No matter one’s heartfelt rationale, participation always registers as assent. — Greta Handel

This is a feature of our democratic process… We need to explicitly withhold our consent to be governed at the ballot box. Perhaps by rejecting all candidates for office on the ballot itself…?

Thank you Ron.

So how do we create and build an organized political consensus, which cannot be easily co-opted, to challenge the ruling elites’ status quo?

One possible answer lies in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Specifically, by reference in the Declaration to the consent of the governed and requirement in the Constitution that we, the people, must choose (vote) our representatives — in order for our governance to be considered legitimate.

I’ve made references in the past to the Nevada ballot… recently that state added a None of the Above choice to all races on its ballots. What does that mean, exactly? And how can it be used by voters?

In our elections, could voters choosing None of the Above, over uni-party candidates, de-legitimize our governance by the elites’ hand-picked politicians? How can we establish that political consensus and what would it look like? What conditions (economic, social, political) might propel it into usefulness?

Many people say they want change… do you? Well, change is coming, one way or the other — which will it be: Their way, again? Or ours? We either do something effective to oppose the elite, their politicians and deep state, or we consent to their continued and disastrous (for us) rule.

Perhaps writing in None of the Above is the answer you’re looking for…

It’s long past time to end tax-exempt charitable foundations.

Agree

Agree…

A beautiful and powerful expression
of the horror and brutality
of Old Testament religion(s).

Monotheism is a bipolar world
of good and evil
ripe for plucking.

You are
with us, or
against us.

We are good
children of light
and you are…

And nobody asked for your permission, or America’s permission, to follow whatever religion they wish. I’m not joining any of the abrahamic cults, but perhaps your membership in one of them has clouded your judgment and hardened your heart. — RadicalCenter

As one of the non-aligned, an agnostic, I fully agree.

The world, in any case, will decide, and not meamjojo or any other hasbara trolls polluting this planet with their paranoid hate expressing itself yet again as vicious butchery of the innocent in Gaza. — DanFromCT

Well said…

I hope to live long enough, insha’allah, to see them all, every last one of them, dragged to Beijing or Moscow or Tehran and tried for their crimes against humanity and led to the gallows. — Kevin Barrett

Respectfully, I disagree. This would be outsourcing to others what we, ourselves, should be doing in Washington D.C. to solve our “problem”.

Today liberal elites fight just as vigorously as conservatives to see that “democracy” never progresses in its natural course to put needful checks on their privileged social and economic status. — Observator

So, your point is that both conservative and liberal elites act together to maintain their economic status (and thus social and political status) against the best interests of the nation’s citizens. That western democracy is unable to restrain the dominance of economic and financial elites over the nation’s political system.

The western elites’ main problem with China and Russia is that in both nations, the political elite dominate their respective economic and financial elites.

Thus, an autocratic government is one where political control is exercised independently by political elites, and a democratic government is one where political elites are dominated and controlled by the economic and financial elite.

The system is much too broken for hope to play a factor in your analysis of the future of this state.

The only hope can come from the possibility that the Russians and the Chinese will displace the American “Anal Empire” and that the tyrannical US government will no longer have the resources to do these abuses it is doing. It is only massive excess wealth that allows the government to maintain this war against the natural order. — Andrew Anglin

What you’ve described is the existential tension between the individual and group (collective). An individual seeks to maximize power and control over his physical environment, not in a vacuum, but within a group wherein every other person seeks the same. How people collectively resolve clashes between themselves defines the group — the essence of group identity is how it collectively limits individual behavior with regard to other members of the group and the group itself.

The Russians and Chinese will only *do* whatever is in their best interests. And it is not in their best interests to either invade the US or engage in a nuclear war to displace the American “Anal Empire”.

But they do agree …only massive excess wealth that allows the [American] government to maintain this war against the… rest of the world. Better to collapse us financially and economically, isolate us and leave us to rot and implode…

Both sexes are f*cked up… What works in clans/small tribes, fails in large, complex societies. That’s history’s lesson. Human nature is not scalable.

Well said… My experience and observation agree.

…the smorgasbord of special programs set aside by the government and private organizations to assist black people over the decades. The programs have not solved the problems, nor has anything else apparently. The problems remain.

The ongoing serious problems among black Americans have long been conventionally and commonly attributed to white racism or “systemic” racism—white-established societal factors that are unfairly holding blacks back on purpose. — A.J. Smuskiewicz

And there you have it — systemic racism is the smorgasbord of special programs ostensibly designed to assist black people that are unfairly holding blacks back on purpose.

We have no idea what Russia’s plans are on the strategic level. — Rolo Slavskiy

Well, Rolo, you got one thing right, at least. And I suspect the reason Russia is “going slow” is the 10:1 kill ratio and consequent destruction of UAF and NATO military stocks. Not to mention the necessity of preventing Biden’s crazed neocons from going nuclear.

The US, EU, NATO and UAF (The West) don’t care how many Ukrainians they kill, or money, weapons and ammunition they burn through. Well, that’s not specifically true any longer — they’ve finally realized what the Russian word for demilitarization means — by trading lives and material to hold ground they’ve allowed Russia to significantly reduce their potential military power.

Where will they find more cannon fodder?

Land is easy to take when there are no weapons or soldiers remaining to defend it. Or, to rephrase, one should always kill all the men before commencing the raping, looting and pillaging.

He is a propagandist… paid or mockingbird.

We agree…

Causing destruction and hindering development somewhere overseas may be what’s desired, not occupying or implanting cultural values, whatever those are. The US has been roving the planet, looking for easy prey and opportunity, never mind what those dummy teachers told us. — anon139

This… was once called loot, pillage and plunder. The ancient Norse raiding Northern Europe’s coast, for example or, more recently, the US military “pacifying barbarous lands” for Wall Street’s benefit. Wonder who controls Wall Street…?

Thanks for the link…

Take a look at Nevada’s ballots… Why not vote None of the Above?

So the question becomes, how do we use informed consent to destroy their investment?

