Until 2014, I was in the western liberal camp. Kiev's brutal suppression of the popular Donbass uprising forever changed my view of the U.S. and NATO. Donbass forever changed world history.
Thanks, John, for sharing your background and how you came to take your courageous position. For those of us following the NATO aggression in Ukraine your reporting is essential.
Nothing better than to learn from a citizen soldier who has the credentials. dedication, experience, and knowledge and is willing to share thoughts with us. A breath of fresh air and credibility in a dark and dismal atmosphere where agendas shadow truth. Thanks for this exemplary reporting on a vital topic.
John, It's no wonder with your Curriculum Vitae, I always read your articles having Faith in your credibility and analysis of events.
In November 2021 and early February 2022, as the leading indicators told me the US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO was inevitable, I took the Time to write to all 100 US Senators. Being Canadian, I had to find an address in each their States because with their Official Office web pages having an embedded email system, without having an address with the proper zip code, I could not send an email.
Most Senators replied with standard talking points for their State Constituents using a do not reply outgoing email address, but 15 Senators replied with normal email addresses I could use without having to go through their embedded Office email systems and I sent this to the 15 this morning;
It was Biden who presided over the 2014 US/CIA Coup/Regime change of the Democratically Elected Russian friendly government, installing the US UN-elected proxy anti-Russian Ukraine government. That’s when the seeds for this US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO were planted.
That anti-Russian government immediately started shelling the majority Russian speaking UKRAINIANS in the East bordering Russia who voted for the Russian friendly government and refused to accept the US/CIA orchestrated Coup.
From 2014 to 2022 there were some 14,000 UKRAINIAN Civilians in the East killed by Ukraine government shelling, but that was not hyped big News in the West.
Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions signed the 13-point Minsk accord in February 2015.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2202 calling on all parties, to implement the 13-point agreement in February 2015. The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, gathered in Minsk at the time, and issued a declaration of support for the deal.
1. An immediate and comprehensive ceasefire
2. Withdrawal of all heavy weapons by both sides
3. Monitoring and verification by the OSCE
4. To start a dialogue on interim self-government for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in accordance with Ukrainian law, and acknowledge their special status by parliamentary resolution.
5. A pardon and amnesty for people involved in the fighting
6. An exchange of hostages and prisoners.
7. Provision of humanitarian assistance.
8. Resumption of socio-economic ties, including pensions.
9. Restoration of full control of the state border by the government of Ukraine.
10. Withdrawal of all foreign armed formations, military equipment and mercenaries.
11. Constitutional reform in Ukraine including decentralisation, with specific mention of Donetsk and Luhansk.
12. Elections in Donetsk and Luhansk on terms to be agreed with their representatives.
13. Intensifying the work of a Trilateral Contact Group comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE.
To Putin’s great disappointment, Ukraine and the Western signatories made no effort to implement the terms of Minsk II. Germany’s Chancellor Merkel and France’s President Holland spilled the beans the purpose of Minsk II was only to stall deceiving Putin, while NATO armed and trained Ukraine for the WAR the US was determined to provoke with Russia.
Fast forward to December 2021 when Putin repackaged the agreed Terms of Minsk II in a draft Treaty submitted to the US for consideration. The US rejected it out of hand without any Diplomatic discussion at all.
In early 2022, Western MSM were reporting Russia had amassed some 140,0000 troops on the border without mentioning Ukraine amassed some 80,000 troops facing the Russian speaking Ukraine majority in the East resisting the 2014 CIA orchestrated Coup.
More than anyone else, only because The Kansas City Times was quoting me in the Historical record of September 13, 1976, publishing, “He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a war with Russia” I went to the OSCE website to see what was happening with no. 3 of the 2015 Minsk II the week before the Russian SMO.
US Western MSM didn’t report it because it conflicts with the incessant Western War Propaganda the Russian SMO was unprovoked. In the week before February 24, the Ukraine government increased shelling the Russian speaking Ukrainians in the East with up to 2000 Truce violations a DAY.
It was Ukraine that started the WAR, most probably as US direction, that provoked the Russian SMO to stop it.
