Scott75

Change can be good. Agreed. Sometimes. I'm sure you know that I certainly agree that his policies towards Russia is an improvement over Biden's policies towards Russia. But in other regards, his policies are worse. Chris Hedges' article gets into many of these new policies.

Gladly, especially considering I only need quote from well known journalist Chris Hedges: ** The Trump administration’s war with the deep state is not a purgative. It is not about freeing us from the tyranny of intelligence agencies, militarized police, the largest prison system in the world, predatory corporations or the end of mass surveillance. It will not restore the rule of law to hold the powerful and the wealthy accountable. It will not slash the bloated and unaccountable spending — some $1 trillion dollars — by the Pentagon. All revolutionary movements, on the left or the right, dismantle the old bureaucratic structures. The fascists in Germany and the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union, once they seized power, aggressively purged the civil service. They see in these structures, correctly, an enemy that would stymie their absolute grip on power. It is a coup d’état by inches. Now we get our own. Rearguard battles — as in the early years of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany — are taking place in the courts and media outlets openly hostile to Trump. There will be, at first, pyrrhic victories — the Bolsheviks and the Nazis were stalled by their own judiciaries and hostile press — but gradually the purges, aided by a bankrupt liberalism that no longer stands or fights for anything, ensures the triumph of the new masters. The Trump administration has expelled or fired officials who investigate wrongdoing within the federal government, including 17 inspectors general. Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, such as the FBI and Homeland Security, are being purged of those deemed hostile to Trump. Courts, as they are stacked with compliant judges, will be mechanisms for the persecution of state “enemies” and protection rackets for the powerful and the rich. The Supreme Court, which has granted Trump legal immunity, has already reached this stage. [snip] One of Trump’s final acts in his first term was signing the order “Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service.” This order removed employment protections from career government bureaucrats. Joe Biden rescinded it. It has been resurrected with a vengeance. It too has echoes from the past. The Nazis’ 1933 “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” saw political opponents and non-Aryans, including Germans of Jewish descent, dismissed from the civil service. The Bolsheviks likewise purged the military and civil service of “counter-revolutionaries.” The firing of over 9,500 federal workers — with 75,000 others accepting a less-than-ironclad deferred buyout agreement amid plans to cut 70 percent of staff from various government agencies — freezing of billions of dollars in funding and ongoing seizure of confidential data by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not about downsizing and efficiency. [snip] The “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act,” introduced by Congresswoman Claudia Tenny, is a harbinger of what lies ahead. The act would designate June 14 as a federal holiday to commemorate “Donald J. Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day.” The next step is choreographed state parades with oversized portraits of the great leader. Joseph Roth was one of the few writers in Germany to understand the attraction and inevitable rise of fascism. In his essay “The Auto-da-Fé of the Mind,” which addressed the first mass burning of books by the Nazis, he counseled fellow Jewish writers to accept that they had been vanquished: “Let us, who were fighting on the front line, under the banner of the European mind, let us fulfill the noblest duty of the defeated warrior: Let us concede our defeat.” Roth, blacklisted by the Nazis, forced into exile and reduced to poverty, did not delude himself with false hopes. “What use are my words,” Roth asked, “against the guns, the loudspeakers, the murderers, the deranged ministers, the stupid interviewers and journalists who interpret the voice of this world of Babel, muddied anyhow, via the drums of Nuremberg?” He knew what was coming. “It will become clear to you now that we are heading for a great catastrophe,” Roth, after going into exile in France in 1933, wrote to Stefan Zweig about the seizure of power by the Nazis. “The barbarians have taken over. Do not deceive yourself. Hell reigns.” But Roth also argued even if defeat was certain, resistance was a moral imperative, a way to defend one’s dignity and the sanctity of the truth. “One must write, even when one realizes the printed word can no longer improve anything,” he insisted. I am as pessimistic as Roth. Censorship and state repression will expand. Those with a conscience will become an enemy of the state. Resistance, when it happens, will be expressed in spontaneous eruptions which coalesce outside the established centers of power. These acts of defiance will be met with brutal state repression. But if we do not resist, we succumb morally and physically to the darkness. We become complicit in a radical evil. This, we must never allow. ** Full article: https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/24/chris-hedges-the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship-2/

