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Joanne C. Wasserman's avatar

Thank you for addressing a broad swath of war considerations in your article here. I love the steadfastness of the Russian President; he doesn't complain to his citizenry to the media as Western politicians do. I want Russia to prevail in all matters of settlement in the war which it genuinely strived to avoid. That Putin tells his citizens via the Murmansk naval service members' meeting, that he thinks Pres. Trump genuinely wants to end the Ukrainian war (a peace?)--gives me the understanding that Putin studies everything that unfolds as current events, and builds upon his knowledge in order to grow his strategy in conjunction with the Kremlin-based Russian Security Council and Russian Military leadership. It is the care taken to forge the Russian "position" on each issue that effects Putin's credible and trustworthy diplomatic exchanges with people of other nations. I respect his decisions on the points of settlement of the Uk. war. I respect his relationships with the countries with which Russian national interests have found common neighborly purpose.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Megatron @Megatron_ron

BREAKING:

 Fox News claims that negotiations between the US and Russia are FAILING

A source familiar with the discussions tells Fox News that President Trump is frustrated with Putin, and believes Russia is "slow-rolling comprehensive ceasefire talks".

Trump believes Putin is stalling, admin eyeing aggressive sanctions enforcement including Russian 'shadow fleet'.

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SMH's avatar

Regarding the metals report clip included in your post, am I the only one who has noticed the deafening roar of silence about auditing the gold that is allegedly stored at Ft. Knox? Maybe Auric Goldfinger pulled the heist off after all.

Probably just another conspiracy theory, never mind, just go on about your business.

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Sarcastic Cynical Texan's avatar

When the result or likely result, of a "democratic process" fail to align with the desired outcome of a certain "elite" group, said process is cancelled, ignored, candidates assassinated or banned.

And then there is that which happens when a blue on white flag with a hexagram is displayed . . .

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Ray-SoCa's avatar

The democrats seem to be outspending the gop 10:1 in that Florida election.

And the gop candidate was not the strongest.

Why?

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D F Barr's avatar

The establishment Rs have a bad habit of folding and getting lazy. Not seeing things through and maintaining momentum. I already have a bad feeling about 2026, let alone 2028 and AOC

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Apr 1
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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

I really miss Codevilla. Thanks for the reminder.

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Mark Hazard's avatar

Segment from: Pepe Escobar: Yemen Strikes Back - The Crisis Spirals Out of Control!

References possible E2 shoot-down.

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxA3c3p-rjr1tp6QPoNMFyEdGk0MXa6mEe?si=5vXAn2gSufNYuDpA

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Steghorn21's avatar

LJ uses the failed rocket launch as a metaphor for the collapse of Europe. Other examples are the arrest of Le Pen and those six PC plods turning up to question a British man who criticised his school's leadership via WhatsApp. The rocket shows our incompetence; the other incidents show how nasty our "elites" are going to get as they lose control. Empires never go down easily.

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Retired FL LEO's avatar

I attended the FBI National Academy in 2000. We had an Estonian colonel of the state police in our class, he was 25 years old. He explained that when Estonia gained independence no one over 30 was trusted to be free of Soviet influence and were limited to participating in the new government. To say there was “dislike” of anything Russian is a considerable understatement. I would hope, things had gotten better, but it appears not.

BTW we had a Russian Colonel in our class who referred to the Estonian as “the child”. We played water polo one day and they were on the same team, we still had to rescue “the child” from a drowning accident.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Perspective on "the child's" claim about excluding those who might be tainted by Soviet influence: Kaja Kallas' father was a very high official in the Estonian SSR.

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Retired FL LEO's avatar

Always an exception to a “rule”. Of course did anyone survive in that society without being at least a “badged” party member? Looks like after independence he was at least partially forgiven.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

And her husband made their fortune with business interests in Russia.

I think the exceptions are defined by the WEF.

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Manul's avatar

Trump was supposed to be the “peace” President but he is acting belligerent towards many nations, including our presumed allies. Some say this is just a negotiating tactic and eventually he will moderate his tone.

His marvelous and highly effective Yemen bombing campaign didn’t stop the downing of the U.S. spy drone. His ME ceasefire didn’t hold. His Ukraine peace plan is floundering. His threats on Iran aren’t working yet as the Iranians tell him they can’t directly negotiate with the U.S. I could go on.

Meanwhile nothing substantive is being done by Congress to actually craft bills that cut spending. I guess they figure DOGE will do that - until a judge tells them that all Congressionally appropriated money must be spent. But on what?

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Apr 1
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Shy Boy's avatar

Cheap decoy issue. Groom a tiny minority of mentally ill people to be extra loud and aggressive about their repulsive behaviors, and then you can throw them under the bus to loud cheers, whenever convenient.

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Marie's avatar

Why did the WSJ attack Pete Hegseth's wife attending meetings when Dr Jill was photographed reading documents for the President and running his meetings? Did she have a clearance?

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Mark Wauck's avatar

The WSJ did it because they don't like Hegseth.

