Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Dr. Willie Soon; “… We’ve seen narratives created … to delay climate action … a challenge we cannot afford to ignore as we head into a bumper election year in 2024…”
The speech by Melissa Fleming, UN Under Secretary General for Global Communications was given in October, but I’ve only just become aware of it, and I think it is relevant.
The following transcript was taken from the Youtube transcript. I added punctuation which wasn’t present in the original text to make it more readable.
Dear lleagues and Friends it is an honor to address you at the UN Roundtable of the 2023 Global media and information literacy week.
The theme of this year’s commemoration is a timely and critical one as the online landscape has only worsened since last year’s Gathering a key factor is that some of the largest digital platforms, instead of stepping up to address online harm, have lowered their guard rails either by reducing or decimating their trust and safety teams.
This is especially worrying as our colleagues around the world continue to report grave impacts of weaponized Mis and disinformation and hate speech. They flag information Wars which distort actual events on the battlefield or in humanitarian Arenas and disinformation is targeting our peacekeepers too, lies that result in division, vision polarization and even violence online posts as well are clearly turning anti-semitic racist or islamophobic.
We’ve seen narratives created around climate change as well designed to delay climate action and we’re even seeing conspiracies circulating around the STGs developed to generate controversy around our blueprint for a better world. We are worried how this free online atmosphere is undermining Democratic processes, a challenge we cannot afford to ignore as we head into a bumper election year in 2024, when more than two billion voters are eligible to go to the polls.
Meanwhile a rapid rise in generative AI has set off new alarm bills in the information Integrity Community. Disinformation actors have been given a potent low cost tool, making it easier to create sophisticated deep fakes or AI generated news sites programmed with false narratives. Disinformation and hate speech can now be created at greater scale and can be more easily personalized leaving absolutely no fingerprints.
The Secretary General has made it Crystal Clear we cannot go on like this we need to become more Nimble more targeted and strategic in our use of digital media and in our information literacy tactics, such as pre-bunking. At the department of Global Communications this will be a key preoccupation as we adapt the United Nations verified initiative to address climate disinformation.
Moreover as the UN system we need to continue advocating to all other stakeholders to invest in robust digital literacy drives.
Our aim should be to empower users of all ages to better understand how digital platforms work, how their personal data might be used, and to identify and respond to miss and disinformation and hate speech.
Particular attention should be given to ensuring that young people adolescents and children are fully aware of their rights in online spaces.
Such user power will be one of the key principles of the UN Code of Conduct on information Integrity on digital platforms which my team and I are working on. The code will be presented at the summit of the future in September 2024 and will set a global gold standard to make the digital sphere more Humane and it will call for a firm Global commitment to information Integrity. We look forward to Consulting with all of you as we develop the code at un.org’s information Integrity. Let’s keep coming together to discuss, find ways forward and put our vision into practice
I never thought the famous dystopian book Nineteen Eighty-Four would be used as an instruction manual. A “UN Verified” drive which explicitly targets climate narratives the UN doesn’t like, in my opinion is a horrifying attack on freedom.
Melissa Fleming, who positions herself as a defender of democracy from narratives she thinks are misinformation, I don’t recall having an opportunity to vote for her, or rather vote against her. As far as I can tell she’s never faced a public scrutiny or a popular vote.
Yet if Melissa’s plan is fully adopted, she could effectively become the global censorship director.
The USA, despite constitutional guarantees, would not be immune from Melissa’s influence, if all information US citizens receive from overseas sources first passes through her directorate’s scrutiny.
The explicit mention of the 2024 election cycle in the context of “climate disinformation” is telling. I wonder who is the main focus of the United Nations plan for influencing the 2024 election cycle?
Senator Lee Introduces Act to Defund and Depart UNDecember 6, 2023
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act, which calls for the United States’ complete withdrawal from the United Nations (UN)
Comment: Urgently needed, decades overdue.
Was just going to comment that after the next President announces a Fedgov hiring freeze on day one he gives the UN it’s eviction notice. It was once a laughable (albeit expensive) nuisance, it has morphed into a threat to modern life.
Yes, the UN has morphed into a threat to the personal freedoms of all of us whose leaders listen to them.
Among other stupidities, these UN fools want to reduce food production in the world, thinking not doing so will cause the world to overheat because CO2. We should not be following the advice of people who think like this. They are dangerous. Think Sri Lanka. These fools want to turn the whole Western World into Sri Lanka.
Sounds like FDR’s solution to the recession of early 1930 that he turned into the great depression.
People of the same ilk.
That’s right! People hungry? Just burn crops and slaughter herds! As you note, our government’s attraction to the Left has been going on for a long time.
Yes and form a very limited prescription United Liberal Democratic Nations with fundamental freedoms and a free trade/defense bloc leaving the gaggle of gangsters to please themselves. Aspirationals can tag along as provisional members with no vote or rights until they measure up.
The UN; founded following WW2 to work toward ending global conflict.
Since then, there has been around 75 major conflicts, almost one every year since WW2 ended.
Whilst getting on for 1M people are now dead in Ukraine, and 20M displaced, and with 22 thousand civilians now dead in Gaza, the UN is bleating about climate change instead of devoting every possible resource it can muster to stop these conflicts.
It should go the way of its equally incompetent predecessor, The League of Nations.
I couldn’t agree more. Shouldn’t the UN be devoting if not all their time and effort into, for instance, easing suffering for, at least, women and children in Gaza?
Why have they not agreed with the IDF ‘safe areas’ to erect marquees to house and feed those suffering from starvation in Winter in the Strip? The IDF will, of course, be suspicious of all adult make, but could exclude them from fenced off safe areas where these poor women could care for their children?
It appears to me that they have done very very little! (Apart from talking a good game – as per usual). Didn’t Trump fall out with the UN and withdraw funding??
“but could exclude them from fenced off safe areas”
But try excluding heavily armed men with intense hatred! Not gonna be easy- certainly nothing the UN could do.
“Shouldn’t the UN be devoting if not all their time and effort into, for instance, easing suffering for, at least, women and children in Gaza?”
Obviously a non-starter. UNWRA was instrumental in creating the military apparatus used by Hamas. The UN is a participant in the war against Israel. It’s already demonstrated its inability to do anything about warfare by its uselessness in the war against Ukraine.
Remember, the original mission of the UN was to prevent another war in Europe after WW2. It’s failed in this mission every single time it’s come up for a total of five complete and abject failures since 1945. The Tombstone on the Hudson would be of more use if it was reduced to rubble. That way the real estate could be redeveloped into something useful.
With the UN involved Hamas has spent MILLIONS building military tunnels that may be over 100 miles in length.
Starving women and children? Sort of like in North Korea.
Trump, if memory serves me well, withheld payment for a while and then allowed a slightly reduced payment. The UN might have merit as a debate society provided the participating countries each pay their representatives expenses and a proportional payment for “the rent”. We must end their having a budget for payments other than “office space”. No expenditures for doing more harm than good things like the IPCC.
I hear Putin is trying to conscript Chinese illegal immigrants in Russia to send them to fight in Ukraine.
This ought to be interesting.
I also hear that Putin is now using North Korean ballistic missiles in the fight in Ukraine. I guess Putin’s stocks are running low. He’s buying artillery ammunition from North Korea and now ballistic missiles.
Are you referring to the North Korean KN-24 SRBM which is far better at evading air defence than the Russian missiles which use a higher trajectory? That Putin is using a different missile doesn’t necessarily mean Russia is running out of ammunition. Do you have any actual evidence that Russia is running out of ammunition?
“Running out” is an imprecise term. There is plenty of open source info stating that Russia is obtaining munitions including ballistic missiles, artillery ammunition, and drones from other countries including North Korea and Iran. There are also clear indications of Russia using older, less capable munitions and weapon systems which is almost certainly due to attrition / depletion of more capable systems.
Short of complete collapse of the Russian state / economy there is no way that Russia will completely “run out” of munitions since they have substantial organic production capacity in addition to external sources.
It is worth noting that Ukraine is is a similar position munitions wise, but with much less organic production capacity.
In a long-term war of attrition (which is a quite likely IMO) the outcome will be decided in large part by Ukraine’s backer’s ability and willingness to provide sustained material support including munitions relative to Russia’s organic capacity and support from Iran, North Korea, and others.
You mean like the hypersonic missiles that no other country in the world, other than possibly China, has developed?
They are so technically illiterate they weren’t the first to put Sputnik into orbit, be the first to put a man into space (as the USSR) and the first to put a geostationary space station into orbit. They were just the Russian version of Hollywood illusions. Rooskiwood.
Apparently Trump is also using them to interfere in US elections, just not very successfully in 2020 when the Democrats beat them with postal ballots. So I guess that’s something.
They also, apparently, develop and deploy strange new chemical agents they smear onto door handles to kill people – in the Porton Down area of the UK, home to our highly secure and top secret Bio Weapons laboratories.
