Dec. 2—When Donald Trump announced that he had selected Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as his special envoy to Ukraine, the stupid pundits and spin-meisters at places like CNN and The New York Times immediately assumed that the President-elect would be going with a peace plan that Kellog had put forward last April, in an article written for the Trump-linked America First Policy Institute. But sources close to the President-elect say that Trump is working on a plan that contains elements of Kellog’s proposal, but is something, on the whole, completely different in intent. Kellogg’s plan has too much future involvement of NATO and actually makes NATO a party to the negotiations. Trump blames NATO even more than Russian President Vladimir Putin for what has happened in Ukraine and wants to move away from NATO’s involvement in any peace deal. He sees no reason for Ukraine to be part of NATO, and accepts the idea put forward by Putin and others that Ukraine, with proper security guarantees from the United States and Russia and perhaps even China, should be a neutral nation, like Austria. “I am not going to tell you any details [of Trump’s] plan,” said a source. “Those details will be clear in good time. But I can say this: Donald Trump hates NATO and believes that it has worked against the interests of the United States. He believes that it should have been disbanded as a treaty organization in 1991 when the Soviet Union formally dissolved as a sovereign state. At that point, NATO had no purpose. In addition, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, III promised President Mikhail Gorbachev that if Germany was allowed into NATO, then NATO would not move one inch eastward. Bush went along with the deal, but President Bill Clinton started NATO’s relentless march eastward. It stops with Trump, because he knows that to do otherwise will mean war, not some proxy bullshit, as NATO wanted this war in Ukraine to be. Right now, with the launches of three ATACMS missiles, NATO is at war with Russia. No, Ukraine is not going to be a NATO member, Trump wants a deal, and that is a deal breaker.” For what it’s worth, here is what was in Kellogg’s plan: • a ceasefire will freeze the front lines and both sides will be forced to the negotiating table. Kellogg says Ukraine’s NATO membership should be put on hold indefinitely, “in exchange for a comprehensive and verifiable peace deal with security guarantees”; • the plan says it should become “a formal U.S. policy to seek a ceasefire and negotiated settlement”; • the front lines would be frozen by a ceasefire, and a demilitarized zone imposed. For agreeing to this, Russia would get limited sanctions relief, and full relief only when a peace deal is signed that is to Ukraine’s liking; • a levy on income from Russian energy exports would pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction; • Ukraine would not be asked to give up on reclaiming Russian occupied territory, but it would agree to pursue it through diplomacy alone. If accepted, “this would require a future diplomatic breakthrough which probably will not occur before Putin leaves office”; • a demilitarized zone would likely need to be policed, possibly putting NATO troops, or soldiers from non-aligned nations, in between the two sides. That will be hard to maintain and staff, to say the least. It would be enormous, spanning hundreds of miles of border, and a massive financial investment. “This stuff is not going to be the peace plan that Trump puts forward,” said the source. “I think people need to understand something: The idea is not to find something to placate that little asshole, NATO’s sock puppet dictator of Ukraine, [President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. He will do whatever the U.S. wants, or he will be deposed and left to be hung on some lamp post, like Benito Mussolini, by the families of all those soldiers he sent to their useless deaths. Trump will not seek to humiliate the Ukrainian people. He will have Putin grant some concessions, but in the end, it is Putin who must agree to the deal. “So, no NATO. They can be a guarantor of some cease fire, as well they might, because they will stop supplying weapons for Ukrainians to use to kill Russians. But no NATO membership. Also, the Russians are not giving back any land that has become part of Russia. Not happening. The borders of those areas can be adjusted, and people can be allowed to leave and others to come back in. There could have been agreement to make those areas autonomous regions of Ukraine, which was what was agreed to back in April 2022 in the deal that [UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson and NATO sabotaged. But not now. “And also, Trump knows that there will be no deal at all with Putin unless the Nazi militias like Azov are dismantled and prevented from reforming,” said the source. “No one ever talks about this, but Trump knows it is very important to Putin and the Russians. The most important thing to Trump is that the war be ended, and that NATO’s escalation to direct attacks on Russia—with the Russians already retaliating against NATO and deliberately targeting and killing Americans—must stop, yesterday, if not sooner.” The source also called speculation about the meaning of remarks made by Zelenskyy in a Sky News interview Nov. 29 “stupid gibberish.” “If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelenskyy said. “We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get it back in a diplomatic way.” “These are just words,” the source said. “All that is worth noting is that he is no longer talking about his ‘victory plan,’ or any victory, at all. Of course, he wants to be more in alignment with what Trump will propose. But he has no idea what Trump is going to do. In that same Sky News interview, when he was asked whether this reflects Trump’s thinking, the fool was forced to admit that he has not spoken with Trump since September and that he has no idea what Trump thinks. Zelenskyy says that he knows that the war will end in 2025 with some diplomatic agreement. He has got the message: Trump will end this, and it will be he and Putin and not this little Hitler, who will make this happen, and that he better not get in the way.”