Hint: Look at the Nevada ballot — how could None of the Above be used… creatively?

“What was Spooner’s alternative? What kind of government, or societal political culture did Spooner advocate – if any?”

He advocated consent–real informed consent.

Any institution that takes any shortcuts (including propaganda) in gaining that consent is a criminal enterprise.

It may be that homo sapiens is just not up to the task–it is what it is.

Regardless of what alternative is or is not available–we should never lie to ourselves about what is happening.

It’s all theatre from here on out. — Old Prude

It’s been theater for a long time. So, the alternative is… give up? Cede the electoral playing field because they cheat? There is no alternative?

Perhaps it’s time to change how we vote. Ever looked at the electoral choices on a Nevada ballot? What does that None of the Above choice mean?

“The CIA is overseeing a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel, according to five former intelligence and national security officials familiar with the initiative. The program, which started in 2015, is based at an undisclosed facility in the Southern U.S., according to some of those officials….

“The United States is training an insurgency,” said a former CIA official, adding that the program has taught the Ukrainians how “to kill Russians.”

…the CIA and other U.S. agencies could support a Ukrainian insurgency, should Russia launch a large-scale incursion.

…“We’ve been training these guys now for eight years. They’re really good fighters. …representatives from both countries also believe that Russia won’t be able to hold on to new territory indefinitely because of stiff resistance from Ukrainian insurgents, according to former officials.

If the Russians launch a new invasion, “there’s going to be people who make their life miserable,” said the former senior intelligence official…

“All that stuff that happened to us in Afghanistan,” said the former senior intelligence official, “they can expect to see that in spades with these guys.” (“CIA-trained Ukrainian paramilitaries may take central role if Russia invades”, Yahoo News) — OP

This is why Russia did not attempt to overrun more Ukrainian territory and immediately take Kiev… They knew what was waiting for them. Rather, they went slowly, established a front and let the Ukrainians come to them. And now, with Ukraine wounded and weakened…

NATO is not looking for a confrontation with the Russian Federation, will not be drawn into the conflict in Ukraine, but will help it. — US Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Everyone is a comedian these days.

You can literally just do anything you want – as long as you’re black.

Except tweet about Jews.

The Russian move out of Kherson appears to be a purely tactical maneuver. The political optics, most especially in the West, are of relatively little concern. What the West plans to do about the Russian winter offensive militarily (i.e. any implied threat by Sullivan), is hollow conventionally (90k vs ~400k) and can only be achieved by resort to theater nuclear weapons — nuclear blackmail.

For the Russians, the Hobson’s Choice the US-NATO is trying to create is either divide Ukraine at the Dnieper, or face an under-equipped and out-numbered US “coalition” in central and western Ukraine and the heightened risk of nuclear weapons being employed in their “defense”…

Both sides know this is a ploy to save what is left of the Ukrainian Army — and face for the Biden Administration — which will declare victory, then rearm and remain a contentious and increasingly dangerous thorn on Russia’s border.

Does that sound acceptable to Russia?

“drawing an estimated 60 billion dollars in economic and military aid from the US Treasury”

Only Israel’s bankers have the power to suck 60 billion dollars from the US Treasury at will.

Now Israel has deployed US troops on the ground in Ukraine. They don’t care about US goyim troops any more than Ukrainian goyim troops, obviously. Blinken and Zelensky are brothers in arms, struggling to save the Jewish millenialist’s wet dream of their global hegemony.

For readers with a Twitter account, here’s a link that helps newbies get acquainted with Israel and banking.
War Profiteers and Israel’s Bank
https://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com/p/war-profiteers-and-israels-bank.html

One thing about reading I can advocate is that knowledge is cumulative — the more one reads the more one’s ignorance is tempered. I highly recommend it. But knowledge does not necessarily lead to understanding; certainly though, without knowledge ignorance flourishes. — werpor

Well said…

You posit a better world built by the young… fine.

Who educates the young? Who entertains the young? Who influences their ideas and manipulates their emotions? Who are they and what kind of world do they want?

It is the young people of every society who should be uprooting the current political process that threatens their chance to have a life that ends naturally. Their political aim should be a society governed as a demarchy. — Bert

The young are inexperienced and rebellious of their parents (it’s a stage), leaving them open to all manner of influences, for better or worse…

America’s Founders had a clearly stated intent that the country that they risked their lives to create should not mimic empires of the past, nor go about the world “seeking monsters to destroy”. The country’s founders explicitly warned against America becoming entangled in Europe’s endless wars.

What is called America today is a gross repudiation of the Founders’ vision and intent. Hundreds of so-called “American” military bases straddle the globe, an imperial overreach that dwarfs the empires of the Romans and the British. The military warfare-welfare state has an annual budget in the hundreds of billions, and America’s military-industrial-media-intelligence-community (MIMIC) “consensus” only wants more and more and more. The results of all this madness? One profoundly evil forever war after another. Trillions of dollars wasted, millions of innocent civilians killed, ruined nations, and massive inter-continental migrations swamping Europe. This at a time when there are urgent domestic issues to address in America.

A person’s character reflects the type of people that person associates with. Have you noticed that domestic politics increasingly reflects the worst characteristics of America’s overseas military proxies? In the Ukraine, America supports not a democracy, but a fascist-terrorist dictatorship. There is no free press in the Ukraine. No opposition parties are allowed. Disappearances, kidnapping and hostage taking, and assassinations of political opponents are routine in the Ukraine.

Shockingly, many American politicians view the behavior of the Ukrainian government as a model to emulate, not criticize. Practices that used to be considered politically taboo in the USA are now accepted without question, and even celebrated by a compliant press. In the process, America is abandoning once-cherished constitutional principles, fundamental liberties, and the impartial rule of law. Wholesale use of Bills of Attainder based on ethnicity against Russian nationals guilty of … what exactly? Not hating their own homeland? The U.S. Treasury Department uses extraterritorial law to seize the private property of Russian citizens anywhere in the world. Then there’s America’s looting of $300 BILLION worth of foreign currency reserves of a sovereign state (Russia). America’s taxpayers, politicians, diplomats, and military officers have all become a party to cowardly criminal acts (e.g., the Daria Dugin terrorist car bombing), a multi-year campaign of genocide against ethnic Russians within the Ukraine, and war crimes committed by the likes of the Neo-Nazi thugs of the “Azov Battalion”.

