There was a recurring theme during the presidency of Donald Trump that went something like this: Trump’s most impetuous and destructive instincts — particularly in the realm of foreign policy — were being nobly restrained by the so-called “Adults in the Room.” Thank heavens!
I always wonder who these moronic neolibs and neocons figure is gonna replace Putin? They gotta another Yeltsin up their sleeves? More likely it will be a less intelligent and patient Uber-nationalist. I think the western empire has benefited from Putin’s steady hand. Overthrowing Putin, while probably just a masterbatory fantasy, still indicates the hubristic folly of our “Elite”. Their intellectual bubble is the most serious threat to life on earth.
I'm no seasoned Kremlinologist, but even I'm aware that Putin is quite "moderate" compared to other Russian political figures of note. Those demanding regime change don't understand how much genuine antipathy US policy has brewed across the Russian political spectrum. Dmitry Medvedev, once the "moderate" hope of the US to embark upon a US-Russia "reset," has recently been issuing furious written statements that sound borderline unhinged.
This is a great question that never gets answered. Russian history shows you can do much, much worse than Putin. Nice guys finish last, said Leo Durocher, and in Russia finishing last historically meant a shallow grave with a bullet in the back of the head.
Does anyone think the Next Man Up will speak like Justin Trudeau? (Mind you, he might behave like he did toward the Canadian truckers.)
As Michael says below there are rougher creatures in the Kremlin than Vladimir Putin. I'm not in a hurry to give them a pretext to push him out and themselves in.
The Russians have made their war aims clear, and Zelensky has already agreed 'No to Nato' in his recent addresses. So why not end this now via negotiation? Crimea is 70% ethnically Russian and an autonomous Donbas is hardly reason to risk WWIII.
"It’s a place absolutely crawling with profiteers and spooks, i.e. the kind of people who look at a large-scale warzone and see a lucrative business opportunity. So it was a fitting venue for Biden, long a cherished ally of many military-industrial ventures; hence his tour of a new US military installation erected on his orders to facilitate the largest arms-funneling operation in Europe since the 1940s."
Even though NATO can't manage to squeeze you into their "press" event it's priceless for us to have you doing critical, first hand reporting. Big time kudos and thanks for your courage and honesty.
One has to wonder, what else have the “adults been up to?”
Here are some things…
We can get a rough idea of the US political elites’ involvement in the military biological activity in Ukraine if we rely on open sources as well as leaked documents. Below is an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of this involvement, though not a comprehensive one. There are many gaps in this truly diabolical plan that are still to be filled.
1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar programme for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the programme’s main executor.
1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.
2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.
2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.
2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”
2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.
2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’ stepson Christopher Heinz and incumbent US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
2014 – anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.
2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organisation specialising in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defence.
2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".
2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".
2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programmes.
2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.
2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation programme is greatly expanded.
2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defence Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.
2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defence Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.
2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research centre in a Wuhan laboratory, China.
2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.
2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.
February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.
February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.
March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.
The more people see how twisted and disgusting these deep state machinations are, the better. Like they say, we are only as sick as our secrets.
I cannot even remember who it was talking since it was so long ago, but I remember a republican talking head saying Trump had a sophisticated team of foreign policy experts surrounding him that would keep him from doing anything "rash". Then they specifically mentioned John Bolton as one of those people. I think we might have slightly differing opinions of what "rash" means.
I hate to burst your bubble, but it's not just "liberals." (Actually, this is not "liberals." I don't know too many liberals anymore. They've all become authoritarians.)
Putin saw what many of us see, and he probably recognizes it because the description also fits him. But we in the US have a decaying elite desperate to keep the reins of power that will do quite literally anything to (A) distract people, (B) unite people, or (C) justify oppression of those that won't fall under (A) or (B), and if that means tempting WWIII by constantly giving Ukraine weapons to drag this war on indefinitely, lying about the "virtuousness" of the Ukrainian leadership (including Zelensky), or going so far as to try to topple Putin, they will do it. In the grand scheme of things, Putin's reasoning is painfully obvious and even a bit understandable (he saw what happened to Hussein and Qaddafi, and he knows they would try it again), and Biden only said the quiet part out loud and confirmed what we all fear. Biden and his handlers would walk over a mountain of corpses, here and abroad, if they thought it would keep them on the throne.
Money, money, money! They are bleeding us all dry. Remember when Trump wanted to cut the budget? Just think of the opportunity now for beefing up the Swamp. That's all they care about.
Next Michael should write about Schumer delaying confirmation of his own candidate for FCC because his daughter is a lobbyist for Amazon
Sadly for the alleged adults, Putin's approval rating in Russia is almost twice Biden's approval rating in the US. I wonder where we will see "regime change" first?
Striking to me about the "fer Gaw's sake" riff at the end was how soap-opera-ish and ill-befitting the Important Foreign Policy Scenery it seemed. It would not have been jarring somewhere else, like during a DNC speech or an episode of "The West Wing." Speeches for global consumption are usually more generic-feeling, for the benefit of non-American-schmaltz audiences ("Guys, here's where we do the totalay *epic* line in like JFK style")
The fact that politics is mostly performance art can be directly attributed to the PMC obsession with the West Wing. Truly one of the most destructive influences.
I always wonder who these moronic neolibs and neocons figure is gonna replace Putin? They gotta another Yeltsin up their sleeves? More likely it will be a less intelligent and patient Uber-nationalist. I think the western empire has benefited from Putin’s steady hand. Overthrowing Putin, while probably just a masterbatory fantasy, still indicates the hubristic folly of our “Elite”. Their intellectual bubble is the most serious threat to life on earth.
