Two Might Play That Game
Playing With Fireworks,
Gilbert Doctorow on new weapons in Yemeni hands: Britain’s failed submarine launch of a nuclear missile set against its proxy war with Russia As I pointed out in this interview, these problems of underfunding and poor maintenance are not the only serious challenges the Navy is facing. A new threat has just arisen in connection with the determination of the Houthis in Yemen to fight back against the U.S. and U.K. naval presence in the Red Sea and the recent air and missile attacks on Yemen of these two nations. From the early days of the Houthi actions, when their drones and missiles were intercepted by U.S. air defense installations on board their fleet in the Red Sea, we see that the Houthis have in the past week become far more effective: a Qatari oil tanker was set aflame, compelling the crew to abandon ship, and a British owned commercial vessel is said to have been sunk. Moreover we are told that the Houthis are now in possession of submarine and surface drones capable of sinking ships. It is an open question where this new capability has come from. In the interview I venture the guess that the Russians are helping, in the spirit that two sides can play at the game of proxy wars.
Another UK Ship On Fire Near Yemen As Sea Becomes Littered With Disabled Tankers The US military confirmed Tuesday that two US-owned tankers were struck the day prior. Such attacks are now coming several times a day.
On Thursday the Pentagon said its coalition ships in the Red Sea intercepted six more drones over waters off Yemen. This came after another UK-owned ship was struck, and is reportedly burning and immobile some 70 nautical miles southeast of Aden.
A new United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency alert said the British-owned, Palau-flagged ship was hit by two missiles while en route from Thailand to Egypt. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/another-uk-ship-fire-yemen-sea-becomes-littered-disabled-tankers
How much have Russia and Iran been cooperating in missile technology, and how long? Iran Sends Russia Hundreds Of Ballistic Missiles The report alleged an estimated 400 missiles, mostly from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, have been provided. These are mobile-launched and have a range of up to 435 miles.
"The shipments began in early January after a deal was finalized in meetings late last year between Iranian and Russian military and security officials that took place in Tehran and Moscow, one of the Iranian sources say," according the report. “There will be more shipments,” one Iranian official has boasted. "There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to." https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-sends-russia-hundreds-ballistic-missiles-washington-powerless
Gilbert Doctorow looks at longer-range "Hail Mary" weapons in small numbers for Ukraine, as it starts to implode from 2 years of massive losses: German parliament to vote on delivery of long-range air-borne missiles to Kiev The Biden administration is saying behind closed doors that it is ready to ship to Ukraine its 500 km version of Himars. The difference between the two missile systems is that Himars is ground launched from an artillery rocket system while Taurus is air launched. In practical terms, given the devastation that the Russians have inflicted on most every military air field in Ukraine and given the drastically diminished fleet of suitable jets owned by the Ukrainians today, the launch vehicles for Taurus might have to be F-16s or other planes based in Romania or another NATO country, which becomes a very risky proposition... ..If the United States and Germany do indeed opt to send such long-range missiles to Ukraine, the expert believes that Russia will have to abandon its hitherto ‘humane’ conduct of the war and become similarly vicious. Specifically, he is recommending Russian missiles targeting the Rada (parliament) building in Kiev, leveling it to the ground, the Ukrainian central bank and other decision making centers... ..The hopeful signs come from the growing awareness of military officials, politicians and even some media outlets in the West that the struggle of Ukraine against Russia is a hopeless cause, as demonstrated by the major Russian victory in Avdeevka and the Russian advances on the ground and at other parts of the 1200 kilometer line of contact.
I put in this context the following amazing remarks by Donald Trump during a campaign talk yesterday. Said Trump: “Russia defeated Napoleon. Russia defeated Hitler. Russia has a military machine.” For those who have been nodding off for the past decade or so, Trump just said what no other American or European politician has admitted over that decade: namely that Russia defeated Hitler, not the Americans by their Normandy landing... ..Meanwhile, it is no secret that Zelensky is coming under intense challenges at home, and even within his Servant of the People group of Rada deputies.
