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Category Archives: europe

Ukraine through the eye of a UK diplomat

28 Feb

Writing yesterday, February 27, on the Strategic Culture Foundation website, former UK diplomat and spy Alastair Crooke assesses Russia’s move and the West’s response. First though, a word about Mr Crooke. Says wiki: … Crooke, (born 1949) is a British … Read More »

europe, russia, usa 3 Comments

Russia’s gonna invade Ukraine for sure!

15 Feb

First, accuse Putin of plotting something he never intends to do. Second, tell the world you will strongly respond to the fabricated scenario. Third, tell the world when the fabricated scenario is to happen. Then, when the fabricated scenario never … Read More »

europe, media, russia 2 Comments

Can Europe break free of a dying Empire?

13 Feb

Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for US strategists is the absence of such a threat … What worries them is NATO nations and countries along the Belt & Road seeing the benefits of … Read More »

china rising, europe, russia, usa 8 Comments

Ukraine: maps, history, duff reasoning ..

30 Jan

In case I haven’t made this clear, I take the Ukraine situation very, very seriously. Not that I deem war inevitable or even probable. (There’s too much smoke ‘n mirror stuff here for anyone to call with justifiable confidence. ) … Read More »

europe, russia, science and reason, usa 26 Comments

Is a nuclear war in Europe probable?

28 Jan

Yes, this map again … As the Ukraine crisis continues apace, the article below appeared today, January 28, in Defend Democracy Press. Its author, Dimitri Konstantakopoulos, was a Syriza colleague of the better known Yanis Varoufakis. While I have points … Read More »

europe, russia, usa 8 Comments

Ukraine and the West’s lies

24 Jan

A week ago on January 17 at Transcend Media Services, Jan Oberg penned this editorial, best read in the context of my other posts on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in particular this one from last week: Eurasia’s rise is … Read More »

europe, russia, usa 4 Comments

Eurasia’s rise is unstoppable

19 Jan

. A threat hanging over Russia – of a first strike taking out most of her nuclear capacity, leaving star wars technologies to down the few remaining missiles she could fire back – has been nullified. The Pentagon has no … Read More »

china rising, europe, russia, usa 13 Comments

Brexit, Dali and cognitive dissonance

1 Oct

In Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali, George Orwell targeted a knee-jerk mode of thinking; a binary either/or refusal to see (or acknowledge) nuance and complexity. Why, asked Orwell, did the liberal progressives of his day who recognised … Read More »

europe, science and reason, uk 2 Comments

Say what you like about Tricky Dickie …

29 Jul

I don’t read many right-wing sources: just enough to know that the best of them can make a lot more sense than liberal equivalents. One I return to now and again is American Conservative, and this piece from yesterday (July … Read More »

europe, russia, usa 3 Comments

Reading the middle east: part 2

29 Jun

See also, Reading the middle east: part 1 * Topping the returns for a search on “full spectrum dominance” is a wiki page citing Harold Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech: … the United States is now totally frank about putting its cards on … Read More »

europe, middle east, usa 5 Comments

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tune for the day

The theme’s off-limits now but the 60s had Gary Puckett & The Union Gap’s Young Girl, while the 80s saw ex schoolteacher Sting et al pleading Don’t stand so close to me

last 350 posts (most recent first)