There are a few things that Trump has done that I've applauded, such as his wish to ameliorate the United States' relationship with Russia. I'm not saying he's doing a good job of it, but he at least appears to be trying, which is something the Biden Administration was clearly not doing. I also applaud his decisions to nominate Robert Kennedy Jr. as his Secretary of the Department of Health and Tulsi Gabbard as his Director of National Intelligence. However, I too am concerned about many of the things he and his Administration have been doing. Well known journalist Chris Hedges wrote an article about him recently that I thought was quite scary. It can be seen here: https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/24/chris-hedges-the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship-2/

There is no tragedy here - e.g., with Scott Ritter's conviction. Perhaps we should just agree to disagree.

There is no tragedy here. How would you know? Did you even read the article that you snipped out of my quote? For the audience, here is the linked article: Convicted of Sex Crimes, but With No Victims | The New York Times I am familiar enough with this to know [snip] You didn't answer my question. Did you, or did you not, read the article I referenced? If this article has a particular point, quote that sentence and make your argument. It'd be easier for me to simply assume that you haven't read the New York Times article that linked to multipe times in the nested quotes above then try to get you to actually answer my question, but I don't like making assumptions. The reason I wanted to know if you'd read the article stems from a statement you made back in post #147. You had been responding to my post #143, wherein I had stated: ** The other issue is whether undercover officers should be spending their time trying to lure men into engaging with people they are told are minors if said men have never shown an inclination to look for minors to begin with. There's a good article on the tragedy these convictions have on many men here: Convicted of Sex Crimes, but With No Victims | The New York Times ** You responded to my statement above with "There is no tragedy here". I was curious as to how you would know if there was a tragedy or not, especially since I suspected you had never read the article. But perhaps I am mistaken and you -have- read the article. Let's assume that you have indeed read the article. Surely, you should be able to explain why you disagree with my assessment on the tragedy of the convictions that the article references?

Mr. Ritter did say "I don't want any trouble" and the alleged minor (who was in fact an adult under cover officer) said they were 24 on their profile, as Mr. Ritter's lawyer pointed out. Mr. Ritter is hardly the only man who has been charged by cops looking to score an arrest and perhaps some cash. A good article from the New York Times on this: Convicted of Sex Crimes, but With No Victims | The New York Times

Yes, to completely downplay his convictions and proceed to go on about how it is a tragedy. I doubt Mr. Ritter should ever have had to serve time, considering the fact that there's a good case that he was entrapped. Again, I ask you to take a look at the article that you'll probably never read that demonstrates that Mr. Ritter is hardly the first to have dirty tactics used to entrap him. It's here: Convicted of Sex Crimes, but With No Victims | The New York Times

There is no tragedy here. How would you know? Did you even read the article that you snipped out of my quote? For the audience, here is the linked article: I am familiar enough with this to know [snip] You didn't answer my question. Did you, or did you not, read the article I referenced?

well that explains everything, you just blew any value of your opinion to hell. It's not just my view. Even Newsweek published an opinion piece detailing how Ukraine no longer looked like a democracy, and this was back in 2023: https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-sure-doesnt-look-like-democracy-anymore-opinion-1844799 It's only gotten worse now.

Disagree. What in my statements did you disagree with? You haven't forgotten that I'm not American, have you? As to the United States winning the Cold War, sure, but that was then. At this point in time, I think that Russia is being far more sensible than the U.S. Trump, for all his flaws, seems to be reversing course when it comes to the foolish policies the U.S. had with Russia, at least to some extent.

Not everything. There's something to be said for in person meetings, especially on sensitive issues. I'm certainly a fan of Trump's consideration of withdrawing from many of its military bases, particularly in eastern Europe, but on the other hand, I'm also a fan of keeping embassies abroad open, especially if they're not engaged in things like espionage. There's been far too much emphasis on resolving things with wars and far too little on resolving things with diplomacy. Trump has many flaws, but I applaud his efforts to try to resolve the Ukraine war in a peaceful manner.

What draws you to that conclusion? For my part, I have no desire to live in Russia, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate Russia's motivations for starting its military operation in Ukraine.

