CBS Margaret Brennan interviews CIA Director William Burns about the current status of the conflict in Ukraine.  Director Burns outlines his discussions with Ukraine government officials as well as his talks with intelligence counterparts in Russia.

Within the conversation Director Burns outlines the importance of the CIA to continue providing enhanced intelligence operations to support both the conflict and the propaganda that surrounds the World War Reddit effort.  Additionally, Burns confirms for the first time that his intelligence analysts now believe China has moved their status from improbable to possible in sending additional weapons to support Russia.  WATCH:

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[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: On the cusp of Russia’s invasion, you flew to Kyiv, and you told President Zelenskyy — tell me if this is right — the Russians are coming to kill you.

Was that the very first thing you said?

WILLIAM BURNS (CIA Director): It wasn’t the very first thing I said to President Zelenskyy.

But President Biden had asked me to go to Kyiv to lay out for President Zelenskyy the most recent intelligence we had, which suggested that what Vladimir Putin was planning was what he thought would be a lightning strike from the Belarus border to seize Kyiv in a matter of a few days, and also to seize an airport just northwest of Kyiv called Hostomel, which he wanted to use as a platform to bring in air — airborne troops, as a way, again, of accelerating that lightning conquest of Kyiv.

And I think President Zelenskyy understood what was at stake and what he was up against.

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Here’s a question I have.  I am looking forward to your opinion. I have my own.

In the Trump -vs- DeSantis storyline the following data points are generally agreed:

♦Approximately 75% of the Big Con “INFLUENCERS” (Big $) and punditry Support Ron DeSantis
♦Approximately 25% of the Small “Influencers” (Small $) and Indy punditry Support Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, amid the voting base the inverse is true:

♦Approximately 25% of the conservative, working-class, base voters support Ron DeSantis
♦Approximately 75% of the conservative, working-class, base voters support Donald Trump

Reconcile this inversion.  What does it mean?

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A few interesting aspects to this soundbite before the hubris is displayed.   Notice how Ukraine President Zelenskyy immediately affirms his knowledge that an increasing number of Americans no longer support the endless proxy war in Ukraine.  Apparently, the CIA and State Dept are focused very heavily on managing U.S. war fatigue and communicating that issue with the Ukrainian government they control.  {Direct Rumble Link}

Zelenskyy is asked about the increasing number of Americans who no longer support the war.  His response is to demand support and tell the stoopid Amerikaan voters, their opinion means nothing.  The direct and implied message is, if America doesn’t continue funding the war in Ukraine, our global credibility will collapse and people around the world will start laughing at us.

The propaganda is pretty thick, yet there are millions of Americans asking if the war is really such a dire situation, why does it always seem like there is an endless amount of time to promote the theater of it?  An auditorium filled with mindless captures, stares at a stage containing a leader who has unlimited time to play the role in the script…. yet somewhere, in some place… there is apparently a war happening.  What I mean is, the “theater” of the Ukraine war narrative is consuming far more resources than the actual fighting of the ‘war.’  WATCH:

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Following upon the heels of Joe Biden attending a meeting of NATO’s “eastern flank” partners, colloquially known as “the Bucharest-9”, and against the backdrop of China stepping into the picture with “no separation” support for Russia, the Pentagon is noting the anniversary of the Ukraine conflict by indicating additional U.S. troops maybe needed on the NATO eastern flank.

It is important to mention that Ukraine is NOT a NATO country.  The U.S. and Western media tend to avoid noting this uncomfortable fact, but NATO has no obligation to defend Ukraine.  Some might ask why NATO is even involved at all.

With that in mind, France 24 notes there is a possibility of a brigade sized reinforcement group inbound to this region [LINK HERE].  The Pentagon press release is below:

(Pentagon) – […] In response to the most urgent danger to European security since the end of World War II, we have moved swiftly with our allies to further unify and strengthen NATO. The Alliance has bolstered its defenses on the Eastern Flank. Meanwhile, the United States has deployed or extended more than 20,000 additional U.S. forces to Europe and forward-stationed the first permanent U.S. forces on NATO’s Eastern Flank. NATO is more united than ever, and the U.S. commitment to defend every inch of allied territory remains ironclad.

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The Biden administration and UniParty congress continues announcing additional tranches in tens-of-billions in U.S. taxpayer funds to support Ukraine.  The total spent or committed now exceeds $100 billion in just one year alone, with no end in sight.  We are funding almost all military operations and the government expenses of Ukraine to include pensions, pay and benefits for Ukrainian officials.

During his opening monologue Thursday, Tucker Carlson outlines the Joe Biden “as long as it takes” policy.  WATCH: 

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This sounds exactly like something out of the State Dept playbook from an era when the U.S. military had the actual strength to back it up.  However, against the current state of affairs, specifically the U.S. control over the western NATO alliance, sending additional troops to Taiwan just because the U.S. is upset about China and Russia’s relationship, is simply poking the Beijing dragon.

There are approximately 30 U.S. troops in Taiwan on a regular rotating basis. Nothing large or significant.  However, immediately after China and Russia announce there is no distance or limit in their relationship, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration is sending an additional 200 U.S. military troops into Taiwan.