We also know Russia and Ukraine initialled an agreement to stop the fighting in March, 2022 but the US lapdog Johnson went to Kiev with the instruction to not follow through with Russia because the US would arm and support Ukraine to fight Russia as long as it takes.
US/NATO claiming Russia wants to re-constitute the Soviet Union is fake US hype to sell more Weapons of Death & Destruction, preparing Americans and the World for the FINAL WAR to End ALL WARS, WWIII/Armageddon.
Vladimir Putin, “Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.”
New York Times 20 February 2000;
If the US wasn’t so determined to weaken Russia as their stated goal using Ukraine as their proxy, all the territory Ukraine lost in the WAR would still be part of Ukraine. The US is also presiding over the Gaza carnage perpetuating the WAR, when the US has the leverage to stop the slaughter by threatening to stop supplying Israel the bombs and cash.
The Fact is the US Military-Industrial Congressional Complex is making a KILLING off the Ukraine War and the Gaza MASSACRE.
Excerpts from speeches from the last Real Commander-in-Chief, General/President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Since Today is the 274th Day of my 80th Year counting up, not down, my attitude is nothing ventured, nothing gained so at least try with the talents I have.
Ray, thanks for sharing that. I must admit I was shocked by the start of the war -- I still had faith in our foreign policy elite, that they would do the right thing and find a route toward peace... I will never ever again have any faith in them. They could have easily prevented this war, but deliberately chose to ignite and escalate the conflict.
I'm concerned because in the Spirit of '76, as a Canadian I hitch hiked through some 45 States ending up in Kansas City. The Kansas City Times published 2 records on my time in the City for the Republican National Convention after the Republicans left town.
The 1st was on September 13, 1976 with the picture of me wearing my trademark #13 jersey.
They did a followup on ALL SOULS DAY, November 2, 1976, publishing this picture with the header, 'Prophet Plans Appeal Of Conviction'
It was 7 years to the month later on November 20, 1983, the movie THE DAY AFTER Kansas City of all the major US Cities, was incinerated in a Nuclear Holocaust appeared.
Out of the 100 Million people who watched it that night, most probably I was the only one to notice after the destruction, the movie pauses at the very same picture frame published by The Kansas City Times on ALL SOULS DAY in the Spirit of '76.
It's taken all these years but this World is at the precipice of the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty, aka, ARMAGEDDON, derived from Har Megiddo located in Roman/Israeli OCCUPIED Palestine, unfolding in this Material World in our Generations.
These pieces are always such high integrity/information value. I was in the US Foreign Service (and in Moscow & Kiev in the early 1990s) & knew lots of journalists & Russian "experts" and have watched them all remain silent, or worse: push the absurdly dishonest Narratives that the "7th Floor" or the editorial suites back in DC or NYC want pushed.
Thank you so much for your work -- these blog posts are the rare place I can read about a Russia I recognise, and without the feeling of crossing a minefield with the perpetual risk of hitting the author's wrong note or obnoxious bias.
Thanks for the comment and support, and for sharing your experience regarding veteran journalists and Russia experts remaining silent and/or pushing false narratives. I'm still in contact with a few people at major media. The level of work-place censorship, fear and intimidation that they describe is astounding.
Re: work-place pressure & (all-important) Narrative discipline, wow, I can imagine. A friend recently recommended Sebastian Haffner's Nazi years memoir and CS Lewis's novel "That Hideous Strength" (latter a vaguely sci-fi dystopia story whose rich material source is the academic fishbowl and scramble to please-the-gatekeepers while avoiding having your integrity yank you off the ladder of promotions & pats-on-the-head). Makes you realise why totalitarians need everyone employed by big bureaucracies (either the State or "private" giants like IG Farben or Thyssen-Krupp.. Google and the MSM will do nicely.)
Thank you again for your work. It's morale-boosting to hear truth told.
“totalitarians need everyone employed by big bureaucracies”… this is a very interesting thought… describes well the new America I returned to after having been out of the country for 24 years.
