Among the many troubling aspects of our myriad current national crises is the cognitive dissonance that plagues our ability to see clearly the true challenges we face.
Case in point: I generally respect and appreciate Maria Bartiromo's efforts every Sunday morning to get to the bottom of the Russia Hoax and its impact on...not only Trump's presidency...but the integrity of our system of government. I think she would agree (as, presumably, everyone here would) that the allegations of Trump's 'collusion' with Russia were utterly false, as were allegations of material Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 election. If Mrs Clinton's allegations were false (and they were), then who was the enemy of truth and integrity in the 2016 election? I think Ms Bartiromo would agree with me on the answer.
But then she turns around and interviews warhawk Republican Congressman Mike Turner who advocates increased Western aid for Ukraine, including escalating military involvement, and possible use of nuclear weapons. She knows Russia is not the real enemy (see above) but apparently she can not resist joining the jingoistic American chorus which insists that the Ukrainian cause is just and that the billions of dollars of US expenditures and devastating loss of life in Ukraine as well as the increasing destabilization of Europe is equally justified.
At the end of the day, I don't think we can have it both ways. One of the narratives will fail.
McConnell is keeping a tight hold on campaign funds. I suspect Johnson--who's in a tight race against a total loon--has to toe McConnell's policy line if he wants any help.
Here is the NYT response to Putin's speech: https://archive.ph/anmsl. I'm not sure that the Times reporters and editors read the speech. If they did, they certainly did not report it accurately or address the factual accuracy of the allegations Putin makes.
I suppose this is why resolution of our differences seems so unlikely.
So Putin looks at the US and calls a spade a spade and the msm characterized it as “crazy”. When I saw that he had used words like “tradition” and “Satanic” as well as gored the sacred ox of transgenderism, I knew that the substance of the speech would be dismissed and placed in the folder marked “Crazy Putin Rants”.
Isn't that the truth? I'm afraid the demolition of Western civilization has proceeded so far in most of the major Western countries--including the US--that no leader can speak such truths openly. Orban in Hungary comes to mind.
How is it that the Russian President has a much better sense of the culture and mood and desires of the American people (and more concern for them) than our own President or any of the leaders of the American Congress? Isn't that a sad commentary on the state of our politics? Of our supposed Republic?
I remember when it was a Soviet project to "demoralize" the U.S. population. That project seems to have largely succeeded during the last 75 years or so, with the American left as its agents, despite the demise of the USSR. Now we have a Russian President who is defending our own traditional values against those same forces. What a crazy society and world we have become.
Between this and his February speech outlining Russia’s historic causus belli, Putin sounds more anti-Soviet and anti-communist then any sitting world leader since Ronald Reagan left office.
Yeah, some of his anti-colonialist digs at the US sound like something out of the Andropov or Ivy League faculty lounge playbook, but those are aimed at getting the West to back off of Russia. The actual justifications for annexing Russophone/ethnic Russian territories to Mother Russia are profoundly small-c conservative.
"In another bizarre story I can’t make up, yesterday Fort Bragg doctor Jamie Lee Henry — the Army’s first openly transgender officer — was indicted for … wait for it … trying to give American soldiers’ private medical information to Russia. According to prosecutors, last month the couple met with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian diplomat, and they offered to turn over medical information from their base, Fort Bragg, home of the military’s elite Delta Force."
Interesting that there are no actual Russians involved.
The wife of the trans-whatever you call it Army officer went on the internet and announced her desire to help Russia. Eventually, let it be known that actually her husband/(wife?) would be the helpful one as an Army medical service corps officer with secret information about how field hospitals would be set up in war time. {People, if you’ve seen MASH you know how to set up a field hospital}.
So an FBI agent had somehow seen this internet traffic and they sent an FBI guy to impersonate a Russian spy to run a sting on these two mendacious morons.
Then the Military Times runs a headline as if the feds have pinched a Russian espionage plot, when, as mentioned at the beginning, no Russians were involved in this caper.
