The Trumpest

Big Donnie finds himself in the midst of a tempest he thought was going to go away. With the subpoena of the Trump Organization's files on their 'work' with Russia - dating back a couple of decades - the gloves could, at long last, be coming off. A new 'exposee' on the subject is claiming that Trump's dealings with 'important' Russian figures dates back to the 80's The books claim that it was through this relationship that Trump was 'informed' of Russian intentions to help him get elected after he had privately informed the Russians of his intention to run. The hacking of the DNC computers and other 'secret intel' on the Clinton's was part of that assistance.

While the Chief inquisitor waits to see how Trump defines the word 'subpeona' - for he could use his office to interfere with the material provided - US domestic politics will remain  'tittering' on the points of Trump's peccadilloes. As in other such investigations Trump could, possibly and like so many others investigated,  end-up facing completely unrelated criminal charges arising from discoveries from the investigatory process. Such things have come to light, particularly to 'encourage' testimony from recalcitrant or forgetful  witnesses - such as Paul Manafort.

Manafort's non-arrest home - "Tampa-ing with witnesses"

We won't even talk about Stormy Daniels and her 'case' which is taking on some unique 'evolutions'.  Tat muck is stuck on the wheels of the Presidential golf cart.  Whether Trump likes it or not, the story IS well and truly out - all that is missing is any detail Stormy might add that would enhance or detract from the President's prodigious, or not,  appetite for the exotic. The aforementioned book, while not exploring the 'salacious side' of Trump in Russia, does touch in Trump in Russia and that, if he played that true to form,  there would be some Russian 'Stormies' and their KGB/FSB  'handlers' who watch for,  and record,  'important' foreigners doing that kind of thing.

So what is to be done?

This where things get interesting for Trump has the power to do a lot. Not much of it however, domestically.

When Presidents, like Obama, Clinton, or LBJ, all the way back to James Polk needed the spotlight off themselves, they find an 'enemy' and start a 'diversionary' war. Looking around the world to-day Trump has more opportunities than any of his predecessors. He could 'do' Syria, or North Korea or Venezuela, or Yemen, or even Ukraine. Every one of them present America with the opportunity to exercise its 'righteous' military power to 'save' something, or right some already-advertised wrongs.

Syria would be the most obvious, at present - as a NATO article 3 event occurred, yesterday, when Syrian Army shelled a Turkish unit near Afrin. Overlooking the facts that Turkey bombed a Syrian Army post first and that, technically, Turkey is engaged in an unsanctioned invasion of Syria at the present time, a similar sort of 'case' to the 'Russians gassing their spies' scenario could be trotted-out for the US to 'back'. Ms Haley literally reserved America's 'right' to do that  that,  at the UN, just recently. A sustained air bombardment of, first, Syrian positions around Afrin - extending to some 'warning raids ' on Damascus might be just what Dr.Trump needs to 'cure' himself of the pesky 'diagnosticians'. Especially if he won.

 He could WIN something by pulling-out of Korea.  Particularly if he could conclude a non-aggression pact and peace treaty to bring to the UN for ratification. That might also win him  the kind of 'Nobel' his predecessor most certainly didn't deserve. But he needs tome time to do that,  so a short, sharp victorious war is a necessity. There is no guarantee that Assad would roll over, or that Israel would assist more than by occupying what's left of the Golan heights in Syrian possession. Israeli involvement might just unite the Moslems and change the Turks and Kurds from friends and allies into head chopping Jihadists who don't like America. They all don't like the Jews - that affects the Saudis as well. . Netanyahu however, is in the same boat as Trump - domestic trouble-wise.

So short and sharp would have to be somewhere else. Venezuela or an island, somewhere warm. That too would take an uptick in the kinds of activities that lead to public disorder requiring US intervention. Nothing is currently on the public horizon. Something could be 'produced' or 'managed'  but would the dark statists 'do it' for Trump? Apparently Donald was asking about a Venezuelan invasion earlier in the Spring. Go figure.

Ukraine would. As they might well have done at the recent Olympics (reputedly spiking Russians'  food with detectable dope) and, more recently,  in England with 'something' more deadly,  if less effective.

In the meantime the winds of change will blow, the seas of tribulation will rise, the Tempest abateth naught!

Syriana - an Update

It's hard to believe that in my last post more than three weeks ago, I commented that 'Afrin' - a Kurdish enclave in NW Syria - had been taken under attack by Turkish forces. What looked back then like a slam dunk waiting to happen,  has degenerated into another second-world failure to win.  For here we  are,  well-up the road and the Turks are barely beyond the areas they had bravely motored-into on Day 1. Motored into and failed to motor out of. Last week, if some sources are to be believed, the Kurds beat-off a Turkish assault that left the battlefield festooned with some burning armor and an estimated 34 Turks dead on the ground.  This is unusual for, until now, the Turks were content to let their SFA 'comrades' take pride of place liberating 'their homeland'.  As one source put it last week, the Turks 'have met mud and mountains and their advance has drawn a blank'. Winter in northern Syria, and southern Turkey is like that. Kurds are coming from  NE eastern Syria through government held arreas, to take part.

In the most recent development the Kurdish forces in Afrin have done a deal with Assad that is quite likely to see the Syrian flag hoisted over Afrin and the Kurds withdrawn to their enclave in the eastern part of Syria.  Today the government forces assumed control over the Kurdish suburb of the long embattled city of Aleppo. It too having suffered the blandishments of Islamic Jihad without caving, so it just as much in need of rebuilding as East Aleppo.

What's really interesting is intersting for Turkey which, all of a sudden, loses its reason to be grabbing another chunk of Syria - this time from Assad's forces and not ISIS or the Kurds.  As well as still having to face-off against the PKK in the Syrian version of Rohava. And that latter involves the USA

America is on the 'horns' of another 'dilemma',  for it now gets to face-off against the Turks or abandon its new friends the Syrian Kurds.  It will be facing-off against Assad as he turns his attention toward the jihadis and FSA still holding on in the Golan and near the SW border. Both of which, without Russian help, will be nasty and with Russian help will be complicated.  I think the Syrian Kurds know on  which side their falafel is greased and there isn't much America could, or would, do to stop the Turks. Assad would.

To ensure there is  no Turkish 'hanky panky' into what is marked out as 'Rojava', Kurdish units are evacuating north from the US-inspired conquest of the east bank of the Euphrates around Deir Ez Zor. That's something the US won't like. Especially if it leaves ISIS isolated and at  the mercy of Syrian forces which already have a bridgehead on the East Bank. (It was bombed last week for "threatening" US "allies"  in the area, or for repulsing an SDR/ISIS attack on the bridgehead - that news is clarified below.)  The US is also in a pickle further north backing-up its  Kurdish allies while facing-down a potential fight with the Turks over the 'buffer zone' the Turks want,  to keep Kurds off their border. Had the Turks not been taking a licking in Afrin, that zone might have been better-formed - as of now, it isn't. 

Assad's forces continue to 'bite back' the remaining ISIS enclaves in western Syria, as well as nipping off parts of Idlib governate not covered by de-escalation agreements.  The Russians are still bombing targets in central Idlib accused of being the launch points of drones that bombed Russian bases a week and a half back and, more recently, of being the 'home' of whichever group it was used a manpad rocket to down a Russian forces fighter-bomber.  The Russians had, I thought,  closed the airspace over Afrin, but since the Turks are still attacking the borders, aside from preventing any further bombardment of the hard-hit governate 'capital',  that isn't having any immediate effect on Turkish Air operations.