They probably would have engaged in wholesale overseas regime change over the years, it’s just that the CIA beat them to it with 83 of them between 1947 and 1997 (RFK Jr.)
Damn, those Rooskies are backwards.
So backward that their air defence systems are now considered the best in the world, capable of shooting down 90% of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and US made ATACAMS missiles. But that’s OK because the Ukrainians have found a target for the ATACAMS. They can kill Russian T72 tanks worth a few Rubles with a missile costing several million dollars. BTW, the tanks don’t have air defence.
In fact, Russians are so dumb they don’t bother much with renewable energy. It’s population barely survives with cheap and dirty natural gas, coal and oil.
On the other hand, Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is so successful numerous offshore windfarm projects, models for the world, have been cancelled or delayed and the ones that are working are killing off all those pesky rare Right Whales. I mean, they’re such a pain in the arse even Greenpeace isn’t sending out protestors to scale the wind turbines and shut them down.
Good analysis, Joe.
It’s also of note that Russia has provided N. Korea with one of the latest Russian ICBM’s, well able to strike anywhere on the US continent.
Quid pro quo, I think, between the two nations.
Nor should anyone be under any illusions; the west backed Russia into this position. Had our governments worked with Russia, historically sympathetic to N. Korea, we may well be well on the way to reunification of north and south Korea and the expulsion of the Kim dynasty.
Now NATO is staring down the barrel of redundancy, and, hopefully, the UN with it.
“Are you referring to the North Korean KN-24 SRBM which is far better at evading air defence than the Russian missiles which use a higher trajectory? That Putin is using a different missile doesn’t necessarily mean Russia is running out of ammunition.”
That might be one explanation.
No, I don’t have any evidence Putin is running out of ammunition other than the fact he is buying a lot of ammunition from outside Russia.
I didn’t say I had any evidence, I said it was my ‘guess”.
Good grief, not this again.
Russia (not Putin) was running out of missiles from day one apparently. Every month, regular as clockwork, we are assured by Blinken that Russia will be out of missiles by the end of the month.
Collective western nations, however, can’t make enough 155mm artillery shells to support Ukraine, admitted by Biden who is fighting this war to cover up for his family crime syndicate in the country, so he provides Ukraine with cluster munitions instead.
There’s nothing like standing by your principles to have cluster munitions outlawed, but Biden doesn’t have any principles.
“but Biden doesn’t have any principles.”
I agree.
Biden is the worst possible person to be in charge in this situation.
It has been independently verified by international observers in Russia that army recruitment centres can’t keep up with the applications from Russian volunteers to join up to fight in Ukraine.
The Russian army is believed to now be up to 1.5 million paid, not conscripted, soldiers.
I carry no water for either Ukraine nor Russia. The west shouldn’t be involved in this conflict, and were we not, it wouldn’t have begun in the first place.
For nearly two years now we have been assured by western, pro-Ukrainian fanatics that Russia will fall any day, despite Russia having seized around 20% of Ukraine, seen it’s economy boom despite every sanction thrown at it, whilst Europe is being deindustrialised thanks to the west destroying the Nordstream pipeline.
America has spunked well over $100Bn on the disaster, Europe at least the same, to witness six or seven hundred thousand dead Ukranian soldiers, which could have been stopped in March of 2022 when Ukraine and Russia signed a draft peace treaty that Biden and Boris Johnson ordered Zelensky to tear up.
The existence of that draft peace deal alone justifies the world asking, what is the point of the UN if it can’t order Joe Biden and Boris Johnson to go and sit in the corner with their f**king dunce hats on.
If Putin takes Ukraine who will be next? Where will he stop?
The domino theory.
Whilst Russia (not Putin) is fighting one small (compared to Russia) neighbouring country and the west by proxy, progressing into Europe would legitimately allow a combined direct NATO attack on Russia itself. What possible purpose would that serve Russia?
Russia is the largest country in the world (yes, nearly twice the size of the USA). It has every conceivable natural resource it could need. What possible sense would it make to overrun Europe and attempt to govern populations hostile to it?
On that basis, kindly provide an example where Russia (not the USSR) has extended it’s military beyond immediately neighbouring countries, the few of which have been persuaded by the west to get involved with NATO.
Meanwhile, what has Russia ever done to America (or Europe) to deserve the vitriol directed at it by neocons? It surrendered communism and freed all the countries the allies gifted to it after WW2, including East Germany. No violence, it just quietly withdrew from them and blessed them with self determination.
Were it not for 26 million Russians dying during WW2 Hitler may well have overrun Europe.
Biden articulated the truth. America (the collective west) arranged the Ukraine conflict to generate a coup against Putin so Russia could be broken up and plundered by the west for its resources.
Has Russia ever threatened America with that objective, and if it did, what would America’s reaction be?
Less than 9 million military deaths during WWII for the soviets.
4 million Ukrainians killed by Stalin by starvation so no reason for Ukraine to fear Russia. AND the break away areas of Ukraine were repopulated by Russians after the Holodomor.
Those Russians, gay, go to jail, read a poem against the Special Military Action, go to jail, etc.
But I do not know why the Dems are supporting Ukraine since Russia, like the Dems, don’t want their most feared opposition candidate to possibly get any votes, so are trying to keep him off the ballot. They seem to be of a common political (authoritarian) persuasion.
If Russia can’t beat Ukraine, they have no chance against NATO which would have total air superiority within days and the 10,000 Russian tanks still left would never leave their depots. The whole war has shown Russia can do nothing more than cause “disturbances” around the world.
And yes, the US made Putin invade Ukraine. By what? Speaking of including Ukraine in the world free nations. Putin thought that it would be a cakewalk and the US and EU didn’t lift a finger until Ukraine stopped the takeover if Kiev on their own. OK a little help with shoulder launched anti aircraft and and antitank weapons about 5 days into the “conflict”.
Now TRUMP! spoke of withdrawing from NATO and I am all on board with that. Bring ALL our troops home. Let Europe fend for itself. And the UK should let continental Europe fend for themselves also.
As to gifting freedom, a collapse is a collapse. Holding an empire together costs a LOT. Reagan broke the USSR with his 600 ship navy and SDI. Russia could no longer hold the mess together. If Stalin was still around he might have just starved them into submission.
And to this day, gifting N Korea to the USSR was just another of FDR’s stupid moves.
“World War II losses of the Soviet Union were about 27,000,000, both civilian and military from all war-related causes,[1] although exact figures are disputed. A figure of 20 million was considered official during the Soviet era. The post-Soviet government of Russia puts the Soviet war losses at 26.6 million,[2] on the basis of the 1993 study by the Russian Academy of Sciences, including people dying as a result of effects of the war.[3][4][5] This includes 8,668,400 military deaths as calculated by the Russian Ministry of Defence.” (Wikipedia)
If you can’t do a simple search for Soviet deaths during WW2 I don’t hold out much hope for the rest of your post.
But not Putin.
“The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.” (Wikipedia)
It wasn’t just Ukrainians who died.
Homosexuality is legal in Russia as is transgenderism. It’s not encouraged though as the nation is predominantly orthodox Christian. Perhaps the west could take some lessons or haven’t you heard of the LGBTQ+ infiltration of primary schools.
I don’t know who you are referring to here.
By occupying 20% of Ukraine the Russians have achieved their objective.
Remind me how many military bases the US has arounf the world? Oh yea, I remember now, around 800.
How many bases do the Russians have overseas? One, in Syria, by invitation, unlike America which is in the country illegally.
No, Russia was quite happy for Ukraine to join the EU. It wasn’t happy, and warned America and NATO, not to violate the Minsk agreements and the promise that NATO would not move “an inch” eastwards. In the years between the Maidan coup in 2014 and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine the west armed and trained the Ukrainian military, despite it not being a NATO member, and Kiev waged war on the ethnically Russian eastern Ukraine. The Russian language was banned across Ukraine and orthodox Christian churches forced to close.
Angela Merkle the former Chancellor of Germany recently admitted the Minsk agreements were nothing but cover to allow the Ukraine military to be armed and trained. “Speaking in her interview for “Die Zeit”, published on December 7, German ex-Chancellor Merkel said the following: “The 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to buy time for Ukraine. Ukraine used this time to become stronger, as you can see today. Ukraine in 2014-2015 and Ukraine today are not the same.” (moderndiplomacy.eu)
Russia chased the Ukraine army back to it’s military stronghold then withdrew.
In March 2022 a draft peace deal was signed between Russia and Ukraine. Biden and Boris Johnson ordered Zelensky to tear it up. 750,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers later and Russia has not moved from the position it occupied then.
How is a nation broken by a Navy when there is no battle? The USSR was broken by its failed economy, not by the American military.
But he wasn’t around, Gorbachov was.
And what part, precisely, did the USSR play in N. Korean politics or their economy?
Nor is it unusual for American Presidents to make stupid moves. The incumbent does take the biscuit though.
Sorry Charles and Anthony but I must respond to HotScot.
