George W. Bush was in the news last week thanks to a major gaffe where he referred to “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”
Unfortunately for the gaffe-prone former president, he can’t catch a break. Footage has now emerged of him being prank-called by two notorious Russian pranksters: Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov. (Some of their previous antics are covered in this 2016 Guardian article.)
In the phone call, someone posing as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky asks Bush, “You know that the narrative, in the early 90s, Secretary of State Baker promised Gorbachev not to expand NATO, but this would be completely wrong, especially with the threats that Russia poses now.”
Bush responds, “Yeah, that’s right. Listen, times change. Baker, you know, he was the Secretary of State for my dad – which was years ago. And so the United States must be flexible, adjusting to the times, and that’s why you’re finding such strong support for your country now.”
Many commentators have interpreted this as an admission by Bush that Baker did promise Gorbachev that NATO would not expand. And it certainly looks that way.
However, it’s not an open and shut case. For example, “that’s right” could mean “it’s right that not expanding NATO would have been wrong, given the threats now posed by Russia”. And “times change” could mean “the threats posed by Russia have changed”.
When Bush says, “Baker, you know, he was the Secretary of State for my dad – which was years ago”, he could be implying that the relevant events happened so long ago that it’s hard to know what really happened. Of course, the other interpretation is that the promise was made “years ago” but “times change”.
Why does it matter? Putin has claimed that Russia was misled by the West about NATO expansion, which he sees as a threat to Russian interests. In his February 22nd speech, the Russian leader said “they have deceived us, or, to put it simply, they have played us”, citing “promises not to expand NATO eastwards even by an inch”.
This refers to an assurance Baker gave Gorbachev in 1990 that “there will be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction or NATO’s forces one inch to the East” if German reunification takes place. Interestingly, however, Baker subsequently denied that he ever “intended to rule out the admission of new NATO members”.
Scholars disagree about exactly what Russia was promised during the negotiations over German reunification. Yet a strong case can be made that the US “did indeed offer the Soviets informal non-expansion assurances”, as the political scientist Joshua Shifrinson argued in a prize-winning 2016 article.
Shifrinson summarised his arguments in an op-ed for the LA Times, writing: “The West has vigorously protested that no such deal was ever struck. However, hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise.”
According to a PolitiFact article from February, Shifrinson still holds the same view, and in fact recently discovered additional supporting evidence: a document in the British National Archives that quotes a German official as saying, “We had made it clear during the 2+4 negotiations that we would not extend NATO beyond the Elbe”.
The fact that Western countries broke these “informal assurances” does not justify Putin’s invasion, Shifrinson notes. However, “Russia’s leaders may be telling the truth when they claim that Russian actions are driven by mistrust.”
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http://tcp.art.blog/2021/11/25/all-hail-covid/
They don’t need to exploit the loan scheme. A friend of mine has a company that employs about 30 people and about 18 months ago he was informed by the government/authorities if he’d like £60k for nothing. Of course he said yes.
When Will They Shut Down the Internet?
https://odysee.com/@VernonColeman:9/170-When-Will-They-Shut-Down-the-Internet-:2
Dr Vernon Coleman
***
join the friendly resistance
and don’t wait for people to do it for you
****
Next events:
Saturday 11th December 2pm – Henley-on-Thames,
HENLEY, OXFORDSHIRE STAND FOR FREEDOM
Meet by the Town Hall, Market Place, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 2AQ by 2pm
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane
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Join our Telegram Group and have some fun http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
No, the Internet will not be shut down – people need it to access their Vaccine Passports.
But sites like this could be more heavily patrolled in the near future to round up “those with alternative views”.
Last days of freedom chaps. Make the best of it.
“The U.N. Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) is now responsible for taking entire privately hosted websites offline, as they seek to take total control of the flow of information and establish their “Great Narrative.” CTED notifies domain registrars of “extremist” sites — i.e., those that promote narratives they don’t approve of — and the sites can no longer be found. This reflects a new level of internet censorship, but it is not just publishers who are in the crosshairs…it is all of us.”
https://youtu.be/qFFEI60SThU
This whole exercise was, really, an exercise in asset stripping. I’m convinced the plandemic was/is a cover for economic contagion and collapse, with ‘lockdowns’ providing a means of artificially suppressing inflation. So if anyone found a way to defraud the government, then good for them. They were behaving precisely as criminally as the state they were stealing from and the vast sums of money we’re talking about at this point are meaningless; borrowed from several future generations. The party’s over.
My wife says exactly the same and more shocking is that I’m actually starting to agree with her.