That incident near Deir EzZor last week upped the US ante significantly, as they waded-in to 'defend' their part of Eastern Syria and consequently may have killed a large number of Russians when they gave what they thought were 'only' Syrians  the full-treament from assets in the area.  While the Russians, so far, have taken time to study and decry the 'we got ya' idiots,  they were starting to release more information on the dead and wounded 'contractors' they claim had "nothing to do with the Russian military"  They were treating the incident far differently than they treated the notorious ceasefire 'introductory' boming at the same place, a year ago Christmas.

I don't think the fat lady has had her 'ups' about this one. Somebody's going to wait until America gets cocky again to perhaps show them what the Russians can do to a force caught out in the open.

Hawaii's Big Skeer

Saturday morning last , or at least 28 minutes of it, must have been a real 'doozie' for those Hawaiians, and tourists,  who weren't sleeping through it.  Some lummox at Civil Defense HQ  accidentally toggled the switch  that posts the alert for incoming rocket strikes - assuming there are a variety of such alerts.  All of a sudden individual cell phones received the 'automated message'. If you were messaging the family, back on the mainland, over a vacation breakfast, they had a few minutes to wish you hadn't done that Hawaiian get-away.  TV programs were interrupted with a red 'warning bar' scrolling across the screen indicating ICBM, imminent and take cover - a British premier league soccer game - was one I noticed. The warnings triggered 'somebodies' else to toggle local air raid sirens (which had, we are told, recently been part of the high-intensity 'training' going on - the NORK's threat to civilization, eh?). So a cacophony of sound (I was going to say not heard since the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor, but they've 'upgraded' the sound to a sort of eerie, alien 'warbling' - that none save a sound engineer, or Darby O'Gill,   has ever heard) added to the already heightened tensions.  Road traffic took a turn for the worse as people pulled-off to the side as instructed, and abandoned their cars, while others bolted for home or the office. One fellow even tossed his toddler into a storm drain for protection.

It only took Civil Defence 28 minutes - in consultation with every other attack detection and warning agency on 'erth', the four branches of the armed forces in the Pacific, National Security HQ and, no doubt, the White House - to determine that one, there was no incoming attack and two, someone had blundered. I guess the notion of just turning things off isn't in the 'play book'.

Which all leads one to believe that the CD warning system might be tied into something automatic with the 'manual override' that caused the problem. And that 'the human element' doesn't have immediate access to real-time awareness of an actual threat situation.  Next time a faulty chip or sensor could trigger a warning and nobody might 'know' for more than an hour - although  real incoming missiles from eastern Asia would have a flight time of between 13 and 20 minutes - so the loud 'bangs' interspersed with the alien noises and the pandemonium might 'prove' something. A blinding white flash or two, would shut everything to fuck up.

The White House took until later on Saturday to comment.  Thank goodness the President might have been 'occupied' - taking a Trump dump,  or entertaining some overpaid, over-injected "golf  tournament diversion" and didn't make one of those crucial  '2 pm decisions'.  I'm pretty sure somebody important was asking if the Norks, or the Chinese or the Russians,  might not have 'stealth ICBMs? And shouldn't we let off a few just to be careful?   I visualize Pence and the Prosyliterians poring over 'the Big Board' down in the war bunker.

There's possibly a book, or two, in this one.

The Trump dump emoji

                    Mia Khalifa - last weeks 'meme' for Islamic 'wummin' and golf diverter

What ever happened away from the news is starting to take on the aspects of human nature at its best and worst.  Honeymooning couples celebrated their last few minutes together with a glass of wine and render expressions of eternal love. Others used the opportunity to do some crime. One fellow stiffed his young child into a manhole to help him, or her,  survive. Others made tearful calls home , bidding farewell - courtesy of our interconnected whirled.  I'm pretty sure more than a couple hit their knees to 'get right' with 'God'  or simply bent over, quietly,  to kiss their ass good-bye.


 To-day it's looking like the 'book' would be a revised CD manual, for the only thing America sees going wrong is that this was 'only' a false alarm. the notion of it actually being a real alarm is discounted as - well - not very 'American',  or not very 'well-prepared to survive'.   After some clear-eyed thinking, 'upping the CD 'game' is being touted as the panacea.

Atomic war is still very much 'on the table'.

What Kind of Dope Am I?

The IOC has labored and Dicky Pound and the 'Royal Canucks' have taken a stand. The IOC 'hearts' Russian athletes, they abhor the Russian medal-producing system that fills them full of performance enhancing drugs and then hides the 'facts' from honest people. Russia is officially banned from the 2018 Olympics in Korea, but individual Russian athletes - who have shown themselves to be 'dope free' - may participate as 'independents',  under the Olympic banner. I hope the only Russians who would do that are the ones who can't make the US team. For this all started in America.

After the Sochi Olympics,  a pair of Russian athletes defected to the USA. On arrival they  told the story of how Russian competitors - maybe even them - were doped to provide their very best performances at the Olympics. Shortly thereafter, the man who headed the Russian anti-doping program defected, too, and with him came 'chapter and verse' on who was doped and how they did it and even more particularly, how they avoided getting caught. That involved holes drilled in walls and urine samples slipped into the testing labs in the dead of night by NKVD secret agents.  I'm thinking that if any of that doping moved a fifth place loser into silver or gold contention it was an effort well spent. For along with the dope there was also the small matter of beating the best in the world.

I'm pretty sure that, among the best in the world,  taking something to ameliorate a problem, or even to ensure an untroubled or pain free effort - 'using' is  not something they pass-up lightly. I think many of them dope, it's just that anti-doping is so fool-receptive that few of them get caught.

Canada 's singular doper, Big Ben Jonson,  probably wasn't smart enough to appreciate that the 'vitamins' the team doctor as infecting him with, weren't. But he won the gold and PO’ed the US champ - who started  the rumours,  later borne out in substance,  that Benny had been custom-doped to 'excel' on his big day. His doctor confessed, Ben was banned,  lost his gold and lucrative series of commercial contracts. After that Canada learned a lesson;  no Canucks have been caught doping since. (One (Gold Medal-winning) snowboarder was accused of being under the influence of 'pot' - no particular performance-enhancer  - but he said he might have inhaled it 'accidentally' while visiting 'toking' friends. Although the rumours are out there about the good stuff.  Let’s face it Olympic athletics are a career for those into it - training is what they do and perfecting ‘the instrument’ might require some medication. If it’s the kind of stuff that would get them banned, they're careful about it or, better still, they get a medical dispensation to 'test dirty'. Let's face it,  no 'national hope' is going to be tested when they’re dirty - unless they're Russian, or citizens of Lower Slobbovia.

Let the games begin. We'll see.

The Maidan Snipers : a smoking gun.

One of the things that has yet to happen in the new, rebutylhydrated EUkraine is the trial of some Berkut riot police accused of 'inhumanity' on the Maidan and indirectly blamed, by the current government, with killing Maidan protesters. The most notable incident of the killing as video recorded for posterity - the Maidan 'snipers' who changed a protest into a coup.

Today there is a news scoop on that topic.


The Georgian Connection

The same story from somebody else.

What we already know:

Shut 'Em Down!

In these days of false news  and the growing focus on mobilizing 'the grass roots'  to do your revolutions, or demand 'justis', or lock somebody up,  is it much of a surprise when some governments that really can't stand much heat, or dissident viewpoints,  enlist the help of the grassroots to shut down 'propaganda'?  Rather than trying to cope with it?

In Canada the former government - through its self-defined 'grass roots' mandate - took it into mind to have a good look at registered charities. As a result of which a number of charities that had objectives 'at odds' with government policies,  found themselves un-registered or investigated by the tax department or both.  It had a chilling effect on donations and doing much to help, except for 'big charity', or - even better - political parties.