Right! The whole thing is absurd. It's quite a mashup of themes. A trainwreck even. I pasted it in because I thought Mark might appreciate the FBI setup angle.
Yes, and imagine a government willing to do that to their military. Oops! No need to imagine. We have that. God forbid, and God, forgive! Heal our land!
More than most Americans, I am sympathetic to Russia in the situation, but I must say that much of this speech is rather crazy.
A reasonable argument can be made for adjusting some borders so that some Russian-majority regions are included into Russia. A key part of that argument was that Ukrainian President Yanukevych was expelled from his elected position in 2014 after those regions had voted for him overwhelmingly.
Putin should have applied diplomatic pressure peacefully, patiently and persistently so that referendums in those regions be conducted. If those populations voted by super-majorities (say, 2/3 or 3/4) to re-draw the borders, then the borders should have been re-drawn.
Instead, Putin has invaded Ukraine, causing much destruction and death and discredited Russia in other countries.
Putin thought that waiting patiently for a peaceful resolution -- for referendums to be allowed and conducted -- was not practical, because NATO intended to incorporate Ukraine imminently. That consideration needed to be discussed reasonably in the United Nations and elsewhere.
I think sincerely that Putin is suffering from some mental disorder. In particular, much of this speech seems to be deranged. It's a disaster for Russia and for the world that he has been Russia's President during the past couple of years.
"Putin should have applied diplomatic pressure peacefully, patiently and persistently so that referendums in those regions be conducted."
2014 to 2022 is EIGHT YEARS. During which time the US was prepping Ukraine for exactly this scenario--to initiate a war to drain Russia and justify a sanctions war that would bring Russia to its knees. To that end--the end of provoking war with Russia--Ukraine persistently shelled civilian areas of Donbass, killing up to 14K people.
It's obvious that this speech was not staffed properly. In other words, a draft was not developed and discussed with the collaboration of various agencies and of top officials and advisors. If that had been done, then weird phrases like "outright Satanism" would have been removed.
Of course, not all Presidential speeches can and should be "staffed properly", but this particular speech was very important.
The impression I got from this speech was that Putin is not disciplining himself to consult with government colleagues or even with wise personal advisors. Instead, he is just ranting and acting without anyone else's influence or advice.
======
In recent years, Putin often has been accused of ordering secretly the assassinations of various journalists, activists and opponents. I always have been very skeptical about such accusations. I have said that such accusations should be proved.
Now, however, I increasingly wonder whether Putin indeed has ordered such assassinations.
I now perceive Putin to be much more vicious than I had perceived him before this year.
>If that had been done, then weird phrases like "outright Satanism" would have been removed.
No. Putin has a good understanding of US politics.
The phrase was chosen because it will strongly resonate with religious conservatives in the US. His speech was designed to target specific groups on the left, right, and other to increase anti-government factionalism within the US.
Your first post's analysis is overlooking significant history, both of the relationship of these four regions to historic Russia and Russia's interaction with them and the west in the buildup to this year's actions.
This post is failing to recognize that Putin is making a cultural argument that is rooted in theology. There is sound reason to believe that the extreme degeneracy being promoted by the west is satanic. It doesn't require that its proponents believe themselves to be worshipping Satan. Rather, it requires only that they be so far gone in immorality as to be under the control of Satan in a special way.
Indeed, when English Bible translations say "demon-possessed" it would be better to say "demonized," which suggests a captivity resulting from immoral choices rather than by force. Putin's argument is not merely legal and geopolitical; it is cultural and spiritual as well.
I will not speculate about Putin's faith. Nor will I speculate about the assassinations. I'm confident that Skripal and Magnitzky were fabrications by the west, but Russia is a hard place with a hard history that was nearly destroyed and colonized by America in the 1990s. I have no illusions about how hard it was to pick up the pieces and position Russia to declare independence from the west this year.
I think it's absurd to say that Russia sabotaged the pipeline.
