Easter—feastday of Hope.
Re Bluto Barr—what’s his game? It seems pretty obvious. Here are two stories from today which pretty much give it away. Bluto is continuing to play the hitman role for the GOPe against Trump. They’re trying to finesse this Alvan Bragg thing, because they know they have to—it’s not just Trump’s base that would go nuts on them if they didn’t attack Bragg, it would be most of the party.
Barr: Manhattan Case Against Trump ‘Abuse of Prosecutorial Power to Accomplish Political End’
But, they’re still trying to deep six Trump, get him under the bus and start rolling with the tired “classified docs” case. This is pretty transparent because experienced lawyers like Alan Dershowitz—who aren’t establishment hitmen—understand that there’s no there with this charge. Trump was POTUS, every POTUS keeps classified docs, the POTUS is the one and only classification authority. It’s all a political hit, and Bluto is shamelessly part of it.
Barr: ‘Very Good Evidence’ Trump Obstructed Justice in Classified Documents Case
‘Nuff said. I feel dirty even mentioning this, given how badly I was taken in when Bluto first came on board. Well, he played a good game for a while.
Now, regarding the leaks, Larry Johnson has published a smart post by Thomas Lipscomb today, which I’ll corroborate in a way with an observation by Michael Tracy.
WHY PUTIN MAY HAVE EXPOSED THE US/NATO UKRAINE OPERATIONS DOCUMENTS
Lipscomb’s post is based off something that I’ve stressed regularly—Vladimir Putin has a law degree, in international law, and this fact shapes most of his policy decisions and public statements. Putin frames all of his decisions with a fine eye for legality, thus:
Putin is a lawyer and whatever contempt we may have for his education in Soviet law, he clearly takes legal restraints seriously. Putin builds a record, thoroughly and in detail, and is consistent in giving advance warning and then an explanation for his actions, step by step.
The “Special Military Operatio” seems like a rather contorted and constrained format for the Russian intervention compared to the bull in china shop American filibustering of the past 30 years. But there were lawyerly reasons Putin organized it that way.
This fact has led to any amount of frustration among those who sympathize with Russia’s SMO—Why, they ask, doesn’t Putin just go in and get this over with? Why does he seem to allow safe havens just outside Ukraine’s borders? And so forth.
Even with the progress that has been made—and the leaks appear to authoritatively portray a Ukraine that is on the ropes—Putin continues to methodically educate both Russians and everyone who will listen outside Russia about the events that led up to the SMO. His basic case:
America’s actions since its exercise of the Maidan coup of 2014 had left [Russia] no alternative but to intervene in Ukraine.
Putin’s patient and methodical approach has turned out to be largely successful. Very few nations want to be on record supporting military action of any sort, but support for Russia—or refusal to condemn Russia—is almost universal outside the vassalized collective West. Lipscomb also notes the way in which Putin took the opportunity to school the new US ambassador. American’s may have not noticed that, but the rest of the world undoubtedly did:
Just last week, to her amazement, America’s distinctly undistinguished new ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was treated to a lengthy detailed lecture on how American plotting and bad faith had brought the whole Ukrainian mess about. And China’s Xi has used his ‘peace proposal” to carry the same points in conversations with Macron, the Ukrainians and others.
With that background, Lipscomb asks the fundamental question—and in doing so illustrates how the patient and methodical Putin, the international lawyer who consistently rejects the notion of a world order under the thumb of US imposed “rules”, is playing a long game that may yet bear fruit in the emerging world order:
So what purpose does releasing these documents have and to whose benefit?
Perhaps they make it possible to use US/NATO documents, rather than Russian assertions alone, to establish a legal framework and build the record for whatever settlement Putin plans to impose upon Ukraine. It helps prove Putin’s case that his intervention was required by an active and ongoing conspiracy led by the United States to use Ukraine to attack and subvert Russia.
In the world in which the Ukraine war began, under an assumed prevalent US hegemony based upon “rules” dictated by America’s inclination du jour, Putin’s “record” might have been accurate under the standards of international law but had no real power. And western financial and military power had subverted many of the international courts and and regulatory agencies to serving Western interests rather than those of the international community. But given the immense changes in the international power structure wrought by the contest in the Ukraine, the United States and the West is being dragged kicking and screaming into a world in which they are just several of many powers and no longer predominant. Russian diplomacy has skillfully turned the majority of the world against Western illusions of dominance. Now that the war is coming to its conclusion in a Ukrainian defeat that exposes the military and economic weakness of the Western powers, Putin’s de jure record may become operative and de facto in a multi-soverign world returning to standards of international law.
