Puppet MastersS


USA

The War in Ukraine Marks the End of the American Century

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:00 UTC
US flag
"The ferocity of the confrontation in Ukraine shows that we're talking about much more than the fate of the regime in Kiev. The architecture of the entire world order is at stake." Sergei Naryshkin, Director of Foreign Intelligence
Here's your 'reserve currency' thought for the day: Every US dollar is a check written on an account that is overdrawn by 30 trillion dollars.

It's true. The "full faith and credit" of the US Treasury is largely a myth held together by an institutional framework that rests on a foundation of pure sand. In fact, the USD is not worth the paper it is printed on; it is an IOU flailing in an ocean of red ink. The only thing keeping the USD from vanishing into the ether, is the trust of credulous people who continue to accept it as legal tender.

But why do people remain confident in the dollar when its flaws are known to all? After all, America's $30 trillion National Debt is hardly a secret, nor is the additional $9 trillion that's piled up on the Fed's balance sheet. That is a stealth debt of which the American people are completely unaware, but they are responsible for all the same.
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No Entry

Lebanon issues warning to Israel over plans to tap gas deposits in disputed waters


RT
Tue, 07 Jun 2022 20:47 UTC
Michel Aoun
© AFPFILE PHOTO: Aoun warned Israel against 'aggressive action' in disputed waters
A battle over Mediterranean waters rich in natural gas deposits bubbled up on Sunday when Lebanese President Michel Aoun warned Israel that trying to tap the offshore riches without first resolving a territorial dispute would be seen as a "provocation."

"Any action or activity in the disputed area represents a provocation and an aggressive action," Aoun said on Sunday in a statement. He made his comments after a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel arrived in the disputed area, where London-based upstream firm Energean plans to start pumping gas from the Karish field under contract with the Israeli government later this year.

Aoun said he discussed the FPSO's arrival with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and asked Lebanon's Army Command to provide him "accurate and official data to build upon the matter." Mikati called the situation "extremely dangerous," saying Israel was trying to "create a new crisis, encroaching on Lebanon's maritime wealth and imposing a fait accompli in a disputed area."

Comment: See also: Forbes asks: 'Was Israel responsible for the Beirut explosion?'

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Newspaper

Ukrainian victory 'not in the cards' - former top US official


RT
Tue, 07 Jun 2022 15:18 UTC
ukraine tank destroyed
© RIA/Viktor AntonyukA damaged Ukrainian armed forces tank in Tsupovka in the Kharkiv region
Ukraine won't be able to win against Russia, and the US must persuade Kiev to negotiate with Moscow to end the conflict, Hugh De Santis, who oversaw NATO and arms control policy planning in the Reagan administration, has insisted.

Defeating the Russian forces on the battlefield and restoring Ukraine's territorial integrity, including taking back Crimea, "would be condign punishment for Russia's unprovoked invasion," De Santis wrote in his opinion piece for The National Interest magazine on Saturday.

"But would it be worth the cost of more carnage in Ukraine, the possibility of a wider war in which chemical or tactical nuclear weapons might be used, further disruption of the world economy, and renewed European polarization?" he asked.

According to the former State Department official, the answer to that question is negative.

"A Ukrainian military victory is not in the cards, and a negotiated outcome is the only realistic goal," he insisted.
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Nuke

Russia's investigation of biolabs in Ukraine is still ongoing


Stalker Zone Org
Tue, 07 Jun 2022 17:00 UTC
Ukraine BioLabs
© Stalker Zone Org
The Investigative Committee of Russia has published a documentary about the investigation of a criminal case on the development and production of biological weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine. At the moment, there are several versions for which, judging by the published documents of the Russian Defence Ministry, biological laboratories that belonged to the United States were located in Ukrainian cities.

"The fact is that in the submitted materials there are documents on the study of, for example, highly pathogenic avian influenza. The performer is the Kharkov Institute of Veterinary Medicine. The data indicates that in the area of attention of Ukrainian and foreign scientists were wild birds, which, according to investigators, could become carriers of the infamous avian flu - an extremely contagious and very dangerous disease transmitted not only to animals, but also to humans," the film says.

