What will Putin say in his postponed press conference? Are we now preparing for the final chapter of the Ukraine SMO? Will Hollywood give Zelensky his own TV show?
This is two things at once. It IS East v West Ukraine, nationalist Ukraine v Russian Ukraine and so on and it IS USA v Russia, old order v new.
So don't forget the Ukriane v Ukraine part of it just because that is local not global, just because it is all financed by USA etc.
Seems to me the best chance of stopping all is to convince the Kiev Ukrainians of the wrongness of their cause and the hopelessness of their aims. That is, discuss the local issue.
Seems to me the best chance of altering global support for this madness is to educate the world on these local facts: that it is Ukraine v Ukraine and 'bad nazi' Ukraine v 'good Russian Ukraine'.
So keep the local issue alive.
Don't submerge it, lose sight of it, because of the awesome global implications which, yes, are so awesome they could even mean global nuclear war.
Hence to be neither 'left nor right' it might be best to concentrate on the 'local view' of it all and point out it is their business, really, not ours and they're like - exactly like - brothers fighting and the best thing would be for them to stop.
And for the rest of us to drop our self harming sanctions etc and go back to life.
We have much to do cleaning our own houses now we see what sort of (misl)leaders we have.
Thank you, Arthur. I agree with you that the best course would be to convince Kiev Ukrainians of the wrongness of their cause. That was what Minsk 2 was supposed to be about -- a chance for dialog. Left to their own devices, it might even have happened. But the Empire was never allow that option. As you say, one must consider the "local" view. But that view is not linked to another very "local" view-- that of the US, which is "local" in the sense that despite the world bing a big place with all kinds of view of everything, the US cannot see next door, it is locked into national parochialism, if not national narcissism. If we had more people like you, we wouldn't be in this mess -- but -- sadly -- we don't.
Yep, thanks. But Minsk 2 was, as you say, a chance for dialog. Between the 'movers and the shakers'. It wasn't about convincing Kiev Ukrainians of anything. It didn't address them.
That's what I'm on about all the time: nothing ever addresses the people.
'If we had more people like you..' Yeah, I think so. But there's the point: if it would be good then where's the effort, the push?
There is none.
We are not trying to talk to the masses. Not. At. All.
I saw it all through the covid thing. It was just the same. The parallels are enormous, aren't they?
The people harmed themselves willingly and immediately at the govt say so and in the total absence of any evidence they should.
Ah.."the COVID thing"?? On this point I disagree. In the case of the Ukraine, the facts are pretty easy to define and the machinations of the US propaganda machine transparent. COVID is a whole other thing, a step up in social and governmental madness. (Is that "up" or "down"). COVID is actually a family of viruses. When Alpha appeared there were about 40 versions, 4 main ones, which affected mortality rates. Then came other variants ...Delta...and the more rapidly mutating Omicron. Robert Malone (vaccinated himself) made the obvious point that from the standpoint of molecular biology, we know little about the long term effects of mRNA vaccines, in fact mRNA. I have worked in this field, and I know something about it -- namely WE SIMPLY DON'T KNOW. Which was Malone's point -- for which he was pilloried as a "COVID" denier. Hardly. IMO, the US government had no coherent policy--only what was best for Big Pharma. Sloppy media reporting spread confusion about the disease and how to handle it. The US lost well over a million people. But China -- which was conservative about vaccines -- lost 6000. Chinese lifespans increased; America's plummeted. China's economy moved forward (despite sanctions)' the US's sagged. What was needed in the US was more honest discussion of ALL points of view. This is a new virus and no one really knows -- so one person's opinion is really as good as anyone else's IMO. mRNA vaccines? What do they actually DO? The evidence is -- they don't really do much. What are they effects long term? Nobody knows. Do they prevent "long COVID" aka Post Viral Syndrome --or do they encourage it? Nobody knows for sure although there is lots of research -- some of which is blocked for us by -- you guessed it!-- Big Pharma.
"The Russians have a vibrant and generally skeptical media audience, with a low tolerance for lies."
Look, saying this is a stretch is an understatement. Study any portion of Russia's history, especially the Soviet era, and you'll know Russia has never had anything close to a vibrant and free press "with low tolerance for lies." Putin's regime literally constantly jails journalists and his political opponents for disagreeing or criticizing him.
Your rationale for accepting Russian MOD numbers for casualties as reliable information is really flawed. Russian MOD and other Russian state-run sources are not reliable at all - and this is the tip of the iceberg of factual or contextual problems with your claims.
Rather than engaging with a wide array of sources, you've put yourself in an information bubble source-wise, only reading and citing the same few sources which all are either overly sympathetic towards Russia or outright Russian propaganda outlets.
SouthFront - A Russian propaganda network actually sanctioned by the U.S. government because of its links to Russia's FSB (KGB).
The Duran - A "independent network" with close ties to Russian state owned media (Sputnik & RT), as well as Russia's Strategic Cultural Foundation (SCF).
Alex Mercouris - A disbarred attorney who is now a fellow with American University at Moscow, a fake college founded by Edward Lozansky with links to the SCF. Works for Russia Insider and Duran, both with state-owned media ties.
Brian Berletic - A serial U.S. critic who has accused America of intervening too heavily in everywhere from Ukr to Thailand. Little credibility.
I laud your desire for balanced in-depth news free of the mainstream bias, however, I think pages like yours too often become outlets reposting Kremlin-approved claims and propaganda.
I'd recommend this article so you can begin to understand and recognize the Kremlin's online propaganda tactics and how Russia is the online sphere for its information warfare campaign.