Lewis makes the psychological incentive pressures wonderfully clear. Big collectives become ideological "perpetual motion machines" (don't they?) which Bad Guys only need to switch on for the Kapos, Komsomolkas and Karens to spring to life and automatically take up enforcement. A relative who did a month-long project for Facebook quietly & grimly told his wife "it's like working in a cult!" We all watched mask-fascism & vaxx-fascism appear out of nowhere, leveraging social and professional linkages. (A dress rehearsal for worse?)
I vaguely recall from undergraduate days that Max Weber warned us about the Administrative State 100 years ago. I should look that up.
(Must be an essay in this, when I finally get my substack up-and-running...)
I look forward to your Substack. Yes, good point about how a "switch" can easily be turned on and everyone falls into line and repeats the Party's refrain. What most shocked me most about Covid was that this was the first time in modern American history where there was an absence of public debate, where there was 100% media censorship in favor of the narrative, and the suppression of any dissident opinions, even against top experts. Remember when Dr Luc Montagnier (Nobel Prize winner for biology and a top virologist!) said in March 2020 that it was very clear Covid had been created in a lab... remember how the herd of punk, woke, 20-something journalists started shaming him and condemning him as a "conspiracy theorist'.... and here we are 4 years later, and lo and behold, it turns out that Yes, Covid was created in a lab...
Thanks, John, for sharing your background and how you came to take your courageous position. For those of us following the NATO aggression in Ukraine your reporting is essential.
Thank you for the support. Much appreciated.
Nothing better than to learn from a citizen soldier who has the credentials. dedication, experience, and knowledge and is willing to share thoughts with us. A breath of fresh air and credibility in a dark and dismal atmosphere where agendas shadow truth. Thanks for this exemplary reporting on a vital topic.
I very much appreciate the words of support. Thank you.
John, It's no wonder with your Curriculum Vitae, I always read your articles having Faith in your credibility and analysis of events.
In November 2021 and early February 2022, as the leading indicators told me the US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO was inevitable, I took the Time to write to all 100 US Senators. Being Canadian, I had to find an address in each their States because with their Official Office web pages having an embedded email system, without having an address with the proper zip code, I could not send an email.
Most Senators replied with standard talking points for their State Constituents using a do not reply outgoing email address, but 15 Senators replied with normal email addresses I could use without having to go through their embedded Office email systems and I sent this to the 15 this morning;
From: rayray
To: Senator_Kennedy@Kennedy.senate.gov; Senator_Merkley@Merkley.senate.gov; senator_ossoff@ossoff.senate.gov; mike@rounds.senate.gov; elizabeth_warren@warren.senate.gov; senator@cotton.senate.gov; correspondence_reply@durbin.senate.gov; info_sanders@sanders.senate.gov; SenatorHawley@hawley.senate.gov; Hirono.outgoing.mail@hirono.senate.gov; Senator@cortezmasto.senate.gov; Senator@sullivan.senate.gov; senator@klobuchar.senate.gov; senator@Gillibrand.senate.gov
Sent: Tuesday, February 27th 2024, 10:46
Subject: US WAR WITH RUSSIA
It was Biden who presided over the 2014 US/CIA Coup/Regime change of the Democratically Elected Russian friendly government, installing the US UN-elected proxy anti-Russian Ukraine government. That’s when the seeds for this US WAR with Russia over Ukraine in NATO were planted.
That anti-Russian government immediately started shelling the majority Russian speaking UKRAINIANS in the East bordering Russia who voted for the Russian friendly government and refused to accept the US/CIA orchestrated Coup.
From 2014 to 2022 there were some 14,000 UKRAINIAN Civilians in the East killed by Ukraine government shelling, but that was not hyped big News in the West.
Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions signed the 13-point Minsk accord in February 2015.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2202 calling on all parties, to implement the 13-point agreement in February 2015. The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, gathered in Minsk at the time, and issued a declaration of support for the deal.
1. An immediate and comprehensive ceasefire
2. Withdrawal of all heavy weapons by both sides
3. Monitoring and verification by the OSCE
4. To start a dialogue on interim self-government for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in accordance with Ukrainian law, and acknowledge their special status by parliamentary resolution.