Also, according to reports, pathogens of African swine fever were being developed in secret laboratories. By the way, outbreaks of this disease have been recorded in recent years on the territory of the Russian Federation in the regions bordering Ukraine. According to the Rosselkhoznadzor [Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision - SZ], in 2021 the damage from these diseases exceeded 1,700,000,000 rubles.
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Putin

Putin in no hurry to absorb liberated Ukrainian territories into Russia

Yves Smith
naked capitalism
Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:00 UTC
Zel/Put
© APUkraine President Volodymyr Zelensky • Russian President Vladimir Putin
Just because Russia has been slow and methodical about grinding up Ukraine's army and materiel in Donbass does not mean that there's reason to think Ukraine can turn its losses around with generous applications of Western funding, weapons, and hopium. And on the economic war front, even though Russia has taken a hit, it seems to be making surprisingly solid progress in adjusting, while conditions in the US and Europe look to be worsening, and at an accelerating rate.

Admittedly, the press, presumably reflecting the readings of military experts, has greatly reduced coverage of the conflict now that even generous applications of porcine maquillage can no longer hide that things are going from bad to worse for Ukraine. A very long established contact forwarded this message from a former senior US military official:
Just in from an Army Colonel in the building:
"Spoke to someone today who said that the Ukie basic training is 10 days and then off to the front. 65% casualty rates. At least double or more the losses of the Russians but you don't hear anything about it."
Recall that Scott Ritter, early on in his many detailed analysis, said that if one side was consistently inflicting casualties at a higher rate than the other, even at a ratio of say 1:1.2, the side with the lower losses would prevail.
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Target

The US government's top priority now is to defeat Russia in Ukraine

Eric Zuesse
The Duran
Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:00 UTC
Bear/Flags
© Pixabay/MT
On June 1st, the U.S. Government added $700 million to the $40.1 billion that it ordered on May 19th to be spent on winning their war against Russia that's going on in the battleground of Ukraine, bordering Russia. (By way of comparison: Imagine if, instead, Russia were to have couped Mexico in 2014, and now set their top priority as being to win their proxy-war against America, in Mexico — 6,700 miles or 10,700 kilometers away from Russia — and were allocating tens of billions of dollars in order to win their proxy-war against America in that way.) While Ukraine is supplying, for America's proxy-war against Russia, the soldiers (America's proxy boots-on-the-ground in that war), and Ukraine's corpses, and Ukraine's injured, and Ukraine's destruction, America is supplying whatever money and weapons it believes will be needed so as to enable those forces to defeat Russia on that distant battleground, in this war, which detracts from, instead of adds to, the security of the American people. This is the reality of what is now happening.

Furthermore: also on June 1st, the U.S. Government, which during the prior days had been promising that it would not be supplying to Ukraine any weaponry that can reach far into Russia, violated that promise when Reuters headlined that night, "EXCLUSIVE: U.S. plans to sell armed drones to Ukraine in coming days -sources", and reported that "The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said." Up until that moment, America had been saying that it was never going to allow Ukraine to attack Russia, and that only usage against Russia's forces within Ukraine would be allowed; but, now, that promise is voided. That weapon has a 400 kilometer range, which is five times greater than the 80km-range that the Biden government had been saying was the limit they would provide to Ukraine (so as to prevent Ukraine from invading Russia).
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Network

Turkey, Russia agree to de-mine Ukrainian ports to erect 'grain corridor'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 06 Jun 2022 20:05 UTC
Black Sea port, Odessa
Port in Odessa
For days the United Nations has been in (so far unsuccessful) talks on cobbling together an agreement on plans to unblock Black Sea grain exports from Ukrainian ports, including controversial discussions with Russia, which has stood accused of 'weaponizing' global food supply with its military blockade of key ports. Moscow has in turn charged that Ukraine said ports, making tanker traffic impossible, while also saying the West must ease sanctions if it hopes to get crucial grain exports flowing again.

UN officials have said President Vladimir Putin's offer to lift the blockade if sanctions are dropped is "complicating" the already "fragile" negotiations. Washington has been watching with skepticism: "The bottom line is that, apart from leveraging overland routes, we need to get the ports back up and running so we can boost food supplies for those most in need," a State Department spokesperson said in weekend comments.

