In the time of the first Queen Elizabeth, British royal circles enjoyed watching fierce dogs torment a captive bear for the fun of it. The bear had done no harm to anyone, but the dogs were trained to provoke the imprisoned beast and goad it into fighting back. Blood flowing from the excited animals delighted the spectators.

This cruel practice has long since been banned as inhumane.

And yet today, a version of bear baiting is being practiced every day against whole nations on a gigantic international scale. It is called United States foreign policy. It has become the regular practice of the absurd international sports club called NATO.

United States leaders, secure in their arrogance as "the indispensable nation," have no more respect for other countries than the Elizabethans had for the animals they tormented. The list is long of targets of U.S. bear baiting, but Russia stands out as prime example of constant harassment. And this is no accident. The baiting is deliberately and elaborately planned.

Tweet: The world has underestimated Putin before and those mistakes have led, in part, to this tragedy in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has become the pivotal figure of the 21st century. Of that there is no doubt. The size and breadth of the ground operation in Ukraine, despite some mistakes, has been impressive.

Before I go any farther I want to make sure that we're clear. While the situation seems to be moving decidedly in Russia's favor, I am willing to remain reasonably skeptical of all the reports I've seen so far.

The slowdown in the information flow over the past few days has been as impressive as the stated gains of the Russian military in Ukraine over that same timeframe.

Since what I've been seeing is repetition and amplification of the same maps and sources, nothing should be taken for granted about the outcomes in Ukraine for Putin and Russia. That said, let's not get carried away in thinking the Ukrainian army is putting up much of a fight here, because they are not.

Russia could be about to pull the plug on the global internet and sever itself from the rest of the world. An unverified tweet has been making waves, claiming the country will remove itself from the international online community on March 11.

A post from Belarus-based media outfit Nexta, has made the claim, suggesting that all companies wanting to keep an online presence there will need to shift to domestic servers.

The tweet reads:

'Russia began active preparations for disconnection from the global Internet. No later than March 11, all servers and domains must be transferred to the Russian zone. In addition, detailed data on the network infrastructure of the sites is being collected.'

The claim has made the rounds on social media, with another account claiming it is in preparation for cyber attacks against the US.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that Ukraine has a plan in place should President Volodymyr Zelensky die in the conflict with Russia.

Zelensky has been on the front lines of the Ukrainian defense against Russia, despite reports of at least one assassination attempt and an attack near his presidential residence.

Blinken told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on CBS News:

"The Ukrainians have plans in place that I'm not going to talk about or get into any details on to make sure that there is what we would call continuity of government one way or another. And let me leave it at that."

A Ukrainian security and defense chief said last week that Ukrainian forces had thwarted an assassination plot against Zelensky with help from members of Russia's security services.

More than 20 Ukrainian soldiers have died and over 200 soldiers are hospitalized in a short period of time because of new and deadly virus, which is immune to all medicines. Donetsk People's Republic intelligence has reported that Californian Flu is leaked from the same place where research of this virus has been carried out. The laboratory is located near the city of Kharkov and its base for US military experts. Information from threatening epidemic is announced by Vice-Commander of Donetsk Army, Eduard Basurin.

Leak of deadly virus in Ukrainian side was published first time on 12.1.2016:

"According to the medical personnel of the AFU units (Ukrainian troops) there were recorded mass diseases among the Ukrainian military personnel in the field. Physicians recorded the unknown virus as a result of which the infected get the high fever which cannot be subdues by any medicines, and in two days there comes the fatal outcome. Thus far from the virus there have died more than twenty servicemen, what is carefully shielded by the commandment of the AFU from the publicity." - MoD situation report

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia's military offensive against Ukraine will stop "in a moment" if Kiev meets several key conditions. Russia wants Ukraine to enshrine neutrality in its constitution, acknowledge Crimea as Russian, and recognize Donetsk and Lugansk republics as independent states.

"They should make amendments to their constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc," Peskov said.