If Russia wants Odessa, they will take it… unless the US, UK and EU are willing to use nuclear weapons to defend Ukraine, in which case all bets are off.

Is Odessa worth that to you…?

So basically, anyone talking sense about Ukraine in Washington is being shut down by forces within the political parties themselves working together with a compliant national media that is mis-representing everything that is taking place on the ground. — Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D.

Congressional bipartisanship at its finest… the two American political parties only differ and bicker about a narrow range of domestic social issues. Otherwise, they are simply a coin with two-heads — heads they win, tails we lose.

Divide and rule.

Giraldi gets it right.

LOL, it’s simple, really…

The US, UK and EU have realized Russia is rolling the Ukrainian army and will soon destroy it; that in terms of conventional weapons and troops, the US and NATO can nether stop the Russians in Ukraine nor defend the EU if Russia chooses to invade…

The new nuclear ROE and rapid deployment of the upgraded B-61-12s, which can be carried by any NATO fighter jet, are intended warn-off Russia and steady European resolve…

Optimist…

They will double-down…

What choice does BarackoBrandon have? The dollar is underpinned by Saudi oil and their confidence in the U.S. military to protect the Kingdom. That was the quid pro quo.

But now…? MbS and OPEC+ apparently have some doubts.

The world knows Ukraine is a U.S. tarbaby. BarackoBrandon is shoveling so much money and guns into Ukraine that I’m beginning to wonder if one of Putin’s goals, now, is to demilitarize NATO…

Since Ukraine turned over administrative control of its western oblasts to Poland, there have been unconfirmed, but persistent, reports of a Polish unit operating near the DPR front. Another report surfaced a few days ago which claimed RF forces were engaged with a 5000 man Polish unit. If accurate, these reports indicate RF forces are already engaged with NATO member state forces…

The Empire cannot survive another loss of confidence in its military prowess. And Putin is pointing out to the world that Emperor BarackoBrandon is naked…

Funny that…

Again, the PCR camp suggests a crushing blitzkreig would have been the best approach to handle the latest Enpire gambit, I am suggesting that would have been a tactical, but not a strategic victory, which this is beginning to appear to be.

I don’t think either of us should pretend to know the extent of Russian military capability under full deployment. Perhaps we can reconvene this conversation in a few months after seeing the results of 300,000 more soldiers.

So better to enforce a “Green Agenda” – (which isn’t really about the environment at all) and move towards entirely banning hydrocarbon use. i.e. Fading the principal revenue source of these ZioGlob enemies + removing their leverage. — Miro23

LOL… by extracting rare-earth minerals, rather than hydrocarbons, from those and other foreign nations? And how does the empire of chaos plan to ban hydrocarbon use in other countries? Blow up more pipelines? Perhaps, as an oceanic superpower, it will begin sinking their tankers? After all, the empire already seizes foreign vessels on the high-seas and “claims” their cargos as prize…

Agree

Cannot use the agree button, so… Agree

And Russia similarly understands the relative advantage their weapons confer is only temporary… No matter your ideological point of view, history is quite clear on that point.

Epic rant, PCR…

By leaving the Donbass Russians hanging at the mercy of the US neoconservative coup, the Kremlin guaranteed a military conflict. — PCR

Just a thought… have you considered that this military conflict might have been the desired Russian outcome? The Russians, including Putin, are neither mad nor stupid. They’ve studied American strategic doctrine and battlefield tactics for countless years — the American way of war is both formulaic and pointed at the heart of Russia.

Under the Minsk Agreement… It became clear almost instantly that Ukraine would not comply with the agreement it signed and that France and Germany would not enforce the agreement. — PCR

Exactly, but all you’re concerned with here is western propaganda and audiences, while ignoring the rest of the world’s opinion. Point is, your observation proves that Russia did everything possible to avoid confrontation and conflict with the west — and it’s obvious, to the rest of the world at least, that Russia did not ignite the Ukrainian conflagration. And, as far as the west is concerned, why should Putin or Russia care what the empire’s propaganda says or its citizens believe? As far as I can see, many in the west will believe anything… including that boys can be girls.

When it comes to International Law, Putin is the only person in the world who abides by it. Certainly Washington doesn’t. By abiding by international law, Putin gives Washington every advantage in the conflict. — PCR

And yet, Russia still prevails in Ukraine at the time of this post. Perhaps Russia and Putin, proving to the entire world who adheres to international law and whom is the rogue empire, definitively, is useless. But considering recent events, and mounting evidence the world outside the western empire supports Russia…

But there is still no guarantee that Putin understands that Russia is at war with the US and Europe or what do do [sic] about it if he does understand it. — PCR

His plain-spoken public pronouncements and speeches to the contrary notwithstanding…

This is not what is happening [Russian battlefield defeats], but it is not the fact of the situation that matters but how the media explains the situation. The narratives created by Washington and its presstitutes create their own “facts.” — PCR

So, at base, your gripe is that Russia is not more effective at countering American propaganda in the west. And to have fallen for Karl Rove’s delusion of imperial omnipotence based on propaganda and military prowess… Yet, despite all this propaganda, Russia continues grinding down the largest, best-trained and equipped army in Europe — NATO. Perhaps, in Russia’s view, western military prowess in relation to a peer-state competitor is just another western propaganda narrative? And they are proving that point to the rest of the world…

What is actually happening is that the Kremlin in its totally incorrect reading of Washington had no idea that Ukraine would be supplied with endless modern weapons, intelligence, and targeting information. Not expecting this response, the Kremlin was not prepared for real war. — PCR

Really? Having burned through all their Cold War era munitions and weapons, Ukraine is now being supplied with increasingly sophisticated weapons by the west. Had Russia tore through Ukraine in a week, which had they committed sufficient forces, could have been done, would they have had an opportunity to gather intelligence on western wunderwaffens and develop counter-strategies and tactics?

