The Tweet in question. Incidentally, kudos to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this unexpectedly strong show of support. #FreeMariaButina
As I have pointed out, Maria Butina is neither a spy, nor even a Russian agent: US Arrests Russia’s Foremost 2nd Amendment Activist. Unless this is rapidly resolved, hopefully Russia will escalate with symmetrical arrests of (actual) American agents.
PS. In the least surprising biographical revelation ever, Carole Cadwalladr is a Guardian hack who is apparently rather well-known for untangling the hidden webs of ROG behind Brexit:
Brexit, the ministers, the professor and the spy: how Russia pulls strings in UK – by Carole Cadwalladr – Observer/Guardian – Nov 4 2017
But on Brexit, Facebook has said nothing. Not a word. No ads have been scrutinised. Nothing – even though Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council thinktank, asked to testify before the senate intelligence committee last week, says evidence of Russian interference online is now “incontrovertible”. He says: “It is frankly implausible to think that we weren’t targeted too.”
Guardian and Observer scoop three prizes in British Journalism Awards – Guardian – Dec 11 2017
The Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr won the technology journalism award for her investigation into Russia’s influence on the Brexit referendum…
…
Facebook says Russian-linked accounts spent just 97 cents on ads over Brexit – Reuters – Dec 14 2017
“We have determined that these accounts associated with the IRA spent a small amount of money ($0.97) on advertisements that delivered to UK audiences during that time,” Facebook said.
“This amount resulted in three advertisements (each of which were also targeted to U.S. audiences and concerned immigration, not the EU referendum) delivering approximately 200 impressions to UK viewers over four days in May 2016.”
There is also Kirill Vyshinsky…..another Russian scandalously imprisoned by a corrupt fucktard regime ( Kiev) . We know he’s innocent…because a liberal “cyborg” like Anatoly refuses to talk about him…..whilst highlighting any make-believe deportation of a Donbass resident back to reprisals from Ukropia.
I’ve got no problem with the likes of Carole Cadwalladr………she’s only a victim of the avalanche of western Russia stories from lowlife sack of faeces as Elder,Bershidsky,Walker,Applebaum etc…..all the guys that Anatoly fellates on here . I actually read on Twitter Karlin protesting the potential expulsion of the ridiculously thick Alec Luhn from Russia
Carole Codswallop, her name scans so well, and codswallop is one of my favourite words in the English language.
Karlin, not to rush you, but do you have an estimate for when the Romanian travel post is ready?
What will happen to Butina now? What about accusations that she offered sex for information?
How could someone as well known to the media as Maria Butina possibly be characterised as a secret agent? She was twice denied a visa, so the US could simply have continued to deny her entry if they were worried about what she was up to. They were watching her every move in America from the first day in August 2016, and I would not be surprised if her path into these organisations was smoothed by FBI assets hoping she would get closer to actually doing something incriminating than she actually did. When she made preparations to leave, which they did not bargain on, they were forced to arrest her when it coincided with a Trump-Putin meeting!
This is the FBI doing this and they are a secret police force, not an intelligence agency. Actual members of the CIA all have diplomatic cover/immunity, but the Butina affair will not be making their job of recruiting Russians any easier.
The best thing for Russia would be if she dies in prison (there are ways to commits suicide that require no equipment and cannot be prevented) but that is probably too much to hope for. Still this is working out quite well for Russia because she is not any kind of covert operator, and given her high public profile at home and as a Russian-in-the-US, and the undeniable fact the authorities knew all about her judging by her twice denied visa applications, it is difficult how she could have infiltrated Washington in the underhanded way prosecutors are implying.
An imprudent young woman from the less than sophisticated region of her homeland (rural Siberia) who admired the freedom in a foreign land, and goes there to live the dream only to be thrown in prison by a desperate prosecutor on serious charges, a large part of the evidence for which is she … er, likes to shag; Butina is more Amanda Knox than Mata Hari. The longer she stays in prison, the more Russia will have won on a moral level, especially as the prosecution are in effect calling her a state sponsored prostitute, which will have a huge impact in Russia I suspect.
The accusation is she offered sex for a job. Much more likely she falsely implied the possibility of sex if she was given a job (maybe not the first time that happened in the US). Perhaps she was, as a girl from rural Siberia, just too flirty for the US and was tone deaf as to the impression she made. She apparently is very flirtatious.
