“…the selection of Nuland as the interlocutor was particularly inappropriate…”

It would seem so, especially given her role in the 2014 Maidan events.

However, given the final outcome of meetings Nuland had with Russian officials (which is that Nuland, of all people, endorsed the Minsk Accords as the only path to peace), it will be difficult to make a case for intervention on behalf of Kiev, as Kiev continually violates the Minsk Accords.

Not that it will make much difference as there are many factions making up the US military/foreign policy establishment.

Dangerous recessive traits that might be passed on if Icelandics continue to marry other Icelandics: Blonde hair, blue eyes.

Blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin are not dangerous. People with those traits produce more Vitamin D from less sunlight and are thus better protected from many pathogens, both viral and bacterial. Vitamin D also protects people from many forms of cancer, although fair skinned people are more susceptible skin cancer.

” The submarine has to surface to charge the batteries. ”

Diesel-electric transmission doesn’t rely on batteries to drive the submarine. The diesel engine powers a dynamo that supplies electrical energy to traction motors that drive the sub.

“…despite the fact that he would never be allowed to write anything of the sort if he lived in Russia.”

Nonsense. You can write articles critical of Russia even if you’re in Russia. Russia is not the old Soviet Union and the US is not what it was during the Cold War. Wake up Rip Van Winkle.

“1.Extrovert 2.Introvert and 3.Pervert.”

Interesting idea but, in America’s case, Introvert came before Extrovert.

Pervert is definitely the final stage.

“…the meeting with Putin which surprised many, including myself.”

What I believe happened here was just a reflection of the earlier meeting (Feb or Mar) between Putin and Macron/Merkel.

Until then, I believe ‘Biden’s intention was to take up where the EU/US/NATO left off when Trump took over the presidency. That is, the intention was to get Zelensky to attack the Donbas, quickly get control of it before Russia was prepared and then, once the Donbas was secured, up the pressure on Crimea which is still internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. To this very end, Zelensky began sending troops and equipment eastward.

Putin’s meeting with Macron and Merkel, in conjection with Russia’s rapid mobilation on Ukraine’s borders, put a quick end to it. The EU countries are not prepared for war with Russia and now they know it. ‘Biden’ is doing the EU’s bidding which is consistent with his other defense/foreign policies.

“…a joint preparation by the Ukronazis and the USA (along with the UK and Poland) to attack the Donbass and force a conflict upon Russia.”

Certainly they have not given up the idea but it is possible they are stepping back to allow time to change their plans. The original plan was to assume Russia would do nothing in response to a Ukronazi attack followed by NATO troops. Putin made it clear to Macron, Merkel and (JCS) Milley that there would be a response that would result in Ukraine’s destruction.

However, I don’t think they’re stupid enough now to try anything unless Russia pulls back. They might try something in Syria as a distraction though.

What about Belarus? The West tried a color revolution there a few months ago. Lukashenko must see the danger and the Belarussian-Ukraine border extends from Poland to Russia with the middle part not very far from Kyiv.

Good luck with that. English is the common language for international trade and changing that will help lead the EU to poverty.

“…the Russian forces in Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet can also be engaged if needed.”

Belarus which, until the recent color revolution attempt on Lukashenko, was playing off the EU against Russia, put its name on the line in the Minsk accords. Belarus ought to consider threatening a joint operation with Russia from the north. Kiev looks to be about 50 miles south of Belarus border. A mobilization there might keep Kiev’s eye a little off Russian forces in Crimea. And they wouldn’t have to actually invade Ukraine to dissuade the West from military moves.

“All of Europe will unanimously blame Russia and Putin for everything.”

In the US, yes, especially among its ‘leadership.’ Regular Americans are becoming more more skeptical. The same is true in Europe, especially when compared with 2014.

“A post-Brexit United Kingdom could retain relevance by strengthening ties with the white nations it created, with the monarch as the unifying symbol.”

