Note: I cannot verify these. My twitter feed is so full of disinformation from both sides that I simply cannot cross check there. The news sources are very biased and simply sensationalism hits the headlines. Nuance is dead.
Updates:
Russia cuts off all westbound gas
This is probably the most immediately important.
Russia says it has captured computer equipment marked as nato equipment from neo-nazi group Right Sector (and provides photos showing equipment I’d numbers and base of origin in Germany), documents showing Ukraine planned to attack Donbas and Crimea, and releases documents showing ukraine was experimenting with Bio weapons in US funded labs. -this an extremely explosive set of accusations that Russia may be using to justify their invasion after the fact so I’ll wait before on ascribe truth to it.
Even my source has doubts about the plans and the bio weapons. I find the bio weapons the most interesting. If the information is true, and it can be corroborate, it could be used as a basis to create and unlikly
alliance against the USA. Watch for narrative shifts in Xinhua and Al Jazeera news.
US gives nato members green light to provide Ukraine with fighters as they see fit
This could be very bad, and there is some information flowing that Putin is ready to attack any airport that any plane flying anything into Ukraine originates from.
Chinese Union pay system coming to Russia after visa and MasterCard pull out
Considering that MasterCard and Visa are giving up a 2 to 3 percent cut on most of Russias internal trade somebody has got to be hurting somewhere. If Chinese Union is able to serve the market well, MasterCard and Visa might never get back in.
I would not worry about VISA and MasterCard. I’d worry about bombs flying in all directions. With a little bit of luck the Kremlin has plans to stop the madman. Much less bloody than if the West has to do it.
With a little bit of luck the Kremlin has plans to stop the madman. Much less bloody than if the West has to do it.
The Captain
It is hard to imagine that those conversations are not already underway in the inner sanctums of the big K.
Those whispering conversants better have their (BIG) ducks well lined up or it could be quite nerve wracking.
When the ‘whack’ comes, the Earth will stop rotating for about 60 minutes. Fasten your seatbelts. It’ll be more exciting than when “the wall” came down.
Putin is feeding conspiracy theories to the Qanon Cult, a dependable ally for propaganda.
— links ----
“While the U.S. may provide funding to upgrade or build labs in other countries, the labs are run by the partnering nations and the program’s goal is to prevent biological threats, not create them.” https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/25/tweets/the…
“In mid-1969, the UK and the Warsaw Pact, separately, introduced proposals to the UN to ban biological weapons, which would lead to the signing of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972. United States President Richard Nixon signed an executive order on November 1969, which stopped production of biological weapons in the United States and allowed only scientific research of lethal biological agents and defensive measures such as immunization and biosafety… According to the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment 8 countries were generally reported as having undeclared offensive biological warfare programs in 1995: China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, Syria and Taiwan. Five countries had admitted to having had offensive weapon or development programs in the past: United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_biological_warfare#…
Russia says it has captured computer equipment marked as nato equipment from neo-nazi group Right Sector (and provides photos showing equipment I’d numbers and base of origin in Germany), documents showing Ukraine planned to attack Donbas and Crimea, and releases documents showing ukraine was experimenting with Bio weapons in US funded labs. -this an extremely explosive set of accusations that Russia may be using to justify their invasion after the fact so I’ll wait before on ascribe truth to it.
I’ll go on record right now it is 100% BS. Right off the bat “Russia says…” Okay. If Russia says an elephant stepped on their toy and broke it, the first question is “where is the elephant?”
If those documents were in the same zip code as real we’d have seen them already. Only a fool would make a claim like this without backup.
This could be very bad, and there is some information flowing that Putin is ready to attack any airport that any plane flying anything into Ukraine originates from.
Qaz,
The entire thing from top to bottom is horrendous. Putin is insisting. There is zero reason to avoid this. There is every reason for a full confrontation.
By zero reason to avoid, it is coming our way regardless. If we avoid it we will get it worse than if we confront it.
I would not worry about VISA and MasterCard. I’d worry about bombs flying in all directions. With a little bit of luck the Kremlin has plans to stop the madman. Much less bloody than if the West has to do it.
The Captain
Captain-
What do you see, hear in the sense of your neighbors and friends in Portugal?
Yes. I meant Communist Party. I
am not a member, however I have a close relationship to an active member with a significant following. He has a lot of contacts.
For clarification, the CPUSA is not on anybodies side, so the information while biased brings a different view point that might or might not be shared in other parts of the world.
What do you see, hear in the sense of your neighbors and friends in Portugal?
It’s on TV a lot but life goes on as normal. The people I talked to about it were “indignant” but it did not otherwise affect their lives.
Portugal was officially neutral during World War II. However, it maintained a close relationship with the UK, due to the alliance it had for the last six hundred years, which is the longest lasting military alliance in history. The Estado Novo sought neutrality in order to keep Spain neutral and prevent it from joining the Axis. Portugal allowed the United States to use a secret military base at Santa Maria Airport in the Azores through a military agreement signed on 28 November 1944. This violated its neutrality and rendered Portugal as a non-belligerent on the Allied side.
I don’t know much about the local political system but the Communist party is legal and active. Portugal is much more interested in football (the real kind you guys call soccer).
Being the poor boy in the neighbourhood does not seem to be a hardship. There are fewer beggars and homeless than in Madrid and Berlin by an order of magnitude and the government seems to take good care of them. There are water pools all over the place which I had never seen anywhere else so I asked about them. They are for people to do their laundry. There are also laundromats by the dozen. It seems like a socialist society but in the good sense.