War looks like a pretty lady? Well, maybe in games…
“Cadwalladr” sounds like an English word played backwards, like a Russian word.
Any woman under thirty is beautiful to a man twice her age, and believe it or not some young women are attracted to men thrice their age.
I wouldn’t know. I was just making fun of oversexed characters in videogames.
OT
Found at ZeroHedge, who did Trump & Putin talk to the most over the phone?
https://www.statista.com/chart/14764/the-leaders-trump-and-putin-phone-most-often/
It’s interesting Putin never talks to Xi, I’d try to talk to Xi a lot. I’d also think it’d be a wise strategy for Putin to court Xi, stroke his ego, etc. Long term, China will be much stronger than Russia (and arguably it already is, except in a purely military sense), so China’s friendship would be important. It’d also be useful if there was coordination with China regarding Trump or the US. I’d expect the Chinese to not like Putin’s Trump friendship. For China, the US establishment (no tariffs, hostility to Russia) is better than Trump (tariffs, less hostility to Russia).
It’s a Welsh name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadwaladr_(name)
JL had a good point on how Russian siloviks are suspicious towards China, while hope springs eternal with respect to the West.
Also, while Russian understanding of the West is not that great, its understanding of China is virtually non-existent.
The people who grew up the USSR (e.g. Putin) instinctively view China as an irrelevant afterthought, less important even than Japan. Even younger people are hob-nobbled in various ways – liberals because of their West-worshipping cargo cultism, nationalists because of “muh Russia is a European civilization” BS, with both buying into the trope of “Asiatic” backwardness.
It’s somewhat ironic but Russian commies/leftists might have the most realistic outlook in this particular sphere (if for mostly wrong, Godfree Roberts-type reasons).
OT
So what to make of Putin suggesting, in his meeting with Trump, an internationally-monitored referendum in Donbas? Hopeful sign that he’s finally beginning to give up on Minsk and accept the idea of DLNR independence?
Putin and Xi seems to prefer to talk to each other without a phone.
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201806091065269583-putin-xi-summit-takeaways/
I’d talk to Xi a lot right before and after talking to Trump. Unless a personal meeting is coming next week, I’d talk to Xi on the phone. I’d have talked to him a couple days before the Helsinki summit, and a day later, too.
The US establishment and intelligence agencies see China as, if not an an ally, at least a counterweight to Russia, and the policy of building China up, officially mandated since the 70s, had not been questioned until Donald Trump became president. In that sense, the election of Trump was a great thing for Russia, and made it a world player again.
The hostility of Trump to a continuation of the old favour-China policy his deep state are peseverating with is a watershed. I am sure Xi would love for the US to continue being preoccupied with antiRussian strategising and helping China grow as a way of giving Russia something to worry about , but if that is not to be then Xi would aim to play the role of mediator between the US and Russia. It is wise to keep Xi at political arm’s length, Putin does not want to see Xi interjecting himself between Russia and America., because Russia would end up on the outside.
Butina ‘s lawyer said her planned move that precipitated the arrest was to South Dakota (an unlikely choice for a agent of influence).
Karlin talks a lot of the lack of Russian soft power, but in this case trying to convince that this nubile female is the enemy while the likes of those deep state types (Clapper, Brennan, Max Boot, Graham, etc) are on their side is going to be a hard sell to do with anyone who is not an utterly indocrinated left winger.
Instead of dismissively branding this “Troll”, why not AGREE & AMPLIFY.
Anatoly “the Cyborg” Karlin.
Or Cyborg Karlin.
Totally plausible. American women, especially in DC, are so busted that the thirst is extreme.
Take a look at this Deep State dweeb throwing his career in the trash in order to copulate with a chubby 5: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/business/media/james-wolfe-ali-watkins-leaks-reporter.html
She’s the one in the glasses:
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/06/25/business/25security/00Security-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp
And look at her hideous friends…
It would have happened without Trump as well.
HRC is a chinahawk who pushed the “Pivot to Asia” more than Obama did and another GOP POTUS would have been more hawkish than Obama as well.
The source seems somewhat dubious: Reuters for statistica – apparently based on “official phone calls.” But what about unofficial phone calls?
Anyway, for those interested, this is the source.
https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-RUSSIA/010071702F8/index.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter
The US establishment hates everyone and wants to play everyone against each other. At some point, though, people got wise to it. The fact that the US isn’t agreement-capable certainly doesn’t help.
Mecha-Karlin.
