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK WILL HINDER RUSSIA'S ABILITY TO ACCESS HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS COORDINATED ACTION WILL CAUSE WEAKENING OF RUSSIAN CURRENCY, MAKE FINANCING MORE DIFFICULT
U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS ALWAYS SAW RUSSIA'S $630BLN IN RESERVES AS INSURANCE POLICY, ACTION TODAY 'REMOVES THAT INSURANCE POLICY'
U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS ACTIONS BY U.S., ALLIES WILL PREVENT RUSSIA FROM USING ITS DOLLARS, EUROS, POUNDS OR YEN TO DEFEND ITS CURRENCY
UKRAINIAN MEDIA: UKRAINIAN NEGOTIATING DELEGATION DEMANDED WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS FROM UKRAINE, INCLUDING CRIMEA AND DONBASS

The Saker Blog has been overwhelmed by demand, and the blogger, Andrei is pretty tired by now. Yesterday's update is continued today.
​  ​The big story here​ (for 48 hours now) is the gradual closing of the operational cauldron in the East.  Once it it closed, about 10-12 Ukie brigades will have to chose: surrender or die​  (or stay in apartments with civilians as human shields).
Next, Kiev: the city is blocked from three directions, but the Russians have left one open corridor which anybody can take to safely get out.
​  ​Mariupol: the Russians have entered the surrounded city and combats are taking place.
Kharkov: heavy combats are talking place with both sides using artillery and MLRS.
​  ​Volnovakha: surrounded but the Russians are not storming the city.
Schastie and Novaia Astrakhan: have been liberated
​  ​The Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman has declared that Russia has air supremacy over the entire Ukraine.
In the meantime, the US-NATO base in Achakkov has been totally destroyed by Russian missiles

​South Front has some details from Mariupol, where separatist and Russian forces still seek to "kettle" Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF), but there is fierce fighting, with rockets and artillery​, which are indiscriminate and are killing civilian residents. UAF has nothing to lose, except ammunition stockpiles, by using these weapons. ..
​  ​The DPR forces are completing the blockade of Mariupol. Right now, the first tanks of the DPR troops have reportedly passed through the Kalmius river and approached the village of Sartana, a suburb of Mariupol.
​  ​The village of Granitnoe was taken under the DPR control. It is one of the largest cities liberated by the DPR army in the Mariupol direction. The Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) deployed there shelled the village of Telmanovo from their positions.

What did Putin mean by "Denazification of Ukraine"? This article does not answer that question, but it does explain the murderous offenses, and states that the Russians know the offenders and have said they will make them face justice. This is a very tall order, the exercise of which remains open to interpretation (and probably some negotiation). I presume that many of these targets are currently powerful and influential within Ukraine.​

Still no confirmation today. The Washington Post has been a conduit for CIA "comments" since Watergate.
Belarus is making preparations to deploy troops into Ukraine in support of Russian forces as soon as Monday, a Biden administration official told The Washington Post on Sunday evening.
https://justthenews.com/world/europe/belarus-preparing-deploy-troops-ukraine-support-russia-report

Will the EU accept "Ukraine"? What would that mean in the future?
"Russian and Ukrainian sides have agreed to continue another round of talks in the coming days, Interfax reports, citing Russian official Vladimir Medinsky."
​  ​The next round of talks is expected to take place on the Polish-Belarus border. This after Ukraine's government was reportedly adamant in saying it's "not ready to surrender or capitulate" to Russia, in a separate statement made to the press, and reported by CNBC. This as Zelensky signed an application for Ukrainian membership to the European Union.

​Poland, a NATO member, on Ukraine's border, with historical claims within western Ukraine (a festering wound) suddenly has a complicated situation to consider. Nationalists want those stolen parts of Poland back, but what cost will NATO, and then Ukraine and Russia extract for that? Tough choices. Big rush.
A chance for Poland to regain its long lost territories?

​  Taiwan presumably has channels of negotiation open to China and other regional powers. Taiwan can negotiate a more subtle policy than is envisioned by western media. Destruction of the globally-critical Taiwanese computer-chip industry would harm all concerned parties. What are the other options?
​  ​Likely barely struggling to handle one rapidly developing crisis in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Biden administration could be stepping into another as it will dispatch a high level US delegation to Taiwan on Monday in a "gesture of support" - as one senior official quoted in Reuters put it.

​War-footing​. Gas and oil prices will still rise rapidly.
Sen. Josh Hawley Proposes Congress Reopen US Energy Production "Full Throttle"
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sen-josh-hawley-proposes-congress-reopen-us-energy-production-full-throttle
​Ed Curtain: U.S./NATO Is in the Grip of a “Daemonic Death-Wish” and the Entire World Is Threatened
We are inexorably moving toward a gl
obal war that will become nuclear if an international movement doesn’t quickly arise to stop it.  Most people bemoan the thought of such a war to end all wars, but refuse to analyze the factors leading to it. It seems so unimaginable, but It happens step-by-step, and many steps have already been taken with more coming soon.  It’s so obvious that most can’t see it, or don’t want to.  The corporate main stream media are clearly part of the continuation of the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird, and those who still rely on them for the truth are beyond reach. 
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-nato-grip-daemonic-death-wish-entire-world-threatened/5772233

Safe elite echo chamber, meet nuclear explosion!
The disconnect between the Western and Russian narratives in the current conflict could prove fatal to the world, writes Scott Ritter.

​Oh, yeah, COVID news: 
Human liver cell culture results...
Worst Fears Realized: Pfizer mRNA Transcribes into DNA

​Look, the Pfizer"vaccine" makes human liver cells take up the mRNA in the product and reverse transcribe it into DNA, which codes for a cancer gene! 
"Further study is called for."  What should we do for now?​ It's just one cancer gene,,, It's not like cancers increase after "vaccination" is it? Is it? ... It is?
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/dna-transcribed-from-pfizer-mrna?utm_source=url


Genetically Unmodified
(chilling in non-GMO winter garden)


Sunday, February 27, 2022

Ukraine War Sunday Night

 Hearing Rumors,


  I found this in the comments section of moon of Alabama today. The Russians sure were trolling Biden about "When's our invasion?" 
There's a lot more in there after the headline. No wonder Biden couldn't say where he got the intelligence from.
War Plans Were Leaked On Purpose By Russia 4 Months Ago — and that is why Dems kept predicting war​  
  ​4 months ago, Oct 2021, a war was predicted for February 2022 by none other than the king of the cancelled himself, Alex Jones. He had been out to dinner with a person who was very wealthy and very politically connected, and who told him to expect war in February 2022 because his political contacts told him so!​ ...
​  ​We now know that Putin had already devised a plan to invade Ukraine in case the US elites and NATO didn’t agree to his terms. Someone told Alex Jones who then told us in October. Clearly the Russians let it be known so their plan for war would reach the political and media elite of the west — and that is why for the last few months the Biden administration has been so adamant and certain about a coming invasion of Ukraine. People on social media were laughing at the Biden people for repeatedly warning of an invasion in a week, or a few days, or tomorrow. They had obviously been told the same thing as the friend of Alex Jones by Russians leaking on purpose so that US elites would take Putin seriously.
https://pamho.medium.com/war-plans-were-leaked-on-purpose-by-russia-4-months-ago-and-that-is-why-dems-kept-predicting-war-edaedd6b4bc5

Belarus' Lukashenko Says West Is Pushing Russia Into "Third World War"

Ukrainian and Russian delegations are to start negotiations (maybe).
https://southfront.org/ukrainian-and-russian-delegations-to-start-negotiations/

Ukraine will not “capitulate” to Russia, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Sunday ahead of negotiations between Moscow and Kiev
The two delegations are due to meet at an undisclosed location in Belarus, close to the borders of both countries.