Dec. 1—Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) insightfully described the Nov. 25 call by NATO Military Committee Chair Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer for possible preemptive strikes against Russia’s nuclear capabilities as “bat-shit crazy.” The British Empire’s premier think tank, Chatham House, aka the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) strongly disagrees with that assessment and peddles its own version of a pre-emptive first strike on Russia, in a discussion of NATO launching a nuclear war.. In a Nov. 25 essay entitled “How Likely Is the Use of Nuclear Weapons by Russia?” by Dr. Patricia Lewis, head of the International Security Program at Chatham House, contemplates the pros and cons of initiating nuclear warfare with Russia: “Depending on other intelligence and analysis—and the failure of all diplomatic attempts to dissuade Russia—NATO countries may decide to intervene to prevent launch by bombing storage sites and missile deployment sites in advance. “But there are enormous risks associated with this decision. Such a strike might precipitate a far worse attack from Russia and could be characterized as an act of aggression by NATO rather than of preemptive defense. “However, not to pre-empt would leave Ukraine or other countries—including the U.K., U.S., and other NATO states—open to nuclear weapons explosions with the possibility of hundreds of thousands dead, depending on the target.” Sources report that this "batshit crazy" thinking has permeated the highest levels of the NATO command and the strategic planning circles of the Pentagon. They idnicates that there is a secret planning document that lays out a battle plan against Russia, that starts with a NATO first strike on Russian nuclear weapons sites. The sources say that the planner both in Brussels and the Pentagon, however are alarmed about the now confirmed development of the Oreshnik IRBM that is launched from a mobile launcher and there fore can be located outside of any fixed base, Such weapons systems limit the effectiveness of a "decapitating first strike" as contemplated by the planners. "The Bauer "leak' on the first strike was conceived to give [Russian President Vladimir} Putin, something to think about, to get him to wonder about NATO doctrine," said a source. "But it is Putin who has really scrambled the decks in the west with his super rocket. Putin has a first strike weapon that can't be countered. NATO had hints of this, but they did not believe it ready and worse, ready for mass production."

Dec. 1—In his Nov. 28 press conference following the CSTO summit in Astana, Russian President Vladimir Putin elaborated on the new Oreshnik hypersonic missile which struck a military-industrial target in Ukraine on Nov. 21. As transcribed on the President’s website, Putin again explained that the Oreshnik system has the power of a strategic nuclear warhead, but it is non-nuclear—in other words, it has raised the threshold for a nuclear conflict, although the danger certainly remains. “Concerning strike capabilities, I have already addressed this. If we deploy multiple such systems simultaneously in a single strike—say, two, three, or four systems—it would be comparable in force to the use of nuclear weapons, albeit they are not nuclear. This is because they are: a) high-precision; b) not equipped with a nuclear explosive device, thus they do not cause environmental contamination. Yet, the force would be comparable.” Asked about whether or not the Oreshnik strike of Nov. 21 contained any sort of warhead, Putin explained that the system was still under development, with more tests planned to determine "the balance between range and warhead. “The greater the range, the smaller the warhead; conversely, the shorter the range, the more potent the warhead. The system is capable of lifting a greater payload in this scenario, that’s the crux of it.” As for the huge destructive potential of the missile, which flies at Mach 10, “the appropriate elements were employed as the impact components, and they serve as damage agents as well. As I have mentioned, these are quite potent elements that are heated to a temperature of 4,000 degrees. If I am not mistaken, (you can check online), the surface of the Sun is approximately 5,600-6,000 degrees, making it comparable to solar surface temperatures…. A kinetic impact is a formidable force, akin to a meteorite impact…. Similarly here, the damage is substantial: everything at the center is reduced to ash, breaking down into its elemental components, and objects located at a depth of three or four, possibly even more, floors below are affected. These are fortified structures, not merely floors. The impact force is immense. Of course, more can be added to amplify the effect.” Putin added later in the press conference: “We have enough weapons, although I understand, and we are all aware that the emergence of such a weapon as the Oreshnik missile system strengthens Russia’s military positions because this is obviously a non-nuclear weapon but the results of its impact and its power, as I have already mentioned, are equal to those of nuclear weapons, especially if several systems are used to deliver a strike. It matters, doesn’t it?” 

