Trump is using the virus to wreck America for Russia

I am convinced he has been sabotaging our response to the virus from the very beginning on Putin's behalf.

He is killing Americans for Russia.

He is overwhelming America with the virus for Russia.

He is using the virus to create havoc and wreck the economy for Russia.

Update.

All right, I was perhaps a little too annoyed, when I wrote this.

A history that should have got better after Communism, but didn't

Largely because Bush pere and the rabidly anti-Communist American classe politique who gave us containment, Korea, Vietnam, and the Taliban were all way too gleeful to publicly dig and dance on the grave of the old Russian Empire, most of what the Soviets still had of it split off with the fall of Communism.

That created the vast well of Russian resentment that powers Putin's strongman regime and the wide appeal, among Russians, of dinging America in world politics.

Do 'bounties' on US troops in Afghanistan reflect a line crossed or 'nothing new' in long US-Russia history?

Yet another proof of the folly of allowing a constitution to be changed by a single, simple majority plebiscite

David Campbell stupidly blew the UK out of the EU with such a plebiscite.

This is just way too foolishly democratic.

I am terrified at the thought of what American voters might do with such power, and you should be, too.

Russian voters overwhelmingly back a ploy by President Vladimir Putin to rule until 2036

He has already been in power for about twenty years.

Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanisan

Just today more came out and it appears the story is actually a year old.

The intelligence came up in March of 2019, not March of this year.

And now we're hearing from the media the story needs to be confirmed even while we're hearing it was confirmed and acted on last year, being shared with the Brits and with American commanders who beefed up security.

I'm guessing what happened is that the Bozo in the White House knew a year ago and his administration responded appropriately, and they didn't bring it up with Putin in some public way because that would only create flap and possibly reveal intelligence sources, and even create public pressure for a too aggressive response, in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

So, is this just a tale of confusion by everybody, including the White House, about a piece of year-old news?

Politically interested confusion on the Democrat side, politically inept confusion on the White House side?

Well, anti-Trump media are running away with the story, Joe Scarborough (for example) saying it proves the Duce is in Putin's pocket.

Sure, he's in Putin's pocket, somehow.

But this isn't that.

They'll stretch out the thing as long as they can, anyway.

Campaign season.

It is no accident . . .

. . . that Frost/Nixon is now on Netflix.

I had forgotten what a swine Nixon was in ways tawdry and contemptible as well as larger and more frightening.

He and Trump are much of a muchness, the key differences being that Nixon was by far much better informed, much smarter, took his job a lot more seriously, and did it way, way better.

He really was a loyal man who wanted to leave America better off and stronger, within the limits of his insuperable petty vindictiveness and consuming ambition.

Trump would trash America in a fit of pique - if he hasn't already - and otherwise could not care less about the country or his actual job as president.

He is useless or worse in pretty much all respects, and has been since day one.

Vlad just wants to enjoy peaceful and friendly relations with us. Really.

Russian intelligence officers offered cash rewards to Taliban fighters to kill US, UK troops in Afghanistan

And Trump has known since March.

Cruising for a bruising

The lesson that will be learned is that precipitous rollbacks set off a lot of unmitigated spread and additional deaths in every country where they happened.

Nothing will show whether they also averted economic damage that would have resulted in even greater harm.

Coronavirus: Russia now has second highest virus case total

Russia has confirmed more than 232,000 cases of coronavirus - the second highest toll in the world.

In the last 24 hours the country has reported 10,899 infections, the tenth consecutive day that number has been above 10,000.

Among the infected is President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, local media report.

He is the latest high profile official to test positive, after Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin caught the illness.

The news comes the day after President Putin eased the country's lockdown. 

Factory and construction workers returned to work on Tuesday, though Mr Putin gave regions freedom to set restrictions depending on local circumstances.

Despite the high number of confirmed cases, Russia's death toll is only 2,116.

Government officials say the country's mass testing programme is responsible for that low mortality rate, but many believe the number is in fact far higher.

A bit late for pro-Soviet propaganda, isn't it?

Europeans and Russians should remember what bound them together: anti-fascism

Apparently not.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko rejects lockdown, unlike Putin

Putin put a hold on the VE Day parade in Mosow.

Lukashenko is really more the man after Trump's own heart, on this.

Coronavirus: Belarus WW2 parade defies pandemic and upstages Putin

There were no tanks, and no parade of soldiers and veterans, in the heart of Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of victory in World War Two.

The Red Square 9 May parade was cancelled because of the pandemic but in neighbouring Belarus the parade went ahead in the centre of the capital Minsk, with a concert and festive fireworks planned as part of the programme.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appears unfazed by the pandemic. He has not followed the European pattern of imposing sweeping restrictions.

Russia is still under lockdown and for seven days in a row it has recorded more than 10,000 new Covid-19 infections.

