— Alex (Sasha) Krainer (@NakedHedgie) July 3, 2024
And we've spoken several times before about NATO's continued escalation in this Ukrainian proxy war, and we appear to have reached new dangerous levels. So after the US began sending these long-range missiles and green lighting the targeting of Russian territory, the Russians seem to have looked for ways to begin to retaliate. So they're sending their warships to Cuba to send the signal with their nuclear weapons drill. And now, they are announcing that they're going to ship weapons to any state in conflict with the West, much like the West is doing in Ukraine. Then we see this attack on beach goers in Crimea with this American attack Ms and cluster munitions warheads. What I hear now from Moscow is there's massive pressure building up to effectively say, "No more." And seeking to restore deterrence by looking at ways to retaliate.
How do you read the situation in terms of what happened in Crimea? How serious is this, and instead of calming things down the United States seems to be on the verge of greenlighting contractors to go into Ukraine as well. Where do you see all of this heading?
1:35, MACGREGOR. A few fronts first is a decision by the attackers was always a bad one because they have a range of probably a hundred eighty miles or more depending on the Target and what occurred Crimea was total of five missiles were fired could have been four maybe but I think it was five all but one missile was shot down which tells you something about the quality Russian Aaron missile defense it's pretty substantial but the last missile instead of being shot down seems to have been damaged and effectively knocked off course so that is Warhead exploded over the Black Sea and near the beach that you were talking about now the cluster Munitions that were inside were not ignited or detonated for some reason they fell harmlessly to the ground so something interrupted the missile something disrupted the mechanics of the Warhead and even though people were killed and injured we could be very grateful that those cluster Munitions those little bomblets did not detonate because they are very lethal and they would have done infinitely more damage than we witnessed so I guess the point is it was not intentional to do the damage that was done two people on the beach in Crimea however the damage was done one way or the other and it doesn't make a great deal of difference to you if you're Russian if you were killed by a bomblet that explodes or doesn't. The bomblet is a bomblet that came from the United States.
4:55 Donald Trump says that he's going to conduct the largest deportation operation in history, and everyone thinks that's impossible. Well, we deported 9 million Mexicans between 1929 and 1930. Under FDR, we deported another 3.5 million. Under Harry Truman, 2 million. Under Eisenhower, 1.5 million, so I think that that can be done. The question is will he be supported by anybody that matters in Congress? And remember that some of the same oligarchs, I like to use that term now, the billionaires who shape policymaking in Washington, who are interested in prosecuting wars in the Middle East and wars in Eastern Ukraine, aren't really interested in securing our borders, or frankly, concerned about the welfare of the American people. So there's no easy answer.
5:45 How politicized is the Judiciary in the United States? We are surprised when we read reports about this verdict now in New York where they said that former President Donald Trump had to pay $450 million U.S. dollars because of a fraud case in which the banks are saying "We didn't lose one cent." In some parts, there was critical reporting on that. Is the Judiciary system in the United States politicized in a way that they tried to get rid of Trump in that sense?
MACGREGOR, 6:35 Yes. It's true. The judiciary system in the United States consists or is composed of people who were appointed to their jobs under several different administrations. Frankly, from 1992 onwards most of those judges who were appointed stood to the Left of Center. There was some modest increment of more middle-of-the-road, Centrist judges under Trump, but frankly the majority fall into the Leftist camp. Now, some of that varies with geography. I wouldn't want to be tried for anything in New York City or Washington, D.C., where I fully expect whatever they accuse me of, whether I was guilty or not, I would be found guilty and end up in jail. That's how serious the problem is. Again, everything that we Americans have taken for granted for 200 years has fallen apart. The institutions are facades behind which stand almost nothing. The public trust and confidence in these institutions is at an all-time low.
7:47 What was your impression as a military man, as a high officer of the armed forces of the United States, what was your impression of the interview of Tucker Carlson with President Putin? What's the essence?
MACGREGOR, 8:05 Most of us view Tucker Carlson, I'm talking about Americans in general, not just people in uniform
Iran will not stand by and allow Hezbollah to be destroyed. --Macgregor
Netanyahu wants to expand the war.
Israel doesn't have any friends in the Middle East, but now it has serious enemies. And the populations are going to shape the destiny of Israel in the future.
