Regime Change Games

The West’s desperate throw at regime change against perhaps the major nuclear power in the world, the Russian Federation, appears to have fallen on its face. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the Neocons won’t keep trying, flirting with the possibility of cataclysmic war. The Neocons are still trying to project themselves as driving events, but that’s a facade that’s increasingly difficult to maintain. The real question seems to be whether Russia will continue as is with their war of attrition, which may reach an inflection point by August, or will pursue a more aggressive offensive war. The governing factor in this calculation remains, in my opinion, the question of casualties, which Russia is determined to keep at a minimum in the face of the West’s refusal to commit its own manpower en masse. The tradeoff of military materiel remains heavily in Russia’s favor. The tradeoff in human casualties as between Russia and Ukraine is also heavily in Russia’s favor, but is a sore point for Russia, which doesn’t like the idea of killing off “brother Slavs” who are cannon fodder for the Anglosphere and a few puppet nations.

Regarding the Prigozhin farce, I remain unpersuaded by the various double agent or maskirovka narratives—at least not in the more extreme forms that I see. That both Russia and the Anglosphere continue to mask the true nature of what transpired seems to me to be a given. At our distance we can only await new revelations. In the meantime, Pepe Escobar offers a fun read which also contains some interesting observations going forward:

What happens in Russia after The Longest Day?

Following Wagner’s ‘rebellion’ – which was nothing more than a blatant coup attempt, and a PR stunt demonstrated by Prighozin’s top-notch theatrics – NATO and the Collective West’s excitement over the possibility of Russia descending into chaos and civil war were quickly turned into utter disappointment.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is cutting to the chase: he has reminded everyone that the Hegemon’s modus operandi is to back coup attempts whenever it can benefit. This dovetails with the fact that the FSB is actively investigating whether and how Western intel was involved in The Longest Day.

President Putin could not have been more unequivocal: 

“They [the West and Ukraine] wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other, so that soldiers and civilians would die, so that in the end Russia would lose, and our society would break apart and choke on bloody civil strife (…) They rubbed their hands, dreaming of getting revenge for their failures at the front and during the so-called counter-offensive, but they miscalculated.” 

Cue to the collective West – from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on down – frantically trying to distance itself even as the CIA leaked, via its trademark mouthpiece, the Washington Post, that they knew about “the rebellion.” 

…

There’s no smoking gun – yet. But the FSB is following several leads to demonstrate how the “the rebellion” was set up by CIA/NATO. The spectacular failure makes the upcoming NATO July 11 summit in Vilnius even more incandescent. 

…

Everything that happened since The Longest Day is part of a new dramatic plot twist in a running series – way more gripping than whatever Netflix could offer.

Yet what the majority of Russian public opinion really seems to expect is not another farcical Ride of the Valkyrie. They expect a serious draining of the Soviet-style bureaucratic swamp, and a real commitment to get this “almost war” to its logical conclusion as quickly as possible.

Keep an eye on the West’s current ploy—claiming that Russian generals knew in advance of the Prigozhin farce. That has been part of my theory—that those generals received advance notification from the FSB at Putin’s direction, so they wouldn’t be taken by surprised. The fact that Russian military operations didn’t miss a beat during the Prigozhin farce is, in my view, supportive of the theory. The NYT, no doubt acting for the Deep State, makes an attempt to sow distrust within the Russian government:

But down in the story, past the point at which most readers stop reading, we see the admission:

Still, American officials have an interest in pushing out information that undermines the standing of General Surovikin, whom they view as more competent and more ruthless than other members of the command. His removal would undoubtedly benefit Ukraine, whose Western-backed troops are pushing a new counteroffensive that is meant to try to win back territory seized by Moscow.

Closer to home …

It seems clear that the decision to replace Zhou has been reached. The factor that has delayed this decision has always been the Kama Sutra factor. Replacing Zhou, whether by resignation or by impeachment, leaves Kama Sutra in the Oval Office—a result that even Dems know would be a disaster that could dwarf the Zhou regime’s string of failures. The series of leaks that we’ve seen have failed to convince Zhou so far, but with the farcicly corrupt plea deal for Hunter seemingly in place, the Dem establishment appears to hope that they can finesse this thing.