​The Saker has the news that the Russian pincer movements have effectively restricted the Ukrainian armed forces in Donbass, unless they want to come under heavy fire. By the time of this writing, the pincer movement may be more complete. Russian, Cimean, and Donbass forces hold most of Ukraine's ​coast.

There have been a lot fewer specifics  of troop movements in the war today. 
This early Monday report from South Front is the best summary I can find​. It's got a lot of information.​  
  ​On February 27, the Ukrainian military began mass use of phosphorus-filled ammunition in Kiev’s suburbs near the Gostomel airfield. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces are using phosphorus-filled 122 mm shells for D-30 howitzers and phosphorus-filled rockets for BM-21 Grad launchers. These munitions are banned under the third protocol of the 1980 UN Convention on Inhumane Weapons.
​  ​New assault units of the nationalist organization Right Sector arrived in Mariupol from the Lvov Region. They deployed armored vehicles and artillery in residential areas of the city, using the local population as “human shields”. Civilian cars are being shot at in the city. There are reports of dozens of civilians killed by nationalists.

​Conflicting Reports​
​(Jenny pictured in newly electrified utility/bath room)​


Ukraine War Sunday Morning

 Contemplatives,


  The context of what is happening is important for us, even though we are not yet "combatants" in war. This may be WW-3, or WW-4 as some might classify it.
We should assume "Rational Actors" in the acts of nations, armies and rulers, not "mad dogs".

Moon of Alabama has this:
In war, truth is the first casualty.
Gilbert Doctorow:
The Russian Way of War
Yesterday anyone watching Euronews on one screen and Russian state television on another would have been perplexed by the totally contradictory coverage of both with respect to the fate of the armed detachment of Ukrainian border guards on one island in the southeast of Ukraine. Euronews carried the address of President Zelensky awarding posthumous designation as Heroes of Ukraine to the entire detachment, which reportedly resisted the attacking Russian forces and were slaughtered. Meanwhile Russian news showed those same border guards seated at tables and signing sworn statements that they voluntarily lay down their arms and awaited repatriation to their homes and families.

John Ward looks at those American bioweapons labs in Ukraine, and specifically at the development of graphene as a bioweapons technology, but also as a critical technology in creation of transhuman (Terminator?) cyborg warriors with super-powers, a very concerning avenue of military exploration.
​  ​It is at this point in my analysis that the reader should be clear about just how interconnected and revolutionary the applications of graphene nanotechnology and biowarfare are.
​  ​*It is a bioweapon in its ability to cause serious and probably mortal danger to human beings. Think Wuhan, Covid19 and vaccines that aren't vaccines.
​  ​*It arrives at a crucial point in physics where reduced mass can enable the beginning of interstellar travel, because it is only one atom thick. (See previous Slogpost on this - scroll down to final item)
​  ​*It can effectively turn a fragile 3D human soldier into an invisibly indestructible transhuman killing machine. Think Davos and its nightmare futures.
​  ​Ultimately, however, what most observers have failed to grasp is that graphene nanotechnology and transhuman development are interdependent: "vaccination" debris has shown conclusively that graphene is a bioweapon in its own right, but it is also vital for transhuman brain development, skin grafting and the 2D "invisibility" that makes a "humbot" hard to kill in battle, and hard to see during espionage ops.

​Old School Human​

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Ukraine War Day 3

 Civilians,


  War creates a compelling control narrative which elite owners need in rapidly shifting economic times. There is fear and urgency. Anybody who raises rational questions about the war narrative can be quickly labeled as an "enemy",  silenced and disappeared.

  My read of history is that global financial economy is breaking down because of corruption, more expensive fuel and mined ores, and promises of retirements and investment returns from a big , empty cookie jar, which is about to break open and reveal the truth.

  The loss of faith in the corrupted system suddenly kills it completely. A command-economy, like under Stalin, Hitler or even FDR , can step into this gap, but it will always be ugly and inefficient, and usually corrupt. I expect the corruption to be a sustaining theme, at least until smaller groups of people create self-sustaining local economic arrangements. Growing vegetable gardens in wartime has always been one of these adaptations.

  I am looking at the dissipation of the COVID-global-pandemic narrative at the same time that global supply chains and local supply chains are all breaking down.
I don't see some force of trust or technology to right this listing Titanic. I do see a lot of groups of elites standing by lifeboats with machine guns, though.
That is the worldview within which I analyze events, so you may know this about me, and compensate as you might see fit.

  Russia seeks to nullify the threat on its border permanently, which means an end to neo-nazi political power, American bioweapons facilities, NATO military infrastructure and training, and installation of friendly politicians. Ukraine will likely be divided up yet again, but this time made smaller. Neighboring countries might acquire parts of Ukraine for better or for worse. It seems that Russia will control all of Ukraine's coasts , then negotiate with other entities for pieces of coast.
  Russia will need to secure the nuclear reactors, but does not need to own them. I have seen a report that Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are peacefully co-patrolling the Chernobyl site with no shot ever fired between them. This is a model for constructive engagement, but the western-Ukrainian neo-nazis have installed political officers throughout the Ukrainian military to assure compliance. Putin has encouraged Ukrainian military officers to mutiny from this command structure. Some of that has likely happened in pockets. I sure don't know what will happen going forward. 
  The Ukrainian neo-nazis in control are surrounding themselves with human shields in every way possible, which makes sense. It is their best short-term defense, as Russia does not want to slaughter civilians. It is not a long term strategy. The city of Mariupol is in "Novorussia" with a lot of civilian identification as "Russian", but a large military contingent of Ukrainian military, with a lot of Azov-Batallion neo-nazis in command. This is set-up as a heroic last-stand for the neo-nazis, with the ability to take a lot of Russian sympathizers and Russians down with them, and to give Russia a shameful black-eye for killing civilians, their own people.
  The Russians are trying to "kettle" the massed Ukrainian military in Novorussia, as that army tries to avoid the pincer movements and gain an escape route.  One of the alternative options is to take Donetsk City, and gain all of the human shields/hostages there, if an actual escape cannot be made. This is reported in one of the stories. Donetsk is receiving intense artillery and rocket bombardment.
  Voktor Orban of Hungary offered Hungary as a safe location for negotiations between Zelensky and Putin/Lavrov, and Russia rested its advancing military for some hours in anticipation (overnight). It appears that Washington nixed negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Only Washington can negotiate with Russia. I am not making this up. 
  Zelensky is staying and posing with automatic weapons on the streets of Kiev. The neo-nazis will presumably let him live while he does this for the cameras.
He probably would like to negotiate a peace, but he is an important hostage at this point.
  Russia is advancing again, with a goal to surround the Ukrainian military, cut them off and negotiate patiently, except when the Ukrainian forces are inflicting massive casualties on Russians or civilians. This is from the Russian experience in Chechnya. Shelling cities is bad. House to house fighting is bad.
  Poland and Hungary have prepared for an influx of refugees. They have Ukrainian populations already. They do not want this to last very long.

