Putin is trying to take down the entire world order, the veteran Russia watcher said in an interview. But there are ways even ordinary Americans can fight back.
— Read on www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/28/world-war-iii-already-there-00012340
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site.title – Sanctions will not stop Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, ex-Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says, adding that only a war will do that.
— Read on m.delfi.lt/en/article.php -
UKRAINE NOTES: 6:30 PM
POLITICS
- Joe (“stunningly superficial”) Scarborough is joining the other Republicans in calling for a cessation of regulations on the fossil fuel industry so we can establish “energy independence.” Fox News has been pumping this line today.
- Additionally in FOX, the “expert” called Putin a “communist.” I. Just. Can’t.
- Zelensky wanted to know earlier in the day how many Ukrainians had to die before we implement a no-fly zone. How many?
MSNBC
- The question of cutting off the oil and gas from Russia.
- Increase drilling here. That’s the position of the Republicans.
- Bill McKibben interviewed. Making the argument that cutting off the oil and gas is worth it even if gasoline costs more.
- The Defense Act would allow Biden to buy climate friendly supplies that would cut down the need for oil and gas.
CNN
- Kharkiv under constant bombardment.
- “How far will you go to defend your freedom, your dignity?” That’s the best question Erin Burnett can come up with. This is People Magazine interviewing.
- Shelling near nuclear power plant. Civilians try to block access to the town.
- There is a large fire at the power plant, but nobody knows which buildings are on fire.
- “A gradual turning up of the heat.” Clarissa Ward describing what the Russians are doing.
- More than 1 million people have now had to leave Ukraine. People are meeting them at the borders, offering homes and assistance.
- Putin met with his security council, talked again about “denazification” of Ukraine. After a phone call between Putin and the French president, the French said that the worst was yet to come. And, that Putin plans to take over all over Ukraine.
- Seven sanctioned today. Visa restrictions for over forty. (Note: Earlier today there was a tweet claiming that most of those sanctioned were not important as well as an article about the Biden administration exempting Bank Swiss from sanctions.
FOX NEWS
- Fox News is on Kamala Harris tonight. She has, according to a guest of Tucker Carlson, been disrespectful to us. Biden has also been disrespectful for picking her to be Vice President.
- The Russians have just been shelling near a nuclear facility, but Carlson has to spend time talking about something Kamala Harris said.
- This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russians are blocking fire workers getting in there to work. There are six nuclear reactors. They supply ¼ of Ukraine’s power.
- They are going to shut down the country.
- Carlson is complaining about the amount of money Biden is spending on Ukraine as opposed to our border. As I said, the Russians just shelled and started a fire at a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Southeast Ukraine.
- OMG Sebastian Gorka, hawking some pain relief substance. In this ad, he is walking near the Washington Monument. Jesus, these people never stop grifting. Oh, now Mike Lindell. I can’t.
TWITTER:
- 480 Bombs have been dropped on cities in Ukraine.
- Woman living in Florida saw a truck flying an American and a Russian flag.
- Gary Kasparov: We watch live “…Putin commit genocide on an industrial scale…while the most powerful military alliance in history stands aside.”
- Georgia and Moldova have applied to join the EU.
- We are told we cannot see the video showing bodies in Ukraine. People need to see that this is not a video game.
- It’s the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
- The production company behind RT America, says it’s ceasing production.
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THURSDAY 3 MARCH 2022
Ukraine
- Mariupol under siege as Russia tries to establish a land bridge to Crimea. That would leave Ukraine without access to the Black Sea.
- Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, nine dead in attacks.
- Closer to Kyiv, shelling on residential areas.
- The convoy is still stalled. They are having fuel and food problems and stiff Ukrainian resistance.
- Gary Kasparov makes an argument on Twitter about why we should implement a no-fly zone.
CNN
- Ukrainians trying to target convoy approaching Kyiv.
- Kherson (near Odessa) may have fallen.
- 6:00 PM
- Kirby on CNN is saying that we can’t have a no-fly zone for the safety of the Ukrainian people. Really? What bullshit. Why do CNN and MSNBC have on these administration shills to give policy the Biden spin? I can remember when that was called the “spin room.” Now, CNN seems to be the “spin room.”