Is this an American national security interest, or an American domestic politics reality?
It is a reality of domestic politics. The American people have been conditioned for decades to see Iran exclusively as an enemy that had to be destroyed.
I mean I could take you into WalMart or CVS, and ask somebody, "What do you think about those Iranians?"
Oh, they're bad. They're terrible.
It's worked. It goes back to our discussions about why are all of these people so quick to swallow the line about Russia being evil and corrupt, dangerous, and invading everyone? Well, you fell back on the Cold War. There is still that underlying consciousness, and there is a willingness to accept what is being taught in academia, what comes across the airwaves on television,
Americans used to be people who'd say, "Wait a minute, what's this go to do with us?" They don't do that anymore. They have been brainwashed, and conditioned. Intellectually and socially to say, "Iran is evil and bad, therefore, get rid of it. Now, there are younger people who don't share that assumption. And I don't think that Americans really understand what war means. A friend of mine who fought in Vietnam was a helicopter gun pilot as a warrant officer, he's a great person and worked for years in the intelligence committee. Worked for me when I was at the Supreme Headquarters of Light Powers Europe. And he was telling me, you know, Americans have no idea what's going on. We had Army groups in Europe between 1944 and 45, from June of 44 until the war ended, that sustained 756,000 casualties, more casualties more losses than we could replace. We have forgotten that war involves a lot of killing. The Israelis are experiencing that now, and they are not insensitive to it. But imagine it on a regional scale and Industrial scale. We lost 19,000 casualties a month from June of 44 until the Battle of the Bulge broke out, and then it went up to 100,000 a month. I'm just talking about American forces in Europe, you know, but we never bring these things up. That's war. And we have played with this war thing and now we've watched what the Russians have done who understand war. They have a grasp of it. Look at what they have done; they built a force for war. This is not some boutique, specialized army or Marine Corps designed to go into third-world countries where nobody has air defense, where nobody can defend themselves effectively, where they have very little organized military power. That's [Russian force] a force capable of waging scientific industrial war in the 21st century. We don't have that, and if we drag ourselves into this thing by provoking a war with Iran, this thing will spread because the Russians will not stand by and watch us destroy Iran. China has an enormous interest in the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. It Imports most of its oil and gas from there. Russia has tried to make up for some of it when it could not reach it, but today it's impossible to feed the Chinese industrial machine without the Persian Gulf, without the Middle East. They are not going to stand by and watch us annihilate Iran. And we talked before about the Turks . . . the Turks are, you know, that nation is ready to fight. Mr. Erdogan has talked himself into a real corner, and my judgment because people there are enraged and ready to fight, this is a large gasoline storage site that simply needs the right match at the right time at the right location and it will blow up. That's the problem.
25:57. I want to talk with you later in the week about Russia, Ukraine, and China before we finish today, and thank you for that superb analysis of where we stand. Here's a clip from a former colleague of yours, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who shares your views and my views on nearly all these things, being pretty critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu. I wonder if you agree.
26:24. Since Netanyahu took over, indeed probably since Ronald Reagan had to really bash the Israelis when they went into Lebanon in 1982, but it certainly been their policy since Netanyahu took over, he is the most Draconian leader Israel has had in its short history since 1948 he is der Fuehrer. He is der Fuehrer.
26:53. Fair?
26:54. That may be true but I don't think at this point it's terribly relevant, because this situation has moved well beyond Mr Netanyahu. The forces in play now will not be easily arrested; they will not be contained. The so-called Genie is out of the bottle.
27:12. Even if Netanyahu were to go for domestic political reasons your view is the genie STAYS out of the bottle.
27:20. Yes, I think we're in a position now that I've tried to describe in the regional sense with all of the Islamic world, and I don't see any easy way through this at this point. If we were to stop supplying the Israelis, that might have an impact in the short term but in the long term. Their strategic position now requires support or they will go out of existence, even with our support potentially in the next 12 months. Given what I see emerging on the horizon, that may be very questionable.
Thank you to Lew Rockwell's "Col. Douglas MacGregor," and to Natalie Brunell, whose video is titled, "Col Macgregor & Natalie Brunell: The Russian Army Has Finished It."
