Links to read - December 31, 2019

The most important link today is at the Grayzone and is by the impresario, Max Blumenthal.  DC's Atlantic Council raked in funding from Hunter Biden's corruption-stained employer while courting his VP father.  Yeah, Trump is no prize and he should be impeached for what Bush and Obama should  have been impeached for, a murderous foreign policy.

But, the Bidens both deserve to be investigated, and, in all probability, prosecuted.  A lot of others deserve to go to the wall for the contrived war in Ukraine.

Scott Horton at antiwar.com has some history of how we got to where we are today and it ain't pretty. Read It doesn't have to be this way.

Over at Colonel Pat Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis committee of correspondence, commenter and contributor The Twisted Genius (or TTG as abbreviated) has a posting, Idlib Battle Footage.  You can watch the war, but the more important aspect of the posting is in the comments where TTG answers questions.

Example:

"Those "jihadists" seem even better equiped that the SAA...at least at uniforms level...
(the commenter) wonders where all those new uniforms with the IS and HTS banners embroidened are produced....
On the other hand, to built such a network of trenches, tunnels, and bunkers, in that size and durability, provided even with electric light, is it not necessary to have knowledge of some engineering branches?
It does not seem possible to have them by some radicalized thugs at a mosque anywhere, but by a well funded, organized and trainned army...."

TTG's reply:

"those jihadists are well funded, organized and trained. Years at war does that to you. They also receive plenty of support from Gulf royals and Turkey. We and our allies have provided them with modern antitank and antiaircraft missiles. I wish they were just angry and frustrated men in a mosque. Unfortunately, many are quite intelligent and capable soldiers."

This is, as the late Larry Glick put it, "The story behind the story."  You won't get it from the Imperial Media.  The US' culpability can not be exposed enough.

Links: December 7, 2019

So some guy does something crooked with the Hilary campaign and gets indicted  for it.  What's the lede at NBC:

A businessman who helped broker a meetingbetween an ally of President Donald Trump and an official of the Russian government has been indicted for allegedly funneling millions in illegal campaign contributions to support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Sic Semper Tyrannis reports on it.

Every now and again Sic Semper Tyrannis posts a Russian Federation Sitrep by Russia Insider's Patrick Armstrong.  At the beginning is a little bit of info on how Russia is going along well enough despite the imperial war against it:

POWER OF SIBERIA. Putin and Xi turned on the pipeline on Monday. It carries gas from Russia's Far East into China and has a carrying capacity of 61 billion M3per year. There'll be more. This has no small strategic significance: previously, for foreign sales, Russia was dependent on customers in Europe who are all, to a greater or lesser extent, subject to pressure from the war party. Added to which transport was affected by Kiev's whims. Turkstream(scheduled to start next month) and the two pipelines to Germany help with the second problem and this one with the first. Sooner or later, Russia-China pipelines would have appeared but I think Ishchenko's argument that the Western war on Russia speeded up the processis credible. (Come to think of it, now that Putin's hand is imagined everywhere, maybe it's time to consider that he's the American war party's real backer; after all, everything it's touched has turned to dust: from the forever wars, to Iran's increased influence, to the Russia-China alliance and now the furore in the USA over Ukraine – itself another disastrous project.)

Other interesting stuff at the Sitrep.

Are the Saudis retreating from their murderous war against the Houthi?  Moon of Alabama thinks so; Saudi Arabia Retreats From The Troubles Its Clown Prince Caused

Caitlin Johnston has Fake News By Omission :  The Mass Media’s Cowardly Distortion Tool at her website about the conspiracy of silence on the OPCW scandal, but the Imperial Media does it on just about every story they can.

More Bandow at AmConMag: American Soldiers Are Not Bodyguards For Saudi Royals  This on the day sailors are shot by a Saudi National at Pensacola.  Every aspect of the Saudi/US relationship is dumb.
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Links-December 3, 2019

There is another website that does aggregation and should not be ignored.  The American Committee for East West Accord does it everyday and the Neutralist shamelessly steals from them.