HS, don’t be silly.
After calling me stupid, you post a quote from Wiki that includes:
“This includes 8,668,400 military deaths”
And I said: “LESS THAN 9 MILLION MILITARY DEATHS“. I got that information from the same source. You are funny.
“It wasn’t just Ukrainians who died.”
The vast majority were NOT ETHNIC RUSSIANS. They were ethnic Ukrainian, whose crops were confiscated and distributed to RUSSIANS, and who were shot if they were caught in a field picking up grain from the ground after the harvest, and whose houses and land were then repopulated with ETHNIC RUSSIANS;
“I don’t know who you are referring to here.”
MR “If you can’t do a simple search” heal thyself.
An simple search returns: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/23/pro-peace-putin-challenger-blocked-from-ballot-a83546
By occupying 20% of Ukraine the Russians have achieved their objective.
It is 18% and that includes the areas Russia controlled before 2022.
And NO, Russia did not achieve their objective. That was to take Kiev and install a puppet government. They FAILED. See the map below and the 3 lines almost reaching Kiev. What was their “apparent” objective now??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine.svg
“Remind me how many military bases the US has arounf the world? Oh yea, I remember now, around 800.”
I agree wholeheartedly. Not only should the US withdraw from every democratic country, but we should send bills to every nation we bailed out and defeated in WWII. The CURRENT US Debt can be wholly traced back to the debt incurred from WWII and the unpaid compounded interest accrued since then.
Now with Russia, although the vast majority of military trucks and other light vehicles were provided by the US, and much of the steel for the heavy vehicles was provided by the US, I would not know how to calculate their debt since the US army didn’t actually liberate their land.
As to the West arming Ukraine in violation of a treaty. Russia annexed Crimea and parts of the Donetsk? through the afore mentioned Russian soldiers actually fighting the Ukrainian government in violation of that treaty, NO??
“Kiev waged war on the ethnically Russian eastern Ukraine.”
The war was started by Russian separatists and actual active duty Russian soldiers.
“The Russian language was banned across Ukraine and orthodox Christian churches forced to close.”
In October of 2023?? Just stop being a Russian apologist. Link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/20/ukrainian-parliament-votes-to-ban-orthodox-church-over-alleged-links-with-russia
Russia chased the Ukraine army back to it’s military stronghold then withdrew.”
Propaganda Much?? Review the above provided map. They failed their objective of taking over Kiev and installing a puppet government, their supply lines collapsed, and they were FORCED to withdraw once they lost air superiority with the arrival of Stingers and other shoulder fired weapons and could no longer protect their advanced troops. How many helicopter gun ships did Russia lose early in the war? Sure, the Russians just Withdrew.
Aircraft losses, Wiki, scroll down to 2022 to present. And as to your Ukraine attacking its own territory, go ahead and read about the losses in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#Rotary-wing_aircraft_3
“How is a nation broken by a Navy when there is no battle? The USSR was broken by its failed economy, not by the American military.”
Apparently your comprehension failed you here. You ignored the second part about SDI.
The Russian economy was broken by Reagan. It was a PLAN. Create a 600 ship Navy and develop SDI “forcing” the USSR to try to keep up. They DID try to keep up, and the expenses for their military BROKE THEIR ECONOMY. Your past posts make me think you are old enough to have lived through the Reagan presidency, but it appears you listened to the MSM back then (Reagan was a simpleton) and had no clue of what he achieved in ending the cold war. Yes. I know, the collapse came a couple of years later but the cause was Reagans plan.
https://www.hoover.org/research/reagan-his-own-hand
Get it, read it, learn something about Reagan and
the collapse of the USSR.
But he wasn’t around, Gorbachov was.
And of course that was my point. The USSR could not afford to keep their vassal states in line without extreme violence and did not have the will to crush the opposition through violent means. Reagan’s PLAN again!
“And what part, precisely, did the USSR play in N. Korean politics or their economy?”
ALL the danger that North Korea engenders to other nations of the world is due to idiot FDR giving the North to the USSR and his good buddy Uncle Joe to then create a communist totalitarian state in the North, AND Clinton giving Kim a Nuclear Power Plant. EVERYTHING to do with N Korea is because of the USSR and FDR and Clinton. Just google earth the Korean Peninsula at night and see what FDR and the USSR wrought on the people of the North!
“Nor is it unusual for American Presidents to make stupid moves. The incumbent does take the biscuit though.”
I couldn’t agree more, See the above paragraph. Then there is Nixon and “normalizing relations with China”. And Carter giving up the Panama Canal. And Clinton with letting China into the WTO. I could go on for days. AND, of course, only US presidents do stupid stuff. BUT other country’s politicians are perfect!
I think that is enough rebuttal. I am done with this BS. Your loyalty to the Party and Russia is duly noted. Moscow is pleased!!
Again, Sorry Charles and Anthony.
Where did I call you stupid?
I didn’t say you were wrong about there being fewer than 9M deaths however, it’s disingenuous to cite that number with no perspective. For example, how many American civilians died fighting the Germans in WW2? How many US cities were bombed to rubble like London and Coventry?
For convenience I have included a chart of deaths during WW2. Outstripping every country by some considerable margin is Russia in all but % of population. The UK and the US are remarkably low are they not? (Attribution: By TheShadowed at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4339723)
As I have asked elsewhere, what harm has post communist Russia done to America? Or communist Russia for that matter.
You’re now conflating two entirely different eras. The Holodomor had nothing to do with post communist Russia.
And whilst your throwing stones in your glasshouse, you might consider the genocide of native American Indians. “Between the late 15th and late 17th centuries, the population of native Americans decreased from approximately 145 million to less than 15 million.” (Wikipedia)
I deliberately don’t cite media sources like the Moscow Times, The Guardian or the NY Times. I think the readers of this blog almost entirely agree they are the source of some of the most unreliable information available.
Once again, I didn’t exclude Crimea (a region Zelensky promised to kick the Russians out of) in my 20% estimate. But I’ll happily concede it’s 18% as we’re splitting hairs now.
With something less than a couple of hundred thousand troops when Russia intervened in Ukraine in February 2022? In the full knowledge the Ukrainians had 400,000 troops, many battle hardened from the conflict between east and west Ukraine over the previous eight years. As Col. Douglas McGregor points out, Ukraine probably had one of the best armies in the world at that point. Joe Biden may be that dumb but I don’t think Putin is.
Just as well the UK paid back it’s debt to America for it’s help then, isn’t it? It’s a pity it wasn’t balanced by America paying back debt to the UK for our help in the conflict between Japan and America.
Which simply avoids the question of who is the international aggressor here, America or Russia?
America forgave Russia it’s war debt to America. Perhaps it considered Russia losing 26m of it’s population was payment enough.
The Minsk agreement (the first [2014] and the second [2015]) were signed after the Russians took back Crimea which had been part of Russia since the time of Catherine the Great. It was handed over to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev during the Soviet period of Russia’s past and it’s doubtful it met any international standards as it only ever appeared as an announcement in the Soviet press.
The Minsk agreements were largely adhered to by both parties until Russia intervened in Ukraine in February 2022 before the interview with Angela Merkle who revealed they were only ever considered a ruse to give time to build up the Ukrainian military. I think I pointed this out elsewhere but you conveniently ignored it.
The question of whose troops did what in the intervening period is a moot point.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove by posting a link to some text of Reagan’s speeches during the Soviet era. I can’t find anything referring to the 600 ship fleet. It appears from this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/600-ship_Navy that it was a response to an expanding Soviet navy following the Vietnam war.
The Korean Armistice Agreement “was signed by United States Army Lieutenant General William Harrison Jr. and General Mark W. Clark representing the United Nations Command (UNC), North Korea leader Kim Il Sung and General Nam Il representing the Korean People’s Army (KPA), and Peng Dehuai representing the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (PVA). The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, and was designed to “ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved.” (Wikipedia)
No mention of the USSR.
More to the point, you persistently conflate two entirely different historical and political periods of Russia’s history. Like many others, your hatred and fears of Russia spill over from the Cold War period which has been over for the last 33 years.
What’s wrong with normalising relations with China or “letting them” into the WTO. It is, after all, the World Trade Organisation, not a cozy club of western nations.
Once again, what harm has China ever done to America? And I’ll repeat the comparison here; how many overseas military bases does China operate?
Indeed, China was an ally in the war against Japan during WW2.
“Roosevelt placed his hopes in China as a pillar of a new world order. In November 1943, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek received an invitation to a conference in Cairo of Allied leaders in Asia that would include Roosevelt and Churchill.” (The National WWII Museum).
Your obsessive hatred of anything outwith your blinkered view of the world is concerning, in that it’s supported by far too many Americans and promoted by the media which is why I, and many more, pay it scant regard.
I do note, however, when articles from the Moscow Times, Guardian etc. suit your argument you have no hesitation in using them.