Nov. 30--Since the decision by the Collective Biden Administration to allow U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles to hit inside Russian territory, the world has been accelerating towards all-out thermonuclear war between the two largest nuclear superpowers. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his remarks to the CSTO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, made clear the overwhelming military superiority Russia has in terms of advanced missile systems, which is over 10 times what the combined NATO countries have. Putin said, “As far as the production of relevant missile systems and relevant equipment is concerned, Russia has 10 times more of them than the combined output of all NATO countries. Next year, we will increase the production by another 25 to 30%.” “Let no one forget about the Kalibr, Kinzhal and Zirkon hypersonic missile systems, which are unmatched around the world in terms of their technical specifications. Their production is also being ramped up and is going at full speed.” Putin also noted the ongoing transition taking place in the U.S. Presidency, and the attempts made on President-elect Donald Trump’s life. “What struck me most,” Putin said, “and I think you share my view, was the fact that entirely uncivilized means were employed against Trump, absolutely uncivilized, including attempts on his life, more than once (incidentally, I believe he is still not entirely safe).” He went on: “There have been various instances in the history of the United States. I believe he [Trump] is a wise and hopefully judicious individual who comprehends all this.” This transition, and the next six weeks, is as unlike any other in American history. The mere fact that thermonuclear war is seen as a real possibility by the majority of American citizens, and that there is no clearly responsible authority in the White House that is accountable to the population, makes this situation completely unique. In this changed circumstance, a US-based Italian journalist, Roberto Mazzoni, who has been following recent events of the Schiller Institute, gave the following reply to a listener who raised the common slanders LaRouche has been attacked with for the past 50 years: “Today the classic accusation levelled against anyone who opposes the official propaganda line is to be anti-Semitic and far-right, so this only confirms to me the reliability of the Schiller Institute. The Independent and The Times are typical propaganda channels of British intelligence, I wouldn't even read them to get weather reports or obituaries.” The Dec. 7-8 deliberations of the Schiller Institute on its upcoming conference, “In the Spirit of Schiller and Beethoven: All Men Become Brethren!”, are the way the United States can get out of its present trajectory towards nuclear war, and remove the devolutionary cultural wasteland that is now present in the White House. ...

Nov. 30—A barrage of hysterical articles has emerged over the past 36-48 hours, screaming that Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is “unfit and dangerous” for the post, because she’s pro-Kremlin and pro-Syria and thus a national security threat. So says Gregory F. Treverton, former chair of the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017 and vice chair from 1993 to 1995, in a teeth-gnashing fit published in the Nov. 26 U.S. News & World Report. Treverton dredges up every conceivable “crime” of Gabbard’s, mentioning that she was placed on the TSA travel watch list “when her overseas travel patterns and foreign connections triggered a government algorithm, something that may be unprecedented for an appointee to a sensitive top government position.” Trump, Treverton says, “wants a toady to oversee our national secrets,” going on to document how she has “cozied up with at least two vicious dictators who are America’s enemies: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.” She has defended Assad and blamed the United States and NATO for the Ukraine war, Treverton howls. On Nov. 27, Newsweek tries to make an issue of what it says are Gabbard’s ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Hindu nationalism,” and the century-old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization to which Modi has also belonged for years. “Some critics” accuse RSS of “seeking to vanquish Indian Christians and Muslims in order to establish a Hindu nation.” Independent journalist Pieter Friedrich is cited claiming that “having someone like Tulsi so closely tied to the RSS and its affiliates in America benefits India at a time when India is basically run by the RSS.” Gabbard is also described as an “advanced devotee” of a murky organization called the Science of Identity Foundation, former members of which describe it as a cult. Not to be left out is BBC, which quotes retired diplomat Lewis Luken, who was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in London, and warned that Gabbard’s “dubious judgment” could give allies “reason to question how safe it is to share intelligence with the U.S.” BBC foamed at the mouth over Gabbard’s trip to Syria in 2017 on a fact-finding mission when she “later raised doubt about the U.S. intelligence assessment that Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons on civilians.” Her meeting with Assad was the final straw, when she had the nerve to say he was not an enemy of the U.S. because Syria doesn’t pose a direct threat to the U.S. This hysteria aside, Gabbard is expected to face serious opposition in the Senate, especially from supporters of NATO's war in the Ukraine, which she, like her new boss Donald Trump wants to end as quickly as possible. She also faces opposition from the intelligence establishment, who justifiably fear that she is an outsider who will shake things up.

Nov. 30—Russian scientists will develop a working prototype of the most powerful hybrid electronic-photonic computing system capable of processing data “at the speed of light.” The project will be carried out by scientists from the National Center for Physics and Mathematics (NCPM) of Russia, NCPM lead researcher Alexander Sergeyev told TASS. Also involved will be the Russian Federal Nuclear Center—Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics and the Samara State University. “The computing system, which combines electronics and photonics, is intended for super-rapid processing of data using neural network methods based on the optical artificial neural networks. Effectively, it will be a computer, whose co-processors compute at the speed of light. In the next two years, we plan to create a working prototype with processing speed of over 10 to the power of 19 operations per second, which significantly exceeds the current global level,” he said. Unlike modern computers with their universal processors and graphics processing units, developed by the leading international companies, Sergeyev pointed out, the new system will significantly speed up the solution of a number of tasks—by 100 to 1,000 times—possibly reaching the top level by 2030, all while significantly increasing the energy efficiency. 