Fair enough. I'm wrong. But Americans (Trump, Bush) seem to think they rule the world. Obama? Even he's an American - and he too wants to rule the world. The United States has been pretty imperialistic for a while. I liked Obama a lot more than Biden and Trump, but he certainly still had some serious flaws.

Right track for a billionaire capitalist perhaps? Certainly not as a standup for democracy or any king of politician. I'm not claiming that Trump is doing this for the good of Ukrainians. I know that he seemed quite interested in the mineral deal and has mentioned the possibility of World War 3 in his argument with Zelensky, which, to me, strongly suggests that his motives are more for profit and avoiding a situation which would put him in danger as well. What I -am- saying is that despite this, I, along with others such as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, believe that it is in Ukraine's best interests to make a peace deal with Russia sooner rather than later. As to democracy, as I've explained to McFarland in my previous post, Ukraine isn't a democracy.

Agreed. Unfortunately, European nations either stood idly by or even -encouraged- the U.S. organized Euromaidan Coup, prompting then elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to flee for his life to Russia. Some good articles on all of this: https://off-guardian.org/2022/02/24/timeline-euromaidan-the-original-ukraine-crisis/ https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-hidden-truth-about-ukraine-italian-documentary-bombshell-evidence-kiev-euromaidan-snipers-kill-demonstrators/5619684 Ukraine's "democracy" has become more of a sham ever since. Now, had that been all there was to it, I doubt that Russia would have gone beyond its annexation of Crimea back in 2014. Unfortunately, it wasn't- the neo nazis and others in the far right, not content with taking control of the country, almost immediately attempted to block eastern Ukrainians from using their predominantly native Russian language in their government buildings and schools. This led to protests, which were brutally suppressed. A good article on this: https://www.rt.com/russia/554860-burned-alive-2014-odessa/ That, in turn, led many eastern regions to rebel. Some rebellions were quashed by the new Ukrainian government, but there was sufficient resistance in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to essentially become self governing entitites. There were accusations that Russia was arming them, but no tangible evidence of this from what I've seen. Former Swiss Intelligence Officer Jacques Baud, who had been tasked with keeping small arms out of non governmental forces back in 2014, paints quite an interesting picture as to what happened at this point. The article was clearly written more for a Swiss audience, and was originally written in Jacques Baud's native French, but I think these are minors points, considering just how few people are aware of the information he imparted in his article. Quoting from it below: ** In 2014, I am at NATO, responsible for the fight against the proliferation of small arms, and we are trying to detect Russian arms deliveries to the rebels in order to see if Moscow is involved. The information that we receive then comes practically all from the Polish intelligence services and does not “match” with the information from the OSCE: in spite of rather crude allegations, we do not observe any delivery of arms and materials Russian military. The rebels are armed thanks to the defections of Russian-speaking Ukrainian units which cross over to the rebel side. As the Ukrainian failures progressed, the entire tank, artillery or anti-aircraft battalions swelled the ranks of the autonomists. This is what drives the Ukrainians to commit to the Minsk Accords. But, just after signing the Minsk 1 Accords, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko launched a vast anti-terrorist operation (ATO/Антитерористична операція) against Donbass. Bis repetita placent : poorly advised by NATO officers, the Ukrainians suffered a crushing defeat at Debaltsevo which forced them to commit to the Minsk 2 Agreements… It is essential to recall here that the Minsk 1 (September 2014) and Minsk 2 (February 2015) Agreements provided for neither the separation nor the independence of the Republics, but their autonomy within the framework of Ukraine. Those who have read the Accords (they are very, very, very few) will find that it is written in full that the status of the republics was to be negotiated between Kiev and the representatives of the republics, for an internal solution in Ukraine . This is why since 2014, Russia has systematically demanded their application while refusing to be a party to the negotiations, because it was an internal matter for Ukraine. On the other side, the Westerners – led by France – systematically tried to replace the Minsk Accords with the “Normandy format”, which brought Russians and Ukrainians face to face. However, let us remember, there were never any Russian troops in the Donbass before February 23-24, 2022. Moreover, OSCE observers have never observed the slightest trace of Russian units operating in the Donbass. Thus, the US intelligence map published by the Washington Post on December 3, 2021 does not show Russian troops in Donbass. In October 2015, Vasyl Hrytsak, director of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), confessed that only 56 Russian fighters had been observed in the Donbass. It was an even comparable to that of the Swiss going to fight in Bosnia during the weekends, in the 1990s, or the French who are going to fight in Ukraine today. The Ukrainian army was then in a deplorable state. In October 2018, after four years of war, Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor Anatoly Matios said that Ukraine had lost 2,700 men in the Donbass: 891 from disease, 318 from traffic accidents, 177 from other accidents, 175 from poisoning (alcohol, drugs), 172 from careless handling of weapons, 101 from breaches of safety rules, 228 from murder and 615 from suicide. In fact, the army is undermined by the corruption of its cadres and no longer enjoys the support of the population. According to a UK Home Office report , when reservists were called up in March-April 2014, 70% did not show up for the first session, 80% for the second, 90% for the third and 95% for the fourth. In October/November 2017, 70% of callers did not show up during the “ Autumn 2017 ” callback campaign. This does not include suicides and desertions(often for the benefit of the autonomists) which reach up to 30% of the workforce in the ATO zone. Young Ukrainians refuse to go and fight in the Donbass and prefer emigration, which also explains, at least partially, the country’s demographic deficit. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense then turned to NATO to help it make its armed forces more “attractive”. Having already worked on similar projects within the framework of the United Nations, I was asked by NATO to participate in a program intended to restore the image of the Ukrainian armed forces. But it’s a long process and the Ukrainians want to go quickly. Thus, to compensate for the lack of soldiers, the Ukrainian government resorted to paramilitary militias. They are essentially made up of foreign mercenaries, often far-right activists. As of 2020, they constitute around 40% of Ukraine’s forces and number around 102,000 men according to Reuters . They are armed, financed and trained by the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France. There are more than 19 nationalities – including Swiss. Western countries have therefore clearly created and supported Ukrainian far-right militias . In October 2021, the Jerusalem Post sounded the alarm by denouncing the Centuria project . These militias have been operating in the Donbass since 2014, with Western support. Even if we can discuss the term “Nazi”, the fact remains that these militias are violent, convey a nauseating ideology and are virulently anti-Semitic. Their anti-Semitism is more cultural than political, which is why the adjective “Nazi” is not really appropriate. Their hatred of the Jew comes from the great famines of the years 1920-1930 in Ukraine, resulting from the confiscation of crops by Stalin in order to finance the modernization of the Red Army. However, this genocide – known in Ukraine under the name of Holodomor – was perpetrated by the NKVD (ancestor of the KGB) whose upper echelons of leadership were mainly composed of Jews. That is why, today, Ukrainian extremists are asking Israel to apologize for the crimes of communism , as the Jerusalem Post reports . We are therefore a long way from a “ rewriting of history ” by Vladimir Putin. These militias, stemming from the far-right groups that led the Euromaidan revolution in 2014, are made up of fanatical and brutal individuals. The best known of these is the Azov regiment, whose emblem is reminiscent of that of the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division , which is the object of real veneration in Ukraine, for having liberated Kharkov from the Soviets in 1943, before to perpetrate the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944, in France. ** Full article: https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/09/former-nato-military-analyst-blows-the-whistle-on-wests-ukraine-invasion-narrative/ The article goes on to say how Ukraine's new government's continued insistence on trying to bring its eastern region to heel ultimately led to Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Again quoting from the same article: ** On February 17, President Joe Biden announces that Russia will attack Ukraine in the coming days. How does he know? Mystery… But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the populations of Donbass has increased dramatically, as shown by the daily reports of OSCE observers. Naturally, neither the media, nor the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacts and intervenes. We will say later that this is Russian disinformation. In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries purposely glossed over the massacre of the people of Donbass, knowing that it would provoke Russian intervention. [snip] In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knows that the Ukrainians began to shell the civilian populations of Donbass, putting Vladimir Putin in front of a difficult choice: to help Donbass militarily and create an international problem or to sit idle and watch Russian speakers from the Donbass being run over. If he decides to intervene, Vladimir Putin can invoke the international obligation of “ Responsibility To Protect ” (R2P). But he knows that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention will trigger a shower of sanctions. Therefore, whether its intervention is limited to the Donbass or whether it goes further to put pressure on the West for the status of Ukraine, the price to be paid will be the same. This is what he explains in his speech on February 21. That day, he acceded to the request of the Duma and recognized the independence of the two Republics of Donbass and, in the process, he signed treaties of friendship and assistance with them. The Ukrainian artillery bombardments on the populations of Donbass continued and, on February 23, the two Republics requested military aid from Russia. On the 24th, Vladimir Putin invokes Article 51 of the United Nations Charter which provides for mutual military assistance within the framework of a defensive alliance. In order to make the Russian intervention totally illegal in the eyes of the public we deliberately obscure the fact that the war actually started on February 16th. The Ukrainian army was preparing to attack the Donbass as early as 2021, as certain Russian and European intelligence services were well aware… The lawyers will judge. **