It is extraordinary that the government of what is probably the most powerful military force in the world has convinced Washington that Russia is military impotent. — PCR

And perhaps, PCR, this is deliberate. Perhaps Russian propaganda is *much* better than you think…

An epic rant… well done!

The distinctive element of Mr Unz’s theory is the “release of GOF virus deliberately in China and Iran by a rogue brain-dead group of US agents in the mistaken belief that it would crush the Chinese economy and devastate the Iranian political class but not blowback to the US at all” feature. — dimples

And the Holy Grail of biological warfare, as defined by the PNAC, are genetically targeted weapons. With such a weapon, blowback is minimized and its utility as a terror weapon (threat) is greatly enhanced, as the bar on its employment is dramatically lowered.

As for the idea that genetically targeted bio-wonderwaffens could revive the fortunes of a waning American empire… could that be why American bio-weapons researchers have been busy collecting DNA samples world-wide?

The United States government has always employed torture against citizens of other nations. I have photos of US soldiers waterboarding civilians in the Philippines in the early 1900s. The US Operation Phoenix in Vietnam tortured to death more than 45,000 Vietnamese, mostly poor farmers. — Larry Romanoff

Well said, Larry…

But, many years ago, one of my history professors disagreed. He was a gatekeeper, one key to foundation-financed graduate programs at Oxford, Harvard, Yale… a political filter. His honors courses were informal and small, six to eight, and highly competitive. An A, along with his recommendation, was a critical step in the deep state selection process…

And, in his historical opinion, there is no American policy or historical link between the Philippines and Vietnam wars. Period. To even suggest such a thing…

So my reward? B — delivered with a public admonition, for making exactly the same point in my final thesis and its defense, despite numerous first-hand accounts from both Philippine and Vietnam combat veterans and American diplomats.

No scholarship for you… without toeing every CFR line.

Why are Americans so obsessed about black vs white… — Tranceislife

In all honesty… most Americans aren’t. Or, as Clarence Thomas puts it, racism is on lifesupport in the USA. Corporate media is amplifying a small, vocal minority with a political axe to grind — most Americans simply don’t care about race — because it boosts ratings and supports their political allies. Yellow journalism at its finest.

If racism was rampant, would hoaxes (see J. Smolett for just one example) be necessary prove how racist the USA is?

But one thing that vocal minority is right about: There is systemic racism. Any law which codifies racial quotas in any selection process (job, school, government benefits or contracts, etc.) is, by definition, racist.

People need to go to prison for the “leadership” of the last 50 years. The US should cooperate with war crimes trials, possibly even initiate them, for the still living cretins that murdered millions around the world. — RoatanBill

Agreed. And bears repeating…

“and Putin will ‘call off the dogs’. Guaranteed.”

Not until the de-nazification is complete and it will not be complete just through cleaning up Donbass. The neo-nazis are in everything. Think it as a jew-like operation.

“Will the “Special Military Operation” go beyond the Donbass to Kiev and cities in the west?”

Yes it will, at least to Odessa along the Dnipro River. These areas are dominantly ethnic Russian and have a heavy nazi presence.

I selfishly want Russia to take all of Odessa, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv and I think that Russia wants more than just a Donbass buffer, possibly including a corridor north of Kiev from Belarus to Kharkiv. Dnipropetrovsk includes the major iron mining city of Krivoy Rog so may as well complete the circle.

The best thing to come out of Trump’s presidency was that we go to see the curtain fall and the masks drop and see the whole political system is rigged. — anon[369]

Agreed.

“one policy analyst I know explicitly told me “Nobody wants to hear that the US did COVID.”

Your policy analyst is right.
And the people who remain unconvinced that “US did COVID” are also right, especially if the definition of “US” you offer is “rogue elements of the Trump Administration.”
It is as if upon examining the pattern created by the iron filings around a magnet you would select a few iron grains and conclude that those are responsible for organizing the whole configuration around an invisible object.
Amazing how the actions of those “rogue elements,” in completely unrelated fashion, coincided with WEF’s agenda 2030, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the WHO, NIH, CDC, the gigantic global pharma industry organized crime monopoly, EU’s leadership, etc, etc….

Shouldn’t you be getting ready to invade the Solomon Islands over their willingness to enter into a defense agreement with China? Why are you wasting time here, when nobody gives two shits about what you have to say?

I may be wrong, but I think… — j2

I’ll bet on the former, but doubt the latter.

The difference between what you think and Russian capabilities? Russians have experience with high, fast, and out-of-reach… frustratingly so, as a mater of fact. Might they have plans for that? Or is it still consensus opinion of ZATO analysts here, that Russians are just fat, dumb and stupid? And corrupt. Far more corrupt than Ukrainians or Americans. Fatally so. (And their weapons don’t work… no, really. And they don’t have enough of ’em anyway.)

Still pushing the Kagans’ ISW as neutral and objective? Asked Kimberly for that raise yet?

NO ONE with a grain of intelligence ever WANTS to go to war
———————————————————————
When we were young Marine recruits at 17-18 years of age, we did. But that’s a long time ago now.

Have a look at Military Summary on Rumble, it seems objective and is delivered in a low key but informative way. https://rumble.com/c/c-1613003

In fact outsourcing can be very much justified by the idea of free trade since every corporation should seek her rational interest to seek the cheapest labor on a worldwide scale. We saw how the American middle class fared under the extreme application of this ideology.

Me again Joe,

I agree with you vis-a-vis this debate you’re having with RoatanBill.

Bill is an erudite fellow, with great insights and understanding of what ails us. But Bill has a perspective that I’ve come to see as uniquely coloring his views.