Nov. 30—BRICS sherpas met at Yekaterinburg, Russia Nov. 28 and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, quoted by TASS, told journalists that the drive towards an independent payment system that bypasses the Western SWIFT system is irreversible. “The glass is always half-full; it is never half-empty,” Ryabkov said. “We can measure how full the glass is in different ways but this ultimately depends on who is holding this glass in their hands. Therefore, we’ve made significant strides today. How much time it will take to fill … the framework we’ve established with tangible actions depends on us—on BRICS and on the global majority...A critical milestone—a point of no return—has been passed, and how quickly things develop going forward depends on how leaders articulate this and how effectively financial experts, bankers and diplomats whose job this is tackle the challenge. We will do everything in our power to ensure success.” Alarm bells are sounding in the City of London over the BRICS move. In a debate in the House of Lords, Financial Secretary to the Treasury Lord Livermore answered a question by former Treasury Minister Lord Lamont yesterday, on whether the new BRICS payment system “would be a major threat to the Western-led financial system” and its ability to impose sanctions, saying he agreed to “take these developments seriously.” On the potential to undermine sanctions, Livermore said that the U.K. government “will pursue any necessary steps with our allies to maintain the interconnected system and reduce opportunities for the circumvention or evasion of international sanctions.”

Nov. 24—Construction of Uganda’s standard gauge railway (SGR) was initiated this month and will be completed in 4 years. “This upcoming SGR project is a crucial part of a long-term plan. The plan is foreseen to address the congestion that is usually experienced in Ugandan roads,” Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, said during ceremony earlier this month that began the project. The 272 km railway will connect the country’s capital, Kampala with Tororo on the border with Kenya, where it will connect with Kenya’s SGR network at Malaba on the Uganda-Kenya border and on to the port of Mombasa. The Turkish Yapi Merkezi engineering and construction company has been contracted to build the project at the cost of $3 billion. Yapi Merkezi has built railways throughout Türkiye, Tanzania, Ethiopia and other countries. According to Construction Review, the railway will have an annual cargo capacity of 25 million tons with speeds of 100km/h for cargo trains and 120km/h for passengers. The railway will give landlocked Uganda direct railway access to the port of Mombasa, in Kenya, considerably reducing transportation costs. It is proposed that at Kampala two additional railways will be built. One running north into landlocked South Sudan and one running east into the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first phase of Tanzania’s SGR began operations from the port of Dar Es Salaam to the capital Dodoma earlier this month. When completed it will reach the border of landlocked Burundi, on to Rwanda, and eventually to Uganda and the D.R. Congo. The railways will be a major boost to the economies of landlocked central Africa. One of obstacles to the integration of the African economies is that under colonial rule, any rail lines were built in multiple gauges so that they deliberately could not connect.

Nov. 24—The following was originally written Nov. 9, but could not be posted due to our site outage. We publish it now because of its urgent current significance. Sometimes, it is possible to introduce “frontier concepts” of great power and depth—what are sometimes called “heavy ideas”—into societies that normally prefer to ignore or avoid their world-shaking implications. We are now living in such a moment. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, speaking in Sochi at the Valdai Discussion Club on a multiplicity of topics, including the Nov. 5 Presidential elections in the United States, offered the following international thought-experiment. “The rise of nations and cultures that have previously remained on the periphery of global politics for one reason or another means that their own distinct ideas of law and justice are playing an increasingly important role,” Putin said in his opening remarks. “They are diverse. This may give the impression of discord and perhaps cacophony, but this is only the initial phase. It is my deep conviction that the only new international system possible is one embracing polyphony, where many tones and many musical themes are sounded together to form harmony. If you like, we are moving towards a world system that is going to be polyphonic rather than polycentric, one in which all voices are heard and, most importantly, absolutely must be heard. Those who are used to soloing and want to keep it that way will have to get used to the new ‘scores’ now.” In this way, Vladimir Putin is not merely invoking the “better angels” of the nature of Western Civilization. His reference to a “polyphonic world system” should not be instantly misunderstood as a clever rhetorical pivot from the politically-charged term “multipolarity.” Indeed, the above proposal—the immediate basis for a way out of thermonuclear war, if implemented—is only capable of being competently comprehended for action, from the standpoint of the Ten Principles for a New International Strategic and Development Architecture composed by Schiller Institute founder, Helga Zepp-LaRouche. This document, particularly in the remaining days between last Tuesday, November 5, and the inauguration of the American President on Martin Luther King Day, January 20, 2025, should be closely studied. For example, Principle Four of that document states: “Since mankind is the only creative species known so far in the universe, and given the fact that human creativity is the only source of wealth through the potentially limitless discovery of new universal principles, one of the main aims of the new International Security and Development Architecture must be providing access to universal education for every child and adult person living. The true nature of man is to become a beautiful soul, as Friedrich Schiller discusses this, and the only person that can fulfill that condition is the genius.” But aren’t these only “nice words”? How does this Fourth Principle pertain in any way to what Putin said? And, again: Why is Putin’s idea of a “polyphonic world system” not only the immediate, narrow pathway out of otherwise-inevitable thermonuclear war, but also the way forward to a potentially unprecedented, worldwide renaissance out of our present, century-plus trans-Atlantic New Dark Age—the latest phase of which was sparked by the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy? That very President John F. Kennedy hinted the answer to this question in his own way, three weeks before he was killed: “The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state…. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.” Polyphony is a musical term, but perhaps our Idea of music must first be expanded, in order to understand what the actual topic is, that what both Vladimir Putin and Helga Zepp-LaRouche are proposing be discussed for an actually new strategic and development architecture to arise in the world today. The late economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, who spoke about this matter often, said, in his document “Music and Science: Before and After the 1815 Treaty of Vienna”: “As Beethoven emphasized, for example, the secret of the great Classical composers was the reciting of poetry as the root of musical ideas. It follows, as is the case, that instrumental music is merely an abstraction from the singing of poetry by choruses. Similarly, the music of a nation is differentiated, essentially, according to the differences in the manner in which the most influential poetry is composed in that language, as Schiller’s poetry, according to Beethoven, captures the essence of the principle of composition of German Classical music and as the poetry of Dante and Petrarca is the standard of reference for compositions of music in Italian. Hence, as the poetry composed in a language degenerates, so the power of musical composition of a user of that language degenerates.” The ability of a society to articulate its origin and deeper purpose degenerates. Soon a nation’s population can no longer recognize either their nation, or themselves. Compare, for example, the speeches of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King to the best of public orations from any American figure today. Who recognizes the better angels of America’s nature in the common political or social parlance of our time? For the Schiller Institute, founded 40 years ago with the original intent to reverse the then-ongoing cultural collapse of Western nations by an emphasis on Classical poetry, drama and musical composition and performance, these matters are not secondary. Two weeks ago, the LaRouche Independent candidates Diane Sare and Jose Vega co-hosted an event, “Build a Chorus of Peace Against the Ghouls of War,” which employed Classical or Classically inspired musical compositions from around the world as the medium through which the speeches by the various participants, and the two candidates, were delivered. At the event, music was not an interlude; it was very fabric of the composition of, and the driver of the message of peace. Candidate Diane Sare conducted the chorus, performed in a brass quintet, and delivered one of the peace addresses, demonstrating the unity of effect of the whole. Return, now, to consider Putin’s remarks reported above. Russia’s President is identifying polyphony as the potential basis for a renewed relationship with a morally degenerating, economically unraveling trans-Atlantic world—a new polyphonic system of international relations. It would be a good idea, it would seem, therefore if everyone interested in peace investigated what polyphony is. To respond to that proposal, Western nations need to revisit, re-examine and revive one the most powerful and misunderstood revolutions in human thinking of the past 300-plus years—the well-tempered, polyphonic revolution in musical composition and human thought, embodied in the person and compositions of J.S. Bach, and advanced by musicians and composers such as Bach’s sons, Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Giuseppe Verdi, Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, and certain of their associates and collaborators. President-elect Donald Trump should take note of this. A “Special Musical Operation” should be launched by the American people, if not the new Administration, which energetically colludes with Russia, China, and all other nations committed to the cause of polyphony. (It would also help to fully reject the obscene State Department “Global Musical Initiative” that Tony Blinken inaugurated last year with his awful guitar-playing, which is probably a “Color Revolution” front.)  Putin knows that Beethoven’s great Missa Solemnis was premiered in his hometown, St. Petersburg, Russia, April 7, 1824, two hundred years ago. Beethoven demanded this because he believed that Russia had many of the best singers in the world, and they were needed. Thermonuclear war may well be able to be avoided, if we dare to think like Beethoven, and build a world system of polyphony. The New World Taking Shape Must Be Polyphonic, Putin Says Nov. 8--Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the new system of international relations characterized by the BRICS and the new role of the Global South, must be polyphonic.  “The rise of nations and cultures that have previously remained on the periphery of global politics for one reason or another means that their own distinct ideas of law and justice are playing an increasingly important role,” Putin said. "They are diverse. This may give the impression of discord and perhaps cacophony, but this is only the initial phase. It is my deep conviction that the only new international system possible is one embracing polyphony, where many tones and many musical themes are sounded together to form harmony. If you like, we are moving towards a world system that is going to be polyphonic rather than polycentric, one in which all voices are heard and, most importantly, absolutely must be heard. Those who are used to soloing and want to keep it that way will have to get used to the new ‘scores’ now. “The former world arrangement is irreversibly passing away, actually it has already passed away, and a serious, irreconcilable struggle is unfolding for the development of a new world order.. It is irreconcilable, above all, because this is not even a fight for power or geopolitical influence. It is a clash of the very principles that will underlie the relations of countries and peoples at the next historical stage. Its outcome will determine whether we will be able, through joint efforts, to build a world that will allow all nations to develop and resolve emerging contradictions based on mutual respect for cultures and civilizations, without coercion and use of force. And finally, whether human society will be able to retain its ethical humanistic principles, and whether an individual will be able to remain human.” Putin also issued a warning to those who are intent on continuing the same aggressive policy: "I have previously stated that we have reached red lines. The West’s calls to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, a nation with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, reveal the reckless adventurism of certain Western politicians. Such blind faith in their own impunity and exceptionalism could lead to a global catastrophe. Meanwhile, the former hegemons, who have been accustomed to ruling the world since colonial times, are increasingly astonished that their commands are no longer heeded. Efforts to cling to their diminishing power through force result only in widespread instability and more tensions, leading to casualties and destruction. However, these efforts fail to achieve the desired outcome of maintaining absolute, unchallenged power. For the march of history cannot be halted. “Instead of recognizing the futility of their ambitions and the objective nature of change, certain Western elites seem poised to go to any lengths to thwart the development of a new international system that aligns with the interests of the global majority. In the recent policies of the United States and its allies, for instance, the principle of ‘You shall not belong to anyone!’ or ‘You’re either with us or against us’ has become increasingly evident. I mean to say, such a formula is very dangerous. After all, as the saying of our and many other countries goes, ‘What goes around comes around.’ “Chaos, a systemic crisis is already escalating in the very nations that attempt to implement such strategies. The pursuit of exclusivity, liberal and globalist messianism and ideological, military, and political monopoly is steadily depleting those countries that pursue these paths, pushing the world towards decline and starkly contradicting the genuine interests of the people in the United States and European countries. “I am confident that sooner or later the West will come to this realization. Historically, its great achievements have always been rooted in a pragmatic, clear-eyed approach based on a tough, sometimes cynical but rational evaluation of circumstances and their own capabilities. “In this context, I wish to emphasize once more: unlike our counterparts, Russia does not view Western civilization as an adversary, nor does it pose the question of ‘us or them.’ I reiterate: ‘You’re either with us or against us’ is not part of our vocabulary. We have no desire to teach anyone or impose our worldview upon anyone. Our stance is open and it is as follows. “The West has indeed amassed significant human, intellectual, cultural, and material resources which enable it to thrive as one of the key elements of the global system. However, it is precisely ‘one of’ alongside other rapidly advancing nations and groups. Hegemony in the new international order is not a consideration. When, for instance, Washington and other Western capitals understand and acknowledge this incontrovertible fact, the process of building a world system that addresses future challenges will finally enter the phase of genuine creation. God willing, this should happen as soon as possible. This is in the shared interest, especially for the West itself. “So far, we—meaning all those interested in creating a just and stable world—have been using too much energy to resist the destructive activities of our opponents, who are clinging to their monopoly. This is obvious, and everyone in the west, the east, the south and everywhere else is aware of this. They are trying to preserve their power and monopoly, which is obvious. “These efforts could be directed with much better results towards addressing the common problems that concern everyone, from demography and social inequality to climate change, food security, medicine and new technology. This is where we should focus our energy, and this is what all of us should be doing.”

Nov. 24—The following is an edited transcript of former UN Weapons Inspector and NATO critic Scott Ritter's second comments at the Nov. 22 meeting of the International Peace Coalition. We present them as a cogent report on the current strategic significance of Russia's deployment of a hypersonic IRBM in its Nov. 21 attack on the Ukraine.. SCOTT RITTER: I want to applaud Steven Starr for laying out this case succinctly, accurately, dispassionately; almost too dispassionately. It’s not a criticism, it’s a reflection of his professionalism, except that people should be changing their underwear in fear after listening to what he said, and yet, I think his soothing voice has calmed us into believing that maybe this was just another academic presentation; it wasn’t. He was laying out the imminent demise of mankind. I want to reinforce that point. The Russian weapon that was used—I’m getting ready to publish a paper on this today, if we make it; that breaks down what I think it is. There’s not much literature out there, but if you know the history of Russian ballistic missile design and such, this was a weapon that is related to a weapon that the Soviets were developing back in the early 1980s called the Skorost. The Skorost missile, 15Zh66, was quickly developed by then-Minister of Defense Ustinov, to respond to the planned deployment of Pershing II missiles by the United States into Germany. The Russians were very afraid of the Pershing II, because once you launched the Pershing II, seven minutes later it hit Moscow. The Russians were not happy about that. So, they built this missile, the Skorost, which was an amalgam of components drawn from the