This is not good. Apparently, the 20,000 additional troops sent to Europe last year bringing the total to 100,000 are not enough.

Earlier today Joe Biden signed an order activating 3,000 reserve troops to be ready for deployment as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.  [White House Announcement]

WHITE HOUSE – “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility.  

In furtherance of this operation, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, as they deem necessary, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.” (link) 

Politico has further information from the Pentagon:

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The sanctions levied against Russia by the collective West have essentially failed.  There is inconvenience within Russia amid ordinary citizens for global and economic transactions, but most of the govt transactions have continued.

On the opposite side of the consequence coin, absent the ability to purchase consumer goods on the global market, Russian domestic consumer independence has grown dramatically.  There is more stuff being made and created inside Russia, for Russians to purchase, than ever before.

I cannot see how the Russian GDP doesn’t benefit from this in the long-term.

Then again, I don’t buy the official Western narrative about the “horrible” life inside Russia, because I talk to ordinary middle class Russians who seem to have found a way to organize life without too much disturbance.

Russia is actually a case study in the elimination of imports and the economic outcomes therein.

It doesn’t suck to be a consumer; average Russians are doing fine, and it seems to get better over time.  Ironically, give them a few more years of Western sanctions, and Russia could be a manufacturing powerhouse.  Russia is a big country with a lot of raw material resources.

UNITED NATIONS, July 12 (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia’s agricultural bank to the SWIFT international payment system, sources told Reuters.

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President Trump does not mince words when it comes to the senseless bloodshed and chaos in Ukraine.

As Joe Biden meets with NATO members to consider their latest strategies to expand the proxy war in Ukraine, President Trump denounces the decision to provide cluster bombs.

It should be noted, this recent decision by Biden follows an earlier decision by NATO to send depleted uranium munitions into the battlefield.  Ukraine is quickly turning into a toxic killing field as World War Reddit continues.

DONALD J TRUMP – “Joe Biden should not be dragging us further toward World War III by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine—he should be trying to END the war and stop the horrific death and destruction being caused by an incompetent administration. These unexploded cluster munitions will be killing and maiming innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children for decades to come, long after the war—we pray—has ended.

If, as Biden inadvertently admitted, the reason for sending cluster bombs now is that the United States is “running out of ammunition” (a great breach of classified information), that only further emphasizes the urgency of immediately deescalating this bloody, dangerous, and out of control conflict. It certainly means we should not be sending Ukraine our last stockpiles at a time when our own arsenals, according to Crooked Joe Biden, are so perilously diminished.

There could be no more vivid proof that Joe Biden’s policy of endless war in Ukraine has tremendously weakened the United States than the humiliating admission that the USA is now out of ammo, something our enemies are undoubtedly salivating over. This “admitted” weakness is an invitation to enemies all over the world. Joe Biden is needlessly and dangerously leading us into World War III, which would be a nightmare beyond imagination—obliteration!

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Apparently, the western media narrative about Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin leading a revolt against Russian President Putin was, well, shall we say a little overstated. According to recent news reports, President Putin met with Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin a few days after the “march on Moscow,” the Kremlin has said.

Putin invited Prigozhin – and a number of his commanders – to a meeting in Moscow so Wagner could air their grievances. Prigozhin was upset that his forces were seemingly overexposed to excessive risks in the Ukraine combat operations. “The president gave an assessment of the company’s actions on the front,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said of the three hour meeting on 29 June. “Putin listened to the commanders’ explanations and suggested variants of their future employment and their future use in combat,” Mr Peskov added.

This meeting undermines the western narrative as promoted by the U.S State Department and CIA through their official media stenographers.

This meeting aligns exactly as we had mentioned, and is bolstered by Yevgeny Prigozhin being in his hometown of St Petersburg a little over a week ago, which we have independently confirmed. There is no “exile from Russia” as western media have claimed.

(Fox News) Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the attempted mutiny against the Kremlin last month, just days after the march on Moscow was thwarted.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday the meeting lasted some three hours on June 29, just five days after the attempted mutiny. Peskov released few details on the hours-long meeting but said that Putin provided an “assessment” of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield as well as “the events of June 24.”

“The commanders themselves presented their version of what happened. They underscored that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue to fight for their homeland,” the spokesman said.

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Both Joe Biden [VIDEO HERE] and Senator Chris Coons [VIDEO HERE] were interviewed as part of the Sunday talk circuit just before the upcoming NATO summit.  The message from both voices were similar as part of the larger geopolitical discussion, so I’m blending them into one review.

On the subject of Ukraine seeking NATO membership the key democrats gave the same explanation and justification, although Biden mumbled a little more alarmingly.  Biden, speaking to the Dept of State narrative engineers on CNN, noted there can be no discussion of Ukraine entering NATO as long as the war with Russia is ongoing.  From Biden’s perspective if NATO accepted Ukraine now, then all of NATO would immediately need to enter the war with Russia.

What Biden and Coons did not say was that if NATO opened the door to Ukraine now, the interests of Russia would immediately change.  If NATO was to make immediate announcements of Ukraine membership, Russia would be stupid not to expand the war immediately and begin the process of taking all of Ukraine instead of the eastern Russian speaking section bordering the homeland.

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This latest development from the Biden administration is concerning on many levels.

The White House is announcing their approval to send cluster bombs to Ukraine in an effort to provide a very deadly and dangerous type of munitions that have been resoundingly criticized by most of the western alliance. Cluster bombs are not just dangerous on the battlefield, they are also notorious for creating collateral civilian damage.

That said, when you overlay the reality of the Ukraine policy, essentially World War Reddit, being driven in large part by a psychological operation that is challenging to figure out from a reality perspective; in combination with very unstable people in the U.S. government seemingly playing war within the larger policy agenda; one must also look at this from a Russian intelligence position.