So it's not much of a surprise to see this to-day

BBC News lambastes 'war via charity'.

Of course the BBC has less to do with this than Sam Bright, another freelance journalist who thinks he's found something that Kyiv already knows, and through him,  the 'revolutionary government of dignity' that unseated the last lot. Not only have they been running a fruitless little ATO (anti-terror Operation) in Lugansk and Donetsk regions, they have also been somewhat peeved by a couple  of westerners who simply will not be shut up. Until now, perhaps,  if they can get themselves banned on fund-raising sites.

Britain came out early on the side of the Maidan 'angels', buying into the myth of 'democracy' and the need for Euro-closeness (who would have thought Britain would have reversed its own need of 'Eurocloseness' before the revolution of dignity was completed)?  The Brits are still 'hyper-Euro' for EUkrainia, however. Just last week they sentenced a Brit (assisting terror) , who had foolishly been subject of a BBC piece on Brits fighting against the Kyiv government, to 7 years in the slammer. A simlar piece on a Brit fighting FOR the Kyiv government, got him some public recognition and no penalty at all.

The problem this time is with an American fighter and two newsies who have been known to do some charitable work in the Donbass,  as well as write about the 'war' there.  The subjects of this piece are Americans: anti-fascist 'warrior' Russell Bentley and videographer/helper Patrick Lancaster and British videographer/reporter  Graham Phillips.  All three have little good to say about the technocrats in Kyiv or the army of louts they have unleashed on the 'Russians'.

I don't know how much real fighting Russell Bentley  has actually done - he talks a good game - but his videography is wide-ranging and depicts many facets of life in the 'novorussian' regions,.  He often depicts himself, armed and in military gear,  but is not very often depicted in combat operations. He does give some valuable insights into a lot of things we do not see on 'mainstream' media and,  if the camera lens doesn't lie, it adds to our understanding of the situation,   a dimension we certainly won't get from the 'what war'/ 'Putin Invades' department in Kyiv.

Graham Phillips has been documenting his time in Ukraine since well before the polyankiy went up. He was there for a large amount of the Maidan 'celebrations' and on both sides of the line as a 'good thing' went sour.  Since the actual fighting has started,  his 'slant' has been increasingly anti-Maidan,  to the extent that, now,  he is a marked man,with a price on his head for illegal entry into Ukraine ( all  three have done that) as well as 'inciting violence'.  He is the subject of a couple of attempted government intimidations in Great Britain.   Phillips has done his anti-Ukrainian 'reportage'  in a number of places outside Ukraine. He is a fluent Russian-speaker and often has  an infuriating effect on Ukrainians he interviews, or depicts. Phillips was  wounded during the first year of the fighting and has documented the horrors of war.

Patrick Lancaster is truly a 'oner' with a gut feel for the people affected by this trouble and a willingness to do what he can to help. He not only documents the home front and the little things that give the impression that the people of the dissident regions are truly 'soldiering on', he also reports on,  and has been exposed to,  the fighting itself. At Christmas time last year,  he was visiting the trenches in the Delbaltsevo area - on the occasion of another  failed government 'tooth-breaking' attempted territorial integration.  His reports showed actual artillery and mortar barrages striking within meters of his position -  front line reporting at its best.  Lancaster is one of the three who claims to be running a one-man charitable operation,  as well as reporting. He has done stories on delivering relief supplies  that  he has purchased for civilians with donations of money he has received.

While the initial problem is what these men do, the BBC is carping about how they raise the money to do it.

For all three are 'free lancer' journalists,  who wouldn't be employed (any longer - for at least one was) by western media .  The BBC claims they are using "crowd funding" and 'charitable donations ' to fund their 'war activities'. The BBC claims that "Go Fund Me" or "Indigogo" being two  that Bentley's supposedly recommending. The BBC claims that Bentley  has raised over $2 000,  while pointing out that a similar 'charity' raised $2.5 million for victims of the Manchester bombing (huh?). Last time I looked,  Indiegogo wasn't a charity fundraiser and,  while Gofundme might be used for that purpose, one would have to be able to 'sell' the case for giving. The BBC fails to mention that all of three of them use 'Patreon',  another 'pay site' dedicated to supporting independent writers and artists, a category into which these three definitely fit. At least two of them have been banned by common payment sources like Paypal  but can receive money directly through email addresses and credit card companies.

The Trooth? We Can't Handle the Trooth.

Trump's latest foible - foreign governments and 'enemies'.

Twitterganda

The fifth man at that meeting: Chris Steele? Nope! It was a former KGB agent, top-secret and now resident in America, known only to NBC - and not the fabled 'Jimmy Bond' and Clinton classmate, ex MI 6 secret operative,  DNC-contractee and finder of  Trump's 'wet Russian hookers. If Trump Jr. was smart he would have had somebody 'Russian' present to translate, if nothing else, and to perhaps determine if the 'dirt' he was about to receive was plausible - maybe that's why Manafort was there. When 'the Russian lawyer' announced she was really there to get Trump's help with beautiful Russian babies, Kushner and Manafort left the meeting. There was nothing they were interested in. Trump Jr. gave her a listen - which is more than Podesta would have done.

 Meanwhile when it came to Trump's peeing hookers, it took months -  while 'Washington insiders' circulated the Steele report - possibly because they knew it as bullshit - until it developed the email 'legs of truthiness' and could be passed along to the NATSEC supersluths for 'investigation'. That took the form (apparently for this this all hush-hush, too)  of Big John (no horseshit) Brennan asking Trump 'if Putin had him by the balls', with the outgoing Supreme Adjudicator standing watch.

We're still waiting for somebody to actually table Steele's 'report' - which has him hiding from a 'speznaz hit squad' and editing out the parts that have already been debunked.


Talki about debunking.   Enemy Hacking Identification 101

But what dumped Dolly Clinton's run for the Rose Garden was the niggling fear that Trump, or somebody like Putin, had the goods, or video  of Willie Jeff taking part in what Willie Jeff likes to do more than anything else - BJ's.  It was contended that he had done more than merely  'get away' the 11 times he adnmitted  guesting at Jeffrey Epstein's 'pleasure island'  complex. A line-up of overdeveloped 'dollies' had helped convict Epstein and caused a Royal Highness a few troubled moments in regard to the sexual predation of tweenagers that seems to have been what it was all about. Rumor had it that Jeffrey was doing for Israel twhat the KGB was doing for Putin - helping get the goods on somebody worth negotiating with. Had not Hilary let herself down towards the end of the campaign,  somebody else was going to.   Needless to say since that stuff never came out it doesn't need to be investigated,  like the true stulff that did come out doesn't either.   Huh?

Donald speaking in front of a silent panel of Willuie accusers while the big fella sat in the audience and watched his wife flounder didn't need any Putin.  That was the night that drove old Dicksie down.

It's OK for good guys to jack an election

Ukraine is an ally dontcha no?  It's not an enemy like Russia.   They vote with us as all the important UN sanctions votes and they deployed troopps to Afghanistan and Iraq even theiough they didn't have to and couldn't afford it. And even if they did try changing our regime it's only because  they're entitled after all we recently changed theirs.

Putin's Hacking takes Back Burner

Another 'Morphus Americanus' is underway.  In the grand style of Claghorn Leghorn, or any number of other cartoon characters, the US media has stopped following  the stale spoor of the unproveable,  to hie-off on the scent of a 'wascally wabbit' who knew all about that other story and still 'colluded' with foreign potentates to bring a perrfectly good Democratic presidential candidate down.

