The Weekly Watch

Game Changer

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Many changes are afoot, but the title primarily refers to Russia's new hypersonic missile, Oreshnik or hazelnut. Many analysts suggest it is as significant a development as the atomic bombs of the 1940's. Will the incoming Trump administration be a game changer? Judging from the bulk of his nominees, I don't think so, but I'm willing to wait and see. Will BRICS+ change the world and financial order? They've certainly begun the process. All these changes and more below the fold...

(28 sec)

Russia and China Are Rewiring Greek Mythology (Pepe Escobar)
Oh, the wonders chips from dishwashers are able to unleash. How come Zeus, King of the Gods, could not have foreseen it? Especially when his divine intuition was aware that in the future his thunderbolts would be replicated in Russia via Oreshnik – a seemingly harmless hazelnut tree. Mythology prefigures post-everything reality. Now let’s go back to Newton for a bit. Based on his formulas, a one meter long uranium projectile flying at very high speed is capable of perforating 6 meters of hard rock (to the sound of Deep Purple’s Highway Star?) A warhead traveling at 1,200 meters per second is capable of perforating 46 meters of concrete. Now imagine impact velocity greater than the speed of sound; the impact depth, of course, is exponentially fiercer. Impact shock, at very high velocity, turns whatever is ahead into gas. A – kinetic – shock wave pops up as deep as 50 meters, swarming the deep underground and crushing, destroying – actually imploding – everything in its wake.
....
Putin compared an Oreshnik strike with the impact from a collision with a meteorite: “We know from history what meteorites fell where, and what the consequences were. Sometimes it was enough to form entire lakes.” Even as he stressed that “publicity is inappropriate when dealing with new weapons”. That was exactly the case with Oreshnik: “We waited until the moment when we conducted the test and, in fact, saw a result. And then we made an announcement.” That sets the context for what Mikhail Kovalchuk, the actual creator of these seemingly innocent hazelnuts, the post-everything replica of the thunderbolts of Zeus, told Izvestia on the sidelines of the IV Congress of Young Scientists in the federal territory of Sirius. Kovalchuk is the president of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center. Essentially, he remarked how “the materials that Russia has that can withstand ultra-high temperatures made it possible to create the Oreshnik system and will make it possible to create other types of hypersonic weapons.”

Message to NATOstan: Don’t Poke the Russian Bear | Pepe Escobar Interview (43 min)

Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar joins Counter Currents host and former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to discuss the following issues:
Will Russia and NATO go to war?
The dangers of underestimating Russia
and Russia’s geopolitical chess game with Global South and BRICS

Another discussion with Pepe and Nima...
Pepe Escobar | Russia's Lethal Message: Will the West Finally Listen?

(54 min)
And the answer to Pepe's question is: "apparently not."

If you want more from Pepe...
NATO’s Madmen: Driving the World Toward Chaos – With Pepe Escobar (55 min)
We welcome back the 'Rockstar of Geopolitics,' Pepe Escobar, to discuss NATO's provocative moves and its call for Europe to prepare for war. We'll also delve into Russia's new 'Oreshnik' missile system and its implications for the conflict in Ukraine, the possibility of a ceasefire in Lebanon, ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, and much more.

The US simply doesn't understand diplomacy. TPTB only diplomatic strategy is threats and sanctions. They are not interested in peace. War is too profitable.

Lights Out In The Ukraine, In General Kellogg’s Brain Too
The damage assessments of yesterday’s November 28 electric war strikes against targets across the Ukraine spell the countrywide collapse of electricity supply before January 20, when the new Trump Administration will take office. By then, the Russian General Staff will have deprived Keith Kellogg, the retired US Army general newly appointed to serve as Trump’s negotiator for end-of-war terms, of the options he has publicly declared for himself, and also for Trump, in their war to make America great again in Europe. “The Mayor of Kiev told us this is genocide,” Kellogg said in interview with Fox News.“Now we are right on the cusp…This is going to be a fight to the end… Again, as I said, I think it’s a fight to the finish…Why this is important geo-strategically is that if we [US] can — if the Ukrainians can defeat Russia in the field, and evict them from the Donbass or the Crimea, Putin falls. It changes Europe for a generation to come…So one of these two sides is going to win. I don’t think there’s going to be anything to negotiate.”
...
According to a US veteran of the Afghanistan War, the career military experience Kellogg brings to his new job is “losing, not winning on the battlefield. He’s a typical empire enforcer. The last time Kellogg fought a competent military force, it was the Vietnamese, and Kellogg lost. For Trump to pick a man whose military victories are the invasion of Panama, the defeat of Iraq in Gulf War-1, and running a nuclear war bunker with Paul Wolfowitz during 9/11, tells you that it’s lights-out in the minds of both the soldier and his commander.”

