By “them” I mean the Russians. Putin in particular.
You see, it’s long been the suspicion of many that the West is ruled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles. I’m not quite there yet –emphasis on yet. But we are ruled by incompetent, America-hating morons. Of this, there can be no doubt.
Why, you are asking, am I being so harsh with the leadership of this once great nation?
Well, you explain to me why we moved heaven and earth to exchange a dope-smoking female basketball player named Brittany Griner for a Russian arms dealer named Viktor Bout (also known as the “Merchant of Death”)?
In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think that’s a fair trade. Nobody else does either. People all over the world are laughing at us. Even Democrats are upset at this exchange. So, when I wrote “we showed them” you realize by now that Putin cleaned our clock again; that we got the worst of it.
But wait! There’s more!
You see, there’s another American who is still being held in a Russian prison, a Marine named Paul Whelan. Because he’s a white, Christian, heterosexual male, he doesn’t have enough Pokémon victim points to qualify high enough on the woke victimology scale. So, basically, he’s going to spend the rest of his life rotting in a Russian prison while Ms Griner gets to go back to the country she hated. (Yes, she was another one of those ingrates who refused to stand for the national anthem.)
And if this isn’t stupid enough, there’s a Saudi angle as well. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) brokered the deal. Now you may say, “way to go, MBS!” It’s things like this that elevate his stature on the world stage.
This, by the way, wasn’t the first such prisoner exchange brokered by MBS. Back in June, he was able to get some Ukrainian Nazis exchanged for Russian POWs, with the proviso that the Ukrainians had to remain in Turkey for the duration of the war. What can I say? The guy’s a playah.
There’s a little problem, however. Back in 2018, MBS ordered the brutal murder of a Saudi journalist (who was also an American citizen) named Jamal Kashoggi. https://hrf.org/hrf-commends-release-of-jamal-khashoggi-murder-report-mbs-must-be-held-accountable/
MBS has been condemned by the State Department and the Department of Justice for his role in ordering the death of Kashoggi. Make no mistake, Kashoggi’s murder was brutal. While being holed up in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, he was tortured and his body was cut up into several pieces and smuggled out so no one would notice.
Anyway, because of the good offices of MBS in brokering the deal for this ungrateful wretch, the United States has dropped all charges against him.
So, is there a silver lining to this sordid mess?
Yes, I believe there is. Leaving aside the worthlessness of Griner for the moment, it’s clear that the United States and the Russian Federation have been engaging in behind-the-scenes negotiations for several weeks –perhaps months–now. That’s a good thing. According to our friends over at The Duran, Griner is just an excuse for these back-channel, face-to-face talks. Because she’s a black lesbian, the Biden Administration felt that they would not be criticized when the public found out about them secretly meeting with the Russians.
As for myself, I’m not so sure. If so, then it didn’t work out as planned. Because the moral calculus between Griner and Bout is so out of whack, the deal looks particularly bad for us. Unless something else turns up in the interim, future negotiations may be imperiled. And that would be a bad thing because back-channels need to remain open. During the Cuban Missile Crisis –when we actually went to DefCon 2–JFK sent his brother Bobby (also the Attorney General) to open up secret negotiations with Andrei Gromyko and the situation was ultimately diffused.
Regardless of the horrible optics, the fact remains that there are more than enough reasons for the talks to continue. MBS will continue to be in this mix as well. Good for him. Unless the CIA can get rid of him, he and his country will remain in the catbird seat for the foreseeable future.
All that being said, it’s clear that the Russians have the upper hand now. They know how to extract concessions from the United States. They know our weak spots and they can’t stop pinching themselves at how easy it is to spot them. Given the unseriousness of American culture at present, I imagine that the Western Europeans are horrified at the mess that we got them into. Perhaps this is another silver lining as they will continue to intensify their efforts to look for the nearest offramp from this entire Ukrainian fiasco. A fiasco we embroiled them in.
Western Europeans do not blame the US for the War in Ukraine. Again, you all give yourself too much importance. America is not the seat of the Antichrist or the great whore of Babylon or any other funny nickname.
I thought the Western European Union was declared defunct in 2011. In any case, I’m pretty sure the Europeans don’t single out the U.S. either, as NATO includes 30 nations. I do think, however, that what happens here impacts the rest of the world and if we don’t turn this around soon, we may not get another chance.
