The last few days have seen a flurry of commentary, stemming from Trump’s verbal attack on Putin, calling him “absolutely crazy” and complaining that Putin failed to properly appreciate that The Donald had personally saved Russia from “REALLY BAD” things (Trump’s caps).
Lindsey Graham on 2/7/2017 initiated and subsequently succeeded in removing Russia policy from Pres. Trump. The law passed nearly unanimously, 98-2 in Senate, 419-3 in the House. “Russia Sanctions Review Act (S.341/H.R.1059)” was signed into law by Pres. Trump in August 2017. In 2025 is this law still in effect? In any case, Lindsey Graham would call for impeachment of any US president who dared agree that Russian-speaking Ukraine citizens who voted to rejoin Russia should be allowed to do so.
Per Alastair Crooke, Dimitry Medvedev said at the time that Trump revealed himself as “utterly powerless” having signed a law removing himself from Russia and Ukraine policy:
“The Trump administration demonstrated it is utterly powerless,
and in the most humiliating manner,
transferred executive powers to Congress.…
The American establishment completely outplayed Trump.”…-Dmitry Medvedev, August 2017
8/6/2017, “Playing Politics with the World’s Future,” Alastair Crooke, Consortium News
Yes utterly powerless by the likes of Linsey Graham who relishes death of Russians like ghoul sucking the life out of a defenseless child with unconstrained glee as he counts his money. Who knew Shylock was an Evangelical Christian………allegedly.
In March 2024 Lindsey visited Kiev and urged them to lower the age for the draft. Meaning, so that younger, more physically fit men could go to their deaths.
I used to represent a small tech company out of S.C. Much of their business was Mil/Aero/Defense what we referred to as MAD. They love this guy because he greases the military skids and the palms of the connected. This is why ghouls like Graham remain in the senate for years offering bribes, favors, and wealth accumulation through corruption.
SC is deep south and a tradition of a military minded populace. His campaign slogan is as old as their traditions.........I bring home the bacon. All he wants is his taste.
Yes, it is these or those people who give him, not power, but the means to carry out their directives as if he had that power. His pretense is his power, as is his utter lack of human decency. They say socio and psychopaths lack empathy and Linsey!demonstrates this in spades.
We know who, the oppressors who cannot be criticized. Trump appears to have no power beyond bluster and in his inaction to accomplish his stated campaign goal of ending the war(s) he resembles a man in handcuffs with no capacity to anything but move his mouth.
But this confirms what I keep saying. Trump isn't interested in peace as such--his masters would not allow that. His supposed "peace" is only a cessation of hostilities, a ceasefire, to **buy time**. War against Russia is never ending until subjugation.
It does, and many of your readers knew this, but we had to vote for him any way as the capacity for evil on the part of Democrats and in the form of Kamala was so much worse. We are on the slippery slope to oblivion and Trump has simply slowed the ride down, but we all know what evil is lurking in the shadows and around every corner.
Susan...great find! Of course McCain and "Gold Bar" Menendez were authors of the bill! Wouldn't this have applied to Biden and the "Politburo" that ran the US during "his" term?
The names attached to the bill I saw are Graham, Cardin, McCain, Brown, Rubio, and McCaskill. Perhaps there were others who contributed. My understanding is that it related specifically to Trump for the alleged perception that he didn't demonize Mr. Putin enough. Trump was elected in 2016 in part for promoting normalization of relations with Russia. After the election he should merely have said, yes, of course I support Mr. Putin and normalization of relations with Russia, and, as I said in my campaign, the people of Crimea are entitled to vote to rejoin Russia. Instead, Trump caved, agreed with war machine that Putin interfered in the election. Biden was fully on board w. war machine, called Mr. Putin a "war criminal." Under Obama Biden had been de facto President of Ukraine, his son profited in Ukraine gov. scams. Biden famously successfully ordered a Ukraine official to be fired or he'd withhold $1 billion US aid to Ukraine. Obama had begun to work with Mr. Putin, but warmongers put a stop to that by putting out news stories that Obama was "weak." Obama was forced to have a private lunch w Robert Kagan, following which Obama fell in line.