BoJo the clown is back at it...
Boris Johnson Calls For NATO Troops On The Ground In Ukraine Yet Again
The argument sounds like a thinly veiled threat: If the US tries to force a peace deal, then Britain will send troops, escalate the war and ensure that no peace is possible. Johnson also asserted that if Russia gets the upper hand in the conflict then Britain may deploy it’s forces regardless in order to “defend Europe.” Ukraine’s eastern defenses are currently being overrun by ongoing Russian attrition tactics. This reality in combination with Trump’s avalanche election win seems to have triggered establishment ghouls into a frenzy of escalation with Joe Biden giving the greenlight on long range missile strikes coordinated directly by NATO forces. To be clear, Ukraine is not part of the EU nor is it a member of NATO. NATO warhawks like Johnson have consistently claimed that Russia’s intent is to invade greater Europe (domino effect propaganda similar to the Vietnam War), yet there is still no evidence to support this.

Donald Trump Won’t Be Able To Quickly End The Ukraine Conflict
The most ambitious scenario would be to sign a comprehensive agreement with the West, dividing spheres of influence and addressing the issues outlined in Putin’s December 2021 ultimatum. This would mean creating a new security architecture in Europe that acknowledges Russian interests and reassesses the outcomes of the Cold War. However, this goal is hardly attainable under current conditions. A more realistic scenario involves a limited agreement with the West regarding Ukraine. While this seemed improbable six months ago, it is now being seriously considered. Talks began even before the US elections. Leaked information suggests that the West may propose a ceasefire along the front lines and a 20-year moratorium on Ukraine’s NATO membership.

Moscow, however, demands Kiev’s disarmament and political neutrality. The fighting will likely continue until these contradictions are resolved. The final choice is one without any significant agreement, similar to the post-2008 events in Georgia. Ukraine’s military defeat would become a political victory. If Kiev’s reliance on the West wanes, Ukraine, like Tbilisi, would abandon its hostile stance toward Moscow to avoid further military losses and recover its economy. This third scenario has become more likely as Ukraine faces growing challenges on the battlefield and the West reduces support. The reality is that a relatively stable agreement with the West regarding Ukraine can only happen if Kiev renounces its antagonistic policy toward Russia.

For this solution to unfold, the West must avoid direct intervention and refrain from increasing military aid to Ukraine. This is Putin’s strategy – as he holds no illusions about Trump or the possibility of a diplomatic resolution. Why? Because an agreement is only possible when contradictions are resolved, but the fundamental issue between Russia and the West remains unresolved: neither side is ready to accept Ukraine as part of their opponent’s sphere of influence.

Western Asia
Ceasefire Falters as Israel Launches Airstrikes on Southern Lebanon
The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire began Wednesday morning. Less than two days later, it seems to be faltering, with multiple reports of Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, and claims of violations by both sides. Israel carried out an airstrike against the outskirts of Baysariyeh, which is near Tyre. They confirmed the attack, saying they were targeting a Hezbollah storage facility after seeing “terrorist activity.” They added in their statement that they were “acting to enforce violations of the ceasefire.” Though the claims of violations are coming from both sides, so far it is only Israeli forces whose violations actually involve firing. Lebanese people continue to try to return to their homes in the south, despite Israel’s military forbidding them to do so. There are multiple reports of Israel carrying out artillery shelling against towns and villages across southern Lebanon this afternoon.

Israel STILL BOMBING Lebanon Despite Ceasefire Deal! w/ Max Blumenthal

(15 min)

More from Max and Jimmy (9 min)
Was October 7th A HUGE Miscalculation By Hamas?

The Gaza War Is Destroying Israel! w/ Max Blumenthal (11 min)

Here's Max and Judge Nap

Max Blumenthal : Is Netanyahu Trustworthy?

