Link: https://tass.com/world/1578651

It is stressed that the only basis for any possible response can be the outcome of an official investigation [which they will prevent from happening] | BRUSSELS, February 20. - The European Commission considers the conclusions drawn by US journalist Seymour Hersh that the Nord Stream gas pipelines had been blown up by the US with Norway’s support under the cover of the BALTOPS exercise as "speculations" and is not going to comment on them, the commission’s Press Officer Andrea Masini told TASS on Monday. 💬 "We do not comment on speculations about the perpetrators of the sabotage against the Nord Stream pipelines. The only basis for any possible response can be the outcome of an official investigation," the official said. ● This response to a request by TASS was the first European Commission’s reaction to Hersh’s article published on February 8.

Link: https://twitter.com/SassyCanuckGal/status/1613909081290604544?cxt=HHwWgIDUocbw4OUsAAAA

Meanwhile, springing up on billboards and farmers’ trucks across Canada! #StopTheShots pic.twitter.com/MmpeLf4UvI

— Sassy (@SassyCanuckGal) January 13, 2023

Link: https://summit.news/2023/02/17/nato-chief-admits-war-didnt-start-in-february-last-year-the-war-started-in-2014/

💬 “The other thing I will say is that the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014. And since 2014, NATO Allies have provided support to Ukraine, with training, with equipment, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces were much stronger in 2022, than they were in 2020, and 2014. And of course, that made a huge difference when President Putin decided to attack Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

With the one-year anniversary of Russia’s Feb.24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine just around the corner, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg this week issued some surprising words regarding the history and origin of the conflict. In essence he finally admitted an important truth, which is of course extremely rare among top Western officials these days. ● Whereas prior to these fresh remarks by Stoltenberg, US and NATO officials including major media, have framed the invasion exclusively as merely one man’s (Putin) ‘unprovoked’ naked aggression bent on enlarging an ‘expansionist Russia’, Stoltenberg now much belatedly admits “the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014.“

Eric Zuesse | The U.S. regime under Barack Obama had been planning, ever since June 2011, a takeover of Ukraine, in order to become enabled ultimately to place its nuclear missiles within less than five minutes flying-time to a first-strike blitz destruction of the Kremlin | Clear and convincing evidence will be presented here that, under U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Government had a detailed plan, which was already active in June 2013, to take over Russia’s main naval base, which is in Sevastopol in Crimea, and to turn it into a U.S. naval base. There can now be no question that the war in Ukraine started, and resulted from, the U.S. Government’s plan to take over all of Ukraine, and especially to take over that Russian naval base, in Crimea, which then was in Ukraine. ● The war in Ukraine didn’t start at the time when a lot of people think it did, with the overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych. It was already underway considerably before that time, because it started in Washington, as the following masterful 11-minute documentary makes clear — it started as a subterranean war by Washington to take over Ukraine before it became an overt war (a “civil war”) within Ukraine.

The Maidan sniper killings were pivotal for the 2014 Kiev coup – why is research into the massacre being censored in the West? | Evidence that external forces were involved has been suppressed for ‘political reasons’ | Political scientist Ivan Katchanovski – of the University of Ottawa – has revealed that a paper he produced outlining evidence that the February 2014 massacre of Ukrainian protesters by sniper fire, a defining moment of the Western-backed Maidan coup, was not published by an academic journal for “political reasons.” ‘The evidence is solid:’ In a lengthy Twitter thread posted on January 6, Katchanovski first laid out the circumstances behind the rejection of his article, and the bombshell evidence included in it. The paper was initially accepted with minor revisions after peer review, and the journal's editor offered a glowing appraisal of his work, writing: 💬 “There is no doubt that this paper is exceptional in many ways. It offers evidence against the mainstream narrative of the regime change in Ukraine in 2014… It seems to me that the evidence the study produces in favour of its interpretation on who was behind the massacre of the protesters and the police during the ‘Euromaidan’ mass protests on February 18-20, 2014, in Ukraine, is solid. On this there is also consensus among the two reviewers.” As the editor noted, the massacre was a “politically crucial development,” which led to the “transition of powers in the country” from the freely elected Viktor Yanukovich to the illegitimate and rabidly nationalistic administration of Aleksandr Turchinov, a former security services chief. It was endlessly cited in Western media as a symbol of the brutality of Ukraine’s government and an unprovoked attack on innocent pro-WesternMaidan protesters, who allegedly sought nothing more than democracy and freedom.

