@RyanMcbeth@MAVECOCanada The mental gymnastics people are willing to accept from Russia is astounding.
The simple and undeniable fact about ending the war is that Russia can withdraw its invading forces. Ukraine cannot end the invasion by surrendering its right to self-defence.
Vladimir Putin has pulled off the greatest diplomatic & military coup of perhaps all time. The co-opting of the POTUS and all that power as his pawn.
With this stroke, he shattered the Western Alliance & has set the US on course for a political crisis the country has not seen since 1860.
We don't know what Putin has on Trump, but it's clear he has something big. To quote the great Mooch:
"When you hear hooves clattering through an open window, you can be sure it is a horse, not a zebra."
1/ 🇷🇸🇷🇺 Vučić just lost Serbia.
russia’s most useful Balkan ally called a snap election to cling to power. Students who spent 2 yrs in the streets crushed him.
Moscow spent a decade buying influence with cheap gas & political cover.
Europe didn't oust him. Serbians did.
🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺 TRUMP WANTS UKRAINE TO STOP STRIKING RUSSIA. HIS OWN CIA IS HELPING IT.
Donald Trump has been pressuring Ukraine to stop attacking Russian territory, particularly oil infrastructure. Yet under his own CIA director, American intelligence operations against Russia have reportedly become more aggressive than they were during Joe Biden's presidency.
According to Shane Harris, writing for The Atlantic, the CIA under John Ratcliffe continues providing critical intelligence support to Ukraine, including information that enables deep strikes inside Russia.
American spy satellites also give Ukrainian forces early warning of incoming Russian missiles and drones, helping protect cities, military installations and critical infrastructure.
The contradiction is extraordinary.
While Trump publicly criticizes Volodymyr Zelenskyy and pushes for an end to Ukrainian strikes, the intelligence agency answering to his administration continues supporting operations that have inflicted significant damage on Russia's energy industry and military supply chains.
Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries have repeatedly disrupted production and imposed additional costs on Moscow. Trump, however, has blamed such strikes for rising diesel prices and wants them stopped.
Ratcliffe now finds himself managing two competing realities: a president seeking to restrain Ukraine's attacks and an intelligence operation that has become deeply integrated into Ukraine's ability to fight.
Ukrainian officials reportedly regard Ratcliffe as someone willing to give Trump an accurate assessment of the battlefield, even when that assessment contradicts the president's preferred narrative.
The CIA director reportedly travelled to Moscow in August through a private intelligence channel, delivering an assessment to Russian security officials that neither side was winning and that Russia had failed to achieve meaningful territorial advances.
The intention, according to the account, was for that assessment to reach Vladimir Putin.
This makes Ratcliffe's position particularly unusual. He is simultaneously involved in intelligence cooperation that helps Ukraine impose costs on Russia and in efforts to communicate directly with Moscow's security establishment.
But there is an important limit to how far that independence extends.
People familiar with Ratcliffe's approach told The Atlantic that if Trump explicitly ordered an end to intelligence support for Ukraine, the CIA director would comply rather than campaign to reverse the decision.
That distinction matters enormously.
Ukraine's intelligence relationship with Washington is not limited to identifying targets. It also provides warning time against Russian aerial attacks, a capability with direct consequences for civilian protection and military readiness.
A political decision to restrict that relationship could therefore affect considerably more than Ukraine's ability to strike Russian refineries.
For now, the reported reality is that Trump's public demands and his intelligence agency's activities are moving in different directions.
And despite Moscow's efforts to persuade Washington to constrain Kyiv, American intelligence continues helping Ukraine fight a war that Russia has still failed to bring to its desired conclusion.
Imagine being a CEO of an US energy company and thinking that you work with close associates of the Trump family, only to find out that behind them is a sanctioned Russian company, really pulling the strings.
This happened in Alaska. Polar Train LNG's CEO, Joel Riddle, stepped down after finding out that the Russian "Novatek" company, which is under US sanctions, has been involved in a $25 billion energy project in Alaska. The CEO thought that he was working with Gentry Beach, a close friend of Donald Trump Junior.