(Via Wall Street Journal) – […] The number of American troops, which has included special-operations forces and U.S. Marines, has fluctuated by a handful during the past few years, according to Defense Department data. The planned increase would be the largest deployment of forces in decades by the U.S. on Taiwan, as the two draw closer to counter China’s growing military power.

[…] The expanded training, both in the U.S. and in Taiwan, is part of a gathering U.S. push to help a close partner prepare to thwart a possible invasion by China. The U.S. officials said the expansion was planned for months, well before U.S.-China relations plummeted anew this month after a suspected Chinese spy balloon traversed North America for more than a week before being shot down by the Air Force.

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Around July 2022 was when CTH first noticed the visible fingerprints of a coordinated GOPe strategy toward the goal of presenting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the acceptable Republican candidate to remove the threat of the America First MAGA movement.

At first, I didn’t say anything, preferring to watch and check the data points to see if they all aligned in this one visible direction.  However, as soon as the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago took place and DeSantis went into a bunker, it became obvious there was a working plan in place {Go Deep}.

From that early August moment forward, the background pretenses became increasingly obvious. The rebranding, the new communication team, the national launch, the funding mechanisms, the Rupert Murdoch funded book tour, the social media and Big Con media effort… all of it flowing in one direction.

Once this recognition was made, then hindsight could be applied.  How long had this been planned?  The early review was simple, there was a January 6, 2022, assembly of ‘conservative influencers’ arranged by Christina Pushaw sometime in late December 2021.  However, since then a deeper look would reflect the strategy was in place likely going back to when Pushaw first joined the DeSantis team.

With trillions at stake, the anti-America First insurance policy that DeSantis provides is worth billions to the club that stands behind him.

FLORIDA – (Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will host an event for top donors and social-media influencers this weekend, the latest in a flurry of moves that suggest he’s ramping up to battle former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination.

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Many people said I was interpreting U.S. foreign policy too literally last year when we first discussed Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh outlining Biden’s geopolitical strategy against Russia {Go Deep}.  However, all of the propaganda constructs around World War Reddit have tripped the signal flares exactly as anticipated.

Now, with increased tensions and hostilities present, we consider this data point as provided by NATO, on the Twitter.  This is not a spoof.  Yes, this is the official messaging platform for NATO on Twitter:

[Source]

Going back to one year ago when Daleep Singh emphasized U.S. foreign policy would be driven by who could “tell a better story.” Daleep Singh sounds like the senior head of a Google Human Resources operation telling the department heads how they need to convey their feelings in order to hire the talent for continued growth in the industry.  This is a direct quote:

Feb 24, 2022 – …”Ultimately, the goal of our sanctions is to make this a strategic failure for Russia; and let’s define a little bit of what that means. Strategic success in the 21st century is not about a physical land grab of territory; that’s what Putin has done.  In this century, strategic power is increasingly measured and exercised by economic strength, by technological sophistication and your story – who you are, what your values are; can you attract ideas and talent and goodwill? And on each of those measures, this will be a failure for Russia.” (link)

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… and because of that, he’s now a bigger target than ever.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not willing to join the NATO alliance in pushing further escalation of war against Russia.

Now, we begin to connect the dots, see the bigger picture and understand exactly why Samantha Power is running an operation inside Hungary with the unspoken intent of destabilizing the Hungarian population against the government.

(Via Daily Mail) – Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban snubbed Wednesday’s meeting in Warsaw with President Joe Biden and the other Bucharest Nine leaders after insisting Donald Trump was the only person who could broker peace with Vladimir Putin.

Orban has been an outlier on the war in Ukraine, chiding the European Union for prolonging the conflict and saying in October that only former U.S. President Donald Trump could negotiate a deal between the Ukrainians and Russians to end the conflict.

‘This is going to sound brutal, but hope for peace goes by the name of Donald Trump,’ Orban said at the time, arguing Biden wasn’t the man for the job because he has ‘gone too far’ in calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal.’ (read more)

Follow the bouncing ball of consequence….  TWO WEEKS AGO:

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I wrote about distinct data points in the last 24 hours {SEE HERE] that lean toward direct NATO hostile activity against Russia.   Joe Biden might be saying that Ukraine flags are hanging from homes in small town America (major propaganda footing), but the overwhelming majority of Americans do not support an expanded war.

Russia is preparing.  Today, high level officials from China and Russia held talks in Moscow and they were not hiding their unity of purpose in an alliance that would oppose western NATO engagement.  When Beijing allows the panda mask to fall, the dragon message underneath it, “a relationship with no limits,” should be reviewed very carefully.  The AP has some good color on the Moscow meeting.

(Via AP) Russia and China showcased their deepening ties Wednesday in meetings others are watching for signs that Beijing might offer the Kremlin stronger support for its war in Ukraine.

The visit by Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, to Moscow comes as the conflict in Ukraine continues to upend the global diplomatic order.

Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest point since the Cold War, and ties between China and the U.S. are also under serious strain. Moscow suspended its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with Washington this week. And the U.S. expressed concern that China could provide arms and ammunition to Russia.

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