08 Tuesday Feb 2022
Snyder, Timothy. “1989: Poland Was First!” The New York Review of Books, December 9, 2009.
Polish History Museum. “The Solidarity and the Fall of the Iron Curtain”.
Wikipedia. “Soviet invasion of Poland”.
Wikipedia. “Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939-1946)”.
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24 Monday Jan 2022
Tags
EU/NATO, New Nationalism, New Russian Imperialism, Putin the Pirate, Russia v NATO, Russia v Ukraine, Ukraine's Frozen Conflict, Vladimir Putin
Well, he stole Robert Kraft’s Sacred Superbowl Ring, so what wouldn’t he steal?
Kraft’s ring now appears on display in the Kremlin’s library, quite a trophy brought home to Moscow by Russia’s Boss of Bosses.
From CNN:
The 4.94-carat ring is in the Kremlin’s library, where all official state gifts are kept, he said. It is worth more than $25,000, according to multiple reports from 2005.
A Kraft spokesman said Sunday the story is a humorous anecdote that Kraft “retells for laughs.”
“He loves that the ring is at the Kremlin and, as he stated back in 2005, he continues to have great respect for Russia and the leadership of President Putin,” said Stacey James, a spokesman for The Kraft Group.
Eshchenko, Alla and Faith Karimi. “Russian president: I did not steal Super Bowl ring.” CNN, June 17, 2013.
No. Putin didn’t steal it. It was a gift!
🙄
***
Will Ukraine be a gift too?
***
Putin the Pirate has done a few things under the table upside-down and sideways over decades to weaken western political coherence, cohesion, and resolve. Start with the KGB’s handling of Zawahiri over the winter of 1996/7. In connect-the-dots fashion, I believe that stay led to the attack by jet hijacking Islamists on 9/11 that in turn goosed the pride of western states in their Christian and independent political cultures and led to what has been referred to as the “New Nationalism”.
When bees sting and flesh swells, the response has not been called “proud flesh” for nothing.
The popular western response in enmity and fear regarding Islam has not been misplaced in relation to Islamic Extremism and related Islamist Terror, but the same has given rise to blood-and-soil nationalism, authoritarianism, and actual autocracy in some EU/NATO states. Hungary, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and the United States (one nation under Trump for a while) have each seen their open democracies challenged by demagoguery or political perversion.
We may also take note of the “01s” in dates: 1991-dissolve of the Soviet Union in bankruptcy following American intercession opposite the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (from which Russia was forced to retreat in 1989); 2001-the September 11 attacks took place on Felix Dzerzhinsky’s birthday, quite a gift for a Moscow bent on revenge for its losses in Afghanistan-and, no, Putin didn’t do it–it was obviously radical Muslims assembled and deployed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden; 2011-The Horror taking off in Syria that would send millions of refugees into NATO (Turkey, which today hosts about 3.68 million Syrian refugees), the European Union (0.7 million-Germany), and Scandinavia (0.3 million), another goad for the defense of the rightly ethnolinguistic state cultures settled and enjoying the benefits of, well, being themselves, the only problem being a concomitant drift toward the same feudal-medieval worldviews and fascination with authority held by Bashar al-Assad, Ali Khamenei, and Vladimir Putin; 2021-Russia’s repeated threats by military feint against Ukraine, a young democratic state seeking NATO accession, and, by extension, NATO itself, but not quite as Ukraine remains without accession.
So hey, Bob (Kraft), George and George, Jr. (Bush), where are you today with Putin (the thief)?
***
Where and when are dictatorships to be stopped?
Is it when one or another has engaged in political repression and breathtaking plunder at home?
Should it be when the security service agents and agent provocateur show up within the borders of one’s democratic state?
Should it be when the tanks roll into a neighboring state struggling for its own sovereignty against barbaric force and the possibility of a return to corrupt, kleptocratic, and tyrannical governance?
Christophersen, Erik. “These 10 countries receive the most refugees.” Norwegian Refugee Council.
Duffin, Erin. “Nationalism in the U.S. – Statistics & Facts.” Statista, March 11, 2021.