It would be nice if the people of the United States could level racketeering charges against these politicians and the people who bribe them like those oppressors we cannot criticize. The problem is where would we find the people with enough courage in our government to work on our behalf. It certainly isn't the likes of Pam Bondi or Kash Patel nor Bongino. They all talk a good game, but they are like the Washington Generals, the exhibition basketball team known for being paid to lose.
Not sure I agree with the characterization of the "war machine" as having power and control. I agree regarding the need to have an intimidating military to exert control around the world, but not necessarily to wage kinetic warfare. Perhaps a bit, to give an example to others who might be tempted to attempt a bit of independence. But the people who exercise the real control are, IMO, the money people.
I'm not thrilled with the term "war machine" either but have used it more recently in desperation because I thought the term "neocon" had become meaningless. "The money people" is a better term.
Even a liberal (Michael Tracey) can understand the growing rumblings/grumblings of discontent with Trump II among his 2024 supporters:
"In his 2024 campaign announcement speech, Trump vowed that if given a second term he would 'dismantle the deep state.' Now, predictably, he is touting Trillion Dollar military budgets and a new boondoggle 'missile defense' program that makes every 'Deep State' operative tremble with glee. He marketed himself as the 'candidate of peace,' which is usually what Americans want to hear — and then undermined his own 'ceasefire' arrangement to fuel the annihilation rampage of an Israeli government controlled by messianic fanatics. He strode into office signing an executive order to 'Restore Free Speech,' and proceeded to spearhead a relentless campaign to punish disfavored political speech. He railed against influence-peddling and corruption — and now you can buy a Trump 'memecoin' for presidential access. The list goes on." Tracey adds to that criticism here:
JD is singing from the Trump hymnal. "Devoting our energies to responding to the rise of near peer competitors" who he sees as "serious threats in China, Russia and other nations determined to beat us in every single domain" describes what we are seeing from the Trump II admin so far. It does not make me feel any better than the previous nation building or meddling done by the Bushes. If anything, it is much more dangerous because it is blatantly adversarial and is based on the untenable and now errant idea of the U.S. continuing to be the global hegemon (h/t Mark).
I was surprised not to find any explicit statement that today's demands were IN ADDITION TO territorial claims on the 4-plus-Crimea. The "protections for Ukraine's Russian speakers" threw me off a bit, as that has been very much the point Russia's been pushing since Minsk 1, long before it had to intervene militarily in those eastern oblasts to effect those protections. With RF occupation-turned-governance over those areas coupled with a commitment on Uke neutrality, that problem would seem largely to fix itself. Thus, my confusion at first. That said, I can't imagine that Russia would ever cede ANY territorial gains for which so much blood and treasure has been expended, especially, where there is popular-referenda support (one can debate the reliability of those votes after most of the Uke population fled, but, as Putin tends to ensure, legalities were papered).
Prominent among my many frustrations with this Administration is that, by the very nature of our Constitutional system, the President (with a Republican Senate majority for treaties and the like--yes, he'd need some Dems, but the prospect of peace would be a pretty hard sell to "Resist") can absolutely clean up on such "matters of State" as the foreign-policy agenda. Instead, he's fighting with universities and just winging the FoPo stuff. I increasingly think that your instinct from many months ago that The Blob would "allow" Trump his domestic agenda in trade for foreign-policy control was spot-on.
No one in the entire political class wants "peace" anywhere. The US exists to sell weapons. Unlike other countries, US permanently enslaves its taxpayers to pay for war weapons, including "loans" to smaller countries to incentivize them to join NATO. US needs an imaginary big, bad enemy to keep wars going. 80 years ago Harry Truman declared it was US policy to defeat USSR/Russia.
We are the terrorist nation our leaders have warned us about along with our sidekick Israel. Where the Pharisees and Sadducees, the money changers and elites, continue to defile the Temple for their own greed while crucifying their detractors with accusations of antisemitism if you don't get in line.
I understand that warmongers were alarmed that in his 2nd term Obama began to work with Mr. Putin on peace goals in Syria, so they circulated news stories that Obama was "weak." Obama was forced/encouraged to have a private lunch in the White House with Robert Kagan. After the lunch, Obama returned to selling Russia/Putin hate.
