Europe at War

[Karl Henning]

Yes. I don't see how creating more hostility with people, especially people who really don't have much of a say, accomplishes anything. I guess I could be persuaded in limited circumstances. Did anyone boycott the U.S. during the Vietnam war? If they did, I doubt it made a mark.

Mind you, in spite of the protests, Nixon was largely right about the "silent majority."

[drogulus]

     There's a most excellent drone, the Revolver 860. It can drop multiple grenades on targets.The Ukes got them from (drum roll) Taiwan!!

     

     How can you not love a story like that? Here's little Taiwan, under threat by the lying Commie bastards of the mainland defending a country on the other side of the world from the mafiosi allied with the same lying Commies. This is a wonderful world.

[LKB]

     There's a most excellent drone, the Revolver 860. It can drop multiple grenades on targets.The Ukes got them from (drum roll) Taiwan!!

     

     How can you not love a story like that? Here's little Taiwan, under threat by the lying Commie bastards of the mainland defending a country on the other side of the world from the mafiosi allied with the same lying Commies. This is a wonderful world.

My favorite story of the week, thanks Drogulus. Nice to see my old friends supporting the righteous, you've warned the cockles of this old Crusader's cold, cold heart.

[Florestan]

Admittedly, Merkel was almost as bad, certainly since 2011 (with a completely idiotic 180° degree turn because a tsunami in Japan suddenly made German nuclear power unsafe, and this from a "physicist", actually one of the most disgusting opportunists ever). They don't care for their people. (Kohl was a fat pig and also a bit corrupt, but he cared for his people and country and would not openly sacrifice them for the benefit of globalist corporations or foreign wars etc.) And they are utterly corrupt and dishonest. Scholz should never have become a candidate in the first place because he clearly was involved in letting a Hamburg private bank get away with tax fraud (when he was a local politican there a few years ago).

But in the context of this thread, it is IMO high treason to sacrifice the well-being of the people they govern for "supporting Ukraine". Even apart from the fact that the "sanctions" are virtually useless. Even if they worked, it would not be right. (But as they don't, it's a crime acting like that.) Whatever support one might give (and this is another debatable question) one cannot risk the provision with energy and resources of the own people because some other countries are at war. You cannot force your own people into sharply declining living standards for the dubious benefit of supporting a war party.

And they (i.e. the three governments before led by Merkel but usually supported by the Scholz party) have done this with the banksters in 2008-09, with the migrants in/since 2015, all the time with "EUrope" and all the time with "climate/environment" (again often with lots of fraud, overall useless measures, people benefitting from subsidies etc.). And don't get me started on the pharmaceutical coup of the millenium that made The Third Man Harry Lime look like a choirboy, I know most people in this forum fell for it, so I am not starting another such debate... Everything is more important (and has a higher "moral status") than caring for normal people of your populace. But the lies and measures around the Ukraine war might be, I think, the summit.

These guys now they are smearing everyone who supports values that were completely mainstream 30 years ago (like traditional families or having a positive attitude to one's culture or not caring for open borders and poorly controlled migration of undesirables) as "rightwing extremists" but have no trouble to support actual nazi sympathizers in Ukraine (and of course we have been giving millions in "developmental help" to other terrorists, like Hamas for decades). If you fly a German flag you are suspicious, but Rainbow or Ukraine flags are great. I am no fan of any flags but the hypocrisy and utter falseness of these people beggars belief.

So yes, I think there should be another Nuremberg trial (and a similar one for the "pharmacists"). But of course there will not be. They are losers but still on the winning side, so for now they write the history.

Thank you for your detailed reply, Jo, I see your point now. I think that many of those grievances are not specific to Germany and that actually many European nations could lay them at their own governments' door.

[Todd]

Darya Dugina: Daughter of Putin ally killed in Moscow blast

[Que]

Darya Dugina: Daughter of Putin ally killed in Moscow blast

I noticed as well...

The biggest question is: who? The Ukrainians, as the Donbas seperatists claim?
I doubt it. A covert operation in Moscow seems very hard to pull off and the Ukrainians have a lot of other worries much higher on their priority list.

The alternative is a domestic party, which would open a range of possibilities.

[Todd]

The alternative is a domestic party, which would open a range of possibilities.

Another alternative is the CIA or one of its partners in covert crime - eg, Mossad, MI6.  Or it could be Putin.  Or it could be staged.

Whatever the truth, which we will never know, it will likely end up being used as justification for an internal crackdown and/or intensified action in Ukraine.

[Que]

Another alternative is the CIA or one of its partners in covert crime - eg, Mossad, MI6.  Or it could be Putin.  Or it could be staged.

Whatever the truth, which we will never know, it will likely end up being used as justification for an internal crackdown and/or intensified action in Ukraine.

It could be Putin. Either Western intelligence or Mossad wouldn't make any sense.

I agree we are probably going to witness an internal crackdown. Will be interesting to follow events... something is cooking...

[Todd]

Either Western intelligence or Mossad wouldn't make any sense.

Depends on the objective.  Intense escalation leading to more direct US involvement could be a/the desired outcome.  It is unlikely, but possible. 

