17 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on From Google With Love: Interesting
… if true.
But, then again, Vox Day rarely leads us astray. This would help explain the crazed neocon, uniparty drive for war with Russia. Click that.
14 Wednesday Mar 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
≈ Comments Off on Neocon Nikki’s Defining Moment
Earlier today I wrote, in a blurb for FP News about the GB-Russia Row: “The US will side with Britain. How that affects US-Russian relations is yet to be seen.” Can’t link to it just yet as its scheduled for tomorrow morning, 6 AM I think. (Cause I’m always a day ahead!) Anyway, I was right.
Nutty Nikki Haley jumps to conclusions about foreign affairs that really don’t concern us faster than she tears down a Confederate flag.
New York City could be the next site of a chemical assassination attempt if world leaders fail to punish Russia for its alleged role in poising of a former spy in the United Kingdom, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned Wednesday.
“If we don’t take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used,” Haley told the United Nations Security Council. “They could be used here in New York, or in cities of any country that sits on this Council. This is a defining moment.”
Yes. Immediate concrete measures – right up against that Russian veto. A defining moment, defining the meddling stupidity of the neocons.
Strange, but Haley failed to produce any evidence whatsoever of Russian involvement in the London deaths. I suppose allegations are sufficient. And I would suppose someone who’s boss has been accused of Russia pandering, without any proof, would think twice before jumping on the same sort of bandwagon. I would suppose that she so thinks; I won’t knowing that she doesn’t.
Mr. President, while you’re firing people!
Washington Examiner (slightly modified).
16 Friday Feb 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
So, now we have it – 37 pages of indictment against 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian organisations.
It seems to me there were two purposes behind the Special Counsel’s investigation from the beginning: 1) actually investigate election tampering, etc., and; 2) find or manufacture evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump. The latter part was the heart and soul of the “Russia, Russia, Russia” mania gripping the media, the Democrats, etc.
The indictment finds and alleges no collusion whatsoever between the President and any Russian malfeasors. In fact, it finds no impropriety by any American.
With the recent developments in the FBI/FISA debacle and with no evidence of collusion anywhere, it may be that Mueller decided to wrap this one up. It could also be that he did a proper investigation and that this is the result.
The issue is, of course, developing. More later, likely.
Read. Discuss. Etc.
13 Friday Oct 2017
Posted in News and Notes
Last year I repeatedly warned about the threats of Pokemon Go! Both:
The sheer stupidity of it; and
The information security risks (corporate).
Yet even I did not suspect the ultimate purpose behind the game.
My dear liberal friends, you were on to something. The Russians used Pokemon to hack last’s year Black Mass and prevent the coronation of the Coughing Queen.
Russian efforts to meddle in American politics did not end at Facebook and Twitter. A CNN investigation of a Russian-linked account shows its tentacles extended to YouTube, Tumblr and even Pokémon Go.
One Russian-linked campaign posing as part of the Black Lives Matter movement used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Pokémon Go and even contacted some reporters in an effort to exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans, CNN has learned.
I tried to warn everyone.
25 Monday Sep 2017
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on A Diversion from What?
Tags
America, diversions, football, Russia, stupidity, The People, War
Trump vs. the NFL (No Fans Left?) is just another facet of the larger America vs. Anti-America. Whether one gets caught up in the politicization of the game or the infantile nature of the game itself matters little. It’s the culture war, stupid.
With all that’s in the media about kneeling, “free speech,” and burning jerseys, I wonder if something else is being purposely obscured. “Look! A Squirrel!” Just a thought.
Could it be the debt? Or a pending depression? Maybe it’s more war – always popular. Maybe in Korea. Or, perhaps in Syria?
If Americans ever cared to be serious, they might look for a moment at what happened in Syria last week with mild trepidation. A legion of U.S.-backed ISIS terrorists (we back ISIS, you know) attempted to kill or capture a squad of Russian peacekeepers (the Russians are promoting peace, namely by getting rid of terrorists). Things didn’t work out so well for our proxies:
Something rather unprecedented just happened in Syria: US backed “good terrorist” forces attempted a surprise attack against Syrian government forces stationed to the north and northeast of the city of Hama. What makes this attack unique is that it took place inside a so-called “de-escalation zone” and that it appears that one of the key goals of the attack was to encircle in a pincer-movement and subsequently capture a platoon of Russian military police officers deployed to monitor and enforce the special status of this zone. The Russian military police forces, composed mainly of soldiers from the Caucasus region, fought against a much larger enemy force and had to call for assistance. For the first time, at least officially, Russian special operations forces were deployed to rescue and extract their comrades. At the same time, the Russians sent in a number of close air support aircraft who reportedly killed several hundred “good” terrorists and beat back the attack (Russian sources speak of the destruction of 850 fighters, 11 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, 46 armed pickup trucks, five mortars, 20 freighter trucks and 38 ammo supply points; you can see photos of the destroyed personnel and equipment here). What also makes this event unique is the official reaction of the Russians to this event.