- Note: The financial ties of these military commentators needs to be made apparent when they are on.
- Independent news media sources have been cut off in Russia.
- The stock market didn’t open again.
MSNBC
Is this a slow-motion choking off of Kyiv?
6:00 PM
THE CORPORATE MEDIA:
- People who make money off weapons and war should not be used as experts telling us what we should think.
- Every network has the responsibility to disclose those ties.
- Today saw a continuation of the “Putin is a madman” narrative. e
- Graphic internet film of people in Ukraine after an attack, showing bodies and blood, should be standard viewing on the corporate news channels. This is what war is. This is what it means. People should see it, have to look at it especially if they are in a position to do something about it. By now showing this reality, the media sanitizes war.
- When there are mass shootings, terrorist attacks, the video footage must be shown.
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The Biden Administration May Protect a Corrupt Bank Linked to Russian Oligarchs
— Read on jacobinmag.com/2022/03/joe-biden-pensions-credit-suisse-crime-russia/ -
I hope this is not confusing. I keep getting push back about the support for the Ukrainians and sanctions from a group that Malcolm Nance calls the “anti-war left.” I have tried to list some of the arguments this group uses for basically taking a hands-off stance about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Similar arguments have been made by Sam Seder (Majority Report), Chris Hedges, Michael Sheer (only much worse), Oliver Stone (Note: If you want to hear the true insanity of this position, listen to the interview Sheer did with Stone) and others.
Part of the Russian disinformation about Ukraine is that it needs “denazification.” People who have adopted this line or something a little less radical, argue that dispensing guns to people will only result in arming fascist groups operating in the country. The Azov group mentioned is a nationalist neo-fascist group, but I don’t think it is part of any Ukrainian civil defense. As for distributing guns, I don’t see what alternative the Ukrainian government had. I am including this information just to make people aware that it is out there.
ANTI-WAR LEFT: The Arguments
Nothing on the MSM is true. Not one word.
No one should even be watching the coverage on MSM.
Establishing a no-fly zone would start WWIII.
NATO is an aggressive alliance that threatens Russia.
The West promised Russia that NATO would never expand beyond a unified Germany.
The U.S. military messes up everything it does and the brunt of the messing up falls on the country they are in.
No wars are justified. They are all imperialist expansion.
If you support any war you are a “war-hawk.”
By implication: The Ukrainian people can and should be sacrificed because of all of the above arguments.
Any arms sent to Ukraine will wind up in the hands of fascist groups.
Notes from: In Defense of Marxism (3/2/22)
NATO’s “expansion to Russia’s borders and stubborn refusal to negotiate” created this problem. In Defense of Marxism.
Sanctions will hurt ordinary people.
Sanctions will act by “further destabilizing the world economy and compounding the crisis of capitalism.”
“No amount of jingoism from Western imperialism…will prevent the death and destruction of war.”
Our main enemy is at home, “…NATO, and our own ruling class.”
“…we stand opposed to the root cause of war and imperialism – capitalism itself. As long as this decrepit system stumbles on, bloodshed and slaughter will always be a sad fact of life.”
TWITTER:
- Twitter: Joe Biden is the exact right person for the job. Me: Please. Twitter: I’d rather have Biden than Trump. Me: And your point is…I would rather have my cat than Trump.
- Zelensky is tweeting that he is waiting for “positive signals” about Ukraine’s membership of the EU.
- A pro-Ukrainian group has projected a video onto a building in London criticizing the UK for not sanctioning Putin’s inner circle.
- Julia Davis, Daily Beast, is tweeting that Russian state TV is showing a panel of people reassuring the Russian people that Russia can withstand the sanctions and there won’t be any animosity between Ukrainians and Russians. As soon as Russia “wins,” they are saying, world leaders will line up to meet Putin. (Note: As somebody said yesterday, if Putin wins, God help us all.)
- Correspondent Francesca Ebel tweets that friends of hers in Russia are leaving the country. Their ATM cards won’t work. Rumors are that the borders will soon be closed.