■ 6 reasons the neocons in the West wanted this war with Russia (Life Site News)
■ US Openly Salivates Over Ukraine's Vast Untapped Titanium Reserves (01/29/23)
■ The Minsk Agreements Explained (12/09/22)
■ EVIL DEFINED: "Overextending & Unbalancing Russia" (Rand Corporation) (09/16/22)
■ How Obama Started Ukraine’s War (Eric Zuesse) (08/12/22)
■ Both Zelensky and Poroshenko Acknowledged They Came to Power Illegally (08/04/22)
■ WATCH: ‘The War in Ukraine’ (08/04/22)
■ Ukraine: A War Over Oil And Gas (First published on AWIP on 08/18/14) (02/28/22)
■ All-Out War in Ukraine: NATO’s ‘Final Offensive’ (11/21/14)
■ Euromaidan supporters justify Odessa massacre, defend member accused of killing (09/05/14)
■ Watershed press conference by top Novorussian officials (MUST SEE!) (09/01/14)
■ 400 US mercenaries 'deployed on ground' in Ukraine military op (05/12/14)
■ Blackwater Killers in Eastern Ukraine (Stephen Lendman)(05/12/14)

Link: https://citizens.news/700782.html

Link: https://citizens.news/700125.html

The situation in East Palestine, Ohio, is much worse than the media is letting on, particularly as it pertains to the widespread release of chemical dioxins. | The 14 some-odd tanker cars carrying vinyl chloride that were intentionally blown up released a massive plume of these deadly chemicals, which were spread far and wide, including up the eastern seaboard through Pennsylvania, New York and beyond. ● Tens of millions of people stand to be affected by this dioxin release, which by and large appears to be the most disastrous dioxin incident to have ever occurred in world history. Water supplies, food crops, city parks, state forests – all of them stand to become toxified with dioxins due to this disaster. 💬 “Burning vinyl is the most serious source of dioxin in the environment – whether from trash incinerators, house fires or chemical spills,” explained Eric Coppolino, writing for Planet Waves FM – Chiron Return. “While vinyl chloride is a precursor chemical to making PVC, any time chlorinated compounds burn there will be dioxins created. And dioxin is a manufacturing byproduct of any manufacturing process involving chlorine, from ‘disinfectants’ to the bleaching of paper. There was plenty of dioxin in those tanker cars before they caught fire.”

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/571714-baerbock-putin-turn-360/

Russia’s former president has ridiculed Annalena Baerbock’s grasp of geometry | Russian President Vladimir Putin must “change by 360 degrees” in order for Ukraine to be safe, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Munich Security Conference. In other words, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev pointed out, he must continue doing exactly what he is doing. Appearing alongside American Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba on Saturday, Baerbock was asked whether there is “any chance of Ukraine being safe in the long term” if Putin remains in office. “If he doesn’t change by 360 degrees, no,” the German FM replied.

💬 “It’s hilarious that Europe is run by such ignorant people,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on social media. “There is no doubt, connoisseur of geometry, that it will be so,” he mocked. “We are holding our ground.”

Baerbock, Blinken, and Kuleba spoke at a panel entitled ‘Visions for Ukraine,’ in which the three attempted to sketch out an image of what the country might look like post-conflict.