I suspect it may indeed, for Trump and his people, that is. I definitely think that ending the war in Ukraine is in the best interests not just of Russia and the U.S., but Ukraine and Europe as well. That being said, I harbor no illusions that Trump won't try to get the most out of any peace, at the expense of anyone who isn't on his team. I was just reading an article on Trump's actions, written about a month ago by a generally left wing author that I trust. It can be seen here: https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/18/chris-hedges-the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/ I'll just quote the parts where he mentions Ukraine: ** We are repeating the steps that led to the consolidation of power by past dictatorships, albeit with our own idiom and idiosyncrasies. Those naively lauding Trump’s hostility towards the deep state — which I concede did tremendous damage to democratic institutions, eviscerated our most cherished liberties, is an unaccountable state within a state and orchestrated a series of disastrous global interventions, including the recent military fiascos in the Middle East and Ukraine — should look closely at what is being proposed to take its place. [snip] The cuts to federal agencies will do little to curb the rapacious spending by the federal government if the military budget — Congressional Republicans are calling for at least $100 billion in additional military spending during the next decade — remains sacrosanct. And while Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine, part of his effort to build an alliance with the autocrat in Moscow he admires, he backs the genocide in Gaza. The purge is about gutting oversight and protections. It is about circumventing thousands of statutes that set the rules for government operations. It is about filling federal positions with “loyalists” from a database compiled by the Conservative Partnership Institute. It is about enriching private corporations — including several owned by Musk — that will be handed lucrative government contracts. **

Just skimmed through an article from a substacker I've come to admire who goes by the name Simplicius, I think it's well worth a look: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/us-and-ukraine-hatch-ceasefire-travesty My favourite quote from it so far: ** What else is clear is that the ceasefire was so “rapidly” and suddenly hammered out just as Zelensky’s last trump card fell away, with Kursk being all but buttoned-up at this point. Russians With Attitude reminds us: **

Let’s see how tough they are with Putin first. They seem very anxious to browbeat Zelenskyy but coy on what the Russians will have to give up. That seems pretty smart in my view. You may recall that in Trump's argument with Zelensky, he said that Zelensky had no cards. That may be a bit of an exageration, but not by much. As Trump has said elsewhere, Ukraine is getting pounded on the battlefield, and it's true. In the last 2 days, they lost a big chunk of their territory in Kursk, and they've been losing territory in Ukraine as well. As Professor Jeff Sachs, who advised 3 UN Secretary Generals over the years, put it to members of the European Union recently: ** Let me end with a few words about President Donald Trump. Trump does not want Biden’s losing hand. This is why Trump and President Putin are likely to agree to end the war. Even if Europe continues with its warmongering, it won’t matter. The war is ending. So, please, get it out of your system. Please tell your colleagues. “It’s over.” It’s over because Trump doesn’t want to hold on to a loser. The one that will be saved by the negotiations taking place right now is Ukraine. The second is Europe. ** Source: https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/27/jeffrey-sachs-the-geopolitics-of-peace/

I'm curious myself. I know that he's said in the past that he's not interested in a temporary ceasefire, but rather a lasting peace. Considering how Russia just took back a big chunk of Kursk in the last 2 days, I think that'd give even less of an incentive to agree to a ceasefire right now. Some articles from Russia's RT publication published today: Kiev planned ‘barbaric attack’ on Russian civilians to coincide with ceasefire talks – Moscow | RT Russia ‘easier to deal with’ than Ukraine – Trump | RT

They did an animated version of that song that I thought was kind of funny, can be seen here: Honestly, I think it'd have been better to have Biden in it, but I know it's a song of the Russians, so I guess it wouldn't make sense to have him in there.

