The Weekly Watch
The Fall
This time of year I like to sing Johnny Cash's I Still Miss Someone. The first line is: "Out my door the leaves are falling". They are almost raining down this week. That's not all that's falling. Seems the US Empire, EU, and NATO are all falling and self-deluded. It is probably best for the rest of the world if that happens. Peace would be more likely if that was the case. Let's look at some of the week's news below the fold...
Last week there was a meeting in Abu Dhabi with the US, Russia, and Ukraine to mediate our proxy war. It was a failure as you might expect.
Russian Hardliners Will Shock Kushner and Witkoff
(43 min) Russia is sending its toughest negotiating team yet to Abu Dhabi, and it was built to discuss far more than Ukraine. In this episode we explain why Medinsky, Ryabkov and GRU chief Kostyukov signal a push on European security architecture, why Witkoff and Kushner look outmatched, and why Europe is scrambling for a seat at the table as Ukraine's energy grid collapses. Is Moscow finally putting NATO expansion back on the negotiating table?
00:00:00 Abu Dhabi talks and the negotiating teams
00:01:11 Putin presents his team to the Security Council
00:02:55 Medinsky leads the Russian delegation
00:04:52 Military heavyweights Kostyukov and the General Staff
00:05:54 Ryabkov, Galuzin and European security architecture
00:11:57 Is Putin ready to capitulate?
00:14:13 Kushner's NATO Russia Council idea
00:16:56 Europe tries to gate crash Abu Dhabi
00:22:06 Kallas demands Russian concessions
00:25:09 Zelensky avoiding Kyiv
00:28:19 Democrats push $15 billion for Ukraine
00:32:14 Ukraine's energy grid nears collapse
00:35:02 Dnieper bridges and the front lines
00:39:15 Trump says Ukraine will get smaller
00:40:14 Why Europe wants the talks to fail
Witcoff and Kushner continued on to Moscow where they were read the riot act.
Kushner & Witkoff Bring Another Minsk Agreement to Putin; Will He Agree?
(38 min) Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are back in Moscow, asking Putin to resubmit a European security architecture he already handed to Biden back in 2021. In this episode we break down the Axios report, the hardline Russian positions coming out of the Abu Dhabi talks, and why this push for deescalation and a Ukraine ceasefire looks like a rerun of the Minsk agreements. Will Putin fall for the same play twice?
00:00:00 Kushner and Witkoff head to Moscow
00:01:01 Why a new security architecture is a fantasy
00:02:34 Russia's December 2021 draft treaties
00:04:05 Witkoff, Putin and the ceasefire push
00:07:39 Kushner's game plan: resubmit and deescalate
00:10:22 Russia's hardline positions after Abu Dhabi
00:14:09 Nord Stream, Merkel and Minsk lessons
00:16:41 A rerun of Minsk with a twist
00:19:34 Why Russia is far stronger than in 2021
00:21:11 No good faith from Washington or Europe
00:24:35 Why a deal in weeks is impossible
00:26:06 What Putin should tell Kushner
00:28:19 Trump in a hurry, Putin is not
00:32:14 Inside Russia's Security Council
00:35:12 Biden, Blinken and broken promises
So Russia will continue defeating Ukraine. The EU and US are willing to fight to the last Ukrainian rather than lose face with Russia. They care nothing for the Ukrainian people...they are mere pawns in the West's geopolitical theater.
I don't think the Ukraine war will be ending any time soon
(32 min) Europe is not able to agree anything with Russia, says the Grayzone's Max Blumenthal, and the US Democrats coming in are determined to fund Zelensky's war machine. They see Ukrainians as hit men and bullet stoppers
Iran & Ukraine Showdown Coming | Alastair Crooke
(62 min) Former British diplomat Alastair Crooke joins Pascal to examine negotiations over Ukraine and the emerging debate about Eurasian security. Crooke argues that Europe misunderstands Russia’s red lines and risks dangerous escalation. They discuss Iran, Israeli domestic politics, American power structures, and China’s response to technological containment. The conversation connects regional conflicts with competition over the international order, while exploring economic fragility and the limits of prediction.
00:00 Alastair Crooke: Ukraine talks and Russia’s red lines
11:13 From Ukraine to Eurasian security
20:53 Europe’s strategic gamble and escalation risks
26:47 Why European diplomacy struggles
30:12 Israel’s political crisis and the risk of war with Iran
42:29 Power structures behind American foreign policy
47:31 Russia, China and the contest over the international order
57:55 The economic risks and an uncertain outlook
Conflicts Forum’s Substack.
Recent articles:
Trump Turns Against Netanyahu as Pro-Israel, Pro-Netanyahu Forces Turn on Trump
Trump Turns On Netanyahu
Iran War
Seems to me we're waiting for another aircraft carrier to arrive before we re-start the war. Stupid is as stupid does...and boy are we stupid.
War Is Back—And It's About to Backfire in a Way No One Expected
(18 min) Col. Larry Wilkerson & Larry Johnson
Full 55 min interview:
Mossad Chief Rushes to Washington Over New Iran Strikes
Mossad visiting Trump probably means round 3 of the Iran war.