“Now TRUMP! spoke of withdrawing from NATO and I am all on board with that.”
Trump used the threat of withdrawing from NATO to force the NATO nations to pay their fair share of the NATO defense budget. For the most part, the NATO nations increased their contributions, and Trump did not withdraw from NATO. Trump uses extreme threats like this to get people’s attention and focus the minds of those he is doing a deal with.
” Bring ALL our troops home.”
Bad Idea.
“Let Europe fend for itself.”
Bad idea.
“And the UK should let continental Europe fend for themselves also.”
Bad idea.
You are conceding the field to the worst human beings in existence. Your isolationist position will not save you from their dictatorial aggression. In fact, it will make it more likely.
You either stop murderous dictators in their tracks, or you bend your knee to them. It’s one or the other.
The Ukrainians are currently stopping the dictator. We should give them all the support we can, because a defeat in Ukraine won’t be the end of it. Not by a long shot. And it won’t keep us out of conflict with the dictator. Why should he stop? Because you don’t want to fight? That’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
I’m glad you support Trump.
I don’t think Trump is inclined to cut and run from Ukraine, although Isolationist Republicans are certainly hoping that’s the case. No, I think Trump is a pragmatic man and will do what is necessary to protect the U.S. and that includes hamstringing the dictators of the world, through force, if necessary.
This is why the US needs to annex the Moon as the high ground.
And for once, no one could claim to be the First People!
As per Asimov’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress put a linear accelerator on the moon and the threat of dirt clods being delivered to any point on the Earth will shortly change most countries to peaceful activities.
Imagine 10 or 20 10 ton kinetic weapons dropped on Iran’s nuclear and other war making facilities. Russia would have no more Iranian drones.
Just ONE on the Crimean bridge to Russia and 3 or 4 spread across the current Russian occupied land route would make Russian occupation of Crimea untenable.
Heinlein, not Asimov. Bit of a nit-pick 🙂
Both, great writers.
Why is that a bad idea? Your country is spending the best part of a trillion dollars a year ‘policing’ the world, for what? America has two borders, one of which it can’t protect, and an ocean on either side of it.
What possible threat is anyone other than Canadians and Mexicans to America? If they lob an ICBM at you, you lob one back.
Why is that a bad idea? If Russia did have designs on Europe, what is it to America? It’s not like Russia needs to get to London to lob an ICBM at America, it can do it from Moscow.
The entire UK military personnel could roughly fit into a medium sized US football stadium. Our Challenger tanks are 30 years old and we can’t afford to update them. We have no independent aerospace manufacturers to produce military aircraft. We have no meaningful stealth technology. Our two carriers were launched without aircraft. We had to wait for the scraps of F35’s you guys could provide to us.
The UK would be better off declaring itself a neutral country as we have no natural resources to talk of, we have no industry, and we have scant agriculture.
If you say something is a “bad idea” you need to explain why.
You keep saying things like this but you have yet to produce any evidence that Russia has done anything even remotely approaching the violence and death America (and the rest of the west under the NATO brand) has exported since WW2. All of it fought thousands of miles from American shores. What’s defence orientated about that?
What would you describe Netanyahu as, having killed 22,000 (UN) civilians since October 2023, most of them women and children, in Gaza? That death toll has been facilitated by your government providing unlimited weaponry to achieve that death toll.
How about Joe Biden locking up Jan 6th protestors without charge indefinitely. Isn’t that the behaviour of a dictator? How about condemning whistle blowers like Edward Snowdon and Julian Assange as criminals? Ironically, Snowdon is safer in Russia than he is in America.
Putin is a democratically elected President. Can you say the same about your President, hand on heart?
Putin’s popularity is running at around 80% – 85%. Remind me what Biden’s polling is just now?
And Russia occupies 20% of Ukraine so he’s hardly being stopped.
Once again, you need to provide credible evidence for this, not just a hunch.
Because stepping beyond Ukraine is to step into NATO territory and that’s a different matter entirely.
I would be my mortgage Trump would stop the war in Ukraine in a heartbeat, principally because he said he would put an end to it in 24 hours.
And I’ll ask again. What threat to US national security is Russia?
“Why is that a bad idea? Your country is spending the best part of a trillion dollars a year ‘policing’ the world, for what?”
The purpose is to nip serious problems in the bud, before they become serious problems.
If not for the United States, the whole world would be overrun with communists now.
I remember when communism was on a roll, Country after country falling to communists. It looked like the whole world was going down the communist path.
Your suggestion is the United States should stand aside and allow all that mayhem to coninue. Bad idea.
The Russian communists used to say they were going to conquer every nation on Earth and by the time they were done, the United States would fall into their hands like an overripe fruit. I remember Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table at the UN, threatening the United States, and sayng Russia was going to bury the United States.
The United States will not go quietly into the night. Unless Joe Biden remains in charge.
The world needs a policeman. For good or bad, that looks like the job of the United States.
Would you prefer the policeman be Russia or China? I certainly would not. Murderous dictatorships are not compatible with Law and Order, as should be obvious.
It’s not done very well nipping Ukraine or Gaza in the bud, has it? Nor almost any other conflict. Spending 20 years in Afghanistan is hardly nipping something in the bud. Vietnam was also disaster. And as a point of fact, it didn’t take America to displace communism in the USSR, nor did America change China from a communist state to a hybrid communist/capitalist state.
So where, precisely, has the American presence positively influenced change?
This is simply Cold War mentality, which ended 33 years ago for the rest of the word.
Communism began in Russia in 1917, in China in 1921, Cuba 1924, N. Korea in 1925, Vietnam in the 1930’s. Hardly the whole world it’s not like any of these country’s other than perhaps the Soviet Union presented any credible threat to the west. Most of them were men in sandals, which seems a common theme amongst America’s ‘enemies’.
What business is it of America’s what another country’s politics are?
Again, why is it a bad idea? Once again you fail to explain why.
Perhaps he was responding to America being a bigger threat to the USSR than the USSR was to America. No doubt you watched/read that on American media without getting the Russian perspective on it.
So America self appoints itself as a global policeman. No democratic mandate for it, America just chooses itself, despite the UN being formed largely for that purpose, in agreement with all member nations.
Roosevelt once announced America, Russia, China and the UK as the worlds policemen following WW2 when the four nations were allies. I guess communism was convenient at the time.
Neither it seems is democracy in America; Snowden, Assange, Jan 6th prisoners amongst others including prisoners held at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Now America is complicit in what is legally defined as the genocide of 22,000+ civilians in Gaza, most of them women and children according to the UN, by providing Israel with the means to accomplish it.
“What possible sense would it make to overrun Europe and attempt to govern populations hostile to it?”
It made sense to Hitler. Putin is a modern-day Hitler.
Murderous dictators such as these have different priorities, and logic doesn’t always fit in with their actions. I think it has something to do with megalomania.
Defintion of Megalomania: “obsession with the exercise of power, especially in the domination of others”
That describes Putin perfectly.
Has Russia invaded a country that does not border it? No, but Hitler did.
Has Putin introduced an Aryan, or any other ethnic philosophy in the country? No, the country is multi-ethnic. Is he persecuting ethnic members of Russia? Not to my knowledge.
He has fought numerous battles within Russia against Islamist groups principally in the SE corner of the country. There’s many people in the UK wish we could do that here.
Is there any evidence Russia wants to encroach into Ukraine any further than it has. Not to my knowledge.
Has Russia ever armed Mexico (much the same thing as America arming Ukraine) not that I’m aware of.
Has Russia ever directly threatened America, even in veiled terms? Not really, unlike Biden’s rantings.
In fact, Russia abandoned communism and adopted capitalism and democracy (you might not like it’s flavour of democracy but 140 million Russians seem happy with it) yet having done precisely what the west wanted, the country is still demonised.
Have western countries even attempted to reform our demonstrably failing democratic systems for hundreds of years? Nope.
Which country has 900 military based around the world. America.
How many military bases does Russia have around the world? Approximately one, in Syria, by invitation. Unlike America which has several illegal military bases in the country.
So tell me, what has Russia ever done to America that affects your life in any way? Spy on Hilary Clinton for Trump?
Russia certainly hasn’t affected my life in the UK in any negative sense, and we’re only a short flight from the country.
Correction – South west of the country.
“Has Russia invaded a country that does not border it? No, but Hitler did.”
I think it is just a matter of time, if Putin doesn’t receive sufficient pushback to deter him.
How much time does Russia need? It’s been 33 years since it became a democratic nation. In that time America (and it’s allies) have prosecuted wars in Iraq (twice), Syria, Afghanistan and numerous others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
More Cold War obsession.
That is the question.
Why would a murderous dictator stop his aggression if he is successful in his aggression in Ukraine?
The Dictatorial/International Bully mindset says continue along your path of destruction.
Murderous dictators push their envelopes. They push until they get pushback that scares them sufficiently and makes them fear for their personal safety. If they don’t get pushback, they continue on with expanding their envelope.