Never have started it? That's right. Former Swiss Intelligence Officer Jacques Baud points out how Ukraine's decision to attack the rebel Donbass Republics in Ukraine was the last straw for Putin in an article he wrote shortly after Russia's military operation in Ukraine began. It can be seen here: https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/09/former-nato-military-analyst-blows-the-whistle-on-wests-ukraine-invasion-narrative/ Quoting from it: ** On February 17 [2022], President Joe Biden announces that Russia will attack Ukraine in the coming days. How does he know? Mystery… But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the populations of Donbass has increased dramatically, as shown by the daily reports of OSCE observers. Naturally, neither the media, nor the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacts and intervenes. We will say later that this is Russian disinformation. In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries purposely glossed over the massacre of the people of Donbass, knowing that it would provoke Russian intervention. [snip] In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knows that the Ukrainians began to shell the civilian populations of Donbass, putting Vladimir Putin in front of a difficult choice: to help Donbass militarily and create an international problem or to sit idle and watch Russian speakers from the Donbass being run over. If he decides to intervene, Vladimir Putin can invoke the international obligation of “ Responsibility To Protect ” (R2P). But he knows that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention will trigger a shower of sanctions. Therefore, whether its intervention is limited to the Donbass or whether it goes further to put pressure on the West for the status of Ukraine, the price to be paid will be the same. This is what he explains in his speech on February 21. That day, he acceded to the request of the Duma and recognized the independence of the two Republics of Donbass and, in the process, he signed treaties of friendship and assistance with them. The Ukrainian artillery bombardments on the populations of Donbass continued and, on February 23, the two Republics requested military aid from Russia. On the 24th, Vladimir Putin invokes Article 51 of the United Nations Charter which provides for mutual military assistance within the framework of a defensive alliance. In order to make the Russian intervention totally illegal in the eyes of the public we deliberately obscure the fact that the war actually started on February 16th. The Ukrainian army was preparing to attack the Donbass as early as 2021, as certain Russian and European intelligence services were well aware… The lawyers will judge. **

Yeah, so does Putin Perhaps, but I think we can agree that the real issue is, is Trump really on the right track? You know my view. How about yours?

I certainly don't agree with everything Trump and Vance are doing, but when it comes to their drive towards a peace agreement in Ukraine, I definitely think they're on the right track.