Isn't this about the time they began funding the likes of ISIS or as our articulate first black president referred to as Daesh? Every time there is a threat of peace in the middle east a new terrorist organizations pops up and we are threatened if we don't pony up the funds to fight them off, over there.....or it will be here. Little did we know that we would begin importing these people to change that dynamic.
1. Kagan knows/works for the people who can arrange lucrative post presidential book/movie deals.
2. This obviously confirms what I keep saying, that the war on Russia is very much a Jewish Nationalist war.
3. Again, kinetic war is a tool, not an end in itself. War in the sense of pressure can be waged in many ways using the tools of finance, assassination, public ruin, etc.
Mark, it is a Jewish revenge war, but it's two different revenges for two different groups. The Rothchilds angry over (what else) money, and the peasants over pogroms that they are reluctant to answer the question why did they happen to begin with.
The Russians have annexed those four oblasts (Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia) and now consider them de facto and de jure part of Russia. They will not even suggest that is open to any negotiations.
My understanding is that these oblasts held referendums to see if they wanted to rejoin Russia rather than simply Russia "annexing" them. In each case the vote was yes. After that, Putin took the issue to Russian legislators for their approval. In the future, if the oblasts decide they don't want to be part of Russia, they could vote for that too.
Agree, I’m only surprised that an “i”s-dotted-“t”s-crossed, legalistic Ministry of Foreign Affairs like Russia’s did not serve up a comprehensive list. First rule of negotiating with shysters like Z and his backers is that you repeatedly assert your claim to anything and everything that is not bolted to the floor.
OTOH, Simplicius gives us some fragment of hope…back to the wily and unpredictable Trump thesis, and a severe case of whiplash:
“Trump may be attempting to out-maneuver his own neocon deep state patrician class—like Kellogg and co.—by feigning concern for Ukraine, while essentially slowly sabotaging it. His half-hearted threats of punitive measures in the media, as well as cartoonish tirades against Putin, could be a clue to this, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Someone needs to slip a note onto PDJT’s desk and remind him that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the classic definition of insanity.
As you have pointed out before Mark, Trump does not seem to understand that Vladimir Putin is not some real estate mook from Manhattan who can be browbeaten or intimidated into accepting “a deal” that does not meet his demands or else bad things can happen. Putin’s response to Trump’s bravado seems to be, “My way or the highway Mr. President”.
Per 5/27/25, Alastair Crooke: Russians "are not asking for anything from America except for a relationship. What does a relationship mean? No, it doesn’t mean a little bit more money here, or we will invest more with you in the Arctic. It means when you say something you mean it--and do it. And we mean it.’"...It's not about Ukraine, or "my way or the highway," it's that US policy is to refuse to speak to and treat Russians as fellow human beings. This "policy" continues post WWII architecture that enslaves US taxpayers. In 1990s US elites left newly independent Russia for dead, laughing at how they screwed drunken Yeltsin. Mr. Putin performed a miracle in bringing his country back from death's door.
Pres. Putin is a man of his word, and thus he is a gentleman.
The man, and his colleagues, can be trusted to keep their promises. I say this because the Russians' terms for peace have not been affected by threats, provocations, attacks, theft, assassinations, or slander.
Meanwhile, getting at the root cause of the conflict: NATO expansion
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/putin-seeks-broad-security-agreement
Lindsey Graham on 2/7/2017 initiated and subsequently succeeded in removing Russia policy from Pres. Trump. The law passed nearly unanimously, 98-2 in Senate, 419-3 in the House. “Russia Sanctions Review Act (S.341/H.R.1059)” was signed into law by Pres. Trump in August 2017. In 2025 is this law still in effect? In any case, Lindsey Graham would call for impeachment of any US president who dared agree that Russian-speaking Ukraine citizens who voted to rejoin Russia should be allowed to do so.