SS-20 Pioneer, the Mod-3 version of the Pioneer, the SS-25 (which was still under development), the SS-27 (which was top secret under development; nobody even knew it existed). They put it all together in a two-stage missile topped with conventional warheads. They were going to flood Czechoslovakia and East Germany with these systems and monitor on a continuous basis the Pershing II bases. And the moment the Pershing II went to the field in a manner that looked suspicious, they would take it out; preemptively. That was what the Skorost was all about; to preemptively take out emerging threats. The system was nearing production when the INF Treaty—in fact, it was ready to go into production in March of 1987. But in December, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, so the Skorost went the way of history. And in doing so, the Skorost … People need to understand—again, I keep telling people—there was a time when we talked to the Soviets; there was a time when we talked to the Russians. I spent a lot of time at the Russian Embassy in the last two years, attending functions and talking to Anatoly Antonov, the ambassador; talking to Major General Bobkin, the Defense Attaché, and talking to his officers, and having very detailed conversations. Bobkin was a former, when we started talking, he was—he’s a Strategic Rocket Forces guy, who was in an SS-25 unit in Novosibirsk when I inspected it in 1990. What a small world we live in. And he was sent to the United States to help facilitate arms control talks, how to prevent the very crisis that we’re in. Anatoly Antonov is an expert on the United States. He speaks English fluently. He was, of course, the man who negotiated the new START Treaty with Rose Gottemoeller. He was ready to engage again on extending the new START Treaty to prevent exactly what’s happening. Anatoly Antonov was here for seven years, and the U.S. didn’t talk to him. Bobkin arrived, and the first thing that happened was that the Ukrainians got him blackballed in the defense attaché circuits, so nobody talked to him. Had they talked to him—as I did—they would have gotten an insight into how the Strategic Rocket Forces felt about the INF Treaty, about the START Treaty, about disarmament; about what Gorbachev did to them, and how they feel that impacted their national security. And you would understand that they were very bitter about this entire experience. They felt that they had been weakened by it. They were ready to regain the former glory of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. If you’ve studied Russian military history, Soviet military history, you understand that the present day is very much influenced by the past. So, when the United States withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, under President Trump, Putin said we see this treaty as being very important to prevent war. So, we will not develop new intermediate-range systems, and we’ll act as if the treaty is in force, so long as you don’t deploy intermediate-range systems into Europe. Of course, earlier this year in a NATO exercise in Denmark, we deployed intermediate-range missiles, nuclear-capable, to Denmark. And Putin said, OK, we’re moving forward. And the byproduct of this is the missile that was tested the other day. But people don’t understand what this missile is. This missile is the modern-day version of the Skorost. You see, the Russians are building a missile that can be pushed forward and be ready to preempt Dark Eagle, our intermediate-range missile. The Russians just put the Mark-41 [Mk-41] Aegis Ashore on notice in Poland that it is a target—a target that will destroy it is this. Look at what this was. This is a missile that makes use of not the Yars—which is what the Rubezh, the RS-26 is, which this is derived from, used the Yars first stage. This uses the Kedr first stage, the Cedar. Most people don’t know what the Cedar is, but the Ukrainians just came out and said that. It’s the Cedar. How would they know that? They have got the debris. On the debris are serial numbers, and the serial numbers show what the booster was. This is the most modern booster that the Russians have. Similar in size to the Yars, so it doesn’t change the configuration of the system, but it has unique solid-fuel principles that allow the missile to burn in variable speeds, making it impossible to target. The other thing it does, is, it doesn’t use traditional MIRVs. I keep hearing people say “multiple independently-targetted reentry vehicles.” That not what this was—not at all. This is the new system. The new system is, instead of bus—a plate, so to speak—where the warheads are attached, that separates from the missile, and then comes in and releases the warheads to their target—on a trajectory though, because it’s still moving, as this happens. What we have now, is independent mini-missiles that are there. They fire themselves. So the first stage takes it up, second stage puts it in, and then you fire these independent missiles. And these missiles, each one of them had six large sub-munitions on them. This is where the name Hazelnut [Oreshnik] comes from. Because if you look at a hazelnut tree, you look at the pod of nuts, it’s exactly what you see with these sub-munitions coming down. This missile was developed specifically to take out Dark Eagle missile arrays. If you take a look at the layout, the footprint of the Dark Eagle, where the radar is, where the command and communications are: This missile is designed to annihilate that! People kept saying, “Where’s the explosion?” It’s not meant to be high-explosive. It’s meant to be a kinetic kill. These sub-munitions come down, and they will kinetically kill everything on the ground. These sub-munitions come down at such a velocity, that if they hit the Aegis Ashore, it will be a smoky hole in the ground. This is what this missile is designed for. Putin just put us on notice, that he has a conventional missile system that is designed to preempt anything and everything NATO plans on doing to Russia! And there is no NATO response. There’s nothing they can do about it. This is literally the equivalent of the most alpha wolf in the world coming in and pissing all over your home! That’s what Putin just did! And it didn’t have to be this way. Putin said, right there, your withdrawal from the INF Treaty