Vladimir Putin – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

Are Trump and Putin Right?

Monday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosted a spirited discussion with Donald Trump on whether he was right in asserting that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated as the towers came down on 9/11.

About Muslim celebrations in Berlin, however, there appears to be no doubt. In my chapter “Eurabia,” in “State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America,” [2006] is this quote from The New York Times Magazine, exactly 10 years ago.

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“Parallel to the declarations of ‘unconditional solidarity’ with Americans by the German majority, rallies of another sort were taking place in Neukolln and Kreuzberg. Bottle rockets were set off from building courtyards, a poor man’s fireworks, sporadic, sparse and joyful; two rockets here, three rockets there. Still, altogether, hundreds of rockets were shooting skyward in celebration of the attack, as most Berliners were searching for words to express their horror.”

Neukolln and Kreuzberg are neighborhoods of “gastarbeiters,” Muslim Turkish workers who came to Germany in the millions to work in menial jobs beginning around 1960.

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FOURTH TURNING – POLITICIANS DRIVING THE WORLD TOWARDS WAR

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I assessed the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation. In Part 5 I’ll examine the technological, ecological, political, and military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in Part 6 our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

Technological & Ecological Distress

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” – Aldous Huxley – Ends and Means

The level of distress being produced by technology was probably underestimated by Strauss & Howe when they wrote their book in 1997. The internet, cell phones and e-commerce were still in their infancy, while cyber security was an unknown concept. Huxley would be shocked by how backwards we have “progressed” through the efficient distribution of iGadgets, creating millions of distracted, non-thinking, passive, easily pliable, willfully ignorant sheep who adore their technological servitude.

A vast swath of the populace never reads a book and can’t go more than a few minutes without checking their iGadget to view the latest funny cat video, the latest update on Kim Kardashian’s ass, Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner’s courage, or Lamar Odom’s latest whorehouse escapade. Our country is drowning in a sea of irrelevance as our infinite craving for diversions and triviality overwhelms any thoughts of confronting our oppressors. The adoration of technology has degraded our ability to think and allowed the Deep State to control the masses by amusing them to death.

The totalitarian Orwellian utilization of technology was exposed by a millennial with courage, intelligence, and love of his country – Edward Snowden. His revelations were very distressful to the felonious government apparatchiks who blatantly flaunt their disregard for the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The criminals at the NSA, fully supported by Obama and Congress, have made Big Brother look like an amateur, as they siphon up every phone call, text, email, and facebook entry made by each person in this country and for good measure the political leaders of our allies and enemies.

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THE LONE RANGER

Leader of the “Free World”

Via William Banzai

Vladimir Putin Speaks Honestly

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

Russia’s president is a refreshing contrast to the liars who inhabit Western governments and Western media. The agenda of the Russian government is peace and international cooperation under the rule of law. Washington’s agenda is hegemony.

President Putin endeavors to lead the world to peace, while the neoconservatives who control Washington’s foreign policy try to drive the world to war. Contrast the crazed statements that flow from Washington comparing President Putin to Hitler, suggesting his assassination, and calling for shooting down Russian military aircraft with President Putin’s appeal that Washington abandon its hegemonic agenda and submit to international law and international cooperation. As President Putin has emphasized, for Washington “international cooperation” means submission to Washington’s will.

President Putin repeatedly states that governments must govern in accord with the people and not function as a decree-issuing body in accord with interest groups disrespectful of the people.

Throughout the West we see the increasingly unresponsive behavior of government. In the United States careful studies conclude that, despite elections, the American people have essentially zero input into the policies decided in Washington. In Greece, the government is coerced to impose on the Greek people policies dictated by large German banks supported by the German and EU governments. In Portugal, the socialists who won the election were told by the conservative president that they would not be permitted to form a government.

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The Fall Of The Unipower

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

The distinguished and knowledgeable international commentator William Engdahl, in a superb statement, has expressed the view I gave you that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on September 28 at the 70th anniversary of the United Nations changed the balance of power in the world. Until Putin’s speech the world was intimidated by the Washington Bully. Resistance to Washington brought swift retribution. In the Middle East and Africa it brought economic sanctions and military invasions that destroyed entire countries. In France and other US vassal states it brought multi-billion dollar confiscations of bank net worth as the price of not following Washington’s policies toward other countries.

Other countries felt powerless in the face of the arrogant hegemonic Unipower, which from time to time replied to noncompliance with threats, such as US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage delivered to Pakistan, to bomb noncompliant countries “back to the stone age.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5369198.stm

President Putin of Russia brought all that to end on September 28. He stood up before the world in the presence of the overflowing hubris of the hegemon and belled the cat.

Putin denounced Washington’s threat to the sovereignty, and thereby the freedom, of peoples and countries. He denounced the heartless criminality of Washington’s destruction of the lives of millions of peoples on the basis of nothing other than Washington’s own arrogance. He denounced the illegality of Washington’s assaults on the sovereignty of other peoples, and declared that Russia can no longer tolerate this state of affairs in the world.