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/571293-man-who-bends-arcs/

The Budapest-born billionaire has constructed an incredible global network of influence | A new report from the US-based Newsbusters has exposed a vast web of media and activist organizations, funded with millions of dollars, annually, by the billionaire George Soros. The outlet bills itself as “an online rapid-response vehicle for documenting, exposing, and neutralizing liberal bias in the media.” ● The extensive global influence of the Hungarian tycoon is well-known, and Soros himself has admitted it on countless occasions – including boasts about his efforts in Ukraine. Soros openly declared his role in promoting the 2014 US-orchestrated Maidan coup in Kiev, stating at the time: 💬 “I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia [sic]. The foundation has been functioning ever since. And it played an important part in events now.” In a lengthy interview with the New York Times in October of 2019, Soros explained: “The arc of history doesn’t follow its own course [and] needs to be bent,” and he was “engaged in trying to bend it in the right direction.”

■ India slams 'dangerous' George Soros (RT.com)

Link: https://t.me/VanessaBeeley/12830

Link: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/10/politics/biden-poland-trip/index.html

President Joe Biden will visit Poland this month to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, returning to the region as the war enters a volatile new phase without a clear path to peace. | The president is planning to visit Poland from February 20-22. The White House said he would meet Polish President Andrzej Duda and other leaders from the region. He’ll deliver remarks ahead of the official anniversary on February 24. “He wants to talk about the importance of the international community’s resolve and unity in supporting Ukraine for now going on a year,” said John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council.

■ Biden plans a trip to Poland ahead of the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

[What you'll find below, are two items where you either may take note of the evil musings of some cynical Russian commentators, OR on the other hand, let these dark ideas alert us to evil intentions in the American "deep state". You never know which way to interpret this. We just wanted to draw your attention to it. Let's hope nothing serious happens. All life is important, yes, even Sleepy Joe's. His life has a purpose; we're certain of that.]

■ Yuri Baranchik (Юрий Баранчик) | The other day, on February 10, I wrote that Sleepy Joe is flying to Poland for [some reason], and is going to make [an] important statement there on February 21: "Biden's going to Poland at a bad time, somehow I'm worried about him." I continued this theme on February 12: "Biden is clearly not pulling his weight. But you can't leave a very limp [and lame] duck [to itself]. You have to [do it with a big bang]. Only then will the Democrats have an opportunity to bring into play figure X, who is not visible right now, by appointing her actually directly as vice president while Kamala Harris is [acting] head of state. The Americans already pulled a similar stunt in the 1970s. ● I wrote about such a scheme on January 22, 2022: "There was a similar precedent in American history. In 1974, after the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, the U.S. Congress, on the recommendation of Richard Nixon, confirmed Gerald Ford as Vice President. Eight months later, Nixon resigned, Ford became president himself, and Congress confirmed him as vice president to Nelson Rockefeller, who at the time was neither a senator, congressman nor governor, heading only two national commissions." ● Yesterday, February 15, the leader of Just Russia, Sergey Mironov, said of this possible development - the assassination of U.S. President Joe Biden during his visit to Poland or possibly in Ukraine: 💬 "Ukraine has already announced, "great events" for February 24 that Russia will remember. No words from an American leader or a UN resolution will achieve such status - it will be forgotten in a couple of days. What Russia needs [?] is a real [sensation] that the world will be discussing months or even years from now. Such a sensation would be the attempt on the life of the US president, which, of course, would be attributed to the Kremlin. ● This was his reaction to media reports that after his visit to Poland Biden may visit Kiev on the anniversary of the start of the special military operation and make some tough statements against Russia there. (Trans.: DeepL.com)