The ceasefire is/was not sincere, just a cover for another conflict...
U.S., Allies Reignite War On Syria
As of now the situation continues to escalate. I had underestimated the role of Turkey in this.
President Erdogan seems to have taken control of HTS and is using it to pursue his aims. These include to widen Turkish control over Syrian land, to further damage the anti-Turkish resistance movement within the Kurdish population of Syria and to impress on president-elect Donald Trump that he can be a reliable ally in a fight against Iranian influence.
Jihadists under Turkish control have attacked Syrian government position on the western side of Aleppo city and diversion commandos seem to have infiltrated the city itself. A large part of this operation is the (fake) news onslaught accompanying it. Current information from the area is way too confused to state with some certainty what exactly is under who's control.
There are several forces fighting in Syria. The Turkish 'rebel' side, supported by Israel, Turkey and the U.S., includes two distinct groups. The former al-Qaeda Jihadists in Hayat Tarhir al-Sham [HTS] under Abu Muhammed al-Jolani were, and likely still are, financed and armed by the CIA through proxy actors in Qatar. HTS includes a significant number of Turkmen and Uighur jihadists from Central Asia. The second group is the so called Syrian National Army which is a group of Sunni Syria mercenaries paid for and controlled by Turkey.

They Lied About Gaza, And They’re Lying About Syria
Al-Qaeda affiliates with a history of receiving western funding have reactivated in Syria along with Turkish-backed fighters to recapture significant amounts of territory in the war-ravaged nation.
It’s hard to say exactly what’s happening in the moment, but I will say it’s mighty convenient how Russia being tied up in Ukraine and Hezbollah being decapitated by Israel leaves Syria once again exposed to the longstanding regime change agendas of the same western empire who’s been backing both of those proxy conflicts.

People have been so misinformed about the US endless wars...

Alastair Crooke discusses the new war in Syria and the complex interactions in the region...

Desperate Escalations in Middle East & Ukraine - Alastair Crooke, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
(1.2 hours)

It's the Economy Stupid!

Leaving The West Behind: The BRICS Plan for a New Financial Architecture | Prof. Anu Chenoy (40 min)
In some circles, it has become common place to view BRICS as an anti-western alliance. But that is not the nature of this club. BRICS is non-western, not anti-western. And that's the fundament on which its cooperative power is built. Listen to Professor Anuradha Chenoy explain the fundamental difference as well as the pillars of the new financial system the group is working on.
Anuradha Chenoy is a specialist of international affairs who has worked for decades especially on Russia, Human Security, Arms Trade, and Peace building.
Article here... The BRICS Plan for a New Financial Architecture

Trying to save an over indebted dollar system...
Trump Threatens BRICS
The BRICS nations will be hit with 100% tariffs on their goods if they try to introduce a reserve currency to rival the dollar, US President-elect Donald Trump has warned. Trump has repeatedly threatened to use tariffs to achieve his geopolitical goals. ”The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. Trump went on to say that he would ask the BRICS nations to promise not to create a common currency, “nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar,” or they will face 100% tariffs. ”They can go find another ‘sucker!’” he continued. “There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.”
...
Using local currencies to settle bilateral trade bills “helps to keep economic development free from politics,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the time. Trump has vowed to use tariffs to settle US trade deficits, force offshore manufacturers to return, and achieve a range of geopolitical goals. In addition to proposing a blanket tariff of 20% on all incoming goods, Trump has threatened Canada and Mexico with additional 25% tariffs if they fail to reduce the flow of migrants and drugs into the US. Trump also declared this week that “we will be charging China an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs,” until Beijing “follows through” on punishing the producers and smugglers of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.

Can Elon & Trump Save The Dollar From Complete Collapse?!?

(26 min)

Musk Warns “America Is Headed For Bankruptcy SUPER FAST!” (11 min)
Seems to be plenty of money available for Ukraine and Israel.

Scamdemic Lies
Talk about a game changer, I think we all understand the myriad of ways in which the plandemic affected us and the society. But finally there are cracks in the facade and some light is coming through...

