@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Ritter’s Rant 053: Money Makes the World Go Around https://open.substack.com/pub/scottritte
Ritter’s Rant 052: Money Makes the World Go Around
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/ritters-rant-052-money-makes-the?r=1vhv3f&triedRedirect=true9
Project 38 promotes nuclear arms control and better relations between the US and Russia. It’s success to date is because of the donations provided by supporters. But our work isn’t done.
Sep 12, 2025
Transkripzioa:
Hello and welcome to this edition of Ritter’s Rant. Today we’re going to be talking about money. Yeah, I’m doing it. This is a fundraising appeal. But before I talk about reaching out to 10 Cup and asking for donations, let me give you a brief rundown of what your donations have accomplished to date.
As many of you are aware, in July, I announced what I call Project 38. That is a campaign built around a concept that is going to result in a documentary film of 38 minutes that uses the situation that transpired in Hawaii back in January of 2018, when for 38 minutes,
the citizens of Hawaii thought they were going to die from a nuclear missile attack. Yeah. You know, they were saying goodbye to their loved ones. They really thought this was it. And from this situation, I asked two questions. If you were on the ground with that missile coming in, knowing you were going to die,
what would you do if you could go back in time six months to stop that missile from being launched? And then the second question is, why aren’t you doing that now? And what Project 38 does is try to put together a plan to do just that. The new START treaty,
the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation expires in February of next year. And without a new treaty vehicle, we’re looking at a nuclear arms race that only leads in one direction, and that’s not a good direction. And so the question is, how do we get that treaty to be extended?
And how do we create an environment that’s conducive to negotiations between Russia and the United States? And so we have to begin attacking this problem. One of the critical things is to create an environment conducive to negotiations, we have to address the underlying issue of Russophobia in America today because Russophobia dominates our media, our academia,
our intelligence services, the people who advise the president of the United States, the people who make policy. And the best, you know, antidote to the poison of Russophobia is Russian reality, just the facts, the truth about Russia. And the best way to capture this reality is to continue a process that I’ve been doing for years now.
of traveling to russia meeting with russians and listening to russians and bringing home this reality and trying to disseminate it to a broad american audience so that we create the foundation upon which we might be able to convince president trump that arms control and extending the new star treaty is actually good for america
will make america great again and so in august i did this now You know, it’s imperative to understand that we live in a very difficult time where anybody who challenges the mainstream narrative is immediately attacked. I’ve been called a lot of names in my time. I’m Putin’s puppet. I’m a tool of Russia.
You can go on and on and on and on. None of it’s true, but, you know, it doesn’t matter. Perception creates its own reality. And so, therefore, it was imperative that when I returned to Russia this August to continue this work of, you know, creating the antidote to the poison of Russophobia,
that I do so pain my own way. And because, you know, yes, there are many groups in Russia that would gladly pay the airfare, pay the hotel for myself and others to travel to Russia. And they would do it out of the kindness of their hearts because, you know,
it benefits them to have Americans come and see the truth. But the problem is, if you take advantage of this kindness, it opens you up to being called putin’s puppet a tool of russia and so i paid my own way i paid my airfare i
paid my hotel i paid my meals i paid the costs of uh associated with uh with my aspect of this trip and um it cost a lot of money several thousands of dollars that i couldn’t have done on my own it was you the people who provided the donations that made this trip possible.
And this trip was a home run, just so you understand. You know, for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. And the success that I had in capturing the Russian voice and bringing it back to America, you know, there’s a pushback. And I would say that when we speak of preparing a foundation that is conducive to
negotiations, it’s not just preparing the United States, but preparing Russia as well. And, you know, this trip that I undertook, the Russians themselves said it was an information bomb that was set off by this trip. In fact, many Russians thought that, you know, because I was there a week before the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, that…
you know i was part of the u.s government’s strategy that i was sent over by the u.s government to create this aura of goodwill that wasn’t the case at all but i’m very glad to find out that the russians received me and the work i was doing in a
positive manner this is conducive for ongoing efforts of this nature But this is the best way to have started off Project 38 with this fantastically productive visit that set the stage for even more important work going forward. But it couldn’t have been done without your donations. Now we’re moving into the next phase of it. On September 24th,
I’ll be convening a three-day workshop in Poughkeepsie called the Poughkeepsie Peace Initiative, where I will be bringing in specialists, political specialists, arms control specialists, intelligence specialists, people who know Russia inside and out and have expertise in Russia. And we will be talking about how we can build upon this August trip to create
what I call Team B, or I think a better term for it would be a citizen engagement team. This is a team of experts that can provide the President of the United States and his advisors with supplemental briefings. You see, right now the President is being briefed by so-called Russian experts in the
intelligence community who don’t have the best interests of his policies in mind. In fact, we just saw the high-profile firing of one of these briefers, Julia Gergenis, who used to be the National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia and the National Intelligence Council, formerly of the Russian Mission Center. You know,
she played a very important role in putting together the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment that falsely said that Vladimir Putin was seeking to tip the scales of the American electoral process in favor of Donald Trump. That now has been shown to be a lie, not just a lie, but a politicized lie.
And she was knee deep in that politicization. And yet this CIA asset who was conspiring to undermine President Trump in his first administration was briefing President Trump before the Alaska summit. Think about that. As President Trump is moving forward to have a meeting with President Putin to improve U.S.-Russian relations, a CIA analyst who, first of all,
doesn’t like President Trump, and second of all, doesn’t believe we should be having good policy relations with Russia, is briefing the president about Russia. Now, she has lost her security clearance, and she won’t be making these briefings again, but the point is, As American citizens,
can we really sit by and do nothing as the CIA continues to poison the waters of potential peace with Russia? And the answer is no. We can’t stop the CIA from existing. Of course, the CIA will take advantage of their status to continue to provide briefings to the president.
But I think it’s important that American citizens who are empowered with the truth about Russia seek to offset this bias, this anti-Russian bias, this Russophobic infected bias by providing a perspective based upon the Russian reality. And this is what we’re going to be doing in Poughkeepsie, bringing people together, flying them in.
from various places, putting up in hotels, feeding them. You know, it doesn’t happen for free. And again, it couldn’t have been done without the donations that have been provided to date. And we have sufficient funds to make this happen. I’m not asking money for Poughkeepsie. We already got it. Thank you. And it’s going to be wonderful.
And your money is also helping out with a rally, a peace rally that’s going to take place on September 27th in Kingston, New York, where I’ll be working with Gerald Solante and others to, again, promote the prospects of peace, to promote the concept of good relations with the United States and Russia, to, again,
continue to help educate people. I’m not asking for money for that either. You’ve already given that money. What you’ve given today is creating these wonderful opportunities, but the campaign’s not over. In November, I’m scheduled to go back to Russia. And as things stand, there’s not enough money to do this. Now,
there’s a lot of time between now and November, and I’m very optimistic that the funds will come in and this trip will be, you know, accomplished as planned. But, you know, No man can do things by himself. Everything requires a team effort.
And one of the things that came out of August’s trip is that there’s a necessity to bring in other so-called alternative journalists. Actually, Patrick… Lawrence, a very well-known journalist, I just had a meeting with him in September earlier this month in Switzerland. They said he doesn’t like the term alternative media because that implies somehow a
subservient role to the mainstream media. He says, no, we are the real media. We’re not the fake media. We’re not corporate-owned media. We are real, legitimate journalists who are doing our job. And we need In order to do our job, we have to have access to Russia,
which means that it can’t just be Scott Ritter that goes to Russia. We have to start bringing other journalists into and exposing them to the Russian reality and rely upon them to assist in sending this message out. And right now. Garland Nixon, a friend of mine, a colleague, somebody who’s well known to many of you,
he has indicated that he would like to join me in Russia in November and to begin the process of empowering himself with the Russian reality so that he could take this message to the United States. Again, though, in order to preserve the integrity of this effort, this is something that has to be paid for by us.
Garland and I have the independent checking accounts where we can just go off and write $5,000. And basically to send Garland to Russia for 10 days is about a $5,000 proposition. We need help. And this is why I’m appealing to you. And then when we finish with this November trip, and trust me,
the things we’re planning for November will put will make August seem like a very small endeavor. And August was a huge endeavor. I don’t want to give away the farm. Many things are unknown right now. But November has a great potential for helping propel us into December, where we want to have the meeting with President Trump.
And therein also lies the rub, because in December, we need to book the National Press Club, and we need to host another panel discussion, the Citizens Engagement Team, so that we can make a briefing to the public as a way of creating an awareness and sort of an impetus, a momentum to gain access to the White House.
renting the National Press Club is a very expensive proposition, $15,000. And to bring in people and host them in Washington, D.C. for the two to three days that will be required for this endeavor also will cost several thousand dollars. This is where, again, we need your assistance. It can’t be done without you.