Today they have three articles of note:

The Magnitsky case is about how a wonderful guy opposed the horrible Putin, except it is kind of falling apart. Spiegel online has The Case of Sergei Magnitsky Questions Cloud Story Behind U.S. Sanctions. It is amazing how our country can be manipulated.

The deeper have been around a long time and bullied George Schultz during the Reagan administration.  George Shultz drew a line against certain anti-communist militants; Washington hardliners had other ideas is at the American Conservative.

At the Washington Times Edward Lozansky asks, Is Ukraine vital to U.S. security?  You know how we feel about that; Whaddya nuts?

Antiwar.com is also a good source that we mine.

They link to Scott Ritter at truth dig where he has NATO Is as Good as Dead.  The president of France recently declared the alliance brain dead and Scott is just sticking the rhetorical fork in it.

Codepink founder Medea Benjamin at antiwar.com writes on Nato as well, Trump Was Right Before He Was Wrong: NATO Should Be Obsolete. That there is no point in the continued existence does not mean it will be put out of its misery soon, but we can hope.

Moon of Alabama has been all over the OPCW false reporting scandal.  Eternal vigilance is necessary, As The OPCW Is Accused Of False Reporting U.S. Propaganda Jumps To Its Help.

That is all for now.

Links - Monday, December 2, 2019

Over at Spectator USA, Peter Hitchens calls out Bellingcat as well he should.

If you hate yourself, you may be paying rapt attention to the mostly vapid Democrat debates (so-called).  Only one candidate has been seriously addressing foreign policy and the knife are out.

William J. Astore on the Smearing of Tulsi Gabbard over at the antiwar.com blog is worth a read.

Back in 2011-12 Maj. Danny Sjursen was fishing the absurd Afghan war and had absurd experiences.  He is an engaging writer and the war is still absurd.  Profiles in Absurdity: Remembering the ‘Terror’ Wars also at antiwar.com.

John Pilger: The Lies About Assange Must Stop Now over at 21st Century Wire.  We need to stop trying to extradite Julian, immunize him and have him testify before congress.  Nah, the elite would rather gargle razor blades.

Schiff claims to be valiantly protecting the whistleblower.  He's full of it.  Colonel Lang has the goods: The Intelligence Whistleblower protection Act did not apply to the phone call ... Reposted

Enough for today.  Read well, Bring the boys (and girls) home.

Links - Saturday, November 30, 2019

Hysteria is as American as apple pie - Colonel Pat Lang goes over some past panics to put our current  climate obsession in perspective: If you believe that climate change will kill us all...

As someone not completely opposed to the peasantry storming the castles,  class warfare is of some interest.  Class war does not always go the way one would expect.  Over at American Affairs the editor, Julius Krein, looks at the subject of the tiny top class and the managers as The Real Class War.

The current presidential campaign has a lot of Dems who all kinda sound alike on the so-called debate stage except one.  She might sound like the rest if it were not for what they seem to be ignoring.  Doug Bandow at AmConMag gives us Tulsi Gabbard: Wake Up and Smell Our $6.4 Trillion Wars.

When President Obama introduced John Brennan to the public, I thought him a goofy guy.  Brennan seems even goofier now.  Scott Horton talking with Aaron Maté who has done a deep dive on the Dangerous Precedent of ‘Russiagate’


Did anyone expect anything different from the Imperial Media? From Caitlin Johnstone: Surprise! MSM Spins OPCW Leak As Russian Disinfo

Links - Tuesday November 26, 2019

Stuff to read or watch:

On Asron Maté's Grayzone Pushback show, Professor Stephen Cohen explains how Ukrainegate impeachment saga worsens US-Russia Cold War.  This has been out there awhile, but is worth watching.

Ron Paul's weekly column:

The Real Bombshell of the Impeachment Hearings is about the deep state (like we don't it exists by now) and how it does not want to let go of its bad foreign policy.  ht Antiwar.com.

In the National Interest Professor Lyle J. Goldstein writes"

The War in Ukraine Must End 

Washington should seek a grand bargain with Moscow over Crimea.