Putin is a murderous dictator.
Putin LOVES Isolationist Republicans! They are his Useful Idiots.
You are free to travel to Russia, and Russians are free to travel abroad. It’s not a very good dictatorship, is it?
What murders has Putin been implicated in, and how many murders have the CIA been involved in?
Meanwhile, America has an illegal immigrant crisis with millions flooding over it’s souther border.
Russia, on the other hand, has secure borders.
You really need to move away from your Cold War, Red’s under the Bed mentality.
“Meanwhile, America has an illegal immigrant crisis with millions flooding over it’s souther border.
Russia, on the other hand, has secure borders.”
That is probably because you stand a good chance of getting shot, if you try to cross Russia’s border illegally. In the United States, Biden just waves the illegals through, into the country, and gives them taxpayer money.
“You really need to move away from your Cold War, Red’s under the Bed mentality.”
Well, there *are* communists still under the bed and they are more potent and aggresive, and dangerous than ever. Why should I or the United States stop paying attention now?
Russia detains and deports illegal immigrants. Where is your evidence they are shot?
I suppose that’s Russia’s fault as well. I mean, Trump had the Russians spying on Hilary, didn’t he?……(Yes, that is sarcasm).
Where are these Red’s under the Bed? Produce some credible evidence that the few remaining communist nations in the world are a threat to anyone?
Your paranoia is completely irrational and without foundation.
What makes you think that the liberation of the eastern Oblasts consisting of Russian people includes ‘taking’ Ukraine? With the winter fighting season going well – including the first battalion of former Ukraine Army soldiers joining the frontline – and another good summer fighting season to come, I believe the operation will be complete come the end of summer.
Touch a nerve did we? For someone who “carries no water for Russia” your several responses to points no one made seems a bit emotional.
If Russia is as advanced as you suggest, why have they made such little progress in the last year or so?
Kindly point to a single thing I have stated which is not factual.
As for progress, Russia only ever expressed a desire to occupy the ethnically Russian regions of Ukraine which were being persecuted by the Kiev government.
It has largely done that. Why do you imagine Russia wants to make any further progress and where is your evidence?
“Russia only ever expressed a desire to occupy the ethnically Russian regions of Ukraine which were being persecuted by the Kiev government”.
Those areas were filled with ethnic Russians after being emptied by the Holodomor.
The Ukrainians were defending their boarder against Russian Soldiers acting as separatists.
Look it up.
“kindly provide an example where Russia (not the USSR) has extended it’s military beyond immediately neighbouring countries, the few of which have been persuaded by the west to get involved with NATO”
Why does Russia have any “right” to stop a neighboring non-aggressive country from self determination?
You are either clueless or just being obtuse.
I did look it up. By using facial recognition software on every photo and piece of film, investigators have been trying to identify all Russian soldiers that entered the Donbass region to help defend it. Apart from 1 intelligence officer that made an announced visit (much like the CIA chief did in Ukraine) they found exactly 2 Russian soldiers on active service who had crossed the border one weekend then went back to their unit. All of the others were either retired, or ex-conscripts (much like most of the male population) from Russia, Georgians, Germans (to fight fascism, they said) and a range of countries from eastern europe and beyond. What they most definitely weren’t were active Russian Military.
The Holodomor wasn’t restricted to Ukraine, it affected Russia as well.
I did, long ago. Following the western provoked Maidan coup in 2014 and under cover of the Minsk agreements, the west trained and provisioned the Ukrainian army which embarked on a siege of the ethnically Russian eastern Ukraine. The area Russia now occupies.
Some 14,000 people in eastern Ukraine were killed in that conflict.
A non aggressive country that bombarded eastern Ukraine for 8 years and killed 14,000 people, mostly civilians? Is that the non-aggressive country you mean?
It’s also the same country that wanted to join NATO and place nuclear capable missiles some 5 minutes flight time from Moscow. America nearly cause a nuclear war when the USSR attempted to do the same in Cuba.
It was Russia that delivered self determination to eastern Ukraine with an internationally monitored referendum in which the regions of eastern Ukraine overwhelmingly voted to become part of Russia again.
Western Ukraine simply bombed it, banned the Russian language across the country and forced the closure of Russian orthodox churches.
Perhaps you should do some research before calling other clueless.
“forced the closure of Russian orthodox churches.”
In October of 2023. Same talking point, same misinformation.
“It was Russia that delivered self determination to eastern Ukraine with an internationally monitored referendum”
No, not internationally monitored.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Donbas_status_referendums
I call BS, just like the 2023 referenda in the most recently occupied territories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Donetsk_(2014)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas
If you only research Russian propaganda sites, you will only get Russian propaganda.
It’s not “claimed”. They did take place as the article confirms.
Clearly internationally monitored, as the Wikipedia entry you cited states. Well, I guess having independent observers at least provides independent oversight, which is more than can be said for the 2020 US elections.
“….and the results of the separatist referendums were not officially recognised by any government, including those of Ukraine, the United States, and the countries of the European Union.” (My emphasis)
Wrong again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_the_Donetsk_People%27s_Republic_and_the_Luhansk_People%27s_Republic
Naturally enough, the principle entities which provoked the 2014 Maidan coup, USA, UK and the European union, don’t recognise the referendum results because it doesn’t comport with their desire to break Russia up and plunder it for themselves.
Here is the real reason Putin invaded Ukraine:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4064431-wagner-chief-says-russias-war-in-ukraine-intended-to-benefit-elites-accuses-moscow-of-lying/
It’s all about Greed, and knowing that Democrats like Joe Biden are “fair-weather” friends, who will abandon Ukraine at the drop of a hat.
Putin remembers the impotent response of Obama-Biden to his invasion of Crimea, and Putin assumes the same will happen if he invades Ukraine again. Fearful Democrat foreign policy invites such aggression and recklessness.
Your article in the Hill is about Yevgeny Prigozhin of the Wagner Group. He was the one who launched a spectacularly unsuccessful rebellion against Putin.
I guess that kind of disqualifies him as a reliable source of information on anything much about Russia.
He was dead by August when the plane he was in crashed, allegedly whilst him and his drunken mercenaries were tossing grenades around for a bit of fun.
“I guess that kind of disqualifies him as a reliable source of information on anything much about Russia.”
I can see why you would want that to be the case, since he exposes Putin’s game for what it is. He knew as much about Putin’s motivations as anyone involved, but you want to dismiss him because it doesn’t fit your narrative that Putin is a good guy being put upon by the mean, evil West.
Putin had his good buddy killed for speaking the truth. Along with a lot of innocent people on board the aircraft he caused to crash.
My guess is you’ll dispute that Putin had him killed. It was just an accident. Right?
You don’t believe anything any other Russian says, but when it suits your narrative you suddenly believe an enemy of Ukraine and the Russian nation.
Discernment isn’t your strongest quality.
Deflection seems to be one of yours.
Where have I deflected?
And your evidence is?
Didn’t think so……
“It has been independently verified by international observers in Russia that army recruitment centres can’t keep up with the applications from Russian volunteers to join up to fight in Ukraine.”
Do you have a link to this? That claim is just the opposite of what I’ve been hearing.
Maybe you could provide a link to what you have been hearing. It would be polite and it would make your case all the more compelling.
He asked you first.
Provide the Russian disinformation site where you get all your information from.
“He asked you first.”
Yeah!
And notice he didn’t answer the question. That’s why he replied the way he did. Dodging the question with another question.
Need a back up now?
So far you have produced no evidence for anything, other than paranoid Cold War rhetoric that went out of date 33 years ago.
Well, those articles were a few days ago. I’ll see if I can find them.
I noticed you didn’t provide a link to your claim that Russian recruitment centers can’t keep up with the applications because there are too many.
I’m pretty sure you would have supplied a link if you had one, so I’m guessing you don’t have one.
My sources are commentary available on YouTube from Col. Douglas McGregor, Professor Jeffry Sachs, Phil Geraldi Phd., Alastair Crooke CMG – formerly MI6, Ray McGovern MA Hons. (Russian Language; Literature and History; CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President’s Daily Brief).
The best place I can find to listen to these informed observers, and many others, have to say on Ukraine, Russia, Israel/Gaza, and other current affairs, is on Judge Napolitano’s YouTube channel.
Knock yourself out. You only have almost two years of three or four half hour interviews per day to catch up on.
“My sources are commentary available on YouTube from Col. Douglas McGregor”
Well, that explains it. You are taking advice from Tucker Carlson’s favorite Isolationist, anti-war, American general.
American colonel.
And the rest of them? Care to undermine their credentials whilst you can produce none of your own?
McGregor is a Colonel, not a General.
Any luck?
Thought not.