  Central banks are finally making noises about cutting Russia out of the SWIFT electronic financial settlement system. Russia is prepared. Even Germany now sounds prepared. 
  This should hasten the demise of the $US as global reserve currency. 
  Who benefits? whose idea is this. The US will not benefit. I'm not sure who will directly benefit, but China might presumably benefit fairly soon. Russia and China are prepared. Iranians and Venezuelans might take dark pleasure in this... Some financial elites must have plans for global electronic digital currency, linked to identity, which will give them complete control, but that cat is also out of the bag, after recent actions in Canadian banking without any warning or due process.
  A trustworthy financial system will be sought. Bitcoin uses too much electricity. Things that need the internet will be subject to more and more outages. Spanish "pieces of eight" worked for a long time, but pirates murdered for them. Problems of no-trust are at every turn.

Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, has offered Budapest as a venue of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Szijjártó said in a live stream on Facebook late on Friday that he had consulted with both Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office chief Andriy Yermak to offer them Budapest as a safe venue for negotiations. Neither side has ruled out the possibility, he said​.
https://hungarytoday.hu/hungary-offers-host-peace-talks-russia-ukraine/

Moon of Alabama (Germany) Informative commenters on this blog with some good links and insights.
​  ​Yesterday the Russian military halted its advance to give time to the Ukrainian president Zelensky to agree to ceasefire talks. The U.S. however told him not to hold such talks and said he should leave Kiev. Up to this morning Russia had received no response to its ceasefire offer and resumed the attack. Zelensky decided to stay in Kiev.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/disarming-ukraine-day-3.html#more

The Saker Blog
​  ​So, what does all that mean?
​  ​It means that we are coming to some kind of informational climax here.  So far, in the West, that information is suppressed (even Sputnik and RT are under regular DDoS attack).  I won’t even bother on the 500 foot high wave of disinformation produced by western PSYOPs in the social media.  The bottom line is this, pretty soon I expect
​  ​The operational cauldron in the Donbass to lock in the Ukie forces which did not have time to evacuate
​  ​The entire coast from roughly Nikolaev to Mariupol will be liberated
​  ​Kiev will be if not physically surrounded, then at least “surrounded by fire”
, which means that main axes of evacuation will come under steady Russian fire control
​  ​Notice something else.  In the 2nd map, some cities in the Russian rear are circled in blue: Chernigov, Konotop, Sumy, Kharkov and Kherson.  I would add Mariupol to that list.  These are all cities which were cut of from the rest of the Ukie forces, but which still have pockets of resistance inside, that is especially true of Mariupol where a large Nazi contingent appears 
to be ready to take its last stand.​

​  ​Unfortunately for Zelenskyy, an end to the fighting would be against the interests of the Biden administration.  Highlighting the point, the U.S. State Department does not want Zelenskyy and Putin to meet.  The Biden administration conveys a very telling message, from their perspective, saying only the United States is permitted to negotiate with Russia on behalf of Ukraine.   Zelenskyy needs to stay out of it...

​  ​The Biden administration has created this crisis between Russia and Ukraine for a convenient purpose, and the White House is not about to let Zelenskyy screw it up and create peace.
​  ​The U.S. wants President Zelenskyy to leave Ukraine, so the State Department can take full control over the narrative.  
Zelenskyy is refusing to leave.​  ​https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/25/ukraine-and-russia-officials-negotiating-a-meeting-biden-administration-tells-zelenskyy-to-stop-only-u-s-permitted-to-negotiate-with-russia/

The Russian military special operation in Ukraine coincided with the planned launch of U.S. military biolaboratories in Kiev and Odessa. On February 26, the US Embassy in Ukraine rushed to delete all documents about 11 Pentagon-funded bio-laboratories in Ukraine from its website. All these documents (now deleted by the Embassy), you can read HERE.  https://southfront.org/russian-military-operation-prevented-launch-of-u-s-bio-laboratories-in-ukraine-kiev-hiding-evidence/

 Over the past few hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have significantly intensified the shelling of the center of the city of Donetsk. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are conducting a massive shelling of the Kievskiy district of Donetsk...   There is a high probability that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will launch an attack in the direction of Donetsk and try to take the city.   ​https://southfront.org/breaking-donetsk-under-intense-fire/

​Pipelines are economic choke-holds. Pipelines are worth killing to control.   
THE REAL HISTORY BEHIND UKRAINE, PUTIN, THE EU, GAS, & DONBASS
  ​U.S. President Barack Obama intended even when he entered office in 2009, to replace Syria’s Government, but his decision to replace Ukraine’s Government didn’t come right away. On 12 April 2010, Ukraine’s democratically elected President, Viktor Yanukovych met the democratically elected U.S. President at the White House, to which Obama had invited him, but Yanukovych refused Obama’s suggestions that Ukraine join America’s alliance against Ukraine’s next-door neighbor Russia. (Obama wanted to take over Russia’s main naval base, which since 1783 has been in Crimea, which the Soviet dictator had transferred to Ukraine in 1954, so it was then in Ukraine — Obama was planning for that Russian naval base in Ukraine to become another U.S. naval base, and for Ukraine to be brought into NATO. But Yanukovych said no.) On 2 July 2010, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Yanukovych held a joint press conference in Kiev, where she said that she had discussed with Yanukovych joint military exercises with U.S. forces against his neighbor, Russia. Yanukovych again declined the demands. Obama then assigned Victoria Nuland, Hillary’s friend (and the wife of the famous neoconservative — or American-imperialist — writer, Robert Kagan) to organize a coup against Ukraine, to place it under U.S. control. Planning for the coup was already under way by no later than 23 June 2011, which was even before the Nord Stream project had yet become signed. But after Nord Stream became agreed later in 2011, that proposed pipeline was immediately added to the Ukrainian-takeover target, as something that needed to be cancelled. (Ukraine’s gas-transit fees were crucial financial support to Ukraine’s government, and Obama wanted those fees to be supporting a post-coup Americanized Ukraine.) As CNBC accurately summarized on 11 July 2018: “President Barack Obama opposed Nord Stream 2 and President George W. Bush came out against the original Nord Stream prior to its completion in 2011. Like the central and eastern European countries, they worried it increased Russian influence over the Continent.” Post-WW-II American Presidents wanted America to control Europe, as key allies to conquer Russia. The Nord Stream project was, to a large extent, a European bid to work cooperatively with Russia and finally free itself of U.S. domination over European countries

EU 'Moving Forward' On Russia SWIFT Shut-Out, But Former US Official Says 'Not Nuclear Option'

Eddie Fishman - the former Russia and Europe Lead in the US State Department’s Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation - responded in a fascinating way:
"No - it’s not even close to being the nuclear option... SWIFT is just a messaging service. If the US and Europe decided to cut Russians banks off from SWIFT without imposing full-blocking sanctions on them, they could still transact with US and European financial institutions - they just couldn’t use SWIFT to do so."