Like you, I’d like to imagine that there’s some hope for the (especially young) people of America. I have young relative who have babies and I don’t want to see them all plunged into a dystopian hell on earth. Perhaps that’s wishful hoping on my part, but there it is..

But I suspect that Bill, (being perhaps a little more removed), is very, very eager indeed to see the regime and ground zero for the evils in the world – the Zionist Occupied Government of the United States, – die. As indeed, we all hope for. But the thing is, in order for that to happen, it all has to collapse and come crashing down. The dollar. The Z.U.S. economy, and with it bring down the grunting Golem that is stomping all over the planet and crushing every nation or person who looks cross ways at Israel. (As I just mentioned, like Russia right now).

With the total collapse of the United States into a failed and dystopian ruin, there will be no more wars in Ukraine, or Iraq/Libya/Syria/Yemen.., or anywhere else the ZUS goon has been smashing people and things like a besotted savage. And as the dollar collapses from its own inevitable decay, it will bring down the Euro with it, and plunge Europe also into chaos. All of which, (I more or less agree) is necessary for any hope for humanity or the future of this planet.

I’m just not eager to see it happen to the people I love, and their children. Others are very, very eager to see it yesterday, and really, I can’t say that I blame them.

But there is an underlying motivation to Bill’s posts (that I suspect) makes it easier to understand his perspective if put into context. IMHO

Not voting for instance. If the conservative-leaning participants here at Unz and beyond, were to throw in the towel, and forgo voting or participating in what’s left of the rotting institutions of the dying republic, then that would result in massive levels of wokeness being imposed on America even faster, (which would be a horror-show for the decent citizens of America), but it would also speed up and facilitate the inevitable collapse, and so for a lot of people, they (understandably) say ‘Bring it on!!’

‘Stop propping up the rotten and iniquitous and evil system, with your participation’. They say. I suppose they have an argument, but it’s easier to make when you’re not looking into the beautiful face of a white child who will be ground into the dirt, when wokeness really gets ascendant.

{ provided that the rump Ukraine makes binding guarantees regarding strategic neutrality}

The ONLY guarantee in this world is your boots on the ground and/or superior military.
Nothing is binding as far as promises and written agreements go, as least as far as NATO/West is concerned: they break International Laws and written and verbal promises/agreements all the time.

I am sure Russian leadership recognizes the dilemma and is hopefully working out something that will stick. Russia cannot absorb all of Ukraine, even if it wanted to: the West Ukraine/Galicia is hostile and will remain so forever. Even if most of the Western Ukraine is absorbed by Poland and Hungary, it doesn’t solve Russia’s problem, because Poland will be perennially hostile to Russia.

Hard nut to crack for Russia.
Russia may have no choice but to push as far West as they can, take all of the coastline and then live with it.

em, you’re talking to a supervisor now…

I couldn’t organize a company level attack in less than 24 hours. — peterAUS

We agree…

An ingenious strategy… thanks. However, we once had an historically proven ‘gold standard’ test for election fraud… the humble exit polling, done by the various media, always eager to be first to share any ‘trend’, etc. It had been known as reliable, until the… ta da!!….
2000 election, when the polling began showing that official results didn’t tally with voters’ reports. And the tradition of exit polling was immediately abandoned, by all, for the foreseeable future. (And easily, and untraceably, hackable electronic voting machines were bought and installed with the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) $$. Many college IT profs demonstrated it’s ridiculousness, but …. plus, they couldn’t be ‘examined’ because they were ‘proprietary’…unlike Vegas computers, which were examined regularly… cuz, you know, trustworthy gambling is more important than trustworthy elections.)

I’d love to see your plan in operation, but it would probably take a m/b/illionaire or two to mount an initial pilot.. and handle all the immediate lawsuits. Well, Nader did write a book, “Only the Super Rich Can Save Us”. (Might be cheaper to try to get exit polling going somewhere or other 😉

“RU are in process of shattering and encircling UKR forces in Donbass, I think its pretty clear to everyone.”

Yes, but it has no military importance. If you group your forces to a small part of the front, then you have local overpower and can win in that part of the front. But what does it help you if you are globally weaker? All you achieve with the attack is that you gain some land (which you will later lose) and have heavy losses because attacking implies higher losses.

“P.S. Please stop the delirium about “Western strategic bombers destroying Russian forces with precision munitions”. Neither the oligarchs nor Israel want to become radioactive snow just yet.”

I simply gave an argument why Russia cannot make a larger mobilization. If it starts to seriously look like Russia is going to win, then Western countries that have decided that Russian must not win will respond. The easiest response they can do (and they have the planes to do it) is to take air supreiority and to bomb Russian troops from an altitude that Russian air defense (S-400) cannot reach. This can be done with precision munition. Russian cannot do so, as it wasted its precision bombs in Syria. This is why general mobilization is not any option open for Russia. Hidden mobilization is does already, but that will not raise many men.

“The Russians aren’t doing too bad as it is. Outnumbered 3:1 they’re inflicting casualties on the enemy at a ratio 10:1 and still gaining territory. Has there ever been anything like this? I’d hate to think where they’d end up if they mobilised. ”

Mike, you misunderstand the situation. Russians have concentrated forces on the Donbas area and they have local overpower. You can always get local overpower and with it manage to advance. Their overpower is as follows: they concentrated on the area 25 BTGs. A BTG typically has 10 tanks and 30 Infantry fighting vehicles. The manpower should be 600-800, but seems to be now 500 or less in a BTG. Additionally they have artillery, logistics and air support. Ukraine has some thousand men in this area. It is more remarkable that they resist so well in this area.