And yet Mr Lukashenko refused to cancel his military parade, since it serves a patriotic purpose: to remind people of Soviet-era hardship and sacrifices.

Speaking ahead of the parade, he said: "They gave their lives so we could live today, that's why we can honour our heroes on this sacred day. We cannot do anything different."

Mr Lukashenko has been in power since 1994, exerting authoritarian control over Belarus in a style reminiscent of the Soviet era.

. . . .

The Belarusian authorities have registered 21,101 cases of coronavirus, having conducted more than 240,000 tests. They say 121 people have died.

. . . .

The EU has promised Belarus €60m (£52m; $64m) to help fight coronavirus - but only on condition that it fulfils WHO guidelines.

As big a liar as any of the Trump gang

Barr claims Trump-Russia investigation was FBI attempt to 'sabotage' the president

The mainstreaming of utter bullshit conspiracy theories and baldfaced lies on behalf of the Republican Criminal in Chief has gone pretty far, I'd say.

Coronavirus discrepancies and misinformation

Repeated reports have said there have been and continue to be more male than female deaths from Coronavirus and more black than white deaths.

These discrepancies could trace in part to differing infection rates and in part to physical/medical differences.

The latter is also doubtless in part a reflection of the differing economic/class circumstances of the races in America.

But here and there we have seen mention of another factor, widespread misinformation among American blacks encouraging riskier behavior that blacks were immune, that it was harder for blacks to get this disease, or that it would generally be milder among blacks than whites.

So, did all of this misinformation come from black nitwits and frauds analogous to the white nitwits and frauds of the right who have sown denial and other forms of Coronavirus stupidity among the population in general?

Or were there foreign sources like Russia and China?

Or perhaps foreign and domestic white racist sources?

Who did this?

MSNBC says Sanders "has suspended his campaign"

Campaign for what?

Is there going to be an election?

When? How?

Wisconsin voting mess sends a message for November

I would urge online voting is better than mail-in but I don't trust its integrity in a nation so deeply subject to the power of Trump and his allies, domestic and foreign.

It is certain that Republicans, a party that is ever more openly a national criminal gang, in the federal government, in state governments, and in local governments would actively work to enable Russian and other foreign opinion-forming operations as well as outright hacking on behalf of the politically vicious mob boss in the White House.

And I am entirely sincere in saying that.

Update.

Sanders is going on TV to make a formal announcement.

He is not expected to endorse Joe Biden.

Well, no.

Who would expect that from the most personally spiteful and bitterly anti-Democratic candidate for the Democratic nomination, ever?

Oh, is Bernie positive for the virus?

Update.

Actually, he congratulated Biden, called him a good man, and promised to campaign for him and work together with him to defeat Donald Trump, "the most dangerous president in history".

Trump urges Republicans to 'fight very hard' against voting by mail

Compare the things Republicans have to do to help their chances with the things Democrats want to do to help their chances.

What the GOP has to do is racist, Nativist, white nationalist, homophobic, misogynist, often outright criminal, and deeply anti-democratic.

What the Democrats want to do is just the opposite.

An increasingly politically imperiled oligarchy confronts an increasingly cogent and united popular opposition.

More great news for Iran and Russia

Iraqi leader asks U.S. to "lay down the mechanisms" for military withdrawal

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has asked the Trump administration to send a delegation to Baghdad to "lay down the mechanisms for implementing" America's military withdrawal. 

In a statement posted on his official Facebook page, Mahdi said Iraq was "keen to keep the best relations" with its allies, but noted the parliament's decision that the U.S. should "safely withdraw troops from Iraq."

The prime minister did not give a timeline, but according to the statement, he asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the phone Thursday "to send delegates to Iraq to lay down the mechanisms for implementing (the) Iraqi Parliament's decision."

Mahdi also told Pompeo "that there are American forces entering Iraq and American drones flying in its skies without permission from the Iraqi government, and that this constitutes a breach of the agreements in place."r

Several states have satellite data establishing the Iranians did it

Video appears to show missile strike as Canada and UK say they have intel Iran shot down Ukrainian plane

Meanwhile Iran is rearranging and even removing crash pieces on the ground, some of which have been identified in photos as Russian SAM wreckage.

Iran is lying and the Russians are backing them up.

Another nuclear accident in the land of Chernobyl

[T]he Russian military base near Nenoska, Russia, where a small nuclear reactor exploded last week.

In online posts and calls to local officials, Russians on Monday expressed anger that the explosion of a small nuclear reactor at a military test site last week has gone unacknowledged for days by their government.

“Even if it is not as dangerous as it seems, we deserve to know,” said Danil Kotsyubinsky, a resident of St. Petersburg who has been pressing local officials for information.

The accident, which has been cloaked in secrecy, took place on Thursday at the Nenoska naval weapons range on the coast of the White Sea in northern Russia, and it apparently involved a test of a new type of cruise missile propelled by nuclear power, American analysts say.