Fishman went on to point out a potentially even bigger blowback consequence for the West's actions: "...and in a perverse way, that may actually increase the demand for SWIFT alternatives, such as Russia’s own System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS)."


Geopolitics and Degrowth, Charles Hugh Smith​
​  ​The Geopolitics of Degrowth holds that real power flows not from waste, centralization and coercion but from decentralization, relocalization and the free flow of value.
​  ​Conventional geopolitics is all about more: more military power, more sanctions, more coercion, more influence.
​  ​The Geopolitics of Degrowth is all about the power of less: wasting less, consuming less, needing less from other nations, reducing dependence on rivals, reducing coercion and centralized over-reach.
​  ​Conventional geopolitics concentrates wealth and political power in a giant dam on the biggest river. Centralized control of massed power is considered the acme of geopolitical strength. Everyone is coerced into funding and relying on the dam.
​  ​But this has it backwards: when the centralized dam bursts, the nation is in ruins. This vulnerability isn't power, it's weakness. The Degrowth model of strength is to make local use of every rivulet, stream and tributary, carefully shepherding its sustainability and use.
​  ​Unbeknownst to the mainstream, the world has entered an era of scarcity. The current abundance is a temporary flush of the last of the cheap-to-extract resources. Once this illusory abundance has been consumed, all that's left is hard-to-extract, costly resources.
​  ​In an era of scarcity, power flows not from coercion but from needing less by consuming less by eliminating the tremendous waste and friction that consumes resources, capital and time without generating any positive returns.


​Subsistence Farming Investor​
(pictured in homestead upstairs with Jenny after partial rural electrification)


Friday, February 25, 2022

Ukraine War & COVID Narrative Failures

 Keeping Up,


Moon of Alabama: Disarming Ukraine, Day 2
  The Russian operations in the Ukraine continue at a moderate pace. Some more troops were committed today. In all the Russian military may have now introduced some 20-40% of its prepared forces.
  The Ukrainian military is not so much holding a line but concentrating in and around its bigger cities. It has destroyed some bridges north of Kiev to make an approach more difficult. That will slow down the Russian moves but will not prevent them. Russia's military is famously good at setting up combat bridges.
  So far the Russians have used their artillery sparsely. An exception was last night near Kharkiv in the northeast of Ukraine where a strike by multiple launcher artillery systems (MLRS) hit some area target with yet unknown results.
  A 13 minutes long video from a highway drive near Kherson, a city north of Crimea, shows nearly 100 destroyed Ukrainian trucks and tanks. These are likely victims of air attacks...
  Russia's President has called on the Ukrainian military to overthrow its government. I do not think he believes that will happen but it is a possibility so why not call for it.
  Facebook now allows to praise Ukrainian Nazi groups like the Azov battalion. This was prohibited with Azov previously being in the same category as ISIS. Now these are 'our guys'.
  There are a lot of discussions of sanctions against Russia and every western country is trying to get as much exemptions for its industries as possible . The U.S. has for example exempted everything that has to do with hydrocarbons from its own sanction package. It will still buy Russian oil and will continue to sell drilling equipment to Russia.

The Saker blog is updated extensively at the link, and should update again later today. There are a lot of specifics.
​  ​Russian forces are now on the outskirts of many major Ukrainian cities.  If yesterday was “standoff weapons” day, today is the first day when Russian forces can now begin to degrade Ukrainian artillery dispositions, engage Ukie armor and break through Ukrainian fortifications.

​South Front remains worth monitoring for developments:

China provides Russia markets, trade support, but avoids antagonizing trading partners in Ukraine and the west.
China’s Xi speaks to Putin; calls for ‘negotiation’ with Ukraine

On negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Can they happen now?
​  ​Russia’s main gain will be that in geopolitical terms, Ukraine regains its sovereignty and ceases to be a de facto American colony. Russia calculates that a neutral Ukraine will de facto take the Ukraine matrix to its priori history before the 2014 coup.
​  ​What is of crucial importance will be that Zelensky is somehow enabled to navigate his path toward dialogue with Putin. The good part is that Russian military operations will throw radical nationalists into disarray...​  

Trudeau Reversal Motive Surfaces: Canadian Banking Association Was Approved by World Economic Forum to Lead the Digital ID Creation​  
  ​When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced they would use the Emergency Act declaration to target the financial support systems, banks and accounts of the people who were protesting against COVID mandates, they not only undermined the integrity of the Canadian banking system – but they also inadvertently stuck a wrench into the plans of the World Economic Forum and the collaborative use of the Canadian Bankers Association to create a digital ID.
​  ​If the Canadian government can arbitrarily block citizen access to their banking institution without any due process, what does that say about the system the Canadian Banking Association (CBA) was putting into place as part of their Digital ID network?
​  If the CBA digital identity were in place, the same people targeted by Trudeau’s use of the Emergency Act would have their entire identity blocked by the same government measures.  The realization of the issue, reflected by a severe undermining of faith in the banking system, is a dramatic problem for those working to create and promote the Digital ID.
​  ​It is not coincidental the financial targeting mechanism deployed by Trudeau/Freeland, the Canadian banking system, is the same system being used to create the digital identity.  As a result of the government targeting bank accounts, Finance Minister Freeland just created a reference point for those who would argue against allowing the creation of a comprehensive digital identity.

​Professor Anthony Hall has a broad look at the Canadian power struggle. [The Senate may not have ratified the Act as the House of Commons had.]

  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has revoked the Emergency Act he had instituted on Valentine’s Day, 2022. Instead of waiting for Parliamentary authorization of the replacement to the War Measures Act, Trudeau directed federal, provincial and municipal police forces to link up. On Feb. 17 he directed the amalgamated force to violently dislodge truckers and their parked rigs. The combined police forces took their direction from a Prime Minister who acted through the office of an unapproved interim Ottawa Police Chief.
  In plain view of the cameras, the Emergency Act police force committed atrocities directed at peaceful protesters. Police charged towards those they targeted with clubs, trampled them with horses, bludgeoned the resisters with rifle butts and sought to traumatize them with stun grenades and toxic chemical sprays. About two hundred people were arrested including some of the truckers whose rigs were seized and taken into police custody. Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson wants to sell the trucks and thereby edify his slush funds with the revenues
 
 ​One Feb. 23 Trudeau announced that “the immediate emergency situation is over.” He added, however, “the issue itself will not go away.” Trudeau did not clarify what issue he had in mind...​ 

 ​With the flash of a stun grenade we are met by Trudeau’s spurious claim that he was able to meet the Charter’s requirements when he put Canada under the authority of the Emergency Act. Canada’s Emergency Act was used for the first time since its creation in 1988.