Two days later he took over the war in Syria and began exterminating the Washington financed and equipped Islamic State. Cruise missiles launched from the Caspian Sea hit ISIL targets with pinpoint accuracy and showed Washington’s EU vassals that Washington’s ABM system could not protect them if Europe permitted Washington to force Europe into conflict with Russia.

Washington’s response was more lies: “the missiles hit Iran,” said the idiots in Washington. The entire world laughed at the lie. Washington, some said, is whistling past its empire’s own graveyard.

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PUTIN WILL NOT BE BACKING DOWN

Russia not attacking west, just defending its interests – Putin

Published time: December 18, 2014 11:03

Russia is protecting its national interests, but it not attacking any western nations politically, Russian President Vladimir Puitn said.

Putin said that the only contribution Russia made toward the current period of tension “is an increasingly strong stance in defending its national interests.”

“We are not attacking anyone in the political sense,” he said. “We are only defending our interests… The displeasure of our Western partners, particularly the Americans, comes from that.”

Russia’s actions, described as aggressive in the West, are a response to what Western nations are doing, Putin said.

“Russia in the 1990s completely stopped the long-range bomber flights that the Soviet Union used to carry out,” he said. “But American strategic bombers with nuclear weapons still flew. Why? Against whom? Who was being threatened?”

Putin’s comments came in response to a question from the BBC’s veteran world news editor, John Simpson, who asked Putin whether the current crisis in relations between Russia and the West was a result of Russia’s aggression. Simpson cited the increased patrols of the Russian Air Force in international airspace as an example of such aggression. The exchange happened at Putin’s annual Q&A session in Moscow.

The US has been ignoring Russian interests despite Moscow’s complaining about this many times, the president said.

“Take the anti-ballistic missile system. Who unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty, which was a cornerstone of the international security system? Was that us? No, the US did it. They unilaterally withdrew and are creating threats toward us,” Putin said.

Unlike the United States, which has dozens of military bases around the world, Russia has only two, Putin said. And those are in places where Russia’s national security is directly threatened, in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the president said.

“And you are telling now that we have an aggressive policy? Do you have common sense? Do we place our troops at US borders? Who is placing NATO troops, military infrastructure closer to us? Does anyone listen to us, talk to us about it? No, nothing. There is always the same response: it’s not your business,” Putin said.

Putin added that Russia simply wants to be treated as equal partners by the West.

“We want to develop normal relations on security, counterterrorism. We will work together on nuclear non-proliferation. We will work on threats like illegal drugs, organized crime, dangerous infectious diseases, including Ebola. We will do it all together as we will cooperate on the economy, as long as our partners want that,” Putin said.

WHO IS VLADIMIR PUTIN?

Via Vineyard of the Saker

There is a lot of nonsense and garbage floating around on the Internet about the personality of Vladimir Putin, mostly written folks who not only know nothing about him, but who don’t even understand the basics about how the Russian state works. Today, I want to share with you a video (especially translated or this purpose by the Russian Team) in which the renowned Russian economic Mikhail Khazin shares his view of Putin and of Putin’s current position vis-à-vis the hostile and russophobic West. I don’t always agree with Khazin, and even in this case I don’t fully agree with some of what he says, but I think that Khazin has really “nailed the bottom line on the head” (how is that for a combo-neologism?). Seriously, I think that Khazin is fundamentally correct, especially about the West’s refusal to accept Putin has anything else than a very junior partner (and even that was in the past, now they want him dead). Where I disagree with Khazin is when he implies that Putin wanted or even believed that such an honest partnership was possible. Medvedev – yes. But not Putin. By training and by trade he knew the West, and especially its ruling elites, extremely well and I believe that Putin pretended to play the “partnership game” for as long as possible to buy as much time as possible for his party which I refer to as the “Eurasian sovereignists” (folks like Shoigu or Rogozin), as opposed to the “Atlantic Integrationists” (folks Medvedev or Kudrin). Anyway, listen to Khazin – who is superbly informed and who knows his stuff – and get a rare insider view of what is really happening behind the Kremlin walls.

The SakerPS: one more important thing: according to the anti-Kremlin polling organization Levada-Center, Putin’s popularity is now at its historical highest level: 87%!! Those who constantly bash Putin and predict that sanctions will have a crippling effect on Russia ought to ask themselves what they (think they) know which the Russian people don’t. The real reason for Putin’s popularity is very simple: there is a very large consensus in Russia in support for the manner in which Putin has been handling the Ukrainian crisis. Furthermore, most Russian people, even those who used to be critical of Putin, see straight through the real motives of the current oligarch-financed anti-Putin campaign. However, this support is predicated on the belief that Putin will not let the Nazis overrun Novorussia. If that happens, then the sky-high support will drop extremely fast and Putin’s entire legacy will be in real danger, which is why I don’t believe that he can, or will, allow that to happen. At the risk of sounding over the top, I would say that Putin’s future is linked to the future of Novorussia. If it manages to survive (in whatever form), so will Putin. If the Ukies overrun it, then all hell will break lose in Russia. But, again, I don’t believe that this will happen.