Per Alastair Crooke, Dimitry Medvedev said at the time that Trump revealed himself as “utterly powerless” having signed a law removing himself from Russia and Ukraine policy:
“The Trump administration demonstrated it is utterly powerless,
and in the most humiliating manner,
transferred executive powers to Congress.…
The American establishment completely outplayed Trump.”…-Dmitry Medvedev, August 2017
8/6/2017, “Playing Politics with the World’s Future,” Alastair Crooke, Consortium News
...https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/06/playing-politics-with-the-worlds-future/
Yes utterly powerless by the likes of Linsey Graham who relishes death of Russians like ghoul sucking the life out of a defenseless child with unconstrained glee as he counts his money. Who knew Shylock was an Evangelical Christian………allegedly.
In March 2024 Lindsey visited Kiev and urged them to lower the age for the draft. Meaning, so that younger, more physically fit men could go to their deaths.
I used to represent a small tech company out of S.C. Much of their business was Mil/Aero/Defense what we referred to as MAD. They love this guy because he greases the military skids and the palms of the connected. This is why ghouls like Graham remain in the senate for years offering bribes, favors, and wealth accumulation through corruption.
I believe SC still has an open primary.
SC is deep south and a tradition of a military minded populace. His campaign slogan is as old as their traditions.........I bring home the bacon. All he wants is his taste.
Lindsey! has NO POWER. His supposed power is the power of those he works for.
Yes, it is these or those people who give him, not power, but the means to carry out their directives as if he had that power. His pretense is his power, as is his utter lack of human decency. They say socio and psychopaths lack empathy and Linsey!demonstrates this in spades.
Who paid the Senate to do this?
We know who, the oppressors who cannot be criticized. Trump appears to have no power beyond bluster and in his inaction to accomplish his stated campaign goal of ending the war(s) he resembles a man in handcuffs with no capacity to anything but move his mouth.
But this confirms what I keep saying. Trump isn't interested in peace as such--his masters would not allow that. His supposed "peace" is only a cessation of hostilities, a ceasefire, to **buy time**. War against Russia is never ending until subjugation.
It does, and many of your readers knew this, but we had to vote for him any way as the capacity for evil on the part of Democrats and in the form of Kamala was so much worse. We are on the slippery slope to oblivion and Trump has simply slowed the ride down, but we all know what evil is lurking in the shadows and around every corner.
Susan...great find! Of course McCain and "Gold Bar" Menendez were authors of the bill! Wouldn't this have applied to Biden and the "Politburo" that ran the US during "his" term?
The names attached to the bill I saw are Graham, Cardin, McCain, Brown, Rubio, and McCaskill. Perhaps there were others who contributed. My understanding is that it related specifically to Trump for the alleged perception that he didn't demonize Mr. Putin enough. Trump was elected in 2016 in part for promoting normalization of relations with Russia. After the election he should merely have said, yes, of course I support Mr. Putin and normalization of relations with Russia, and, as I said in my campaign, the people of Crimea are entitled to vote to rejoin Russia. Instead, Trump caved, agreed with war machine that Putin interfered in the election. Biden was fully on board w. war machine, called Mr. Putin a "war criminal." Under Obama Biden had been de facto President of Ukraine, his son profited in Ukraine gov. scams. Biden famously successfully ordered a Ukraine official to be fired or he'd withhold $1 billion US aid to Ukraine. Obama had begun to work with Mr. Putin, but warmongers put a stop to that by putting out news stories that Obama was "weak." Obama was forced to have a private lunch w Robert Kagan, following which Obama fell in line.
"IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES February 8 (legislative day, February 6), 2017: Mr. Graham (for himself, Mr. Cardin, Mr. McCain, Mr. Brown, Mr. Rubio, and Mrs. McCaskill) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations."...https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/341/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22russia+sanctions%22%5D%7D&r=3
It would be nice if the people of the United States could level racketeering charges against these politicians and the people who bribe them like those oppressors we cannot criticize. The problem is where would we find the people with enough courage in our government to work on our behalf. It certainly isn't the likes of Pam Bondi or Kash Patel nor Bongino. They all talk a good game, but they are like the Washington Generals, the exhibition basketball team known for being paid to lose.
Not sure I agree with the characterization of the "war machine" as having power and control. I agree regarding the need to have an intimidating military to exert control around the world, but not necessarily to wage kinetic warfare. Perhaps a bit, to give an example to others who might be tempted to attempt a bit of independence. But the people who exercise the real control are, IMO, the money people.