■ REX NEWS AGENCY (ИА REX) | Mironov "allowed" Biden to be assassinated during his visit to Kiev | The assassination of U.S. President Joe Biden during his visit to Ukraine was speculated on by the leader of the SRZP, State Duma deputy Sergei Mironov. ● "Ukraine has already announced, "great events" for February 24 that Russia will remember. No words from an American leader or a UN resolution will be worth such a status - it will be forgotten in a couple of days. What Russia needs is a real scoop that the world will be discussing months or even years from now. Mironov says: "The attempt on the life of the U.S. president, which of course will be attributed to the Kremlin, will be such a sensation. ● This was his reaction to media reports that after his visit to Poland Biden might visit Kiev on the anniversary of the start of a special military operation and make some harsh statements against Russia. ● In favor of his version, the parliamentarian cited the argument that Kiev was ready to provoke a nuclear conflict. 💬 "It is clear that all the world's media will accept the anti-Russian version, and little or no objective investigation is ruled out. Washington will be forced to take the conflict to a new level of escalation. This also benefits the Democrats, who are being dragged to the bottom by the current leader. They would much rather have a dead Biden than a living [one], [an] heroic victim, [rather] than a grandfather with oddities, who will baffle American voters tomorrow," Mironov reasoned. (Translation: DeepL.com)

Link: https://tass.com/world/1577699

The conference will start on Friday with a video address by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky | The 59th forum will bring together several hundreds of politicians from around the world, heads of leading international organizations, representatives of business and scientific circles and experts from 96 countries. Russia has not been participating in the conference at the official level for the second consecutive year. ● The decision not to invite officials from Russia has also been criticized in Germany. Gregor Gysi, the German Left Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson in the Bundestag, has slammed it as a lost opportunity to talk about the possible ceasefire in Ukraine. Organizers have not invited Iran’s leadership this year either, same as the Alternative for Germany party, which critically evaluates the policy of the country’s government, including on Russia.

➡ Sixteen years ago, in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Munich Security Conference with a speech devoted to foreign policy that had an international resonance. The speech focused on the vision of Russia’s place and role in the world considering the reality and threats of the time and the unacceptability of unipolar model in the current policy. Putin pointed out then that unilateral, sometimes illegitimate actions had not solved a single problem, often generating new volatile areas though, whereas certain norms of some countries, first of all the US, crossed their borders. He noted that the international law should be universal. The Russian president also stressed the importance of a balance of interests in the security area, adding that the world could only develop on the basis of a multisided model. A whole number of experts share the view that many of Putin’s warnings come true nowadays.

Link: https://sputniknews.com/20230216/new-corroborating-evidence-emerges-showing-us-trace-behind-nord-stream-blasts-1107514989.html

US investigative journalist Sy Hersh opened a Pandora’s Box of incriminating evidence that purportedly directly links the Biden administration to September’s sabotage attacks against the Nord Stream gas pipeline network. On Wednesday, Russia called a special Security Council meeting to discuss the new information. | An email forwarded to Sputnik by a US journalist from an individual identifying themselves as a servicemember that took part in last summer’s NATO BALTOPS 22 exercises in waters near the site of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions provides new information corroborating last week's bombshell Substack report on the incident by Seymour Hersh.

➡ According to the email, on June 15, a helicopter delivered a group of conspicuous-looking American divers in civilian clothes to the exercise area. “My first thought was that they looked like a group of terrorists,” the source wrote, pointing to the individuals’ odd haircuts, mustaches and beards, and the absence of any military ID markers. The source in the email took note of the men’s MK29 military-issue rebreather systems, which use an oxygen-helium mixture for deep-sea diving. He also noticed that the men had other high-grade, expensive equipment not in use by ordinary Navy units, and that they brought small boxes with them, contents unknown. The men identified themselves as participants in "de-mining exercises," which were to involve the sailing of a small rubber dinghy to a specified destination, find, and defuse anti-ship mines. However, the divers didn’t seem equipped for this, the source indicated. ● After their conversation with the US commander, the men did not go to the exercise area, but instead “left their dinghy in their rebreathers and disappeared under the water for over six hours. There is no equipment that allows divers to stay underwater for six hours. The latest military equipment [allows] three or four hours maximum,” the source noted in the email. ● Upon their return, the divers were no longer carrying their mystery boxes. They were picked up by a helicopter and flown out of the area, according to the source.