Solid approach in a real debate, waste of time on an illiterate pest.
What is it about those women? It is easy to blame it on their ideology, proclivities, nutrition, unhealthy lifestyles, but maybe there is more going on here. It looks like in the lands of plenty the environment has ceased to enforce the basic survival discipline and the physical shapes go haywire. The flesh is out of control, and the mind follows. The ‘Amish’ have released their inventory and the frustrated throngs of end-of-liners are circling around desperately looking for the one thing they truly crave, an actual experience of life. And Butina cut through that like a knife, she is fresh.
They are also deeply unhappy about who they are – in spite of the smiles. This could undermine any hope for an eventual revival in the West; too far gone, the ladies are not for mating. It suggests why the exotica is so hard to stop. This is an uphill fight.
On Monday I kept seeing Chinese tourists who had no idea why much of Helsinki city center was closed and why there were demonstrations and police and military everywhere. Everyone else knew about the coming of Trump and Putin but I guess in Chinese media it’s not that important if Xi is not involved.
I think it will be a worldview crashing surprise to a lot of people that in our lifetime China will be very powerful and that the Chinese won’t really need to listen to the rest of the world much if they don’t feel like it. Especially white liberals seem to take it for granted that world affairs will be decided in meetings of white patriarchs who can be influenced with tantrums.
Let’s not forget that this is DC aka “Hollywood for ugly people”.
Girls who want to be valued for being hot move to LA, NYC, or Miami.
Girls who wanted to be value for their so-called intelligence move to DC.
Well, that’s a small relief. But if DC has attracted the ‘so-called intelligence’, and this is it, there is an obvious problem…
Hawkish is this contect means means gifts to defence contractors and the relevant services, which was the Navy and Airforce but China is deliberately avoiding presenting any real military threat so that Hawkishness was of very small importance, apart from the increased spending for the defence lobby. (it may be worth bearing in mind that the greatest military defeats America suffered in the Cold War (Korea and Vietnam, were more at the hands of China than the Soviet Union. At every stage the Soviets had legged technologically and economically and the Hawks were reduced to claiming that the the Soviet Union could do less with more, and outright playing with the figures as with the Team B exercise that claimed the CIA had systematically underestimated Soviet strength.
As far as I can see, Obama and HRC were clearly losing losing on the economic front with China as evidenced by a 200 billion deficit, but they did not seem to comprehend what was happening. China economy was gaining on the US’s and they were using that trade surplus to subsidise the 2025 program of R&D subsidy with the clear aim of drawing level with the US in key technological areas. The intelligence community saw nothing wrong in continuing the policy and of course economists all thought it was great. But China is not Russia, China might easily overtake and dominate the US if is allowed and assisted with turning into a giant Hong Kong.
There was a professor from the Kennedy School of Gov being interviewed by on RT’s , and apart from talking a lot of sense about how Trump should stop conflating whether there was Russian interference in the election with the different issue of him having colluded with Russia to win the election,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzQxo_PpISM
the professor also said that at the time of his summits with Gorby, Reagan thought he knew what was going on in Soviet Russia better that his intelligent agencies, and he was right. The Soviet Union was weaker that the experts realised. China is far more dynamic than they have realised.
On China, Trump is the invisible hand of the electorate’s collective wisdom tapping the foreign policy and economic establishments on the shoulder and telling them that Russia is not the threat they need to worry about; their China policy is obsolete (as is their European policy). China can not be combated by posturing or pivoting because it’snot even in that game, being entirely focused on becoming the worlds most powerful economy, while the US seems to be actually helping China achieve that. The Chinese are probably not as cooperative as Japanese and unlike Japan, China does have to spend real money on defence, but it is is ten times larger than Japan.
I suspect that Russia will have involvement in the “lunar village” when it is built.
https://www.popsci.com/china-russia-space-rocket#page-6
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2018/DCB.pdf
If you were a talented and ambitious young man, would you want to pursue a career track like this?
I certainly wouldn’t.
The federal government is full of losers who got scammed by George Washington University (former commuter community college turned ripoff four year university) and think they’re action heroes on House of Cards.
There is real money to be made outside of civil service of course, so not everyone in DC is a schmuck. Take the unfortunate Paul Manafort for instance. Usual path here is to get on the staff of a powerful legislator, and then branch out into lobbying, consulting, or contracting. Or run for office yourself.