Smart.
Now, Michael Tracy adds some observations that fit into that framework. Unfortunately, I can no longer just embed tweets:
Translation: Ukraine officials don't have access to their own war planning materials, which are the sole property of the US
In other words, these documents serve as confirmation that the war in Ukraine is actually a Russian defensive war against an aggressive US proxy attack on Russia—one which was planned at least as long ago as 2014.
Thus, again, the documents, when examined in detail, show:
Ukraine's so-called "spring counter-offensive" looks to be more like a US offensive: according to this document, the US is generating 9 out of the 12 combat brigades
Here Tracy indulges in a bit of sarcasm:
Here's the TOP SECRET classification marking on one of the leaked documents. "NOFORN" means "not be released in any form to foreign governments." Unclear whether Ukraine is still considered a foreign government, though. May have some gray-area status as a provincial US government
And this:
Every now and then it's worth reflecting on the fact that Trump was first impeached over allegations that he'd been withholding US military resources from Ukraine. (No resources were ever actually withheld, but just the perception was enough to spark a Security State meltdown)
Here Tracy outlines that the US is almost certainly very directly involved in the fighting:
Michael Tracey
@mtracey
Should probably be emphasized that this is the first known instance of official documentary confirmation of US "boots on the ground" in Ukraine. It's right there in black and white. (And no, those "SOF" personnel are not categorized as merely "guarding the embassy")
"DAO" personnel (Defense Attaché Office) would likely have something like "embassy security" in their purview, but there's never been any good reason to assume that's strictly what their role would be limited to
Then there's "MSAU" (Marine Security Guard Security Augmentation Unit) which also doesn't exactly have a firmly delineated purview
But that still leaves the USSOF, about whose activities the public is allowed to know essentially nothing. (USSOCOM is reputed to operate as a semi-autonomous command run directly out of the White House.) Soooo... what have these guys been up to in Ukraine? Anybody? Bueller?
Recall, it was reported in October that Biden had secretly issued a "presidential covert action finding" to authorize US "boots on the ground" in Ukraine. Not a whole lot of media or Congressional interest in following up on that particular topic, though
Oct 6, 2022
Biden is using a "presidential covert action finding" to authorize "extensive" deployment of US special forces in Ukraine, conducting unknown operations. The finding he's using is apparently at least five years old, and has nothing to do with on-the-ground military operations twitter.com/mtracey/status…
Now the whole world is being put—very officially—on notice about all these things. And the Pentagon is freaking out. Probably because their lawyers understand Putin’s legal way of looking at things:
Get ready to be told all the classified documents that got leaked are just a big "nothingburger" even though the Pentagon is currently in a giant panic over it
Ukraine: you're fighting for us all to save democracy and the rules-based order. Our devotion to you will never waver. Also we're spying on your entire military and political leadership
Last year Ukraine special forces launched a failed assault on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, of course with US operational coordination -- risking a literal nuclear meltdown -- and this unfortunate little mishap was diligently swept under the rug till now
Hans Manchke Twitter feed:
“American taxpayers have spent trillions defending Europe. American blood and treasure bailed Europe out of two world wars.”
The only reason Macron is able to get away with his ungrateful babble is that the American ruling class *loves* playing hot and cold war games over there.
Quote Tweet
Ulrich Speck
@ulrichspeck
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9h
By the way, Macron is musing about "strategic autonomy" as independence from the US at a historic moment when the European peace order entirely relies on US strategic leadership and military support (for Ukraine); while France is doing just the minimum.
Every time that I think the stench can’t get any worse, it does. As an American I am embarrassed at how truly despicable the people are that lead this country. Having served in the military, I am humiliated at what a horrible joke it has morphed into.
I have no words to express my contempt for bill barr-name not capitalized on purpose.
And now I see that miss Lindsay thinks that it would be a good idea to ratchet things up with China over Taiwan. We’re in the midst of a disastrous proxy war that has “Doom” written all over it, so lets do something else even more stupid and start another war with the people who supply basically everything that we need to function as a nation! I wonder if one of Lindsay’s ancestors advised Napoleon that invading Russia in the winter was a clever plan?