Link: https://www.intellinews.com/4-000-islamic-state-fighters-gathered-near-afghanistan-border-with-tajikistan-says-kremlin-officer-270172/?source=uzbekistan

Some 4,000 Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) fighters are now stationed near Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan, according to a Russian colonel-general. | The warning served by Anatoly Sidorov, Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), was reported by Afghanistan’s The Khaam Press News Agency. ● Sidorov was cited as saying that the militant group poses threats to the security of Central and South Asia. Both Russian and Iranian officials have lately stepped up briefings to media that they believe the US is in favour of breeding instability in Afghanistan, a backyard country to both Russia and Iran. Washington denies having any such strategy. Should Russia face a challenge to regional security to its south from Islamic militant infiltration, it could conceivably tie up military resources that could otherwise be called up for the war in Ukraine. The CSTO is supposed to provide security for Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia.

➡ In a February 15 article published by Voice of America (VoA), the Taliban regime’s chief diplomat Amir Khan Muttaqi was reported as refuting Sidorov’s claims as baseless, saying: “How come thousands of such people are concentrated in one place and still no one can see them or is aware of them?” [When the U.S. government (VoA) issues a denial, you know it must be true.]

Link: https://t.me/EvPanina/8468

Extremist group Family Heritage Alliance said this morning that the safest place for kids are in families that have a married mom and dad. What a dangerous and un-American belief.

— Representative Erin Healy (@RepErinHealy) February 13, 2023

■ South Dakota Democrat Slams Conservative Group’s Promotion of Nuclear Family (Breitbart)

Elena Panina (Елена Панина) | Believing that the safest place for children is in their families, with a married mom and dad, is "dangerous and un-American," South Dakota House member Erin Healey said in a tweet. | That's how she commented on the position of "extremists" from the Christian Family Heritage Alliance. The Alliance has indeed lost its way: right on its own website it dares to call faith, family and freedom the foundation of the nation. Let us agree with Ms. Healy. The traditional family is no longer American at all. It is extremely dangerous for her native Democratic Party. And what's terrible for her at all, it's very, very Russian!

Link: https://nypost.com/2023/02/13/australian-mom-denied-heart-transplant-due-to-her-covid-19-vaccination-status/?utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow

A mother has been denied the opportunity to receive a heart transplant because she is not vaccinated for COVID-19, despite having a medical exemption. | Vicki Derderian, from Melbourne, relies on a ventricular assist device to keep her heart functioning after it failed in 2020, and is desperate for a transplant. She did not receive the vaccine because she is concerned that doing so could increase her risk of heart conditions such as myocarditis or pericarditis which, although rare, can be serious. Ms. Derderian, a mother of two, expressed her frustration with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services for their stance, which she characterized as “no jab, no heart.”

You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix | The widespread refusal to accept that the US government bombed the Nord Stream pipelines is based solely on the faith-based belief that the US government would never do something so evil, despite its having done many things that are far more evil than this right out in the open. ● "Okay sure they've been spending the last few years helping Saudi Arabia create mountains of child corpses in Yemen, but blowing up a pipeline? That would be a step too far!" ● So much government nefariousness hides behind the completely unevidenced assumption "Oh, our leaders would never do anything THAT bad!" It's a belief that is based on literally nothing. It's believed because it is comfortable.

Link: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/02/the-buildup-to-war-in-ukraine-february-13-2022.html