​  ​The importance of adhering to the Charter in enforcing the Emergency Act has been emphasized by Senator Marc Gold in introducing to his colleagues the Liberal/NDP Bill.  He explained,
​  ​“Compared to the War Measures Act, the Emergencies Act has reduced powers, added significant Parliamentary review, and was created in part to support and uphold the Charter….The Charter applies to the Emergencies Act and to all actions taken pursuant to the act. There is no temporary suspension of rights or freedoms as there was under the old War Measures Act. Furthermore, all acts must be consistent with our international human rights obligations.”​ ...
 ​Chrystia Freeland, who is Canada’s Finance Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and a leading Trustee of the World Economic Forum, is the Darth Vader of this saga of economic warfare...
​  Freeland fails to explain how reconstituting Canada’s financial institutions, including banks, as integral partners in police sting operations, will increase confidence in the soundness of the Canadian economy. The resulting breakdown in public trust became immediately manifest in the banking runs as many people domestically and throughout the world felt compelled to pull their money from our now-suspect financial institutions.
  Although Freeland claims that some of the seized accounts have been restored to their owners with the dropping of the Emergency Act, she also indicated, “other accounts remain frozen under the regular authority of the courts, law enforcement, and financial institutions".

https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-are-true-insurrectionists-that-illegally-took-over-ottawa/5771933

Shocking new data on covid vaccine and booster safety out of Israel and Germany – will covid vaccines overtake Vioxx and thalidomide as the largest ever drug scandal?
...Two weeks ago, the Israeli Ministry of Health (MoH) published a new report that provides much more detailed, and much more disturbing, data on booster side effects.
  The original MoH report, published in Hebrew on February 10, was translated into English on February 15 by US-Israeli retired medical professor Eyal Shahar and several volunteers
Specifically, the report is based on a professional telephone survey, conducted between 19 September and 25 October 2021, that covered a representative, random sample of 2049 people, stratified by age group and gender, out of about 3 million people who had received a booster dose three to four weeks earlier. Such a sample size should be sufficient to achieve a margin of error of about 2.5% at a 95% confidence interval. The survey excluded, in particular, people who had already recovered from covid...
​  ​Among other findings, the Israeli survey shows that:
Two thirds of the respondents (66%) reported at least one side effect within three to four weeks after the booster (women: 75%).
Close to one third of respondents (29%) reported that they had “difficulty performing daily activities” due to the booster side effects (women: 51%).
Close to one in three hundred respondents (0.3%) reported actual hospitalization (i.e. not just medical care) as a result of the side effects.​..

A German health insurer BKK ProVita said an analysis of data collected from more than 10 million people suggests COVID vaccine side effects are “significantly” underreported. The company said its analysis revealed a “significant alarm signal” and said "a risk to human life cannot be ruled out.”​  ​  Based on the data collected, BKK said the number of vaccine side effects is many times higher than the number officially announced by the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), Germany’s federal health agency that monitors the safety of vaccines and biomedicines.

​Missed That Bullet

Ukrainian War Morning Update

 Wondering About War,


  It's hard to get good information about the war in Ukraine this morning ("fog of war"), but some themes come to the top.
Russia's cruise missile strikes for the first hour yesterday morning took out air force, anti-aircraft, military shipping and command communications.
Ukrainian central command had been located in the Donetsk/Luhansk region with 60,000-100,000 Ukrainian troops, for an assault. 
Artillery shelling had massively increased for 10 days, which is why Biden could be sure of a "Russian invasion". 
Shelling from Donetsk forces reportedly took out that command center.
Russia hit all of the US bioweapon sites in Ukraine, it seems, as primary targets. 
Russians took Chernobyl and are using the exclusion zone as a military transit route.
Crimean forces moved rapidly up from the peninsula, without Ukrainian military resistance, retaking Dnieper river water supply, which had been cut off since 2014.
Russia controls the air and military communications, but civilian communications and the electric grid have not been taken down.
Ukrainian troops are making civilians targets by giving assault rifles to all takers in cities, and setting up sniper positions in apartment buildings.
Ukrainian and Russian governments are supposedly starting negotiations. That is the best route, of course, negotiated surrender to save civilians.

South Front (yesterday)
​  ​What is currently unfolding now are the direct result of the developments that occurred over the preceding 48 hours following Russia’s formal recognition of the two breakaway republics of the DPR and LPR as sovereign, independent nations.
​  ​When it became apparent that Western sanctions that followed failed to meet the promised level; of “Sanctions from Hell” as promised, the UAF began bombarding the territories east of the LOC in increasing intensity. This military escalation intensified against the backdrop of contradictory statements by Russian Foreign Ministry officials which began at approximately noon on February 22. Russian President Vladimir Putin later delivered a statement unequivocally clarifying the official Russian position regarding the sovereign borders of the two republics and the nature of the new treaties.
​  ​The tempo of bombardment on the part of the UAF then intensified up until the late evening and early morning hours of February 23. By the afternoon of that same day, units of the UAF attempted to breakthrough the front in several locations with the assistance of preparatory artillery bombardment with some success. This occurred prior to Russian military units being able to advance to defensive positions. By the early evening, the Ukrainian forces that has attempted to entrench themselves were dislodged and forced to retreat, apparently with the assistance of advanced Russian military units. Following these events, Ukrainian president Zelensky addressed the nation and enacted the closure of a number of airports as described.

​Moon of Alabama (yesterday): 
​  ​Like me and many other analysts Mearsheimer did not expect that a Russian move into the Ukraine would happen. Why the Russian government finally decided to take that step is not clear to me. I believe that Zelensky's lose talk about acquiring nuclear weapons for the Ukraine was one of the decisive factors. Who told Zelensky to come up with that?
​  ​The Russian operation started with a volley of cruise missiles that destroyed air defense radars and missiles, military airports, ammunition depots and some military harbor. The followed ground attacks by armored forces from Belarus southward, from Russia westward and from Crimea northward. These progressed well though some tanks got destroyed by anti-tank missile fire. The ground moves have air cover and heavy artillery moving up behind them.
​  ​The plan seems to be to a. take Kiev, b. encircle the 60,000 strong Ukrainian force that was preparing to attack Donbas c. take the coast.
​  ​A large fleet of helicopter with Russian parachuter took the Antonov / Hostomel airport some 20 miles from Kiev...
​  T​he nuclear reactors at Chernobyl have been secured by Russian troops...
​  ​The Ukrainian air-defenses, airforce, navy, most large command and control elements and depots have ceased to exist. The moral of its ground troops will be generally low though some of the Nazi battalions may still be willing to fight.
​  ​It is not know yet how far the attack from the north has reached towards Kiev. The attack from Russian mainland is currently fighting around Kharkiv, the Ukraine's second biggest city. The most successful attack was from Crimea as it has progressed significantly. The canal which provides water to Crimea and had since 2014 been blocked by the Ukraine has been liberated. Dnieper water is again flowing to the island.


