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Bente Petersen's avatar

Two very valuable accounts: President Putin's ''take'' on the Russia/ USA starting detente and

his speech remebering Sobshack...

Re Sobshck gave me data I did not have - thank you Karl ...

Re Putin's ''take'' on the detente .... the data very valuable as coming from Putin himself...

again Thank you Karl.

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uncle tungsten's avatar

So VVP has just pointed the bone at the satellite data provider. Now that puts Trump to test in a very precise way. A number of questions arise including the role of Starlink in guiding the attack UAVs to the Kazak/Chevron oil facility. Which military intelligence data managers enabled the coordinates to be loaded, whose uav's were used, which UKUSA general is in command. Is Hegseth in control or is there a nasty coven of Admirals and Generals infesting the most senior command Chiefs of staff positions. Has the MIC declared Trump persona non grata and now staging a cock blocking game?

So many questions, so little time left for Trump to garrote the idiots who think they are the masters of war. After all back in Venice, every Doge used a garrote to eradicate the failures.

Putin has clearly called for a show of hands and eyes are on Trump to exhibit command.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

I suspect the Brits. IMO, access wasn’t terminated to NATO.

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Gerald's avatar

That makes sense.

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WTFUD's avatar

A whole month has passed since DJT was sworn in and yet his Dept. picks are still being grilled by a bunch of rent-boy grifters doing everything to hold up a smooth transition. Shred baby shred is what's going on in the bowels of the Swamp.

I don't know how long it took for Putin to drain the Swamp in Russia but this is a topic which should be No.1 in their one on one discussions.

I remember in 2003 or there abouts that Khodorkhovsky, the darling of the West's hope for regime change in Russia, grand political ambitions and with a good number of Duma representatives on his books, this despite being warned off by Putin- you can keep your stolen billions but do not use those ill gotten gains to interfere in Russian politics.

Did he listen? Nope, and the rest is history, awarded 9 years from memory to the cooler before retiring to a kibbutz in the Black Forest.

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james's avatar

good stuff karl.. thanks..

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Acco Hengst's avatar

Impressive!

Blinken and Nuland have to answer for a few things. The death penalty seems to be no longer available. Reminds me of a John Birch Society era book: 'None dare call it treason.' The US Congress also voted for a lot if this.

Pleased that it looks that things are getting fixed.

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Anna's avatar

Thank you.

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James Foley's avatar

Thanks, Karl - the speech in remembrance of Sobchak is very interesting. We're getting very close to full 'official' revelation of what actually happened at the end of the Soviet Union. For many years, my view of Gorbachev wavered between 'idiot' (as he was famously described by Deng Xiaoping) to traitor - most of the time, the latter! Looking at a list of steps taken by Gorbachev in those fateful days before the USSR's demise, it is hard not to conclude that Gorbachev knew what he was doing - destroying the Soviet Union. Some of us here in the UK knew the man was a fake way back in 1985 when he came to the UK on a State visit to meet Thatcher. At that time, the UK Miners' Strike was in full swing (1984-5) and Thatcher was getting coal to break the strike from Poland - then a member of Comecon, of course. This was particularly galling for us because Soviet miners, from Donbass, with the most honest of intentions, I'm sure, were sending aid packages to striking UK miners' families. The strike lasted a whole year. Gorbachev's hypocrisy was plain to many of us who supported the miners, though Western MSM continued to laud him as a 'reformer' who wanted to 'democratise' the USSR. Thatcher in her usual blunt way summed him up after the visit: 'He's a man we can do business with.'

Of course, Gorbachev was not alone. The Communist Party made sure the ГКЧП (State Committee on the State of Emergency) who tried to prevent the collapse of central Soviet power as a result of Gorbachev's sabotage, were NOT supported by the Communist Party and that many of the ГКЧП members and supporters were arrested. The present Communist leader - Zyuganov - was active then in the Moscow Party and was a disciple of Gorbachev.

When Gorbachev died in August 2022, few tears were shed and Putin made it abundantly and pointedly clear there was to be no 'official' commemoration.

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Johann Goergen's avatar

Had Gorbachev taken a hard line towards the Capitalists and doubled down on militarism and force, what are the odds that we'd be able to write these arcane comments at this point? It is possible to be wise and not recognized as such. True wisdom does not seek recognition but continued existence with the prospect of a better future. That he achieved.

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James Foley's avatar

By all means tell the millions who suffered through the collapse of the Soviet Union; I don't think I'v ever met a Russian who lived through that disaster and has a good word to say about Gorbachev.

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Johann Goergen's avatar

Fair. But did he have any good options? What would you have done in his place? Call in the Russian army when the GDR disintegrated? Crack down on dissent? Double-down on a failed economic and military model? What he did took courage, and lead to a lot of suffering which may have been unavoidable in any event. But look at Russia now.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

A better view of that period is needed. Perhaps Natalya will provide some info in a comment if she reads this thread about Russian books on the topic.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

I wish I had a better ability to identify important Russian s from the past from their images as the video of Putin’s speech panned onto several whose age showed they were from that Era. Perhaps time will become available once the war against Russia is resolved to reexamine that Era.

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Penelope Pnortney's avatar

"A revolution is good, but monuments should not be broken."

IOW, you don't destroy your own history, even the parts you dislike. Too many Americans (though they're certainly not alone) don't get that their history is beyond revocation and that destroying its artifacts changes nothing, it just removes an accessible means to teach new generations needed lessons from our past.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t/can’t know where you are.

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Penelope Pnortney's avatar

Or how you got here. That's the part that interests me the most: what changed, when did it change and why did it change.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

It’s never too late to become a historian! You ask all the right questions. Ask yourself what you most want to know, then ask again to be certain. If your question’s too global, narrow it, look at it again, and then narrow it once more. You can always widen or further narrow it later. Personally, I’ve gone through a series of questions, and will advise that discovering the answer to the initial question will cause you to ask more questions. Given what you wrote above, you’ll need to start at the beginning with some microbiology followed by basic physical and cultural anthropology, then move to where history takes over. That sounds like a lot but it’s not so much really. And along the way you get to read some fascinating books, whose authors are no longer alive, which is unfortunate because you’ll want to ask them questions. Then of course there’s the amount of time you have to devote to your quest. Most texts you’ll find in libraries, so it doesn’t need to be expensive, building your own library.

IMO, there’s only one place to start and that’s with “Microcosmos” by Lynn Margulis as it deals with our beginnings. Oh, and please don’t be shy of asking questions.

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Penelope Pnortney's avatar

No worries, I'm never bashful about asking questions or saying what I think needs to be said.

I appreciate the suggestions but doubt I'll pursue the course you recommend; at this stage in my life I'm more of a dabbler, dipping into what interests me and only to the extent it interests me. It means I get things wrong at times but I'm not averse to changing my mind when new facts present themselves, so there is that.

I have the utmost respect for you and others who invest so much time and effort in reading and interpreting and analyzing, even if I don't always agree with the conclusions. It makes it so much easier for people like me who strive to understand but for whatever reason lack the wherewithal to undertake this enormous task ourselves.

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Karl Sanchez's avatar

Okay, it’s fine to be a “student” and are able to reason.

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Lubica's avatar

Apologies — not exactly relevant to this post, but I just listened to Roger Waters — maybe you would like too: https://youtu.be/NYKetrodpoY

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uncle tungsten's avatar

On topic there are good posts at Dances with bears, John Helmer. https://johnhelmer.net/

Do watch the yarn with Dima linked on his site too. All good mind fodder for those in the gym.

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