[Tarragona, 9/26/17] I was half dead on the beach in sunny Swakopmund, soaking up some vitamin D for my diseased carcass, when war broke out in the Ukraine, a suffering country with the most beautiful people, one I regret spending so little time in.
Looking at all the lies in the Western media about Ukraine, I am reminded of Orwell's reflection on the Spanish Civil war:
Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”
I have been watching Fox news this morning for comic relief and was rewarded with this from a blonde bimbo (somewhat paraphrased), "I understand Putin does not own a personal cell phone nor does he surf the web, how on earth can he know what's going on, he must be insane". I got my comic relief ten-fold.
I have no idea what is going on in the Ukraine. I only know that what is in the Jewish press is obviously a lie and only makes sense if you believe that Putin is a second rate Hitler.
Coach Red Pill is right in highlighting how Putin's approach isn't as dramatic as The US approach because it isn't sociopathic. Even with a willingness to flatten any neighborhood housing Saddam's military it took, if I remember right, 2 weeks to "capture" Baghdad. I guess Putin is really a crazy loser if he doesn't want to alienate the local population to the extend they are up for suicide bombing for years.
Many European nations are sending weapons to Ukraine, which is quite worrying. I mean, this is not being neutral, is it? How can they say they are for "peace", when they are sending weapons and choosing a side in war? Even Switzerland? It seems that some people are really intent on starting WWIII.
Just as they banned any counter-information on Covid, they are now banning RT and other Russian media in the name of "stopping misinformation". See, the only "real" information is the one from Western governments and big media companies, the rest is "misinformation" and must be censored...
I do think that the Western goal is to drag this war and misery as much as they can ("fight to the last Ukrainian") and to try to remove Putin. The best Russia for them is 1990s Yeltsin' Russia, a basket case to be exploited. The problem is, now the misery is affecting the West as well. The sanctions go both ways, and an economy that was already badly hurt with the "fight against Covid", is going to get worse, and Western governments will get ever more openly tyrannical if things don't go their way.
One question I have. However first I need to set the stage.
I think it is obvious there was an intention to goad Russia into attacking Ukraine. There are a few motivations. One is targeting Nordstream 2, thus depriving Germany and Europe of the cheap gas and independence from US domination. Curbing European success has been a cornerstone of US policy in the region and in effect NATO works against the interests of it's own member states. To benefit the USA of course. Secondarily harming Russia politically and isolating them played a role. What was abundantly clear was the refusal to accommodate Russian concerns and the inevitability of a Russian response given this recalcitrance. The endless harping on about an imminent invasion was part of that process. It also seems evident there was an attack planned by Kiev on the Donbasss, which would surely have been seen as guaranteeing Russian involvement. I'd add the realisation by US military that Russia would easily and quickly overwhelm Ukraine...and they never had any intention of lifting a finger when it happened, either.
So here's my question. Why did they leave those bio-weapons labs we're hearing about laying around like that for Russia to clobber and worse, capture and show the world? It seems like a significant oversight and not one explained by Left and Right hands not communicating surely.
I'm starting to see a shift in Western media as they try to accommodate looming reality. Their reports until now have been preposterous in their fantasies and increasingly distant from what stage-wise is becoming clear on the ground. Russia volunteers much less information but it tends to be much nearer the truth when they do and comes backed with more than "experts saying" So here and there alternate outlooks are getting presented. They'll only stretch as far as they can maintain their primary goal of denigrating Russia and Putin but if things kept going the way they were with Snake Island and game footage used as evidence of shoot downs of Russian jets, it was unraveling. Likewise their censorship of Russian media doesn't appear as strident now as it was at the start. I think it was too obvious and maybe serving to lose credibility for themselves too.
It is remarkable the huge spike in traffic on Sputnik. Really massive and I take it as people actively seeking Russian news and probably in reaction to noticing the one sided nature of the coverage.
I am thinking... What if the purpose of this whole war and the sanctions against Russia but that are increasingly affecting everyone, from the West's point of view at least, is really to put people into even more economic hardship. After all, what is happening -- price increases, lack of energy, lack of food, etc.-- benefits the "Great Reset". Just as Covid was used as an excuse for new authoritarian controls and digital passports, the war is a great excuse for an economic clampdown, and a general crisis all over. "You will own nothing and you'll be happy", remember.
"Russia can put a serious hurt on many of America’s most slavish lackeys... (by) diverting its wheat export"- Funny thing about that, we've gone ahead and put the hurt on ourselves, saving Putin the trouble.
"Maersk suspends all container shipping to Russia"
Another excellent video by Ice Age Farmer- "Shippers Cut Off Russia - Wheat Price Explodes - Cyberattacks on Shipping" https://youtu.be/S86VxWYmwG4
I have no control over the spacing of sentences on this website.
See if I can figure something out.
ps..I see FIFA has banned Russia from World Cup competition, but why haven't they banned Saudia Arabia after bombing Yemen in January of 2022 ? Rhetorical question, of course.
Note...Saudia Arabis defeated Vietnam 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Hanoi on Nov. 16th, 2021.