However, this does not change the situation in the whole war. Indeed, Russians attacking in Donbas suits Ukraine well, because by attacking their losses are larger and their power decreases faster. This is like the Battle of Kursk, where Germans tried a same kind of thing: Russians were in a caudron. Germany actually was winning and would have won, but Hitler stopped the battle because German losses were too high. It was losing too many tanks. The same is here. Russians should not waste power in gaining land because an Ukrainian counter-offense will come in some time, when they get the reserves equipped. Yes, Russia, excluding Donbas separatists’ troops, is outnumbered and Ukraine is getting weapons. There is very little Russia can do to turn the war to its advantage. Mobilization will not help because as West has decided that Russia cannot win, they will use their fighter jets to take air supremacy and probably strategic bombers to destroy Russian forces in Ukraine with precision munition, and Russia cannot respond in any way except for going nuclear, which it will not do. So, this is just a matter of time when the turning point of the war comes. But yes, you can always get local overpower, if you see any sense in it.

When I met the Amish, they were always against anything anti… — Anon[338]

Interesting… the Amish are anti-anti. Had no idea their theosophy went that deep.

I don’t get the criticisms – Shoigu is on record as saying they want a professional army to a higher % than now, so the only way I see conscripts coming along is if NATO go full retard with WWIII.

And I agree with Putin biting his tongue in 2014 – you can’t attack the western world (which is what this battle is) without backups for your financial system, or food security.

On balance it was always, and still is, better to let NATO nations implode under debt etc, than go for a bite. I’m impressed the man managed to wait so long.

If Ukraine is left as a rump state, the US will find a way to fund it. — davidgmillsatty

Which is why all the chatter about carving Ukraine up… It’s obvious who can and will, if necessary, exercise control over Russia’s near abroad. Let the Europeans sort it out. Carve it up between themselves, with Russia’s blessing. Same thing that’s been done for a thousand years.

If there is a small patch, full of Nazis, leftover around Kiev, give it to the Jews.

By opening elections to the public, that also cancels the dynasties that have arisen. Why is it that a Bush, Clinton, etc relative gets anointed to some high office? Does getting porked by Bill Clinton give Hillary any particular skill set to be president? Why are certain family names prominent in gov’t? All this is cronyism and could be stopped by electing on merit, on the ideas in one’s head, not public relations.

I think this could be a billion-dollar idea, a multi-billion dollar idea once finally established because it would work anywhere in the world and there’s little existing gov’t systems can do to hide the results from their populations. The Internet can allow the system physically housed in the US or the Cayman Islands or on a ship to run the parallel election for Germany, Ethiopia, Australia, China, etc simultaneously. It’s just more hardware and bandwidth. The fees could be adjusted once the public accepts the system so that there’s a profit to be made to keep the system viable and expand on further screwing over the existing oligarchy everywhere with the people’s approval.

I don’t believe in voting – now. It’s rigged and corrupt to the core. I might change my mind if not just the people who get elected are arrived at via merit, but also what needs addressing – the wants and needs of the population. Whole gov’t departments get wiped out because we can become the legislature and write the laws eventually. — RoatanBill

We agree…

Can’t comment on a billion, or multi-billion dollar idea. Limit the voting to any account holder in the target country, with a physical address in country… Limit the number of votes per card.

But, I’m a plebe. Money’s not the issue. Policy is.

I don’t believe in voting – now. It’s rigged and corrupt to the core. — RoatanBill

Yes, you do believe in voting. You’re simply changing the forum and commoditizing it. Good little capitalist. (That’s not an insult, BTW. It’s just what capitalists do.) But something else is needed. Linked and more, definitive, subversive, legal… because we agree.

By opening elections to the public, that also cancels the dynasties that have arisen. — RoatanBill

A noble goal. I think you’ve got a good idea, and have a few thoughts myself.

I’d like a team of people to develop the overall plan on how a parallel voting system should work. — RoatanBill

Really? I’ll volunteer.

All this is cronyism… could be stopped by electing on merit, on the ideas in one’s head, not public relations. — RoatanBill

I like the way you think. Sometimes…

Might be coming your way soon. Down the coast.

The only thing I agree with in your last post is that the Russians failed to take Kiev and Kharkiv during the first phase of the SMO. Contrary to your claims, the Russians failed in their twin sieges of Kiev and Kharkiv because they did not provide close-air support which exposed the Russian tank battalions and infantry troops to roadside ambushes and drone attacks. I agree with you that the initial phase of the SMO relied on helicopters to transport paratroopers as well as to provide close-air support to tank battalions and ground troops. Once the tank battalions and infantry troops reached Kiev and Kharkiv, the Russians did not launch a sustained air campaign against Kiev and Kharkiv unlike in Syria where they launched 39,000 sorties, hitting 121,466 targets with a variety of stand-off weapons including cluster bombs, unguided bombs, guided bombs and cruise missiles during three years of warfare. That’s why I find your claims that the Russians are running out of stand-off weapons to be incredible as they have barely started any sustained air campaign, preferring to launch cruise missiles sporadically against military assets and critical infrastructure in Western Ukraine while relying on guided artillery to destroy enemy frontlines in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.

Ukraine does not any military means of attacking Russia while Russia has all the military means to attack Ukraine. As I wrote in my previous posts, time is on the side of Russia because it is waging a ‘war of attrition’ which depletes the dwindling inventory of food, fuel, weapons and munitions of Ukraine. The military situation will continue to deteriorate in favor of Russia against Ukraine, save for US-NATO military intervention. The bulk of the Russian military is held in reserve precisely to guard against this possibility of a direct US-NATO military intervention. Russia still has lots of stand-off weapons at its disposal to be used against any future US-NATO military conflict, such as thermobaric bombs, unguided bombs, guided bombs, cluster bombs, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons.

It’s wishful thinking to believe that Russia would lose in Ukraine just because they are taking their time to ‘liberate’ rather than to ‘destroy’ Ukraine.

peterAUS

What do you make of someone who calls himself “exposeur”?
exhibitionism
flashing
public indecency
flashing
exposing oneself
attention-seeking behavior
exposing yourself
exposure
forcible indecency

Put it away, Peter!
Thanks, “Spanky”!

The whole election cycle belongs to the political parties. There’s no way they are going to give up their control over that process.