Zelensky has cancelled the constitutionally mandated presidential elections in April and, and none other than his predecessor as president Piotr Poroshenko publicly asserted a day ago that Zelensky will have lost his right to hold office after 31 March. With the dismissal of General Zaluzhny as chief of the armies, Zelensky now bears on his own shoulders the shame and disgrace of defeat at Avdeevka and of the further territorial losses that are sure to follow in the days ahead.
For these reasons, it is entirely conceivable that with or without any further deliveries of money and weapons to Kiev the government will fall and whoever takes charge will be empowered to enter into talks with the Russians over capitulation.
Should that happen in April or May, the preconditions will be set for a possibly dramatic shift away from the Center Right European Peoples Party and Center Left Socialists and Democrats in elections to the European parliament in June. These are the parties that have turned the European parliament into a rubber stamp of Cold War ideologists. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/02/22/german-parliament-to-vote-on-delivery-of-long-range-air-borne-missiles-to-kiev/
Eleni sends some Andrew Korybko posts: Is The West Plotting A False Flag Provocation In Poland To Blame On Russia & Belarus? (Who would believe it?) Poland might very well be put up by its dual American-German patrons into carrying outa possible false flag provocation in order to generate popular support for the bloc’s rapid militarization plans aimed at building “Fortress Europe”.
A Top EU Think Tank’s Poll Proved That Polish Views Towards Ukraine Are Noticeably Shifting When asked what’s the most likely outcome of the Ukrainian Conflict, 17% of Poles said that it’ll end in Ukrainian victory, 14% said that it’ll end in Russia’s, while 27% said that it’ll end in compromise. To the question of what Europe should do, 47% favored supporting Ukraine until it reconquered all its lost lands compared to 23% who said that it should push Kiev to negotiate peace with Moscow. About the Ukrainians themselves, 40% see them as a threat versus 27% who see them as an opportunity.
Only 16% of Poles would be very or fairly pleased if Trump returns to power while 41% would be very or fairly displeased by that scenario. If he limits support for Ukraine, 31% of Poles want the EU to replace lost aid as much as possible so that Kiev can keep fighting, 25% want EU aid to remain unchanged, and 19% want them to follow in the US’ footsteps by scaling back aid and promoting peace. As a whole, 34% of Poles think that the EU played a positive role so far compared to 31% who think it’s been negative.
These statistics from one of the EU’s top think tanks, which can’t be accused of being funded by Russia or operating as its propaganda laundromat, probably come as a shock to outside observers who thought that Poles were gung-ho about this proxy war... ..The preceding half-year was also characterized by Polish-Ukrainian ties plunging into a crisis over the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain to the Polish market, that country’s ungratefulness for all the support that it received from Poland up until that point, and Zelensky scandalously comparing it to Russia at the UN. Many Poles deeply respect their farmers and started to reconsider their views about Ukraine in light of that class warning that they’re on the verge of bankruptcy due to the influx of that country’s cheap grain.
Its refugees also began to behave more rowdily as popular support for their homeland dropped, thus accelerating this trend as the socio-economic consequences of Polish support for Ukraine started to negatively affect the daily lives of average Poles. Everything then peaked after Zelensky compared Poland to Russia at the UN in September, which is one of the most insulting things that anyone can do to a Pole, as Ukrainians know very well since they have similar such sentiments in their own society nowadays.
All of this combined to create the state of affairs whereby less than a fifth of Poles think that Ukraine will beat Russia, but nearly half still want the EU to keep funding it in pursuit of that goal anyhow... ..Quite clearly, the data proves that support for Ukraine has waned, and Polish society is now divided over this conflict.
Again, if they were going to do it, why would they wait? This Ramadan date is just an insult. After ceasefire negotiations have faltered, Israel has given Hamas a new ultimatum, with top Israeli war cabinet official Benny Gantz saying that Israel will launch a full assault on the southern city of Rafah if all remaining hostages aren't released by Ramadan. The Muslim holiday begins on March 10 this year, which is a few weeks away.
"The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know — if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue to the Rafah area," Gantz told a conference of Jewish American organizations in Jerusalem on Sunday. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-sets-timeline-start-rafah-offensive-issues-ultimatum
George Soros could destroy the Israeli government bond market, I know he could... Genocide is a bad investment. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement is targeting divestment from Israel Bonds as part of a larger strategy to build economic and political pressure as a meaningful contribution to the Palestinian struggle to dismantle Israel’s apartheid regime... Israel Bonds are money lent directly to Israel’s treasury... ..One of the largest pension funds in the world has divested entirely from Israel Bonds.