My view is that "they did it, too" isn't a good look and is a weak defense coming from people who claim to be an improvement.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

I think we were all alarmed when Trump made this appointment and with good reason. Trump 2.0 may have come into office with revenge in mind and it appears he's getting a taste of it, but he also came into office fully supporting the Zionist agenda. One distracts from the other, but the results are all the same. Chaos daily, confused populace, the same people funding and participating in violent protests and the average guy wonders what tomorrow will bring and are his wife and children safe and protected.

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Shy Boy's avatar

It's not chaos, Cosmo. It's radical change, but it's all very well planned... and no, it's not particularly intended for the benefit of you or I. Stakeholders call the shots.

As always I recommend getting out of one's comfort zone and seeing for oneself what the opposition has to say.

https://www.thenerdreich.com/existential-threat-gil-duran-nyt-interview/

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dpy's avatar

In the article, he conflates government waste, fraud and questionable foreign expenditures that DOGE is tackling with"democracy". Typical Dem party black-and -white logic - anything Trump-related parties do is against democracy. Period. No analysis of WHY that thing was "democracy".

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Shy Boy's avatar

Yeah, his analysis is frankly crap. He’s clearly not the sharpest tool, and he’s stuck in his partisan blinders (or was that just a mote in his eye? can’t tell with this big heavy beam in mine!)

But check out his sources! Swim upstream, that’s how this is done.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

@Shy Boy.......well, radical change works too, it seems to be all of the same. I like Stakeholder, it's the WEF preferred nomenclature and it aptly describes who's calling the shots and who benefits. Thanks for the link, but I can assure you I stray, often, to areas most don't want to go and it is revealing. I kind of laughed when I read this by Gil Duran. It's basically, the other side of the same story. The former stakeholders eyeing the new stakeholders from the outside looking in and they don't like it. Neither did we then and neither do we now, but our reasons are different from his reasons.

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Shy Boy's avatar

Yeah, it's hard to suppress the schadenfreude, reading stuff like that.

But I do believe he's on to something between DOGE, Project 2025 and Neoreactionary / Network State political theory, and the Paypal Mafia alumni.

Of course he can't acknowledge left-billionaires (Soros isn't a household name in his world!) or the flimsy sham of the Biden presidency, so he's overstating the radical-ness a bit: it's just another corporate takeover, only bigger and louder. "Democracy" is long dead. The republic went down the well-trod path to Empire.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

He fails to mention the tech Oligarch's who swarmed around Obama for eight years. Yes, Soros, but Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. He wanders back in time to sort of scare monger the idea of the "Freedom Cities" as some weird new network city where billionaires will destroy democracy. Yes, Schadenfreude is exactly the right word.

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Manul's avatar

The Signal incident comes to mind.

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Marie's avatar

Agreed, she was Pete's producer at FOX so it does look like he needs help. Maybe he should have an assistant, cleared, isn't that often the case? They have 7 children at home and this doesn't sit well.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Walter Kirn @walterkirn

The long and unreliable NYT piece on the "secret history" of the Ukraine war disproves the notion that history is written by the victors.

Quite often history is written by the losers trying to cover their asses.

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dpy's avatar

OTOH, these people are so diligently drinking their own Koolaid that they might actually believe everything that the article claims, and might have successfully repressed memory of everything inconvenient that the article leaves out.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis @DrLoupis__

Bishop Strickland has penned an open letter to President Trump urging him to stop supporting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and bombing Yemen.

“In Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of civilians – including women and children – has reached an intolerable scale. The people of Palestine, many of whom have no affiliation with terrorist organizations, suffer immensely. War cannot be waged without regard for the innocent.”

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G1 Tim's avatar

".. Has reached an intolerable scale." I think it reached "intolerable" well over a year ago.

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NFO's avatar

I had read the letter on his Substack. Was surprised by the level of hostility in the comments from what I'd always assumed (based on feedback on his other pieces) to be a largely-Catholic readership, not merely atheists or generic Christians of an evangelical stripe. Somehow, Israel just "hits different," as the kids say. Sad.

https://bishopjosephstrickland.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-president-trump/comments#comment-104132263

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Thanks for the link. I read it too. The comments are just a reminder that propaganda works.

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Tristam's avatar

Much that Israel & US supporters of Israel think and are doing is depressing.

But reading those comments from, supposedly, fellow Catholics, and the level of ignorance of the history & facts -- I've never been so bereft of hope. And anger.

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NFO's avatar

Agreed. Was going to forward the letter to friends and family whom I know to be big fans of the Bishop, but, given the apparent divergence from otherwise-consistent thought on this particular issue, I limited it to the family who are stuck with me.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

I am in total agreement.

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Tristam's avatar

The things I think I should do to try to make a difference:

-- prepare a leaflet of some basic facts about Gaza. Print many many multiples. Distribute them to the largest Catholic as well as Protestant Christian churches in time for Good Friday as well as Easter Sunday services.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

What a great idea. I like to think if more of us did that might we make perhaps not a difference but the beginning of an awakening. Our rights are being stolen from us and the biggest right is the expression free speech. The stories of these University students, regardless whether I agree, but showing up in force to arrest and then deport for protesting is evil. Marco Rubio should be ashamed of himself for his moronic comments and for bending to Zionist bigotry. There are no laws against anti-Catholicism as we all know and many Zionists, Christian or Jew who may and do criticize Catholics endlessly. Repercussions, none.

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