When did we say America was the seat of the antichrist or the whore of Babylon???
Well, given all the massive demonstrations I’ve seen in Prague, Paris and Rome (among others) against arming the Ukraine, I’d say that we don’t see eye-to-eye on this matter. There’s also the fact that several European governments have fallen because of the Ukrainian situation. Let’s see, Italy has fallen, as has Bulgaria, Sweden (and I believe Austria). Not one but two(!) British governments have fallen and Macron lost his parliamentary majority.
Italy has stopped sending armaments, so has Greece. Switzerland has told Germany that they can’t send any more of their (Swiss-made) weapons to the Ukraine. And then there’s the fact that both Macron and Scholz have been having several back-channel talks with Putin. Hungary has followed its own path for almost a year now. Romania is remaining strangely silent. Both of these countries are also playing a long game, signaling to Russia that they will be more than happy to relieve Kiev of certain parts of western Ukraine which they claim are historical parts of their nations.
None of this strikes me as a united front.
Now, I’m under no illusions which tail is wagging the European dog. It’s the US. Every time France or Germany get weak in the knees, certain “incidents” happen. Things like the destruction of the NS pipelines, the blowing up of the Kerch bridge, etc. The latest American response to Franco-German openness to negotiations was the launching of three missiles deep inside Russian territory.
The question is: how much longer will American provocations work to keep France and Germany in line?
Why not? They blame us for everything else.
“Western Europeans do not blame the US for the War in Ukraine.”
I’m a Western European.
I blame the State Department and the MIC,
along with British delusions of adequacy,
French cynicism and German stupidity;
but chiefly the US Unipole fantasists.
Speak for yourself. Most Europeans blame Russia and Russia alone.
I’m curious, do you have any data to back that up? I –on the other hand–have presented electoral data which says otherwise.
You can simply search for “poll support for Ukraine Europe” and you will have many polls. What electoral data you have presented? You mean if there is an election in Europe today and the government, right or left, loses that mean that is because of Russia? Governments that have been changed or have been defeated many times have nothing to do with Russia or have been replaced with even more Ukrainian supporting governments. In the UK the renounce of Boris Johnson was the result of a year long investigation and acussations of having organized parties during the height of the pandemic. In Italy the Meloni led government is more pro Ukrainian than the previous one that was dominated by the 5 Star Movement. In Germany there has only been one regional election since the war, in Lower Saxony and resulted in the end of the SPD-CDU government and the formation of a coalition between the SPD and the Green Party. Support, or interest, in Ukraine is obviously lower than during the beginning of the war, but support for Russia is minnimum, mostly by far left and far right parties and supporters.
Interestingly enough, both the “far left and far right parties” are growing. Again, you can’t divorce popular-voiced preferences given in public from actual votes which are cast in secret. I learned that lesson back in the late 80s when the Sandinistas were on track to win the popular vote in a landslide.
I remember P J O’Rourke discussing what happened: “Sr Jose Campesino, I am from a research firm in Estado Unidos. Who do you plan to vote for? Commandante Ortega, the People’s Choice or the running-dog counter-revolutionary?”
Otherwise, how would one explain Georgia Meloni’s meteoric rise to the premiership of Italy? four years ago, her party only got 4% of the vote.
Moi: “I blame…”
Mike: “Speak for yourself.”
I thought I did.
Mike: “Most Europeans blame Russia and Russia alone.”
How many of those for whom you speak have you asked?
THIS JUST IN: This prisoner exchange is even worse than we thought:
https://youtu.be/-fQEjhn_8e8
It looks like the Russians offered us a choice: Bigfoot or the Marine. Because we are ruled by woke morons we chose Bigfoot.
You know, they really hate us, don’t they?
Paul Whelan received a bad conduct discharge from the Marines. He’s not the honorable service member that some of the MSM (or Monomakhos) is making him out to be. Outlets that simply mention the outrage for bringing Griner home instead of a US Marine are lying by omission.
“ A military judge sitting as a special court martial convicted the appellant [Paul N. Whelan], consistent with his pleas, of attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment … He was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and a bad-conduct discharge.”
People may not agree with Griner’s BLM stance, her refusal to sing the National Anthem, or her personal relationship… but none of that is illegal. Instead it is all, in fact, allowable & legal behavior in the United States.