I went to the trouble of looking up some references. Something you could have easily done, too.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/1/is-russia-recruiting-muslim-migrants-to-fight-its-war-in-ukraine
https://bnnbreaking.com/world/russia/putins-decree-illegal-chinese-immigrants-to-fight-for-russia-in-ukraine-sparks-global-concern/
And there is this:
https://www.voanews.com/a/7290823.html
“Russia Drafts 130,000 Conscripts, Increases Age Limit to 30”
Best way for the West to avoid war is to be very, very powerful.
Very good point – negotiate from a position of strength rather than weakness. A stark contrast between what Trump was trying to do and what the Biden regime has been doing (and failing).
You mean like in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine and now Israel? (amongst others).
Gosh, America really whupped their asses from it’s position of strength, then ran away.
Ahem, you’ll notice I said negotiate from a position of strength, not send the troops in when you eff up the diplomatic approach.
Joe Biden’s perspective of negotiating is providing munitions to other countries to fight a proxy war on his behalf.
The Russians and Chinese will no longer talk to the clown.
How can he conduct diplomacy?
Joe Biden is a very reluctant warrior.
He slowwalks every decision. He has to make these decisions to supply Ukraine, because the politics demand it, but he slowwalks every time it comes to enhancing Ukraine’s military capabilities.
Joe Biden is a foot-dragging, appeaser of dictators. Look at how he is appeasing the Mad Mullahs of Iran. The Mad Mullahs have been taking pot shots at American troops in the area over 120 times since October 7, and Joe Biden won’t even say Iran, much less retaliate.
Many of the American bases across the middle east are illegal. Why shouldn’t they take pot shots at colonialists?
I daresay you would be the first one to pick up a rifle if another country illegally occupied America with a military base.
And without wanting to be rude, I addressed my point to Joseph. Yours seemed reasonable because you pointed out the obvious (in parenthesis).
“America really whupped their asses from it’s position of strength, then ran away.”
Democrats are the ones who run away. They run away even if the U.S. wins the war, like in South Vietnam.
And this idiot, Joe Biden, was influential in promoting this abandonment of South Vietnam. Yes, Joe Biden is that old. He was a young member of Congress at the time and very anti-war and very vocal about it.
So it should be no surprise that Joe Biden ran away again in Afghanistan, when he didn’t have to. That’s his method of operation.
And it should be no surprise that murderous dictators like Putin should note Biden’s tendency to run away from international conflicts and decide to take advantage of it.
And, even now, Biden is trying to hamstring Israel’s effort to wipe out the Hamas terrorists. Whose side are you on, Joe?
And it’s “hands off” the Mad Mullahs of Iran, for Joe Biden. The Mad Mullahs must be thinking “what do we have to do to get a response out of Joe Biden?”. I know all U.S. military personnel are asking themselves this same question. Is it going to take the deaths of American troops to make Biden move? Will he move then?
I hear the Mad Mullahs are estimated to have enough nuclear material to make themselves a nuclear weapon in about 30 days.
We’ll know if that timeline is true shortly. If true, expect Israel to start bombing the nuclear weapons production facilities of the Mad Mullahs very soon.
Biden has not only not kept the Mad Mullahs from developing nuclear weapons, he is actually financing their efforts with billions of extra dollars they wouldn’t have if not for Joe Biden’s stupidity. Biden is also financing the war against Israel by the Mad Mullahs and their proxy terrorist groups.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world. Yes, it is. We are getting close to some serious mayhem.
It’s America’s much lauded democracy which votes Democrats in (or perhaps not). No point in blaming the Democrats for winning (?) an election.
Yes, I think 2020 was rigged but if it was, theres something seriously wrong with the American Democratic system.
I think I asked you earlier to provide evidence of Putins murderous dictatorship, which has a democratic system at least no worse than America’s, which elected the murderous dictator Joe Biden to the position of POTUS.
Joe Biden is shipping across volumes of ordnance to Israel to facilitate the killing of 22,000+ innocent civilians in Gaza, most of them women and children. He is complicit in genocide as Israeli officials have expressed their desire to wipe out every Palestinian in Gaza to get to several thousand terrorists who are safe, deep in their tunnels.
See what I mean about a murderous dictator?
How many years have I been listening to this tosh……..
Why not bomb them now?
And if Israel has nuclear weapons would you describe them as Mad Israelis. After all, they’re no more supposed to have nuclear weapons than your ‘Mad Mullahs’.
More fanciful paranoia.
I see, so you’re totally unaware that ISIS was funded, like the Mujahideen and and al-Qaeda, by the CIA under various US Presidents.
“You mean like in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine and now Israel? (amongst others).”
South Korea is doing quite well now. I bet the South Koreans are glad the United States intervened to stop the communists from taking them over.
South Vietnam would have been just like South Korea, a thriving, Democracy. The war was won. The North Vietnamese withdrew their troops back to North Vietnam after the Paris Peace Accords were signed. And it would have remaind this way except for the fact that Appeaser Anti-war, Anti-South Vietnam Democrats like Joe Biden were in charge, and they turned around and withdrew ALL American combat troops and most of their money, from South Vietnam, which led to the fall of South Vietnam.
Iraq was in good shape after G.W. Bush got through with the terrorists there. We saw Iraqi people, with big smiles on their faces, holding up their ink-stained fingers to show they had just voted in Iraqi free elections, after Saddam Insane was deposed.
Then Obama and Biden took over and that’s when things went to hell in Iraq. Obama and Biden were partial to supporting Iran over Iraq and allowed Iran to do things in Iraq that undermined the Iraqi government putting Iraq back into turmoil.
Then the Islamic Terror Army came into being and rampaged all over the Middle East, including Iraq, and Obama and Biden sat back and allowed them to kill or displace millions of innocent people without lifting a finger to stop it.
Then Trump came into office and wiped the Islamic Terror Army off the map in a matter of months. Have you heard anything out of the Islamic Terror Army lately? I haven’t either.
Afhanistan is another Democrat Debacle cause by an appeaser named Joe Biden. Biden cut and ran from South Vietnam, and from Iraq, so it is no surprise that he did the same thing in Afghanistan. He didn’t have to do it. Trump had the situation well under control. Everything was going good until Biden took charge. Then things went to hell in a handbasket because Biden insisted that happen. He insisted the U.S. withdraw immediately, and damn the consequences. So Biden again caused the death or displacement of millions of innocent people in Afghanistan.
Biden is a walking disaster for innocent people.
Not sure why you include Syria in this list. Other than blowing up a few Syrian jets in their hangers, the U.S. hasn’t done much in Syria except protect the Kurds.
The outcome of the wars in Ukraine and Israel are still ongoing, so failure cannot be assigned to the United States in these cases, although Biden is doing everything possible to turn these wars into debacles, too.
If you are paying attention, it is the lily-livered, appeaser Democrats who cause all the problems. The reason there are problems is because the appeaser Democrats are afraid of international bullies and seek to appease them rather than confront them. When you do this, you only make things worse. You cannot appease dictators. If you give them something, they only want more.
If only appeaser Democrats were as fierce against the foreign opponents of the U.S. as they are against their domestic opponents, then the U.S. would be in good shape internationally.
Democrats are not fit to lead the United States. They always make thing worse, not better.
It was the UN that intervened. US forces and allies acted as a peacekeeping force of the UN.
The end result was hardly what one could describe as victory. The N. Koreans were expelled from S. Korea and the status quo maintained.
America’s much lauded democracy voted for those Democrats, but I repeat myself……..
Shouldn’t that read something like ‘we saw Iraqi people, with big smiles on their faces, on our western media, holding up their ink-stained fingers……
And you believed all that?
Having said that, G.W. only liberated Kuwait. The attack on Iraq didn’t happen until his son George W. attacked the country under the pretext of their being WMD’s there. He and Tony Blair cooked up this implausible tale despite UN assurance there were no WMD’s in Iraq, but the invasion was launched in defiance of UN resolutions.
That’s when the videos of Saddam’s statue being toppled and Iraqi’s waggling ink stained fingers were produced for western MSM consumption.
Tony Blair and George W. deserve to swing for that invasion.
OMG, not this again. I’ll skip repeating myself thanks.
We are in complete agreement on that one.
“Shortly after the start of the civil war in 2011, the Obama administration placed sanctions against Syria and supported the Free Syrian Army rebel faction by covertly authorizing Timber Sycamore under which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) armed and trained rebels.” (Wikipedia, my emphasis)
Don’t you guys ever learn? Arm these rebel groups and they always turn against you.
Quite apart from anything else, America is in the country illegally, at the invitation of rebels.
Nevertheless, “the Trump administration indicated its intention to maintain an open-ended military presence in Syria to accomplish U.S. political objectives, including countering Iranian influence and ousting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.” (Wikipedia, my emphasis).
Ousting any country’s leader, for any reason whatsoever, is a violation of international law. As repulsive as I find Syria’s dictatorial leadership, it isn’t the job of America to sort out their internal politics.
The opinion of almost every independent, expert observer, the conflict in Ukraine was over by fall 2022. At that point some 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers were dead compared to around 50,000 Russian soldiers.