Dr. Richard Urso shares some truth bombs about COVID-19, vaccines, lockdowns, masks...
"Everything was a lie from the beginning. The asymptomatic people don't transmit. Kids were not harbingers of the disease. They don't actually, they're like a break on the disease. Lockdowns were a farce. Masks don't work."
"I tell people, I joke sometimes I say masks do work. A lot like bathing suits work to keep pee out of the pool. They're not very effective. So that's one of those things that, you know, it was a farce. Pretty much everything they said was a farce. I know we're still recovering from it. Just yesterday we walked into a pharmacy and they were advertising COVID-19 vaccines."
"Well if you want to destroy your immune system, take a COVID-19 vaccine. It will destroy your immune system. It distributes widely in your body. It can't be broken down because it's a genetically modified RNA. There are contaminants, process related impurities, what I usually call them, but contaminants for most people, that they haven't gotten out of the vaccines."
The drug that I invented took eight years for us to get the process related impurities out. It's hard to do and I knew this would be a problem early on when they were trying to push this so fast because nobody had ever made these vaccines in anything bigger than a blender. What we had is found is even worse."
"They put an SV40 promoter in the vaccine, Pfizer did, that actually well known for the last five decades to bind P53 to Guardian the genome and cause cancers. They know that. We just kept them in the head of the Human Genome Project did this discovery with a few other molecular biologists."
"This is really big news because the contaminants and the impurities in the vaccine are very dangerous and there's design flaws like I just pointed out. Wide distribution to the brain, the bone marrow, the ovaries, the testes and long term production six months or more in the last study that we did. So there's a lot to talk about. Do not get the vaccines unless you just want a crummy immune system. "
"I think the main thing is these vaccines are dangerous. They have process related impurities. They cause cancer, strokes, heart attacks. The data is in 40% more deaths in 2021 between 18 to 64. This is just data we can't ignore, so please stay away from the vaccines."

17,000 Leading Doctors Demand COVID Vaccine Ban and Call for Nuremberg 2.0 Trials
The official narrative surrounding the mRNA vaccines is unraveling fast. Officially, these vaccines are now considered the deadliest drugs in the history of Western medicine, causing death and injury to millions worldwide - yet, the media and powerful elites continue to cover it up.
In the past, drugs like Thalidomide rocked the world and led to massive scandals. But the mRNA vaccines? Their devastating toll on human life has been conveniently ignored or downplayed, as the very people responsible - Big Pharma and the global elite - continue to pull the strings behind the scenes.
The stakes couldn’t be higher, but it’s not too late. Thousands of brave doctors, including some of the most respected researchers in the world, are stepping forward, risking their careers, and their lives, to fight back against the machine and expose the greatest cover up in history.

(18 min)


"They don't want us to prove that the vaccine is in these tumours and that it's driving it."

"..If we could do that simple test in the blood on everybody, and show they had the spike protein, we could then rapidly devise effective detox programs. And then confirm it, because you reduce the ability of this stuff to circulate in the blood.
That should be priority Number One for all health authorities around the world today."
Why isn't it?

The thing about COVID is that many people became aware of all the lies of TPTB in order to control people and the society. As a result many were/are injured and the MSM still cannot manage to tell the truth.
Maddow FLAT OUT LYING About Trump’s Picks For NIH & CDC! (14 min)
If there are half-truths, misdirections and outright lies needing to be spread, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow will always be the first to step up. And now that President-Elect Donald Trump has announced his picks for the top health advisory slots in his administration, Maddow is taking the initiative to spread her own version of “fake news” about what the nominees believe, stand for and have done in the past.
Jimmy shares serial misinformer Maddow’s lies about the likes of well-respected Stanford University physician and NIH director nominee Jay Bhattacharya.

These sort of lies are the MSM stock and trade.

game-changer-340x191.jpg-14839315.jpg

Well it is hard to find a stopping place these days when discussing "Game Changers". We're living in very volatile times as our dying empire tries to hang on for a little longer by spreading chaos far and wide. Hang in there, friends, and we'll see what happens as we approach the new year and new administration. Alex Krainer in a conversation with Nima suggest the UK is planning a false flag event to bring NATO into a full fledged war with Russia. He discusses this hypothesis in the first few minutes of the following clip...
Russia's SHOCKING Warning to the West: The Message They Can’t Ignore!
So we may change administrations but mad men persist in the system.

I hope you'll chime in below with your insights, stories and the game changers you see coming.
The thread is open...