A lot of people are out there asking for your money. And I know economic times right now are difficult. People don’t have money to give. First of all, if you don’t have the money to give, That’s okay. There’s no resentment here. Please just continue to watch, follow, read, empower yourself, and provide the support that comes with,
you know, where I know that there are people out there who say what we’re doing is right, and they support what we’re doing. This is very important. But if you do have the ability, and believe me, every dollar counts, if you have the ability to support, this is God’s work. This is literally something that could
result in the extension of an arms control treaty the prevention of a nuclear arms race the prevention of nuclear war and in the process the betterment of relations between russia and the united states this is an all hands effort this is a team effort You know,
I’m not narcissistic and I’m not the egomaniac that some say I am where I say this is all about me. I’m doing this on my own. I know I’m not doing this on my own. I know that I’m doing this as part of a team effort. And every one of you who donates is part of that team.
And we are doing good work. We have done great work. And there are things that have yet to be done that can only be done if the whole team lines up in support. I promise you that I will not waste your money. I will not spend your money extravagantly,
that all of your money will be used to pursue this objective, this objective of peace, this objective of nuclear disarmament, this objective of a world free of the fear of nuclear war. That’s my promise. And I promise that the people that I work with will do the same.
um so if you’re able please money money makes the world go around it’s a famous song but it’s also true because without money all of these things that we’re trying to do can’t be done so thank you for those who have donated and thank you for those
who might be considering donating in the future i promise you your money will not go to waste That’s been my rant. Next time a thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know. Thank you.
oooooo
@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Ritter’s Rant 054: Genocide
https://open.substack.com/pub/scottritte
Ritter’s Rant 054: Genocide
Israel is committing genocide. The question now is what is to be done about it.
Sep 16, 2025
Transkripzioa:
Hello and welcome to this episode of Ritter’s Rant. Today we’re going to be talking about genocide. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has come out with a report that basically says that what Israel is doing today in Gaza constitutes genocide. No ifs, ands, or buts. Basically,
every measure that Israel is taking in regards to the Palestinian civilians of Gaza meets the criteria set for genocide. set by the United Nations, set by the international community, set by the United States. And yet, the United States and indeed much of the world appears to be in… We just failed to acknowledge this. We were in denial.
I just went for a walk today in my neighborhood. And I’m shocked how many signs are on the yards of people. We stand with Israel. Well, today, thanks to the Human Rights Commission, now we know that if you stand with Israel, you stand with genocide. And there’s just no other way to put it.
You can’t stand halfway with Israel, partially with Israel. If you say you support Israel in any way, shape or form, you’re supporting the genocidal state. And so what is to be done? What is to be done? Because we’re at the point where we have to acknowledge that Israel’s continued
existence as a viable nation state is an insult to humanity. It’s a dire direct threat to humanity because Israel only believes in Israel. their leadership has all but acknowledged this. The bottom line is Benjamin Netanyahu has said that if Israel wants to bomb you, Israel will bomb you anywhere, anytime, anyplace.
And as long as the United States continues to support Israel, then Israel will not be deterred in this behavior and will continue to behave as such. And what is the collective world going to do? What have we seen? The Middle East, the Arab world together with Iran came together in a conference in Doha to talk
about how to respond to the Israeli act of aggression against Qatar, a sovereign state, an ally of the United States. And the end result is not a damn thing is going to happen. Nothing. Zero. The world is incapable of coming together to deal with Israel because of the United States, because of America’s continued support of Israel. Now,
Look, American support of Israel doesn’t automatically translate into a strong Israel. In fact, what we’re seeing today is Israel floundering, floundering badly. Benjamin Netanyahu, the same prime minister that’s ordered this genocide, has acknowledged that Israel today is largely isolated on the international stage. And he said that Israel will have to learn how to become economically self-sufficient.
What a joke. concept of israel being economically self-sufficient what he’s saying is that israel will have to learn how to live off of the aid the largesse provided by the united states its only friend its only supporter and the irony here is that while america may seek to behave as a friend and allied israel israel most certainly
doesn’t behave as a friend and an ally to the united states i mean Historically, we know this to be the case, the attack on the USS Liberty, the case of Jonathan Pollard, the spy who stole the crown jewels of the American intelligence community and gave them to Israel.
And then Israel sold them to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, giving away everything. Is that what a friend does? We know that Israel to this date continues to spy on the president. They continue to implant electronic listening devices so they can find out what’s being said about Israel.
That’s not what a friend does. Israel’s not America’s friend, but Israel can’t survive without America being Israel’s friend. And this is their Achilles heel. We need to find a way in the United States to create the political momentum that politically nullifies Israel’s base of support here in the United States. President Trump has spoken about this.
He said that already he sees in Congress that Israel has less influence on today’s Congress than it has enjoyed historically. We need to make this even more so. But it’s more than that. You know, there was a time when the Ku Klux Klan reigned supreme here in the United States, especially in the South,
but even in the North. where racism was accepted. Indeed, you couldn’t hold political office unless you were a racist. Just ask Bull Connor in Alabama. Wallace, again, Alabama. You know, if you didn’t view the whites as the supreme race, you couldn’t hold office. Well, America’s turned the page. Why?
Because we have gradually come to learn that racism is bad. when we have a constitution that speaks of all men being created equal that means all men of all colors of all ethnicities of all religions equal in the eyes of not just god but of their fellow americans so today if a member of the ku klux klan
goes to the center of a square flies the stars bars of the confederacy puts on his white robe and uh shouts you know white supremacy the vast majority of americans are going to look at him with disgust not going to rally around that cause because we recognize the evil nature of racism
that doesn’t mean that racism doesn’t exist of course it exists exists here in the united states it’s still a problem but it’s not mainstream the way it used to be because we have recognized the evil of racism it is imperative that we start recognizing the evil of zionism and equate zionism to racism
and treat Zionists with the same disgust that we treat members of the Ku Klux Klan, that we treat white supremacists, that we treat racists of any way, shape or form. So that when people decide they want to put a we stand with Israel sign in their yard,
we collectively should treat that as we want to lynch black people because it’s the equivalent. Because if you’re saying we stand with Israel, you’re saying we support the genocide, the ongoing genocide. It’s no longer a debatable matter. The United Nations has determined that Israel is committing genocide.
The United States has established a precedent of what genocide is and what genocide isn’t. First of all, the United States acknowledges that this is a political question. That’s sort of funny, isn’t it? When we’re talking about the mass extermination of people, it’s a political question whether or not we will recognize it as such.
But, you know, we did set a standard. If you take a look at what we called genocide in the past, for instance, the ISIS genocide against the Yazidi of Iraq. where ISIS singled them out because of their ethnic and religious affiliations and carried out mass kidnappings, the sexual enslavement of women, et cetera, of the murder, the shooting.
And we’re not talking about huge numbers here. We’re talking about tens of thousands of people, very tragic. I’m not trying to minimize it. But we said that is genocide because ISIS singled out a group of people for this kind of cultural extermination. What is Israel doing to the Palestinians of Gaza, if not singling them out?
I mean, it’s time that we reflect on what’s happening here. This is mass murder on a scale that’s unprecedented in modern history. Mass murder of civilians. The deliberate targeting of civilians. They are shooting children in the head. The snipers, the Israeli snipers. Doctors are saying the corpses all have the same evidence. A single bullet in the head.
Who’s firing the bullet? The Israeli snipers. That means they’re targeting children. They’re targeting women. targeting civilians they’re targeting homes right now they’re dropping homes to do what to ethnically cleanse the neighborhood to drive people out eventually to drive all palestinians out of what is called gaza what is called palestine this is a
crime this is a crime against humanity and it can’t be allowed to continue and yet there it is the mass murder of people how do we stop it We have to start calling evil for what it is. And Israel is evil. Israel is a manifestation of evil. And support for Israel can no longer be tolerated.
We have to come together and start making sure that the people that support the Zionist entity we call Israel, we call Israel, this criminal enterprise, this cancer on humanity, that anybody supports that should be treated the same way as anybody who supports the Ku Klux Klan or other hate based groups.
We wouldn’t allow Nazi Germany to reappear, would we? Oh wait, we have in Ukraine. But the point is, no, we’ve recognized it. And I bring up Nazi Germany as a way of closing this. You know, what’s happening in Israel today, the mass eradication of an entire, or in Gaza today,
the mass eradication of an entire neighborhood to drive civilians out towards slaughter is very similar to what happened In Warsaw in 1943, April, May 1943, the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, where SS troops, backed by their Nazi auxiliaries, went in to finish off the remaining 70,000 to 80,000 Jews who live in a
neighborhood where once were 400,000 Jews, but the Germans drove them out, drove them to concentration camps, killed them. Now they went in, there’s some resistance. People were underground fighting. Over the course of a month, the Germans basically leveled the entire neighborhood, killing 7000, capturing 7000 more and taking the 42000 survivors and sending them to
concentration camps where the vast majority of them were gunned down within two days in a mass act of revenge. The Warsaw Ghetto, right next to the Warsaw Ghetto is a park, the Saxon Gardens. And you have to know that in the Saxon Gardens, which are just beautiful,
there had to be Polish civilians walking there while the eradication of the Warsaw Ghetto was taking place. There was a wall. Maybe they couldn’t see it, but they could see the smoke. They could hear the sounds. They could hear the machine gun fire. They could hear the explosions. They could hear the scream of the women and children.