5. A pardon and amnesty for people involved in the fighting
6. An exchange of hostages and prisoners.
7. Provision of humanitarian assistance.
8. Resumption of socio-economic ties, including pensions.
9. Restoration of full control of the state border by the government of Ukraine.
10. Withdrawal of all foreign armed formations, military equipment and mercenaries.
11. Constitutional reform in Ukraine including decentralisation, with specific mention of Donetsk and Luhansk.
12. Elections in Donetsk and Luhansk on terms to be agreed with their representatives.
13. Intensifying the work of a Trilateral Contact Group comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE.
To Putin’s great disappointment, Ukraine and the Western signatories made no effort to implement the terms of Minsk II. Germany’s Chancellor Merkel and France’s President Holland spilled the beans the purpose of Minsk II was only to stall deceiving Putin, while NATO armed and trained Ukraine for the WAR the US was determined to provoke with Russia.
Fast forward to December 2021 when Putin repackaged the agreed Terms of Minsk II in a draft Treaty submitted to the US for consideration. The US rejected it out of hand without any Diplomatic discussion at all.
In early 2022, Western MSM were reporting Russia had amassed some 140,0000 troops on the border without mentioning Ukraine amassed some 80,000 troops facing the Russian speaking Ukraine majority in the East resisting the 2014 CIA orchestrated Coup.
More than anyone else, only because The Kansas City Times was quoting me in the Historical record of September 13, 1976, publishing, “He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a war with Russia” I went to the OSCE website to see what was happening with no. 3 of the 2015 Minsk II the week before the Russian SMO.
US Western MSM didn’t report it because it conflicts with the incessant Western War Propaganda the Russian SMO was unprovoked. In the week before February 24, the Ukraine government increased shelling the Russian speaking Ukrainians in the East with up to 2000 Truce violations a DAY.
It was Ukraine that started the WAR, most probably as US direction, that provoked the Russian SMO to stop it.
We also know Russia and Ukraine initialled an agreement to stop the fighting in March, 2022 but the US lapdog Johnson went to Kiev with the instruction to not follow through with Russia because the US would arm and support Ukraine to fight Russia as long as it takes.
US/NATO claiming Russia wants to re-constitute the Soviet Union is fake US hype to sell more Weapons of Death & Destruction, preparing Americans and the World for the FINAL WAR to End ALL WARS, WWIII/Armageddon.
Vladimir Putin, “Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.”
New York Times 20 February 2000;
If the US wasn’t so determined to weaken Russia as their stated goal using Ukraine as their proxy, all the territory Ukraine lost in the WAR would still be part of Ukraine. The US is also presiding over the Gaza carnage perpetuating the WAR, when the US has the leverage to stop the slaughter by threatening to stop supplying Israel the bombs and cash.
The Fact is the US Military-Industrial Congressional Complex is making a KILLING off the Ukraine War and the Gaza MASSACRE.
Excerpts from speeches from the last Real Commander-in-Chief, General/President Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953 CROSS OF IRON SPEECH:
https://youtu.be/04P4zPzspuI?si=-A7D9l4aZizGqtKe
1961 Military-Industrial Complex speech
https://youtu.be/Gg-jvHynP9Y?si=cKlSZiJq1oljMxYO
Peace
Ray Joseph Cormier
RayJC.com
Veterans Day Declaration November 11, 1985
http://rayjc.com/2011/02/23/the-declaration/
Since Today is the 274th Day of my 80th Year counting up, not down, my attitude is nothing ventured, nothing gained so at least try with the talents I have.
Ray, thanks for sharing that. I must admit I was shocked by the start of the war -- I still had faith in our foreign policy elite, that they would do the right thing and find a route toward peace... I will never ever again have any faith in them. They could have easily prevented this war, but deliberately chose to ignite and escalate the conflict.
I just read this, 'Kremlin warns of 'inevitability' of conflict with NATO if military alliance sends troops to Ukraine'
https://www.euronews.com/2024/02/27/kremlin-warns-of-inevitability-of-conflict-with-nato-if-military-alliance-sends-troops-to-
I'm concerned because in the Spirit of '76, as a Canadian I hitch hiked through some 45 States ending up in Kansas City. The Kansas City Times published 2 records on my time in the City for the Republican National Convention after the Republicans left town.