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Comments

QMS's picture

Initial reaction: this ain't a game;
none of it is - Ukie, Izzie, dollar demise,
vax misinfo, anti BRICS, munitions &tc.
Perhaps for the PTB it is a game, but the
board is severely tilted against the ROW.

For the serious players like RUS, CHI and IRN
it is an existential struggle.

Thanks for the watch!

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6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS

It is the weekend of THE game...

(12 min)

...but the game I refer to was described by:
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997)
one of the major works of Zbigniew Brzezinski.
...Regarding the landmass of Eurasia as the center of global power, Brzezinski sets out to formulate a Eurasian geostrategy for the United States. In particular, he writes that no Eurasian challenger should emerge that can dominate Eurasia and thus also challenge U.S. global pre-eminence.

In the 90's the project for the new American Century continues the game plan...

The Brits call it the Great Game, Rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia in the late 19th century. The term was used by Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim (1901). British attitudes were influenced by the reports of official, semiofficial, and private adventurers enjoying the thrill of clandestine operations beyond the frontiers of India, reports that frequently embellished (or even invented) accounts of Russian machinations and the vacillating loyalties of local chieftains.

So I get your point this isn't a game, but that is exactly how TPTB see the the world stage.

Thanks for coming by. Hope you have a great day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

QMS's picture

@Lookout @Lookout
.
.
the idea of western 'full spectrum dominance' or colonial primacy
is not adaptive to present global realities.

Good luck with your game for the Crimson Tide!
It has parallels to tribal warfare.

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2 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS
...but I'm an oddity in Alabama where football rules. I did find it interesting that E. O. chose the game to demonstrate tribalism. His hypothesis is that we evolved as tribal creatures not as individuals. He has since passed on. One of Alabama's great scientists.

Enjoy your Sunday!

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4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
with transcontinental away games and other craziness. Nonetheless the cross-bay rivalry with Stanford continues to be "The Big Game" and Cal won it this year. It is, of course, tribalism, but, in this case, also a bit complex and interesting microcosm. Cal is a public university while Stanford is one of those elitist private schools. Cal is Berkeley, with all that that signifies and symbolizes, while Stanford is The Hoover Institute. Some Stanford students and grads try to downplay that association, but I'm always reminded of an online encounter I had long ago with one of their folks. I had signed off on some post as a "proud 60s Berkeley Radical" and was taken to task by a 60s Stanfordite who was incredulous that anybody could be proud of having been one of those dastardly radicals. He was, himself, very proud of having been one of the National Guard troops that Governor Reagan sent into Berkeley to enforce a city-wide curfew back in the day. Difrunt strokes, as they say.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

Trump’s Threat of 100% Tariffs Targeting BRICS Would Blow Up in America’s Face: Here’s Why

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241201/trumps-threat-of-100-tariffs-targeting...
simply put, we import more than we export and almost nobody really Needs out exports, like US made cars, financial aevice and advisors, US Treasuries, and the like.

THIS seems iffy, just sayin':

Russian Scientist on Cancer Vaccine: Melanoma, Metastases Simply Disappear After Its Use

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241201/russian-scientist-on-cancer-vaccine-me...

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Pluto's Republic's picture

@enhydra lutris

....that emerges in any discussion about tariffs in the US. Even this week, Trump continued to say things like, "China will have to pay enormous tariffs to get just one of their EVs into the US."

Does Trump still believe that China will be forced to pay the tariff at US customs when the EV arrives in Long Beach? Instead of the US importer of the EV, who pays the tariff at US Customs — and then adds that cost to the sticker price paid by US consumers.

Or perhaps Trump is deliberately bamboozling his low IQ constituents.
Or does his confused message say: "Buy an EV from China and damage the Chinese economy at the same time."

Either way, there's a part of me that would like to see Trump's tariffs imposed everywhere that consumer products are sold in the US. It would result in a rapid national lesson in global economics, followed by the immediate mercy killing of the US economy.

Could the US really be stumbling down that rough road, after all the warnings and demonstrations?
If so, I've wasted a lot of time and millions of words on a lost cause.

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6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Pluto's Republic

...of BRICS+, but I don't think western culture understands that approach. No, its "I win, you lose"... that is all we wrap our heads around.

Sanctions and tariffs, they are the stick, but where is the carrot? Oh yeah, we'll sell you some weapons. What a reward. No wonder the empire is falling. It should.

Take care!

