What with one thing and another I haven’t been following The Duran guys as much as I used to. Today I listened to a Mercouris live stream. Among many other topics, Alexander spoke at some length about what in the world is going on with Trump and Putin. First there was the much touted Alaska meeting that turned out to be something of a bust—Trump cut it short. But then there was talk of behind the scenes communicating and a two and a half hour phone call. That resulted—for a day or two—in plans for another big meeting in Budapest. But Rubio called Lavrov—which was the agreed upon prelude to the two presidents meeting, to try to sort out the major issues—and, Boom! the Budapest meeting was off. In fact, it appears that the American side leaked that to the press without even having the courtesy to inform the Russians first. Which left the Russians baffled at first. And then Trump removed all doubt and puzzlement with a calculated insult: he stated meeting with Putin would have been “a waste of time.” By the way, I watched a brief video of Trump saying that. I have to say, I found his shambling gait (walking to the desk) and vague verbalization rather disturbing.
Anyway, Mercouris tried to tie all this together. He’s one of those people who somehow thinks that Trump wants peace—whatever that actually means, and you really have to wonder, after watching Trump’s performance. Mercouris is puzzled that Trump, by his account, seems to desperately want war mongering Neocons to like him. As he puts it, Trump talks up peace, then turns around and appoints the Boltons and Pompeos and their ilk to high level positions. Mercouris writes this off to a weird longing on Trump’s part to be liked by these unlikeable people.
For my part, I prefer the simple explanation that Trump hires people he despises—like Bolton—because he has to. He has to because his major Jewish Nationalist donors tell him to. Trump said so himself during his almost incredible (if you didn’t watch it) performance in Jerusalem. The Adelsons told him to hire Bolton, a man Trump despised, and so he hired Bolton. Trump’s Jewish Nationalist controllers don’t really trust Trump, it seems. He’s their frontman but they have to keep him under control, and so they’ve put two Jewish real estate guys—Jared (the guy Trump promised wouldn’t be part of 2.0) and Steve—in charge of most foreign policy. There are some few shabbos goy types like Rubio for window dressing, but Veep Vance gave the game away when he made aliyah and referred all substantive questions to Jared—Veep Vance didn’t even dare try to enunciate policy in his own words.
If you keep that background in mind, much of Mercouris’ speculation of Trump - Putin hangs together. And forget about Trump wanting peace. He wants to win, and when you’re talking about Russia ‘winning’ means peeling Russia off from China, thus breaking up BRICS. That was his foreign policy during 1.0 and it remains his policy. The minders are there to keep him on the straight and narrow.
Putin seemed eager to meet with Trump in Alaska. What we heard after the meeting—which was a truncated two hour affair with essentially no press conference following it—is that Putin lectured Trump on Russian history. In other words, he presented the historical and cultural case for why NATO should leave Ukraine alone. Trump, of course, couldn’t care less about Russian history or the Russian point of view. Nevertheless, Mercouris postulates that Putin must have thought that he had somehow communicated that point of view to Trump. Putin must have been expecting some positive developments from the Alaska meeting, which explains his nonsensical endorsement of Trump’s Gaza bait and switch.
However, the weeks passed and no positive developments occurred. This, according to Mercouris, led Putin to engage in a two and a half hour phone call with Trump. Mercouris posits—based on the tenor of remarks by high level Kremlin spokesfolks like Ushakov—that Putin probably became rather angry with Trump and pushed for real diplomatic engagement in the standard format. In other words, the Budapest meeting, but preceded by intensive and substantive discussions between Rubio and Lavrov that might make a peace agreement—not a ceasefire—possible. In the end, Trump agreed. But then …
There must have been alarm bells going off all over in the Deep State. The last thing the Anglo-Zionist wants is a real peace deal with Russia. So they had Rubio call Lavrov, then leak that the Russians hadn’t budged—which wasn’t news; Putin has been perfectly up front with Trump about Russia’s bottom lines—and so the whole thing was off. And Trump was trotted out—well, he shambled out—to insult Putin by saying the Budapest meeting would have been a “waste of time”. Without having communicated anything to Putin or anyone else on the Russian side. Presumably this was done as a shot across Putin’s bow, to get him to stop talking to Trump.