It's most likely that the pipeline was sabotaged directly or indirectly by the US Government. Perhaps Poland or Ukraine sabotaged it, but with at least the knowledge of the US Government.
The sabotage of the pipeline was a reckless, dangerous action.
Oh that's strong stuff. The very last quote looks like a bit of Giorgia Meloni plagiarism. The Douglas MacGregor video in your previous post was top drawer stuff too. I don't think Elensky has much time left at all now.
Had you got it back. We expect to be out for 30 days. Hope it won’t be so. I want water! 4 days without a shower. I’m in a community and we are all sharing food and help. Debris everywhere. And thanks to everyone for their good wishes. I really appreciate all of them!
Hard to argue with him. I don't pretend to know what goes on in Russia. What freedoms they enjoy and those they do not. At least Putin is saying the right things, Our "leaders" are not!
Obviously he would have had Italy in mind, especially because there's a fair amount of sympathy there with Russia. OTOH, I'd bet he also had Serbia, Hungary, in mind and even Poland. I found it noteworthy that, as usual, Putin went rather easy on Poland. He blamed the "Anglo-Saxons" for the pipeline sabotage, despite the provocative language from Poland and possible complicity. He's looking to foster the opposition in the EU to the globalist agenda. As he often says, he knows the ordinary people aren't Russia's enemies. Doesn't mean those aren't his sincere views, but he's also doing politics for the future and trying to break parts of the EU away.
Among the many troubling aspects of our myriad current national crises is the cognitive dissonance that plagues our ability to see clearly the true challenges we face.
Case in point: I generally respect and appreciate Maria Bartiromo's efforts every Sunday morning to get to the bottom of the Russia Hoax and its impact on...not only Trump's presidency...but the integrity of our system of government. I think she would agree (as, presumably, everyone here would) that the allegations of Trump's 'collusion' with Russia were utterly false, as were allegations of material Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 election. If Mrs Clinton's allegations were false (and they were), then who was the enemy of truth and integrity in the 2016 election? I think Ms Bartiromo would agree with me on the answer.
But then she turns around and interviews warhawk Republican Congressman Mike Turner who advocates increased Western aid for Ukraine, including escalating military involvement, and possible use of nuclear weapons. She knows Russia is not the real enemy (see above) but apparently she can not resist joining the jingoistic American chorus which insists that the Ukrainian cause is just and that the billions of dollars of US expenditures and devastating loss of life in Ukraine as well as the increasing destabilization of Europe is equally justified.
At the end of the day, I don't think we can have it both ways. One of the narratives will fail.
100% agreed. About Levin, too. I read this morning that Ron Johnson, too, is a hawk. I guess going 'anti-war' is just too risky for a conservative...
McConnell is keeping a tight hold on campaign funds. I suspect Johnson--who's in a tight race against a total loon--has to toe McConnell's policy line if he wants any help.
Here is the Kremlin's English-language transcript of Putin's address: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/69465. It is worth reading in its entirety.
Here is the NYT response to Putin's speech: https://archive.ph/anmsl. I'm not sure that the Times reporters and editors read the speech. If they did, they certainly did not report it accurately or address the factual accuracy of the allegations Putin makes.
I suppose this is why resolution of our differences seems so unlikely.
So Putin looks at the US and calls a spade a spade and the msm characterized it as “crazy”. When I saw that he had used words like “tradition” and “Satanic” as well as gored the sacred ox of transgenderism, I knew that the substance of the speech would be dismissed and placed in the folder marked “Crazy Putin Rants”.
I must admit, I would love to hear a US leader speak those words or very similar words.
Isn't that the truth? I'm afraid the demolition of Western civilization has proceeded so far in most of the major Western countries--including the US--that no leader can speak such truths openly. Orban in Hungary comes to mind.
How is it that the Russian President has a much better sense of the culture and mood and desires of the American people (and more concern for them) than our own President or any of the leaders of the American Congress? Isn't that a sad commentary on the state of our politics? Of our supposed Republic?