Britain competes with ‘white’ EU nations, such as Germany, in the export of finished goods. The Biden and Obama administrations, which opposed Brexit, prefer this arrangement which is detrimental to Britain. What Britain ought to do is to open up trade with ‘white’ Russia instead.

A trade relationship between Britain and Russia would advantageous to both as Russia has raw materials Britain needs to manufacture goods that Russia needs. Such a trade relationship would make Britain less dependent on the US and EU. All they need to do is lift the sanctions on Russia and kick out Bill Browder.

The most important thing Fred wrote in an overall great piece:

Education. China finds its brightest students with a grueling entrance exam. America dumbs down elite high schools because they don’t have enough unqualified minorities. Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia has already been enstupidated, and the NYC schools are on the block. The purpose of schools is to admit students who can’t do the work.

“Nio is working on a system in which “gas” stations remove a depleted battery and replace it with a charged one, thus eliminating the problem of long charging time.”

I’ve wondered why electric car advocates hadn’t thought of this before. You would need some kind of robotic device to assist with the installation but would that be any more expensive than a car fueling system that has to deliver flammable liquids safely and accurately?

“The next-generation Chinese medium-low speed maglev doubles the top speed of the first generation and it becomes driverless…Most of the R&D work is done in Hunan Province….”

Waste of government money on this planet as a wheel & axle with lubricated roller bearings is very efficient for horizontal movement already – and it holds the train up. But maglev would be great on the moon where surface gravity is 1/6 the earth’s and solar energy is plentiful in lunar sunlight while near-superconductivity is possible in the shade.

“I urge every person living in the US or in the EU to read them. As I said, each of these books stands on its own, but together they reach a kind of intellectual critical mass which makes them truly “must read” books, especially for those who hate their ruling regime but love their country.” emphasis added

Okay. I ordered the first book and pre-ordered Disintegration, using up my Amazon reward points and a few dollars more. Looking forward to them.

Well, perhaps you guys are correct. The time to invade has probably passed. As long as Russia keeps supplying the republics, Ukraine will probably just collapse on its own.

{” I don’t want to see more bloodshed. But I think it would over very quickly.”}

Agree with [Martyanov] here.
Putin & Co. are playing this thing smart.

“No plan survives contact with with the enemy”
(credited to Helmuth von Moltke, or The Duke of Wellington, or Carl von Clausewitz, or Sun Tsu, or Napoleon Bonaparte,….)

Nobody knows if this thing will over quickly or not. Nobody.
Many people don’t realize that Russia does not have unlimited resources, has a huge territory to defend, has many “sensitive” areas on her borders, and her people need a long break from wars and economic disasters (…breakup of USSR, the Yeltsin years of \$100s of Billions of theft from Russia, which eventually comes out of Russian taxpayers’ pockets – i.e. their standard of living is directly and negatively affected.)

When it was a matter of urgent national security Putin & Co. moved swiftly and secured Crimea. Ukraine is a massive headache, but the right thing to do is sit it out, as Putin & Co. are doing.

There is nothing to be gained by invading: Slavs will be killing fellow Slavs, and the anti-Russian, anti-Christian GloboSorosa bloodless Reptiles will be sitting back in their plush leather recliners and enjoying the bloodbath.

Before any military action, Russia should just recognize the independence of the Donetsk republics and supply them with weapons and volunteers.

It is de facto recognized. De jure will come later at an appropriate moment. LDNR are supported by Russia militarily. If need be, more aid will come.

Don’t know that. It could be Zelensky has a gun pointed at his head.

“…this way Russia will finally be able to taste its own medicine…”

There have been millions killed or maimed for life across the MENA during the past 3 decades as a direct or indirect result of US/UK/NATO aggression and regime-change wars using terrorists as in Syria. 100s still dying every month in Iraq – for NOTHING. Women and children too.

Russia’s military actions since Putin came to office have been purely defensive and very limited. They didn’t occupy Georgia after Georgia attacked S Ossetia in violation of an internationally recognized ceasefire while Putin was attending the Beijing Olympics. Ukraine’s elected president was ousted using paid demonstrators and snipers (yes, those snipers who shot people from rooftops in Kiev were working for US) – again while Putin attending the Olympics.