- A person who identifies as being from Canada is posting videos. One of them is supposedly of a US citizen living in Kyiv, condemning Zelensky and his government for distributing weapons to “criminals.” He is saying that the “AZOV Regiment” a mercenary neo-fascist group is part of the National Guard of Ukraine and is an “officially sanctioned government approved part of the Zelensky “terror regime.” He then goes on to claim that a video shows “criminals” lynching people in the streets. I watched the video and there are men kicking and otherwise abusing men laying on the ground and another man tied to a tree, but there is no lynching in the video. The man asks for people to “please retweet!!!”
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“We will fight to the end.”
Wednesday 2 March 2022
CNN, 10:00 AM
- Extensive damage and casualties from clashes on the outskirts of Kyiv.
- Where does this end? asks Nick Walsh, reporter in Odessa. Port cities under intense pressure. There are Russian ships in the region.
- Kira Rudik, Ukrainian Member of Parliament. Putin is going to strike twice as hard now. We need a no-fly zone. “We need our partners to help us stand up…to help Ukraine survive.” Without the support from the air we won’t be able to win. We need the help now before he bombards the cities. “We will fight till the end.” We will have a huge Russian satellite in the middle of Europe. This is not between Russia and Ukraine, it is between civilization and the alternative. It is between the past and the future. If we loose, Putin gets stronger. Who wants that?
MSNBC:
- Joe Scarborough (who Mika Brzezinski’s father called “shockingly superficial”) is now proposing that the U.S. throw caution to the wind and develop every little bit of oil and gas in this country to end the dependence on Russian oil. There was no discussion of getting off fossil fuels entirely.
- On Morning Joe as well, Scarborough and panel were suggesting that it could be agreed to exclude Ukraine from NATO forever, as a way of establishing peace.
- 874,000 is the current estimate of refugees.
UKRAINE WORLD
- 400 Swedes are reported to have joined the Ukrainian forces.
- 70 Japanese men have applied to be volunteers in Ukraine.
- More than 2,000 civilians have died since the beginning of the invasion.
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BLOG NOTES: UKRAINE UPDATE 4:00 est
CNN
- Why did Russians feel they needed to move into towns near Black Sea? Russian forces are going into towns. Videos display abusive treatment.
- Black Sea is a vital part of Ukrainian economy.
- Talking again about Putin’s “erratic and irrational behavior.” What the intelligence community is looking at. That the intelligence community is looking at Putin’s state of mind is not surprising. That is very different from implying that Putin is “unstable” “mentally ill” “irrational.”
- 3:17 PM “less rational, more erratic” Talking about Putin, the blond host.
- Menendez “bubble: “reality is not one whichhe’s explosed to.” “questions about what his mind set is.” “irratioinal?….open book”
MSNBC
- Katy Tur: Putin has brought up nuclear arms. “Sources tell NBC news” that Putin is “increasingly frustrated” and is “lashing out” at those in his inner circle. She talks about a “cornered and isolated” Putin.
- Arms Control Expert Interview: “trying to encourage NATO and the United States not to intervene.”
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC (4:00 PM)
- Explosions in Kyiv destroy historic building in center and hospital.
- The Mayor of Kharkiv says the city is surrounded.
- In Kyiv, a mille stuck the main TV tower. There is no longer TV in Kyiv, one of Zelensky’s ways of contacting people.
- Massive military 40-mile-convoy headed towards Kyiv.
- The Pentagon says that the Russian forces are stalled and facing shortages of food and fuel, but that they are reorganizing.
- Some Russian troops were not even told that they would be in combat.
- 660,000 refugees according to the UN.
- The attacks have to stop before there is meaningful peace talks, says Zelensky.
- Cal Perry from Lviv, Ukraine: The war has reached everybody now. The estimate of the population has changed since the start of the war. Now it is that Putin is coming for their lives. They want a no-fly zone.
- Ukrainian female journalist confronting Boris Johnson: People are asking for the no-fly zone. What is the alternative? Putin’s children are in Netherlands.