Head of the Main Operations Department at Russia’s General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi declared that:
“Despite agreements signed in Astana on September 15, gunmen of Jabhat al-Nusra and joining them units that don’t want to comply with the cessation of hostilities terms, launched a large-scale offensive against positions of government troops north and northeast of Hama in Idlib de-escalation zone from 8 am on September 19 (…) According to available data, the offensive was initiated by American intelligence services to stop a successful advance of government troops east of Deir ez-Zor“.
Today, other Russian officials have added a not-so-veiled threat to this accusation. The Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov has declared that:
Russia unequivocally told the commanders of US forces in Al Udeid Airbase (Qatar) that it will not tolerate any shelling from the areas where the SDF are stationed (…) Fire from positions in regions [controlled by the SDF] will be suppressed by all means necessary.
This is unprecedented on many levels. First, the Russians clearly believe that this attempt to kill or capture a platoon of the Russian military police was planned by the United States. The fact that they are making this accusation officially shows the degree of irritation felt by the Russians about the duplicity of the Americans. Second, this is the first time, at least to my knowledge, that Russian Spetsnaz forces had to be sent in to rescue a surrounded Russian subunit. All Spetsnaz operators survived, but three of them were wounded in the operation (the Russians are not saying how badly). The close air support by very low flying SU-25 aircraft was obviously coordinated by Spetsnaz forward air controllers and probably saved the day. In other words, this was a close call and things could have ended much more badly (just imagine what the Takfiri crazies would have done, on video, to any captured Russian serviceman!). Finally, a US-organized attack on what was supposed to be a “de-confliction” zone combined with an attempt to capture Russian soldiers raises the bar for American duplicity to a totally new level.
Leaving aside questions like, “Why are we concerned about Syria at all?” and “Why do we support the same terrorists there who actively attack us here?”, I’ll just remind that Russia has 7,000 nuclear weapons – an arsenal to make Rocket Man’s missiles look like Roman Candle toys.
Could it be the real issues, stupid? Might the foolishness on television take a backseat to actual, deadly reality? We may find out. But – and this post is a rambler’ – we have confirmed the stupidity part. Aside from spending six hours staring at a glowing box of nonsense while shoveling in 6,000 calories each day, American’s can’t even answer the simplest of questions anymore: 75% of polled adults cannot name all three branches of government.
Henry Makow.
“Football, television, and … Trump?”
Close enough!
Or does close only count for “protests” and Spetsnaz hand grenades?
10 Monday Apr 2017
Posted in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Nica: Cigars or Surveillance?
I go ahead and call it: Nicaragua is the new Cuba – simply the best tasting cigars in the world (with some stiff competition from numerous countries).
Nica also has a long, sad history of civil strife, coupled with international meddling. The U.S. has been involved for decades as have the Russians. Now, the NZ Herald reports on new suspicions over a Russian facility outside Managua.
US officials are keeping a keen eye on a Russian complex nestled on the edge of a volcanic crater in Nicaragua.
The center, which is believed to be a satellite station, has been built near the Laguna de Nejapa in Managua – the capital of the Central American nation, according to Daily Mail.
The Washington Post reports the local government described the complex as, “simply a tracking site of the Russian version of a GPS satellite system”, but not everyone is convinced it isn’t something more sinister.
“Clearly there’s been a lot of activity, and it’s on the uptick now,” a US official and expert on Central America, told the newspaper.
Other officials said there are concerns the hub could be a “dual use” facility, meaning it could house equipment and workers with the ability to conduct electronic surveillance against American citizens.
From where the compound is located, it offers those who are based there a clear view of the US Embassy about 10 miles away in the heart of Managua.
I have no idea what is going on down there and, unless and until it disrupts the trade from Esteli or Jalapa, I don’t really care.
Leave these folks to work. Smoke Shop Mag / Perdomo.