[Todd]

Serbia warns it will protect Kosovo Serbs if NATO doesn't

There are widespread fears in the West that Russia could encourage its ally Serbia into an armed intervention in northern Kosovo that would further destabilize the Balkans and shift at least some world and NATO attention from Russia's war in Ukraine.

[Todd]

Russia rules out peace deal to end Ukraine war

[Que]

[drogulus]

     Dugin wants revenge for the killing of his daughter. Apparently "denazification" is a one way street.

     Ukraine has denied involvement in the bombing. An interesting fact is that the security cameras at the site of the bombing had been disabled.

     From a Bulwark article:

To complicate things further, Ilya Ponomarev, an anti-Putin former member of the Russian parliament who is now based in Kyiv, has said that Dugina's death was the work of an anti-Putin underground group calling itself the National Republican Army which contacted him several hours before the bombing. The group's statement, which Ponomarev read on Ukrainian television, does not mention Dugina or her father, though it does say that the group intends to strike at war propagandists, as well as government officials and pro-regime business owners. However, Ponomarev says that the people who gave him the statement also told him to expect an attack and provided enough details that their involvement was not in doubt. But is this an actual underground group—or part of a disinformation effort designed to draw attention away from the real culprits?

"The fact that security cameras were disabled suggests that it's an inside job," Victor Davidoff, editor of the dissident site New Times, told me in a Skype interview. Davidoff is convinced that the assassination targeted Dugin, not his daughter, and was likely a sign of an internal war between Kremlin "clans"—or, as he put it, "Kremlin towers": for instance, the FSB versus military intelligence, to which Dugin is rumored to have ties. Davidoff also believes that this points to some serious trouble in the regime's upper echelons: "How can the empire hold on when such things are happening on the inside?"

     I'm not convinced it was an inside job. Carrying out a bombing in Russia could be a Uke operation, while disabling the security cameras would clearly cast doubt on that thesis.

[drogulus]

     Let me suggest that Putin is in trouble over his conduct of the war. He's pincered between opposing camps of mongers, both peace and war. The peace faction thinks the war was a mistake from the outset, the war faction thinks the war was necessary and Putin is failing to win it. What's interesting is that there's no middle position to take. What would that be, I refuse to wonder?

     The traditional way to resolve such conflicts is assassination. I don't know anything about the group that claimed responsibility for the bombing. They call themselves the National Republican Army.
     

[Florestan]

     "The fact that security cameras were disabled suggests that it's an inside job," Victor Davidoff, editor of the dissident site New Times, told me in a Skype interview. Davidoff is convinced that the assassination targeted Dugin, not his daughter, and was likely a sign of an internal war between Kremlin "clans"—or, as he put it, "Kremlin towers": for instance, the FSB versus military intelligence, to which Dugin is rumored to have ties. Davidoff also believes that this points to some serious trouble in the regime's upper echelons: "How can the empire hold on when such things are happening on the inside?"[/i]

That makes a lot of sense, especially the bolded part.  Any other theory (CIA, Mossad, MI5, the Klingonian Secret Service) makes no sense at all. At all.

[drogulus]

That makes a lot of sense, especially the bolded part.  Any other theory (CIA, Mossad, MI5, the Klingonian Secret Service) makes no sense at all. At all.

     For assassinations inside Russia, start with Russians at the top of the suspect list.

     Why did Dugin take a different car when he was traveling with his daughter? I assume he had a security detail. That looks like a thing. Am I wrong?

[Florestan]

     For assassinations inside Russia, start with Russians at the top of the suspect list.

Until now, all assasinations inside Russia have targeted Putin's opponents --- or at least I am not aware of any other type.

     

Why did Dugin take a different car when he was traveling with his daughter? I assume he had a security detail. That looks like a thing. Am I wrong?

I haven't followed the details but most probably you are not wrong.

[LKB]

     For assassinations inside Russia, start with Russians at the top of the suspect list.

     Why did Dugin take a different car when he was traveling with his daughter? I assume he had a security detail. That looks like a thing. Am I wrong?

I don't think you're wrong.

Targeting Dugin's daughter makes no sense, whereas targeting Dugin makes a whole lot of sense.

This was a busted op.

[Gurn Blanston]

I don't think you're wrong.

Targeting Dugin's daughter makes no sense, whereas targeting Dugin makes a whole lot of sense.

This was a busted op.

It makes sense if you are looking at possible coercion instead of some sort of revenge theory.   "Since you talked me into this,  I will kill your daughter".  Nah,  the guy's supposed to be some sort of  mastermind,  maybe he was being tardy in coming up with a brilliant plan for getting Vlad's ass out of this?  You need motive no matter who you want to pin it on. Even the Ukes don't have much motive,  beyond random terrorism,  and executing a plan inside Russia is too complicated to waste on random terrorism. 

🤠😎

[drogulus]

     

I don't think you're wrong.

Targeting Dugin's daughter makes no sense, whereas targeting Dugin makes a whole lot of sense.

This was a busted op.

     Someone took action to put Dugin in a different car. Why the change in plans? And why was the daughter not protected by putting her in a different car?

     Coincidences are in short supply in Russia. The daughter may have been expendable and her death served a greater good, an excuse to launch the Independence Day attack that Russia is planning according to Uke sources. The Ukes have banned public celebrations for the 24th, so they are serious.