Andrei Martyanov — As Was Predicted.

Andrei Martyanov leaves a key piece out of this post, one that he and others have mentioned previously. The political jostling for control between the Western-leaning liberals (or so-called fifth column), the Russian oligarchs, and military-intelligence is over in Russia. Putin had been balancing these factors previously.

Now the Stavka (General Staff) won and is control of Russian policy. This happened some time ago. It began after Kosovo and the eastward Nato expansion under Bill Clinton. After having stood by while the USSR collapsed, they are determined not to make a similar mistake again.

Reminiscence of the Future
As Was Predicted.
Andrei Martyanov

See also by AM.

Sen. Tom Cotton as ignoramus of the year.

Ohh, Goody...

See also

Moon of Alabama
The Lunacy Of Waging A War On Iran From Which China And Russia Will Win

The Vineyard of the Saker
The AngloZionist Empire: a hyperpower with microbrains and no cred left
The Saker
Related

The military-industrial complex doesn’t care about actually winning wars, since it gets paid in any case. In fact, if things don't go well, it gets paid more, so the preference is for endless war. Talk about perverse incentives.

Bracing Views
America’s Peculiar Military Dictatorship

W. J. Astore

Andrei Martyanov — Mr. Pompeo Goes to Sochi and Moscow

...no arrangement can be made with the United States anymore, since it is increasingly non-governable entity with utterly corrupt political institutions at the very top.

Two years ago I stated:

The only way of the United States out of present day pitiful state will be only with removal of most of current"elites" and "experts" who served them for so long. Thus America's losing the faith in this kind of expertise is a good thing....

The US has a deficit of soft power, becoming more feared than respected, and if is losing its edge in hard power, too.

Reminiscence of the Future
Mr. Pompeo Goes to Sochi and Moscow.
Andrei Martyanov

See also

Checkpoint Asia
Washington Post Begs Trump to Save al-Qaeda in Syria Before It’s Too Late
Marko Marjanović

See also

In a recent interview with CNN regarding the future of the Maduro government, Bolton said “..sometimes one kick at the door and the whole rotten edifice falls down”. Bolton’s words clearly illustrated that he believed it was likely that the days of the Maduro government were numbered should sufficient force be applied.
There was another man who once said a remarkably similar thing before beginning one of the bloodiest and costliest conflicts in the history of mankind, that man was Adolf Hitler. Shortly before Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union) Hitler was convinced that the U.S.S.R would quickly collapse under the weight of German arms, telling his generals “You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down,”….

Counterpunch
John Bolton Inadvertently Quotes Hitler

Tarric Brooker

Pepe Escobar — Memo from Moscow

What Putin meant in his address about Russia targeting “centers for decision-making” was fundamentally related to NATO, not the American mainland.

Russian state media today contradicts this. See SouthFront and Sputnik International. Russia will target CONUS, military terminology for continental US. A list of provided.

Good analysis otherwise. Short.

Asia Times
Pepe Escobar: Memo from Moscow

Pepe Escobar

See also

When [Msgr.] Ronald Knox was born, Queen Victoria presided over an empire on which the sun never set. By the time he died during the reign of Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter, that empire had vanished. Funny how quickly these things can happen.

The American Conservative
America: ‘Indispensable Nation’ No More

Andrew Bacevich | Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies

See also

Prelude to Civil War II?

Zero Hedge
Bannon: 2019 To Be "Most Vitriolic Year In American Politics Since Before The Civil War" 
Tyler Durden

See also

Zero Hedge
Conrad Black Exposes The Greatest Constitutional Crisis Since The Civil War
Tyler Durden

Zero Hedge
Why Populism?

Michael Every of Rabobank

Paul Antonopoulos — China stresses its cooperation with Russia is not directed against others, Washington thinks otherwise

The Chinese government defended relations with Russia and stressed that they do not target third countries.

“[China and Russia] stick to a new kind of interstate relations… that are not directed against third countries,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Gen Shuang.

Beijing’s official statement comes a day after US intelligence director Daniel Coats claimed that China and Russia are collaborating to confront Washington’s policy....

Fort Russ News
China stresses its cooperation with Russia is not directed against others, Washington thinks otherwise
Paul Antonopoulos

The Saker — A much needed “Likbez” about Russian Tu-160 bombers in Venezuela

A war between the USA and Russia will probably happen soon unless the USA changes its suicidal political course

One truth which is never mentioned by the AngloZionist propaganda is that Russia has retreated as far as she can and that there is a broad consensus in Russia among both the political elites and the people that Russia cannot retreat any further. God knows that even if all the “Putin caved in” propaganda is nonsense, it remains nonetheless true that the perception of the western elites is usually a strange mix of dismissing Russia while, at the same time, presenting Russia as the number one enemy on the planet. I don’t know whether the people making these statements really believe them or not, but the resulting policy is one of a total and never-ending hostility mixed in with a quasi-religious belief in the superiority and even invulnerability of the “collective West.” And this is precisely the kind of mindset which results in stupid and bloody wars! Let me repeat this again: Russia has already done all she can to avoid a war with the USA, and there is nothing else she can do; in contrast, every single US policy towards Russia is bringing us one step closer to an almost inevitable war.…

The Vineyard of the Saker
A much needed “Likbez” about Russian Tu-160 bombers in Venezuela
The Saker

Andrei Martyanov — He Still Thinks That It Is A TV Show.

The Kremlin is keenly aware that there could be no sensible dialogue with the United States anymore.…

American geopolitical "strategies" are as primitive as people who devise and implement them and Putin is also keenly aware of that--he knows that the US is at war with Russia....

Reminiscence of the Future
He Still Thinks That It Is A TV Show.
Andrei Martyanov, Russian ex-pat and former Soviet military officer

See also

economicintesect.com
Steve Bannon Is a Fraud, Totally!
Frank Li | Chinese ex-pat, Founder and President of W.E.I. (West-East International), a Chicago-based import & export company, B.E. from Zhejiang University (China) in 1982, M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1985, and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988, all in Electrical Engineering