I'm not thrilled with the term "war machine" either but have used it more recently in desperation because I thought the term "neocon" had become meaningless. "The money people" is a better term.
I don't insist, just seek clarity.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/05/28/trump-i-told-netanyahu-not-hit-iran-yet/
Well, that should just help the next round of negations with Iran go smoothly and iron out a "beautiful, beautiful deal".
“negations”! That about says it all!!
Circumstances “could change at any moment,” Trump said. That seems to be an unfortunate theme as pertains to his negotiating style.
Even a liberal (Michael Tracey) can understand the growing rumblings/grumblings of discontent with Trump II among his 2024 supporters:
"In his 2024 campaign announcement speech, Trump vowed that if given a second term he would 'dismantle the deep state.' Now, predictably, he is touting Trillion Dollar military budgets and a new boondoggle 'missile defense' program that makes every 'Deep State' operative tremble with glee. He marketed himself as the 'candidate of peace,' which is usually what Americans want to hear — and then undermined his own 'ceasefire' arrangement to fuel the annihilation rampage of an Israeli government controlled by messianic fanatics. He strode into office signing an executive order to 'Restore Free Speech,' and proceeded to spearhead a relentless campaign to punish disfavored political speech. He railed against influence-peddling and corruption — and now you can buy a Trump 'memecoin' for presidential access. The list goes on." Tracey adds to that criticism here:
https://www.mtracey.net/p/my-remarks-at-last-nights-trump-20
I'd be proud to have written that myself.
There may be hope behind the scenes in the Trump administration. A more nuanced and measured appreciation for the reality of the wider world:
https://www.newsweek.com/jd-vance-warns-era-uncontested-us-dominance-over-2076628
JD is singing from the Trump hymnal. "Devoting our energies to responding to the rise of near peer competitors" who he sees as "serious threats in China, Russia and other nations determined to beat us in every single domain" describes what we are seeing from the Trump II admin so far. It does not make me feel any better than the previous nation building or meddling done by the Bushes. If anything, it is much more dangerous because it is blatantly adversarial and is based on the untenable and now errant idea of the U.S. continuing to be the global hegemon (h/t Mark).
I was surprised not to find any explicit statement that today's demands were IN ADDITION TO territorial claims on the 4-plus-Crimea. The "protections for Ukraine's Russian speakers" threw me off a bit, as that has been very much the point Russia's been pushing since Minsk 1, long before it had to intervene militarily in those eastern oblasts to effect those protections. With RF occupation-turned-governance over those areas coupled with a commitment on Uke neutrality, that problem would seem largely to fix itself. Thus, my confusion at first. That said, I can't imagine that Russia would ever cede ANY territorial gains for which so much blood and treasure has been expended, especially, where there is popular-referenda support (one can debate the reliability of those votes after most of the Uke population fled, but, as Putin tends to ensure, legalities were papered).
Prominent among my many frustrations with this Administration is that, by the very nature of our Constitutional system, the President (with a Republican Senate majority for treaties and the like--yes, he'd need some Dems, but the prospect of peace would be a pretty hard sell to "Resist") can absolutely clean up on such "matters of State" as the foreign-policy agenda. Instead, he's fighting with universities and just winging the FoPo stuff. I increasingly think that your instinct from many months ago that The Blob would "allow" Trump his domestic agenda in trade for foreign-policy control was spot-on.
No one in the entire political class wants "peace" anywhere. The US exists to sell weapons. Unlike other countries, US permanently enslaves its taxpayers to pay for war weapons, including "loans" to smaller countries to incentivize them to join NATO. US needs an imaginary big, bad enemy to keep wars going. 80 years ago Harry Truman declared it was US policy to defeat USSR/Russia.
We are the terrorist nation our leaders have warned us about along with our sidekick Israel. Where the Pharisees and Sadducees, the money changers and elites, continue to defile the Temple for their own greed while crucifying their detractors with accusations of antisemitism if you don't get in line.
Each election brings new people who need to be bought off to this agenda. Who does that?
Harry Truman did the job for the agenda 80 years ago. He fired his Commerce Sec. Henry Wallace for politely suggesting detente with USSR.