Prigozhin is an individual as you know that is very flamboyant and very outspoken. He has had lots of opportunities to say good things he's also said some stupid things and he's being viewed widely inside the senior ranks of the Russian army as a double-edged sword. Obviously, Wagner has done a brilliant job, and Wagner is viewed inside Russia in much the same way that the French Foreign Legion is viewed inside France. Certainly they have foreigners in their ranks, and, yes, they have convicted criminals that on certain conditions were allowed to serve. But on the whole, they are they're seen as fiercely loyal to the Russian State and they are, and just like the French Foreign Legion they fight extremely well and no one in France will ever criticize the French Foreign Legion. And I think you have a similar situation in Russia right now. The Wagner Group is extraordinarily popular, so is Prigozhin. Lots of Russians look to him for inspiration. He is seen as someone who wants to war an unrelenting war with the Ukrainian State. He wants this man, Zelenskyy, gone. He and his fighters are seen as part of this determined Russian effort to destroy this enemy force in the Ukraine. So that everything that happens has to be understood against that backdrop. Secondly, Prigozhin of late has had some serious problems with the Russian high command; there are legal issues involved with the Wagner Group. Originally, it was designed exclusively for use overseas but obviously, it's being used domestically. And over time, the military has expressed an interest, I'm talking about the very senior ranks, particularly the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff, in breaking this Wagner organization up, which is something that Mr. Prigozhin didn't want to do. Thirdly, Prigozhin has been unreasonably hostile towards the high command. On the other hand, some of his criticism is widely shared inside Russia. The criticism is that he's not only been inadequately supplied, which is open to debate, but also that this war is not being prosecuted with the level of ferocity that it deserves. He doesn't even like the use of the words "special military operation." He wants a declared war. He wants the nation to mobilize. Now, Putin knows it and they've known each other for some time. I'm reluctant to use the word "coup" because I don't think Prigozhin ever set out to to displaced Putin. I think he was trying to get Putin's attention. I think he went too far, and you had the potential for real bloodshot with this small force of 3,000 or 4,000 that was going to Moscow. But I think the Hope was that he could somehow or another reach Putin's ears, getting him to understand that his senior leaders are not what they should be. Whether or not that's true that's a different issue, but I think that was Prigozhin's principle goal. I don't think he saw himself as rising to the top to replace Putin at all. So I think a lot of the Wagner troops that went with him said what we're doing is we're going to rescue this man, Putin, from his generals; we're going to get him to understand what's really happening. Now there are others who will dispute that I think Alexander Mercouris [at the Duran] and his friends, who do a wonderful job by the way of reporting, don't share that view. But my sources see things differently, and so do I.
Putin is not Stalin. Russia is not the Soviet Union. If anything, Putin is much closer to a Czar then he is to anything else. And he had the opportunity to arrest Prigozhin and the rest of these troops and execute them, and he very quickly decided not to do so. First, because of the reasons I cited at the outset. He realizes these men are Russian patriots. They have fought very, very hard for Russia. Second, he's not really threatened because he had 30,000 troops in Moscow. He's got control. Nobody joined this. No one was interested in supporting this, so he's not really threatened. And Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus since the office was created in 1994, has known Prigozhin for at least 20 years. All three men know each other, and I think Luke said, "Look, let me pick this man up and bring him to Russia and we'll keep him under wraps." And Putin decided that he could be lenient. I don't think it reflects his weakness; I think it speaks a lot to his strengths. So this is now over.
The real question is, was the message received? Does Putin understand that he really does need to shake up the high command? Does he now understand that the Russian people want an end to this war? Does he understand that the Russian military is an army sitting in Ukraine waiting to attack and end this thing? There's something else lurking in the background that your viewers need to keep in mind that I think was also on Prigozhin's mind though I can't prove it.
Zelenskyy has talked of late several times about attacking the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. And that's a very dangerous thing, because it could conceivably radiate and cause terrible destruction from radiation if one of the reactors was destroyed. If Zelenskyy has been pushing it, Budanov who works for him and runs the intelligence side of the house in Ukraine has been actively advocating for it.