Nations spy on each other, tensions and reasons or not. That’s not my concern. My concern is earthy-flavored smokes. Let me make it clear to Washington and Moscow: leave my friends and sticks alone. Keep your braindead BS in Syria or Ukraine or anywhere else. Don’t make me come down there…
09 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
≈ Comments Off on Well, This Isn’t Good
Tags
America, Donald Trump, foreign policy, Putin, Russia, Syria, War
There is good news tonight: congratulations to Sergio Garcia on a Masterful performance at Augusta. One may have noticed a slight lack of color on CBS; they let the azaleas slip for once (no one is perfect, even the National). I guarantee the color will be back next year – along with many, many astounding changes (more on that later [HUGE doings in Augusta in years to come…]).
In Russia, the color is red. That’s what Putin is seeing and how he describes the line Trump crossed last week in Syria.
One of the things that got Trump elected was the fear that a second President Clinton would merely be a shill for the war parties, who would steer us uncomfortably close to armed conflict with Russia. Trump channeled his inner 2000-era W and promised a humble foreign policy. That all went out the window – missile tube, rather – last week.
Honestly, I would have picked another man to piss off… Drudge.
From The Daily Mail:
The Assad regime has denied it was responsible and the Russians have claimed it was a ‘false flag’ incident carried out by jihadists who want to stir up tensions between Russia and the US.
President Trump infuriated Moscow when he authorised an airstrike on a Syrian air base on Friday, which killed at least six people.
British Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said today it was the ‘right call’ for the Americans to bomb the air base as retribiution for a ‘barbaric, immoral and illegal’ act by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who he described as a Russian ‘proxy’.
But in a joint statement the Russian and Iranians said: ‘We will respond to any aggression’.
The Sun reported that a joint command centre in Syria said: ‘What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.’
The Sun has a parallel story, perhaps most interesting because they dial back the rhetoric on the “definitive” narrative of the chemical attacks. Now, it’s only “suspected”. Next, will be privately written off and publicly ignored.
Right now, this all looks like two things: First, there’s tremendous rah-rah for Trump’s actions from the British Foreign Secretary. Second, there’s militant posturing from Damascus and Tehran. All well and good if it stays like that. Cooler heads might have a chance to prevail.
The British always have our backs. No change expected there. And neither Iran nor Syria have the ability to harm the U.S. in any significant fashion. It’s Russia that should worry sane people. They do have detrimental abilities.
Concerns mount that Kim-Jong Un(well) may have the ability to get one ICBM to Hawaii. Russia can get thousands of them everywhere. They can certainly disrupt American operations in Syria and the Med.
None of this is remotely good and it represents one of the major fears of last year’s campaign. Worst of all, is the fact that there is no rational basis for any of it – not for our intervention in Syria nor for anything but friendship with Russia.
To my previously dejected liberal friends, I say, “congratulations; it looks like your girl won after all”. To my Republican chums, I say, “congratulations; you elected Mr. Hilary Clinton”. To the rest of us, I say, “pray”.
The long odds are that this will all blow over. The short call is that it may blow up.
Developing…
07 Friday Apr 2017
Posted in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes
America is completely and utterly out of control. Any hopes that a Trump Presidency would reverse course or hold position have now faded away. Last night the President lobbed nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria.
Bombs away, suckers… Daily Mail.
The public, those few who are somewhat awake, seems elated. As of this writing, 65+% of a Drudge poll see the action as favorable. I ask, “favorable to whom”?
Not everyone is happy. Rand Paul cautiously reminded the President that, per the Constitution, Congress is supposed to approve war. A little too late, Rand. This episode, if worth nothing else, proves definitively that the old Constitution is dead and gone. Cling at your own risk.
Nigel Farage, an early Trump supporter, cautioned:
The MEP hit out by warning that those who voted for the US president would be ‘worried’ by his retaliation.
‘I am very surprised by this. I think a lot of Trump voters will be waking up this morning and scratching their heads and saying “where will it all end?”, he said.
‘As a firm Trump supporter, I say, yes, the pictures were horrible, but I’m surprised. Whatever Assad’s sins, he is secular.’
He added: ‘Previous interventions in the Middle East have made things worse rather than better.’
Current UKIP leader, Paul Nuttal, was a bit more blunt: “The U.S. bombing of Syria last night was rash, trigger happy, nonsensical and will achieve nothing. I hoped for better.”
We all hoped for better. Hope in one hand and ….