Reportedly, that project was also discussed between Witkoff and Jared Kushner when they were with Putin. The White House admitted that the project was talked about "briefly".
We are witnessing the greatest corruption scandal the USA has ever witnessed. It all leads to Trump, his family and the Russians, and apparently they were even ready to sell riches of Alaska to the Russians.
The people in Alaska just need to look over to Russia, where the richest regions in terms of minerals and hydrocarbon resources have been stripped-mined, transferring all the wealth to Moscow and Saint Petersburg and leaving a scarred landscape in extreme poverty. That is the result of rampant corruption.
We are starting to see more details why Trump and his friends are trying so strongly to bully Ukraine into surrender. This is most certainly only the tip of the iceberg.
New footage emerged showing strikes using “Stormshadow” missiles upon the “Proton” plant in Oryol, Russia. The operation was carried out on October 23.
The plant produced various products for Russia’s military. During the operation the workshop and an administrative building was struck.
We have cancelled our X subscription for the following main reasons:
First and foremost, we cannot contribute to an organization that apparently places the interests of an adversary above those of the United States.
Second, despite assurances that a paid subscription would extend reach, it appears we've experienced systematic deboosting over the past few months in favor of the platform's political preferences, conduct that violates its own terms of service.
At the end of the day Tucker Carlson’s message is popular among his loyal followers because for them it’s “emotional truth”. His followers want to believe him. They want to believe in the fantasy that their problems are someone else’s fault.
Do you want to understand why Tucker Carlson continues to attract Americans to watch and support his ever more extremists opinions?
Ryan McBeth is a military, intelligence, and cybersecurity analyst and he breaks it down for us.
Russia’s used to count on the vast size of their territory as a part of their defence. Ukraine has now turned this advantage into a strategic liability for Russia. They are showing the world that Russia is true indefensible.
@RyanMcbeth The very best part of this Tucker Carlson explainer is comparing his loyal followers to kids reading Harry Potter. Tucker is really good at presenting a fantasy about how all “your” problems are the fault the Jews, democrats, deep state, and immigrants.
Great work Ryan!
The Kremlin is getting desperate. Their only recent success has been through manipulation of the American President. Only Trump can save Russia now and that’s Alison now in doubt.
Russia is burning, but the Kremlin claims "victory": Key manipulations of Russian propaganda over the past week.
The Center for Strategic Communication analyzed the information agenda of pro-government Russian media outlets from October 14-21 and identified the main areas of information pressure.
🔹 The consequences of Ukrainian strikes were concealed behind reports of "effective air defense." Photos of the burning data center of VK in St. Petersburg were presented as evidence of successful defense: supposedly, the drones "did not penetrate the metal grids." Damage and the consequences for the operation of the facility were relegated to the background.
🔹 Attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure were used to create fear before winter. Attacks on thermal power plants were called an "energy knockout." At the same time, municipal problems were linked to corruption, diverting attention from Russian shelling.
🔹 Zelensky was portrayed as an "obstacle to peace." Criticism of Trump was used to promote the thesis that the West "has abandoned Kyiv." Russian channels disseminated over 2300 posts on this topic, supplementing them with insults and fabrications about the cessation of the transfer of American intelligence.
🔹 Moscow was presented as a party that is on the offensive and dictating terms. Lavrov's statements against a ceasefire were combined with fakes about the "liberation" of Dobropillia. The audience was convinced that Ukraine and its partners should make concessions.
🔹 Unrest in France was transformed into a picture of a "collapse of Europe." Z-media focused on arson, curfews, and reports of a burned town hall in Limoges.
Ukrainian defenders hit a plant in Tolyatti, on the territory of the russian fascist invaders, that produces synthetic rubber and binders for solid rocket fuel.
Tolyatti is more than 1,300 km from Kyiv.