"Notice two unsupported assumptions here, Gary’s conclusion that the Russians were “way behind the timetable they had set for themselves,” and Seibert’s “it appeared the objective was to capture Kyiv within three days.” Just 2 ½ days had passed! Even Israel’s humiliation of a bumbling and vainglorious Nasser took six days!"
This time dilation of expectations is pretty interesting if unsurprising.
It is very interesting to compare this situation to that of the 44 Day War in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh a year and a half ago. So far, at least relative to size of the parties, that conflict was far more intense than this one. I watched that war with great intensity and preserved a very interesting set of snapshots. Very few people seemed to care/know about that conflict outside a few select demographics and the conflict zone itself.
This one has a much thicker fog of war, and unlike 2020, the full might of the consensus machine is being employed to prevent any form of reality or rationality from degrading a clear and present narrative.
I was, for a variety of reasons, sympathetic to the Armenian cause. However, that did not prevent me from noticing the rather aggressive use of optimistic disinformation by Armenia/Artsakh to stiffen the resolve of friendly forces. This was an understandable tactic of war.
What the Ukrainians and their Western partners are doing now on the information front is much in the same vein - and there has been no hesitation on the part of everyone to engage as combatants on behalf of Kiev on the information front. I think it will take some significant time to decipher an accurate picture of current events, perhaps even years. Truly, there are no neutral observers.
Even taking into account the differences in scale, strategies, and geography, the resolution of that phase of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations took 44 days for AZ forces to achieve an acceptable set of political and military results to conclude their operations. I cannot but think that most observers of this conflict are psychologically unprepared to appreciate how long a short war can last, especially when an invading force takes such pains to limit the loss of life and destruction of property on the part of the host nation.
It is also very interesting to compare these events in Ukraine to those in Iraq from almost two decades ago. The timing of military operations is certainly interesting, but it will be equally curious to see how the mid-term impacts of the two scenarios compare.
I am confident that those parties in the West most responsible for creating this unfortunate situation will not suffer too badly - the chosen implements and partners nations most dependent on commerce and good feelings with the Russian world will enjoy the consequences of their affiliation with the current Western consensus for years to come...
Looking at all the lies in the Western media about Ukraine, I am reminded of Orwell's reflection on the Spanish Civil war:
Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”
https://orwell.ru/library/essays/Spanish_War/english/
I have been watching Fox news this morning for comic relief and was rewarded with this from a blonde bimbo (somewhat paraphrased), "I understand Putin does not own a personal cell phone nor does he surf the web, how on earth can he know what's going on, he must be insane". I got my comic relief ten-fold.
I am so in love with your writing. Only a good poetic soul could illustrate the complexity of the human spirit as you do.
I'm just an "armchair traveler" myself. I learn a lot from you, and you always manage to leave me with some hope for humanity. Thank you.
I have no idea what is going on in the Ukraine. I only know that what is in the Jewish press is obviously a lie and only makes sense if you believe that Putin is a second rate Hitler.
Coach Red Pill is right in highlighting how Putin's approach isn't as dramatic as The US approach because it isn't sociopathic. Even with a willingness to flatten any neighborhood housing Saddam's military it took, if I remember right, 2 weeks to "capture" Baghdad. I guess Putin is really a crazy loser if he doesn't want to alienate the local population to the extend they are up for suicide bombing for years.
Many European nations are sending weapons to Ukraine, which is quite worrying. I mean, this is not being neutral, is it? How can they say they are for "peace", when they are sending weapons and choosing a side in war? Even Switzerland? It seems that some people are really intent on starting WWIII.
Just as they banned any counter-information on Covid, they are now banning RT and other Russian media in the name of "stopping misinformation". See, the only "real" information is the one from Western governments and big media companies, the rest is "misinformation" and must be censored...
I do think that the Western goal is to drag this war and misery as much as they can ("fight to the last Ukrainian") and to try to remove Putin. The best Russia for them is 1990s Yeltsin' Russia, a basket case to be exploited. The problem is, now the misery is affecting the West as well. The sanctions go both ways, and an economy that was already badly hurt with the "fight against Covid", is going to get worse, and Western governments will get ever more openly tyrannical if things don't go their way.
All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolensk and Vyazma soon fell
By Autumn, we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill
I thought of these words from Al Stewart when I heard Russia was "invading" Ukraine.
It must be important, Little Lamb Blitzer is more visible than ever at CNN.
The ink has barely dried on the Afghanistan withdrawal plan and the US media is whooping up the war cries again. It never ends.
Does Nordstream have anything to do with this ? Most Likely.
Caught some of Coach Red Pill's youtube video...very interesting.
Still, it's hard to believe anything coming out of Ukraine these days.
One thing I know for sure, Spring Training is delayed (as Linh mentioned) and that's a bad thing for the local businesses here in Phoenix.
Beautifully written as always Linh, and that picture of you clearing up your "tombo" is classic.
Bill
One question I have. However first I need to set the stage.