You should hope that the US mainland is never bombed as that would be US getting a taste of ‘our’ own medicine.

Good points. I don’t want to see more bloodshed. But I think it would over very quickly. The regular armed forces would surrender almost immediately. However, the paramilitary groups might have to be annihilated to stop them from shelling the Donbass.

Yes, many in the US would want this as they could point out Russia’s aggression. But many of the east European countries expect US to come to the rescue in such situations and they need to be let down.

Before any military action, Russia should just recognize the independence of the Donetsk republics and supply them with weapons and volunteers.

“At most, Russia will continue to help the Donbass, and even in this case Russia (or the LDNR republics) could consider demanding reparations from Kiev and its western sponsors.”

If ‘at most’ means there is to be no Russian military intervention, I am a little disappointed. Ukraine continues to shell the Donbass, occasionally killing civilians and keeping the region as impoverished as the rest of Ukraine, if not more so.

The recent attempt to regime-change Belarus’ Lukashenko calls for retaliation. I’d like to see Belarus and Russia both move on Ukraine and let the ‘west’ howl about it. They would have to tangle with the Azov battalion but these neonazi types need to be eradicated.

“…we don’t know that he, or any of his “punters, tricks, johns” such as the Clintons et al. didn’t murder any of the girls on his island, in some gruesome ceremonies in his temple perhaps.”

Generally, I do not accuse people without evidence. There is no evidence of this, nor evidence against it. For all we know, @annamarie may be a friend and associate of Ghislaine Maxwell who’s pretending to be otherwise. Or you could be.

The possibilities without evidence are endless. And even evidence is not proof. In fact, you don’t even have probable cause to investigate until a witness comes forth or a body is found, etc.

I’ll stick to the Leo Frank case and the earthly evidence, annamaria.

And I did NOT say Frank wasn’t a pervert if you had bothered to read what I said, which is that perverts do not necessarily commit murder (duh) even if Frank was one (which we do not know for sure).

“…Leo Frank committed the murder.”

It is highly unlikely that Leo Frank murdered Mary Phagan. It is more likely that Conley did the murder as an eyewitness, Alonzo Mann, came forward in 1983 and stated under oath and polygraph that he saw Conley carrying her body. There is no reason to doubt this and Conley even served time in jail for being an accomplice.

That Conley was a liar and involved with Phagan’s murder is obvious beyond a reasonable doubt. Much of testimony against Frank came from Conley who changed his story frequently. Sure, the girls claimed Frank made advances toward them and they were not challenged. What would you expect given the atmosphere inside and outside of the courtroom at the time? The main reason Alonzo Mann did not come forward was because his parents advised him not to as he would have become a pariah in the community, as would anyone who testified in Frank’s favor.

This does not mean that Frank was totally innocent, of course. He may have been an Epstein-like guy in the presence of young girls. Maybe he paid some of them for sex as Epstein did. But, being a pervert and being a murderer are two different things (believe it or not). Whatever Epstein did with young girls, he was never accused of killing any of them. Nor would he have reason to unless he had reason to believe he would be caught.

It is plausible that Frank got girls like Mary Phagan to perform sex acts on him and that Conley knew of it and tried the same thing himself and wound up killing his victim, ultimately blaming it on Frank after changing his story numerous times. That would explain Frank’s nervousness.

What is implausible is this sentence: “Only Frank could have engineered that clumsy caper and it fooled no one” in reference to the time change. Why couldn’t Conley have done that? He could read and write. And why would Governor John Clayton throw is career away by commuting Frank’s sentence if he didn’t believe Frank was innocent.

And forget about Frank referring to black people with the n-word. Virtually every non-black person in the south (and many other places) referred to negroes this way back then. Quite a few black people probably referred to themselves this way in 1913. After all, there was no civil rights movement then. The nation was just one generation from the end of Reconstruction.

Too much of the ‘evidence’ cited in this piece is about attitudes prevalent back then. Forget about Ossoff. This is about an unfair trial and lynching of a likely innocent human being.

