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The return of the 'Bakhmut meat grinder': How Ukraine fell back into a familiar trap

Vladislav Ugolny
RT
Thu, 21 Sep 2023 08:32 UTC
Russian Soldier
© RT
Kiev claims to have captured several "strategically important" villages near Artyomovsk. What does this mean for the situation at the front?

While Ukraine's counteroffensive in the direction of Zaporozhye has practically stalled in the past few months, its forces have made some progress on the eastern section of the front. The battle for Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut), which began in August 2022, continues despite the fact that Russian troops fully liberated the city in May of this year.

After four months of fruitless attempts by Kiev to counterattack, in September the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) finally entered the ruined villages of Andreevka and Kleshcheyevka, southwest of the infamous 'Bakhmut meat grinder'. Ukraine needs to gain control over these settlements in order to launch a new offensive on Artyomovsk and rehabilitate its image after a damaging media defeat.

However, it is still too early to talk about a Russian retreat - the fighting in this area continues and Moscow's forces hold the line of defense along the Artyomovsk-Gorlovka railway line. The outcome of the battle will determine whether Ukraine can avenge its previous failure.

Comment: See Also:

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Red Pill

Erdogan: I trust Russia just as much as the West


RT
Wed, 20 Sep 2023 20:35 UTC
erdogan
© Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has argued that Russia is as trustworthy a partner for his country as the West is, pointing out - among other things - how the European Union has been giving Ankara the cold shoulder for decades over its membership aspirations.

In an interview with PBS on Monday, Erdogan was asked by the host, Amna Nawaz, whether he trusted the pledge made earlier this month by Russia to deliver one million metric tons of grain to Africa via Türkiye. The shipment is intended to help reduce prices in poorer nations after Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Deal back in July.

The Turkish head of state replied by saying he has "no reason not to trust them," adding that "to the extent the West is reliable, Russia is equally reliable."

"For the last 50 years, we have been waiting at the doorstep of the EU, and, at this moment in time, I trust Russia just as much as I trust the West," Erdogan explained.

Comment: Erdogan's actually wrong. Russia is far more trustworthy.

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Bullseye

West has 'no honest arguments' on Ukraine - Lavrov


RT
Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:31 UTC
lavrov
© Timothy A. Clary / AFP
The West does not want to take an honest look at the origins of the Ukraine crisis, and only resorts to pinning the blame on Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the UN on Wednesday.

"Today, the rhetoric of our opponents is filled with slogans: 'invasion', 'aggression', 'annexation.' And not a single word about the root causes of the problem," Lavrov said in a speech at the UN Security Council.

He went on to accuse the West of "fostering a blatantly Nazi regime [in Ukraine], which has been openly rewriting the results of World War II and the history of its own people."

"The West is avoiding having a substantial discussion based on facts and the respect for all tenets of the [UN] Charter. Apparently, it doesn't have arguments for an honest dialogue," the minister said.
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Footprints

How it is

James Howard Kunstler
Clusterfuck Nation
Fri, 22 Sep 2023 00:00 UTC
sign on wall
© Unknown
How it is.
"Our government has not failed us. To fail implies there was at least a good faith effort to do the right thing."
— Eric Matheny
The new science of blobology informs us that political blobs blow up like dying stars gorging on runaway fusion. The blob expands beyond the viable limits of its internal contradictions and implodes in a spectacular vacuum of absurdity. The Washington DC blob's dire pulsations lately signal that it's about to blow its toxic endoplasm all over our nation's capital, drowning many denizens in deadly slime.

Did you catch Attorney General Merrick Garland's performance Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee? The absurdity ran pretty rank in the chamber as the AG artfully evaded explaining how it is he doesn't know a darn thing about the consequential cases in process at his DOJ — and if he did happen to know, he wouldn't be able to say because... reasons.

For instance, the strange inability of one US attorney David Weiss to generate charges after five whole years of investigation in the sundry matters involving the president's son, Hunter Biden, until the statute of limitations on tax evasion dribbled away. And then, after concocting a booby trapped plea deal on a Mickey Mouse gun rap that blew up under a judge's scrutiny, the selfsame Mr. Weiss is appointed Special Counsel (i.e. prosecutor) over those very cases. Say, whu...? Not to mention that it's against the regulations to appoint anyone special counsel from within the DOJ.
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Arrow Up

Cannon fodder: Number of Ukrainian amputee soldiers going through the roof

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Fri, 22 Sep 2023 00:00 UTC
blaster camo
© Genya Savilov
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have become amputees, while many more sustained other injuries or died on the battlefield. The scale of amputations in Ukraine has reached that of the First World War, according to Western media. Between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost one or more limbs since the beginning of the conflict, Western press has reported.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently announced that 40% of wounded Ukrainian soldiers have serious limb injuries that appear to be incurable. However, it is difficult to know for sure how many Ukrainian soldiers have disabilities, because this information is top secret, according to a Norwegian media outlet.
A commonly cited ratio for dead and injured in wars is 2-4 people wounded for each person killed. Sometimes, the number of those wounded may be 13 times as high depending on what weapons systems are used on the battlefield. One could easily calculate what price Ukrainians paid for the counteroffensive encouraged and sponsored by the West.
As per the Russian Defense Ministry, over 71,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed during the three months of the Kiev regime's counteroffensive.
Given that Ukraine and Russia have been involved in high-scale counter-battery duels since the outset of the conflict, most of the wounds at the front have been caused by shrapnel and artillery fire, military personnel and war correspondents have said. Meanwhile, Ukrainians also sustained heavy losses while trying to storm Russia's sophisticated defense lines and minefields, which have been largely blamed by the Western press for the failure of the Kiev regime's offensive operations.