Ukrainians have since then been impaling themselves on the three lines of Russian defence build along the borders of the territory already taken by Russia. Indeed, in most positions they haven’t progressed beyond no-man’s land (the so called grey zone). Their much celebrated counter offensive failed miserably. Meanwhile 20 million Ukrainians in the west have been displaced, fleeing across Europe.
Israel is simply fomenting resentment across the Arab nations and alienating most of the world with its brutality. America is haemorrhaging international support with its unequivocal support.
And yes, I blame Biden entirely for this although I’m not convinced appeasement includes supplying Israel with enough ordnance to turn Gaza to rubble. I also blame the Republicans as well though. They didn’t stop Biden handing $100Bn+ to Zelensky and it’s taken considerable effort from a select few Republicans to so far delay the payment of $60Bn more.
Meanwhile, the Republican Lyndsay Graham is stomping around the world, a non-appeaser apparently, demanding more violence in Ukraine and Gaza.
Not exactly. There is little point in abolishing one malfunctioning entity by importing all its bureaucrats into a new entity fated to just become worse.
I said it should go the way of the League of Nations. I didn’t say it should be replaced.
I hope Senator Mike Lee is successful. Defunding the UN would be a huge step in the right direction. Unelected would-be dictators that infest the UN might pull their head in. They would certainly have to reduce numbers and salaries if the Un pulls the pin. Maybe relocate to Beijing.
Actually the UN might consider moving its headquarters to Tuvula so they can check out the sea level rise there first hand.
The UN needs to move to Antarctica to keep an eye on all those glaciers.
91 newly discovered volcanoes under the west Antarctic ice sheet they can wring their hands over.
“the Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act,”
I love it!
UN bureaucrats would not know the meaning of “integrity” if it slapped the aside the head.
UN bureaucrats would not know the meaning of “integrity” if it slapped the aside them head.
UN bureaucrats would not know the meaning of “integrity” if it slapped them aside the head.
There is a real problem in the background, though and I have no idea how to address it.
The UN is not a competent body because it has its own agenda.
The material now available on social media is awash with dangerous propaganda often emanating from people or AI systems working for malign state actors and designed to influence voter attitudes and perceptions.
It is a growing problem.
Any solution is bound to involve top down censorship and in the absence of such controls voter decisions are likely to become capricious and lead to unintended consequences.
Very hard to envisage any democratically acceptable solution.
Yes, it is hard to make good voting decisions for some people when the Legacy Leftwing Media lies to them all the time. Some people are easily influenced by propaganda and disinformation. Too many people.
Two-thirds of Republicans under the age of 30 support the so-called “Climate Change” agenda, and 61 percent of Americans support it.
The brainwashing has been extensive. Before the internet and instant communication that couldn’t have been done.
But it was done.
I recall being called to the home of a Greenpeace activist back in the 70’s when I was a cop in Scotland. He was dressed as you might imagine, his house was decorated as you might imagine, and it smelled like you might imagine.
It was for some trivial matter I can’t recall, but he decided it was an opportune moment to convert two uniforms to the cause of a changing climate.
I knew the climate had changed abruptly in Scotland at the time. Winters were not as cold as they were in my childhood, and it happened over fewer than five years.
Needless to say my colleague and I walked out the house without the mandatory sandals (and socks), and beads in our hair, but out tunics did stink of Patchouli oil.
They were loony toons then and they are loony toons now. Just very cunning loony toon’s.
“… trust and safety teams”
We don’t want a new Stasi thanks, it’s bad enough as it is.
Apart from being generally useless and a friend to vile dictatorships and terrorists the world over, the UN really is morphing into a truly obscene institution
Been heading that way for all this Century and before that.
Check out Maurice Strong’s activities setting up Rio, Kyoto etc.
Then was put in charge of ‘oil for food’ UN scam, but unfortunately spotted with his hands deep in the till. Decamped to (you guessed) China, where CCP goons guarded his door. Then “died”, allegedly.
A pair of pumps and a towel left on a river bank?
Just one UN functionary from thousands.
Honest question. What good has the UN done in the last 40 years?
Now the UN’s IPPC wants to cause immense harm, hopefully inadvertently, by restricting hydrocarbon energy with policies that will cause its price to rise greatly.
Story tip
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67488931
Synchronized planetary orbits. Often routinely dismissed as impossible due to gravitational force being too weak.
Astronomy stories are well received on wuwt. This might make any interesting story with application to our own solar system and orbital stability and long term climate effects.
Earth may be more unique than just being in a Goldilocks zone. The moon-forming impact that occurred during Earth’s early formation after water condensed to form oceans is believed to have caused expulsion of lighter gasses to make Earth a uniquely high surface water planet. The amount of surface water to lighter atmospheric gasses is disproportion to that ratio in the accreting asteroids.
It also is believed that the impact imparted higher spin and that assists in surface heat distribution.
So a more ordered solar system may not have the ingredients needed for lifeforms similar to what has developed on Earth. The lifeforms on Earth have shaped the present environment although atmospheric CO2 is just above the critical threshold for abundant plant life.
I’ve read that without the moon- the Earth’s wobble would be far greater, which would have added difficulties to the evolution of life. As for water, vast amounts on some moons of Jupiter and Saturn- supposedly way more than on Earth, under a very thick frozen surface. Who would have thought that decades ago?
If life can develop in an underground ocean of a Moon, then that would mean that life is abundant in the universe.
I’m not sure the occupants of an underground ocean would ever discover the universe outside. I do imagine that higher lifeforms could develop. The squid here on Earth is very intelligent.
So, we can probably determine whether life is abundant in the universe by visiting some of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons and finding living creatures.
from that link
“The system, 100 light years away, has six planets, all about the same size. They’ve barely changed since its formation up to 12 billion years ago.
I’m no astronomer, though it’s of great interest to me and I read a lot on the subject. I really doubt they can claim that the planets have barely changed in 12 B years.
A really great YouTube site on astronomy is: https://www.youtube.com/@frasercain/videos
I used to subscribe to Astronomy Magazine- which is very good, but I can find more online and better, more current information.
“I really doubt they can claim that the planets have barely changed in 12 B years.”
I’m skeptical of that claim, too.
I still subscribe to the printed version of Astronomy magazine. I think I have been a subscriber since the time the magazine first went on sale back in the 1970’s.
As Joseph Zorzin notes there is really no way to know when the orbital resonance was established or that the configuration has not changed in 12 billion years based solely on observation of the current configuration.
NASA has an article providing more info on how the orbital dynamics were determined here:
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/tess/discovery-alert-watch-the-synchronized-dance-of-a-6-planet-system/
The article states that the “The planets likely [added italics] have been performing this same rhythmic dance since the system formed billions of years ago” but goes on to say that “More precise measurements of these planets’ masses and orbits will be needed to further sharpen the picture of how the system formed”.
WUWT readers may also be interested by the “Fun Facts” detective story narrative. These claims are not based on direct observation. Like all exoplanet research estimates of the system’s configuration are based on fitting models to observational data. In contrast to much climate science, the research team made predictions, that were subsequently confirmed by observation, albeit after processing the raw data to remove scattered light.
I will be interested to see whether additional observations confirm and refine these estimates.
“In contrast to much climate science, the research team made predictions, that were subsequently confirmed by observation”
No predictions from climate alarmists have subsequently been confirmed by observations. That’s the difference between Astronomy and Climate Alarmisim. One, Astronomy, confirms it results by observation, the other, Climate Alarmism, makes all sorts of unsubstantiated assertions, none of which are ever confirmed by observations.
One is science, the other is not.
Reproduced from a post by ‘transmissionofflame’ on The Daily Sceptic
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/01/05/chris-skidmore-quits-as-mp-over-sunaks-relaxation-of-net-zero/
“I’m reminded of this
One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world ….
One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverized with rocks. “What’s this?” she asked.
“Pulverized willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.
“What happened to the carpet?” she asked.
“The carpet was nylon, which is made from butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.
Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.
“Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”
“Where’s the water?” asked Greta.
“Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”
“Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.
“Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?” There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tires and how ore has to be smelted to a make metal, and that’s tough to do with only electricity as a source of heat, and even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tires and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .
“What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.
“Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. “Raw.”
“How so, raw?” inquired Greta.
“Well, . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.
“But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.
“Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”
“What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”
“Not anymore,” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing – being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”
This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.
Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesized.”
All for the “greater good”
HotScot,
Top marks.
Someone has put a lot of thought into making this understandable by youngsters. And politicians. And others lacking intellectual comprehension.
All positive measures should be welcomed. There is much out-of-school educating to be done. Geoff S
Pulverized willow bark!… bloody luxury.
Eases the pain from sleeping and walking on it . 😉
When I was a lad, we could only wish we had willow bark!!
Excellent!
And without ff, I wouldn’t have these brand new hearing aids- just got them yesterday- I can now hear about 3 times more. Full of advanced tech which would not be possible without ff.
This is a beautiful demonstration of the stupidity of the masses.