Whelan, on the other hand, committed actual prosecutable crimes on US soil making him the “criminal” not Griner.
Additionally, Russia caught Griner with 2 personal vape cartridges, while Whelan was charged with espionage. Should Griner have carried any vape cartridges into Russia. Of course not! It’s illegal in their country. But, based on the charges, of course Russia was willing to trade Griner versus Whelan. I’ve seen nothing else anywhere in the media or thru online sources that states/verifies Whelan was offered up for this exchange at all.
Do I personally think that we should have exchanged a notorious Russian criminal for Brittney Griner? Nope. Do I think that we should have exchanged him for Whelan? Nope. But, someone way higher up the decision chain made that choice and I will therefore rejoice in any American being returned home.
Thanks for filling in the blanks. Having said that –and given today’s woke military culture–I can no longer take what courts-martial mete out as far as military justice is concerned.
Even if, arguendo, we accept the official story, as far as Griner v Whelan are concerned, it should have been a no-brainer. A Marine trumps a an ungrateful drug user and day of the week. Especially if Whelan was an American spy.
In any event, in your last paragraph, you spell out the moral calculus rather well. Viktor Bout, for those who may not know, is eager to get back to Russia and volunteer to fight in the Ukraine. I imagine his arms-acquisition skills will come in rather handily. Especially given how corrupt elements of the Ukrainian Army are. (Word on the street is that the Ukrainians sold the Russians an intact HIMARS, which the Russians have now reverse-engineered.)
I despise double standards of any kind, as well as narratives created out of thin air from any side.
Thus Saunca’s point (specifically about Whalen) is well taken and appreciated.
The real story with MBS is the meeting with President Xi of China. They signed a massive trade deal and Xi was received with the ceremony of a Trump or a Lavrov rather than the anticlimax of a Biden. Even the king himself came out of his convalescence with his cane to meet Xi.
Say goodbye to the petrodollar.
As to the trade, who cares? Whelan received a negative discharge and was charged with espionage while serving as head of security for an auto company. Griner had some hash oil in a vape, or some such nonsense. Griner clearly broke the law. Whelan may or may not be a spy, but this is a game both Russia and the US play with foreign nationals – accusations, baseless or not, regarding espionage are par for the course and find a sort of equilibrium of reciprocity, so to speak. It’s kind of like the Muslim Arab habit of using kidnapping/hostages as a negotiating tactic.
As to Bout, his reputation has been blown wildly out of proportion. When you compare the volume of his alleged business with what we are sending to the Ukraine, the whole matter becomes laughable.
Latest Message from Elder Gabriel of Mount Athos translated – Important, please read carefully what he says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhLG2iJMUVk
0:12
Greek Christian brothers in Christ
0:16
I sincerely hope so
0:19
may god’s blessing be with you
0:22
and with your families
0:25
and our little Greece and the whole world
0:28
throughout your life and throughout eternity
0:33
i wish god write your names
0:35
in the eternal book of life
0:38
to remember you in his reign and to
0:41
you are with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
0:45
have a job have health
0:48
may god protect your families
0:50
your kids don’t get carried away
0:53
with drugs with the internet and more
0:56
I hope that God protects us and that
0:59
get us out of dead ends
1:01
for god to intervene
1:04
to give a blessing to Greece he must
1:06
we are also doing something in the golden keys
1:09
from open the gates of heaven and
1:12
God’s blessings come to earth
1:15
tactic of confession and church services the
1:19
easy to say incessantly, lord jesus
1:21
Christ, have mercy on us, most holy theotokos, save us
1:25
to fast on Wednesday and preparation of oil
1:28
as appointed by the master
1:30
a cause we get sick at heart
1:33
brain cancers and others are that not
1:37
we do not observe fasts
1:38
and god forbid the germs to us
1:41
offends not protects us
1:43
the holy scripture to read even a little every day
1:47
to do no good work in the grave not
1:50
we won’t be able to say either, lord mercy
1:52
no good work to do that we gave with
1:55
our little hands this is ours but
1:58
others will take them, they don’t belong to us
2:00
I lost everything except what I gave
2:04
the shrouds the funeral costumes do not have
2:08
pockets are pocketless
2:10
only repentance will save our little girl
2:12
the Greek nation
2:14
passed laws against God’s laws
2:17
legalization of abortion and prostitution
2:20
adulteries in cohabitation him
2:23
civil marriage the cremation of the dead the
2:25
homosexuality and so much more
2:28
we will be driven to destruction without repentance
2:31
god took his blessing from greece
2:34
all monks we pray lord jesus
2:37
Christ have mercy on your world may God have mercy on us
2:40
blessed be you all and
2:43
in the future and you and all yours! Amen!