Moon of Alabama | In early 2022 Ukraine had finished the preparations for an overwhelming attack on the renegade People Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LNR). Half of the Ukrainian army, some 120,000 men recruited and trained during the last 7 years, were stationed near the ceasefire line and ready to go. On the opposing side only some 40,000 men were under arms. They would have little chance to withstand an onslaught. ● Russia could not let a Ukrainian attack happen. If Ukraine could regain the renegade provinces it would have been able to join NATO. Russian public opinion was decisively on the side of the Russian speaking DNR and LPR. It would surely demand an intervention. Since the 2014 coup in Kiev some four million Ukrainians had already moved to Russia. There are lots of family ties between the two countries. In sight of this Russia had put some of its own forces on alert and had moved weapons and munition to assembling points near the Ukrainian border. ● The U.S. had for months warned of an upcoming Russian attack on Ukraine. It could do that because it knew the Ukraine would attempt to regain the republics by force. It knew that Russia would have to respond. On January 12 2022 CIA director Bill Burns had secretly met Zelensky in Kiev. Burns often carries messages from President Joe Biden. On Sunday February 13 2022, after a phone call with U.S. president Joe Biden, the Ukrainian president Zelensky gave the final order for the planned Ukrainian attack. That the decision had been made was immediately leaked in London as well as in Kiev.

Link: https://t.me/Reality_Theories/11474

Link: https://t.me/Reality_Theories/11468

(Plus THIS)

Eva Bartlett | The economic stranglehold and selective approach to aid will lead to more death and displacement | On February 6, southern Türkiye and northern Syria were hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by dozens of aftershocks and then another earthquake. While the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and others were affected, the worst of the damage was in Türkiye and Syria. ● Following the devastating earthquakes that rocked Türkiye, Syria and their neighboring countries on February 6, leaving more than 20,000 dead, Damascus is struggling to deal with this unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe as it remains under brutal Western sanctions that have brought the country to its knees. ● The West’s war on Syria that began in early 2011 failed to topple its elected president, but the subsequent years of increasingly cruel sanctions – all in the name of ‘helping the Syrian people’ – have succeeded in rendering life miserable and near impossible, with most unable to afford to properly feed their families, much less heat their homes. Now, in a time of crisis, the Syrian people cannot even receive donations or emergency support from abroad. One supporter set up a GoFundMe campaign, only to have it taken down due to the sanctions. Type the word “Ukraine” into the search field on PayPal or GoFundMe and you’ll see countless appeals for sending money to Ukraine. But for Syrians, Western platforms like these are off-limits, and have been for years. [Excerpts from Eva's latest oped here (Telegram)]

Link: https://citizens.news/699128.html

The U.S. mainstream media has completely ignored a bombshell and heavily detailed report by Seymour Hersh, the legendary investigative journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, proving again that most news outlets are just propaganda shills for the deep state. | While the report was detailed, Hersh would not reveal any of his sources for obvious reasons, Russia Today reported. But he did say that today’s journalists are more like stenographers, not real investigative types who are allowed to go after corruption, graft, and abuse of power by either party.

💬 “The problem is, it’s all been cheapened. Because now the New York Times and the Washington Post think an unnamed source can be a press guy, a press secretary, that whispers something to them on the side. I don’t know, they don’t seem to have anyone inside,” Hersh said. He went on to say that the major news outlets are failing to report a lot of things about the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine: “The war I know about is not the war you’re reading about. It’s amazing to me how they fall in line, my colleagues.”

Link: https://studyfinds.org/overprotective-parenting-lifespan/

Overprotective, helicopter parenting is overkill | It can be tough for any parent to let their child do things for themselves for the first time, especially at the start of adolescence. After all, the world can be a scary place and moms and dads just want the best for their kids. New findings out of Brazil, however, are making a very strong case for parents (and especially fathers) worldwide to give their kids a little extra space. It turns out that children who have more freedom have a better chance of living longer. ● Researchers report men who had an overprotective father, and generally little autonomy all around, during childhood may be at a 12-percent higher risk of dying before the age of 80. The numbers are even worse among women. For females who had an overprotective father, the risk of dying before the age of 80 can increase by 22 percent. ● Notably, however, if a woman was also well cared for by their mother during childhood, that risk may decrease by up to 14 percent. Another eyebrow-raising statistic: the study suggests men who lived with only one parent during childhood had a 179-percent higher risk of dying before their 80th birthday.