Vox Day criticized the move:
That being said, I will certainly be disappointed if the God-Emperor makes regime change in Syria an objective of his administration, and I will continue to oppose any military involvement in the Middle East, Europe, the Ukraine, and any military activity directed against China or Russia.
The Russians are beyond livid:
“That’s it. The last remaining election fog has lifted. Instead of an overworked statement about a joint fight against the biggest enemy, Isis (the Islamic State), the Trump administration proved that it will fiercely fight the legitimate Syrian government, in a tough contradiction with international law and without UN approval, in violation of its own procedures stipulating that the Congress must first be notified of any military operation unrelated to aggression against the US. On the verge of a military clash with Russia.
“Nobody is overestimating the value of pre-election promises but there must be limits of decency.
“Beyond that is absolute mistrust. Which is really sad for our now completely ruined relations. And which is good news for terrorists.
“One more thing. This military action is a clear indication of the US President’s extreme dependency on the opinion of the Washington establishment, the one that the new president strongly criticised in his inauguration speech.
“Soon after his victory, I noted that everything would depend on how soon Trump’s election promises would be broken by the existing power machine. It took only two and a half months.”
-Dmitry Medvedev
Medvedev correctly pointed out the attack was both illegal and came within an inch of initiating a real war with a real and capable enemy.
Where to start with this???
The underlying Sarin gas attack is questionable at best. The U.S. media has taken the government’s word verbatim. Still, there is no definitive proof it happened. And, if it did happen, there’s no proof Assad was behind it. And, even if it happened and Assad is responsible, there is absolutely no American interest in the matter and nothing to be gained from intervention. It is not our damned business.
Is this what you voted for? Trump is now enacting the worst fears associated with the Clinton campaign. He’s running headlong towards war with Syria, North Korea, and maybe even Russia – in addition to ongoing actions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and God knows where else. Madness. Sheer utter madness. I advised you all to abstain from the election. Hey, voters, this is on you!
The problem, for us, with radical Islamists, has nothing to do with their activities in their home nations. The problem is with their terrorism in our countries, like Sweden, home of the latest predictable attack.
The solution is very simple: 1) stop bothering these people in their countries, and 2) get them out of ours. Damned simple. And obviously not going to happen just yet. There must be a little more money to be given the banksters and the MIC. You voted for this.
You also voted for the jumbled, same-as-always home agenda. Trump, the businessman and outsider, is working hard to surround himself with more insiders and Wall Street criminals. He cannot marshal the idiots in the GOP, even as they hold a complete majority in D.C. No healthcare reform. No tax cuts. The wall may stall. The deportations and travel bans also stall even as easy solutions abound. A “neutral” budget with no redress of the $20 Trillion (on-books) debt nor the Fed’s funny money. Your vote wasted again.
*In fairness, the man is working to create some jobs and cut some regs. There’s that. Small things, mice among the elephants.
As Vox noted, the real war for the West will be fought in the West. The other side has been fighting for some years now, even as you’ve stared at the TeeVee. All the attacks on all the foreign nations are mere distractions. They garner easy support. Yet, few actually want to fight at home – fear of being called “racist” or something. I hear local Muslims are concerned about fictional backlash from tomorrow’s terrorist attack… The media, the SJWs, and the dullards will lend pitiful support. Madness.
None of our interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere over the past 25+ years have done anything except kill people, displace people, overrun the West with “refugees”, break things, empower terrorists, and waste money. We can’t ever win these wars because there is nothing to win or to gain. Syria is no different except that we risk war with Russia. And, that, we certainly cannot win.
All the while a real war (we must win if we are to survive) rages around us.
I love fun and games as much as the next man; I’m having a blast this Masters’s week. Yet, maybe, just maybe, it’s time to wake up and wise up.
Expect nothing but trouble (certainly no help from) the Washington-Wall Street-Fed-globohomo-MIC-media-GOP-DNC-Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump cabal.
Nothing. Maybe it’s time to revive that letter to Putin…
03 Monday Apr 2017
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on St. Petersburg Bombing
Eleven are dead and scores wounded after a bomb detonated on a train. Interestingly the main suspect has turned himself in to police. He claims he is innocent and may be.
The St Petersburg metro attack suspect has handed himself in to police – but denies planting the nail bomb on the train which killed 11 people and injured 50 today.
Several Russian media outlets released the CCTV pictures of the bearded suspect, who was wearing a long, black top and a hat, blamed for causing the carnage by detonating a bomb that was packed with shrapnel while it was travelling between Sennaya Ploshchad and Sadovaya metro stations.
