In order to understand Vladimir Putin it is necessary to understand Russia. Russia is a unique culture, history and state of the mind. Vladimir Putin is Russia, in heart, soul and mind. Western strategy is to punish him and Russia and send a message that an ascendant, independent Russia is unacceptable to the West, and that he personally will be punished with Western propaganda, until he gives in. The Western narrative is purposeful and fraudulent.

We are being very quickly drawn into the conflict in Syria, and no one seems to care.
Well, Americans don't care, but everyone else in the world does. They care a lot.

I wasn't going to get into this, but this is another thing that makes me extremely unlikely to trust the establishment story.

Last night I said there would be a response to our shooting down of a Syrian military jet.
Well, there was. But the response was even more forceful than I expected.

For six months now, the top news story in the country has been how one man, Putin, managed to infiltrate the internets, take almost complete control of the US electoral system and put a puppet of a foreign nation into the country's highest position of power. What kind of superpowers does this man have to create such turmoil in all three branches of the federal government, the Executive, the Legislative and even the Judicial without so much as firing a single bullet or dropping one bomb?

/s (edited out remark that might be misunderstood - snark on snark - if you will)

I offer some videos for your edification on this Sunday afternoon.

The things you learn on the interwebs.
Hillary fans continue to have bizarre emotional meltdowns all these months later, as a writer for The Nation discovered.

This won't go over well at TOP.
It appears that Germany has had enough with America's Russia sanctions.

drip, drip, drip.... How much of this will be proven to be true? What will happen to Russia? Assange is inferring that Rich was the leaker but will not confirm. More info to come out as the day goes on.

Sane Progressive streaming live:

Trending on Twitter. #Seth Rich

In the great recent essay by Alligator Ed, James Comey fired! Watch out Hillary!, there was a discussion that included the perspective of a person who appears to believe Russia hacked the DNC. I think the following article by Daniel Lazare at Consortiumnews.com lays out some of the reasons I don't believe Russia hacked the DNC and includes reasons why this hollow Russiagate scenario is loaded with the potential to destroy life on earth.

There's nothing worse than being at a party and feeling like no one wants you there.
By "party", I mean the Syrian civil war.
By "no one" I mean everyone in the middle east.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that Russia must be stopped at all costs!

Just look at this international poll of who people think poses the greatest threat to world peace.

The Syrian civil war was always a proxy war between outside military powers, but this week the proxy element became much larger and much more dangerous.
For example, today are forces are rushing to the Syrian-Turkish border to try to stop our two allies from shooting each other.

The Russian President announced that Russia will officially turn to the UN in the Hague for an investigation of the chemical weapons' use in Idlib. Moscow has dismissed suggestions that the Syrian government that it backs could be behind the attack in Idlib province.

One airstrike does not make a war.
For instance, President Clinton bombed Iraq every week for eight years, but it took Bush to lead us into a disastrous war.
So are we going to war with the Assad regime? The rhetoric is unclear at this point, but it is alarming.

CDC Health Alert

Due to a nationwide outbreak of Russian Agents hiding under America's beds the CDC has issued these guidelines.

1) Resist the urge to reach under your bed and grab him. Remember he's just as scared of you as you are of him. He'll likely try to bite you.

2) Talk in a calm voice. Preferably a Russian lullaby. Then draw him out with food.

3) Let him smell your hand before trying to pet him. Be gentle.

The key to the charge that the Russian government hacked the DNC server "to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency" has always been based on the findings of the private firm Crowdstrike.

Read any western news media outlet and you'll find the Baltic nations trembling in fear of the Russian Bear. For example:
Lithuania prepares for a feared Russian invasion
Latvians ready to defend their country in the underground if necessary

Some in the media are reporting that Trump handed Merkel a "bill" for 300 billion for U.S./NATO war and imperialism spending. The White House is saying that is not true but it doesn't matter, the narrative is out there and the people are swallowing it.

The first I had heard about this Montenegrin Coup was when Senator McCain accused Senator Paul of "working for Vladimir Putin.” Naturally the questions from Democrats and the news media was a) when did Paul become a traitor, and b) how high should we hang him?
No on asked the more obvious question: what Montenegrin Coup?

For the past year, instead of attacking Trump for real, concrete reasons of his horribleness, Democrats have gone off the deep end of crazy, irrational, konspiracy theories about Russia. Just visit any Democratic blog like DKos and witness the demands of faith in the unproven that is so absolute that voicing doubts can get you denounced for heresy and banned.

It's amazing to watch Democrats get panicked and obsessed about imaginary and extremely unlikely dangers by the Great Russian Bear (example: invasion of Baltics).