I did come up with something that would destroy the party system over a few election cycles by using technology but it would take some serious cash to implement large scale. A pilot project could be done for relatively little. A group of serious people could hash out all the details for the concept, but I’ll outline the basic concept below.

The idea is to run a parallel election by allowing people to vote from home using their credit cards to vote for the candidates the parties are running for $1 per vote (offsets expenses). Allow anyone in the country to vote and broadcast the results. I suspect there would be a huge discrepancy between the two systems. The fact that credit cards as identification can be abused and that non legitimate voters can vote is a feature at this point not a bug. Do this for a while to test the design. At best it could create some media controversy concerning results and that is advertising you can’t even purchase. The political parties will rightly highlight the holes but that will eventually bite them in the ass.

Then, change the rules by allowing anyone to be a candidate for a reasonable fee, say, $1000, including the party’s candidates, if they choose to cooperate (probably not), and that allow each candidate to post their platform on a completely controlled web site. Each candidate is given a random number to be known by, so there’s no personal information involved. The only communications a candidate is allowed is written documents proctored to make sure the candidate wrote the text at the proctor site with absolutely no help from anyone. The text gets formatted by web professionals against a stock look and feel, so no one has a tech advantage. What is being sought are the anonymous candidates ideas only.

Voting is again by credit card that is still subject to abuse, and by anyone in the country qualified or not. This is to gain market acceptance for the idea while producing a list of things the population wants done.

Next comes a cleaning up of the actual voting process to only allow US citizens, registered to vote or not, and a tightening of credit card use to avoid as much as possible voting more than once.

This system is running in parallel with the “official” voting system that we all know is corrupt. It’s the divergence in results between the two systems that will highlight that corruption and get the people to demand change that terminates the party system, their rigged and hackable voting machines, etc. If the political parties refuse to cooperate, that’s fine. It shows they’re scared of losing control. If their platforms are not the ones the web winning candidate was “elected” on, the people will want to know why.

At some point, the parties have to give in or look completely corrupt and obviously so.

Vzglyad Russian website – Yandex translation edited

Hungary is preparing for the collapse of Ukraine
Viktor Orban is accused of usurpation of power in Hungary
May 25, 2022, 11:50
Photo: Tamas Kovacs/EPA/TASS
Text: Gevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor of the Financial University

Elections are theater. The political parties decide on who the peons get to vote for and the candidates presented all suck so that there is no champion to vote for. — RoatanBill

We agree. Question is, how to use that theater when the natives get restless, which is now inevitable, and point an election away from the privately owned political parties and toward something more… substantial.

The Ukrainians lost at least a division in Mariupol. Aggregate the losses and Terrain, they lost a Corps.

The only good thing is that by its own admission, the US hasn’t the ability to sustain a major conflict with an equal for more than a few weeks or months before all the high priced and expensive weapons run out. — RoatanBill

Russia’s SMO in Ukraine is revealing the US / EU / NATO as a naked emperor, insofar as fighting a conventional peer-to-peer war is concerned. That is what makes their use of soft power possible:

Russia is using its economic power right now to help crater the Euro and Dollar. — RoatanBill

The point is to unseat the western banking cartel and replace it with a multipolar monetary system based on commodities and industrial production. Russia maintains strategic ambiguity with regard to their goals in Ukraine for this reason.

The point of using a relatively small military force, beyond limiting civilian casualties and maintaining strategic reserves of men and material, is to both demonstrate their conventional military power and prolong the conflict to inflict enough economic and political pain that the US / EU / NATO collapses as a potential uni-polar power.

One proof of this is that Russia has not cutoff oil and gas to Europe, nor food, fertilizer or other commodities to any nation, but is simply allowing western sanctions to blowback and begin destroying the west economically. Their message is that any country willing to ignore western sanctions is welcome to trade with Russia for whatever it needs… the US / EU / NATO be damned.

Say what you will about Putin and Russia, but he is turning the US / EU / NATO strategy in Ukraine into an existential crisis for the Empire of Lies.

“Putin needs to take down NATO and get the US out of Europe.”

I don’t think an attempt by Russia to directly “take down NATO” would be good for anyone, especially not Russian soldiers.

We have to realize that Nato is really ZATO, the Zionist army of the Rothschilds. The way to deal with Rothschilds is to strip them of their wealth, and Hitler was on the right track when he confiscated Louis Rothschilds assets after the Austrian Anschluss.

Today, almost all of the planet’s Central Banks are part of the Rothschilds cabal, all of them being vassals of BIS/IMF/WB. Russia needs to stop focusing all her material and intellectual resources on territorial gains in Ukraine, and focus on dethroning the dollar as the world reserve currency.

Russia has made progress on this front when they forced “unfriendly” states to pay for imports in Rubles.

A bigger splash was made when Russia temporarily set the exchange rate for gold at 5000 Rubles/oz. Gold shot up at this point, and took over a month and lost of interventions for BIS/IMF/WB/FED to get gold back under $1900/oz.

The problem here is that Putin does not have control of his own Russian Central Bank. It is hard to determine whether this is deliberate (ie. if he has been ordered to keep his hands off by some kind of Rothschild influenced forces).

Clearly Europe is on the brink of a self inflicted energy crisis unseen since Germany took on the Communist Jews with Barbarossa.

Russia should immediately stop all oil and gas exports to Europe for fiat money, except perhaps to Hungary and Serbia. Russia should demand payment in gold from Europe at a rate of approximately 50 Rubles/Dollar * $2000/oz / $200 barrel = 500 rubles / barrel.

Natural gas, Palladium, Nitrogen fertilizer, Titanium and all other commodities should be priced similarly.

Russia should make clear that any blockade or embargo of Russian exports will be met with an equivalent escalation of a naval blockade of Europe, starting with the Baltic sea. The key here is insurance rates for shipping. All Russia needs to do is transport some of the recovered sea mines from Mariuople and Odessa and release them from St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

Some people might claim that Germany lost 2 world wars fighting an embargo, but a key difference here is the Mackinder Doctrine. Russia sits in the center of Asia, and can conduct trade all over Eurasia without ships. Germany starved for lack of food and resources, Russia does not suffer from this shortcoming.

