Puppet Masters
"Is it fine to put so much effort into Ukraine?" the former official asked, as quoted by Japanese media. "It's almost unthinkable that Russia will lose," he added, during a meeting of the Japan-India Association in Tokyo on Wednesday.
The 85-year-old politician explained he didn't understand why Tokyo was willing to damage its relationship with Moscow after "we have come this far." Russia and Japan have an unresolved territorial dispute and are technically still at war with each other.

US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida walk through the colonnade of the White House in Washington, DC, on their way to the Oval Office on January 13, 2023.
Japan is the most illustrative. Until recently, the country was reluctant to peddle a militant attitude either in terms of weaponry or even in using economic pressure. Things are changing, and this is a strong indicator of the transformation of the international arena.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has just completed a tour of the US and the leading countries in Western Europe. Contrary to usual custom, there was virtually nothing but military rhetoric everywhere. In a policy statement delivered in Paris, Kishida stressed that the security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific region are inextricably linked and must be ensured collectively.
Other statements in Rome, London and Washington confirmed the new trend: In the security field, Japan no longer intends to limit itself exclusively to its relationship with the US, though it forms the basis of its entire defense strategy. Now, Tokyo seeks a much broader engagement with the main Western bloc (NATO), subject to its gradual reorientation towards the Pacific space.
This is verbatim text, as found at WhiteHouse.gov. Our comments are below each segment in bold and italics.
Today, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President Joseph R. Biden, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met in Mexico City for the 10th North American Leaders' Summit (NALS). The leaders are determined to fortify our region's security, prosperity, sustainability and inclusiveness through commitments across six pillars: 1) diversity, equity, and inclusion; 2) climate change and the environment; 3) competitiveness; 4) migration and development; 5) health; and 6) regional security.
Right off the bat, you know that this document means trouble. Every American is fully aware of the woke concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion and how that plays out in their daily lives - discrimination against them. Climate change is being used to push through global tyranny. This sets the stage for what is to follow.
We have several creepy crawlers over there this week who exude what's wrong with America - Seth Moulton, Joe Manchin and Brian Kemp. There are many others but, for brevity's sake, let's focus on these three as examples of why no U.S. politician worth their salt should attend these meetings.
Vera Jourova, the vice president of values and transparency for the Executive European Commission, speaking Tuesday on a Davos panel with the Orwellian title "The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation," predicted the U.S. would soon have hate speech laws, like they do in Europe, regulating what people can and can't say on the internet.
Here she is, sitting next to the Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts, Seth Moulton, who she taps condescendingly on the arm and laughs as she makes her dystopian prediction. Watch the video below and you'll see Moulton just smiles and says nothing to rebut her evil prediction.
However, the current level of anti-Chinese rhetoric in the US and an historical willingness to walk away from treaty vehicles that fall foul of US interests, could combine and result in Bill Nelson's self-declared "space race," becoming the foundation of future US declaratory policy — especially once billions of dollars are allocated by the US Congress premised on such a notion.
"As members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives are tasked with providing oversight of the same companies they invest in, yet they continually buy and sell stocks, outperforming the market time and again. While Wall Street and Big Tech work hand-in-hand with elected officials to enrich each other, hard-working Americans pay the price. The solution is clear: we must immediately and permanently ban all members of Congress from trading stocks," Hawley said.
Comment: The Pelosi's have proved to have uncanny timing in their trades. Funny that.
- Pelosi made $6M in Amazon insider trading scheme purchase during Coronavirus meetings just prior to forced retail closures
- Nancy Pelosi scoops up call options for Google, Disney, Roblox stocks
- Nancy Pelosi's recent stock purchase raises important ethics issues for all of Congress
- Tucker explores Pelosi's stock wealth and how she's raking in the cash: 'Limousine liberalism' on steroids
- Nancy Pelosi's son, who tagged along on Taiwan trip, is investor in Chinese tech firm: report
- Nancy Pelosi's son was involved in FIVE companies probed by the feds, connects him to a slew of fraudsters and convicted criminals
Early on the morning of May 2, 1945, General Vasily Chuikov, the commander of the Soviet 8thGuards Army, accepted the surrender of the German garrison of Berlin.
Two days prior, soldiers from the 150th Rifle Division, part of the Soviet 5th Shock Army, had raised the victory banner of the Red Army over the Reichstag. An hour after the banner went up, Adolf Hitler and his mistress, Eva Braun, committed suicide in his study inside the Furhrerbunker.
Chuikov, the hero of Stalingrad whose battered 62nd Army was renamed the 8th Guards Army in honor of their victory in holding that city in the face of a massive German onslaught, had led his troops into the heart of the Nazi capital, battling stubborn Nazi resistance in the Tiergarten district of Berlin, where the den of the Nazi beast was located. The Soviet general was rewarded for the courage and sacrifice of his soldiers by being in position to accept the German surrender.
To put it bluntly, soon Russia will be in a position where a single ship could, in a matter of minutes, fire 16 nuclear armed hypersonic missiles at the United States which not only cannot be intercepted by anything in the US arsenal, but also would impact their respective targets before any meaningful evacuation could be conducted. It is, literally, a decapitation weapon.
Current Russian nuclear doctrine does not allow for a nuclear first strike; indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that Russia would not be the first nation to use nuclear weapons in any future nuclear conflict. But he also emphasized that Russia would not be the second, either, meaning that Russia would release its nuclear arsenal without waiting for any US first strike to impact Russian soil.
The Admiral Gorshkov is sending a clear signal to the US leadership that there will be no survivors in any nuclear exchange between the US and Russia.
GT: What's the black swan event in 2022 in your eyes?
Ritter: The Russian-Ukraine conflict is the black swan event of 2022. I think when we looked at 2021 moving into 2022, there was a lot of talk about the potential of Russian military action against Ukraine. But I believe that many in the West did not think that Russia would actually go through with it. They believed the consequences of a Russian military operation against Ukraine would be so severe and disastrous for Russia that Russia would be deterred from doing this. This is why the greatest emphasis that the West placed on trying to deter Russia wasn't military, but economic, the threat of economic sanctions.
Comment: It would be hard put to argue with Ritter's assessments.
Scott Ritter interviews:
- US military expert: Russia to score major victories in Donbas, must adapt to new NATO game
- The Ukrainian conflict is a US/NATO proxy war, but one which Russia is poised to win decisively - Scott Ritter
- Scott Ritter: America couldn't defend Ukraine even if it wanted to
Comment: So that there's no doubt in anyone's mind, here is the Foreign Minister of Germany today stating - in crisp English - that "we [Germany/the EU/NATO] are fighting a war against Russia."
Arguing in favor of sending tanks to Kiev, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said EU countries were fighting a war against Russia. US and EU officials have previously gone out of their way to claim they were not a party to the conflict in Ukraine.
Baerbock, during a debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday said:
"And therefore I've said already in the last days - yes, we have to do more to defend Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more also on tanks. But the most important and the crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other."While Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that Germany ought to support Ukraine but avoid direct confrontation with Russia, his coalition partner Baerbock has taken a more hawkish position. According to German media, her Greens Party has been in favor of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, and eventually managed to pressure Scholz into agreeing. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who was reluctant to send tanks to Ukraine, was pushed to resign.
Comment: Options are rapidly collapsing. The future may no longer be 'open'.
Comment: See also: Biden signs onto 'Declaration of North America (DNA)' with Canada and Mexico: Is the planned North American Union making a comeback?