  • Endless war, and media complicity
  • The whataboutery of Simon Tisdall
  • Mr President removes his watch
  • That ICC arrest warrant: an Indian view
  • The ICC: a kangaroo court, yes. A joke, no
  • ICC weaponised? Putinbot poppycock!
  • Speaking of self-serving credulity …
  • SVB/Credit Suisse: 3 pieces on the panic
  • “Because I’ve got a brain!”
  • Richard Murphy on Silicon Valley Bank
  • Sergey Lavrov speaks out on the WTO
  • More on the Iran-Saudi deal
  • They say the darkest hour …
  • Telling a Martian what hospitals do
  • China brokers Iran-Saudi rapprochement
  • Gary Lineker? Or H.M. Loyal Opposition?
  • Only connect …
  • A brief stroll from farming to WW3
  • Nordstrom: the comedy continues
  • The hazard of Oz revisited
  • China on “US Hegemony And Its Perils”
  • Richard Murphy on UK capital flight
  • All we are saying is give peace a chance!
  • A Ukrainian socialist speaks
  • Starmer and the victory of dark politics
  • Anti-war demo in London, February 25
  • On Worcestershire Beacon
  • Titanic in 3D
  • Are anti-war protests useless?
  • The etymology of ‘tad’
  • Reimburse the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade!
  • Did the crazies capture the USA? How?
  • Stop the War NOW!
  • The hazard of Oz: Canberra’s US nukes
  • Labour won’t save Britain’s public sector
  • Ukraine take 6 – Seymour Hersh
  • A rubber tramp in Cambridge
  • Ukraine take 5 – Gilbert Doctorow
  • Who pays for the US war machine?
  • A rubber tramp in Hartlepool
  • A rubber tramp in Redcar
  • I’m a fan of Sean Penn but …
  • Ukraine Take 4 – The Guardian
  • Carole and Aretha trans-slated!
  • More trans lunacy
  • Redress and the presumption of guilt
  • Ukraine Take 3 – Caitlin Johnstone
  • Oxfam, WSWS and survival of the richest
  • US and NATO send tanks to Ukraine
  • We are stardust …
  • Ukraine Take 2 – Stephen Gowans
  • Ukraine take 1 – Richard Murphy
  • Caitlin is with Ghandi on Western values
  • Mayflies – the Swiss option
  • Scramble for Africa – Version Two
  • Thank God Trump lost!
  • Film Review: Lady Chatterley’s Lover
  • Is Vladimir Putin too soft?
  • I’m no fan of Scottish Tories but …
  • Iran: we’re being played. Again.
  • Biden’s role in the US war in Ukraine
  • Conspiracism and the late David Griffin
  • Russian oil cap? No EU-turn in Brussels!
  • Dress code for a night at the Mariinsky
  • Jonathan Cook on a myopic Monbiot
  • Europe cannot win this economic war
  • Ukraine: Europe’s anger at Washington
  • Guardian to Julian: may I help you?
  • Ukraine – a wintry endgame?
  • Why does the West hate Putin?
  • Cheerleading for WW3
  • The staggering hypocrisy of Julian’s jailers
  • Ukraine: training the West’s far right
  • The lies that triggered WW3
  • UK responses to Hunt’s budget
  • Missile strikes on Poland: cui bono?
  • Ukraine: more dangerous Guardian drivel
  • Straight talking on Cop27
  • The propaganda blitz on Bucha
  • Shills for empire: a matter of intent?
  • Cook on Monbiot on Ukraine (again)
  • Objective journalism is an oxymoron
  • Ukraine and the official narrative
  • Austerity? Britain can’t afford that!
  • Ukraine and the Democrat ‘progressives’
  • Magic Money Tree? Part Two
  • Keir Starmer on “hate crime”
  • Magic Money Tree? Part One
  • Labour’s love of voodoo economics
  • Two ways Hunt can “balance the books”
  • Britain’s new chancellor of the Exchequer!
  • Zugzwang for TrussTweng?
  • With Ukraine ablaze, is Taiwan next?
  • How sanctions on Russia boomeranged
  • Caitlin on Ukraine opinion manufacture
  • So Truss and Starmer want growth …
  • Stellar! Mrs Assange v John Bolton
  • UK in turmoil: a Quaker speaks
  • It’s only a conspiracy theory if anti-USA
  • “The economic illiteracy is staggering”
  • Rupa Huq: Kwarteng “superficially” black
  • Shock therapy for Britain?
  • From Black Hole to Bucha
  • Footnotes: top tactics for top tacticians
  • Why read Michael Hudson? Part 3
  • Ukraine: what does Russia want?
  • Wear the fox hat!
  • Jacques Baud: a vital voice on Ukraine
  • Drinkable water please …
  • On the death of a Queen
  • Democracy is so not coming to the USA
  • Where have all the flowers gone?
  • The tragedy of Mikhail Gorbachev
  • When State & Capital conspire to censor
  • Persecuting Professor Hayward
  • Who killed Daria Dugina?