And they did nothing but to continue to stroll. That’s the world today. We’re walking in the modern day equivalent of Saxon gardens while the Israelis commit mass murder and we pretend it’s not happening. It’s time to tear that wall down. It’s time to call it out for what it is. It’s time to demand that it stops.
It’s time to hold Israel accountable for the crimes they are committing. That’s my rant. The next time a thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know. Thanks.
oooooo
@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Silence
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/silence?r=1vhv3f&triedRedirect=true)
“It is clear there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.” United Nations Human Rights Council
Sep 16, 2025
(…)
Israeli bombs destroy Gaza homes
I watched a video on my cell phone the other day. It showed an Israeli bomb striking a building in Gaza. After the sound of the blast diminished, you could hear the screams and cries of the people trapped inside the flaming rubble as they burned to death.
That sound haunts me, just like the sound of little Hind Rijab’s voice as she cried for someone to come and help her in the last minutes of her life, which was tragically cut short when an Israeli tank opened fire on the car where Hind Rijab sat, surrounded by the dead bodies of her Aunt, Uncle and cousins. Her last words hit the hardest. When asked by a Palestinian medic why she wasn’t speaking, Hind replied, “I’m not talking because every I talk blood comes out of my mouth and makes my clothes dirty and I don’t want my Mom to have to clean it.”
The Israelis fired 335 bullets into the car carrying Hind and her relatives.
The sound of this gunfire can be heard on the audio of the incident.
And yet the world is silent.
There is a literal genocide in Gaza taking place before the eyes of the world.
The people of Gaza are crying out for help.
And no one is doing a damn thing.
I often think what it must have been like to be a Pole in Warsaw in 1942-43, during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. To walk with your family in the historic Saxon Gardens (Saski Park), pretending not to hear the mass murder taking place a few hundred meters away.
In October 1940 the German authorities sealed off an area in downtown Warsaw that housed approximately 400,000 Jews. In the summer of 1942, the Germans began a series of mass deportations, evicting some 265,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. Around 35,000 Jews were killed in the Warsaw Ghetto during this time. By early 1943, there were only 70,000 to 80,000 Jews left inside the ghetto.
Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, 1943
In January 1943, Jewish resistance to efforts by the Germans to deport the remaining Jews of the ghetto broke out. In April 1943, the Germans dispatched thousands of SS soldiers and paramilitary auxiliaries to Warsaw, where they began the systematic destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. This violence took place over the course of a month. Entire city blocks were blown up and burnt down during this time. Some 7,000 Jews were killed in this fighting, and another 7,000 captured. Eventually the resistance collapsed, and the surviving 42,000 Jews were rounded up and sent off to various concentration camps, where most perished.
The citizens of Warsaw knew that the Germans were carrying out mass murder, and they went about their lives as if nothing was happening.
They were silent.
This silence echoes today as the world watches the progeny of those who perished in the Warsaw Ghetto carry out a modern-day reenactment of that mass murder, only this time it is the citizens of Gaza who are being systematically rounded up and murdered by the Israeli military.
There is no other way to describe what the Israelis are doing other than genocidal ethnic cleansing.
This is a war crime of unimaginable proportions taking place right before the collective eyes of the entire world.
Silence.
The civilians of Gaza are literally scraping the dead bodies of their relatives off the rubble of the buildings they once called home, but which are now being leveled by the Israeli military in a manner reminiscent of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Silence.
Hundreds of children’s bodies are being discovered, killed by a single bullet to the head fired by Israeli snipers.
Silence.
I walk through my sleepy suburban neighborhood, where many families have placed signs in their yards that read “We stand with Israel.”
They might as well read “We stand for Genocide.”
I imagine what the public response would be if the signs read instead, “We stand for the lynching of Blacks.”
Because it is the same sentiment, only disguised by language that hides the awful truth of what is transpiring.
Israel is the “Bull” Conner of the Middle East, and the civilians of Gaza are the modern-day equivalent of the Black lady who cried out for help on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama nearly six decades past.
It took a member of “The Silent Generation” to rally to that lady’s cause, ignoring the racism that dominated the times.
Because her cries for help could not be ignored.
Who among us will rally to the cause of Gaza today?
Who will brave the blatant racism of the Zionists who have infiltrated the very fabric of American society today—just as the blatant racism of “Bull” Conners had infiltrated the fabric of Alabama society in 1967—to come to those in need?
Are we going to be the silent Poles who strolled through the Saxon Gardens while murder took place beyond the walls that separated them from the Jewish ghetto?
Because racist-driven genocidal murder is taking place right now, in Gaza.
We know it.
We just opt to do nothing about it.
My Dad knew what to do when he heard a cry for help.
Do we?
We condemn ourselves with our collective silence, while a six-year old girl fears to speak less the blood that spills from her punctured lungs soils the dress her mother had so lovingly clad her in.
Hind had a reason to remain quiet.
We don’t.
Hind Rijab, age 6, murdered by Israel
ooooo
@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Ritter’s Rant 055: Coercion
Ritter’s Rant 055: Coercion
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/ritters-rant-056-coercion?r=1vhv3f&triedRedirect=true)
The pro-Israeli Zionists are using coercion to line up support for their genocidal policies.
Sep 17, 2025
Transkripzioa:
Hello and welcome to this episode of Ritter’s Rant. Today we’re going to talk about coercion. Yeah, that’s a bad word. In the context that I’ll be addressing it, it’s a bad thing. But let’s start off with the good news. The good news is that Brian Mast, yes, that pro-Israeli representative from Florida, you know, the former…
Army soldier who lost two legs in an IED incident in Afghanistan, went on to recover, and then for some reason decided he was going to volunteer and go to Israel and serve as a volunteer in the Israeli Defense Force, serve another country, and then come back and run for Congress. Then after October 7, 2023, had the gall,
the absolute gall to put on an Israeli uniform in the People’s House. y llamósele un American patriot. Sí, ese es un hombre. Se ha puesto un billón que, básicamente, challenges free speech, seeks to punish people for speaking out against these crimes that are taking place en Gaza hoy.
Y una de las cosas que he intentó hacer en este billón, que es un idiota porque, pues, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Conversations that could be deemed to be hateful by the Trump administration, by Marco Rubio himself. The First Amendment of the Constitution is quite clear. Congress shall pass no laws.
That’s a big one, Brian, you moron. Congress shall pass no laws that infringe on or abridge the free speech right of Americans or freedom of the press. Moreover, there’s other laws that prevent the United States from arbitrarily Denying People the Right to Travel, Freedom of Movement.
Marco Rubio cannot go and take your passport for no reason or for a reason that violates constitutional rights. These cases have been tried and prevailed. There was a while back when the United States seized the passport of an activist who was traveling to the Soviet Union.
uh and for 10 years he fought to get his passport back and finally the supreme court of the united states said that the united states government can’t can’t do this they had to return the passport and they did um they tried it for a year with
me took my passport uh got it back the the this provision was dropped this provision was dropped because it’s so blatantly unconstitutional so that’s the good news the bad news is there’s still coercion taking place um Lo que estamos viendo ahora es un reportaje de Max Blumenthal y otros, Candace Owens,
que está hablando de aparentemente prescribiendo a Charlie Kirk Bill Ackerman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, and others, you know, because Charlie Kirk started to speak out against his. Now, we’re getting two narratives. Ackerman’s coming out and saying, no, no, no, that’s not what happened. Everything was hunky-dory, holding hands, singing kumbaya, all friendly.
Old Charlie’s a good friend of Israel. Don’t worry about it. But other people are saying, no, it was a shouting match and intimidation. And Kirk left the meeting feeling intimidated, feeling that, que si no se linea con Israel, podría perder financiación, y podría perder financiación de otras formas.
Tucker Carlson ha hablado sobre la presión de la presión de él en el mismo modo. Así es Megyn Kelly, otra right-wing o conservative talk show host, que dice que también ha sido presionado por el lobby de la pro-Israelí a conformar o perder dinero, o de-platform o worse. No, no, no. How are they going to stop?
How are we going to put an end to this? Yes, the Constitution gives us certain protections. And yes, it becomes obvious when Congress seeks to overstep the lines, as Brian Mast was seeking to do. But as long as we put people like Brian Mast into office, we’re going to be susceptible to this president.
As long as we allow people like Ted Cruz to be a senator in the state of Texas, a man who said, I became a senator because I wanted to serve Israel, not America, Israel. Y ahora tenemos Charlie Kirk, que apparently estaba teniendo second thoughts sobre Israel, sobre el genocidio taking place, sobre el blind support que America provides,
y es dead. No estoy diciendo que Israel did it. No evidencia ha sido afuera que sugere que es el caso. Pero, mira lo que está sucediendo. Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s plataforma para influenciar la gente. Ben Shapiro, a pro-Israelí American Jew is saying, he’s going to take it over.