I think it is obvious there was an intention to goad Russia into attacking Ukraine. There are a few motivations. One is targeting Nordstream 2, thus depriving Germany and Europe of the cheap gas and independence from US domination. Curbing European success has been a cornerstone of US policy in the region and in effect NATO works against the interests of it's own member states. To benefit the USA of course. Secondarily harming Russia politically and isolating them played a role. What was abundantly clear was the refusal to accommodate Russian concerns and the inevitability of a Russian response given this recalcitrance. The endless harping on about an imminent invasion was part of that process. It also seems evident there was an attack planned by Kiev on the Donbasss, which would surely have been seen as guaranteeing Russian involvement. I'd add the realisation by US military that Russia would easily and quickly overwhelm Ukraine...and they never had any intention of lifting a finger when it happened, either.
So here's my question. Why did they leave those bio-weapons labs we're hearing about laying around like that for Russia to clobber and worse, capture and show the world? It seems like a significant oversight and not one explained by Left and Right hands not communicating surely.
I'm starting to see a shift in Western media as they try to accommodate looming reality. Their reports until now have been preposterous in their fantasies and increasingly distant from what stage-wise is becoming clear on the ground. Russia volunteers much less information but it tends to be much nearer the truth when they do and comes backed with more than "experts saying" So here and there alternate outlooks are getting presented. They'll only stretch as far as they can maintain their primary goal of denigrating Russia and Putin but if things kept going the way they were with Snake Island and game footage used as evidence of shoot downs of Russian jets, it was unraveling. Likewise their censorship of Russian media doesn't appear as strident now as it was at the start. I think it was too obvious and maybe serving to lose credibility for themselves too.
It is remarkable the huge spike in traffic on Sputnik. Really massive and I take it as people actively seeking Russian news and probably in reaction to noticing the one sided nature of the coverage.
I am thinking... What if the purpose of this whole war and the sanctions against Russia but that are increasingly affecting everyone, from the West's point of view at least, is really to put people into even more economic hardship. After all, what is happening -- price increases, lack of energy, lack of food, etc.-- benefits the "Great Reset". Just as Covid was used as an excuse for new authoritarian controls and digital passports, the war is a great excuse for an economic clampdown, and a general crisis all over. "You will own nothing and you'll be happy", remember.
Superb article Mr. Dinh, so refreshing in the suffocating swamp of the endless lies.
"Russia can put a serious hurt on many of America’s most slavish lackeys... (by) diverting its wheat export"- Funny thing about that, we've gone ahead and put the hurt on ourselves, saving Putin the trouble.
"Maersk suspends all container shipping to Russia"
Another excellent video by Ice Age Farmer- "Shippers Cut Off Russia - Wheat Price Explodes - Cyberattacks on Shipping" https://youtu.be/S86VxWYmwG4
Linh
I have no control over the spacing of sentences on this website.
See if I can figure something out.
ps..I see FIFA has banned Russia from World Cup competition, but why haven't they banned Saudia Arabia after bombing Yemen in January of 2022 ? Rhetorical question, of course.
Note...Saudia Arabis defeated Vietnam 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Hanoi on Nov. 16th, 2021.
Bill
Bill
"Notice two unsupported assumptions here, Gary’s conclusion that the Russians were “way behind the timetable they had set for themselves,” and Seibert’s “it appeared the objective was to capture Kyiv within three days.” Just 2 ½ days had passed! Even Israel’s humiliation of a bumbling and vainglorious Nasser took six days!"
This time dilation of expectations is pretty interesting if unsurprising.
It is very interesting to compare this situation to that of the 44 Day War in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh a year and a half ago. So far, at least relative to size of the parties, that conflict was far more intense than this one. I watched that war with great intensity and preserved a very interesting set of snapshots. Very few people seemed to care/know about that conflict outside a few select demographics and the conflict zone itself.
This one has a much thicker fog of war, and unlike 2020, the full might of the consensus machine is being employed to prevent any form of reality or rationality from degrading a clear and present narrative.
I was, for a variety of reasons, sympathetic to the Armenian cause. However, that did not prevent me from noticing the rather aggressive use of optimistic disinformation by Armenia/Artsakh to stiffen the resolve of friendly forces. This was an understandable tactic of war.
What the Ukrainians and their Western partners are doing now on the information front is much in the same vein - and there has been no hesitation on the part of everyone to engage as combatants on behalf of Kiev on the information front. I think it will take some significant time to decipher an accurate picture of current events, perhaps even years. Truly, there are no neutral observers.
Even taking into account the differences in scale, strategies, and geography, the resolution of that phase of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations took 44 days for AZ forces to achieve an acceptable set of political and military results to conclude their operations. I cannot but think that most observers of this conflict are psychologically unprepared to appreciate how long a short war can last, especially when an invading force takes such pains to limit the loss of life and destruction of property on the part of the host nation.
It is also very interesting to compare these events in Ukraine to those in Iraq from almost two decades ago. The timing of military operations is certainly interesting, but it will be equally curious to see how the mid-term impacts of the two scenarios compare.
I am confident that those parties in the West most responsible for creating this unfortunate situation will not suffer too badly - the chosen implements and partners nations most dependent on commerce and good feelings with the Russian world will enjoy the consequences of their affiliation with the current Western consensus for years to come...
As always, thank you for your work.