I remember when it was a Soviet project to "demoralize" the U.S. population. That project seems to have largely succeeded during the last 75 years or so, with the American left as its agents, despite the demise of the USSR. Now we have a Russian President who is defending our own traditional values against those same forces. What a crazy society and world we have become.
Hear, Hear!
Between this and his February speech outlining Russia’s historic causus belli, Putin sounds more anti-Soviet and anti-communist then any sitting world leader since Ronald Reagan left office.
Yeah, some of his anti-colonialist digs at the US sound like something out of the Andropov or Ivy League faculty lounge playbook, but those are aimed at getting the West to back off of Russia. The actual justifications for annexing Russophone/ethnic Russian territories to Mother Russia are profoundly small-c conservative.
Libtard heads all across the US and EU are exploding like Martians hearing Slim Whitman in the movie 'Mars Attacks'.
Thought you might appreciate this one:
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/c-and-c-news-friday-september-30
"In another bizarre story I can’t make up, yesterday Fort Bragg doctor Jamie Lee Henry — the Army’s first openly transgender officer — was indicted for … wait for it … trying to give American soldiers’ private medical information to Russia. According to prosecutors, last month the couple met with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian diplomat, and they offered to turn over medical information from their base, Fort Bragg, home of the military’s elite Delta Force."
Interesting that there are no actual Russians involved.
The wife of the trans-whatever you call it Army officer went on the internet and announced her desire to help Russia. Eventually, let it be known that actually her husband/(wife?) would be the helpful one as an Army medical service corps officer with secret information about how field hospitals would be set up in war time. {People, if you’ve seen MASH you know how to set up a field hospital}.
So an FBI agent had somehow seen this internet traffic and they sent an FBI guy to impersonate a Russian spy to run a sting on these two mendacious morons.
Then the Military Times runs a headline as if the feds have pinched a Russian espionage plot, when, as mentioned at the beginning, no Russians were involved in this caper.
Right! The whole thing is absurd. It's quite a mashup of themes. A trainwreck even. I pasted it in because I thought Mark might appreciate the FBI setup angle.
Yeah, I saw that story but didn't bother reading it--they were obviously utter goofballs. Imagine a military full of those types.
Yes, and imagine a government willing to do that to their military. Oops! No need to imagine. We have that. God forbid, and God, forgive! Heal our land!
More than most Americans, I am sympathetic to Russia in the situation, but I must say that much of this speech is rather crazy.
A reasonable argument can be made for adjusting some borders so that some Russian-majority regions are included into Russia. A key part of that argument was that Ukrainian President Yanukevych was expelled from his elected position in 2014 after those regions had voted for him overwhelmingly.
Putin should have applied diplomatic pressure peacefully, patiently and persistently so that referendums in those regions be conducted. If those populations voted by super-majorities (say, 2/3 or 3/4) to re-draw the borders, then the borders should have been re-drawn.
Instead, Putin has invaded Ukraine, causing much destruction and death and discredited Russia in other countries.
Putin thought that waiting patiently for a peaceful resolution -- for referendums to be allowed and conducted -- was not practical, because NATO intended to incorporate Ukraine imminently. That consideration needed to be discussed reasonably in the United Nations and elsewhere.
I think sincerely that Putin is suffering from some mental disorder. In particular, much of this speech seems to be deranged. It's a disaster for Russia and for the world that he has been Russia's President during the past couple of years.
"Putin should have applied diplomatic pressure peacefully, patiently and persistently so that referendums in those regions be conducted."
2014 to 2022 is EIGHT YEARS. During which time the US was prepping Ukraine for exactly this scenario--to initiate a war to drain Russia and justify a sanctions war that would bring Russia to its knees. To that end--the end of provoking war with Russia--Ukraine persistently shelled civilian areas of Donbass, killing up to 14K people.
It's obvious that this speech was not staffed properly. In other words, a draft was not developed and discussed with the collaboration of various agencies and of top officials and advisors. If that had been done, then weird phrases like "outright Satanism" would have been removed.
