K “The propaganda machine occasionally spews what appears to be inconsistent messages. According to one propagandist, the Russians are advancing to Paris. According to another propagandist, the Russians are retreating to Moscow. Perhaps a little inconsistent, someone might observe.”
J “They are consistent. The first message is designed to inculcate fear. The second message is designed to instill hope. They are all plays on emotion. They are all part of the plan.”
K “And nothing is designed to inspire thought and reflection.”
K “The U.S. seeks to depose Putin and to dismember Russia and to disembowel the Russians. That is an existential threat to Russia. That firms one’s resolve.”
J “Russia is threatening U.S. hegemony over the world for the last 78 years. That is an existential threat to the U.S. That firms one’s resolve.”
. . .
K “The BRICS+ [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others] are seeking to create a freer international economic architecture and a reserve currency based on commodities and possibly precious metals that will undermine and circumvent the PetroDollar and thus the primacy of the U.S.”
J “The U.S. has been dominant since World War II and is unwilling to relinquish that position. Using Ukraine and even Europe as expendable pawns in the great scheme is not pretty but may be necessary.”
. . .
K “Existential Threat + Existential Threat = World War. We are in World War E[conomic] / World War III. It can only get more kinetic.”
J “It can only get really really really horrible.”
K “Biden’s profoundly unscripted and unguarded statement candidly represents American policy and effectively declared World War III. That will have consequences. Put me down as saying it is a bad idea.”
J “Russia undertook an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. Period. That will have consequences.”
K “Because the U.S. threatened its existence, Russia promulgated some very reasonable goals that translate into in a very Western alliterative ‘six-word memoir’ – ‘No NATO, No nukes, No Nazis’. With no other diplomatic option or outlet, Russia undertook a special military operation with defined and disclosed objectives. Documents evince that the Ukrainian Azov Boys intended to launch a blitzkrieg in March on the Donbass region bordering on and sympathetic to Russia. The justification was and is well founded under international law.”
. . .
K “The President, his Department of State, the Congress and the MSM by their words and actions have declared kinetic war on and with Russia. The Pentagon may be the only institution that understands the consequences of war and is counseling caution. The lads and lasses who may do the fighting realize that a no-fly zone will not fly.”
. . .
K “Joe ‘Own Goal’ Biden is violating the first precept one must follow when stuck in a hole. Quit digging.”
J “He’s not helping.”
. . .
K “His recent statements that seek regime change in Russia are improper, inflammatory, inappropriate and outside the bounds even for the United States that knows no bounds. The principle of self-determination has been a bedrock of international law and norms for some time.”
J “He’s not helping. The strategy may be to have him make outlandish comments to rattle the world and then task a staffer to walk back the comments. The strategy is admittedly sketchy.”
. . .
K “America has a ‘Department of Offense’ on each side of the Potomac River. Every time the Metro conductor announces: ‘Next stop . . . Foggy Bottom’, I may be the only one who smiles and realizes that it is the metonym to describe the Department of Offense built literally on a swamp in the D. of C. America needs to build a cabinet-level ‘Department of Diplomacy’ and critically needs to establish an ‘Office of the Legal Advisor’ and hire the very few Americans who are ‘agreement-capable’ to bring America into the rules-based international community.”
As of this week, the nation-states in yellow have sanctioned Russia. The nation-states in gray have not. Nearly the entire Global South has not sanctioned Russia and is not likely to join the sanctions. The majority of the Indo-Pacific nations are included in this group. One eighth of the world by population is with the U.S.; seven eighths of the world is with Russia.
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