  • Attacks on Crimea up the nuclear ante
  • Down with Covid!
  • Why read Michael Hudson? Part 2
  • It ain’t half hot mum!
  • Pretending the US Empire doesn’t exist
  • Who wants a nuclear disaster in Ukraine?
  • Why read Michael Hudson? Part 1
  • Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?
  • There are no adults in the room
  • Dementia patient tries to start WW3
  • Three cheers for amazing Audrey White!
  • Dress code for an execution
  • US diplomacy as Greek Tragedy
  • Ukraine: Europe’s very own Bangladesh
  • Nancy playing with fire over Taiwan
  • Will the real Zelensky please stand up?
  • Caitlin on Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan
  • Covid in the age of crisis capitalism
  • Big pharma, and people with penises
  • Meanwhile back in Norfolk …
  • Meanwhile back in Taiwan …
  • Ukraine and the fall of the US Empire
  • What makes America so dangerous?
  • After Boris Johnson, what next?
  • Ukraine: graveyard of the US Empire?
  • Socialism or barbarism?
  • Two big errors about Russia
  • Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
  • Anyone (not Russian) for tennis?
  • Getting real about Ukraine
  • The invisibility of empire
  • Priti Patel and the power of lies
  • What price US nukes? $80k a minute!
  • The barbarism of dying empires
  • Understanding empire, from “i.e.” to “e.g.”
  • On war crimes in Ukraine
  • Who am I? (And why write?)
  • Who beat the drums for Dear Prudence?
  • On media manufactured monsters
  • Let’s give Ukraine’s fascists a makeover!
  • Rye v Hastings? Dickens v Tressell?
  • Meditation for the politico
  • A little more on the US war machine
  • “The wrong direction at maximum speed”
  • The USA: “no way out but war”
  • Power is at war with truth
  • On and on and on …
  • Why the times they are a-changing
  • “Left” Democrats vote to prolong war!
  • Ukraine: “the global south must act”
  • Starmer, Nato and the death of truth
  • As we hydroplane towards WW3 …
  • Is Team Biden the worst ever?
  • Tucker Carlson on ‘disinformation’
  • Oh my giddy AUMF!
  • “Zelensky good … Putin baad …”
  • Red-lines real … red lines reductive
  • What about those too tired to have sex?
  • We need to talk about pacificism
  • Ukraine and the death-logic of escalation
  • Ukraine in La La Land
  • Easter offerings
  • Caitlin’s love letter to draft dodgers
  • India in the dock for empire disobedience
  • Ursula weeps for Ukraine
  • Red Star Belgrade v Media Amnesia
  • Ukraine: “turning brains to soup”
  • Ukraine: a military assessment
  • Sakwa: “Paul Mason wrong on Ukraine”
  • Peace in Ukraine? Zelensky has zero say
  • Is Russia losing the information war?
  • The day John Pilger met the CIA Boss
  • Britain is a crime scene
  • The US wants this war to go on and on
  • No matter what the risks to us all …
  • Yes, we are being lied to. Massively.
  • Defending democracy in Ukraine?!?
  • Ukraine: the Far Left is almost right
  • Observations on the week so far …
  • Yesterday in and around Lathkill Dale
  • This ain’t Putin’s price hike
  • No, I’m not telling you what to think!
  • Dark Side of the Mood Music
  • Pentagon bioweapons in Ukraine
  • Carbon dating …
  • Ukraine: why bomb a hospital?
  • Ukraine on fire
  • Yes, Ukraine is in the grip of Nazis!
  • Sanctions: America’s Greek Tragedy
  • US Colonel McGregor: “Zelensky no hero”
  • The real purpose of sanctions on Russia?
  • Cook on Monbiot on Ukraine
  • Media double standards over Ukraine
  • Is this Russian propaganda?
  • A calmer panorama in the English Lakes
  • The most important question in the world
  • Ukraine through the eye of a UK diplomat
  • Ukraine: what does Mr Putin have to say?
  • Diana Johnstone on Russia bear baiting
  • Ukraine: the elephants in the room
  • Russia Today
  • Kiev shelled: Zelensky calls martial law
  • Media Lens on Guardian on Ukraine
  • Russia’s recognition of the LDNR
  • Vladimir Putin on what’s bothering Russia
  • “Why Russia wants Ukraine”
  • The royaling boil of Martin’s kettle
  • Useful Useless idiot 76423: Richard Engel
  • Russia’s gonna invade Ukraine for sure!
  • Caitlin on The Official Story
  • Can Europe break free of a dying Empire?
  • The view from Langley, Virginia
  • An inaccurate, biased Amnesty report?
  • Whose bass guitar gently wept?