Is the Biden administration really willing to deploy cluster bombs or is this some PR narrative intended to give the impression the U.S. is willing to up the stakes in the use of weapons that will continue escalating, regardless of consequence. There are a lot of unstable minds within this larger Ukraine narrative as promoted by the White House, Pentagon and State Dept (CIA).

WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration on Friday announced it will include cluster bombs in the United States’ next $800 million weapons package for Ukraine, as well as armored vehicles and air defense missiles.

President Joe Biden acknowledged it took some time to be convinced to provide the controversial weapons, but he stressed the importance of supporting Ukraine’s ammunition supplies while preserving U.S. inventories, as well as discussing how Kyiv plans to deploy the bombs.

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Presidential candidate Mike Pence made a pilgrimage to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and affirm Pence’s position that the unilateral power of the Ukraine government needs to be supported.

Mike Pence then presents himself as the arbiter of what it means to be a Republican with a Twitter message saying, “I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal, and I know who needs to win this war in Ukraine, and it’s the people fighting for their freedom and fighting to restore their national sovereignty. There is no room in our party for apologists for Putin. There is only room for champions of freedom.”

Americans must sacrifice to support the magnanimous interests of the industrial military complex. Failure to adhere to the dictates and fiats of Republican power will not be tolerated in his party.

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Well, I have not written about the events with Wagner in Russia, in part because coincidentally I have a good source in St Petersburg who told me several days ago to look out for something with Wagner and Putin. Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was born in St Pete (Leningrad).

Born in 1961, Prigozhin grew up as a somewhat snarky Soviet Robin Hood, a street urchin who flowed invisibly between Finland and Leningrad in a black-market social circle that, well, let’s just say I am familiar with.

When he was 20, Prigozhin was arrested for a heist and federally imprisoned for 9 years while the Soviet Union collapsed. When he exited prison Russia was different, and with St Pete now becoming a tourist destination, he joined the capitalist opportunity with a street food vending business.

Prigozhin is hard as nails, snarky as hell and very tricky.

He is one of the apex gremlins and very much still connected to the streets, very connected. He was never connected to the towers of Russian politics as the West portrays. Prigozhin doesn’t have the pedigree nor the disposition for political power.

Let me put it this way, no one knows how to play gremlin mind games against the West better than Yevgeny Prigozhin. He’s a little bit like a less refined Oleg Deripaska, and much scruffier. Also remember, in February 2018, Prigozhin was one of 13 Russians indicted by Andrew Weissmann and Rod Rosenstein for interfering in the American election through the Internet Research Agency, lol {insert eyeroll}.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Don’t share this; it’s for CTH audience only. Back in April of this year, a blogger in St Pete named Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed by a bomb disguised as a gift for his work reporting on behalf of free people in Russia. The bomb was inside a bust of Tatarsky given to him shortly before he was giving a speech in a cafe. A 26-year-old woman named Darya Trepova gave him the gift; she was arrested and disappeared.

Speculation, strong speculation, was that the cafe bomb was a CIA operation, because Tatarsky was considered an enemy of Ukraine. His death was a hit to the pro-Russia morale inside the region. The target, Vladlen Tatarsky, and the head of the Wagner mercenary military units, Yevgeny Prigozhin, were good friends.

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CTH has said for a year the Achilles heel Ron DeSantis carries, the weak spot that outlines his neocon nature, becomes extremely visible on the subject of Ukraine.

Twice previously, DeSantis has tried to walk the tightrope and navigate his lies surrounding the Ukraine war. Each time he outlines something that leans toward Ukraine needing to concede to Russia and NATO needing to stop meddling on Russia borders, he immediately walks back his comments.  DeSantis is stuck on the issue of Ukraine because DeSantis cannot be honest about his position on Ukraine.

Today in South Carolina [Forbes got the state wrong in the title] the issue of Ukraine surfaced in a public Q&A (video below), and both times DeSantis ducked, obfuscated, distracted and refused to answer the question.  The second person asked more directly, “What are you going to do about the war in Ukraine?”, because DeSantis never answered the first questioner. WATCH [prompted to 01:08:23]

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Only Donald Trump has the solution to the Ukraine war.  (1) Stop NATO, namely U.S. created, from provoking nonsense antagonisms on Russia’s border; and (2) Force Zelenskyy to the negotiation table of reality.  The Ukraine war stops immediately the day after the 2024 election, if Trump wins.

However, Ron DeSantis cannot take that attitude or foreign policy approach.  DeSantis must maintain the approved Republican pro-war narrative as outlined by Democrats, Republicans, UniParty, and the DC political leadership writ large.  The DC position on the Ukraine war is all about money; DeSantis must maintain that policy.

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In this podcast interview between former HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes and journalists Margot Cleveland and Lee Smith, the discussion begins with the recent revelations provided by Senator Chuck Grassley about audio tapes as evidence in the Biden bribery scandal. {Direct Rumble Link}

As the story has unfolded, the Confidential Human Source who tipped off the FBI to Joe Biden taking bribes from foreign governments, also claims to have audio tapes of himself talking to Joe Biden about the issues when Biden was vice-president.  The FBI has been sitting on this Biden bribery knowledge for multiple years.

The most common opinion of the FBI motive was their intent to burying or capture negative information about Biden.  However, with the institutional corruption of the domestic national security apparatus being very visible within DOJ and FBI, Lee Smith ponders whether the FBI/DOJ might be holding back the Biden bribery material as part of their leverage against the White House.  It is an interesting angle to consider. WATCH:

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Lee Smith is very wise in the ways of the Deep State.

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