The explosion killed at least seven people, released radiation that briefly elevated readings in a city 25 miles away and set off a scramble by Western experts to ascertain what happened. 

They're testing development of a nuclear engine for cruise missiles.

To whom would that seem like a good idea?

Or, "what could go wrong?"

"Think of it like a mini Chernobyl on a missile," MIT's Narang said. 

"It's an air-breathing cruise missile and they put an unshielded mini nuclear reactor on it. Obviously, that's pretty bats--- insane. 

"We tried this in the 1960s and gave up for a reason, and this is why. It's very risky."

Thursday's accident is the latest sign that Russia's attempts to succeed where the U.S. failed are not going to plan. 

This is the latest of several failed tests since they started in 2017.

Cheryl Rofer, a retired chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb in New Mexico, believes Putin will never succeed.

"There are basic and fundamental engineering considerations that suggest that a nuclear-powered cruise missile with a very small power source will be very difficult or impossible to build," she wrote on the Nuclear Diner website Sunday.

That's because of how difficult it is to make this type of missile light enough but with enough power to fly. 

But the main reason it was abandoned in the past is the design has the potential to spread radioactive particles over the ground as it flies. 

In the 1960s, the U.S. did not want to test its rocket in Nevada or over the Pacific because of the risk it could veer off course and cause an environmental catastrophe.

"Is it dangerous? Yes!" Lewis said. 

"I think the phrase 'flying nuclear reactor' tells you all you need to know. 

"You've got air blowing through an open nuclear reactor and spewing out the back."

Putin is worried US anti-missile technology, reputedly now practically useless, will improve sufficiently to provide the US with what American policy leaders - though perhaps only the loonier - might think of as a first strike capability.

An unlimited range cruise missile looks like an answer, and a nuclear engine looks like the way to power it.

Meanwhile, we are still in NATO

Serious Buchananites need to consider how we might deal with issues of nuclear balance and security from outside NATO.

Hard enough nut to crack from within, no?

Nato and Russia trade barbs after collapse of nuclear arms treaty

The Duce continues dogged by piss poor vetting of prospective nominees

Trump withdraws Ratcliffe as Intelligence pick

Ratcliffe, a three-term congressman who sits on the House Intelligence, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, has received criticism for having a dearth of national security qualifications when compared to previous intelligence chiefs.

He is viewed as a staunch Trump ally and has criticized the origins of the Russia investigation, suggesting the FBI acted improperly in its investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

Trump may have been seeking to name somebody to the job who, like him, is skeptical of continued American participation in NATO and other Cold War alliances.

It could not be clearer he regards Putin and Putin's Russia as not remotely as threatening to the US or to US interests as the now defunct Soviet Union was, back in the day.

Or anyway was seen to be.

In a city of globalists, it's not going to be easy to find somebody both competent and ideologically congenial to Trump's isolationist side.

C&L in the lead, this morning.

The Russians are coming and racism, racism!

That's all they've got, the left-wing-noise-machine.

A furious shit-storm of both.

Murder is a political tool of authoritarians

And as natural as breathing to an ex-KGB man.

Fears of Navalny Poisoning Are Rooted in Previous Attacks on Kremlin Foes

Mr. Navalny, 43, the most prominent critic of President Vladimir V. Putin and his government, was rushed to the hospital on Sunday from his jail cell, suffering from swelling and hives, which officials described as an allergic reaction. 

He was sentenced last week to 30 days in jail for organizing an illegal protest, days before a demonstration he had called drew thousands of people in Moscow on Saturday.

Dr. Vasilyeva, who had treated him previously, said on Sunday that Mr. Navalny might have been poisoned with an unknown chemical substance. 

The Interfax news agency quoted a doctor at the government hospital where he was admitted as saying that he had suffered from an attack of hives, but had improved.

Unease among his fellow opposition members and supporters stemmed from the Kremlin’s long history of eliminating its opponents, often by poisoning them.

Mr. Putin has tried to build an image of a powerful, united Russia, and anyone who would undermine that strength or point out that much of the country lives in poverty is often the target of official ire.

Independent journalists, rights advocates, opposition politicians, government whistle-blowers and others are smeared in the media, jailed on dubious charges and, in some cases, killed. 

Mr. Navalny himself temporarily lost most of the vision in one eye when someone threw a caustic liquid into his face in 2017.

Unnecessary roughness

Vicious pols just can't help themselves.

It's in their nature, like the scorpion that kills the frog he's riding across the water.

Nixon was ruined by the Watergate break-in, a totally unnecessary "dirty trick" in an election campaign he won by the greatest landslide in American history.

Moscow police arrest hundreds of protesters ahead of election

Putin has enormous popular support, as do his allies.

And so?