While I agree with you on the whole, they haven’t stolen from ‘the state’ the state has no money, they have stolen from the people, eg the pensions triple lock etc so shame on them.
Granted and – morally – yes you’re right, but theirs was a trifling crime compared to what the government has been up to.
Not true and a basic understanding of gov finance is all that you need .
Boom! can anyone say “slowing money velocity hides/controls hyper inflation”
Not sure on the UK mechanism, but the US after taking advice from Blackrock for “Going Direct” basically handed them $trillions, out of control debt is growing faster than the economy can handle
John Titus nails it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdLr6MpB2sY
Indeed. The modern financial system is running at warp speed to build paper assets that can suck up debt. A deflationary debt spiral is the end game.
You can not build a new zero carbon (power grab) economy without deconstructing the old one. The problem for neoliberals is how to do so without chaos & anarchy, because globalists are control freaks.
“with ‘lockdowns’ providing a means of artificially suppressing inflation”
Lockdowns/restrictions damage the global supply chain, creating shortages that increase inflation. As living costs rise, the poverty threshold rises and more will rely on state handouts for survival – contingent on their obedience to medical fascism.
Wow, who could have imagined printing unlimited money that future generations won’t be capable of paying off would lead to corrupt government contracts and fraudulent begging bowls?
Bigger governments are ALWAYS least efficient, honest, and freedom oriented and usually a sign of collapse.
It’s funny how the incompetent cock-up artists are always so incredibly effective at filling their own pockets & enriching themselves! Efficient & honest government has fuck all to do with it.
If you happen to see Javid on the streets of Bromsgrove, tell him you’re hungry and penniless and ask if he’ll walk with you to the nearest ATM to withdraw £200 so you can buy some food. I think he can afford it.
After all, he is concerned for your health.
This is not the first report of its kind:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/22/fifth-of-uk-covid-contracts-raised-red-flags-for-possible-corruption
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/30/covid-loan-and-error-will-cost-uk-taxpayers-tens-of-billions-say-mps
‘costing the U.K. Government nearly £4.9 billion.’
I beg to differ, the UK Government does not have any money. This bill will be handed to people who go out to work every day, including those on the minimum wage (whose gas and electric bills are about to rise by 250%)
The elites will not be asked to contribute because their money is offshore in places like the BVI (Yes I’m looking at you Mogg).
“The bill will be handed to people who go out to work every day”. This is great news. The sooner the regimes criminality starts to really hurt the millions of ordinary order-followers who are standing by watching as the totalitarians take away our freedoms and destroy our society, the quicker we will see the necessary backlash.
Slaps head in amazement.
Slaps head in amusement.
This is nothing in comparison to the fraudsters such as Gates, bent politicians and ‘scientists’ etc.
Highly predictable.
That comrade, I agree with.
off topic, but..
George Orwell said “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever.”
Some smart-arse on twitter said “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on the human face-forever”
Already happened:
“To avoid the hassles of carrying a Covid-19 vaccination certificate everywhere, a 22-year-old student in Italy used a rather quirky method and tattooed the barcode of his COVID-19 vaccination certificate on his arm. Notably, Andrea Colonnetta got the Quick Response codes (QR code) associated with the pass tattooed on his left bicep so that it is always available for scanning everywhere he goes.!
What bicep?!
Qantas airline has a similar ‘Frequent Flyer Green Card’. It’s not a secret any more that ‘Climate Change’ and your ‘carbon footprint’ will determine whether you are a Good Citizen or Enemy of the State.
Politicians and those running the show will continue to fly in private jets and fart in your face.
Only if you comply. I do not use those types of apps and never will.
That’s the problem with spaffing money during stupid unnecessary lockdowns, bribery was used to obtain compliance, and more money was wasted.
I was talking to a builder who had three separate small limited businesses, he planned to wind them up at year end 2021 and retire. You can guess what he’s done x3, none of his so called loans <20k required personal assurances, he’s feathered his nest. When I mentioned that pensioners and others in need were paying for it he just shrugged his shoulders. 4.9 billion is just the tip of a vast iceberg.
It was entirely foreseeable this would happen. However, the government doesn’t appear to be much concerned and is happily printing money. All this is now leading through to inflation, with the end result that millions are being dragged into poverty, particularly those pensioners who are not in receipt of gold-plated public sector pensions.
Peanuts. ‘Consultants’ stole £37 billion spent on ‘T&T’.
Tory donors stole 100s of billions spent on useless PPE, tests and gene therapies- sofar.
No way was 37 billion spent on T &T. The bulk of that was spent on new IT, new as yet unseen tracking devices, more surveillance equipment, the so-called “passport” system and other nefarious projects not yet clear to us.