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4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

Perhaps we're close to addressing this common array of disease. Let's hope.

Prevention is the best approach, but research dollars don't go there.
Enjoy today!

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4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

dystopian's picture

Hi LO,

Thanks for the great as always WW.

Apologies if already posted, but don't want anyone to miss this version where her 'prop' was not edited out... Wink https://x.com/BrenCharles/status/1861594951026373075

I imagine she continued... "nobody lost more power than me, I lost more power than most of you will ever have, and do you know how powerful that makes you feel?" (Takes big slug of vodka). She continued: "We must be unburdened by what has been, like me burning through well over a billion dollars in a hundred days whilst making Sarah Palin seem coherent. .

Anyway... we made it to December without a freeze, about 34f was it so far. Due to which there are still an amazing amount of green leaves on trees. We still have Pecans with green leaves, though some are bare. Had a Golden-crowned Kinglet a couple times this week, a few Ruby-crowned around as always
in winter. Couple Hermit Thrush and Mockingbird seem to be hanging too.

Hope all are well~

Happy Trails!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian

but not Golden Crowned. Our mocker came and went, yard not too hospitable with resident Scrubbies, I guess. Hermit is round, I keep geting quick brief glimpses as it dives in and out of front hedge.

be well and have a good one

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5 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@dystopian

She just isn't even a mediocre politician.

We have our usual residents, but no one new of late. The pileated were hollering last evening.

Thanks for dropping in!

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5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

snoopydawg's picture

.

I’m watching this now and I’m learning a lot about who the players are.

This is an inside story and an absolute must-watch if you want to understand the terrible perfidy of the cease-fire between Lebanon and the US/israel. We are breaking out into regional wars that are intended to be continued. It is complex. Forever, omni, wars. The war against BRICS and a free world has started in war for the sake of war.

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Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

Thanks for the recommendation!

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2 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

snoopydawg's picture

.

Israel is treating it as a hezzbollah surrender according to Craig Murray.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/11/lebanons-unbalanced-ceas...

Somehow this posted in the 9/29 essay….that’s just weird!

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5 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

Rules for thee but not me. Thanks for the link, I like Craig.

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5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

snoopydawg's picture

.

Aaron details Obama’s support for AQ and other terrorist groups in Syria.

https://www.aaronmate.net/p/al-qaeda-is-on-our-side-how-obama

Obama sat by as his pet terrorists massacred Syrian civilians and wiped out whole families.

Trump ordered the military to pull out of Syria. The military disobeyed his orders and then Trump did nothing.

Infuriate isn’t a strong enough word. Treason is since Obama deliberately armed a terrorist group that America had designated as its enemy.
And then Trump got impeached for a fcking phone call!

up
7 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

That the Syria war was planned crank up if the Israel Hezbollah cease fire came through. I'm thinking Iran is going to finally have their payback strike in the near term. Turkey is not trustworthy.

Thanks for Aaron's article. Hope you and Sam are having a good weekend!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@snoopydawg
is essential reading:

https://www.aaronmate.net/p/al-qaeda-is-on-our-side-how-obama

'Al Qaeda is on our side': in Syria dirty war, US empowered a sworn enemy
In a decade-long, multi-billion dollar campaign to overthrow Syria's government, US support for the insurgency helped create an Al Qaeda safe haven.

AARON MATÉ
APR 20, 2022

… Although the Obama administration claimed that the weapons funneled to Syria were intended for "moderate rebels," they ultimately ended up in the hands of a jihadi-dominated insurgency. Just one month after the Benghazi attack, the New York Times reported that "hard-line Islamic jihadists," including groups "with ties or affiliations with Al Qaeda," have received "the lion’s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition."

The Obama administration did not need media accounts to learn that jihadists dominated the Syrian insurgency on the receiving end of a CIA supply chain.

One month before the Benghazi attack, Pentagon intelligence analysts gave the White House a blunt appraisal. An August 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency report, disseminated widely among U.S. officials, noted that "Salafi[s], the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency." Al Qaeda, the report stressed, "supported the Syrian opposition from the beginning." Their aim was to create a "Salafist principality in eastern Syria" – an early warning of the ISIS caliphate that would be established two years later.