Netanyahu Still Begging Trump for War
(24 min) Pepe Escobar
Pepe's articles:
Iran–U.S.: A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Waiting for Shenzhen; or for a Land Invasion of Iran?
And a longer interview with Nima:
Pepe Escobar: BREAKING: Iran Rejects Trump's Response, Demands 7 Conditions Be Met
Chas Freeman
(58 min) Iran Says It Destroyed U.S. Radar in Bahrain With Suicide Drones
IRGC Says It Targeted US Radar in Bahrain After US Strike on Sirik
The US has been launching strikes against Iran but hasn't been acknowledging each attack
Eric Trump’s Humanoid Robots To Be Used In Gaza Genocide
They plan to send them into the tunnels.
I often see people wondering why AI is being shoved down our throats with little to no regulation despite the fact that it isn’t improving our lives in any meaningful way, but that’s because AI isn’t intended to benefit ordinary people. It’s intended to power autonomous military robots who will fire upon the citizenry if they attempt a revolution in ways human soldiers might refuse to do. It’s intended to re-centralize control of information, to replace expensive skilled labor, to destroy the collective bargaining power of the working class, and to facilitate mass surveillance throughout our society.
Israel has been flying under the radar, but continues its violent and destructive behavior.
Israeli Bombing of Gaza Hospital Kills Six, Including Prominent Surgeon and 13-Year-Old Boy
‘A slow genocide accelerated’: How Gaza’s winter ‘crisis’ is manufactured by Israel
NGOs and mutual aid groups says tens of thousands of tents lie in warehouses outside Gaza as Israeli restrictions see aid deliveries plummet in October
How Israel has engineered a system of apartheid on West Bank roads
Every afternoon, Palestinian commuters sit behind military gates while Israeli settlers drive on. The system is built to exhaust them and make staying on their land harder
Israeli Forces Shell Area Around Key Southwest Syrian Dam
Local captured in IDF raid on town of Jbata al-Khashab
Artillery Strikes Hammer Southern Lebanon as Officials Detail Massive Damage
Back in the USA...
Flights were grounded across the US...
‘Duffy Lied’: Air Traffic Controllers Refute Trump Transportation Secretary’s Ground Stop Explanation
Air traffic controllers are rejecting US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s explanation for Friday’s nationwide flight ground stop, raising questions about the Trump administration’s account of a communications failure that disrupted air travel across the United States, affecting an estimated 1.5 million travelers....
The ground stop was the longest nationwide aviation shutdown in 25 years, with more than 3,500 aircraft already airborne when the FAA ordered the grounding. More than 4,100 flights were canceled Saturday alone, according to FlightAware. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Saturday that normal operations were expected to resume by Sunday evening.
There was a good effort to impeach Hegseth. Had the democrats showed up and voted it would have passed and been sent to the senate. Massie continues to push for the Epstein file release.
George explains: The Democrats who 'missed' the vote to impeach Greasy Pete Hegseth, the war criminal and child murderer, were major recipients of funding from Aipac, the Israel lobby
(42 sec) How Israel saved Greasy Pete Hegseth
Democrats Missed Hegseth Impeachment Vote While at a Fundraiser with Defense Lobbyists
Max continues on that issue and more...
(27 min) Can Kushner and Witkoff be Taken Seriously?
Let wrap with a walk and talk in Athens with Alex...
Europe’s E5 Takes On Russia; Nvidia Gate and Rubio’s Memo
(41 min) Nvidia Gate is starting to look a lot like Russiagate, as new reporting claims Marco Rubio rewrote a CIA report to help topple Jensen Huang and push the China hawks' agenda. Alex breaks down the Bessent and Lutnick feud over MegaSpeed, Europe's new team of seven E5 negotiators for Russia talks, and the Kremlin's insistence that Europe was never invited despite what Kushner and Witkoff promised. With Putin demanding NATO roll back to 1997, does Europe even have a seat at the table?
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:41 Nvidia and the removal of Jensen Huang
00:04:29 Washington Post: Rubio's rewritten CIA memo
00:08:35 Nvidia Gate brings back Russiagate vibes
00:09:33 Petition to reinstate Huang as investors push back
00:11:21 Bessent versus Lutnick over MegaSpeed
00:13:54 Europe picks seven negotiators for Russia talks
00:17:48 Dublin summit turns into Project Ukraine
00:20:23 Politico and Europe's sequencing plan
00:21:35 Russia says Europe was never invited
00:24:35 Reuters calls out Kushner and Witkoff
00:27:42 Putin's terms and NATO rolled back to 1997
00:30:03 FAA orders a nationwide ground stop
00:32:55 Mossad chief in the US and new German spy powers
00:34:45 Clown World: Kallas and Ursula in Bulgaria
I hope you're having a nice fall. It is still dry here, but we've got good color. Plenty of leaves to rake. Next week I'll blow off the roof, and it won''t be the last time this season. I also need to wash windows before winter sets in cold. Always something....
The thread is open, so please add your thoughts, insights, and stories to the mix!