Oppenheim, James S. “Syria: The Horror: 2011.” BackChannels, December 29, 2017.
Oppenheim, James S. “Ukraine: A Reminder.” BackChannels, December 7, 2021.
Schuster, Simon. “How Paul Manafort Helped Elect Russia’s Man in Ukraine.” Time, October 31, 2017.
Statista. “Ranking of the largest Syria refugee-hosting countries in 2020”.
The New York Times. “Gerald L. K. Smith Dead; Anti-Communist Crusader.” April 16, 1976.
UNHCR. “Syria Refugee Crisis–Globally, in Europe and in Cyprus.” March 18, 2021.
VOA. “Russia Threatens to Deploy Tactical Nuclear Weapons.” December 14, 2021.
Wikipedia. “America First Party (1943)”.
Wikipedia. “Ayman al-Zawahiri”.
Wikipedia. “Felix Dzerzhinsky”.
Wikipedia. “Gerald L. K. Smith”.
Wikipedia. “Putin’s Kleptocracy”.
Wikipedia. “Russo-Ukrainian War”.
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08 Wednesday Dec 2021
Tags
Anti- Anti-Semitism as a Cynical Rhetorical Tool, Anti-Semitism in Modern Ukraine, Russian Agitprop in Ukraine
Herewith the response to a lengthy chatyped lecture on FB involving Russia’s disingenuous “justification” for further brutalizing and dominating Ukraine, her businesses, and her people.
The haunt of Ukrainian anti-Semitism has been a Russian canard used for propaganda, e.g., https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/jews-in-maidan , 2/25/2014 & https://forward.com/culture/202181/my-hunt-for-the-cossacks-in-ukraine/ 7/19/2014 & https://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/01/ex-idf-soldier-leads-kiev-street-fighting-unit/ 3/1/2014.
Note: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/24/how-a-jew-won-over-the-land-of-the-cossacks-volodymyr-zelensky-ukraine-election-jewish/ 4/24/2019.
Conveniently left out of the history presented: http://holodomorct.org/
A reminder about Euromaidan: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/12/07/ukraine-a-reminder/
Inspired by what I believe to have been a Moscow-manipulated 9/11 (https://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6 6/10/2014) as revenge for the bankrupting of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan (1989 withdrawal; official disbandment of the Soviet on December 25, 1991), the New Nationalists in EU/NATO have at times gotten on board with Putin’s feudal blood-and-soil theatrical (Russia is deeply multicultural but projected with a revived Russian Orthodox Church and an active undefeated military and related defense and defense-marketing industry) and endorsed the specter of a broadly anti-Semitic Ukraine, an image belied by Ukraine’s own election of a Jewish President (see Higgins, Andrew. “Ukraine’s Newly Elected President Is Jewish. So Is Its Prime Minister. No All Jews There Are Pleased.” The New York Times, April 24, 2019).
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08 Wednesday Dec 2021
Quadratics:
1) three-way “superpower” hypersonic missile race between China (Totalitarian), Russia (Autocratic Mafia State), and the United States (Democracy in Disarray);
2) serious East-West Rivalry for global influence and control of other states, whether criminal, elitist, and thuggish or rooted in democratically distributed power and reliably humanist, lawful, open, and secular;
3) Ukraine invaded and now threatened again by blunt Russian force and related brutish and corrupt business and political practices;
4) A test of the strength of the the West’s civilizational commitment to democratic, egalitarian, secular ethics, principles, and values against corruption and dictatorship, whether communist, fascist, nationalist, or socialist.
The post-WWII order has been weakened by decades of nefarious effort on Moscow’s part to destabilize EU/NATO with every disingenuous and, frankly, evil method at its disposal, Active Measures (agitprop; cyberwarfare; disinformation; infiltrations of spies online and off; etc.) and broadest spectrum Hybrid Warfare (starting with False Flag Operations and Little Green Men) but moving also to dominance in Energy and political leverage through it, control of a North Pole air base and related potential threat projection. Moscow’s presence in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and its innumerable “Frozen Conflicts” plus its relations with Iran and Syria and terrorist enterprises (see “Mikhail Bogdanov, Hamas” or “Russian arms, Taliban”) tell of the kind of world Moscow runs already and would love to sustain with Western complicity.