- Jack Crosbie reporting for Rolling Stone, Dnipro, Ukraine: The people are not thinking “like politicians.” The rest of Ukraine will find it more difficult to see now that the TV tower has been taken out. There is a new strategy as Russians realize that their first strategy is not working (fast take over of Kyiv). This means a “vast amount of more death.”
- 4:50 PM
- Keir Simmons, Moscow: Putin is “lashing out.” Russia is clamping down on ability to hear what is happening. Wikipedia page is being threatened because of a page that describes an “invasion.” Also two of the more independent news stations have been blocked. Medvedev chastised a French official.
- Julia Ioffe tweeted about a pharmacy tweeting out a warning in Russia about soldiers’ deaths.
FOX
- Interviewing woman from Ukraine. Personal story. This woman was introduced by saying that she wanted the U.s. to do more.
THE GUARDIAN: LUKE HARDING
- “Russa is planning a major psychological operation to try to persuade Ukrainians to capitulate…”
- The defense minister said that Rusia was preparing to cut off a large part of Ukraine from the internet.
- Russian missiles struck targets with zero military value. This included an opera house and a ballet theatre. They also struck Kharkiv’s recently opened zoo.
- A convoy of Belarusian armoured vehicles were headed toward Kyiv.
- “Strikes against civilians now appear to be deliberate policy.”
- More than 70 soldiers were killed when Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka.”
- Mariupol has been surrounded. The city is without electricity.
- Melitopol is now under Russian occupation.
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When the comic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy ran for the Ukrainian presidency in 2019 he was treated as a joke. Now, as Luke Harding reports from Lviv, he personifies the defiance and dignity of Ukraine’s embattled population
— Read on www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2022/mar/01/comedian-president-warrior-the-transformation-of-volodymyr-zelenskiy-podcast -
BLOG NOTES: 2:00
CNN
- Rusia is trying to keep Western countries from fleeing the country. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/01/investing/russia-economy-capital-controls/index.html
- “Capital controls” are designed to stop the exodus, announced by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Companies would be prevented from selling Russian assets.
- BP announced it was planning to exit its 20% stake in Russia’s biggest oil company, Rosneft. Shell has followed suit.
- A French company announced it would not provide new capital for Russian projects.
- Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund will divest shares in 47 Russian companies as well as Russian government bonds.
- Richard Haas joins the “Putin is a madman” narrative CREATED BY THE NEWS ANCHORS. “He may not be rational” Haas says about Putin. Based on what evidence? Then, absurdly, Haas says: “You have to be really careful about assumptions.”
- The ruble plunged by about 25% on Monday. It has lost half its value since the invasion began.
- Russians have raised interest rates to 20% and prevented the stock market from opening for a second day.
- 1:15 PM (EST)
- Commentator: “This is the battle of Berlin.”
FOX
- Ukrainian member of parliament thanks the west and asks for more equipment. “We will resist with everything we have.”
- (Note: Democrats won’t even prosecute Trump, et. al.)
- Shelling in downtown Kharkiv.
- 677,000 new estimates of refugees.
Ukraine World News www.ukraineworld.org
- Ukrainian intelligence reporting that Russia is planning to organize a provocation to justify further Belarusian participation in the invasion.
- Ukrainian government saying it may resort to a preventive strike on Belarus to keep it from participating in the invasion.
- Note: Kyiv Indepenent is also carrying the same story from above.
Twitter
- NEXTA TV is reporting that Canada will ban Russian ships from entering its ports and territorial waters as of next week.
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12 Noon: Ukraine
FOX NEWS
- “When tyrants say they are going to do something” you should listen. This is Nikki Haley talking about Putin. Biden is not doing enough, according to the Russian collaborators on Fox News.
- Haley advocating harsher sanctions while the leader of her party, Trump, praises Putin.
- Note: These Republicans know that their base is filled with morons who can’t even see the hypocrisy of Trump’s, the Republican party’s and the NRA’s collaboration with the Russians and their current statements.
MSNBC
- Note: I couldn’t care less about spending hours of coverage in the middle of a war on what Biden MIGHT say in the State of the Union address. Frankly I dread having to listen to this speech. I know it will make me furious.