So what? Test & Trace stole 37 billion for starters. Will the Government ministers responsible for allowing this fraud to happen ever be punished? Answers on a postcard.
That may depend on whether they have consciences.
I hope that they do, and that their sleep is deeply disturbed, since that is a small sign of hope if so. I suspect that they have largely suffocated their consciences, in order to survive.
As for social punishment, which expresses both the wrongness of what has happened, and warns others not to attempt the same, wow, I hope and pray so!
This is good news. The sooner we bankrupt this criminal regime that exists, in part, to syphon wealth from ordinary people and brown envelope it in broad daylight to their billionaire offshore masters, the sooner we can replace it with a just system of governance. And before anyone says, “but its not their money, its our money”, that is the whole point of my message. If they carry on printing money and raising taxes, the pain will begin to hurt so much that people will rebel against them. At the moment we are not hurting enough.
You can’t bankrupt governments: only their tax-payers!
Do you think I dont know that?
In magic or confidence tricks this is called the misdirection isn’t it?
Maybe nobody will notice the Tory party donors and chums getting away with a lot more.
How many of them will be the mates of Tories given the nod that the scheme was being set up so as to be easily abused?
Bigger story: “Fraudsters (world governments, big tech, big pharma) steal trillions by faking a pandemic”
You have hit the biggest nail there…..
Isn’t all government expenditure fraudulent?
Tax is theft.
And government is a protection racket.
Fraudsters, appropriate.
Here’s a video of Welsh leader Mark Drakeford saying he hopes people aren’t smart enough to realise the covid legislations are not lawful.
That is our money that the government has been so cavalier with. They are complicit.
This scheme costs, on average, nearly £1500 per employed person.
for anybody interested hamworthy community centre dorset11th december get together turn up you will meet like minded people
When furlough was first introduced, I thought about the billions to be claimed by criminals. Then as support schemes continued to appear, I thought about billions being claimed by criminals. Now, as the world introduces vaccine mandates and passports, I think about the billions being made by criminals.
The funny thing is, the only way I’m going to be able to survive in this new society, is to be a criminal…..and I’m going to be treated as a REAL criminal, like a 1930s German Jewish criminal…..and I’m not even going to get paid for the privilege!
If they come at me with mandates and passes, I may as well be proactive and start my criminal career early with an appropriate response.
Makes no real odds at the end of the day since The Great Reset isn’t called “Reset” for nothing.
Well, I guess the pensioners who had the nerve to go on living will just have to pay up for the fraudsters who squirreled away lots of everyone’s tax money, through increased N.I. contribution, pensions that won’t keep up with inflation, and increased heating costs. Oh, and the students can pay too, through paying for their imprisonment.
How jolly that housing has gone up beyond the reach of many, while firms spent this gift money on houses, since they thought it one of the safer investments for unnecessary spare cash. How great that we all paid for ping parties, and the ridiculous test and trace debacle.
Could we now turn around please and ensure that our elderly and vulnerable can get the face to face to face doctors’ appointments, a decent pension, heating, and everything else that they have paid for, without smug fraudsters robbing them, and also messing the housing market, even if at one remove?
Wasn’t enabling fraud the main purpose of these “help programs”?
What? Really? Who’d have thought it?
Apart from anyone with more than one brain cell.
Joe Rogan said his doctor, Pierre Kory, is part of a group that has used Ivermectin to quietly treat 200 Members of U.S. Congress for COVID19. Dr Simone Gold, from America’s Frontline Doctors, told that she has prescribed treatments for Congress. She still believes in her oath, but she is vocal saying she has been contacted by many in DC. Can you believe these demons? Healing for them are OK but not for us. Get your Ivermectin while you still can! https://ivmpharmacy.com
Many small businesses didn’t trust the government as they knew it would be clawed back some how. Our own family chose not to accept any money but were sent an email, nevertheless, asking for repayment of any monies they had borrowed. Anyone who borrowed large sums knew they would never be given the opportunity trade for long enough to re establish their business and so declared themselves bankrupt.
It is shocking that Governments are full of very stupid people. They try to bribe taxpayers with their own money whilst trying to pull a fast one. Taxpayers are far more streetwise than any government.
My small business took a small bounceback loan. The process was insecure and simple. Surely Sunak will be arrested? This is hard-earned public money…given away. The police need to work tirelessly to find who gave it all away.
Loans?
None of this will be paid back, except by the very few chosen winners.
The vast majority will be written off, by which I mean we’ll borrow to cover it, with no intention of ever paying that back.
Constant crippling debt is the New Normal.
Boris and co really couldn’t run the proverbial whelk stall…