Well, score one for the British breakthrough and deployment in the Hypersonic Missile arena — and for Great Britain’s possession of a still strong spine.
“The U.K. is very clear: any military incursion by Russia into Ukraine would be a strategic mistake,” she said. “The Russian government should expect significant strategic consequences. The cost of an invasion would be catastrophically high.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night held a video call with U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi as Western fears grow.
The videoconference sought to present a “united front” among NATO leaders before Biden holds a call with Putin later Tuesday in which he will warn him against starting another war in Eastern Europe.
Gallardo, Cristina. “UK to Russia: Invading Ukraine would have ‘catastrophically high’ consequences.” Politico, December 7, 2021.
AP. “Russian Navy test-fires hypersonic missile in the White Sea.” Defense News. November 29, 2021.
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07 Tuesday Dec 2021
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15 Thursday Apr 2021
Has The West lost courage and heart before Russia’s continuous press to undermine EU/NATO political coherence, cohesion, and resolve?
Have Moscow / Moscow-Tehran-associated chaos and conflict and their fallout in mass migration tired the western public and made some parts benevolent and others mean?
Have Moscow-aided (Taliban) and Tehran-sponsored terrorism (Hamas, Hezbollah) made us — citizens of the west — defensive and smaller than we were 20 years ago?
Have western leaders been compromised?
This juxtaposition represents a conjecture:
There should be a song, “Kompromat” being so much a theme with Moscow’s mafia-style influence on the world’s foreign affairs. Whether or not some number of western leaders or their subalterns — or family members — have been compromised and leveraged — and some have already been made to bow to Russian energy projects — is something I wouldn’t even pretend to know, but I would consider it possible.
Would Russian tanks invading Ukraine then not be bombed by Ukrainian and NATO forces — or defending Russian jets not be driven from the skies by the same?
We are about 20-1/2 years out from September 11, 2001 and our Soviet/post-Soviet old Cold War foe appears on the warpath unstoppable, facing only western opprobrium and sanctions, neither of which appear to have affected any of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, martial and political designs, philosophies, or, perhaps, critical inner-circle relationships.
Shall we all wring our hands and say, “Oh dear”?
Should Putin not “take” Ukraine and plant nukes, for example, in Crimea — he is already defending that wholly invaded space (see, for example, Newdick, Thomas. “Russia Still Uses This Cold War Relic of an Underground Anti-Ship Missile System in Crimea.” The Warzone, The Drive, October 18, 2020)?
Where do American and related European posturing and prostration before Moscow (or Tehran) end?
Will Russia’s tanks be rolling into Ukraine before I publish this post?
Or after?
I have more questions than answers this morning.
The only man on earth who would seem to have answers would be the Russian president (whether Russians like him or not).
***
The Daily Mirror has had cause to report an assault force of 107,000 troops “amassed at Ukraine’s border” — a little more tease before you click to the piece:
EXCLUSIVE: Russia will soon have an assault force of 107,000 troops along Ukraine’s border, with an estimated 1,300 battle tanks, 3,700 drones, 1,300 artillery and mortar units and 380 multiple launch rocket systems —
RUSSIAN tanks painted with “invasion stripes” are gathering on Ukraine’s border as Putin is reportedly set to deploy 30,000 more troops.
A local in the Russian Astrakhan region, 350 miles from the border, filmed the BTR 80 armoured vehicles with white crosses painted on them.
Ibrahim, Magda, Mark Hodge. “Trouble and Stripe: Russia paints ‘invasion stripes’ on tanks as Putin ‘deploys ANOTHER 30,000 troops to Ukraine.” The Sun, April 15, 2021.
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13 Tuesday Apr 2021
Putin hasn’t to move one tank into Ukraine to control Ukraine, for he has already made himself central to Ukrainian (and NATO) awareness, fear, mobilization, and reflection.