And now this evening …
The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter
2h
BREAKING: The US announces new sanctions on Russia’s 2 largest oil companies.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” said Treasury Secretary Bessent.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent @SecScottBessent
Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire. Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.
That’s the Deep State making damned sure that Putin gets the message: There will be no peace. You must surrender to our will.
Can you imagine how pissed off Putin probably is right now? The frantic refrain of “an immediate ceasefire” we keep getting from the NATO ruling elite tells you a lot about how the war is going. Not peace. Just a ceasefire, so NATO/Ukraine can somehow regroup. Meanwhile, the NATO/Ukraine attacks on Hungarian and Romanian oil refineries looks like a message to “our allies”: Join in—or else.
Well, Bessent is heading off to Kuala Lumpur, where he’ll be trying to talk the Chinese out of their export controls on rare earths for military use. You can bet the Chinese have been following all this with great interest, because they know that they’re the real target, the Main Enemy, that the Anglo-Zionists are gunning for.
I’ll be busy tomorrow.
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"...Can you imagine how pissed off Putin probably is right now?..."
Can you imagine that Putin did not know long ago that this would be trump's ploy? I can't. Nor can I imagine that Putin is pissed off. He probably wagered a few rubles on this outcome and won the bet.
trump is way out of his league, and his handlers will have to insist on U.S. military action...somewhere.
ON the DT/OFAC press releases: This is interesting but rather dismaying.
The link at the bottom [ https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20251022] takes you to a list of about 50 more Russian oil companies, most very local, that are now sanctioned. The idea is to shut them down and bankrupt Russia and its military. I cannot imagine that it would have any effect at all on an oil refinery in, say, Udmurtia. And consider an oil company in Khabarovsk, on the Chinese border. Chinese buy Russian oil and have indicated they will continue to do so.
That page links to a press release [ https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0290 ] that makes it clear that this is about Trump's demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine, that is, the effective surrender of Russia. The press release unintentionally makes clear how bankrupt Trump's Russia-Ukraine policy is. Quite precisely, it makes it obvious that the US is incapable of actual diplomacy and can only threaten, corrupt and brutalize weaker nations.
Of course Russia, and China, are not weaker nations and they are not intimidated. These tactics work pretty well on, say, Serbia, but here just look stupid and a bit pathetic. Not a good look. This is supposed to show unchallengable American Power, but it merely shows weakness and self-decepton.
The three general licenses listed add little, except the third one has a strange idea. That is, embargoing gas station payments: if you go to a Lukoil gas staton outside Russia, you cannot pay them directly, but must deposit the amount due in a US-controlled blocked account. Good luck with that.
"...Can you imagine how pissed off Putin probably is right now?..."
Can you imagine that Putin did not know long ago that this would be trump's ploy? I can't. Nor can I imagine that Putin is pissed off. He probably wagered a few rubles on this outcome and won the bet.
trump is way out of his league, and his handlers will have to insist on U.S. military action...somewhere.
ON the DT/OFAC press releases: This is interesting but rather dismaying.
The link at the bottom [ https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20251022] takes you to a list of about 50 more Russian oil companies, most very local, that are now sanctioned. The idea is to shut them down and bankrupt Russia and its military. I cannot imagine that it would have any effect at all on an oil refinery in, say, Udmurtia. And consider an oil company in Khabarovsk, on the Chinese border. Chinese buy Russian oil and have indicated they will continue to do so.
That page links to a press release [ https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0290 ] that makes it clear that this is about Trump's demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine, that is, the effective surrender of Russia. The press release unintentionally makes clear how bankrupt Trump's Russia-Ukraine policy is. Quite precisely, it makes it obvious that the US is incapable of actual diplomacy and can only threaten, corrupt and brutalize weaker nations.
Of course Russia, and China, are not weaker nations and they are not intimidated. These tactics work pretty well on, say, Serbia, but here just look stupid and a bit pathetic. Not a good look. This is supposed to show unchallengable American Power, but it merely shows weakness and self-decepton.
The three general licenses listed add little, except the third one has a strange idea. That is, embargoing gas station payments: if you go to a Lukoil gas staton outside Russia, you cannot pay them directly, but must deposit the amount due in a US-controlled blocked account. Good luck with that.
All of this is simply delusional.