Comment: Sick bastards! What a travesty. Such a waste of life and potential.

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Newspaper

Non-profit backed by Soros, foreign billionaire bought nearly two dozen local newspapers in this swing state

Robert Schmad
Daily Caller
Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00 UTC
Wyss/Soros
© hamous.net/Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Leon Neal/Getty Images/KJN
Tycoons Hansjörg Wyss, George Soros and The Stacks
George Soros' Open Society Foundations and left-wing Swiss Billionaire Hansjörg Wyss quietly donated millions of dollars to a non-profit that acquired nearly two dozen local papers in Maine in July, according to Semafor media.

The National Trust for Local News acknowledges that it received funding from Soros' organization, but denies that the Open Society Foundations provided funding specifically for the purchase of the local papers. A source with direct knowledge of the acquisition, however, told Semafor that Soros and Wyss did donate funds so the National Trust could acquire the papers; the donations had not been previously reported.

Wyss is also a supporter of States Newsroom, a left-wing network of local news outlets that began as a project of the left-wing Hopewell Fund. States Newsroom is currently expanding operations in Maine.

Maine Public reported that the Soros-backed National Trust now controls the largest network of newspapers in Maine. In total, the National Trust acquired five daily papers and a further 17 weekly publications.

Wyss is a major funder of American progressive organizations, funneling nearly $500 million into left-wing advocacy groups.

Comment: Aim: '$$$' controls the message, the people, the future.

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Propaganda

US government and media lying about Ukrainian counteroffensive - Seymour Hersh


RT
Thu, 21 Sep 2023 14:43 UTC
first aid
© AP/Libkos
A Ukrainian soldier gives first aid to his wounded comrade
A source has told the veteran reporter that Kiev and Washington are deceiving the public about the situation on the ground...

US intelligence analysts believe that Ukraine has given up on its counteroffensive against Russia and the only thing prolonging the conflict is the unwillingness of Washington and Kiev to acknowledge its failure, a source has told investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

Writing on Substack on Thursday, the veteran reporter cited an unnamed source, who "spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying" as rejecting the Ukrainian narrative about slow but steady progress in its counteroffensive:
"'It's all lies. The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.'"
This sentiment is shared by many figures in the US intelligence community, and the CIA in particular has been skeptical of Kiev's claims of a continued push forward, unlike the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he explained.

Comment: There is more to this war's underbelly than will ever be revealed, considering we are privy to its cover story and astute enough to identify it as such. Those who have died - know not for what, as 'truths' are merely tools. The time to have settled this was before it began.

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Smiley

White House launches pared-back Climate Corps to train green energy workforce

Nancy Vu
Washington Examiner
Wed, 20 Sep 2023 08:10 UTC
Bidensalute
© Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times/KJN
US President Joe Biden salutes American Climate Corps
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday the launch of an American Climate Corps to train thousands of young workers to pursue careers fighting climate change, a pared-back version of the program Democrats first proposed in sweeping climate legislation.

The New Deal-era program, which is expected to tap at least $40 million to fund the initiative, will aim to hire and train a new generation of the workforce focused on clean energy and a climate-resilient economy through projects such as conserving and restoring lands and waters while deploying clean energy. But the new program is a sliver of what was initially proposed in President Joe Biden's 2021 American Jobs Plan, which would have invested $10 billion for a 300,000 workforce but failed to become law.

The move comes amid revived pressure from Democrats, who just days earlier called for the White House to create the program through executive order after it was left out of the Inflation Reduction Act. Led by climate hawks Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), they argued the program was necessary to work on key conservation and climate priorities.

Comment: ACC will perpetuate and intensify the home grown global warming scam...until hell freezes over.

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Newspaper

West needs to listen to Global South - UK Foreign Secretary


RT
Wed, 20 Sep 2023 00:00 UTC
Leaders in developing countries feel ignored as Ukraine takes center stage, said James Cleverly
James Cleverly
© Getty Images / Dan Kitwood
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly
Leaders of the Global South are growing irritated by what they perceive as lecturing by the West, the UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told The Guardian on the sidelines of the UN general assembly.

The official warned that "the West will be in trouble unless it learns to listen better to the Global South" and stated that many foreign ministers from those countries feel that all they hear Western leaders talk about is "Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine."

"We have got to be sensitive to that," he stressed.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

Intel-linked UK Official Pushing Censorship of Russell Brand

Kit Klarenberg
The Grayzone
Thu, 21 Sep 2023 12:06 UTC
The author of letters to social media companies demanding the financial punishment of Russell Brand is a British lawmaker implicated in London's war on Covid-19 and Ukraine dissenters. Her husband was a commander in the Army's psy-ops division.
77th brigade

"All quiet beneath the watchful eyes..."
Allegations of sexual impropriety and abuse by comedian and podcaster Russell Brand by the British media prompted YouTube to demonetize the star's popular channel on September 20.

The Grayzone can now reveal that YouTube's financial censorship of Brand is the result of an effort waged by a former British government minister who was responsible for London's crackdown on dissent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her husband has also participated in that campaign of state repression as deputy commander of 77th Brigade, the British Army's psychological warfare division.

YouTube justified its demonetization of Brand on the grounds that he violated its "creator responsibility policy." This marks the first time a content creator has been financially punished by the company for reasons other than the videos published on the site. A spokesperson has claimed, "if a creator's off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action."

The allegations against Brand date from betwee 2006 and '13, and have yet to be proven in court. There is no indication the charges are being investigated by law enforcement in Britain or the US, where the offenses allegedly occurred. Brand has vehemently denied accusations of abuse and rape.
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