CNN
- “What are you going to be watching for?” CNN also is spending time, while Ukraine is under attack, speculating on what Biden may say tonight. Waste of time.
TWITTER
- Russia is temporarily banning western companies from exiting Russian investments. Note: I don’t know how this is possible?
ANTI-WAR LEFT
- “War is stupid” is a slogan not a proposal for action. Ukrainians are begging for help and this is the answer? War is stupid?
- If you are a pacifist, I understand, but to just close your eyes to 200,000 troops amassed around a country, military attack on a country whose people by themselves forced a Russian-puppet to flee back to Russia, is not an answer. It’s an abnegation
- I have a historical update for those of you who think Russia is a “communist country.” Russia is controlled by an oligarchy put in place by an authoritarian. The economic system is a rabid, Wild West capitalist economy where there are no restraints on stealing and appropriating property that formerly belonged to the people. This is the system that Republicans are trying to establish in this country. If you fight Republicans you must fight the Russian government right now.
- “You are supporting people who profit from war.” Yes, people profit from war. I don’t like that, but right now, that’s how it is. Does that mean we throw up our hands and give up and allow the oligarchs to take over the country? Do you expect Zelensky to throw up his hands and allow Putin to take over Ukraine because somebody might profit off the weapons he’s asking for?
- Do you seriously think that Zelensky can negotiate his way out of this war? When Zelensky first came to power, he thought he could reason with the Russians, negotiate a resolution to the Donbas. He found out he was unable to do so.
- “You are listening to MSM.” This was said by somebody who refuses to believe Trump was connected to Russia. To him, the connection was all invented by the MSM. People, just look at the evidence. Simply because something is said on MSM doesn’t mean it is necessarily false. You have to look at all kinds of sources and make the best judgements you can. Just listening to people like Glen Greenwald is not looking at evidence. It is a refusal to look at evidence.
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Blog Notes: 10:30 AM
AFP News Agency:
- Serious strikes in Kharkiv (evidently pronounced Har-kiv) directly in front of a government building. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city. On the eastern side of Ukraine.
- The strike killed an estimated 10 people.
- Russian troops have reportedly entered the southern city of Kherson (near Odesa on Black sea.
- Belarusian troops entered the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine.
- 70 Ukrainian soldiers reported killed in Okhtyrka on Sunday.
- Lavrov, in front of the UN, maintains that Russian troops are focused on “saving people, demilitarization and denazification.”
- Note: Chris Sampson (who was until recently in Ukraine) pointing out that Russia has a bigger Nazi problem than does Ukraine.
CNN
- A few weeks ago, Kharkiv was a “bustling city. Now it is a shell.”
- Christiane Amanpour: “Everybody is scared.” The war aim is to create terror of civilians. Reminiscent of the siege of Sarajevo in 1993. NATO is warning that not one square inch of NATO territory will be invaded without a response. It took this attack to unite the world. See “Putin’s War Against Ukraine.” Free read on Kindle.
MSNBC
- Note: MSNBC is spending time speculating on what Biden MIGHT talk about tonight. There’s a war going on and corporate media is already starting to move on.
FOX
- Evidently, Fox News has realized that its support for Putin is unpopular, EVEN ON FOX.
- There’s been a lot of psychoanalysis in the past few days about Putin.
- Ben Sasse: “He’s an evil man.” “He’s gotten away with it.” (Note: like Putin.)
- Republicans are talking on Fox as if Trump wasn’t in Putin’s pocket.
- “This guy has not known consequences.” Sasse is talking about Putin. That’s true of Trump.
- Nikki Haley joins the “Putin is a madman” narrative.
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When did it get to be March?
Reporter on Twitter, following this Ukraine story like all of us, says he feels guilty when he goes to bed because he feels he is abandoning the courageous Ukrainians. We feel much the same.
Update Ukrains:
- The Russians have announced that they are planning on attacking civilian areas in Kyiv.
- It’s 5 PM in Kyiv.
- Air raid sirens are going off in Kyiv.
- There is, according to Clarissa Ward, CNN, in Kyiv fear that after the Russian announcement they are going to be more indiscriminate in firing on Kyiv.