Excellent analysis. Live long n prosper brother. Z
This is two things at once. It IS East v West Ukraine, nationalist Ukraine v Russian Ukraine and so on and it IS USA v Russia, old order v new.
So don't forget the Ukriane v Ukraine part of it just because that is local not global, just because it is all financed by USA etc.
Seems to me the best chance of stopping all is to convince the Kiev Ukrainians of the wrongness of their cause and the hopelessness of their aims. That is, discuss the local issue.
Seems to me the best chance of altering global support for this madness is to educate the world on these local facts: that it is Ukraine v Ukraine and 'bad nazi' Ukraine v 'good Russian Ukraine'.
So keep the local issue alive.
Don't submerge it, lose sight of it, because of the awesome global implications which, yes, are so awesome they could even mean global nuclear war.
Hence to be neither 'left nor right' it might be best to concentrate on the 'local view' of it all and point out it is their business, really, not ours and they're like - exactly like - brothers fighting and the best thing would be for them to stop.
And for the rest of us to drop our self harming sanctions etc and go back to life.
We have much to do cleaning our own houses now we see what sort of (misl)leaders we have.
Thank you, Arthur. I agree with you that the best course would be to convince Kiev Ukrainians of the wrongness of their cause. That was what Minsk 2 was supposed to be about -- a chance for dialog. Left to their own devices, it might even have happened. But the Empire was never allow that option. As you say, one must consider the "local" view. But that view is not linked to another very "local" view-- that of the US, which is "local" in the sense that despite the world bing a big place with all kinds of view of everything, the US cannot see next door, it is locked into national parochialism, if not national narcissism. If we had more people like you, we wouldn't be in this mess -- but -- sadly -- we don't.
Yep, thanks. But Minsk 2 was, as you say, a chance for dialog. Between the 'movers and the shakers'. It wasn't about convincing Kiev Ukrainians of anything. It didn't address them.
That's what I'm on about all the time: nothing ever addresses the people.
'If we had more people like you..' Yeah, I think so. But there's the point: if it would be good then where's the effort, the push?
There is none.
We are not trying to talk to the masses. Not. At. All.
I saw it all through the covid thing. It was just the same. The parallels are enormous, aren't they?
The people harmed themselves willingly and immediately at the govt say so and in the total absence of any evidence they should.
Same again now.
We need to address the people.
Ah.."the COVID thing"?? On this point I disagree. In the case of the Ukraine, the facts are pretty easy to define and the machinations of the US propaganda machine transparent. COVID is a whole other thing, a step up in social and governmental madness. (Is that "up" or "down"). COVID is actually a family of viruses. When Alpha appeared there were about 40 versions, 4 main ones, which affected mortality rates. Then came other variants ...Delta...and the more rapidly mutating Omicron. Robert Malone (vaccinated himself) made the obvious point that from the standpoint of molecular biology, we know little about the long term effects of mRNA vaccines, in fact mRNA. I have worked in this field, and I know something about it -- namely WE SIMPLY DON'T KNOW. Which was Malone's point -- for which he was pilloried as a "COVID" denier. Hardly. IMO, the US government had no coherent policy--only what was best for Big Pharma. Sloppy media reporting spread confusion about the disease and how to handle it. The US lost well over a million people. But China -- which was conservative about vaccines -- lost 6000. Chinese lifespans increased; America's plummeted. China's economy moved forward (despite sanctions)' the US's sagged. What was needed in the US was more honest discussion of ALL points of view. This is a new virus and no one really knows -- so one person's opinion is really as good as anyone else's IMO. mRNA vaccines? What do they actually DO? The evidence is -- they don't really do much. What are they effects long term? Nobody knows. Do they prevent "long COVID" aka Post Viral Syndrome --or do they encourage it? Nobody knows for sure although there is lots of research -- some of which is blocked for us by -- you guessed it!-- Big Pharma.
"The Russians have a vibrant and generally skeptical media audience, with a low tolerance for lies."
Look, saying this is a stretch is an understatement. Study any portion of Russia's history, especially the Soviet era, and you'll know Russia has never had anything close to a vibrant and free press "with low tolerance for lies." Putin's regime literally constantly jails journalists and his political opponents for disagreeing or criticizing him.
Your rationale for accepting Russian MOD numbers for casualties as reliable information is really flawed. Russian MOD and other Russian state-run sources are not reliable at all - and this is the tip of the iceberg of factual or contextual problems with your claims.
Rather than engaging with a wide array of sources, you've put yourself in an information bubble source-wise, only reading and citing the same few sources which all are either overly sympathetic towards Russia or outright Russian propaganda outlets.
SouthFront - A Russian propaganda network actually sanctioned by the U.S. government because of its links to Russia's FSB (KGB).
The Duran - A "independent network" with close ties to Russian state owned media (Sputnik & RT), as well as Russia's Strategic Cultural Foundation (SCF).
Alex Mercouris - A disbarred attorney who is now a fellow with American University at Moscow, a fake college founded by Edward Lozansky with links to the SCF. Works for Russia Insider and Duran, both with state-owned media ties.
Brian Berletic - A serial U.S. critic who has accused America of intervening too heavily in everywhere from Ukr to Thailand. Little credibility.
I laud your desire for balanced in-depth news free of the mainstream bias, however, I think pages like yours too often become outlets reposting Kremlin-approved claims and propaganda.
I'd recommend this article so you can begin to understand and recognize the Kremlin's online propaganda tactics and how Russia is the online sphere for its information warfare campaign.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html