I’m going to pick up Charlie Kirk’s bloody microphone, he said. And apparently Ben Shapiro, a Jew who once said Jesus was a fraud, Jesus was a fake, is now going to go out there and preach the Christian ethic. Do you see what’s happening here? You see what’s happening? This is how the Zionists take control of the narrative.
Charlie Kirk is barely put in the ground and we got Ben Shapiro talking about how he’s going to pick up the mantle of conservative Christianity and lead the charge. Lead the charge where? Well, straight to the bank for Israel, apparently, because that’s what the Zionist lobby does.
This will continue until which time we, the people of the United States, put an end to it. I’m not promoting anti-Semitism at all. I’m not saying to do anything to restrict the right of American Jews to worship the way they want to. They have the same rights as Christians, Muslims, everybody.
The Constitution gives people the freedom of religion, that same First Amendment, by the way, and everybody has a right to it. And I believe that if anybody seeks to hold the American Jewish community accountable, por lo que los zionistas están haciendo en Gaza, que esto tiene que ser stopped.
Y yo voy a ser el primer alineado para proteger mi local synagogues o local Jewish community centers, para proteger los derechos de todos los americanos de la vida en paz, para proteger sus vidas con los mismos freedomses que todos enjoy. Esto no es sobre ser anti-Jewish, esto es sobre ser anti-Zionista,
sobre la denuncia de la gente como Ben Shapiro la capacidad de capturar cualquier vehículo de influencia que existe. En este caso, la ironía de un cristiano de un cristiano que hates cristianos, ha venido a llamar y llamar a los fraudos, diciendo que se va a pegar el micrófono de un cristiano de un cristiano y decir,
yo voy a llevar este charge. Yo voy a hacer un mejor trabajo de ser cristiano que un cristiano. That’s the ridiculousness of the Zionist platform, but it’s what it is. They put pressure on people. They step in. They bring money. They bring influence. They blind people. They lull them into a false sense of complacency.
They do it through the media. They do it through movies. They do it through influence. They do it through hedge funds. They do it through academia. The bottom line is they seize control of the narrative machine to make sure that the only message the American people hear is a pro-Israeli message, which in this case means pro-genocide,
because there is an active, ongoing genocide taking place in Gaza today. It’s not me saying that the United Nations Human Rights Commission has come out and said it straight up. So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Don’t be afraid. They can’t take your passport. They can’t put you in jail.
You’re protected by the Constitution. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself. So don’t be afraid. Stand up. Do the right thing. Don’t worry about being deplatformed. It’s our job to deplatform the Zionists. So let’s get to work. That’s my rant. Next time a thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know.
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@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Putin’s Gambit
There has never been a more important time for arms control. And the US government has never been so ill-prepared to meet this challenge. Enter Project 38.
Sep 22, 2025
Transkripzioa:
A US Minuteman III missile is launched from Vandenburg Air Force Base, California
Project 38 is a campaign that seeks to promote effective arms control and disarmament policy and, in doing so, avoid the dangers of a new nuclear arms race by promoting an alternative policy approach toward arms control and disarmament between the United States and Russia focused on the absolute need to keep the limitation on the sizes of the US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals imposed under the New START treaty intact. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently opened the door to such a possibility. It is Project 38’s mission to help US President Donald Trump pass through this door.
Arms control, as we currently know it, is on life support. Without major diplomatic engagement by both the United States and Russia, the concept of placing limitations of the strategic nuclear arsenals of both nations will evaporate. The last remaining strategic arms control treaty, New START, expires on February 5, 2026, and there currently are not any negotiations underway either to either extend this treaty or replace it with a new one. If New START dies, so too dies decades of hard work and precedent which saw the US and Russia move away from Cold War-era strategic nuclear arsenals that numbered in the tens of thousands of weapons for each side, to the current situation, which finds the number of deployable weapons capped at 1,550 each.
The reality today is that New START, as a functioning, verifiable arms control agreement, is moribund, its mission undermined by policies embraced by the US which are more defined by concepts such as containment, confrontation, and strategic defeat than issues of peace, de-escalation, and mutual prosperity. However, the structural limitations imposed by New START continue to serve as a force of influence when it comes to the strategic relationship between the US and Russia and, if allowed to remain in place intact even after the treaty itself expires, could greatly simplify any follow-on treaty that might be negotiated down the road.
This appears to be the premise as put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin in comments made while addressing the Russian Security Council. “Russia,” Putin declared, “is ready to continue to observe the key limitations of New START in terms of numbers for a year following February 5, 2026. Subsequently, we will make a decision on whether to keep the voluntary self-imposed limitations, based on our assessment of the situation.”
This decision was not, Putin noted, automatic. “We believe,” Putin said, “that this measure will only be viable if the United States acts likewise, refraining from any steps that could undermine or upset the existing balance of deterrence capabilities.”
Of critical concern to Russia are the plans articulated by the administration of President Trump to deploy what is known as the “Golden Dome” missile defense system. Putin has tasked the relevant Russian agencies to monitor these plans, adding that the deployment of the kind of space-based weapons envisioned under the “Golden Dome” concept would undermine the efforts undertaken by Russia to maintain strategic stability, and by extension preclude Russia from continuing to observe the limitations that exist under the New START treaty.
When Project 38 was announced last month, the principal goals were to get the Trump administration to:
(a) engage meaningfully on extending New START as a means of sustaining strategic stability between the United States and Russia regarding nuclear weapons;
(b) to begin negotiations with Russia to craft a replacement arms control treaty with Russia that avoided a new arms race while promoting further cuts in the nuclear arsenals of both the United States and Russia; and
(c) to delay efforts to deploy the Golden Dome shield while these arms control talks are underway, with the understanding that a successful negotiation would preclude the need for the Golden Dome system.
President Putin’s comments to his Security Council underscore the absolute imperative contained in these goals and objectives. In short, Project 38 is even more relevant today than it was when announced back on August 20.
One of the complicating factors is the fact that President Putin has taken the extension of New START off the table. It seems that the primary reason behind this decision is the unwillingness to date of the Trump administration to enter negotiations with Russia on the practical steps necessary to implement such an extension.
This creates a very delicate new reality. Void of an agreed upon treaty vehicle, there are no legal constraints in place regarding either the size of the respective strategic nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia. Nor is there a binding treaty vehicle in place to buffer against the destabilizing effects of strategic initiatives outside the framework of New START, such as missile defense (i.e., “Golden Dome”.)
The Trump administration is on the cusp of making several decisions which will impact the strategic nuclear posture of the United States. These include programs designed to modernize the nuclear triad that serves as the foundation of the US strategic nuclear enterprise, and moving toward implementation of the “Golden Dome” missile defense shield. Any decisions made regarding either of these issues have the real possibility of undermining or upsetting the existing balance of deterrence capabilities, the red line established by President Putin when it came to continuing to voluntarily adhere to the limitations on the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons defined under New START.
The good news is that President Trump is aware of the dangers associated with allowing the limitations on the size of the nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia to end. Speaking to reporters on July 25 of this year, President Trump stated that “[New START is] not an agreement you want expiring. We’re starting to work on that,” adding that “It’s a problem for the world. When you take off nuclear restrictions, that’s a big problem.”
The bad news is that the Trump administration has gutted the very diplomatic institutions that are needed to negotiate a follow-on arms control treat with Russia. Under a reorganization plan announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on July 19, the bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation has been merged with the bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance under a single assistant secretary, literally doubling the workload while operating with a significantly reduced staff.
The Trump administration’s incoming Undersecretary of International Security and Arms Control, Thomas DiNanno (who has yet to be confirmed by the Senate) will likewise have an enlarged portfolio which includes International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism, and Emerging Threats. Secretary Rubio has further hamstrung his arms control team by eliminating critical positions, including the entire Multilateral Nuclear Affairs team which led the State Department’s efforts to develop and implement US policy and participation in multilateral nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements, commitments, and multilateral bodies.
One of the critical goals of Project 38 was to convene a working group whose mission was to create a team of subject matter experts capable of formulating solutions to the existing arms control problem set, including the issues surrounding the expiration of New START, and organizing a team of experts prepared to offer advise to President Trump and his senior leadership on how to proceed with keeping the restrictions currently in place regarding the respective size of the US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals in place.
This citizen engagement team would likewise be prepared to discuss the critical connectivity between sustaining the New START limitations and proposed missile defense systems, highlighting the inherently destabilizing impact any effort to move forward on the “Golden Dome” missile defense system would have on arms control in general, especially when it comes to keeping the New START limitations in place.
The need for this citizen engagement team has never been greater. The combination of the time sensitive nature of the problem and the fact that the Trump administration is not currently organized to move this important arms control problem forward toward a solution makes the need for this team manifest.
This week a team of arms control and Russian specialists will be assembling in Poughkeepsie, New York under the auspices of the Poughkeepsie Peace Initiative (PPI). Over the course of two days, the PPI will work on crafting a briefing designed to be presented to President Trump and his national security team that will propose practical solutions to the arms control problem presented in the aftermath of President Putin’s statement to the Russian Security Council.