Back in the day old money WASPs filled the federal offices (which were limited in number compared to today), so there was real talent. That’s all gone. Just a bunch of dull bureaucrats who wouldn’t be out of place in 1980 Moscow.
“Journalists” of course are even more broke and are nothing more than innumerate communist agitators.
That’s wonderful to hear, so when will the sanctions begin to drop? When will anything even be said about letting the sanctions lapse? Actions speak louder than words and all that.
Would a cooperative China to USG policy be of any benefit to Russia?
hopefully Russia will escalate with symmetrical arrests of (actual) American agents.
You need to denounce and disavow that post dissing the Great Patriotic War remembrances (just in case).
Big mistake, always keep those closest to the seat of power happy. They might be wimps and dweebs, but they are right there, next to the White House, walking the streets of the capitol city. Given the known lower class demographic of DC, an additional pissed-off white collar mob is destabilizing. With Trump it is obvious, but this will hit all leaders from now on – they will have to mollify the DC dwellers and that says that more sh.t is coming. Trump should move the capitol to West Virginia or Kansas…
Saint Louis would be an excellent capital; central location of the country, major port city with easy navigation on the Mississippi – plus it looks better on a map.
Yes, there is East Saint Louis, but I am sure Cali or NYC hipsters can always use more ethnic authenticity in their lives…
Alternatively, copy one of the few good things South Africa has left and put the executive, judicial and legislative headquarters in different cities.
Trump should move the capitol to West Virginia or Kansas…
Interesting constitutional question.
The sanctions are at worst a nuisance to Russia, although not without certain benefits such as discouraging capital flight. If Putin is trying to avoid continuation of the sanctions or imposition of new ones he has a very strange way of showing it. He is not bothered so I would not be.
What the US does about Russia by way of restricting trade between the two counties is largely irrelevant to US-Russia relations. America’s attitude toward China is the primary determinate of US relations with Russia.
George Washington University (former commuter community college turned ripoff four year university)
That’s news to me — I was born in George Washington University Hospital, and it seems to me that not too many commuter community colleges had hospitals in those days (particularly hospitals which were founded in 1824).
Wiki confirms:
It is actually a lot worse. US sanctions are basically a statement that Russians are not allowed to play with the American issued marbles. Well, good, that worked when those marbles were highly unique and desirable, and there was a certain scarcity of them. That is not the case today.
Today dollars are neither a sanctified currency nor particularly scarce. US strategic interest should be to make sure that dollars are used as much as possible and that there is an aura of reliability attached to them. Sanctions work against both those goals. I think Trump understands that, so does his Treasury Sec, they are traders and they know that one doesn’t f..k with a currency, it can never work.
Trump went to Helsinki to start getting Russia back into the dollar system. It seems he got something like a cold shower from Putin and left the meeting really shaken. We saw it in the the teleconference. Then he flew back to DC and almost immediately offered a second meeting, and that shows panic. They are not negotiating, US is pleading to get Russia (and by extension China) back into the dollar reserve currency system. That’s what Trump means by stating that Bush-Obama had a really stupid policy. They did, they killed the golden goose that kept US richer than its economy justifies. It might be too late.
The news is everywhere in the Chinese media. All you need to do is google or baidu Trump and Putin Chinese name. Just because some Chinese tourists didn’t pay attention to it doesn’t mean it wasn’t reported in the news or discussed in political talk shows.
https://youtu.be/TyvZ55sI-VU?t=120
https://youtu.be/gF0flOIM7BE?t=106
https://i.imgflip.com/2efay9.jpg
Russia is only relevant in immediate military terms. America’s problem is China using the dollar system to hollow out the American economy with a 500 billion trade deficit. Some Americans benefit from that and their tame economists suggest it can go on indefinitely, but the dollar system is sound only as long as it is backed by the most powerful economy in the world. If China is allowed to continue it will take America’s place.
“America’s problem is China using the dollar system to hollow out the American economy with a 500 billion trade deficit.”
and
“… the dollar system is sound only as long as it is backed by the most powerful economy in the world.”
Wrong or oversimplified on many levels.
The dollar system is sound as long as it is backed by the most powerful manufacturing in the world.
Short of having large and diverse enough manufacturing in one single country, like USA circa WWII, it can be sustained only by a series of alliances whose maintenance increasingly relies on political and military means.
China is not the only country that is hollowing the American economy, its manufacturing more specifically. That is true also for Japan, Korea or EU.