17 Security Agencies

DNC hack

While to-day its starting to look like all the 'hoopla' about Putin or his goons 'hacking' that election - the tale that brought on an on-going spate of Congressional 'herrings', may have neen a trifle 'overblown', or perhaps created out of 'whole cloth' by the guardians of our 'security' and whatever libderties 'they' think we should have, it is no less apparent that somebody in America has a large 'penetrating device' lubricated for TrumpInc.

 The 'Russians'  are beginning to take a back seat to the new 'facts' that Trump, or members of his team , or family still knew all about whatever it was the Russians were doing and he, or they, teracherously colluded to spoil the ballot of democrazy.  Some Pol introduced a motion of impeachement,  against  Trump,  yesterday.


While it's fairly certain that nobody in a position to do so, actually knows much at all about Russia's role in all this - that they can tell, or show, or leak - without compromising 'the security of the USA' - by,  I imagine, risking having  the Russians find out HOW we 'know' what they did, or didn't do.  I'm making an assumption that the Russians might not need to be tiold if they 'did' or  'didn't do' something, but I'm a hundred percent positive that thay aren't ready to admit we're right or 'own up to anything'.

 I saw an interesting story about how Trump broached that hacking topic "repeatedly" with Putin at their 'face-to-face' last week. I imagine the notion went throught Trump's mind that, if Putin 'caved' and admitting hacking him into the hotseat, a  Writ of Impeachement would be waiting when he next stepped off Marine One.  Yet the Sec State insisted that Donald definitely DID NOT accept Putin's protestations that he didn't torpedo the dike.  To-day Donald is valiantly defending his 17 security agencies 'evidence' that Russia hacked Clinton of of a victory -  but he 'discovered' a 13 agency discrepancy. The remaining four agencies are right - chapter and verse  hacking 'evidence' from Crowdstrike. Did he really say that??!!!

Not 17 only 4 .... actually 1 and they're guessing

Family Ties

And this we week step right along to another chapter of the saga: the 'attempt' to enlist the support of a foreign plenipotentiary to  'do in' a legitimate candidate.  Don Trump Jr,  is accused of meeting with a Russian 'governmrnt lawyer', Manafort (the 'Russian agent' in charge of his campaign)  and Jared the electoral Whiz-kid,  at the behest of a fat english 'slob' who indicated she had poop to share about crooked Hillary and  her Russian 'B'ackers.  Turns out she only wanted to talk about her 'adoption' business but Junior had 'sinned in his heart' by wanting her to have actionable intel. Strsange that nobody is remembering an 'ultra private' meeting of Trump,  Obama and the 'big' John Brennan to do the big reveal on the Russian plot to 'blackmail' the new President with an NKVD video of him, russian hookers and peeing on a 'presidential bed?  That story was 'generated' by a 'James Bondian' Englishman.  hired for the purpose by somebody American.  You'd think that, psrticularly,  after the past 20 years, anything 'British intelligence' has for America should be taken with a dose of castor oil. They've had a stinky finger in every one of America mis-steps and boo-boos, for along time.

Sinning in his hart

As George Harrison once sang'All things Must Pass",  this 'hot potato' will too. Hopfully it won't require another war of distraction.

Another Big Fat Conspiracy

How did Putin steal the US Presidency from Hilary Clinton?  The short answer is 'We don't know."

 The more nuanced answer is that 'we do know' because a private internet security company in California has detected traces of what he calls a Russian hacking group busting into the DNC server and stealing email. He also detected 'Russian' hacking in an attempt, he claims, to make electronic voting machines on Illinois  register a different vote than was entered. And then there is the Wikileaks dump of email relating to Hilary Clinton on a number of different issues - released shortly before the vote. Along with what is claimed to be a constant barrage of 'false news' written in Moscow and published in US media,  there is, according to a 12 page Security report on the subject, a clear and present indication that Putin has been personally doing the 'hokey pokey' with America.

 This has been maintained as the fundamental understanding of 'what's up' and has been further extended and expanded to an investigation that Trump was in cahoots, or was possibly being blackmailed over some micturating prostitutes, with or by Moscow to gain the throne and then sell America down the  proverbial (or in Bennie Arnold's case the Hudson) river.


A meeting with the Russians this weekend past has provided the latest grist for that mill and US median has been chunnering that Trump blabbed the 'down and dirty' on some very tip-top secret US 'intel' about an  ISIS to change civilization.

It just so happened that the same day this story broke - so did another - a report on the mysterious death of a Democratic IT worker called  Seth Rich.  Rich was found, dying of two bullet wounds, on a Washington street early last year.  His death, ascribed by police to a botched robbery in which nothing was stole, n has been investigated by a man hired by the Rich's family.  That investigator is now claiming to have been told by police and FBI contacts that Rich's laptop, sequestered by police as part of their investigation. reveals details of possible contacts over a period of time between Rich and Wikileaks. For there has long been a counter story to the 'Putinic plot' to 'bolshoi' America, that someone inside the Democratic party was releasing their communications.  We know for fact that much of the damaging information about Clinton , released late in the campaign and which caused the FBI to announce an investigation - was released by the NYPD after they seized a laptop belonging to Jeffrey Wiener (look at my dick fame) - the husband of Clinton's personal assistant Huma Abedin - and on which they found an amount of Clinton/ Democratic party material.

An upcoming release of further information , it was claimed , would detail some of this contact with Wikileaks.  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange went on record to talk about this slaying and while making no admissions that Rush was his source, nonetheless offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of Rush's killer.

If any of this is correct it could indicate that he conventional wisdom governing America, its government and its foreign policy in regard to Russia is, essentially, like the WMDs of the BushCo era,  another load of bunkum and hooey causing great destruction and accomplishing little or nothing.

This story is well detailed on Mnar Muhwesh's  alternitive news site Mint  Press.

Mint Press Investigation

If You've been Keeping-up with Syria ... Duh! Eh?

If you've been keeping-up with Syria - which seems to have been knocked-out of western media by the murder of the Nork's leader's older 'playboy' stepbrother and the on-going saga of the 'evil that is Trump' - you may have noticed there is little being reported.  But that doesn't mean there is nothing going on.

 If you look at a situation map you will notice that Syria is, now, split into enclaves occupied by the actors of the piece. the Syrian Arab government and its Syrian Arab Army hold the capital and areas around it, they hold a strip of land extending toward the north west corner of the country - fighting is going on in Idlib (west of Aleppo). They have retaken Aleppo and are advancing east on two fronts  into territory held by ISIS.

ISIS territory now extends in a wide strip to the southeast, through central Syria, to the border of Iraq. It contains the ISIS capital of Raqqa and the air base city of Deir ez Zor.  The North Eastern part of Syria is largely held by Kurdish forces of the PKK, they also hold territory south of the Turkish border in western Syria.  It is to prevent the Kurds forming a large enclave along the border, that Turkish forces made an incursion into Syria  "in support of FSA forces fighting ISIS" (coloured green on the map above) .


The FSA ("moderate" rebels)   hold a considerable enclave west of Aleppo and another north of the Jordanian border. They also hold smaller enclves and villages in government-held territory.

An enclave in north central Syria has been invaded from Turkey. The Turks claim to be supporting an ill-defined group of what they claim are FSA fighters and who accompany them on operations.

                                            SFA "fighters" employed by the Turks.