The Poughkeepsie gathering is but the first part of a public policy campaign the goal of which is to help position the Trump administration to take advantage of the opportunity presented by President Putin’s gambit.
Failure is not an option, because the security and safety of the US, Russia and the world depends on keeping the last vestiges of arms control intact while US and Russian leaders struggle with how to sustain decades of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament polices that have prevented nuclear war between our two nations.
The goals and objectives of Project 38 and the Poughkeepsie Peace Initiative are made possible by the kind donations of like-minded people of peace. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for those whose donations have enabled this initiative to move forward, and to encourage those who would like to help us take this project across the finish line to support us in any way possible, including simply providing the kind words of support which help motivate us all daily.
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The Scud Hunters
https://open.substack.com/pub/scottritte
The Scud Hunters
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/the-scud-hunters?triedRedirect=true)
A new serialized book by Scott Ritter, exclusively available on SubStack
Sep 22, 2025
The night of January 16-17, 2026 will mark the 35th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm. Much has been written about that conflict, mostly focusing on the victory of a US-led coalition over Iraq, which at that time possessed the world’s fourth largest army and was fresh off a nearly eight-year war with Iran which saw Iraq emerge victorious, albeit at a heavy cost.
The strategic air campaign which the United States unleashed against Iraq was unprecedented in modern history, a masterpiece of operational art which saw Iraq’s ability to wage war degraded at every level through the application of air power that had been designed precisely for purpose during the decades of Cold War.
And the ground war, once it kicked off, lasted a mere 100 hours before Kuwait, the invasion and occupation of which by Iraq in August 1990 served as the justification for Desert Storm, liberated and the Iraqi army reeling in retreat.
But Operation Desert Storm had a third facet of conflict that has gone largely unexplored in the various memoirs and histories that emerged in the aftermath of the conflict—a missile war which saw Iraq launch nearly a hundred modified Soviet-made Scud missiles against targets in Israel and the Arabian peninsula. To the extent that the missile war has been covered in post-war literature, it has been in the context of promoting the effectiveness of US-made Patriot missile as a “Scud killer”, and the heroism of US pilots and US and British commandos in hunting down the Iraqi missile launchers that threatened Israel.
However, the truth tells a different story.
The US diverted thousands of aircraft away from their assigned duties as part of the Strategic Air Campaign to instead scour southern and western Iraq in search of elusive mobile Iraqi missile launchers, and scores of US and UK special operators were dispatched into the expanse of western Iraq to hunt the launchers and their crews.
Patriot missile batteries were deployed to Israel and the Persian Gulf in order to provide an umbrella of missile defense against those Iraqi missiles that managed to elude the net being cast by the US and its allies.
And yet, when the war ended, not a single Iraqi mobile missile launcher had been destroyed. Iraq was able to launch missiles against Israel and the Arabian peninsula up until the last days of the conflict. And it is highly unlikely that any of the Iraqi-modified Scud missiles that were launched were successfully intercepted by Patriot missiles.
In short, everything that has been written about the missile war during Operation Desert Storm is premised on lies and distortions.
These lies carried over into the post-conflict period where UN weapons inspectors were dispatched to Iraq to oversee the elimination of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs, inclusive of their indigenously modified Scud missiles.
But the lies of Desert Storm carried over to the work of the UN inspection teams, impacting their ability to attain a final accounting regarding the disposition of Iraq’s missile force. In many ways, the missile war did not end with the ceasefire that was agreed to in March 1990, but continued for several years as those who hunted the Iraqi missiles during the war worked hand in glove with the UN weapons inspectors to finish the job they had started. Throughout, Israel loomed dangerously in the background, threatening to break apart a US-led coalition that would not survive Israel actively aligning itself against Iraq during the conflict, and poised to intervene decisively once the war ended.
The Scud Hunt never really ended, with commandos, spies and inspectors searching for missiles and the ghosts of missiles up until the very end, when the US government, acting on the basis of the lies that had been told over the years, invaded Iraq in 2003.
The story of this Scud Hunt, and those who carried it out, has never been told before.
The Scud Hunters tells this story, in comprehensive fashion, from the perspective of both the hunters and the hunted. One of a kind interviews and unique access to archival material previously inaccessible to historians and researchers, combined with the author’s first hand experience in virtually every aspect of this narrative, have resulted in a book unlike any other ever written about Operation Desert Storm and its aftermath.
It is a story the US government does not want told.
Which makes it a story that must be told.
Over the course of the next 18 weeks, I will be publishing The Scud Hunters in its entirety, one chapter at a time. The goal is to have this story published in full by the time the 35th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm rolls around.
The purpose of this book is not to embarrass anyone, but rather to tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.
The truth, it turns out, is far better than any manufactured narrative promulgated by those who fear the consequences of their lies. But many of those involved in this story, on both sides, are no longer alive, and most of the others are getting along in the years themselves, making telling the truth while the truth can still be told a top priority.
The failure to kill any Scuds during Operation Desert Storm in no way diminishes the courage of the American and British men who were given the job of doing just that. Their work should be known in the context of how it actually transpired, and not through the fictional haze manufactured by those who put perception above reality.
Likewise, the success of the Iraqi missile forces in the face of overwhelming military superiority on the part of the US-led coalition should likewise be known and appreciated for what it was—a classic David-versus-Goliath story.
The tireless work of the UN weapons inspectors, who had been given the Sisyphean task of discovering a truth no one was interested in being told, fills out this classic tale of right versus wrong.
The first four chapters of The Scud Hunters will be published for all subscribers. After that time, all subsequent chapters will be available to paid subscribers only.
The Scud Hunters is the byproduct of nearly 35 years of firsthand experience and research. The first draft of this book was written in 1992, with the final version completed in August 2025.
You can support the work that goes into producing original content such as The Scud Hunters through a paid subscription and/or a donation. Any support provided is greatly appreciated.
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@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
https://open.substack.com/pub/trendsinth
RACE AGAINST TIME: Will Israel ethnically cleanse all of Gaza, or will support collapse?
(https://trendsinthenews.substack.com/p/race-against-time-will-israel-ethnically?triedRedirect=true)
Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, spoke to The Trends Journal about recent developments
Sep 19, 2025
Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, spoke to The Trends Journal about the new Israeli offensive in Gaza, possible war with Iran, and whether or not the U.S. is planning on an invasion of Venezuela to oust Maduro.
Transkripzioa:
Hello, my name is Evan DeMarshan with The Trends Journal. I’m here today with Scott Ritter from scottritter.com. He’s the former UN weapons inspector. Scott, thank you for joining The Trends Journal today.
First question, Scott, we’ll get right into it. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan just signed a new military agreement with each other. This is after Israel’s bombing of Qatar. and it basically broadens their defense relationship that’s already been in place. Do you see any direct connection between this new agreement and Israel’s decision to bomb the Hamas leadership in Doha?
Well, you know, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have historically had very close relationships. Indeed, there’s an ongoing… agreement that has Pakistan provide manpower for the Saudi Arabian military. If you look at actually who is in the Saudi Arabian military outside of the National Guard, you’ll see a very large contingent of Pakistani sourced manpower. And a few years ago,
you know, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is looking to Pakistan to provide troops to assist in the conflict in Yemen. And Pakistan hesitated and eventually the parliament said no. And so there have been ongoing discussions ever since then about how best to strengthen the Saudi-Pakistani defense relationship.
And the reason why I bring this up is I don’t believe for a minute that these negotiations began the day after Israel bombed Doha. Something of this complexity, something of this importance, these negotiations have been going on for a long time. And I don’t believe that they would hurriedly rush this agreement after Hamas.
I think this is just reflective of longstanding Saudi-Pakistani defense ties that are now being formalized. And I think it happens completely independent of Israel’s decision to bomb Hamas in Doha.
We saw the Arab summit after in response to the bombing in Doha. And we got a strongly worded statement from there. No real action from any of these countries against Israel. Do you see that? Do you see any change in their posturing, these countries?
Will they be able to just sit back and move on from this without doing anything more than just that reaction to such a bombing?
Yeah, I don’t hold out any hope that the Arab world will suddenly, you know, develop a spine, especially when it comes to Palestine and Hamas. I mean, for decades now, the Arab world has sat back and done nothing while Israel carries out horrific policies of, you know, creating large-scale open-air concentration camps, ongoing violation of human rights,
and now we have just ethnic cleansing and genocide of an Arab people. But they’ve also been silent in the face of Israel’s ongoing bombing of Lebanon, an Arab country, of Syria, an Arab country, of Yemen, an Arab country. So this doesn’t surprise me at all. The Arab leadership is uniformly weak.
And I also believe that they are vulnerable. They feel vulnerable in the face of… an America that’s supposed to be their friend and ally, but clearly has shown that they’ll put the interests of Israel ahead of everything else. But there are no other options.
There’s no country in the world that’s capable of filling a vacuum that would be created if the United States left the Middle East. And so I just see the Arab world continue to do what they always do, betray the Palestinians and undermine their own sovereignty.