A second explosive device disguised as a fire extinguisher was found and defused in a nearby station and police issued a search warrant for two suspected terrorists.
Tonight, it has emerged that the bearded man who was identified on CCTV as the main suspect, handed himself in to police and insists he is innocent.
Russian authorities are also probing the possibility of a suicide bomber being involved – described as a ‘young man from Central Asia’.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the explosion, but previous attacks on Russia have been blamed on ISIS and Chechens.
ISIS has not claimed responsibility though they are reportedly happy with the carnage.
Developing…
09 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Did Someone Hit the Vodka too Hard?
Tags
Retired Russian colonel Viktor Baranetz wrote an entertaining article for Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Trump-Pump-Pump And Our Big Bang“. Baranetz seemed to have two main points, one thought-provoking and one off the wall nutty sounding.
“The U.S. is the permanent ‘world champion’ in the size of its military budget – almost $600 billion, which is 10 times more than Russias. Even if we add together the military budgets of the top ten countries in the world, they would not reach the American budget! Now it turns out that even that is not enough for Donald Trump. He intends to increase defense expenditure by $54 billion. This money would be enough to maintain five Polish armies. Or 10 Ukrainian ones.
“The American public is already grumbling at Trump, who prefers guns to butter. But cunning Trump understands what his trump card is: He is ‘buying’ the support of the army, as well as of military industry corporations. Former Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army Yuri Baluyevsky is certain that ‘the idea to increase defense expenditure was presented to Trump by the U.S. military, who argue a lot about the power of the Russian army, realizing this is an opportunity to get new money.’ But how will Moscow react to the growing military budget of the U.S.? Baluyevsky answers: ‘Russia will not compete with the U.S. in defense expenditure. We are in a different weight class. For us, the main question is how to ensure Russia’s defense at a lower cost. I am sure that we have already found asymmetrical responses. I don’t see a big problem here.’
“What are these mysterious ‘asymmetrical responses’ that our politicians and generals speak about so often? Maybe it’s a myth or a pretty turn of phrase? No! Our asymmetrical response is nuclear warheads that can modify their course and height so that no computer can calculate their trajectory. Or, for example, the Americans are deploying their tanks, airplanes and special forces battalions along the Russian border. And we are quietly ‘seeding’ the U.S. shoreline with nuclear ‘mole’ missiles (they dig themselves in and ‘sleep’ until they are given the command)[…]
“Oh, it seems I’ve said too much. I should hold my tongue.
Point 1:
The U.S. spends a ridiculous sum on “defense”. He’s 100% correct here in all his statements. He merely confirmed those poll study results – the U.S., the most powerful nation, militarily, spends ten times as much as the second nation, Russia. If Trump gets the extra $54 Billion, then it will be nearly 11 times as much.
Not that it is defense-oriented. The military budget largely serves three purposes: money, money, and more money for the MIC; a jobs program, and; foreign intervention. It’s offense, not defense. The U.S. military was also the world’s largest in 2001 when they couldn’t even defend their own headquarters.
Defense spending is to Republicans what education spending is to Democrats. More spent after a certain point just means spending more. Ah, well, it’s just money.
Point 2:
The mole missiles. Either Brother Barabetz was be facetious or else he must have just come from the bar. While designing missiles that burrow into the seafloor and wait for “the command” must be technically possible, I suppose that, and implanting (seeding) them, would be exorbitantly expensive. Too much so for $60 Billion per year.
And I can’t see them being that effective if they were real. Essentially they would amount to underground nuclear explosions. Powerful, yes, but not nearly as powerful as a conventional in-air detonation. And they could likely only be deployed against non-military targets. I assume we could detect the seeding construction near one of our sub bases, for example.
They already have a similar but better system available – on their subs.
The “moles” seem as plausible as that 50s or 60s sci-fi movie wherein the Chinese dug an invasion tunnel to America through the center of the Earth.
It is possible the man was talking about something real and using the ridiculous as a cover. When you’re outspent and out-gunned, asymmetrical warfare is an option. Something like the self-correcting trajectory is possible and plausible.
I also noticed the man talked about defending Russia. It’s cheaper to defend that to attack.
Anyway, maybe he had a triple at lunch and felt pretty good. Maybe he’s off the reservation. Maybe he’s on to something. Dunno. You?
PERRIN LOVETT 
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