Very recently the  White House announced that a US Marine artillery unit was being deployed to 'Raqqa' to assist FAS forces. There have been other US forces in Syria for some time now. They have taken and control the area around a Syrian Air Force base in the northeastern part of the country. It is possible that these forces are supporting Syrian Kurdish forces, although the PKK is, still,  designated as a 'terrorist organizaton' by the USA.It is reported that both US and Russian forces are located in the same city  Manbij, in  the northeast

US/Russian forces 'eyeball' each other.

In other areas the government has succeeded in removing rebel forces from water sources supplying the cities of Baghdad and Aleppo. Water has been restored to the former and is being restored to the latter.The government continues to be criticized for continuing to attack rebel-held areas in a few of its cities (Homs for example)

In a demonstration of the effect of the war,  a 1 000 man 'legion' (5th) was mobilized by the government,  after completing training, just last week.   It is reputed to have been trained to a highly effective edge by Russian trainers. While that might be the case, one only has to look in the ranks to see that Syria could be at the "Heimwehr'  stage of military population. The 5th Legion is currently part of the force 'stretching the envelope' around recently re-liberated Palmyra.  I'm inclined to  think that a very large number of Syria's fighting-age males are (wisely?) living out-of-country.

дезинформация (dezinformatsiya:disinformation)

The American disease is spreading north!  It's called "disinformation", Russian disinformation,  and how it's gonna wreck civilization.

                                  "Left foot in, left foot out - doing jiggery pokery, shake it all about"

For the past two days, it would appear, Canada has either been under attack or is imminently going to be attacked (depending on which one of the two 'media sources' (Macleans Magazine, National Post) that 'discovered' it)  by whatever parts of Russia are accused of 'attacking' America - skewing the vote there and electing a President nobody - 'except Putin' - wanted.

                                                     What more needs be said?

The 'threat', we are told, has arisen since Canada announced, on Tuesday, (well that's a fib, Putin has been trying to 'screw' Canada, or Krystia Freeland or both, for a much longer time),  that it will be continuing to 'support' Ukraine, in  small part, by maintaining a force of 200  military trainers, in Ukraine, until 2019.  No mention of Canada's already having had military forces, periodically,  in Ukraine dating back some 20 years and that whatever 'parts of Russia' etc,  not attacking us - until now.

                                 Khristia .... and freedumb. She even looks like a real Canadian

What this 'disinformation attack' is about is our (relatively) new Foreign Affairs Minister, Krystia Freeland and her stalwart defence of EUkrainia. It would appear that 'Russia' has, lately, been attacking her, personally, by claiming that her grandfather - a Ukrainian 'refugee' (they used to be called "DP's"  after WW2),  spent some of his 'war' time working for a  pro-Nazi,  anti-Jew, -Pole, -communist, etc publication that blossomed after Ukraine was 'liberated' by Hitler & Co.  The Russians have already listed Freeland on a 'sanctioned persons' list for some of the things she said and did, in person, to get Russians sanctioned here in Canada.  This latest 'move' (other than having been attributed to 'pro-russian blogs', there is no proof the Russian governmment is actually attacking at all)  is, supposedly, just like the Russian 'disinformation campaigns' that have blighted recent modern history. Although it would seem that, like the other 'disinformations',  the facts of the story are essentially true - but 'lacking in nuance'.

That good 'nuance' is being provided in Canadian media (Toronto Star) to correct the disinformation 'nuance' goes like this:

1.   You won't understand if you weren't there.  "War is hell", General Sherman said that, and you can't make omelets without breaking heads. Dirty deeds get done, by accident mostly, and, well, just because "good people" are scared for their lives and willing to do almost anything to survive.

2.  Some of them pretend to do one thing (bad stuff)  but they are really heroes (Brad Pitt and the Nazi-killerz?) , like Krystia's grandad, who used his 'job' to get documents for, and save the lives of,  "anti-nazi fighters".  Don't even try to understand it, except the 'other guys' were worse.

3.  It's been so long now and, heck, Krystia had nothing to do with it - except editing the book her Uncle wrote about his Pop.

4. There were a few of 'ex-nazis' who may have 'sneaked in' with the real refugees but they went on to live in peace and, we hope, tried to live down any evil they had done. If we caught them, we dealt with them ... so we're good and now so are they - unless somebody from Israel finds them.

5. The whole family would have been dead - murdered by the filthy Russians or Russian-sympathizing 'Commie' Ukrainians -  if they'd stayed in Europe - so would Krystia and she's innocent.

                                              Hier Wir haben den gutes Nazis. So?

This is  the 'Canadian chapter' of the 'other' Russian 'disinformation':  that there are  modern 'Nazis' fighting in Ukraine, and in the 'revolutionary' government there.  Once again the 'disinformation' may be in the nuance, for there are 'nazis',  or people who seem to espouse the 'value' of that aspect of Ukrainian history,  who actually do form voluntary military units fighting alongside regular Ukrainian armed forces, in what they call 'the ATO'. And some of the (former) leadership of such groups do hold high office in the government of Ukraine. One of them was invited to, and did, address the Parliament of Canada.  But, once again, our 'nuance' might (probably does) make him a great guy. The truth may be that, politically, he's still well 'right' of Oskar Dirlewanger.

                              Pariuby, founder of the Ukrainian Nazi party, smiles on parliament

So what's the effect of all  this?

Well  for starters - it's going to make any sort of improvement in the relationship between Canada and Russia 'more complicated' - if we wanted anything like that. Not that Canada needs worry,  for we've gotten along well without Russians for so long, now. For about 9 years Canada has been in the forefront of those nations of the world who have more concern for downtrodden Russians and the 'evil  that is done to them by their government'  than we do for the downtrodden of most other places on earth. Human rights for Russians seem far more important, to Canada, than, say, human rights for a lot of other people - many kinds of Moslems come to mind. For instance what Putin is 'doing to the gay population of Russia' is somehow much worse than anything Israel does, regularly, to the ordinary people of Gaza or what's happening to  the Rohinga, or the Houthis. We complain about Russia  and 'defund' our charities aimed at helping Palestine - or Yemen - or the Assad side of Syria.  Moslems 'do things' to "deserve" their treatment and Russian gays, well, they just don't.

But this isn't only about Russia for, you see, like Israel - (and this is perhaps why we don't gripe about human rights there; they have great human rights - for Israelis),  Ukraine is 'under attack'. Yes they don't like gays there, either, but the 'new' Ukrainian police, unlike Russian police, show-up to 'protect' the 'Rainbow March'. If Putin wasn't being so bad to them, they'd be nicer to everybody - or pass more nice laws they won't 'be able' to enforce. Ukraine has been "invaded", parts of it "illegally annexed" (Disinformation?  Nah, undebateable 'facts', dropped and left because they're 'common knowledge') and right now Ukraine is 'holding the Russians back from destroying European culture' (dezinformatsiye - in Ukrainian) . It needs "more effective" weapons, and it needs more money to fight - and to look after culture,  art and beauty - things they would be more interested in than armored divisions, bulletproof vests, night vision glasses and ballistic helmets if only ...  Putin would leave them in peace!

Canada is willing to help train-up the army to do all that the 'right way'. We have, and will, continue to give them money. Ms Freeland and the Ukrainian-Canadian community would like Canada to give them, (even sell if necessary), "more effective" weapons to shoot at 'their' Donbass. But I may be 'disinformed' - maybe EUkraine doesn't need money, or weapons, or anything else and is really at peace ..... nah.

'Russian invasions' play better - we grew up  with that threat - we've 'seen' them on the TV - in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. We've 'seen' what the Russians have done to Afghanistan, to Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia - oops, those may have been anti-Russian events. We've seen Kruschev and his UN shoe (something else never actually recorded on film)  and we've 'known the fear' of a nuclear stand-off.  We've heard the warning sirens - and we've ducked and covered.