Dirty Harry, the character, is a racist who doesn’t follow due process. You cannot have cops like him. However, as he proved in the last installment – about a rape victim taking the ‘law’ into her own hands – Dirty Harry is about justice, that is, people getting what they deserve, innocent or guilty. At the end of the movie, when he has his ‘man’ (a woman), he says it’s over and she goes free.

“The outcome of this war could well be a reenactment in Kabul of what happened in Saigon in 1975, two years after the Americans ended their role in the Vietnam War.”

We brought over 100,000 Vietnamese here and we shall have to do the same for Afghans who cast their lot with US. Put them in NYC to replace those who have left.

“Yet, as Trump is halving U.S. forces in Afghanistan, The New York Times is reporting an Oval Office meeting with his national security inner circle to discuss a strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz….

“….Why Trump would order an attack on Natanz seems on its face inexplicable.”

Yes, it is inexplicable which is why Trump won’t do it. Trump has done enough for Bibi and got nothing in return but demands for more.

“…downsizing of the U.S. military across the board. That would be strongly resisted by the Pentagon, the defense industries and Congress.”

One away to address the politics involved with downsizing the military would be to find something else for military/security people to do. It’s not a good idea to have large standing armies on US soil anyway and the founders who wrote the Constitution were aware of what happened after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. So what should be done with these guys when, if ever, they are brought home (alive).

One thing that might be considered is creating K12 military schools or military programs in K12 schools in ghetto areas, high in crime. Military schools aren’t for everyone (I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to attend one) but, in areas where armed criminal gangs proliferate, the discipline offered by a military school education might be a good thing. For young children such a kindergartners, this would be more akin to the cub scouts than a bunch of kids marching around, toting rifles. If enough children attended them, we wouldn’t need a standing army – which the Constitution does not even permit.

“If he did not [order the seizure of the Russian tanker] – then he is not in control.”

He is not in control – yet – anymore than Trump was in early 2017. (Not sure if Trump is in control now). However, if Ukraine’s parliament controls the budget, Zelensky can eventually gain control of the military. The first thing he should do, though, is shut down western NGOs.

Tillerson must be so blinded by hubris that he couldn’t figure out what Erdogan’s reaction would be. He must have thought that, “Whatever Uncle Sam says, goes.”

Not necessarily. It’s possible that Tillerson knew what Erdogan’s reaction would be and approves the end result: The Kurds call for help from the Syrian government to which Syrian Kurds are supposed to be loyal. Syria pushes out the Turks (who are willing to leave anyway). The Kurds give up any ideas about having their own state. Syria becomes Syria again. The terrorists leave or get neutralized. The Kurds go back to being a minority in Syria but with a few special ‘rights’. Bibi complains but can’t do anything about it. Assad and his highly intelligent, English Sunni wife, Asma, are heroes to the Syrian people.

The US loses its ability to influence world events. Fine. I’m comfortable with living in a powerful republic that protects its citizens but otherwise minds its own business. That’s what I would like to see and, if Tillerson is lets things go the way they are going, he will like it too.

“…the Russians need to talk to the Kurds and offer them the same deal again: large autonomy inside Syria…”

The Kurds are not a majority in any area in Syria large enough to have regional autonomy. They would have to ethnically cleans Arab Syrians from the ‘region’ and prevent Arab Syrians from moving there or returning. The most Syria can offer them is more right to travel around (without weapons) and maybe some kind of confederation of Kurdish enclaves.

Lebanon is more democratic than Israel but Israel destabilizes it. I’m not going to Iran. Israel’s claim is false but plausible to many.

“Why Does Washington Hate Bashar al-Assad?”

Because he is Good. Assad, with his highly intelligent English (Sunni) wife, Asma, are the best persons to reform Syria and make into a nice country. That, however, would mean that the Netanyahu regime would no longer be the ME’s only stable democracy. In fact, Syria could easily become more prosperous and free than Israel – which is technically still at war with Syria and depends on fresh water flowing into it from Syria (as well as Lebanon).