Comment: Notably Putin recently met with African Union representatives, who, as noted above, rely heavily on these exports, and they don't seem to be blaming Russia for the current crisis, they actually refused to condemn Russia for its special operation in Ukraine, despite pressure to do so by the West: Pro-Russia protesters rally in Central African Republic holding 'against Nazism' signs as Putin meets with African Union leaders

See also: Egypt's finance minister echoes warning of looming global famine where 'millions could die', intends to remove country's bread subsidies

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Binoculars

Biden Rocks the Middle East

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:00 UTC
Biden middle east
That dwindling band of observers that continues to express concern over the catastrophe that constitutes United States foreign policy under President Joe Biden have come to realize how the Ukraine situation is being used as cover for interventions and other similar mischief in other parts of the world. Recent reporting, for example, reveals that the Biden Administration has decided "to reestablish a persistent US military presence in Somalia to enable a more effective fight against al-Shabaab" in spite of the fact that "there is absolutely no constitutional authority for President Biden to send troops into Somalia or drop bombs on Somalia." Nor does al-Shabaab represent a threat to Americans or American interests.

To be sure, the emphasis on Ukraine has a certain cogency as it is particularly dangerous and could lead to nuclear devastation in a situation where intervention by the United States was not only unwarranted but also unresponsive to any actual national interest of threat. And escalate it will if the White House continues on its current path. Ukrainian government sources are now stating that the United States is preparing to destroy the Russian Black Sea fleet to end the blockade of Ukraine's ports. The commander of US forces in Europe General Christopher Cavoli seems to be confirming that report when he refers to the preparation of "military options" to help export Ukrainian grain.
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Take 2

Best of the Web: Russian MoD leaks 'behind-the-scenes footage' of Ukie war propaganda, staged and paid for by British govt


RT
Mon, 06 Jun 2022 10:57 UTC
british war propaganda ukraine
© Russian MoDBritish taxpayers' money is being spent in Ukraine to produce convincing footage of the regime's success against Russian forces, thus ensuring continued support for sending more taxpayers' money to British firms profiting from the Western proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry released on Friday what it claimed to be staged combat scenes filmed on behalf of the Ukrainian government and paid for by the British government. The two short clips appear to be raw footage of what looks like a war movie.

The filming of the videos took place on May 28 in the town of Meshkovka in Ukraine's Nikolaev Region, the ministry said. A train station of the same name is located on the outskirts of the provincial capital in the south of the country.

One of the videos shows two armored vehicles facing the camera. At the command of a woman, who appears to be the film director, the backdoor of the closest vehicle opens, and a group of armed men in uniform wearing red armbands starts pouring out. Several others rise from the grass around the second vehicle in the distance and start moving forward, their weapons raised.


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Bad Guys

Why is the US-led West so afraid of Lavrov visiting Serbia?

Andrew Korybko
One World
Mon, 06 Jun 2022 22:55 UTC
serbia flag
No friendly state would ever do to another what Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Montenegro just did to Serbia, which is disgraceful to the extreme and a violation of the most basic diplomatic norms. They and their American overlord are afraid of Lavrov traveling there because the positive example of Russian-Serbian relations draws attention to their unfair relations with the US.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova confirmed late Sunday night that Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Montenegro all closed their airspace to her boss Lavrov's planned flight to Serbia on Monday, where he was scheduled to visit on a two-day trip to meet with this friendly country's leadership. This disgraceful development confirms that all three of them are nowadays nothing but US-led Western puppets and also represents another milestone in how terrible Russian-NATO ties have become since the onset of Moscow's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.

Despite a lot of diplomacy being conducted remotely during the highpoint of the COVID-19 pandemic, professionals always prefer to handle business face-to-face if given the choice. That's because it's more difficult to spy on them and easier to strike up a personal rapport with their counterparts. Russia's top diplomat probably planned to discuss their energy cooperation, Belgrade's proud refusal to sanction his country despite publicly condemning it at the UN under foreign pressure, and other related matters. This was evidently unacceptable for the US-led West, however, hence why they obstructed his trip.
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