​Pepe Escobar, via Saker blog (yesterday)
​  ​The (nuclear) straw that (nearly) broke the Bear’s back – and forced its paws to pounce – was Zelensky the Comedian, back from the Russophobia-drenched Munich Security Conference where he was hailed like a Messiah, saying that the 1994 Budapest memorandum should be revised and Ukraine should be nuclear-rearmed​.​
That would be the equivalent of a nuclear Mexico south of the Hegemon.
​  ​Putin immediately turned Responsibility to Protect (R2P) upside down: an American concept invented to launch wars in MENA (remember Libya?) was retrofitted to stop a slow-motion genocide in Donbass.
​  ​First came the recognition of the Baby Twins – Putin’s most important foreign policy decision since going to Syria in 2015. That was the preamble for the next game-changer: a “special military operation (…) aimed at demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”, as Putin defined it.
​  ​Up to the last minute, the Kremlin was trying to rely on diplomacy, explaining to Kiev the necessary imperatives to prevent heavy metal thunder: recognition of Crimea as Russian; abandon any plans to join NATO; negotiate directly with the Baby Twins – an anathema for the Americans since 2015; finally, demilitarize and declare Ukraine as neutral.
​   ​Kiev’s handlers, predictably, would never accept the package – as they didn’t accept the Master Package that really matters: the Russian demand for “indivisible security”.
​  ​The sequence, then, became inevitable. In a flash, all Ukrainian forces between the so-called line of contact and the original borders of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts were boxed in as the occupying force of territories of two Russian allies that Moscow had just sworn to protect.
​  ​So it was Get Out – Or Else. “Or else” came as rolling thunder: the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense were not bluffing. Timed to the end of Putin’s speech announcing the operation, the Russians decapitated with precision missiles everything that mattered in terms of the Ukrainian military in just one hour: Air Force, Navy, airfields, bridges, command and control centers, the whole Turkish Bayraktar drone fleet.
​  ​And it was not only Russian raw power. It was the artillery of one of the Baby Twins, the DPR, that hit the HQ of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbass, which actually housed the entire Ukrainian military command. This means that the Ukrainian General Staff instantly lost control of all its troops.


​Also from the Saker: The best detailed update I found last night, and not yet updated today.
The collapse of Banderastan: tomorrow will be a crucial day

South Front is the best news source I find this morning, not just this, but other features on their home page:

From South Front: Mariupol is where the large Ukrainian military contingent (including Azov battalion) is bottled-up by Russian forces, unable to break out.
​  ​Ukrainian servicemen are suffering casualties and are asking for humanitarian corridors to be opened for withdrawal. According to Eduard Baturin, the official representative of the DPR People’s Militia, the Command has fled.
​  ​DPR units and Russian troops also suffer losses. There are captives on both sides.
​  ​The Ukrainian army is preparing to defend Mariupol. AFU(armed forces Ukraine)​ military set up firing positions inside the city blocks.  
Ukrainian army shells hail from residential areas of the city.

​From yesterday morning:
​  Ukrainian military seems to be holding up somewhat in the east, but its southern front seems not to have put up much resistance.
The Russian military was able to break out from the Crimean isthmus and then march to the Dnieper river at Nova Kakhovka in only half a day.

https://anti-empire.com/russian-units-advancing-from-crimea-have-reached-the-dnieper-river/

​US bioweapons labs in over 25 countries, including Ukraine. There are 16 reported US biolab sites in Ukraine on a map from a deleted link. 
Most correspond to early missile strikes from Russia.
Stories like this are being scrubbed from the net when Ukraine-specific. This probably won't last, either.​

Communications Monitor

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Alternative Arrangements

 Versatile Humans,


  A couple of days ago Google deleted my blog and closed our email, which we have had since 2005. We were beta-testers for gmail. We have a lot of information which is majority owned by Google. The loss of access again was a wake-up. Since Google won't say why this was done, I assume that it was a function of narrative-control AI algorithms. It was eventually restored after we jumped through Google's AI hoops. 
Doc Robinson found Johnday's blog in the wayback machine, most of it, anyway: 
 https://web.archive.org/web/20220215223001/http://www.johndayblog.com/
Free-floating anxiety remains.

  The email newsletter has gone out to friends since 2006, and has about 184 subscribers. "To unsubscribe, just ask" quoth the header. My bcc sends started to get blocked in spring of 2016 when I was sending out stories of Sanders and Sanders voters being disenfranchised through election rigging in the Democratic primaries, no matter how I tried to comply. That blocking stopped 3 days after the (Trump-Surprise) election, but resumed in 2018 and 2020 election cycles. 
  The blocking of bcc sends (over 200 seems to be strictly verboten) prompted me to start a blog as an alternative arrangement for sharing potentially useful current news and perspective, such as I could dredge up. That has mostly worked, though www.johndayblog.com has been shut down a couple of times, and Google does not like to take people there in searches. 
  The email bcc newsletter somehow gets routed to trash for a lot of people who used to see it in their inboxes. Mysterious...

  There is now another option, which other bloggers who are being marginalized by mainstream media and other platforms are going to, Substack.
Tessa (fights robots) Lena likes it and encouraged me to try it out  https://tessa.substack.com/ 
  There are a lot of different functionalities I have to figure out, like the site not acccepting jpg images, just png images, which I don't seem to have.
Jenny, a school librarian, is (patiently) helping me work on technical problems. 

  A benefit of the Substack platform is that people can subscribe to the blog now, which Google never made easy on Blogger, then canceled last summer.
Thank you to those who have already signed up, and "Hi" to all of you who have been getting this in your inboxes or trash for so long already.
I'll continue both blog platforms for now, as long as the Google Blogger platform still works.