- There is a 40-mile-long military convoy approaching Kyiv. It is feared that this convoy is intended to cut off the city just before air raids and the taking of the city.
- It is now estimated that 660,000 people have fled Ukraine.
- Shehyni, Ukraine on the Polish border, reporting by CNN, many nationalities mostly men, have been waiting for days trying to leave Ukraine. The “Ukrainian line” is mostly women and children and that line is moving more quickly. This distinction between getting out women and children and getting out male foreign workers is being used to argue that Ukraine is a racist country.
From Ukraine World @ukraine_world
- TV tower in Kyiv hit, may be problems with internet and TV access.
- Attacks close to nuclear power plants are violations of Geneva Conventions.
- Civilians in Melitopol stop a Russian military convoy with their bodies.
- Reports from the Ukrainian government that Russia plans to distribute false information that the Ukrainian government has surrendered.
- Two cruise missiles hit Freedom Square this morning.
- UN diplomats walk out of a speech of Sergei Lavrov.
- Belarusian troops are said to be advancing across the northern border of Ukraine and joining fighting.
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Ukraine Update: 2/28/22 8:30 PM
CNN
• William Taylor, former Ambassador to Ukraine, is asked about Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons. Taylor says that Putin’s threat is “performance,” that Putin is trying to bully.
• Jake Tapper uses as evidence that Putin is “unstable” the meeting between Putin and his military officials when he announced the recognition of the Donbas. Tapper notes that Putin berated one of the officials in front of the cameras. Putin was filmed years ago berating Deripaska in a meeting with factory owners. This is a standard ploy of Putin to create the impression that he is standing up for the regular people against the elite, the government officials. (Note: Deripaska is now issuing statements against the war. He is the one Manafort tweeted about when he asked “how can we use this to make whole.” He was talking about his (Manafort’s) position with the Trump campaign.)
• Earlier in the night, CNN interviewed Josh Rogin, who said that “There is no dissent” from the people around, men around, Putin. He (Putin) has disabled all opposition. Putin is just tying to see what the West will do in return.
• Rogin: “We failed to deter Putin from invading Ukraine, he’s still deterred from attacking us.” “We would still win that war. He’s evil but not suicidal.” (Note: I find this an incredibly arrogant statement).
MSNBC: Ari Melber
• Zelensky put out another video today. “Don’t trust your propaganda.” He said this in Russian to the Russian people.
• Kharkiv is suffering the most attacks right now. Flattening 80 homes and killing civilians including children.
• Evelyn Farkas: Some of the Russian bodies are not being collected and sent home. The Russians planned to encircle Kyiv so they could get Zelensky. The plan has not unfolded as they wanted, but they have so much more air power and other power.
• Putin scheduling an emergency meeting with financial advisors.
• Putin issued a statement today in which he called the West an “empire of lies.”
• Videos of people waiting in line to get money from a bank.
• Singh, a Biden administration officials notes that communication is still possible when countries have been removed from SWIFT. But they have to use a phone call or a fax for every transmission, rather than clicking a key.
• Today, the ruble lost 30% of its value, making it worth less than a penny.
• Russia is likely to experience double digit inflation, recession, isolation from global economy, isolation from technology, the military fortificuation of the eastern flank, and countries moving away from fossil fuels at a more rapid rate.
• Putin has been banned from traveling for personal reasons. He can always claim that his travel is for government business. The U.S. Congress does this all the time.
• Interview with McCaffrey:
• The Russians are “surprisingly incompetent.” But the Russians are holding back attack on cities for fear of how it looks. But, now they are going to seize the major cities. McCaffrey then starts to criticize a “genuing expert” who says that Putin’s threats are performance art, that Putin is not really unstable. McCaffrey disagrees.
About Putin, McCaffrey says: “He’s going off the rails.” He has “difficulties making logical decisions.” Putin is “implying a threat of nuclear weapons over a failed conventional operation.” This is not a situation of an existential threat to the survival of the state. Putin understands that there is no winner in nuclear exchange. These decisions “don’t make any sense.” Putin is only “piling more fuel on the argument that NATO better rearm….better get scared.” Talking about Putin he says: “This guy is dangerous.” McCaffrey then talks about the fact that Putin knows the catastrophic implications of urban fighting. That sounds like logical reasoning.