All the time almost from the very beginning there has been a concern in Moscow about the potential for a dirty bomb and that this dirty bomb implemented by the Ukrainians obviously with this nuclear power plant could be then presented as a false flag, because ultimately people in Washington, the president, Lindsay Graham, and Democratic Senator from Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal just sponsored this legislation which would trigger an automatic war with Russia under such circumstances.
Russia launched an operation it felt it had to secure its country. We had been working tirelessly for at least the last 20 years to undermine and weaken Russia in whatever way possible. We decided that we didn't care very much for Mr. Putin and his success at retrieving Russia from the ash heap of history. And then the Russians made it very clear that they would not accept NATO on its borders. Effectively, they'd done that with Latvia and Estonia, but they made it very clear that Ukraine, which is roughly the size of Texas in the United States, could never be a member of NATO. That it presented too much of a danger. They made that clear in 2008 in Budapest.
Once the Russians invaded Ukraine, they made the mistake that they expected someone would negotiate with them. They went in with a really small force, no more than 90,000 on the ground, and they discovered after 2 or 3 months, 4 months, even though they were not taking heavy casualties, they discovered that they weren't going to get a negotiated settlement. Finally, the [Russian] generals met with Putin last summer and said that this is a war. This is not what we bargained for, we miscalculated, the underlying assumptions were wrong, there is no one to talk to. They realized they had to get ready for a real war, which meant mobilizing reserves, expanding the size of the army, training everybody up, and re-equipping people because the equipment they used initially was almost all obsolescent. So that was completed by Christmas. Then there was pressure to launch an offensive, but the weather didn't cooperate, so the decision was made, since we don't have firm ground, and you'll recall that in that part of the world we have this thing called Rasputitsa, which is effectively a sea of mud that makes it virtually impassable for armored fighting vehicles or wheeled vehicles. If you leave the hard-surfaced road, you're in big trouble. If you go back to WWII, you'll find that the major offensives were either launched in the dead of winter when the ground was frozen or they were launched in June, July, August, or September. So the Russians then said, fine, we'll build an impregnable defense, hold what we got, and invite the Ukrainians to attack us. And in the meantime, Ukrainians have taken terrible, terrible losses. These losses have never been truthfully reported in the Western media because Washington was very concerned that if it became clear that Ukrainians were dying in great numbers, their forces almost being destroyed faster than they could be fielded, the support for this insane notion for waging a proxy war on the backs of Ukrainian people against Russia would no longer be supported in NATO. So the easy solution was lie. And then you have a compliant media which is ideologically aligned with the globalist neocon governments, especially in Washington and London, then it becomes very easy to tailor the message to somehow or another to sustain support. And remember, Russia still has the legacy of the Cold War behind it, and what that means is that it's easy to convince people that Russians are bad, Russians are evil. After all, wasn't the Soviet Union bad or evil? Of course, this is not the Soviet Union. This country today is radically different. If anything, it is extremely religious, culturally conservative, and I think the Russian military, contrary to what's being reported in the Western media, has behaved extraordinarily well, is not guilty of 90% of the war crimes of which it's being accused. On the other hand, the Ukrainian military has behaved atrociously
11 million + Ukrainians have left the country, and they have no intention of going back to Ukraine. Haven't begun to traffick children and women. The squandering of cash that ends up in places like Cyprus, belonging to people like Zelensky and key people in his operation, including generals in the Ukranian Army even down to the battalion level. This is a disaster and we should put a stop to it right away and try to rescue as much of Ukraine as we can.
Colonel Douglas Macgregor: An Aggressive Onslaught Why are our borders open?
Why do we have 100,000 troops in Europe, including almost 50,000 in Poland and none on our borders? There's no threat to Europe from Russia. Russia is not interested in invading Europe. This was all nonsense. This was cooked up for years to try and demonize Putin and turn him again into another Hitler figure. It's the same old trope. It's the same people doing these things over and over and over again. At some point, the American people are going to need to become engaged and put an end to it.
Do you think this red spy balloon is designed to embarrass President Biden right before the State of the Union Address? [My answer is no. This White House uses dementia and incompetence as plausible deniability. They're not incompetent. Nothing they do it. Their incompetence IS THE WHITE HOUSE POLICY. These are vandals that are occupying the Oval Office.]