Like the nice man in the Star said, to-day, 'We weren't really there and we can't understand' - he may be right. But if he is, then shouldn't we take into consideration that, having lost World War One and come very close to losing the Second World War Two, the Russians  have 'been there' more than we have?  And might understand Ukraine better than some romantically-homesick 'Canadian' greatgrandchildren?

                                            Definitely NOT bullshit - it's Love

Disinformation aside, what we need to bear in mind that this could all be heading in a direction our grandparents (who "didn't want to know" about war  (?)- the Star) had some real fear of going. Depending on everybody to be 'rational' about nuclear weapons when they can't be rational about an election, accents the point that emotions 'make us' do more than common sense - and often the 'wrong' thing. Disinformation, whether coming from Russia, or the counter-disinformation 'necessary' to make 'theirs' look bad - drives an emotional reaction.  If you've heard Krystia when she gets' upset' you would know that.

I checked out the word 'disinformation' - it didn't look like a 'real' word. It wasn't - until sometime in the 1980's. According to Wikipedia,  it's a 'translation', or transliteration, of a probably-just-as-contrived "Russian word".  Isn't it strange that, having bested the propaganda of the Comintern, and International Communism, the 'agitprop' and a plethora of Soviet propaganda forms about almost everything we love, we have to 'borrow' another 'Russian  word'  to describe something even more nefarious - 'twisting the truth'.

                             Definitely not bullshit either - it's desecrating a Presidential bed

It's a pity that there are such 'truths' for them to find, and twist.

Some other of our 'truths'?  Good guys have to be evil - otherwise, 'the other guys would win'.  THEY 'choose' to do evil and WE have it forced on us. We're good and they're just not. Like Krystia's granddad and all the German Nazis?

                                     Casey, Casey... Casey from the emerald isle - and 'the agency'


ADDENDUM: Smashback Canada

From the pages of the little tabloid that should - Canada's opposition leader (pro tem) - the gorgeous and smart Rona Barrett - reminds us all of the diplomat and pantywaister that was Steve Harper 'standing-up' to Putin when all the other leaders of 'the wurld' were too afraid. Yes!  Steve told Vlad to  'Get out of Ukraine' and backed-that-up by banning a couple of Russian businessmen and some others from ever coming to Canada,  if they were thinking about that. He deployed the forces (or a couple of hundred of them) to go on a mission to 'train-up' a 'real' military for EUkrainia  and backed their fight for 'freedumb'. He  gave them money and flak vests, boots and helmets ( they left most of those unused for the rebels at Debaltsevo).  But he failed to send them the lethal weapons they so desperately needed to kill even more eastern Ukrainians than the 10 000, or so, they already have, with the lethal weapons they've already got.

And now, having so desperately tried , striven even, to "normalize" relations with the Russians - it's time for 'the Kid' to "get serious" (never mind the new troops he's deployed to Ukraine and the Baltics, or the money he's donated for us,  the Mounties now 'training-up' a real police force to match that military in EUkraine, or all his support for their 'freedumb')  and do "what we've done for the Kurds", fer pete's sakes, arm those poor Ukrainians!

And Jesus wept again.

The Rain from Spain falls Mainly in Ukraine

It's getting wet again in Ukraine, the wet season that used to precede the mud season, and if the wreckage and remains of MH17, still ungathered in the fields around Hrabove,  are getting another washing, the fate of the jet has received another, unsurprising, laundering too.

The JIP announced its long awaited (since last year) finger-pointing report on not only the latest clarification of 'what happened', but the indication of  'who dunnit'.

What happened?  Nothing new there: "pro-Russian", not anti-Kyiv,  forces got a Buk system from Russia - drove it all around Donetsk and Lugansk regions for a day and, for want of something better to do with it, parked it in an obscure corner of east central Donetsk, and used one of the four missiles they had,  to down a Malaysian Airliner. Then they drove it back, to the flat bed truck they had used to drive it into the regions, packed it up without any attempts to hide the cargo and drove it around the two regions again, through a 'highly fluid battle zone' ( a government armored thrust the day after the crash, cut across the Buk's withdrawal route twice),  perilously close to Government "fortifications of dignity" at Debaltsevo and east to Lugansk, where, apparently it went 'poof' or unobserved,  back into Russia.

One Russian response:

'Who dunnit'?  Aside from Putin, the 'Seps on the radio and telephone', and members of a Russian rocket regiment - 100 souls in all, who had something to do with the BUk, the truck, the escorts, command structure or all of the preceding,

And how do we know all this?  Well although there really isn't much proof by way of actual witnesses, or physical evidence of anything but the crashed plane, great minds - or at last 6 of them -  have  mined the repositories of knowledge - Facebook and YouTube.  They found and connected a plethora of 'dots'.  Not the JIT - they've done little but interview experts and have free lunches - but the 'experts' they have interviewed have made all things clear. Or clear enough to make a cartoon movie to help us all 'get it'.

So who were the experts?  Well no Russians were needed. The info came from  the Ukrainians, who if they weren't possibly suspected, would have been the prime investigators. The Dutch were the lead, on-the-ground investigators, retrieving remains and  wreckage,  dealing with the dead and reconstructing the downed aircraft.  The EU waded-in and, as usual, so did the Americans.  The Brits deciphered the flight recorders.  Most of the 'saga' was unearthed through the army of a half-dozen "independent investigative journalists" associated with a website called Bellingcat and its whiz-bang, unemployed, blogger-proprietor. The Malaysians, who actually got to the site first - more than a week before anybody official appeared - got the bums' rush.  But at least now they're being assured that given some more time - 3 short years - and a little help from concerned citizens in Russia, they may be able to sue Putin at the Hague, if the gallant EUkrainians don't do it first, maybe.

Within an hour of the jet hitting the ground Ukrainian sources were accusing their 'russian'  separatists of downing the aircraft, claiming to have phone intercepts of at least two rebel leaders discussing the crash and celebrating having downed 'another' Ukrainian aircraft. Surprising, insofar as either the Ukrainians were only starting to tap into the dissident area's 'national' cell phone grid, or that the separatists hadn't tweaked to the fact that their using a cell phone was probably going to be overheard in the State Security Office, too.   This is a unique eclat compared to the rest of Ukraine's ATO.  Even more so because the Seps weren't talking about the other military matters, (or stopped), and  that resulted in nasty military 'surprises' all over the east (Saur Moglia within three weeks,  and Ilovaisk, within a month of MH17). On those things the Seps were maintaining telephone silence?

Maybe MH 17 cost Kyiv it's 'victory'. After it the Seps dummied-up and the Ukrainian army of liberation was mauled in a series of 'sneak attacks'?

That notion of the Seps doing it and Russia being responsible became the 'lingua fanca' of anybody sensible - for it was as understandable an act for Russia,  as was annexing Crimea and invading the Donbass.  Putin was just being the 'total ass' that President Obama was telling the world he was. He was on the 'outs' with goodness and civilization and downing a planeload of tourists would prove that to everybody. 

Question was 'how sick is Putin?' The answer comes back, "He's not."  For it wasn't a falling out of over Ukraine that iced Putin, it was a veto at the UN - of another of Obama's increasing number of 'humanitarian' interventions, this time about Syria.  Ukraine 'just happened' and Putin wasn't cheering the US on to another victory.  In the absence of evidence forcing a change, the chorus just do better repeating the refrain: "Putin did it."