  • The weirdness of BoJo’s Savilegate
  • Mini-break on the Yorkshire coast
  • “We have evidence” is not evidence!
  • Ukraine: has Washington already lost?
  • Ukraine: maps, history, duff reasoning ..
  • Ukraine: the madness of Empire’s critics
  • Is a nuclear war in Europe probable?
  • Is humanity doomed?
  • Ukraine and the West’s lies
  • Monolithic control at the Guardian?
  • They tried to bury us …
  • Agonising over Auntie
  • Eurasia’s rise is unstoppable
  • Getting real on the US-NATO-Russia talks
  • Mini Gems good – Midget Gems baad!
  • Kazakhstan tests China non interference
  • Mike on Mingus
  • Do dolphins flick the bean?
  • Yes, Kazakhstan is a (failed) US coup!
  • Planting flowers for 2022
  • Caesar salad
  • Kazakhstan: why is the steppe on fire?
  • Battle of the mutes
  • Far-left Sinophobia: an infantile disorder
  • Talking down China’s economy
  • Caitlin calls it right on web censorship
  • Happy new year to The Free World?
  • Sinophobia – but at what cost?
  • The obvious has been made unspeakable
  • CounterPunch on US foreign policy
  • Ukraine and Georgia are Russia’s red lines
  • Assange? China? It’s not rocket science!
  • My date with Sister Scope
  • A third Ukraine read
  • Dear Guardian Media Group …
  • A murderous state speaks of human rights
  • Damn lies and daft stats on Hong Kong
  • Two short reads on the Ukraine crisis
  • Frankly I couldn’t give a damn …
  • Xinjiang debated
  • Priti’s Police Bill – why now?
  • Sunlit but wintry: Woollaton today
  • Another winter comes to Attenborough
  • Are we sleepwalking to Armageddon?
  • Snowfall on the Soar
  • Margaret Mead and that femur …
  • Sri Lanka and the ‘debt trap’ slur
  • Kyle Rittenhouse and the outrage industry
  • Roddis v Sheffield Hallam Part 10
  • That’s rich!
  • Roddis v Sheffield Hallam Part 9
  • The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect
  • Another FB China debate
  • Julian’s mother speaks
  • Attenborough in peace
  • More from the (Face) Book of Wisdom
  • The unaccountable power of Bill Gates
  • Selfishness in 4 easy steps
  • The Atlantic: “the bad guys are winning”
  • Attenborough in November
  • IDS and sleaze: the view from Hong Kong
  • Syria’s My Lai is why Julian matters!
  • China’s carbon footprint
  • Facebook and the whistleblower
  • Lest we forget …
  • “I am ashamed of Israel”
  • Ten second guide to Owen Paterson
  • Human rights weaponised
  • Another US academic on Taiwan
  • What a Bezos!
  • Exchanges with my Guernsey freeholder
  • Julian: a year and a day on
  • Dark side of the state: Waters on Assange
  • The myth of independent media
  • Turkey arrests Syrian banana eaters
  • Meet the Otters
  • Three autumn reads
  • In praise of Insulate Britain
  • Fake news on Dune epic in China cinemas
  • It was twenty years ago today …
  • 38 years ago today
  • Demo for Julian: my day in pictures
  • A Guardian study in propaganda
  • Adam Smith on enlightened self interest
  • It’s all a question of balance
  • Talking WW3 Blues – again …
  • Those nights in Tiananmen Square …
  • Mother takes sons to see dad …
  • Who wants a war with China over Taiwan?
  • Support Julian – two October dates
  • Nobel Prize for fearless journalism …
  • The Pandora Papers: controlled dissent?
  • More crap thinking on Covid
  • China is bad!
  • Says Rosa …
  • Brexit, Dali and cognitive dissonance
  • We need to talk about Kim
  • Salt to King’s Bromley the slow way
  • “Israel was born in sin”
  • Salisbury – the Third Man!
  • An open letter: isn’t China “just as bad”?
  • Freud’s narcissism of small differences
  • Xinjiang now a top tourist draw
  • Help!
  • Nuclear subs go down under
  • Sometimes it’s the little things …
  • Sinophobia – two new reads
  • King’s Bromley to Sawley by slow boat
  • BBC admits to flawed Syria documentary
  • Sunak’s NI charge to fund the NHS
  • Meanwhile, on Uncle Sam’s doorstep …
  • If my posts don’t piss people off …
  • Israel is an apartheid state
  • Those eco-friendly berserkers
  • Ruled by crooks, governed by liars
  • Blowback: Taliban target US shadow army
  • Is Tony Blair insane?
  • Who remembers “press button A”?
  • Engels on the ‘graveyard of empires’
  • Did China abandon socialism?
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