We see Israel just announced that they lost four soldiers today in Rafah. This is during their major offensive in Gaza City. Do you see this, Scott, as a bad military decision for Israel to now go into Gaza City under the auspices to defeat Hamas? Do you see, just from a military standpoint,
is this something that Israel is entering that they really won’t know how to get out of? How do you see this unfolding in Gaza City? Because this is a city where there were 1 million people, 1 million Palestinians, and they’re being moved out. I think 300,000 have been moved out, last I read.
Well, according to many Israeli military officers, including those on active duty, the answer is yes. According to Israeli reservists who refuse to show up to their units, the answer is yes. And according to the parents who will be collecting the remains of their sons and daughters who perish in Gaza, the answer is yes.
Israel will not prevail here. There’s no military solution to this problem. You know, Gaza City has been destroyed in terms of its above ground infrastructure. But below ground, there is still a vast network of interlocked tunnels where Hamas fighters are waiting to come out of the ground and kill Israeli soldiers,
which they will do on a daily basis. And eventually, the Israeli soldiers will go into occupation mode. They’ll make mistakes. They’ll get sloppy and they’ll die. um they will not win this will not end well for israel the um we see huckabee and
we also saw um marco rubio meeting with uh netanyahu earlier this week i think it was on sunday and he he solidified the us’s position in support of israel um you notice some kind of a doubling down from the trump administration each time israel takes a new every each time israel escalates in gaza doesn’t it seem
like the Trump administration doubles down in its support for Israel. Is this like a trend that you’ve noticed as well?
Yeah, the United States is like the parent that can’t say no to a spoiled child, except instead of the spoiled child demanding candy, Israel is demanding the right to commit ethnic genocide. But the United States has shown no ability whatsoever to stand up to Israel, whether it be from Congress or from the president. But even, you know,
the mainstream media. You know, Israel and the pro-Israeli narrative has been thoroughly insinuated into the very fabric of the United States. And we seem to have a collective inability to call out genocide when it’s taking place.
Do you see any off ramp here, Scott? Like what needs to happen for the genocide to end in Gaza at this point? I mean, everyone says that Trump could end it with a phone call to Netanyahu, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. So where does this end?
Does it end with the Palestinians in Gaza being like the surviving ones to be shipped to a new country or a new area where it’s going to be designated for them? Because we had Smotrich come out yesterday and he said it’s going to be a real estate bonanza. The Israeli government’s working with the U.S.
on how to divide Gaza up as we speak. How do you see this ending if you’re a Palestinian right now living in a tent in Rafa? What are the chances that you have for a future?
No chance whatsoever. I mean, maybe a handful will be shipped off somewhere. But a future, that would be a future as a permanent exile. Depending where you shipped, you just go from one open air concentration camp to another. If they’re not going to send you the United States, the United States refuses to admit people with Palestinian passports.
So, you know, there’s no future. This war ends one of two ways, with either Israel successfully ethnically cleansing the Palestinians from Gaza, committing genocide and war crimes without any consequence, because the United States will not prevent or will not permit the world to meaningfully engage on this, or
uh israel is defeated um but it has to be a fundamental defeat and you know we’re headed in that direction we’re we’re speaking of the absolute isolation of israel on the global stage we’re beginning to see nations start to take the kind of measures that should have been taken years ago stopping the sale of munitions to uh
israel to uh de-platform israeli athletes and international events to show that there is no tolerance of this uh and Also, economically, I mean, Netanyahu has said that Israel has to look to become, you know, economically self-sufficient, but they never will be able to do that.
So what he’s really saying is that the United States taxpayer has to continue to underwrite the cost of keeping Israel up and running. And at some point in time, there will be exhaustion here in the United States. So it’s a race against time. Can Israel kill all the Palestinians first or will Israel’s, you know,
Now, just to step back a little bit farther, I heard John Mearsheimer give an interview with Judge Apolitano. Judge Apolitano is going to be with us next weekend, not this weekend, the following weekend in Kingston, New York for the Occupy Peace Rally. I’m going to put a link below us for people to check it out.
john meersheimer was on the paul tano show and he said that he thinks that a war with iran another war between israel and iran is all but certain and he said in the fall is that something that you agree with you think israel and this his opinion is
that israel is determined to expand the greater israel and iran is the country that really does stand in its way to achieve its goals there um Do you agree that we’re going to be seeing a war with Iran and Israel again provoked by Israel?
There’s two things that mitigate against this. One is Turkey and the growing recognition in Israel of the danger posed by Turkey’s continued opposition to and concept of greater Israel, especially Israel’s expansion into Syria. And so Israel has to be careful about overextending itself in terms of a regional conflict with Iran, leaving itself vulnerable to Turkish engagement.
But two is Iran itself. Iran is not a defeated nation by any stretch of the imagination. Iran just tested a very advanced ballistic missile today. And the Iranians have a significant military capability. We can’t forget the fact that this last 12 day conflict was brought to an end
because Israel begged the United States to create the conditions for a ceasefire. It was Israel that had had enough. It come to the end of its tether. Iran, even though they were ready to accept this, they were prepared to continue. if there is another conflict, Israel will be very heavily damaged, very heavily damaged.
So I don’t see the inevitability of an Israeli-Iranian conflict because as things stand, I don’t see any positive outcome for Israel. Israel had a shot at… regime change at the beginning of their 12-day conflict, and they failed. I think Iran is even more resilient today. Israel, on the other hand, their air defense has not improved.
Yes, I guess today they announced the deployment of mobile laser systems. I’m not going to get into how easy it is to defeat these mobile laser systems, but I’m sure the Iranians have figured it out as well. It’s just a joke, an absolute joke. Israel has no defense. And if they have another go around with the Iranians,
Iranians will hit Israel with missiles that can’t be shot down. And Israel will run the risk of being destroyed. And the Israeli leadership knows this. So I just don’t see there being this impetus.
Scott, I’d like to just move to Ukraine now. I know we have a limited amount of time. Keith Kellogg, he’s the envoy to Ukraine from the U.S. I just read on antiwar.com. He said that he imagined a war, a conventional war between the U.S. and Russia.
And he said that the U.S., I think his quote was would kick Russia’s ass in a conventional war. And I guess that got some applause from the crowd that he said that in front of. Where do you see the Ukraine war? How do you see that unfolding? Because you had Trump today.
He said that he’s disappointed in Vladimir Putin for not agreeing to any kind of a peace deal. Do you see that war continuing to escalate or is there an off ramp there?
Well, the only off-ramp is total Russian victory, and that’s the direction that Russia’s heading, and Russia refuses to get off that off-ramp.
Is Trump just delaying for the next president to put this problem in the next administration’s lap? Or is Trump, do you think something will be resolved during Trump’s term?
I think this will get resolved during Trump’s terms, but not on terms dictated by Trump, on terms dictated by Russian reality. There’s not much that the United States, Europe can do to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to alter the approach he’s taken towards conflict resolution here. So I think Donald Trump is disappointed,
but he had artificial expectations from the start of the the influence that could be brought to bear on Russia. The best thing that Donald Trump could do is recognize the inevitability of a Russian victory and seek to preserve as much of Ukrainian sovereignty as possible. But the longer he plays these stupid games,
the less likely it is that Russia will be willing to compromise. Compromises take place when you’re willing to give something up. And Russia is not willing to give up anything in this conflict. So there’s nothing to compromise over.
Why do you think Trump surrounds himself with people like Keith Kellogg, Marco Rubio, even Pete Hegseth? These are all, you know, you could describe them almost as neocons. Trump said he’s going to be a peace president. Why would he surround himself with people like Keith Kellogg?
because it was the path of least resistance. Donald Trump is a politician that isn’t known for his detailed planning, his in-depth preparation. He’s a man who narcissistically believes he knows it all. And he’s someone who is susceptible to what I call expert syndrome. So you find somebody who is ideologically aligned and they suddenly become your
advisor and they whisper sweet nothings in your ear and you will embrace that narrative without challenging it. And when we take a look at people like Keith Kellogg, Pete Hegseth and others, these are people who are sycophants, straight up sycophants who will say anything to make this president happy.
This president is comfortable around sycophancy and therefore he is susceptible to the ideas that they have, even if these ideas are not reality based. You know, that’s what’s happened here. He needs to confront the fact that he has failed policy with Ukraine and that one
of the reasons why the policy has failed is because of advisers like Keith Kellogg and others, and they need to be replaced. And he needs a new, you know, slate of experts on Russia to tell them what the ground truth is, what the reality is in Russia. Until that happens,
we’ll continue to get bad advice whispered in the ear of the president who will seek to implement bad policy that’s doomed to fail.
And my last question, Scott, is what do you see unfolding with Venezuela? Trump said that we bombed a third vote. I don’t know exactly when that happened. But we have the naval assets not too far off the coast of Venezuela. We have Marco Rubio, who seems dead set on regime change in Venezuela and Caracas. Do you see,
I read, I think it was in foreign policy, a person said that it could be something that looked like the US attack on Iran when we bombed their nuclear sites. that he doesn’t see a troop invasion of Venezuela from the US if it got to it.