The plan appears to be to persuade Zhou to announce that he won’t “run” again. That gets around the Kama Sutra problem. It also allows the chosen Dem candidate—almost certainly Newsom—to begin actively campaigning before Kennedy gains even more traction.

The problem with this finesse is that it leaves Zhou in place for well over a year, and any number of things could happen during that time. Zhou could keel over at any moment, or could suddenly be reduced to a state of non-function so severe that no amount of gaslighting could hide. That would result in Kama Sutra becoming occupant of the Oval Office, short of some pretty drastic finagling. The other alternative is Kevin McCarthy. Beyond that, there are the prospects for worsening conditions in the country, that even a Newsom candidacy couldn’t distract from.

There’s a further problem. The effort to convince Zhou to step aside has ended up exposing enough of the Dem establishment’s corruption that key elements of that establishment—top officials at DoJ—could become collateral damage. Revelations of the grotesqueness of the Dem corruption of the “justice” system has reached the point that people are starting to notice. The establishment media organs are starting to expose DoJ corruption and lying on behalf of the Biden Crime Family:

Jonathan Turley

@JonathanTurley

The NY Times just confirmed that Weiss was prevented from bringing charges against Hunter in California and New York. https://foxnews.com/media/nyt-confirms-irs-whistleblower-claim-hunter-biden-probe-buries-21st-paragraph-report… That is in direction contradiction to Garland's prior statements...

Who is Lying? Merrick Garland or the Whistleblowers?

Below is my column in the Hill on the growing controversy surrounding the investigation of Hunter Biden. I previously wrote on the failure of Attorney General Merrick Garland to restore public trus…

8:16 PM · Jun 27, 2023

By the way, Turley has some fun with the new Dem narrative, that the Hunter soap opera isn’t really about corruption—it’s about a father’s luv for his son:

Hunter Biden’s 7% Solution: Using Addiction to Excuse Corruption

This week, President Joe Biden is continuing to deny that he had any knowledge of his son’s business dealing despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In the meantime, pundits are insisting that this is really not a story of millions of dollars being sent to the Biden family from foreign sources or the direct use of Joe Biden to shake down (apparently successfully) a Chinese official with ties to foreign intelligence. Rather, it is now portrayed as “a story of a father’s love for his son.” In other words, it is just like “On Golden Pond” if the father and child were working together to extract millions in actual gold from the pond.

Also lurking in the background is growing dissatisfaction with the War Policy of the Neocons. Depending on events, the shoveling of vast amounts of money to Ukraine could lead to a political explosion—I’m not the only one thinking this way. The polls are picking up on this and the chattering classes are, well, they’re starting to chatter:

Alexander G. Rubio

@AlexanderGRubi2

Wall Street Journal: "Ukraine Could Be Forced to Compromise" We're seeing ever more trial balloons indicating the permanent establishment in Washington are starting to dislike the political cost and risk profile of this project. Plan B: "frozen conflict"

Opinion | Ukraine Could Be Forced to Compromise

With support for the war against Russia waning in the U.S., the counteroffensive may define a new border.

5:16 AM · Jun 28, 2023

The political risk is increasing by the day, as it becomes ever more apparent that Russia will not agree to anything like a “frozen conflict,” to pull the Western establishment’s fat out of the fire.

And then there are the Republicans—who seem to be toying with the idea of shoving a stick into the spokes of this scheme. The House leadership, including McCarthy, is now openly speaking of impeaching not only key DoJ figures but now Zhou himself. Ted Cruz is urging the House GOP to just do it. That would put the Dems in a bit of a bind. Obviously the Dems have the Senate votes to block a conviction. But doing so means embracing Zhou—no matter how they try to spin it, that’s how it would appear. Plus, a trial in the Senate would attract enormous public attention, especially given the lurid revelations of corruption that would be bound to come out. The alternative? Resignation, and Kama Sutra to the Oval Office. But that’s exactly what they’re trying to avoid. Lots of moving parts here.

