Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on. The U.S. and Europe continue to support Kiev. But not, it seems, to make peace. Rather, the allies are prepared to back the Zelensky government as long as it fights Moscow to the last Ukrainian—which has always been the West’s approach to Kiev.

Kiev faces a choice: make peace for its people or war for its supposed friends?

The disturbing and detailed reportage by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh on Washington’s sabotage of the Russian Nordstream 2 gas pipeline to Germany now provides new perspective on the momentous series of geopolitical trends that began with the war in Ukraine.

My own assessment of the Russian invasion written one year ago offered an analysis that was, and still is, markedly at variance with the Washington-dominated narrative of the course of Ukraine events.

Any attempt to create a single world government is a cause for concern, since it could strip humanity of diversity and precipitate the end of civilization, billionaire Elon Musk has told a summit of government officials in Dubai.

The SpaceX CEO made a virtual appearance at the 2023 World Government Summit in the UAE on Wednesday. The event is aimed at fostering cooperation between nations, but Musk warned against taking it too far.

“We want to avoid creating a civilizational risk by having – and this may seem odd – too much cooperation between governments,” Musk said.

This current critical phase of the crisis in Ukraine has been manufactured by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. Russian troops, artillery, armored vehicles, tanks and other equipment encircle Ukraine: they are along the Russian border with Ukraine and in the annexed territory of Crimea as well as in Belarus, threatening a major military confrontation.

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has slammed Washington's alleged involvement in bombing the Nord Stream gas lines as one of the “dumbest” decisions taken in years, warning that the move will have “horrific”consequences for Europeans and further undercut the already “supremely useless” NATO alliance.

Despite countless Western bossy-boots beavering away in the media and beyond, generating worst-case projections as they strain to create a collective storyboard for “China: The Disaster Movie”, China, exasperatingly, keeps successfully pressing on towards its own clearly considered, affirmative future.

By Richard Cullen

When Mexican artist Diego Rivera was commissioned in 1932 to do a mural in the middle of Manhattan's Rockefeller Center, some might have wondered whether industrialist tycoon John D. Rockefeller Jr. knew what he was getting into.

In 1934, the legendary artist's work was chiseled off the wall.

Now, in Washington, D.C., the Mexican Cultural Institute has mounted a show that tells what happened to Rivera's mural.

March 9, 2014

BY ALLISON KEYES

"Man at the Crossroads: Diego Rivera's Mural at Rockefeller Center," is a whodunit tale that also illustrates the tensions between art and politics. Exhibition co-curator Susana Pliego says the Rockefeller family was aware of Rivera's leftist politics when it commissioned the work.

UFO defense: Washington turns to sci-fi to boost military spending

On the heels of the Chinese ‘spy balloon’ scare, the US is now being invaded by unidentified aerial craft – just in time for the new budget bill

After the so-called “Chinese spy balloon” passed over the US last week and was shot down, the US claimed that multiple “UFO’s” have since appeared in its airspace, as well as above Canada.

By Timur Fomenko, a political analyst 

It is an open secret: the government of Kiyv is losing militarily to the Russian army. The latter is advancing without hurrying and is building the defense of the regions that joined Moscow by referendum. But this inexorable reality hides others. For example, the fact that Turkey, still a member of NATO, supports Russia and provides it with spare parts for its army. Not only is the Atlantic Alliance losing, but it is cracking.

It is unlikely that President Vladimir Zelensky expects to win militarily. But it seems that he genuinely believes that he will succeed in turning Ukraine into something like Israel - a paramilitary state living with a sense of constant military threat.

Ukraine doesn’t have the military or economic resources of its own to achieve victory, and the resources provided by the West will never be enough to inflict a final defeat on Russia. Zelensky's calculation is likely based on the belief that by offering Ukraine as a tool for NATO to use against Russia, he will constantly mobilize Western support and thereby ensure his own survival, and that of his associates. 

By Andrey Sushentsov, Valdai Club program director

Look, it is one thing for reporters and line editors to abandon the fundamental principle of objectivity as they hurl their hatchets at those who provoke their prejudices—Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, this, that or the other governor or senator, this, that, or the other dissident. It is greatly, entirely another for the retired coots now posing as the profession’s wise men to elevate these derelictions to the principle of there-are-no-principles. 

My word. How far down the crater of corruption are those running American media’s newsrooms going to cascade? Land sakes alive, as my great aunt Louise used to exclaim.

By Patrick Lawrence / Original to ScheerPost

WE KNOW THE SECOND COLD WAR WAS STARTED BY THE USA WITH ITS MINIONS AT NATO AND EUROPE. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST COLD WAR? GUS LEONISKY, CARTOONIST SINCE 1951, HAS LIVED THROUGH BOTH (OR THE SAME ONE CONTINUED) AND I SHOULD START BUILDING MY NUKE SHELTER NOW, SHOULD I BE ABLE TO DIG IT WITH A DESSERT SPOON. THE CARTOON ABOVE BY CHAPPATTE IS FUNNY THOUGH NOT QUITE CLOSE TO THE TRUTH. LOOKING FOR COMPETENCY ON A ROTATION BASIS, PUTIN HAS FOUND HIS LATEST GENERAL.... MEANWHILE:

By Jim Mamer / Original to ScheerPost

Storylistening: Narrative Evidence and Public Reasoning

In Storylistening, Sarah Dillon and Claire Craig provide a theory and practice for gathering narrative evidence that will complement and strengthen, not distort, other forms of evidence, including that from science.

The book focuses on the cognitive and collective functions of stories, showing how they offer alternative points of view, create and cohere collective identities, function as narrative models, and play a crucial role in anticipation.

In all the conflicts that have agitated history, there has always been a camp of good and a camp of absolute evil. This is at least what emerges from the great political declarations and the media hammer-therapy that can be observed in the opposing camps. At the end of the conflict, history is written by the winner. This one often brings his adversaries before a court in charge of condemning and executing the leaders of the losing side. The camps of good and evil are then perfectly identified with regard to history.

by Dominique Delawarde

WE ARE OFTEN INVITED BY TV ADVERTISING, OR ANY ADVERTISING FOR THAT MATTER, TO ENJOY WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ENJOY. 

WE RARELY SEE ADVERTS THAT ARE GOING TO TELL US COME AND BUY THIS DANGEROUS PRODUCT SO YOU CAN EXPERIENCE PAIN. EVEN POLITICAL THINGIES.

SAY FOR EXAMPLE, WE DECRY FASCISM OR NAZISM, AND COMMUNISM, BUT WE DON’T TELL THE CUSTOMER THAT THIS OR THAT IS GOING TO TURN YOU INTO A MURDERER OR A SLAVE OF THE SYSTEM. WE DON’T SELL YOU FASCISM OR NAZISM — WE SELL YOU THE DISCREET EXCELLENT COMFORTS ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH IDEALS. SO ALL SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT WILL CLAIM TO POSSESS THE ONLY KEYS TO FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, FRATERNITY AND HAPPINESS. THE BEST SYSTEM APT AT LYING HERE IS THE DEMOCRATIC CONSTRUCT THAT USES CAPITALISM AS ITS TOOL — A TOOL OF ENTICING YOUR APTITUDE TO BE GREEDY AND SOCIOPATHIC IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP OF THE PILE.