General Michael Flynn, who headed the DIA at the time, later recalled that his staff "got enormous pushback" from the Obama White House. "I felt that they did not want to hear the truth," Flynn said. In 2015, one year after Flynn was forced out, dozens of Pentagon intelligence analysts signed on to a complaint alleging that top Pentagon intelligence officials were "cooking the books" to paint a rosier picture of the jihadi presence in Syria. (The Pentagon later cleared CENTCOM commanders of wrongdoing.)

... Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) is Al Qaeda's franchise in Syria. It emerged as a splinter group of Al Qaeda in Iraq after a falling out between AQI leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and his then-deputy, Mohammed al-Jolani. In 2013, Baghdadi relaunched his organization under the name of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Jolani led his Syria-based Al Qaeda faction under the black flag of al-Nusra.

…In his memoir, senior Obama aide Ben Rhodes acknowledged that al-Nusra "was probably the strongest fighting force within the opposition." It was also clear, he wrote, that U.S.-backed insurgent groups were "fighting side by side with al-Nusra." For this reason, Rhodes recalled, he argued against the State Department's December 2012 designation of al-Nusra as a foreign terrorist organization. This move "would alienate the same people we want to help." (Asked about wanting to help an Al Qaeda-dominated insurgency, Rhodes did not respond).

… In May 2015, an array of insurgent groups, dubbed the Jaish al-Fatah ("Army of Conquest") coalition, captured Idlib province from the Syrian government. The fight was led by al-Nusra, and showcased what Charles Lister, the D.C.-based analyst with contacts to insurgents in Syria, dubbed "a far improved level of coordination" between rival militants, including the U.S.-backed FSA and multiple "jihadist factions."

For Lister, the conquest of Idlib also revealed that the U.S. and its allies "changed their tune regarding coordination with Islamists." Citing multiple battlefield commanders, Lister reported that "the U.S.-led operations room in southern Turkey," which coordinated support to U.S.-backed insurgent groups, "was instrumental in facilitating their involvement in the operation" led by al-Nusra. While the insurgents' U.S.-led command had previously opposed "any direct coordination" with jihadist groups, the Idlib offensive "demonstrated something different," Lister concluded: To capture the province, U.S. officials "specifically encouraged a closer cooperation with Islamists commanding frontline operations."
The U.S.-approved battlefield cooperation in Idlib allowed al-Nusra fighters to directly benefit from U.S. weapons.

… In the ancient city of Palmyra, the U.S. allowed an outright ISIS takeover. "[A]s Islamic State closed in on Palmyra, the U.S.-led aerial coalition that has been pummeling Islamic State in Syria for the past 18 months took no action to prevent the extremists’ advance toward the historic town – which, until then, had remained in the hands of the sorely overstretched Syrian security forces," the Los Angeles Times reported in March 2016.

In a leaked conversation with Syrian opposition activists months later, then-Secretary of State John Kerry explained the U.S. rationale for letting ISIS advance.

"Daesh [ISIS] was threatening the possibility of going to Damascus and so forth," Kerry explained. "And we know that this was growing. We were watching. We saw that Daesh was growing in strength, and we thought Assad was threatened. We thought, however, we could probably manage, that Assad would then negotiate" his way out of power.

In short, the U.S. was leveraging ISIS's growth to impose regime change on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. strategy of "watching" ISIS's advance in Syria, Kerry also admitted, directly caused Russia's 2015 entry into the conflict. The threat of an ISIS takeover, Kerry said, is "why Russia went in. Because they didn’t want a Daesh government."

Russia's military intervention in Syria prevented the ISIS government in Damascus that Kerry and fellow Obama administration principals had been willing to risk. Pulverizing Russian airstrikes also dealt a fatal blow to the Al Qaeda-dominated insurgency that the Obama team had spent billions of dollars to support.

With U.S.-backed fighters vanquished and one of their main champions, Hillary Clinton, defeated in the November 2016 election, the CIA operation in Syria met what the New York Times called a "sudden death." After criticizing the proxy war in Syria on the campaign trail, President Trump shut down the Timber Sycamore program for good in July 2017.

"It turns out it’s – a lot of al-Qaeda we’re giving these weapons to," Trump told the Wall Street Journal that month...

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US) has for the welfare of the average Ukrainian.

You have to squint to see the humanitarian aid which is light blue.

Click on the graph (likely twice) to get a better view!

Such a deal for those being sent to the meat grinder.

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