But he said that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an aerial bombardment, certain maybe drug cartels, infrastructure and things like that. Do you see the US escalating in Venezuela within the next few months?
I do. You know, as we speak, there’s a new national security strategy document on Pete Hegseth’s desk for final review before it’s turned into official policy. And this document speaks of, you know, implementing a strategy that focuses on creating Fortress America, America’s domination of the Western Hemisphere, the implementation of Monroe Doctrine 2.0.
Venezuela stands in the way of this. The female general command, southern command, has spoken about Venezuela’s oil. It’s spoken about the resources of South America and that it’s in America’s national security interests to be in absolute control of this. Venezuela has two strikes against it. They have Maduro, who is not a compliant, you know,
servant of American, you know, dictate. And they have oil, which is essential to our security. The Venezuelan grade of crude is ideal for American refineries that were built in the Gulf states specifically for the purpose of refining Venezuelan oil. And it would cost us hundreds of millions or not billions of dollars to, you know,
to reset this refining capacity. So we need Venezuelan oil and we could get it through using legal ways, but that only props up Maduro more. And then there’s the third thing, which is what I call the WMD aspect of this. Just like we manufactured a case of WMD against Iraq to justify invasion regime change,
we’re manufacturing a drug cartel connectivity between the Venezuelan government and drug cartels to say this is an excuse. When you put the three together and you combine the new national security strategy, I believe that we are in the midst of a regime change policy being implemented and that at some point in time,
the United States will use its absolute supremacy and military power to launch strikes that are the purpose of which are to not destroy narco trafficking infrastructure that doesn’t exist in significant quantities in Venezuela, but to destroy the security infrastructures, those the units, the establishment, the command and control of Venezuelan security forces loyal to Maduro,
while at the same time the CIA working with regional partners, Ecuador comes to mind, will seek a color revolution type affair that you’ll see a popular revolt against Maduro that will result in Maduro being ousted. I think this is inevitable. I don’t think there’s anything Venezuela can do to stop it.
And I don’t think there’s anything that Russia or China can do to stop it as well. The United States, once we embark on strategies of this nature, these things can go on for decades. So whether or not this is done before Trump leaves office or continues to fester afterwards, the fact of the matter is, you know,
we put our sights on Saddam Hussein back in 1990. In 2003, he was gone. We put our sights on Bashar al-Assad back in the early 2000s. 2023, he’s gone. You know, we can wait 10 years. We can wait 20 years. But the bottom line is Maduro is history.
His regime will be gone because it’s in the national security strategy vision that’s being articulated today to make it so.
Scott Ritter, thank you for joining the Trends Journal. Everyone, please go check out scottritter.com. That’s just scottritter.com. Scott, thank you for joining us. And I’m looking forward again to see you on September 27th in Kingston, New York at the Occupy Peace Rally. Scott, thank you for joining us. Thanks, Ed.
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@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Ritter’s Rant 056: Nonproliferation
Ritter’s Rant 056: Nonproliferation
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/ritters-rant-056-nonproliferation?r=1vhv3f&triedRedirect=true)
President Trump talks a good game, but delivers little on the topic.
Sep 23, 2025
Transkripzioa:
Hello and welcome to this episode of Ritter’s Rant. Today we’ll be talking about nuclear nonproliferation. There’s a variety of topics that can be drawn into this, but let’s start with the President of the United States addressing the United Nations General Assembly. This is, of course, United Nations Week,
the General Assembly debate where the world’s leaders converge on New York City to basically engage in a bunch of nationalistic propaganda. Each leader gets up and says things that are to the benefit of them, their countries, and usually to the detriment of everybody else listening.
And this is no more so the case than when the President of the United States speaks. You know, really can’t say much about the substance of his address other than it was deeply insulting to the United Nations and the international community, especially those assembled to listen to the president.
But one of the things that struck me was the president’s call during this speech for the nations of the world to stop producing nuclear weapons and stop producing biological weapons. But because, by golly, if you don’t, bad things are going to happen. Well, Mr. President, you know, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Let’s start with American nuclear weapons. Your administration has not made any move to deal with what is one of the more pressing existential crises confronting not just the United States, but indeed the entire world, and that is the upcoming expiration of the New START Treaty. On 5 February 2026, this treaty, the last remaining vestige of
decades of arms control agreements that had been successfully negotiated and implemented between the United States and the Soviet Union, and later Russia, expires. You, Mr. President, are responsible for the lack of seriousness in which the United States approaches arms control, especially when it comes to Russia. It was your administration, after all, which in August of 2019,
withdrew from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, thereby undoing one of the landmark foundational arms control negotiations that had rid the world of an entire category of nuclear weapons, and you went through. And today, geez, how did that work out? Dark Eagle, the American hypersonic weapon, has yet to be deployed.
Oreshnik, the Russian counter, is deployed in serial production. And Europe is once again thrust into a very dangerous dark age where at any minute now, if war breaks out, collective civilization as we know it will cease to exist. And that’s on you, Mr. President. You, you did this. And now the New START Treaty is going to expire.
What have you done to promote this? You’ve said that you don’t want it to expire. On July 25th, you made such a statement. But less than a week prior to that, on July 19th, your Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, gutted the United States State Department. Gutted. 1,300 jobs gone.
Many of those jobs were related to intelligence, arms control, and Russian affairs. They’re gone, Mr. President. Not only that, the men and women who are supposed to lead the various departments and bureaus responsible for arms control, formulating arms control, implementing arms control, verifying arms control, they’ve been removed. And you’ve consolidated, consolidated these positions.
Now, this may seem like, you know, New York City business acumen. You consolidate, make everything more smooth. But no, when it comes to arms control, you actually need a dedicated bureau for it because it is a very complicated topic, a very complicated topic. But what you’ve done is take the bureau responsible for arms control and you’ve
consolidated it with other bureaus, such as those dealing with counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism. Now, I’m not here to diminish counter-narcotics. You’ve made it one of your flagship projects. Indeed, you’re blowing up Venezuelan tuna fishing boats as we speak under the pretense that you’re dealing with the narco-trafficking.
But while your guys are looking at Venezuelan tuna boats, who’s looking at arms control? What about counterterrorism? It’s real. It exists. I know you’ve decided to embrace Jolani, the ISIS al-Qaeda leader of Syria, and pretend that his history doesn’t exist and try and whitewash it as it was a tough history.
But, you know, there is terrorism in the world and you have people looking after that. Now, if the same people are looking after counter-narcotic trafficking, counterterrorism, who’s looking after arms control? The answer is nobody. In fact, the big honcho that’s supposed to be doing this hasn’t even been confirmed by the United States Senate yet. And even then,
you’ve consolidated his responsibilities so that the whole arms control agenda will be diluted. And the team that was supposed to look after multilateral nuclear arms control, you’ve just disbanded altogether. Who’s advising you on arms control, Mr. President? And the answer is nobody. And now this treaty will expire. And when it does,
you will find that the deep state you say you want to confront, that you want to dismantle, will turn on you in a dime and insist that overnight you take the American nuclear arsenal currently capped to 1,550 deployed nuclear weapons because of New START.
And they’re going to ask you to basically quadruple it, get it up to 6,000 to 8,000. Why? Because we have to. Because it’s in the interest of national security. And because you don’t have adequate advisors around you, you’ll probably say yes. How’s that for nuclear nonproliferation? Not very good. Now,
the Russian president that you seem to be disappointed in lately, Vladimir Putin, has offered you an out. Recognizing that the United States is not in a position to either extend the New START treaty or negotiate a new treaty at this time, he’s agreed to unilaterally, unilaterally extend voluntarily the caps on deployed nuclear weapons. That is 1,550.
Russia will say for one year, we’re going to keep it at 1,550. And they’re asking you to do the same. Why? So that you buy time to get your act together, Mr. President. Over in Russia today, there are people in the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs ready to discuss nuclear arms control,
ready to negotiate a new treaty. You need to build a team capable of doing that. And you need to give them the appropriate orders to make this happen. But you need time. Latin recruiting has given me a year, but the year isn’t free. You see,
Vladimir Putin also understands that you have a tendency to do really, really silly things. How about missile defense? You’ve been told that the United States should build a Golden Dome, the perfect ballistic missile defense system. But I hope you know by now, studying what happened in Israel, there is no perfect missile defense system.
And for every missile defense system, there are missiles that will penetrate that defense system. And right now, Russia owns a whole bunch of missiles that will penetrate any missile defense system you plan on building or think you can build. The Golden Dome, as conceived, will never work.
You can’t afford it, and the technology doesn’t exist, nor will it exist. But if you go forward with this concept, then all bets are off. The Russians won’t voluntarily cap their nuclear arsenal, because why would they? If you’re trying to build a missile defense system that’s designed to shoot down
Russian missiles while you maintain your missiles at 1,550, there’s now an imbalance. And Russia won’t go with that imbalance. Who’s advising you on this, Mr. President? Who’s giving you the advice about the Golden Dome and not deploy the Golden Dome? You’re getting bad advice. You need good advice. But that’s not even the major point.