In so many words - although the JIT was careful to say they weren't accusing Russia of actually ordering the shoot down or nodding approval at the target acquisition radar, saying they gave the Seps a missile and the Seps used that missile  to do it,  is much like the same thing. Add to that, that at least 80 of the dirty rotten suspects are members of the Russian Armed Forces and you have a slam-dunk  closed case, chapter and verse.   Hell,  you could make an animated short subject film about it all. And they did.

But the greatest part of the saga, and the detail of the cinematographic reconstruction is straight from the on-line archives of Bellingcat.

Bellingcat is a web site registered in great Britain started by a 30-something blogger  called Elliot Higgins. In 2012,  Higgins - unemployed and playing stay at home Daddy to his daughter  - started blogging about the developing War in Syria.  He developed an 'expertise' identifying weapons depicted in YouTube postings, providing what he called 'proof' of Syrian government's use of 'barrel bomb's, cluster munitions and poison gas. Using a synthesis of Google Earth/Google Maps to fact-check posts made on Facebook and other social media, some of his 'revelations' involved locating the sites of ISIS' beheading western and other hostages and identifying the situations around other outrages.  When the Ukrainian incident began Higgins became interested in that as well - looking for evidence of Russian involvement in the Donbass. After MH 17, he formed Bellingcat with 6 assistants to investigate the downing of that aircraft. He is credited with 'debunking' satellite imagery presented by the Russians, claiming it had been 'photoshopped'. His 'work' has been largely accepted by investigators because they have very little of their own.

Bellingcat's singular failing - subjectivity

While Bellingcat's work comes off as  "professional and decisive", it remains open to a number of challenges. First is the notion that anything can be taken from internet sources without being adapted in some way, or that things posted on the internet are pristine or uncorrupted. It is increasingly evident, that, aside,  from the obvious sensitive information, some can be 'staged' including manipulation of attached, metadata identification. One  of these, for instance, involves video footage of the Buk missile system being transported through eastern Donbass on the day of the aircraft downing. The videographer who filmed that claims he made the video 12 days before the incident. Something that doesn't jibe at all with the Bellingcat narrative presented by the JIT.   Bellingcat's reaction to this is that he's wrong and they're right - the video was shot according to their 'investigations'.

One of the other gaps in Bellingcat's narrative is in relation to the transport truck, which originated in Donetsk   but was apparently driven to Russia to fetch the Buk, and then driven all around both Donetsk and Lugansk regions, including those two cities, after being 'stolen' by separatist forces. After it reaches Lugansk, on the way back to Russia, it disappears completely from the story and Bellingcat's ambit, as does the  Buk unit itself.


The most notable aspect of the report? The extension of the 'investigation' for another three years.

Suppose They Gave an Election and Nobody Came?

Well nobody, or at least very few of them, cast their ballots in yesterday's Russian election. Consequentially, Putin's party will run the Duma for another term - and he'll still be the President.  What's special about any of this is that the election has totally made all the world's other cares go away - as we are directed to focus on what we can't do to help the poor, downtrodden non-voting Russians.

                                                   Walking it the doggie 'Putin  huylo!'
                                                 "Sic it nasty coppers Putin-huylo, sic it!"
                                     
 We could hope they'd hit the streets, fill a square or two with the detritus of protest and, hopefully, the blood of more martyrs for democracy, human rights and free markets ... and give us something to be gladder about.

What all this does do  is  take our minds off the need to respond to a couple of terror attacks in America. One of those targeted a Mall - the place where George Bush told the American public they were going to 'win the war on terror' by shopping.  Another thing they hate us for is Piggly Wiggly's open 24/7 and The Gap.  A 'jihadi' stabbed nine full-grown American men, causing a panic in Minnesota, until he was 'stopped' by an 'off-duty', ex-police chief who maybe shouldn't have been carrying a gun in a 'gun free' Mall.  Why would Americans need 'gun free' Malls, if the President declared them a war zone?

But I diverge.

The Toronto Star, usually a font of wisdom, but of late just another member of somebody's publishing cartel, took the world outrage about 'Russian election cheating' to a  'higher level'. Along with the ballot-stuffing and double voters and bad stuff busting out all over Russian polling places,  the Star accompanied the standard pap with visual proof that "disorders" had accompanied the polling.






Ukrainians celebrate the Russian election
by lynching a Jew (just pretending - that only happens to gypsies).

  

Striking a blow for democracy in Kyiv

  

                                                  Giving a kick for democracy in Kyiv

They were right,  disorders had accompanied the Russian election, but not in Russia.  Ukraine, the unfriendly neighbor to the west,  had announced, early last week, that it would not brook any Russian elections on EUkrainian territory. While they were understandably incensed that the vote went on, as planned, in "occupied" Crimea - which is 'de facto' a part of Russia - they also turned out the security forces to guard the Russian embassy in Kyiv from the 'protestors' who were scheduled to appear. The right-wing Volkstrurm Frontline Fighters Association   that doesn't exist in dignified Eukrainia, did appear with their EUkraino-doggies and 'slava EUkrinies!!'  and prevented any unpatriotic Russian expats from getting near the election booth inside. Not only that,  those 'security forces' actually arrested a 'Russian' for "voting irregularities" - a Ukrainian crime covering a Russian election. The forces of freedom in the democratic west should be so observant. 

                                            A Russian caught election-rigging in Kyiv

Probably most people in the world and, from the amount of ink expended on the subject, very few members of the western media, were aware until this morning,  the Russians were having an election at all.  Like how could anybody,  threatening world peace in eastern Europe, holding massive military manoeuvres to threaten EUkrainia, backing-up the Chinese and Assad  in world trouble spots,  or making the poor, recently-discovered yet massively acclaimed  "White Helmets" of Aleppo  starve in the rubble of the city they helped destroy,  take time out for an election?

Everybody on earth - shy a bad dose of hydrocephalus - knows that a real election is taking place in America. It has been for almost a year now. And we also know, again from those media sources which we trust for the 'truthiness', that the evil 'Merlin of Moscow' has been 'hacking' into  the US electoral system to such an extent that he has, single-handedly, or with a division of militarized computer geeks,  successfully reduced the slate of candidates and left Americans with only two choices for 'Commander-in-Chief'.  We know as well, and perhaps more importantly, that there is the imminent likelihood that his 'hacking' will do to America what his election shenanigans have done in Russia, elect one of those Korean War era  'mongoloid candidates ' to sit in the Oval Orifice!

Putin's apt to calling-up on November seventh to say, "Congratulations Mr. President on the big win."  And really meaning it.

Egyptair: MH 17 The Putin Connection?

 The recent downing of  the Egyptair Airbus over the Med must have reminded somebody that MH17 is still in need of some definitive proving.  And so there is a regurgitation of the 'social media ' evidence that Putin dunnit.

Tell that to the Aussies,  who are convinced they're going to be able to convince the ICJ that the chips are all turning-up 'Putin' - and they'd like a few hundred million to assuage the grief involved. The US attorney who got Ghaddafi to cough-up the boodle over Lockerbie - or was that to ensure the release of the convicted, and at that time dying, bomber - has signed-on to 'assist' the case.  It might help if any Russians had been convicted since having a Libyan charged, and found guilty, probably made the Lockerbie case a slam-dunk even if the money did come later.  But there are no convicted, or even identified, Russians - so MH17 might be tougher.

Although the first part of the MH17 investigation was concluded and the conventional wisdom that 'the russians did it' was upheld by Dutch investigators, enough questions were left unanswered to at least hint that the final word may not be emanating from Kyiv.  The Ukrainian side of the issue was adopted from virtually the first moment and only lacking proof would indicate it isn't wrong.  Facebook posts of what  'Bellingcat' thinks the Russian military are up to, his evidence is - to a large degree - open to some questioning or interpretation. It is no 'smoking gun'. That's a large part of the problem that could apparently be resolved easily.  But for some reason it has not been.