I'm no seasoned Kremlinologist, but even I'm aware that Putin is quite "moderate" compared to other Russian political figures of note. Those demanding regime change don't understand how much genuine antipathy US policy has brewed across the Russian political spectrum. Dmitry Medvedev, once the "moderate" hope of the US to embark upon a US-Russia "reset," has recently been issuing furious written statements that sound borderline unhinged.
For example, the pseudo-hero Navalny, who is a super-nationalist nut case.
This is a great question that never gets answered. Russian history shows you can do much, much worse than Putin. Nice guys finish last, said Leo Durocher, and in Russia finishing last historically meant a shallow grave with a bullet in the back of the head.
Does anyone think the Next Man Up will speak like Justin Trudeau? (Mind you, he might behave like he did toward the Canadian truckers.)
As Michael says below there are rougher creatures in the Kremlin than Vladimir Putin. I'm not in a hurry to give them a pretext to push him out and themselves in.
The Russians have made their war aims clear, and Zelensky has already agreed 'No to Nato' in his recent addresses. So why not end this now via negotiation? Crimea is 70% ethnically Russian and an autonomous Donbas is hardly reason to risk WWIII.
"So why not end this now via negotiation?"
Where's the profit in that? The carnage has barely begun!
"It’s a place absolutely crawling with profiteers and spooks, i.e. the kind of people who look at a large-scale warzone and see a lucrative business opportunity. So it was a fitting venue for Biden, long a cherished ally of many military-industrial ventures; hence his tour of a new US military installation erected on his orders to facilitate the largest arms-funneling operation in Europe since the 1940s."
Even though NATO can't manage to squeeze you into their "press" event it's priceless for us to have you doing critical, first hand reporting. Big time kudos and thanks for your courage and honesty.
One has to wonder, what else have the “adults been up to?”
Here are some things…
We can get a rough idea of the US political elites’ involvement in the military biological activity in Ukraine if we rely on open sources as well as leaked documents. Below is an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of this involvement, though not a comprehensive one. There are many gaps in this truly diabolical plan that are still to be filled.
1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar programme for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the programme’s main executor.
1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.
2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.
2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.
2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”
2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.
2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’ stepson Christopher Heinz and incumbent US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
2014 – anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.
2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organisation specialising in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defence.
2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".
2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".
2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programmes.
2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.
2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation programme is greatly expanded.
2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defence Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.
2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defence Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.
2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research centre in a Wuhan laboratory, China.
2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.
2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.
February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.
February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.
March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.
The more people see how twisted and disgusting these deep state machinations are, the better. Like they say, we are only as sick as our secrets.
I cannot even remember who it was talking since it was so long ago, but I remember a republican talking head saying Trump had a sophisticated team of foreign policy experts surrounding him that would keep him from doing anything "rash". Then they specifically mentioned John Bolton as one of those people. I think we might have slightly differing opinions of what "rash" means.
Ya, way to go liberals! Good piece Michael.
I hate to burst your bubble, but it's not just "liberals." (Actually, this is not "liberals." I don't know too many liberals anymore. They've all become authoritarians.)
Good point
I’m not sure if it would be more disturbing if Biden’s statements were actually part of the plan or if they were legitimate gaffes.
Each option comes with its own set of, um, complications, so I agree. I'm not sure which is worse.
The dire consequences of stolen elections. We could all be incinerated. The ignorant, arrogant fools will get us all killed. Unbelievable.
Putin saw what many of us see, and he probably recognizes it because the description also fits him. But we in the US have a decaying elite desperate to keep the reins of power that will do quite literally anything to (A) distract people, (B) unite people, or (C) justify oppression of those that won't fall under (A) or (B), and if that means tempting WWIII by constantly giving Ukraine weapons to drag this war on indefinitely, lying about the "virtuousness" of the Ukrainian leadership (including Zelensky), or going so far as to try to topple Putin, they will do it. In the grand scheme of things, Putin's reasoning is painfully obvious and even a bit understandable (he saw what happened to Hussein and Qaddafi, and he knows they would try it again), and Biden only said the quiet part out loud and confirmed what we all fear. Biden and his handlers would walk over a mountain of corpses, here and abroad, if they thought it would keep them on the throne.
Money, money, money! They are bleeding us all dry. Remember when Trump wanted to cut the budget? Just think of the opportunity now for beefing up the Swamp. That's all they care about.
Next Michael should write about Schumer delaying confirmation of his own candidate for FCC because his daughter is a lobbyist for Amazon
Cecilia Vega of ABC "news" and the rest of the corporate media are the Enemy of the People.
Wow. I will go to asleep tonight assured that our president is doing everything he can to avert WW3 and nuclear war🙄
Sadly for the alleged adults, Putin's approval rating in Russia is almost twice Biden's approval rating in the US. I wonder where we will see "regime change" first?
Oh, it's soooo nice not having mean tweets. On the other hand, we are sooooooo SCREWED.
Striking to me about the "fer Gaw's sake" riff at the end was how soap-opera-ish and ill-befitting the Important Foreign Policy Scenery it seemed. It would not have been jarring somewhere else, like during a DNC speech or an episode of "The West Wing." Speeches for global consumption are usually more generic-feeling, for the benefit of non-American-schmaltz audiences ("Guys, here's where we do the totalay *epic* line in like JFK style")
The fact that politics is mostly performance art can be directly attributed to the PMC obsession with the West Wing. Truly one of the most destructive influences.
I'm wondering if Putin will now push for regime change in the US. Interesting times. Look for Facebook and twitter posts with Russian accents.
Biden is barely more competent than Trump, but the later’s optimism at least manifested in a strong economy.
In what way is Biden more competent than Trump? I literally cannot think of a single thing.
Biden is a liar & boob.