The birth of the baby twins: Russia’s strategic swing drives NATOstan nuts , Pepe Escobar (excerpts)  
  History will register that the birth of the baby twins – Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics – only a few hours before 2/22/22, was simultaneous to the birth of the real, 21st century multipolar world...
...A few hours later, at an emergency UN Security Council meeting, Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya precisely outlined why the recognition of the baby twins does not bury the Minsk agreements.
  The baby twins actually declared their independence in May 2014. In 2015 they signed the Minsk agreements as one of the interested parties. Theoretically they could even be back within Ukraine if Kiev would ever decide to respect the agreements, which will never happen because the US has vetoed it since 2015...   
  As Nebenzya outlined, “I would like to remind you that at the time of the conclusion of the Minsk agreements, the LPR and DPR had already declared independence. The fact that Russia today recognized it does not change the composition of the parties to the Minsk agreements, since Russia is not one (…) Another thing is that the Minsk agreements have long been openly sabotaged by Ukraine under the auspices of our Western colleagues. Now we see that many colleagues want to sign that the Minsk agreements are dead. But this is not the case (…) We are still open to diplomacy, but we do not intend to allow a new bloody massacre in the Donbass.”
  And here’s the clincher, directly addressing imperial support for the killing of ethnic Russians in Donbass: “The main task of our decision [on recognizing independence] was to preserve and protect these lives. This is more important than all your threats.”
  There you go: Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a concept invented by the Americans to launch wars, used by Russia for preventing one...
...China is a way more complex proposition. One of the key tenets of Beijing’s foreign policy is the fight against separatism – embedded in the foundation of the SCO. So Beijing cannot possibly recognize the baby twins, or what would amount to Novorossiya – yes, Putin did pronounce the magic word – before Kiev itself does or, a serious possibility, completely disintegrates...
...The intervention of all 12 members at the Security Council session, combined with Putin’s address to the nation was the stuff of gripping geopolitical drama. Putin’s body language and the look in his eyes testified to the immense gravity of the moment – and it all came to the forefront when he embarked in a concise history lesson spanning a century...what mostly stood out was the clear-cut rendition of the insurmountable antagonism between the Anglo-American islands and the civilizational Heartland – or the clash between maritime powers and land powers. That Eurasia classic was the bulk of his exposition: the recognition of the baby twins took less than three minutes...
 (Weekend Security Conference in) Munich spelled out No Compromise Whatsoever – which was exactly what Putin, Lavrov, Patrushev and co. expected, the warmongering rhetoric burying any meaningful discussion of migration, inflation, cyber wars, the European energy crisis and, of course, the only thing that matters for the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex, as defined by Ray McGovern): let’s milk this Eurotrash lot for untold billions in new contracts, let’s isolate Russia, let’s destroy Nord Stream 2 to sell them our ultra expensive LNG, let’s keep them on a leash – forever...
  Considering the ideological stupidity of the current Brussels gang – Stoltenberg, von der Leyen, Borrell –, incapable of understanding even basic economics, the fact remains that the EU without Russian energy is doomed. Martyanov stresses the algorithm: Russia can afford the break up with Europe. Europe cannot. The US just wants to collect. And we’re not even talking about the dire, incoming ramifications of the systemic crisis across NATOstan...
...John Helmer niftly qualified as Russia’s black box defense. The beauty is no one knows what’s inside the black box.
  Enter, once again, the “military-technical measures” that will be “reciprocal” (Putin) to what US and NATOstan are already deploying against Russia. They won’t necessarily be implemented in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, in the airspace above Donbass, even in cyberspace. It could be anywhere – from the Syrian theater to Latin America.
  Surprise! That’s what strategic ambivalence, ambiguity, or – let’s get down to the rhythm – swing is all about.

​John Helmer analyzes Putin's body language at his recent speech. Absolute, unwavering, firm commitment is what it shows​.
http://johnhelmer.net/the-body-language-of-the-speech-putin-has-repudiated-lenin-stalin-gorbachev-yeltsin-mobilized-russias-defence-against-us-attack-as-never-before/

Not talking to representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk, just shelling them, was not much of a path forward.
Zelensky says Kiev will not pull back troops from Donbass at DPR, LPR’s request
The Ukrainian President pointed out that Kiev was not communicating with DPR and LPR
https://tass.com/world/1408279

​  ​Before the crack of dawn, just before explosions began in cities across Ukraine, Russian state television unexpectedly broadcast an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  
​  ​The two self-proclaimed "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, in the breakaway Ukrainian region of Donbas, which he had officially recognized as independent less than two days before, had "turned to Russia with a request for help," he said. To answer that call he was launching a "special military operation." Its purpose: to "demilitarize" and "denazifiy" Ukraine.
​  ​Within minutes, Russian missiles began hitting targets in Ukraine. "Our actions are self-defense against threats," he told his fellow Russians, claiming Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukraine. "We do not plan to impose ourselves on anyone," he insisted.
​  ​Putin described the "special military operation" in limited terms, to protect people living in Donbas who, he claimed, had been subjected to "genocide," a charge that Ukraine has strenuously denied. But in the next breath, he lashed out more broadly: "NATO supports Ukrainian neo-Nazis ... our actions are self-defense against threats."
​  ​Then, in an extraordinary passage, he spoke directly to members of Ukraine's military, at that very moment in the crosshairs of the Russian military. Addressing them as "dear comrades," he told them they had taken an "oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people, and not to the anti-people junta that is robbing Ukraine and abuses those same people."
​  ​"Don't follow its criminal orders!" he demanded. "I urge you to lay down your weapons and go home."​ ...
​  "We are ready for any development of events. All necessary decisions in this regard have been made."
​  ​Putin, who for years had criticized the West for ignoring his complaints about NATO's expansion toward Russia's borders, was finally striking back with fury. "I hope," he concluded his short address, "that I have been heard."
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/index.html

​  There is war in Ukraine today.​ The Russian objectives have greatly expanded. It seems that there will be regime change. 
This should allow western governments to transfer their emergency powers from Pandemic to War? Thanks for finally cooperating, Vlad!
​  ​Now many hours into Russia's attack that started around 5am Kiev time, it's become clear that a full-scale 'shock and awe' type invasion is clearly on - which is not just limited to Donbas in the east. ​...V​ideos from on the ground show what can be described as an ongoing air war on Kiev and several other cities across the country. Tanks have also been seen speeding across Ukraine's border from Belarus, with widespread reports that Belarusian soldiers are mounting the attack alongside Russian troops.
​  ​Russia's military had announced within just a couple hours into the offensive that all of Ukraine's air defense systems have been taken out. A massive Russian aerial presence, including fighter jets and helicopters, has been confirmed over much of the country.
​  ​Soon after the initial attack which also included cruise missile launches, which likely came from Russia's Black Sea fleet, Kiev authorities cited "hundreds" of Ukrainians killed, including civilians.
​  ​It's believed that much of Ukraine's command and control military infrastructure was targeted and hit in the first wave, also as Ukraine border guards were attack, with some reports of soldiers fleeing the Russian advance. Moscow has declared safe passage for any Ukrainian soldier laying down their arms...
​  ​Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday issued comment on the scope and goal of the military objections, citing Putin's aim of the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine.
​  ​"Ideally, Ukraine should be liberated, cleansed of Nazis, of pro-Nazi people and ideology," Peskov said, saying that operations would end only once these objectives have been reached. It remains unclear whether this will mean regime change in Kiev, though at this point that scenario is looking more than likely. There were early reports that President Zelensky has been offered safe passage if he leaves Ukraine.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putins-shock-awe-war-ukraine-unfolds-dark-day-europe-many-hundreds-killed

​  NATO member Latvia sends Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. These are better at shooting down civilian aircraft and helicopters than attack  drones and military attack aircraft.​ Sometimes Stinger missiles "fall into the wrong hands" on the black market.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/first-shipments-stinger-missiles-arrive-ukraine-gift-latvia

What is the rational course of action for a conscripted Ukrainian soldier?
Russian Defense Ministry
“According to intelligence, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ troops and service members are leaving their positions in large numbers, dropping their weapons. No strikes are being carried out on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ units that have laid down their arms.”
https://thesaker.is/open-thread-special-military-operation-in-the-peoples-republics-of-donbass/

This is something Russia cannot allow. It would also take a long time, and be risky. Ukraine's nuclear reactors are similar to its Chernobyl reactor in age and design.
​  ​Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his nation will have every right to become a nuclear power, citing a document signed by leading world states back when Kiev agreed to get rid of Soviet nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances.
https://www.rt.com/russia/550040-ukraine-acquire-nuclear-weapon/

​Moon of Alabama (Germany):
​ ​I do understand why Russia is doing this - it is either attack now or defend itself later with way more casualties and the danger of total defeat.
I had hoped though that it would find other methods to protect Russia from further NATO aggression.
​  ​In 2014 the U.S. instigated regime change in Kiev and has since controlled the Ukrainian government. It has build up the Ukraine as a base to strangle Russia economically and militarily.
​  ​During the last two centuries Russia had to defend itself, with horrific casualties, against two huge invasions from the west. It is understandable that it does not want to repeat that experience.
​  ​It is difficult to discern what the plan​n​ed end state of this operation is. Where is this going to stop?