Here we have the unelected people from the United Nations flagging in clear terms their intent to censor words and phrases that they do not like. Nobody with any sense would ask them to be Censor. Did they invent the function? Did they invent the latest methods? What did they do to get social media bosses to join in the propaganda, some more than others?
The stupidity part is, we are giving the UN the money essential for its survival. The mental image is about paying the hangman to do a better job on you.
The UN was invented mainly to stop or lower the harm from armed warfare.
Talk about mission creep!
What will President Trump be able to do in term 2? Will he be able to withdraw USA from the UN? If he can and does, he deserves the highest praise. Geoff S
“What did they [UN] do to get social media bosses to join in the propaganda, some more than others?”
I think they have a lot of help from radical leftwing billionaires. They are the ones with the money, and the ones spreading their influence around as a result.
Big Money is involved in all this stuff. People with lots of money and influence are trying to create a radical leftwing world that suits themselves, and are not concerned about the rest of us. We shouldn’t let people like this make decisions for us. They are all about taking our freedoms away from us.
Two-thirds of Republicans under the age of 30 years agree with the so-called “Climate Change” agenda, according to polls.
The rich are planning to make trillions off of the $US200 trillion in spending Bloomberg estimates it will cost to stop warming by 2050.
At least the rich might spend it a bit more intelligently than government. Just trying to look at the bright side
The radical left wing billionaires, Democrat supporting OLIGARCHS, owned the US social media sites, Twitter, Facepalm, utube and the search algorithms of Google.
Not help, they ARE the propaganda sources and spreaders.
Abolish the UN.
How about investigating the U.N?
How? I think the only organisation authorised to investigate the UN is the UN and all of its officials have diplomatic immunity. It was set up that way with the best of intentions but has become corrupted and twisted beyond what was initially envisaged. Defund it and let it wither.
The UN itself is undermining the Democratic process.
Stop interfering with our elections, stop trying to influence voters by pushing your agenda, and stop pushing your agenda.
No one elected you.
UN Election Interference!
The UN, like all radical leftists, want to meddle in every aspect of life. They are control freaks and their aim is to control all the rest of us.
The UN leadership is no different than the Chicom dictatorship, or the Russian dictatorship, or the North Korean dictatorship, or the Iranian dictatorship, or the Biden dictatorship. They all seek total control over their environment, which means total control over everyone under their control.
That’s their Game. We should refuse to play their Game.
From the article: “around our blueprint for a better world”
We don’t like your blueprint? Your blueprint seeks to take our personal freedoms away from us. Your “vision” is not our vision. Go away.
That should have been an exclamation point after “blueprint” instead of a question mark.
I would have corrected the original, but there’s no edit function, so we have to do it the hard way, like this.
And anyone in the UN even mentioning the word “integrity”
Seriously !!!
Not one of them would have the vaguest clue what “integrity” is. !
Most people don’t. The vast majority lineup behind political cartels who effectively bid for their vote, which they happily sell and get representation which cannot even represent its own conscience. How then, can it represent anybody?
I read that Crazy Joe Biden wants to give the UN $11 billion per year in climate reparations…2024 is the year the USA gets rid of the Biden curse.
According to recent polls, 61 percent of the American people agree with the so-called “Climate Change” agenda. Biden is a politician and politicians go where the votes are.
That’s right.Politicians do go where the votes are but to make it easy they first corral them into one corner with whatever narrative it takes. Climate change being the current favoured shepherds tool. Politicians are the heart of the problem.
“We are worried how this free online atmosphere is undermining Democratic processes…”
online atmosphere?
“We are worried how this free
online atmospherespeech is underminingDemocraticauthoritarian processes”fixed it 🙂
“online atmosphere” = Freedom of expression.
“… conspiracies circulating around the STGs developed to generate controversy around our blueprint for a better world”
How dare anyone challenge our plan for a perfect world! /sarc
“pre-bunking”? Wow, they are desperate.
They know they’re lying through their teeth, expect to be caught out so are getting their excuses lined up beforehand.
“The code will be presented at the summit of the future in September 2024 and will set a global gold standard to make the digital sphere more
Humaneunder our control and it will call for a firm Global commitment to woke propagandainformation Integrity.”Fixed it. 🙂
I’ll take foreign election interference for $500. If they’re going to start ruining national governments, they stop being a body representative of member nations, but representative only of itself. Oh wait, That’s the plan. You know it. They know it.
The so-called “Climate Change” crisis is the biggest disinformation campaign ever known.
The Earth is still in a 2.56 million-year ice age, in a cold interglacial period that alternates with very cold glacial periods.
Over 20% of the land is frozen either as permafrost or underneath glaciers.
A couple of degrees rise in temperature from the Little Ice Age is still cold, with about 4.6 million people dying each year from the cold. The deaths are mainly from increased strokes and heart attacks, in the cold or cool weather, compared to about 500,000 people each year dying from heat.
The UN should be working harder to stop the wars going on in different places around the globe rather than sending the world into a giant “Climate Change” spending economic depression or worse.
$US200 trillion is the cost estimated by Bloomberg to stop warming by 2050. The amount of cash, checking accounts, and savings accounts in the world today is only $40 trillion.
“…our [UN’s] blueprint for a better world. ”
And they’re concerned about democracy?
Excuse me, but I don’t ever recall having a vote to give the unelected UN self-appointed elites the authority to produce and implement a blueprint to make MY world better, or consulting me on what I consider to be ‘better’.
Ms. Fleming holds a Master of Science in Journalism from the College of Communication, Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies from Oberlin College.
That’s really all you need to know. Oberlin, a pin-up for higher education malfeasance and corruption. A training in propaganda techniques to be the mouthpiece for a nascent international tyranny. When her time at the UN is over she’ll spend her days in an office with ivy crawling across the windows when she’s not kneading the minds of naive students and writing the history of the UN’s fight against misinformation, probably using uncredited material from others.
By a stroke of good fortune the rot that runs through academia is being revealed at its highest levels. As searches for past plagiarism show more and more violations of their own rules, either academia will clean house or be doomed to deserved irrelevance. There are other options now. Their hugely expensive fraud is a luxury that’s unneeded.
“By a stroke of good fortune the rot that runs through academia is being revealed at its highest levels.”
This is true.
One aspect that is becoming apparent is who is funding the rot in academia.
It turns out Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and to my surprise, Russia, are the biggest donors to American colleges and universities, having pumped literally billions of dollars into these schools since 2001, and, it is claimed that the schools hid many of these transactions.
So when you wonder why there seems to be an abundance of anti-semitism on campus, look at who is paying the money: people who don’t like Jews. And it appears they are getting what they pay for.
And when you wonder where all the radical leftist on campus came from, follow the money.
It’s always: Follow the Money. Who is paying the money? What is the goal of those paying the money?
The UN is a good example of why a bureaucratic body should never be established without a very tough sunset clause. The UN has become a home for leftist ex politicians to continue their evil aims. The abolition of the UN would be of great benefit to humanity.
More good news.
These guys are desperate. They know that forced to go head to head with knowledgeable skeptics they would have their backside handed to them. The most powerful thing left to them is censorship. If you can’t beat them, muzzle them.
I am puzzled that she speaks of democracy and in the same breath says some must be muzzled. My understanding is that a true democracy everyone has a voice.
She may be powerful but not as powerful as she thinks.
Lady Luck has allowed me to reach the mid-80s without any diagnosed mental impairment.
The biggest social change I have seen is an increase in the proportion of people paid to tell others what they can and cannot do.
To enforce this increased regulation, there have been large increases in the types and magnitudes of punishments for those who favour the freedom of thought and action that we had in the 1960s, to choose a date. Today few people know about living in this libertarian era because they were not born.
What can be done to revive the beauty of free enterprise? To remove this type of “angry UN control using punishment” idea?
People might eventually learn by themselves that the better society rests on people helping each other with kindness, rejecting the little Hitler approach.
People now regulating need replacement by people producing goods that benefit others.
Geoff S
The UN has realized it has neither the will or the competence to reduce the regional conflicts that are either ongoing or brewing, so it tries to direct attention to the need for climate action. If it would look a little closer at the consistent failures of 28 straight COP conferences, it would recognize that whatever initiatives it’s suggesting are being ignored. The best thing for it to do is for it to properly assess which of its overall operations and agencies are actually accomplishing anything, retain them, and terminate the others. Except such action would cost too many jobs and result in the loss of too much international funding, so we’re stuck with propping up an increasingly ineffectual organization.
We are not stuck.
We are at the moment. Unless the momentum shifts, the US withdraws from the UN and other countries follow suit for example, there is little we can do to get rid of them.
What a joke! On the integrity meter the UN ranks lower than organized crime. Both are criminal organizations but the UN masquerades as a humanitarian savior while they scheme secretly to establish themselves as rulers of world communism! Yep, they talk peace but push totalitarianism.
The UN is antithetical to integrity.