Interesting article from journalist Wyatt Reed, the managing editor of The Grayzone published just yesterday. I just caught wind of this article on Russia's RT site, but The Grayzone is an independent publication. I'm not surprised that Media Bias Fact Check doesn't like them, considering that they're definitely off the beaten path. MBFC labels them as extreme left wing though, so the fact that they are saying that a clearly right wing politician has been smeared suggests to me that they aren't biased in this case. Alternet, a left wing organization that's been around for quite some time, financed them for a time. More on the Alternet news website here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlterNet Alright, with all of that said, here's the article: https://thegrayzone.com/2025/03/10/usaid-ukraine-vp-vance-russia-propagandist/ Quoting the introduction and conclusion of the article below: ** March 10, 2025 US Pres. Donald Trump has lambasted USAID for absurd foreign expenditures. But Trump has omitted perhaps the most scandalous operation: in Ukraine, the US funded groups which defamed the US Vice President, members of Congress, and US journalists as “foreign propagandists,” while training Ukrainians in “PSYOP” tactics. The US government funded a Ukrainian military intelligence firm which smeared US Vice President JD Vance, US Counterterrorism Director Joe Kent, and Rep. Thomas Massie as “foreign propagandists of the Russian Federation.” To this day, the online blacklist published by the USAID-funded Ukrainian group, known as Molfar, lists Vance, Massie, and Kent as “foreign propagandists” aligned with the Russian government, and demands their “removal from public positions, the introduction of sanctions, and investigations into personal involvement in crimes.” “These individuals pose a threat to the national security of countries that do not support the terrorist policy of the Russian Federation,” Molfar states. Molfar’s website condemns Vance for having “compared Ukrainian democracy to Afghanistan” and stating that he “remains opposed to continuing to finance this war.” Perhaps worst of all, in the eyes of the Ukrainian information warriors, was his stance on Ukraine’s NATO aspirations: “He declared that Ukraine should not join NATO, because it would supposedly mean “inviting the American nation to go to war.”” In 2022, a representative of Molfar was quoted in CNN accusing President Trump of “absolutely pro-Kremlin” behavior because “Trump said that Crimea is Russian, because people speak Russian.” Molfar, a Ukrainian term for a sorcerer or wizard, describes itself as an open-source intelligence agency which “collects lists of Ukrainian enemies to bring war criminals to justice.” Its website previously named both USAID and the US Civil Research and Development Fund (CRDF) as “partners.” The legality of US agencies sponsoring foreign groups to smear Americans and meddle in American politics is questionable at best. [snip] In 2024, when Ukrainian officials decided to ramp up nationalism in Ukrainian classrooms, the Ministry of Digital Transformation presided over a formal partnership between Molfar and Azov. Citing the head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, one Ukrainian outlet wrote: “According to him, the Ministry of Education and Science developed the program for [teacher] trainers together with the military and civil society organizations – in particular, the Azov military, [and] the largest OSINT agency in Ukraine, Molfar.” Despite Molfar’s partnership with a neo-Nazi unit of the Ukrainian military which had once been proscribed by the US Congress, USAID continued to subsidize the group’s activities. In August 2024, when USAID sponsored a “Hackathon” in Ukraine, they turned to Molfar CEO Artem Starorsiek to judge the contest. For over two years, USAID sponsored Kiev-based outfits like Molfar, CCD and VoxUkraine as they sought to destroy the reputations of US politicians. Now that those officials occupy key national security positions in the Trump administration, as well as the Vice Presidency, is it any wonder they are determined to shut down the information warfare apparatus that defamed them as foreign agents? **

Europe is the one threatened by this war not Sachs, the US and Trump. They aren't war mongering, they know Russia. Russia would have never started its military operation in Ukraine had it not been for the arrogance of NATO. Even Jens Stoltenberg, then the Secretary General of NATO, admitted to the fact that NATO's expansion eastward was a key factor in Russia's decision to start its military operation, as Professor Jeffrey Sachs pointed out in an article: ** According to the U.S. government and the ever-obsequious New York Times, the Ukraine war was “unprovoked,” the Times’ favorite adjective to describe the war. Putin, allegedly mistaking himself for Peter the Great, invaded Ukraine to recreate the Russian Empire. Yet last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg committed a Washington gaffe, meaning that he accidently blurted out the truth. In testimony to the European Union Parliament, Stoltenberg made clear that it was America’s relentless push to enlarge NATO to Ukraine that was the real cause of the war and why it continues today. Here are Stoltenberg’s revealing words: To repeat, he [Putin] went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. When Prof. John Mearsheimer, I, and others have said the same, we’ve been attacked as Putin apologists. The same critics also choose to hide or flatly ignore the dire warnings against NATO enlargement to Ukraine long articulated by many of America’s leading diplomats, including the great scholar-statesman George Kennan, and the former US Ambassadors to Russia Jack Matlock and William Burns. Burns, now CIA Director, was US Ambassador to Russia in 2008, and author of a memo entitled “Nyet means Nyet.” In that memo, Burns explained to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the entire Russian political class, not just Putin, was dead-set against NATO enlargement. We know about the memo only because it was leaked. Otherwise, we’d be in the dark about it. Why does Russia oppose NATO enlargement? For the simple reason that Russia does not accept the U.S. military on its 2,300 km border with Ukraine in the Black Sea region. Russia does not appreciate the U.S. placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania after the U.S. unilaterally abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. ** Source: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/nato-chief-admits-expansion-behind-russian-invasion The only reason the war in Ukraine continues is because to this day, most NATO members refuse to take Russia's security concerns seriously.