Elder Gabriel is a true prophet and one of the last monk faithful remaining on Athos. This is a similar message he gave to Greece years ago around the time of the crisis. That Greeks will be dispersed through migrations and basically have their country disappear due to the immense abortion epidemic and demographic decline due to their acceptance of modernism’s. Since then his prediction or should we say prophecy has come true. Greeks of younger age must move abroad to make a living, the average age in Greece is 46 and rising (one of the oldest in the world) their birthrates are about 1.3 (way below replacement levels), drugs, crime and suicide rates remain high after a spike about a decade ago. We see his warning of a decade ago has become the reality.
The Talibanization of Richmond is Complete
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-talibanization-of-richmond-is-complete/
‘ The last Confederate statue, of General A.P. Hill, was removed today and given to a black history museum.
Black people in Richmond will now forevermore live in prosperity, peace, and happiness. They will quit murdering each other by the hundreds every year over drugs; the 90 percent illegitimacy rate will plummet to zero; crime in the city will disappear; student test scores and I.Q.s will skyrocket; and they no longer have to blame all of their problems and shortcomings on white people who died a hundred years ago or more because there will be no more problems and shortcomings. ‘
Hallelujah…?
Or too early to tell…?
A Netflix documentary “Descendant,” though mostly focusing on the last slave ship “Clotilda” and the families involved, does briefly discuss Confederate monuments in Mobile about two-thirds of the way through. It definitely puts forth a different stance on why a monument, and/or to some extent southern culture itself, continues to perpetuate and exalt distorted views of history during that period of time. It’s worth considering, imo.
Interesting point, Saunca. It’s worth noting that Moses Ezekiel, the only Jewish graduate from Virginia Military Institute and a renowned scholar in his day, erected a monument to black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy. It stands in Arlington.
I didn’t know that! And I’ve been to Arlington many times. Looking forward to finding out more about it. Thank you.
I meant sculptor.
Then there’s this from Sonar21 regarding the Bout trade. He thinks Bout was an RF intelligence asset tasked with sketching the interaction of key players in the arms market and that he was snagged as part of the revenge for the Russo-Georgian conflict.
That wouldn’t surprise me.
This is the best thing I’ve seen from McGregor so far regarding the Ukraine conflict. He explains quite a bit about the intentions of both sides and the evolution of the types of warfare involved. Ignore the title, it is about the entire war and barely mentions Odesa. Michael Vlahos is an excellent interviewer.
If this is correct, the fix is in so deep that we are looking at another multigenerational run of the Soviet Union, except here in Amerika.
They could only get away with it because we were so indoctrinated. The blinders are off now. We have no trust in these 3-letter agencies. They have become the enemy and exposure is their worst nightmare.
Yes, I think the writer in the above article takes it a bit far. I’m not that skeptical of either Musk or DeSantis. DeSantis, for example, just asked the Florida SuprCt to empanel a grand jury to look at malfeasance re: Covid vax. Musk is a wild card but I doubt he is in league with the intelligence services. What he has revealed is probably criminal conduct by the FBI, for instance. It won’t be prosecuted unless and until the coup regime is replaced, but all attorneys realize the magnitude of what has been uncovered. The government (FBI, other intelligence services) must not, under our Constitution, act to censor free speech, especially political speech.
The blinders are off, my dear. I’d say that ever since the Stop the Steal rally, we both became solidly “red-pilled” (even though we were well on our way).
To all: things are bad –really bad. And all things being equal, they will continue to degenerate. However, because this is a spiritual battle, and satanism is based on nihilism, I expect that there will be a hiccup or two for the Globalists as they try to take us further down their demonic path.
God wins.
Maybe this was shared? Probably?
Minsk agreement under the microscope; intentions exposed: Global Times
See: https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/minsk-agreement-under-the-microscope-intentions-exposed:-glo