The 1st was on September 13, 1976 with the picture of me wearing my trademark #13 jersey.
They did a followup on ALL SOULS DAY, November 2, 1976, publishing this picture with the header, 'Prophet Plans Appeal Of Conviction'
https://ray032.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/kansas-city-times-november-2-1976-all-souls-day-2.jpg.
It was 7 years to the month later on November 20, 1983, the movie THE DAY AFTER Kansas City of all the major US Cities, was incinerated in a Nuclear Holocaust appeared.
Out of the 100 Million people who watched it that night, most probably I was the only one to notice after the destruction, the movie pauses at the very same picture frame published by The Kansas City Times on ALL SOULS DAY in the Spirit of '76.
This is the TV screen shot:
https://ray032.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/final-frames-1983-movie-the-day-after-kansas-city-was-destroyed.jpg
This is the video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7J8eMyK1DI
It's taken all these years but this World is at the precipice of the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty, aka, ARMAGEDDON, derived from Har Megiddo located in Roman/Israeli OCCUPIED Palestine, unfolding in this Material World in our Generations.
https://rayjc.com/2013/09/01/signs-of-the-times/
And now we will find out just how stupid and psychopathic are our elites…
These pieces are always such high integrity/information value. I was in the US Foreign Service (and in Moscow & Kiev in the early 1990s) & knew lots of journalists & Russian "experts" and have watched them all remain silent, or worse: push the absurdly dishonest Narratives that the "7th Floor" or the editorial suites back in DC or NYC want pushed.
Thank you so much for your work -- these blog posts are the rare place I can read about a Russia I recognise, and without the feeling of crossing a minefield with the perpetual risk of hitting the author's wrong note or obnoxious bias.
Thanks for the comment and support, and for sharing your experience regarding veteran journalists and Russia experts remaining silent and/or pushing false narratives. I'm still in contact with a few people at major media. The level of work-place censorship, fear and intimidation that they describe is astounding.
Re: work-place pressure & (all-important) Narrative discipline, wow, I can imagine. A friend recently recommended Sebastian Haffner's Nazi years memoir and CS Lewis's novel "That Hideous Strength" (latter a vaguely sci-fi dystopia story whose rich material source is the academic fishbowl and scramble to please-the-gatekeepers while avoiding having your integrity yank you off the ladder of promotions & pats-on-the-head). Makes you realise why totalitarians need everyone employed by big bureaucracies (either the State or "private" giants like IG Farben or Thyssen-Krupp.. Google and the MSM will do nicely.)
Thank you again for your work. It's morale-boosting to hear truth told.
“totalitarians need everyone employed by big bureaucracies”… this is a very interesting thought… describes well the new America I returned to after having been out of the country for 24 years.
Lewis makes the psychological incentive pressures wonderfully clear. Big collectives become ideological "perpetual motion machines" (don't they?) which Bad Guys only need to switch on for the Kapos, Komsomolkas and Karens to spring to life and automatically take up enforcement. A relative who did a month-long project for Facebook quietly & grimly told his wife "it's like working in a cult!" We all watched mask-fascism & vaxx-fascism appear out of nowhere, leveraging social and professional linkages. (A dress rehearsal for worse?)
I vaguely recall from undergraduate days that Max Weber warned us about the Administrative State 100 years ago. I should look that up.
(Must be an essay in this, when I finally get my substack up-and-running...)
I look forward to your Substack. Yes, good point about how a "switch" can easily be turned on and everyone falls into line and repeats the Party's refrain. What most shocked me most about Covid was that this was the first time in modern American history where there was an absence of public debate, where there was 100% media censorship in favor of the narrative, and the suppression of any dissident opinions, even against top experts. Remember when Dr Luc Montagnier (Nobel Prize winner for biology and a top virologist!) said in March 2020 that it was very clear Covid had been created in a lab... remember how the herd of punk, woke, 20-something journalists started shaming him and condemning him as a "conspiracy theorist'.... and here we are 4 years later, and lo and behold, it turns out that Yes, Covid was created in a lab...
You are a brave man, John. Thank you for not giving up on facts.