Netanyahu is like the wicked queen in Snow White:
“Magic Mirror on the Wall,
Who is the ME’s fairest of all?”
When the Mirror says ‘Assad’ instead of ‘Israel’, Bibi fumes “What?! Arm terrorists to destabilize Syria! Gas some Syrian babies! And make it look like Assad did it!”

Hatred of the good for being the good, as Ayn Rand would have put it.

Choline supplements boost my memory and concentration and failing to take choline causes a decline. Choline may not work for everyone but there is no reason people shouldn’t experiment.

“you and what army?”

I don’t give a hoot about Iraq as it’s already been destroyed by the regime in Washington. I would, however, add that reports have it that 72% of females in the Kirkuk region have been mutilated via female circumcision. The number is much lower elsewhere in Iraq.

Syria will regain its borders, however, and that will be good. The Kurds who are part of the SDF have started to side up with ISIS against the Syrian army instead of fighting them. They have also been conducting ethnic cleansing against Assyrian Christians. There are virtually no Kurds in Raqqa yet some people think the Kurds have a right to it. They don’t.

When the Syrian was is ended, Kurdish troublemakers in Kirkuk bring in Turkey.

The Kurds are nomadic Iranians. As nomads, they have never had a state and do not need one. If they want to be citizens of a state, they should become citizens of the whatever country they want to become citizens of – Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq, etc, – and follow its laws.
What Kurds probably need is some kind of international legal designation/protection if the want to pursue their nomadic ways. There’s nothing wrong with being nomadic. A nomad does not have to a goat herder – he could have a technical career that takes him to different nations.

” They will therefore oppose any peace process, especially one crafted by Russia, Iran and Turkey, with every ugly trick in their bag.”

Yes, they will oppose any such peace process but the Neocons may have run out of workable tricks, ugly or otherwise. Turkey, still a NATO country, is not going to permit any division of Syria that creates a Kurdish state. And Russia is not going to permit any division of Syria that gives some of it to Turkey. History has also shown that externally applied changes to a country’s borders often leads to war.

Tillerson, the smart guy, recently said that Assad’s fate was up to Russia – a switch from his earlier statement that Assad’s fate was up to the Syrian people which led to a false flag CWs attack. What Tillerson means is that the US is not going to go to war with Russia over Syria. The Neocons have demanded that the US go to war against Syria for years, but will they demand war with Russia now?

The only ‘trick’ Neocons have left is the Kurds. The US will use them to thwart the peace process. But, ultimately, they are likely going to have abandon the Kurds – who will hate US forever.

Revenge? For what? This wasn’t revenge. The terrorist was attacking the Brits who helped his group fight Gadaffi.

This is all an obvious coup attempt. If ‘successful’, there are many forms it could take, both ‘legal’ or extralegal such as an election do-over. Would Trump cooperate in an illegal coup? Hopefully not.
Perhaps ‘our’ government will disintegrate into violent factions, at war with each other before finally destroying itself while leaving the rest of US largely untouched. This would be the best outcome. After all, look what happened to Japan and Germany after their governments were destroyed in the second WW.

I don’t mind the illegals coming here and taking jobs that others won’t do. But amnesty leading to voting rights is unacceptable. I have enough of a problem with American-born voters, voting away my rights and everyone else’s.

“…why would that no be an option for Poroshenko to ask for such an intervention in the Ukraine?”

Typo? I believe the author meant “…why would that not be an option for Yanukovich to ask for such an intervention in the Ukraine? (emphasis added).

“But the crusty Cold Warriors are steadily dying off…”

I was 37 when the Wall came down and it made me very happy. Unfortunately, many of those who spent their academic years and US foreign policy careers preparing for conflict with the USSR (which they now believe is Russia), were not so happy and are continually trying to stick pins in Putin and provoke Russia into an aggressive move so as to bring back the Cold War – or start a new hot war. But I don’t want these ‘crusty’ ones to die; I just want them to fade away.