AMARYNTH—There is very little new here. The RoW faces a repeat of the previous Trump administration, because Trump is not able to understand that many of the ‘international crises’ were of his doing. I don’t see, intuit or sense a change. I don’t find an understanding that the problems are US Policy and not so much what he did, or what Biden or anyone else did. It is systemic and long term.
DEEP STATE
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MAIN EDITORS—Garland examines the Trump record and the way the Deep State has been trying for almost a decade to destroy him (think the absolutely absurd and dishonest Russiagate, not a shred of truth to any of its allegations), as a political figure capable of changing the imperialist status quo (not to say Trump is not a dangerous imperialist himself, just that the more powerful and cagey ruling class faction (which today controls the FBI, CIA, etc.) representing old money, and key industries, such as oil, “defense”, etc., tend to see Trump as a risk in their machinations to control the planet). Now the attempt on his life may have forced some unwelcome realignments.
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MAIN DESK—BIDEN’S BIG BOY SUMMIT—The roundtable discusses Biden’s carefully scripted but underwhelming “Big Boy” press conference, which, to no one’s surprise, turned out much more an electoral campaign speech—often mumbled—than a presidential presser, the whole concoction punctuated by hilarious gaffes that Biden’s mental deterioration now make almost inevitable (like confusing Zelensky with Putin—of all people). In addition, guest Jeff Brown paints a comprehensive picture of the global strategic situation, with a focus on Asia, where America’s futile attempts to surround China with military bases and alliances in order to stop its rise to global prominence, (already a fait accompli), is opening yet another front for a major kinetic war threatening humanity with nuclear Armageddon. A SECOND VIDEO-THE WEAPONISATION OF IGNORANCE—is also part of this outstanding package.
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ALEKS—Much of what we will discuss in this article will deal with the number of Russian casualties, as alluded to in the introduction. Russia suffered a horrendous number of dead soldiers within the first few weeks of the conflict, maybe up to 10,000. That’s the price of big arrows on modern battlefields with full intelligence/information/reconnaissance/artillery/drone coverage of the battlefields.
However, (up to) 10,000 dead is still a price that would have been worth paying to achieve the goals in Ukraine without going into a full-scale war. Had there been an agreement in Istanbul that would have terminated the conflict, ensured the rights of Russians in Ukraine, and kept Ukraine out of NATO and NATO out of Ukraine, one could remotely argue that “it was worth it.”
We all know what happened instead. As with all agreements that are not guaranteed with a gun on the West’s head, the West will ignore or scrap it at will. As happened with the Istanbul agreement.
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AMARYNTH—In October the US announced the temporary suspension of unilateral coercive measures after the signing of an agreement, known as the Barbados Accords, between the government and the US-backed opposition establishing certain conditions for the elections. The Biden administration later reintroduced wide-reaching economic coercive measures against Venezuela’s oil industry.