Within two days of the incident, US Secretary of State John Kerry gave every indication that he knew all there was to know about MH17, so much so that he appeared at the UN to demand a sanctions program. But statements aside, one would think if definitive proof was available, as he claimed  it was, it would have been made available to the investigation - even 'sub rosa' if military secrets were involved.   Here's what he told America and the world three days after the crash.

Kerry on 'Meet the Press'  July 20, 2014.

The discussion had been wide-ranging before Kerry Arrived but he launched himself into the topic 'ab initio', he remarked on the separatists' guilt, the Russian commander admitting as much, rejoicing over the hit etc , their control of the crash site,  the loading of victims bodies into trucks, knowing Russia had supplied them with Buks and then.  

DAVID GREGORY:
"Are you bottom lining here that Russia provided the weapon?

SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
There's a story today confirming that. But we have not, within the administration, made a determination. But it's pretty clear, when, you know, there's a build-up of extraordinary circumstantial evidence. You know, I'm a former prosecutor. I've tried cases on circumstantial evidence. It's powerful here. But even more importantly, we picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing. And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know, from voice identification, that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards.

DAVID GREGORY:
Right.

SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
So there's a stacking up of evidence here, which Russia needs to help account for. We are not drawing the final conclusion here. But there is a lot that points at the need for Russia to be responsible. And what President Obama believes and we, the international community, join in believing, everybody is convinced we must have unfettered access."

There was a conclusion drawn then that still exists and this is a 'smoking gun' story  if I've ever hard one.  Yet Kerry has yet to provide the evidence of which he speaks. Or admit making a creative statement to 'color' an already bloody disaster.

The most  development in the saga is a recently release dash cam of what is claimed to be the rebels Buk 'moving into position' shortly before it downed the Malaysian airliner.

 David Perry of Consortium news deconstructs the updated conventional wisdom

David Perry "More Gameplaying on MH17?"

The second part of the investigation. The presentation of incriminating evidence and the proof of Russian perfidy is not expected anytime soon. 

In the meanwhile there is another plane  - Egyptair - fallen from the sky and even now (almost two weeks later) almost beyond the ability of modern man to retrieve let alone know exactly what happened.  We're nor getting much better at air disasters, are we? 

Russia ... Bleeding Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=132&v=pv6ROkgsiNs


Russia seems to be covering-up well the fact that it's going down the 'caca hole'.  Or, perhaps, the Russians are 'enjoying the ride'.  Whatever it is, they seem to be disconnected from the 'facts' on the ground, or at least the groundswell of caterwauling and accusations of  'disrupting world order', 'threats to world peace', destabilizing neighbor countries, downing airliners (their own and other peoples') bombing middle eastern hospitals and -  the very latest - cheating at the Olympics.

Russia may be a media hell-hole, but we still 'heart' those Russians.  We'd be more than willing for them  rise up and cast off their chains.

What Will Putin Do?

Putin's great Syrian adventure is being 'doomed and gloomed' as Mr Obama's similar adventure wasn't. But then he doesn't have any 'coalition', or 'duties to protect' anybody.  Well neither does America really, either. There are some people very interested in regime change, or thorough destabilization in Syria but it's hard to see the benefit, other than to be having 'that' happening 'over there' rather than 'over here'. Some of the protagonists will get the blow-back, if any, before the USA does. Russia may be one (IS, now according to the wise) of them. But it's  a fair statement to make that Russian bombing isn't going to be any more militarily-successful than coalition bombing has been - other than to pound the rubble into smaller particles.  The one essential point, I think, missed by so many commentators - the reason Assad didn't fall like other 'tyrants', the reason the civil war in Syria still rages -  is because the half of the Syrian population that haven't fled into refugee camp,  are still there, fighting for their homeland and their President.  They're not all 'free Syria rebels' and the Jihadis are, largely, not Syrians at all.   As in a previous Afghan 'quagmire',  Russia is not alone.

Lawyer 'gets it' chapter and verse


The US secretary of defense Ash Cater recently pegged Putin for threatening world peace and the 'world order'. He must have been listening to Kristol and Perle's 'Visions of Amerika' again,   for he seems to think that if it isn't America doing the military stuff it has to be an enemy. This week however he's 'sticking up' for those around the East China Sea who can't stick up for themselves. But that's all about  China and another threat.


Putin continues to 'disrupt' gallant little EUkrainia. He was recently accused of sending 'modern weapons' into eastern Ukraine because somebody claimed a T90 tank has appeared in the east - it looks remarkably similar to the T80 , 82, 85 or 88 tanks that have already appeared in eastern Ukraine - usually unloaded from a western Ukrainian railroad cars. Somebody also seems to think Putin has slipped in a newer variety of rocket artillery with which to 'invade' the place. So far OSCE has failed to come up with any evidence that Russians are crossing the border with anything, but we KNOW they are, eh?

 Just like we 'know' they downed the Malaysian airliner, but we can't prove it and, like, they probably downed their own over the Sinai just for sympathy. The good guys didn't drop it, see?

Just recently, we think, or pretty well know,   they've been cheating at the Olympics.  Not the ones at Sochi, where they almost certainly did cheat, no,  the ones in England - where we found 'evidence' of two labs in Russia doing doping tests and covering-up results by losing things and misplacing samples. As if the Russians were testing their athletes who won in London, taking the samples back to Moscow? If they were,  there is something wrong with that, and probably the rest of the doping testing regime as well. Once again he media is full of  reputed wrongdoings and demands for sanctions.  One writer even opined that it might would be good for the Rio Olympics if Russia was banned and its 'allies' boycotted - more medals for the real 'sports'.  Maybe the US should boycott in protest?  It should be simple to drum up another coalition.

Putinic Russia  meanders on to economic ruin and political turmoil while the pacific west apparently hits new heights of stock market activity and consumer confidence.  Sadly, all that 'progress' is nonexistent outside the first world and increasingly to more denizens of that, as well.   Things are great if you have a) a steady income and b) a 'good' job and really great if you're in the top 15 percent.

Leonhid Berszhidski,   writing for the National Post,  points out that the current brouhaha, and especially the ceasefire, have shown Ukrainian weaknesses - he describes this as "the rot at Ukraine's core".  Whether or not there ever was a ceasefire, let alone a war in the east, Ukraine has been rotten on the inside for a long time. But he can't say the  'skin' isn't impressive.  If you take a look at some of the malarky coming out of the place, you get the notion it's just another house of cards waiting to get kicked-in .

Well,  for starters there is that 'new' police force being depended-on to bring Eukrainia beyond the knout and the billy club. You know the ones with the US-style uniforms - paid for be guess who - (so that's why). But those service 'shakos' look more like something the SS sported on dress-up day - black with the silver piping, all that's missing is a little totenkopf. And where did they get the training - why from US cops of course, but I haven't been able to figure out what city, or cities they came from. That would have to cause some confusion, for America doesn't have a  much of a homogeneous police force outside the military and the FBI. Watch for the tasers and the 'SWAT' squad - although there are a number of security and militia units already doing those. Interesting, too, that the top echelon chosen to command this are a number of Georgian ladies - ex-government and police officials come to help Saarkaasvili birth Ukraine into NATO and the EU.  Like Ukraine,  they thought a military showdown with Putin was a good way to start. Like Georgia the money and effort were  wasted and the military came out a bust.

Ukraine still has a way to go.

Russia is not alone in its 'misery'