​  ​Looking at this map I believe that the most advantageous end state for Russia would be the creation of a new independent country, call it Novorussiya, on the land east of the Dnieper and south along the coast that holds a majority ethnic Russian population and that, in 1922, had been attached to the Ukraine by Lenin. That state would be politically, culturally and militarily aligned with Russia.
​  ​This would eliminate Ukrainian access to the Black Sea and create a land bridge towards the Moldavian breakaway Transnistria which is  under Russian protection.
The rest of the Ukraine would be a land confined, mostly agricultural state, disarmed and too poor to be build up to a new threat to Russia anytime soon. Politically it would be dominated by fascists from Galicia which would then become a major problem for the European Union.
​  ​Thanks to Stalin's additions to the Ukraine three countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania, have claims to certain areas in the Ukraine's western regions. If they want to snatch those up again it is now probably the best time to do so. Despite being part of NATO, which likely would not support such moves, those three will have domestic policy difficulties to withstand the urge.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/disarming-ukraine.html

Ukraine Warns "Radioactive Dust" Could Spread Over Europe As Fighting Rages At Chernobyl Nuclear Plant
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putins-shock-awe-war-ukraine-unfolds-dark-day-europe-many-hundreds-killed

Chinese media are strictly instructed to employ very careful narrative management and watch comments sections closely. 
China does not support "self-determination of peoples", such as Tibetans , Uighers and Taiwanese..
​  ​While deepening ties with Moscow, Beijing is also cautious to avoid blowback by being seen as directly supporting a unilateral move to seize sovereignty of another nation—given the regime’s own designs in absorbing self-ruled Taiwan.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinese-state-media-accidentally-releases-censorship-rules-russia-ukraine-coverage

This system is collapsing. That's the big emergency, but it can't be admitted. It might cause panic;​ Charles Hugh Smith
​  ​Organizing the entire system to serve the pathological greed of the few is best served by devaluing truth to mere opinion and causal chains to mere narratives. In this juncture of history, truth has been revealed as a chimera; there is only opinion, and all opinions are equal. Opinions are beliefs, and all beliefs are equal. All narratives are equal. All questions boil down to values: values are all equally detached, free-floating and of the same value: zero.
​  ​This con has reached perfection in our financial system, which is now optimized for exploitation and sociopaths. As Nassim Taleb has explained (referencing Adam Smith), markets only function if there are rules which are imposed equally on all participants. In our financial system, there are two sets of rules: one which we can summarize as anything goes for the super-wealthy and the well-connected, and another set for everyone else.

https://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb22/sociopaths-optimized2-22.html

​Emergency war powers could come in handy.​
Pentagon is considering sending the National Guard to DC ahead of US Freedom Convoy protest as thousands of truckers aim to shut down 64-mile Capital Beltway
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10540163/Pentagon-considering-sending-National-Guard-DC-ahead-Freedom-Convoy-protest.html

​Did shutting down the bank accounts of people who donated legally have anything to do with this decision? "Own nothing; be happy"?​
​This may have been too quick of an action, with too little pretext. Trudeau revealed the globalist hand too soon.
Trudeau discontinues Emergencies Act
https://www.rt.com/news/550397-emergencies-act-end-protests/

​Doxxing of locations as well as bank accounts, now.​ Will this scare off donors, or just increase outrage?
Google Maps Location Data Of 'Freedom Convoy' Donors Posted Online​ 
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/google-maps-location-data-freedom-convoy-donors-posted-online

​Raul Ilargi Meijer at The Automatic Earth has this:
Bankruptcy For Moderna, Definitely Pfizer
​  ​Justus R. Hope, MD, at Desert Review has a long article up on the views of former Blackrock exec, hedge funder, investment adviser Edward Dowd, along with a neverending list of podcasts. To which I will add a few at the bottom of this article. We’ve seen a few Dowd videos lately, but nothing like this. He should be on Joe Rogan ASAP.
​  ​The entire thing is so complete, devastating, shocking, that I don’t know what else to do than give you some quotes. It very much feels like the end of mRNA, and of the FDA in its present shape, because they -the government itself- are deeply complicit in outright investor fraud. Wall Street (“multiple brokerage houses”) is finding this out, Moderna stock is already down 70%, and that’s just the start.
​  ​mRNA vaccines are killing and maiming people: “..no matter the effort, one cannot hide the bodies – and “the bodies are piling up.”
Good luck with your vaxx mandates.

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2022/02/bankruptcy-for-moderna-definitely-pfizer/

​From British tabloids; not new information, but it has gone mainstream.
More evidence Covid was tinkered with in a lab? Now scientists find virus contains tiny chunk of DNA that matches sequence patented by Moderna THREE YEARS before pandemic began
Genetic match discovered in Covid's unique furin cleavage site on spike protein
Matched genetic sequence patented by Moderna for cancer research purposes
Researchers say one in 3trillion chance Covid developed the code naturally
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10542309/Fresh-lab-leak-fears-study-finds-genetic-code-Covids-spike-protein-linked-Moderna-patent.html

German Public Health Insurer: Vaccine Side Effects Maybe 8 to 10 Times More Frequent Than Officially Reported
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/german-public-health-insurer-vaccine?utm_source=url

Australian police burn anti-mandate protesters with directed energy beams
The use of short thread on LRAD/DEW Directed Energy Weapons against peaceful Australian protestors likely violates the Geneva Convention and could therefore constitute a war crime since it is prohibited to use weapons which cause excessive suffering against civilians..​.​
..A spokesman for ACT Policing has confirmed that LRADs were deployed during the anti-vaccine protests...
The police deployed long-range acoustic devices (LRADs), which transmit at high volumes and frequencies. Even if they are referred to as “non-lethal weapons”, Canberra protesters (including women and children) were badly burned by directed microwave energy beams, complaining of blisters on their faces, arms, and torsos. Concentrated microwave radiation can inflict painful burns on the skin from long distances away.
https://freewestmedia.com/2022/02/20/australian-police-burn-anti-mandate-protesters-with-directed-energy-beams/

​Tessa (fights robots) Lena is putting together a special with interviews on this story.
Claims nanotechnology found in Pfizer jab by New Zealand lab
https://thebuzz.nz/claims-nanotechnology-found-in-pfizer-jab-by-new-zealand-lab/

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