The article is good the deal is suggests is reasonable, however as a neutralist we believe the US should just leave and let the two parties solve their problems by themselves.

ht ACEWA

If you bring up Joe Biden and his kid the mantra is "debunked."  That is, of course, ridiculous on the face of it, or why doesn't your kid get an easy money board of directors spot?

Anyway, Colonel Pat Lang does a good job debunking the debunking of Joe and kid at his Sic Semper Tyrannis Committee of Correspondence.

Some Links:

Articles to read today:

From Antiwar.com


New Poll Shows Americans Favor Non-Intervention

Dave DeCampPosted on November 24, 2019

Hat tip to the American Committee for East West Accord:

Gordon M. Hahn: Fables of Ignatius

gordonhahn.comNovember 24, 2019

It is now important for every American to realize that he or she can get little to no reliable news from the US mainstream media on Ukraine, Russia, or even the United States itself.

When you make enemies you can't just expect them to lie down-The Sino-Russian Alliance at work

Colonel Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis has posted an article:

"China-Russia air patrol shows Japan and South Korea in disarray"  by Frank Ching in ejininsight.com.

Our East Asian allies were spooked by what the two countries working together can do.

According to Colonel Lang:

"This is a really bad thing and IMO it is altogether the result of the hyper-aggressiveness displayed by the US toward Russia since the fall of the USSR.  We had the option then of offering a welcoming hand to Russia as it emerged from the nightmare of communist rule, but we did not extend such a hand.  Instead, our civilian and military policy elites insisted that Russia was necessarily an enemy for the US and was still the communist USSR in disguise.

We (the US) drove the eastern boundary of NATO absurdly far into Russia's "comfort zone," and actively recruited the former member countries of the Warsaw Pact into NATO.  We have also recruited many former Union Republics of the USSR into a specifically ant-Russian military alliance.

We are now surprised that a weakened Russia, spurned by us, makes common cause with China?  What else were the Russians supposed to do?  Fall on their knees before us and beg our pardon for existing?

Neocon folly and a lack of any sort of policy thoughtfulness have brought us to this.."

 We agree with Colonel Lang, but go further.  This is why a neutralist ethos is necessary.  When the smartest guys get together, they overthink.  Actually, they are probably not all that smart.

In the comments, Patrick Armstrong has observes: "I am starting to think that Russia/China were reacting for a long time; now I suspect they have started acting, Given that they completely outwitted the West's assemblage of giant minds in their reaction period, we can look for lots and lots of surprises to come."

Fasten your seatbelts.

Is there at least a modicum of common sense returning to American foreign policy—Pepe Escobar says maybe

At Asia Times Pepe Escobar has a good piece on why maybe conflict with Iran may not be a good idea.  Other than an unbelievable depression resulting from the closing of the strait of Hormuz, why worry?

So we want talks now without pre-conditions.  The Neutralist does not approve of this type of expression, but, as they say, reality is a bitch.

Read Mr. Escobar's 

Why Trump now wants talks with Iran: If Tehran blocks the Strait of Hormuz it could send the price of oil soaring and cause a global recession

Nothing is senseless-Follow the Money

Whenever a school shooting or some such event that results in human carnage occurs, we will hear that it is senseless violence.  That to those of us not involved in the incident it does not make sense, does not mean that to someone it did.  Usually, if a manifesto is left behind or medical records are disclosed, there was some reason.  Wrong or twisted maybe, but a reason.

The existence of the MIC (Military Industrial Complex, Actually should be MICEM if we add in Education and Media to the mix) explains a lot of our foreign policy.

So, we meddle in a lot of places because that justifies a lot of money for a lot of things.

Now we are bugging Iran, or are they bugging us.  And why is the Neutralist saying "we"?  The Neutralist is for neutralism.

There are some folks who don't have skin in the game, but do have moolah in it.  They all have a John Bolton connection.

See if you can figure out who wants what out of their "investment."  Click the OpenSecrets link.

As tensions rise, moneyed interests pushing for hard line against Iran

at OpenSecrets.org

they all