Everything Ukraine may now do (and think) will have to do with whatever Putin chooses to do first.
Putin is in control.
Consider the Ukrainian defender’s now about seven-years-old experience and position with a belligerent and bullying Russia repeatedly and with impunity injuring or killing Ukrainian troops daily and weekly for all those years.
Where is that pain to be harbored and kept in check?
For how many more hours, days, weeks, months, years should Ukrainians tolerate the status quo of a “frozen conflict” sustained by the same criminals driven out in the 2014 Maidan?
Putin is in control.
How should Ukrainians feel about reaching out to a NATO that hems and haws over its imperfect governance while aspiring to meet modern democratic standards in rule-of-law?
Oh, has anyone had a good look lately at the degrees of corruption and rancor in relation to domestic political behavior within the United States?
At least the voting will of the American People voted out their own corrupt autocratic infection, but should any of the Atlantic Alliance have fallen so far to now have to bend over fully to pick up the reins dropped from the horse?
Hungary, Italy, Poland, Turkey have each gone at least partially — two especially — back toward family control or, alternatively, ownership of states by nobility, i.e., either way, the feudal mode in political absolutism.
Who’s next?
Putin is in control.
How tense the atmosphere? How dark the clouds? How near the enemy?
Putin is in control.
However far Russia dares to go with its annexation of Ukraine — and its thieving from Ukrainian business and industry and all else Ukrainian and good — Ukraine will have to stand up and go further, and God help NATO embrace and defend Ukraine.
Ukraine: is Putin in control?
“I heard Zelensky’s words as he said that Ukraine is ready to repel aggression. The fact is that he didn’t just say it’s ready today, it’s been ready for seven years already. It’s only that it’s a different level of readiness, because it’s hard to say when Russia might put their aggressive rhetoric to life,” Kravchuk told Current Time, a Russian language project created by RFE/RL with the participation of VOA.
He noted that Russia’s top leadership are directly threatening Ukraine and its sovereignty, including warning of “collapse of the state.”
Wikipedia. “Locus of control”.
Wikiepedia. “Malignant narcissism”.
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12 Monday Apr 2021
Has His Malignance Rolled or not?
It’s a little early to tell here with the Open Source.
Note: early drafts of this post were launched in the small hours, Eastern Standard Time; the latest updates now catch up with mainstream coverage.
Putin’s genius as a “malignant narcissist”: the projection of threat that makes himself central in the narratives of others.
While Ukraine may “not back down to Russian pressure,” it cannot help but be transfixed by it — and EU/NATO cannot help either being drawn to post-Maidan revolutionary Ukraine and both its democratic potential as well as its immediate security interests.
My schematic for the personal journey and process known to malignant narcissists
Narcissistic Mortification –> Covering (humiliation and shame) / Splitting (the damaged child from the image of an heroic child) –> Gaslighting and other Willful Manipulation (to create and sustain an heroic image) –> Limitless Narcissistic Supply (the experiences of public glory, the roaring approval of crowds, the validations of humanity and God).
(BackChannels Page Reference: “Malignant Narcissism”).
The power to (with impunity) threaten one’s targets is, of course, power. What those targets then do in the position of being threatened — and with Putin, boundlessly and without end — may or may not set the limits of that odious behavior.
Axelrod, Tal. “Ukraine says it will not back down to Russian pressure.” The Hill, April 10, 2021.
BBC. “US-Russian spat over bombers landing in Venezuela.” December 11, 2018.
Correll, John T. “Intercepting the Bear.” Air Force Magazine, February 26, 2018.
Mackinnon, Amy. “Is Russia Preparing to Go to War in Ukraine?” Foreign Policy, April 9, 2021.
Pifer, Steven. “Ukraine: Six years after the Maidan.” Brookings, February 21, 2020.
UNIAN. “Huge Russian troop camp near Ukraine’s border shown from inside (Video).” April 12, 2021.
UNIAN. “Zelensky lodges request to talk with Putin about escalation in Donbas.” April 12, 2021.
VOA News. “Putin Praises Russian Military Arctic Exercises.” March 26, 2021.
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