In short, Russia can call the Rothschild/BIS/IMF/Nato bluff. The only question is if Putin is a Rothschild stooge like Johnson, Macron, Von del Leyen, Trudeau, Biden and all the rest. Germany will starve without its exports, and if Germany starves most of Europe will too.

Start reading around…the M777 is hyped by the Western press and so called analysts as the second coming. Extremely deadly may be against poorly trained and equipped third word military, the Russian Koalitsya is a better weapon, with more than double the rate of fire, longer range and much better protection in the armoured self propelled variant.

No, it does not outrange the Russian guns, there is reliable info on the web other then the propaganda drip at CNN. Just because the M777 has a shorter range, there is a new model/ prototipe called M777E , with a longer barrel, aiming for higher round velocity.

Once the M777 fires, the counter battery identifies the spot and a Krasnopol guided round will take it down. As an alternative, the 203 mm rounds fired by Pion are so powerful that pinpoint precision is not needed …

I guess we will see soon how the M777 performs in a rough environment, where better guns and proper trained folks are shooting back, taking out poor Iraki peasants was not that difficult.

I do not agree with the ideea that the war should have been over in several weeks.That would have been the case in 2014, when Ukraine army was seriously undertrained and equipped. There were by Western data no less than 22000 NATO military instructors in Ukraine, after 8 years and quite a few billion bucks, Ukraine came up with core profesional army at NATO standards. In the modern times there has not been a major conflict between first world military, it would not be a walk in the park by no means, but Russia still carries a heavy advantage in military resources and short supply lines.

An other fact overlooked by the pro Ukraine media/ analysts is the rather small commitment in men and military resources on the Russian side. In Donbas, lots of fighting is done by the separatists militia and Russian National Guard, not the RA and they are taking their time avoiding direct assault actually in the last several days things are speeding up quite a bit.

A proper superpower, let alone regional power, should be able to mass enough QUALITY firepower to pulverize a part of defense in rural and push through it [Ukrainian fortifications and trenches]. That the Russians can’t do it speaks volumes.
…
What we are seeing is crude WW1 grind. Pulverize with massed artillery and then move in, LOCALLY, with (any) infantry. And again. And again.
…
I don’t think that approach will work. — peterAUS

Now we are in a difficult situation and this situation will be aggravated.

Within a month and a half, until Western weapons arrive, encirclement, abandonment of positions, heavy losses are possible. You have to be ready for this.

Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovich

via Intel Slava Z on 5/26

“We, the active servicemen of the 13th Motorized Infantry Regiment (58th brigade of the 13th battalion), appeal to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a request not to use us as cannon fodder and take us to a safe zone for resupply with equipment, weapons and people, because at the moment we cannot fulfill the tasks assigned to us. Also, in the light of recent events, the personnel need physical, moral and psychological recovery in order to fulfill the tasks assigned to us to hundred-per-cent.

We are appealing to you because our command does not hear us and ignores all our requests, setting subsequent tasks that we cannot perform.
…
Commander-in-Chief, the leadership of the 58th brigade came to us today, and they already want to take our people by three or four men and put them in prison, as they say.

Today is May 22, we don’t want to be cannon fodder. We want to defend our country, but we are not given such an opportunity. We are being sent without any training to the battlefield. As you can see on this appeal, there are a lot of military personnel among us. Before the mobilization, some of them had never held a weapon in their hands, let alone any training. This video shows that these servicemen do not even have any means of personal protection. We are running out of food, drinking water. They are constantly trying to bury us, and so far they have succeeded. We hope for your understanding and ask for your help.”

via SouthFront (emphasis added)

I can, with just one (brief) set of questions ascertain not only whether the “handle” [commenter] has ever been in military but a pretty good guess about rank, experience, especially combat experience. — peterAUS

Is it smart, or suicidal, to underestimate your adversary’s capabilities and intentions? To overestimate your capabilities?

Might it be possible that Russia is using both mass and precision artillery/MLRS and CAS at the front because the Ukrainians prepared WWI-style trenches and fortifications? That their tactic might be to reduce those fortifications and attrit Ukro troops and supplies before storming the trenches with infantry?

And, a “superpower” armed forces destroyed an enemy [Azov] BATTALLION in ONLY 50 days?!? Great. — peterAUS

That’s simply a dishonest assessment… and you know it. It took Russian and DPR/LPR forces fifty days to liberate Mariupol. Almost 2500 Ukrainian troops surrendered at the Azovstal steelworks alone. Over 4000 thousand surrendered during the operation. The estimated number of Ukrainian troops defending Mariupol ranged between 10,000 and 20,000 — with 12,000 to 15,000 being commonly accepted as accurate and included the 36th Marine Brigade as well as the Azov Battalion.

That means Ukrainian forces at Mariupol suffered between 160 and 220 casualties per day, on average.

This is getting ludicrous… is right.

Glad to know someone on UR is willing to learn something… — Wizard of Oz

[The CFR is] Deep State, going back generations. — Ben the Layabout

Just in case you might be interested…

Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley, Ph.D. (historian)

Who Is Running America (a series) by Thomas Dye, Ph.D. (sociologist)

These are worthwhile reads about the CFR and U.S. deep state. FWIW, have maintained a subscription to Foreign Affairs for well over thirty years. Graduated from a university with a fairly large number of faculty who were CFR members. My choice of institution (and instructors) was not simply fortuitous. Smart people, among other things, and well organized. Committed.

I consider it my patriotic duty to keep my FBI observer entertained.

Then why post at this pro-Russian troll infected site? Is posting here a calling or career for you?

Agree. I posed the same question to PeterAUS, for which I never got an answer.
Added to the fact that he saw as a complete waste of time to try to make people change their minds and had better things to do ! But he keeps coming here…