In November, the Norwegian Pension Fund announced that it had withdrawn all of its nearly half a billion dollars worth of investments in Israel Bonds, citing “uncertainty in the market.” It pulled what remained of its investments at the start of the Israeli government’s genocidal war in Gaza.
Israel’s economy is in trouble. That tells us we need to double down on demands to divest from Israel Bonds. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2024/02/22/genocide-is-a-bad-investment/
Ex-UN Expert: If Assange is Extradited to US No Journalist in World Will Be Safe "If Assange were to be extradited to the United States, no journalist in the world would be safe," Alfred de Zayas, professor of international law in Geneva, former UN independent expert on international order (2012-18), and a retired senior lawyer with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"Essentially it would mean that any journalist who publishes information that the US government does not like would be subject to persecution and prosecution. His extradition would set a very toxic precedent that the core principle of refugee law and asylum law no longer protects persons who have a well-documented fear of persecution, as codified in article 1 of the Geneva Refugee Convention." https://sputnikglobe.com/20240221/ex-un-expert-if-assange-is-extradited-to-us-no-journalist-in-world-will-be-safe-1116904070.html
US ‘Always Planned’ For Assange to Die in Prison Julian Assange, an Australian national, could face up to 175 years in prison if extradited to the United States on espionage charges.
But the US has no plans for Assange to stand trial in the United States, Dan Kovalik, a professor, human rights lawyer and peace activist told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Tuesday. “If [Julian Assange] is sent to the US, they’re just going to delay the trial as long as they can so that they can guarantee that he’ll die in jail,” Kovalik explained. “That’s always been the plan.”
Kovalik noted that there is documented evidence that the CIA plotted to kill Julian Assange in 2017 which revealed their intentions. “Here’s a guy, even if you believe everything is true that they’re charging him with, he is not charged with any violent crime. There’s no reason for him to be in jail while he awaits extradition… They’re holding him so that he’ll die,” Kovalik said. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240222/us-always-planned-for-assange-to-die-in-prison-1116910930.html
(Yesterday) Pro-Assange Rally Continuing Outside High Court in London for 2nd Day in Row https://sputnikglobe.com/20240221/pro-assange-rally-continuing-outside-high-court-in-london-for-2nd-day-in-row-1116906660.html
Do look at the second video, 59 seconds long, of embalmers removing one of these weird clots from the jugular vein of a deceased person. I have never seen a clot like that in all the years I did c-sections and assisted on major surgery and trauma surgery.
A Midwestern Doctor , Embalmers are Continuing to Find Mysterious Clots in the Vaccinated
Reviewing the results of a recent citizen's investigation and what we now know about these amyloid clots.
"Inquiring minds want to know": Is An X-Class Solar Flare Responsible For Nationwide Cell Outage? Although AT&T took steps to resolve network issues, the company did not disclose the cause of the outage.
According to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, there were no indications of a cyberattack...
Around the time of the outage, two X-solar solar flares were reported by NASA.
Solar flares can disrupt ground-based and or satellite-based communication networks. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/cell-service-outages-reported-across-us
Detailed 3 minute space-weather video with eye candy from this morning: Two X Class Flares, Two Other Eruptions, Solar Watch is High | S0 News Feb.22.2024
Follow-up space-weather video from this afternoon addresses communications outages directly, explaining mechanisms. MAJOR NETWORK OUTAGES | Solar Flare Impact?
This 6 minute video explains that with magnetic poles going through an excursion now, and magnetic field strength dropping so rapidly that NASA won't report it since 2010, perturbations to the ionosphere and planetary electrical circuit happen with milder solar events than it took before. Magnetic Pole Shift | Ionosphere and Atmosphere
Occasional Solar Collector (pictured recently with grandson)
Littered!!
Somebody is learning, just not the USA, the UK, and Israel.
Nations, like UK and USA, need to be cautious about to whom they sell missiles, etc. - as those may be fired at their country of origin.