Because now we have an issue of immediacy. You see, Iran. You know, Iran used to have its nuclear program monitored on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. But you unilaterally withdrew from that as well, Mr. President. And now we have a situation where your government, together with the Israeli government,
working with the International Atomic Energy Agency responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program, misused the trust and confidence given to the IAEA inspectors when they carried out their safeguards and additional protocol inspections, took the data that they gathered, turned it over to your military planners, Israeli military planners,
and together you launched a surprise attack against Iran seeking to eliminate their regime while destroying their nuclear infrastructure. Nuclear infrastructure, which by the way has been certified by the IAEA as being exclusively for peaceful nuclear power. Now you’re accusing Iran of developing a nuclear weapon. Well, guess what, Mr. President? They may now just be doing just that.
Not because they wanted to. They didn’t want to. Even until the very end, Iran said, we will have inspectors back in. They were negotiating for the return of IAEA inspectors. When Europe… backed by you, talked about snapback inspections, or I mean sanctions. That’s right. You’re going to snap back economic sanctions that are linked to the JCPOA,
thereby killing the JCPOA forever. Even though you withdrew from it, Europe ostensibly was still collaborating, but now they’re gone. What’s happening now? We have the Iranian parliament demanding, it’s called a request, but it’s pretty strong, that the supreme leader of Iran, modify the existing fatwa or religious edict that prohibits Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
They say that the fatwa should exist for Iran’s use of nuclear weapons, but that Iran should be allowed to develop nuclear weapons because Israel has nuclear weapons. And that’s the other thing, Mr. President. In your call for the world not to develop nuclear weapons, did you once mention the state of Israel?
Did you once mention Israel’s nuclear arsenal, one that exists outside of the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, One that exists void of any inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. I don’t think you did, Mr. President. And do you understand how imbalanced this makes you look? Nuclear deterrence, nuclear nonproliferation, all of these issues, Mr. President.
You’re inadequate when it comes to discussing this. You haven’t done a good job and you’re not doing a good job. And if you continue to fail at your job, the world will become a very dangerous place. Indeed, if the world continues to exist at all. That’s been my rant.
The next time thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know.
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The Death of a Nation
The Death of a Nation
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/the-death-of-a-nation-0d5?triedRedirect=true)
President Trump announced that he supports Ukraine’s goals of returning to their 1991 borders with Russia. He believes he is helping Ukraine. All he has done is insure the destruction of a nation.
Sep 24, 2025
Sep 24, 2025
Trump addresses the UN on September 23, 2025
With one stunning social media post, President Donald Trump ended all pretense at being a broker of peace between Russia and Ukraine. During his campaign in the 2024 Presidential election, Trump repeatedly emphasized that his goal was to bring the conflict to an end “within 24 hours” of being sworn in. While this timeframe proved elusive, Trump remained committed to achieving a lasting peace, even if he was unable to articulate a strategy on how exactly this would be accomplished.
Trump has, from the very onset of his presidency, been ill advised by a coterie of foreign and national security officials who, with very few exceptions, are dyed in the wool Russophobes. From his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to his National Security Advisor (initially Mike Waltz and, after his firing in May, Marco Rubio, wearing to hats ala Henry Kissinger), to his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to his CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, and on to his Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessant, Trump has surrounded himself with people who have spent their adult lives loathing Russia and its leadership.
To the extent that Trump has access to advisors who might advocate good relations with Russia, he either dismisses their advice (as is the case with Tulsi Gabbard, his Director of National Intelligence), or nullifies their advice by having a Russophobic counter (as is the case with his Russia Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, whose insights are offset by the anti-Russian positions held by Keith Kellogg.)
Trump’s base instincts, which incline towards not only ending the conflict in Ukraine but also normalizing relations with Russia, are subjected to considerable pushback from his inner circle, with little or no pushback coming from any other source. Making matters worse is the fact that America’s European allies are almost unanimously supportive of policies designed to keep Ukraine in a fight designed to strategically defeat Russia. As a result, what passes for Russia policy in the Trump administration suffers from severe vaccination as Trump is subjected to pressure from all sides to turn his back on Russia and its leader, President Vladimir Putin.
In August, it looked like the President’s instincts had won out, with Trump meeting with Putin in Alaska. This meeting resulted in Trump largely embracing Russia’s positions of conflict termination which would require Ukraine to agree to territorial concessions as well as limitations on its military size and political sovereignty.
Barely a month later, President Trump appears to have done a complete 180 degree turn regarding the issue of territorial concessions. “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account, “and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option.”
Trump then changed direction regarding his prognosis of how the conflict was progressing. Back in May, Trump acknowledged that Russian President Putin was not looking for an off-ramp from the conflict in Ukraine because Russia believed it was winning the war. This perception was held through the Alaska Summit. But Ukrainian claims of a successful counterattack north of Pokrovsk, and continued Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian energy targets, helped sway Trump into changing his analysis. “Russia,” Trump noted, “has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger.’”
Trump then went on to further characterize his perception of a weakened Russia now vulnerable to an emboldened Ukraine. “When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War,” Trump wrote, “the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!”
Ignore for the moment that Trump literally greenlighted actions which, if implemented, would most certainly result in a nuclear war. The fact is someone has convinced Trump that Russia is vulnerable militarily and economically. “Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble,” Trump declared, “and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
Trump closed by “wishing both countries well” and stating that the US “will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them.”
This post by Trump puts to rest any notion that he remains committed to solving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. No one should have been surprised by this move—Trump has been stating that he would walk away from the conflict if he were unable to get both parties interested in concluding a peace deal. Neither were, and this is the result.
On the surface Trump’s posting comes off as anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian. But the public posturing hides the simple truth that Trump is largely abandoning Ukraine to its inevitable destiny with fate. While Trump has embraced Zelensky’s narrative regarding Ukraine’s battlefield prowess and Russia’s economic weakness, he has taken no meaningful action to further either to Ukraine’s advantage.
Trump will not be altering his administration’s policies regarding arms sales to Ukraine, continuing instead to follow a formula which has Europe purchasing weapons from the United States and then transferring them to Ukraine. There is no change in the prioritization of manufacture, which is skewed in favor of replenishing depleted US stockpiles. The result is that the weapons Ukraine claims it so desperately needs will not begin flowing into Ukraine in any meaningful quantities until 2027.
Trump likewise has linked any decisive US move regarding the sanctioning of Russia to similar moves on the part of Europe, including the cessation of all purchases of Russian oil and gas and the imposition of sanctions on India and China as punishment for their continued purchasing of Russian energy. The problem is Europe is unable to meet these prerequisites, meaning that the US policy when it comes to the sanctioning of Russia will remain largely unchanged.
The reality is that Trump’s highly charged rhetoric aside, there is no fundamental change in the US approach toward Russia and the Ukraine conflict. And just because Trump claims Ukrainian military superiority over Russia, and Russian economic weakness, does not make either so.
Russia continues to maintain a strategic advantage over Ukraine across every metric used to measure success in conflict—militarily, economically, and politically.
Worse, Trump’s words make achieving a negotiated settlement all but impossible. As a result, Europe will continue to provide financial and military support to Ukraine, prolonging a conflict which has been lost for some time now.
But this prolongation will be to the detriment of Ukraine. Russia has mastered the algorithm of attritional warfare, and Ukraine will continue to lose manpower and equipment at a rate that far exceeds its ability to replace either. Russia will likewise continue to destroy critical industrial and energy infrastructure, making Ukraine even more dependent upon European largesse for its continued survival. The combination of military and economic stresses will in turn place strain on the continued political viability of the Zelensky government. Eventually the combined stress of these three collapsing pillars will lead to the disintegration of Ukraine as a governable territory.
In short, Ukraine will no longer exist as a sovereign country.
The price of this defeat will be unbearable for Ukraine. One can easily anticipate death tolls among Ukrainian soldiers that double the 1.7 million dead and missing Ukrainian soldiers who have fallen to date. Ukraine will lose additional territories as well, including Odessa, Mikolayev, Kharkov, and perhaps Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy as well. One can anticipate, too, the further loss of territories as Poland, Hungary, and Romania carve up what remains, leaving only a small rump state centered on Kiev that would be known as Ukraine. The concept of independence and sovereignty has likewise been mooted—whatever remains of Ukraine will forever be under the control of Russia. Dreams of European Union membership will be replaced by Ukraine’s status as the junior partner of an expanded Union State.
This is what Donald Trump has accomplished through his social media posting and subsequent media appearances. He thinks he is posturing as a strong man. But the reality is far different: Donald Trump, by lifting the hopes of Ukraine while simultaneously dashing them, has exposed himself as being intellectually limited and morally diminished. Only too late will Ukraine and its European allies realize they have been duped. By then, the duplicity of Donald Trump will be evident to all—except of course the millions of Ukrainians who will perish as a result.
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