I understand that warmongers were alarmed that in his 2nd term Obama began to work with Mr. Putin on peace goals in Syria, so they circulated news stories that Obama was "weak." Obama was forced/encouraged to have a private lunch in the White House with Robert Kagan. After the lunch, Obama returned to selling Russia/Putin hate.
Isn't this about the time they began funding the likes of ISIS or as our articulate first black president referred to as Daesh? Every time there is a threat of peace in the middle east a new terrorist organizations pops up and we are threatened if we don't pony up the funds to fight them off, over there.....or it will be here. Little did we know that we would begin importing these people to change that dynamic.
1. Kagan knows/works for the people who can arrange lucrative post presidential book/movie deals.
2. This obviously confirms what I keep saying, that the war on Russia is very much a Jewish Nationalist war.
3. Again, kinetic war is a tool, not an end in itself. War in the sense of pressure can be waged in many ways using the tools of finance, assassination, public ruin, etc.
Mark, it is a Jewish revenge war, but it's two different revenges for two different groups. The Rothchilds angry over (what else) money, and the peasants over pogroms that they are reluctant to answer the question why did they happen to begin with.
4. Putin--meaning, the Russian ruling class--knows all of the above.
The Russians have annexed those four oblasts (Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia) and now consider them de facto and de jure part of Russia. They will not even suggest that is open to any negotiations.
My understanding is that these oblasts held referendums to see if they wanted to rejoin Russia rather than simply Russia "annexing" them. In each case the vote was yes. After that, Putin took the issue to Russian legislators for their approval. In the future, if the oblasts decide they don't want to be part of Russia, they could vote for that too.
Agree, I’m only surprised that an “i”s-dotted-“t”s-crossed, legalistic Ministry of Foreign Affairs like Russia’s did not serve up a comprehensive list. First rule of negotiating with shysters like Z and his backers is that you repeatedly assert your claim to anything and everything that is not bolted to the floor.
Trump just now:
"I don't like when I see rockets being shot into cities that's no good. **We're not going to allow it"**
Hypocrisy combined with impotence--not a good look. I don't like it.
Talk is cheap. What do they have on Trump? Is that why he can’t pull the plug and end support for the war Nato has been waging against Russia?
OTOH, Simplicius gives us some fragment of hope…back to the wily and unpredictable Trump thesis, and a severe case of whiplash:
“Trump may be attempting to out-maneuver his own neocon deep state patrician class—like Kellogg and co.—by feigning concern for Ukraine, while essentially slowly sabotaging it. His half-hearted threats of punitive measures in the media, as well as cartoonish tirades against Putin, could be a clue to this, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Someone needs to slip a note onto PDJT’s desk and remind him that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the classic definition of insanity.
As you have pointed out before Mark, Trump does not seem to understand that Vladimir Putin is not some real estate mook from Manhattan who can be browbeaten or intimidated into accepting “a deal” that does not meet his demands or else bad things can happen. Putin’s response to Trump’s bravado seems to be, “My way or the highway Mr. President”.
Per 5/27/25, Alastair Crooke: Russians "are not asking for anything from America except for a relationship. What does a relationship mean? No, it doesn’t mean a little bit more money here, or we will invest more with you in the Arctic. It means when you say something you mean it--and do it. And we mean it.’"...It's not about Ukraine, or "my way or the highway," it's that US policy is to refuse to speak to and treat Russians as fellow human beings. This "policy" continues post WWII architecture that enslaves US taxpayers. In 1990s US elites left newly independent Russia for dead, laughing at how they screwed drunken Yeltsin. Mr. Putin performed a miracle in bringing his country back from death's door.
You describe psychopathic behavior. Laughing at the suffering you have caused.
The world would be in a much better state if we had more leaders/ statesmen like President Putin.
There are few of his ilk
These terms appear to be unchanged from a month ago...?
Actually, probably from a lot longer than that. The Russians have been totally transparent all along--no game playing.
I respect that.
Pres. Putin is a man of his word, and thus he is a gentleman.
The man, and his colleagues, can be trusted to keep their promises. I say this because the Russians' terms for peace have not been affected by threats, provocations, attacks, theft, assassinations, or slander.
Yes, unlike the US, which is “agreement incapable” for the Russians.