Of course, not all Presidential speeches can and should be "staffed properly", but this particular speech was very important.
The impression I got from this speech was that Putin is not disciplining himself to consult with government colleagues or even with wise personal advisors. Instead, he is just ranting and acting without anyone else's influence or advice.
======
In recent years, Putin often has been accused of ordering secretly the assassinations of various journalists, activists and opponents. I always have been very skeptical about such accusations. I have said that such accusations should be proved.
Now, however, I increasingly wonder whether Putin indeed has ordered such assassinations.
I now perceive Putin to be much more vicious than I had perceived him before this year.
>If that had been done, then weird phrases like "outright Satanism" would have been removed.
No. Putin has a good understanding of US politics.
The phrase was chosen because it will strongly resonate with religious conservatives in the US. His speech was designed to target specific groups on the left, right, and other to increase anti-government factionalism within the US.
That's how the game is played.
While the views he expressed are popular in Russia, I agree that he was also speaking to certain targeted Western groups.
Your first post's analysis is overlooking significant history, both of the relationship of these four regions to historic Russia and Russia's interaction with them and the west in the buildup to this year's actions.
This post is failing to recognize that Putin is making a cultural argument that is rooted in theology. There is sound reason to believe that the extreme degeneracy being promoted by the west is satanic. It doesn't require that its proponents believe themselves to be worshipping Satan. Rather, it requires only that they be so far gone in immorality as to be under the control of Satan in a special way.
Indeed, when English Bible translations say "demon-possessed" it would be better to say "demonized," which suggests a captivity resulting from immoral choices rather than by force. Putin's argument is not merely legal and geopolitical; it is cultural and spiritual as well.
I will not speculate about Putin's faith. Nor will I speculate about the assassinations. I'm confident that Skripal and Magnitzky were fabrications by the west, but Russia is a hard place with a hard history that was nearly destroyed and colonized by America in the 1990s. I have no illusions about how hard it was to pick up the pieces and position Russia to declare independence from the west this year.
I think it's absurd to say that Russia sabotaged the pipeline.
It's most likely that the pipeline was sabotaged directly or indirectly by the US Government. Perhaps Poland or Ukraine sabotaged it, but with at least the knowledge of the US Government.
The sabotage of the pipeline was a reckless, dangerous action.
Oh that's strong stuff. The very last quote looks like a bit of Giorgia Meloni plagiarism. The Douglas MacGregor video in your previous post was top drawer stuff too. I don't think Elensky has much time left at all now.
I’m stuck in the middle of hurricane damage in Port Charlotte with no power or water. This is the only news I’m getting. Thank you. Keep it coming
Stay strong. We didn't get hit as bad as you. Had power out for almost 3 days. Restored only hours ago.
Had you got it back. We expect to be out for 30 days. Hope it won’t be so. I want water! 4 days without a shower. I’m in a community and we are all sharing food and help. Debris everywhere. And thanks to everyone for their good wishes. I really appreciate all of them!
Hang in there and God Bless
Praying for you & yours, Jane. May God bless you!
Yes, it does speak for itself. Hear hear!
Hard to argue with him. I don't pretend to know what goes on in Russia. What freedoms they enjoy and those they do not. At least Putin is saying the right things, Our "leaders" are not!
This paragraph is remarkably similar to Meloni's speech.
As is the line about parent 1, parent 2. She used identical language recently.
Obviously he would have had Italy in mind, especially because there's a fair amount of sympathy there with Russia. OTOH, I'd bet he also had Serbia, Hungary, in mind and even Poland. I found it noteworthy that, as usual, Putin went rather easy on Poland. He blamed the "Anglo-Saxons" for the pipeline sabotage, despite the provocative language from Poland and possible complicity. He's looking to foster the opposition in the EU to the globalist agenda. As he often says, he knows the ordinary people aren't Russia's enemies. Doesn't mean those aren't his sincere views, but he's also doing politics for the future and trying to break parts of the EU away.
Indeed, we do have only One Hope, Jesus!