This demand is key, as a course toward NATO accession was written into Ukraine's constitution in 2019. Ukraine's membership in the Western alliance is considered an unacceptable security threat by Moscow, and the bloc's expansion has been compared by President Vladimir Putin to the idea of Russia placing missiles on the US border in Canada or Mexico. During multiple rounds of negotiations leading up to Russia's offensive, Western leaders repeatedly refused to rule out NATO membership for Ukraine.

The Ministry of Finance has set up a special subcommittee to control foreign investment

Russian companies wishing to work with firms from countries which oppose Moscow's military operation in Ukraine will have to receive government permission for the deals, the press service of Russia's Ministry of Finance said on Monday. Permission will be granted by the Government Commission for the Control of Foreign Investments. It includes representatives from Russia's Central Bank (Bank of Russia) and the presidential administration.

According to the resolution establishing the procedure, which was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, a Russian resident company or foreign company from an "unfriendly state" must apply for permission for any business deal.

"[The application] should contain comprehensive information about the applicant, including information on the beneficial owners of the company. Based on the analysis of the documents received and the nature of the future agreement, a decision will be made to approve or refuse to implement it. The main goal of this work is to ensure the country's financial stability in the face of external sanctions pressure."

The government on Monday also unveiled an updated list of countries which have been deemed "unfriendly states" for their positions on the Ukraine conflict.

It sounds like the stuff of Kremlin propaganda, but it's not. Last week Hromadske Radio revealed that Ukraine's Ministry of Youth and Sports is funding the neo-Nazi group C14 to promote "national patriotic education projects" in the country. On June 8, the Ministry announced that it will award C14 a little less than $17,000 for a children's camp. It also awarded funds to Holosiyiv Hideout and Educational Assembly, both of which have links to the far-right. The revelation represents a dangerous example of law enforcement tacitly accepting or even encouraging the increasing lawlessness of far-right groups willing to use violence against those they don't like.


Since the beginning of 2018, C14 and other far-right groups such as the Azov-affiliated National Militia, Right Sector, Karpatska Sich, and others have attacked Roma groups several times, as well as anti-fascist demonstrations, city council meetings, an event hosted by Amnesty International, art exhibitions, LGBT events, and environmental activists. On March 8, violent groups launched attacks against International Women's Day marchers in cities across Ukraine. In only a few of these cases did police do anything to prevent the attacks, and in some they even arrested peaceful demonstrators rather than the actual perpetrators.

The war is not going well for Kyiv, and it would be unreasonable to expect that to change. As a vastly superior military force overwhelms the US client state, reality is in the process of crashing down hard in the face of western liberals who bought into the war propaganda that the brave, sexy comedian was leading an upset victory to kick Putin's ass out of Ukraine.

Zelensky is now raging at NATO powers for refusing to intervene militarily against Russia, apparently having previously been given the impression that the US-centralized empire might risk its very existence defending its dear friends the Ukrainians from an invasion.

"Unfortunately, today there is a complete impression that it is time to give a funeral repast for something else: security guarantees and promises, determination of alliances, values that seem to be dead for someone," Zelensky said Friday.

"All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you," Ukraine's president added. "Because of your weakness, because of your disunity."

Special Counsel John Durham demolished a key Russia hoax figure's attempt to get criminal charges against him dropped.

Approximately two weeks ago, Michael Sussmann's legal team filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charge the special counsel's office brought against the former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney. On Friday, the special counsel filed a response that demolished Sussmann's legal arguments, highlighted several significant facts related to the pending charge, and revealed the ridiculousness of the defense's attempt to hide behind the First Amendment.

Here are five key takeaways from Durham's response.

1. Sussmann's Alleged Lie Was Material Even Under the Defense's Screwy Standard

In September 2021, the special counsel's office charged Sussmann in a one-count indictment with lying to former FBI General Counsel James Baker in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2). As I explained last month,

"Specifically, the indictment charged that when Sussmann met with Baker on September 19, 2016, and provided him 'white papers' and data files purporting to show the Trump organization had established a secret communications channel with the Russia-connected Alfa Bank, Sussmann falsely claimed he was not acting on behalf of a client. In truth, the indictment alleged, Sussmann was working both for the Clinton campaign and an unnamed 'U.S. technology industry executive,' since identified as Rodney Joffe."