• Melber then asks McCaffray if Putin would have realized the seriousness of the threat previously but not now. • McCaffray responds: Putin has “personally suddenly found himself immersed in a disaster….he never thought through this adequately….conventional invasion…gone wrong on him in ways he would have never anticipated.
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5:30 PM
- James Clapper, earlier on CNN, joined the “Putin is a madman” drum beat of a narrative. This has to raise the question of why the intelligence community is part of this “Putin is crazy” effort.
- Jake Tapper, adding to this narrative which has taken root on corporate news repeated the charge that Putin was having “emotional outbursts” and that his “strategy” is being affected by the fact that he (Putin) has “lost his mind in some way.” (Note: I have no earthly idea what it means to say that someone has “lost his mind in some way.”)
- William Taylor, former Ambassador to Ukraine, noted yesterday when he refused to answer such a question, that he had never met Putin. But, today, instead of refusing to answer the question, he has jumped in with both feet, agreeing that Putin is “not in full control of his emotions, of his thought patterns.” Taylor notes Putin’s “fierce anger…against President Zelensky.”
- “Over the years Vladimir Putin has become more erratic.” This from Josh Rogin, CNN Political Analyst. Again, there is no evidence presented that Putin has “become more erratic.” Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, but this does not make him mentally ill. Does it make him an autocrat, a authoritarian, an oppressor, yes, but does it necessarily make him “unstable” “mentally ill” having “lost his mind IN SOME WAY?” I don’t think so.
- But, these assertions that I have watched over five days spread from one commentator to another, reinforced by asking the question every day, are never challenged, or not often. Rarely does somebody, like Taylor did yesterday, somebody even refuse to go along with the characterization.
- And, like Taylor, people feel and respond to the pressure to join in and contribute to the “Putin is a madman” narrative.
- CNN is at the moment running a headline at the bottom of the page: “Experts Question Putin’s Mental Stability as War Rages in Ukraine.” I have no doubt that tomorrow this will become: “Experts Agree that Putin has Lost his Mind in Some Way as War Rages.”
- If you are constructing propaganda it is perhaps useful to work up the population by portraying your opponent as a madman. As I have noted previously, it also makes it easier to argue that nothing could have been done to prevent the situation, and nothing can be dong to prevent the probable disaster that is coming. The rationale is: “What could we have done? We’re dealing with a madman? What could we do? We are dealing with a madman.” It’s extremely convenient argument especially for people like James Clapper and Michael McFaul (one of the main purveyors of this “Putin is a madman” line) who have been in positions where they could have done something about the growing threat Putin posed, but did nothing.
- O.K. Now, Tapper who has been part of inventing the “Putin is a madman” narrative now asks Rogin whether Putin is just pretending to be a madman to unsettle the West. Rogan is nodding furiously in agreement.
- Rogin (who has no expertise in mental health diagnosis that I know of) is now arguing that Putin is “not getting good information.” Never, never are these people asked how they know this. How does Josh Rogin know that Putin is “not getting good information.”
- Rogin: “There is no doubt that over the years Vladimir Putin is getting more erratic.” Again, no doubt? Again, based on what evidence?
- Rogin: “It doesn’t make sense that he’s suicidal.” Suicidal? Where the f..k did that come from. Who said Putin was suicidal? (Note: I have played this interview back twice now). Then, Rogin admits that Putin can be “evil without being irrational.” Finally, but he just said that there was “no doubt” that Putin was getting more irrational.
- Rogin then follows up saying that Putin will escalate and escalate until he encounters opposition. This is rational not irrational.
- Then, Rogin says that he’s wiling to take risks, and that’s not “crazy, that’s just bad.”
- In short, these discussions about Putin being unstable, irrational, suicidal, are utter nonsense. The biggest question is why corporate media is determined to pump this “Putin is a madman” theory.
Law, Power, and Justice 