The paradox is that if USA “loses its manufacturing base” in those countries, it’s also gone and gone fast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsW9MlYu31g
Throughout his business career Trump was notorious for saying that he was walking away from the whole thing unless his end was more that the agreed terms of the contract entitled him to . He breaks his own personal word so don’t expect him to be bound by agreements he did not negotiate himself. Trump is the ideal man to tell the Germans their racket in which the US pays for the privilege of defending Germany while it runs massive trade imbalances with the rest of the Western world and backs incompetent French banks is not worth keeping.
Dude.
Pointing fingers at China is childish when one prints money like there is no tomorrow to keep the sick banks afloat, the trade imbalances going and the state buying the only toys that america is still good at exporting (though the F-35 seems to indicate that that’s going to end soonish)
What is Germany being protected from? Poland?
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/education/edlife/how-to-raise-a-universitys-profile-pricing-and-packaging.html
I was wrong to call it a community college.
But not wrong to call it a commuter school.
This article also illustrates many perversions of the American higher “education” system.
The vast majority of money is created by the private sector, especially now that it has been four years since Quantitative Easing ended and the FED is actively (if slowly) unwinding its balance sheet.
China creates far more money than America does (as it should, since a fast-growing economy it has more need of credit).
The banks haven’t been sick for years.
Stop listening to libertarians and doomerists.
Yes. If the Americans withdrew from Europe right now and Germany refused to build up a proper military, Poland would have an easy time pressuring Germany into unfavorable deals. France, too. I guess you’ve overdosed on WWII history and you think the war aim would be to annex whole states but the main use of military has always been a tool of pressure.
If Poland can bomb German roads and Germany can’t respond, that’s an advantage in any negotiation. Currently America maintains a monopoly on using military strength as a card in diplomacy and it of course regularly does use it and makes it a point to occasionally wreck some infrastructure in an easy target like Serbia, Syria etc. Most states in the world adapt to American interests rather than risk getting the same treatment.
If the American monopoly crumbled, we’d see European states return to acting the same towards their neighbors, and the Germans would be faced with either accepting permanent weakness in any negotiation or rearming. The present situation is unsustainable as a unified Germany as a core part of the EU has much more potential than rump Germany in Europe of Cold War division did and it has started to challenge US interests.
This will lead to the Americans either flogging Germany back to submission or leaving it to defend itself. Seems like Trump would like either outcome more than the present so he wants to push the issue but his handlers only want the former so they’re trying to hit the brakes.
But not wrong to call it a commuter school.
That is certainly correct. For many decades GW drew upon a very high quality population base and enjoyed a not inconsiderable reputation. For some mysterious reason which you can no doubt divine, this changed considerably in the post-WWII period.
Not buying that narrative.
It would cost France and Poland far more than what they would be able to get from Germany.
Obviously I want the latter, but a significant change in mentality would be necessary in Germany for that to happen. There are too many Germans who have really internalized the whole post-national narrative and cling to all manner of foolish illusions about our “friends” and “partners”. It would be great if Trump with his brutal manner could contribute to shattering those illusions which have already been damaged to the Euro crisis anyway.
Germany is selling China capital goods.
Germany only started to effectively opt out of defence spending and give up even the potential for independent action that nuclear power potentially provides after it had no hostile (nonNato) country on its borders. The implied German argument for keeping things as they are is; they cannot trust themselves not to start another war if they are not kept busy with cheap Russian energy, favourable trade imbalances and deindustialsing fellow EU members. The events of 1939-45 have really paid off for German business.
https://twitter.com/jc_mittelstadt/status/1020567463795347457
Kissinger is truly one of the vilest international jews on the planet. The fact that the jews see China as such a big threat to their rule is a good reason to support China.
Kissinger loves China.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2150323/10-names-matter-china-policy
https://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-one-china-policy-what-would-nixon-do/
God forbid.
I think it’s more China hasn’t really listened much to the rest of the world in the past, and that won’t change whatever its position on the world stage. Now, a major war in Europe (i.e. not at the desultory level of the skirmishes in Ukraine) would change that, but a major war anywhere always draws attention.
Poland would have an easy time pressuring Germany
We once wuz kangs and will be again!
American “public diplomacy” in Russia:
What China has need of is access to the American market The mature economy of America can sell financial services, which provides the basis for an unholy alliance between banks and China. Pessimism about the future is quite in order,