Comments
This fall the empire has instituted
.
may see heads roll like apples down the hill. The idea of
'doubling down' on villainous policy rather than using
diplomacy and compromise to reduce losses and give room
for sensible solutions is also exhibited by EU. This only hardens
Russian and Iranian positions against the empire. And the people
suffer.
Looking forward to watching a couple vids you posted on this
chilly Sunday. Burned a lot of logs yesterday, may do the same today.
Thanks for the watch!
Zionism is a social disease
We may build a fire too...
...later this afternoon down at the camp house. Right now the wind is gusting, but the new firepit is safe.
Next week may prove interesting. We live in interesting times.
Enjoy your Sunday, and thanks for coming by!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Fall foliage
Very nice photo LO! Is that in your local area? Great news lineup today, thanx.
It's amazing that the great Indo-Pacific project has been stripped down to bare bones militarily speaking, while the news media are jumping up and down about Jensen Huang and the "Chinese spy," China's AI chip national security risk, etc. Meanwhile China commenced significant naval and air exercises in early November that got little news coverage at home. Two years ago and more, the media would have been screaming from the DC rooftops about the latter.
China stages unannounced Pacific drills in 'silent intimidation' of Taiwan, officials say
It seems this story below gets better coverage overseas-
Xi gave a Taiwan red line speech on the occasion of Sun Yat-sen's birthday commemoration on Nov. 12 (160 years anniversary). Much of the coverage is from Indian and Taiwan media sources, not suprisingly.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Yes, the shot is...
on a fire break above the house on the mountain. I think it was 2016, so a decade old.
Alex suggest the Nvidia spy story is a hoax. Jensen Huang supports open source AI which the other tech oligarchs don't like.
The Navy is being abused. This Persian Gulf mission is insane. Honor the MOU...Trump signed it.
Thanks for the visit today!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, Lo!
A bit of humor:
https://x.com/AwakenWithJP/status/2121961615767511160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
JP Sears is a hoot
.
He makes a good press secretary, even if he's not a boxom
blonde. A far cry better than Miller for sure. That guy takes his
role much too seriously. Trumpet really knows how to pick 'em.
Too bad the administration has to be sequestered in a military base.
Zionism is a social disease
He was MC for the COVID
Gathering at the Lincoln Memorial in DC. His Zionist routine in OtC X post was pretty good.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Truth embedded in the humor...
Thanks for the X post laugh!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I get a
kick out of Sears' humorous way of countering doom porn and fear porn.
We didn't get the heavy rains last night as forecast. Or this morning. We are supposed to get heavy rain and possible flooding today and tonight. We ran our errands yesterday, so we are ok one way or another. Local forecasting has been wrong over and over this month.
I am creeped out by those human looking robots about to be utilized in Gaza. Will they be utilized here to quell civil unrest one day? Is that fear porn? Or realistic?
Well, get your chores done, dear friend.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The robot idea creeps me out too...
I hope it is just fear porn, but if it is real TPTB will not hesitate to use them on us if we don't obey.
There's always chores here, and I'm sure at your home too. I dread dusting the tops of the book cases and so on. I first use a vacuum with a brush attachment, and then an oiled rag. Not my favorite task...but we do it once a year.
Finally got into the 50's on a lovely sunny day. Hope the rain isn't too bad for y'all tonight. We actually need some rain.
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Don't forget
how messy cleaning ceiling fans is! I have the brush and Swiffer stuff designed for fan blades, but I still manage to drop dust on the bed when cleaning that bedroom fan.
And don't get me started on mopping wood floors...
I believe the air traffic problem was the switch to SMART.
I read that Putin has green lighted decapitation, and Zelinsky sure looks scared. I have also read that Iran green lighted theirs, too. I am sure you have seen the Iranian billboards, in English, that they were going to kill Trump.
Pay back's a bitch.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
decapitation...
..is what the US, Ukraine, and Israel do on the regular. So I can't blame them for their new orders.
We'll see what we see, but I suspect all of the above will scream in outrage if one of the puppets is assassinated.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout, et. al. Thanks for the OT and WW
Storm numbah 2 is allegedly upon us and will bring showers followed by heavy rain, but it hasn't hit yet. Temps to reach low sixties, maybe, with small craft "advisory" on the Bay.
It seems that somebody directly asked Markwayne Mullin if the ground stop was somehow AI linked and instead of addressing the question he simply pointed out that we shouldn't call it AI because uncle stupid calls it SI. This, it appears stands for Super Intelligence and is the Orange Dotards favorite concept of the moment, which means that it more realistically should be called superficial intellects. Can't help wonder about the official obfuscator's name, reminiscent of Moon Mullins, but with a gratuitous Wayne tossed in there as a warning to all that he is a likely psychopath (like the Wayne in John Wayne Gacy and assorted others)
Ah well, be well and have a good one
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 --
I read one source...
...saying they we're trying out their new AI control program and it crashed the system. They lie, oh they lie.
Hope the storm is light and does no harm. Thanks for coming by!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Well, the government talking head was directly, specifically
asked if it had anything to do with AI, and he sidestepped the question by sayng that they don't call it AI, but call it SI instead and then going off on another topic. To me that means that AI was at least partially at fault or he would've answered a straight up NO.
be well and have a good one
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 --