In Episode 7 of Tucker on Twitter—which I can’t embed here—Tucker gets into some of this. He starts out talking about the war on Russia, and the laughable gaslighting point—parroted by the usual suspects—that its all about “democracy”. Saving “democracy” in Ukraine while killing it and burying it in America. However, at about the 6:35 minute mark Tucker turns to Zhou and American politics:

Last week a whistleblower produced a WhatsApp message from Hunte Biden proving that, at the very least, his father knew about his influence peddling businesses abroad and probably participated in them. "I'm sitting here with my father," Hunter Biden wrote to his Chinese partners, demanding money. As much as anything reported about the Bidens over the last several years, THIS was the smoking gun. There it is--right there, in the message. That would have been enough to cripple a normal president. It would have been more than enough to keep a normal president from running for office again. But it had virtually no effect on Zhou Baidan. Most media outlets ignored it completely, or tried to spin Biden's relationship with his son as some kind of moral victory. "The real meaning of the Hunter Biden saga as I see it" wrote Nick Kristoff of the NYT "isn't about presidential corruption but IS about how widespread addiction is, and how a determined parent with unconditional luv can sometimes reel a child back.” [Tucker grins and laughs.] He actually wrote that! [Plays video from ABC]

So a whistleblower produces a text message showing that Zhou Baidan was in the room with his son when his son was selling influence to an enemy power, the Chinese government. And ABC's take on it? "Zhou Baidan is a father first--take it or leave it!"

What accounts for a response like that? That's the way you talk when you have nothing to fear from an upcoming presidential election. You don't even bother to think of an excuse for your candidate because--you don't need to! Your country has electronic voting machines. Zhou Baidan got 81,282,916 votes in 2020--and you're pretty sure he can do it again. In fact, you know he can. You're not worried.

But actually they should be a little worried. The people who control Zhou Baidan--Susan Rice and the rest--know they can continue to run our government--writing press releases formulating the policies--and they can do it effectively forever, as long as Zhou Baidan gets dressed in the morning. And, of course, that's their strong preference. These are fervent opponents of change. But the one thing these people cannot control is aging. Zhou Baidan is old--he's 80 now. He'll be 85 at the end of the next term. People imagine that old age is a long, predictable progression from acuity to permanent unconsciousness. But often that's not at all how it actually works. When old people start to slide, they tend to slide fast. Zhou Baidan has begun that descent. Here he is yesterday [Video of Zhou mumbling and reading "end of quote" direction]

You weren't supposed to hear that! Zhou Baidan read the stage directions out loud! ... In a year or two he'll be gone completely, and there'll be no hiding it. At that point the Dem party will face a succession problem. If Zhou Baidan is elected next year and then is forced to leave office during his term due to disability or death that means Kama Sutra will become president of the United States. And nobody wants that. Not even her own husband. In real life nobody likes Kama Sutra. That's not an attack on her--in fact it's possible to feel pity for someone who's so universally reviled. It is, instead, an observation of unchanging physical reality, like gravity or photosynthesis. Nobody wants Kama Sutra to be president. No one will benefit if she becomes president.

So, logic suggests there's gonna be a change--it's gonna hafta be somebody else. Whoever that is will hafta enter the race soon, before the election but after Biden drops out. Who could that person be?

We don't know, obviously. This is just guessing, but we do know that whoever it is will hafta have two essential criteria. He'll have to be as shallow, ruthless, and transactional [?] as Zhou Baidan is, and he'll need to have flattery skills that are so polished and advanced they'd be considered superior even in the Saudi royal court. And there's only one man in modern America who fits that description: Gavin Newsom, the governor of California and--perhaps not coincidentally--Zhou Baidan's new closest friend. "I am here, Mr. President," Newsom told Biden at an event the two did together last week, "I am here as a proud American, as a proud Californian, mesmerized by not just your faith and devotion to this country, and the world we're trying to build, but by your results, by your actions, by your passion, by your capacity to deliver!" [Tucker grins and laughs, then shouts] "I AM MESMERIZED BY YOU, ZHOU BAIDAN!" Imagine saying that as a compliment! You couldn't do it. Few human beings could do it, but Gavin Newsom had no problem at all. Those words rolled right off his forked tongue. He never stopped smiling.

Well, Newsom does have a bit of a wife problem.