was the greatest mistake you have ever made. Because now you have compelled us to do this; and here we are. We didn’t want to be here, but because of all the provocations you’ve done, we have checkmated you. And that’s the case. I don’t think the West has woken up to what has just happened. It is over! Over for the West! The only thing we can do is nuclear war. And sadly, we have somebody who believes that we can have a nuclear exchange. I just again want to have people reflect on what that means. It means the Biden administration is ready to sacrifice 100 million Americans, for Ukraine. The Biden administration is willing to sacrifice 100 million Americans for Ukraine. Is that we want? I want to thank Professor Starr for his presentation, it was fantastic. But guys, this is as real as it gets. This isn’t theoretical. The reason I went through all the stuff about this missile, is to point out that sometimes when people talk about weapons systems and all that, people feel a little remote from it. They don’t identify with it, because it’s something they don’t understand. So, I wanted to bring it in, in a way that hopefully everybody understood what is going on, what this represents, how real this missile is. And what the consequences of our actions are, in compelling Russia to develop this missile. And now, the impossible situation it’s put us in. Because understand, it has put us in an impossible situation—a very dangerous situation. By revealing this missile and showing his willingness to use this, Putin has literally given the West two options: Capitulate, or nuclear war. We have to find a way to find a third option. We have to find a way to get in between. We have to find a way to communicate. This is a communication; it isn’t just amongst an American audience. We have to communicate with the Russians. And we can’t do it directly—because that’s against the law, apparently; that’s the Logan Act. But we can do it indirectly. For instance, me talking to you. If a Russian is listening to this; copy it to another Russian; and copy it to another Russian; and get this goddamned mess (excuse my language, but I’m very upset guys). Because we’re going to die, and I sort of wanted to spend Christmas with my family. I had big plans for Christmas, and I don’t think we’re going to have a Christmas right now. That’s how dangerous this situation is. We have to stop it! We have to pull out all the stops; we have to communicate with our fellow Americans. We have to send a signal to Donald Trump that you can’t just sit there and let this happen. You were elected to prevent this, and they’re going around you. You must speak out now! I’ve invited Trump to come to the rally to speak out; to let his voice be heard; to rally the American people around him. I’m not asking for a January 6th; I’m asking for a December 7th. It’s a beautiful day to do it on—Pearl Harbor Day. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually reverse the historical legacy of Pearl Harbor; and instead of celebrating December 7th every year as a day when the Japanese attacked us, celebrate it as a day that the American people saved their lives and saved the world while they’re at it? And after we do it on December 7th, we can then on December 8th reflect on the fact that that’s when the INF Treaty was signed. And maybe we can start promoting arms control and get a new INF Treaty signed, so that this new missile that the Russians have developed can go back into the trash heap of history. And the Dark Eagle goes into the trash heap of history. And once again, sanity prevails as we eliminate the single most destabilizing weapons in the world, which are these intermediate-range nuclear weapons. December 7th and December 8th; you couldn’t have picked two more historically relevant dates. Let’s help make them relevant. Let’s redefine December 7th, and let’s breathe new life into December 8th. Again, thank you, Professor Starr. 

Nov. 24—China has activated the largest hypergravity centrifuge, capable of producing forces thousands of times stronger than the Earth’s gravity, reported Interesting Engineering in a Nov. 18 feature. It is located at the Central Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Facility (CHIEF) in the Future Sci-Tech City in Hangzhou. This was one of the ten major high-tech projects proposed by the Chinese government as part of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). CHIEF’s hypergravity centrifuges are considered groundbreaking tools for creating extreme physical conditions not typically encountered in everyday environments. These capabilities are expected to advance research across multiple disciplines, enabling scientists to simulate and analyze phenomena such as geological processes, material behaviors, and engineering challenges. CHIEF will fill a void in super-large hyper-gravity experiment facilities in China. As an indispensable experimentation device, it will provide an advanced experiment platform and offer immense support for the development and verification of major engineering technologies as well as research into cutting-edge matter-related sciences, said Hangzhou’s government in a Dec. 21, 2022 statement on the device.

Nov. 24—The New York Times was quite alarmed at Russia’s use of its new Oreshnik IRBM against Ukraine on Nov. 21. “Russia’s military fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile at Ukraine that Western officials and analysts said was meant to instill fear in Kyiv and the West,” the Times said in an article co-authored by five reporters. “Though the missile carried only conventional warheads, using it signaled that Russia could strike with nuclear weapons if it chooses.” The Times continued: “The use of an intermediate-range missile drawn from Russia’s strategic arsenal was notable, Ukrainian and Western officials said. The target inside Ukraine was well within the range of the conventional weapons that Moscow has routinely used throughout the war. But this time, Russia launched a longer-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads that is mainly intended as nuclear deterrence; that choice, the officials and military analysts said, signals a warning aimed at striking fear into Kyiv and its allies.” The Times quoted Fabian René Hoffmann, a weapons expert at the University of Oslo, saying that from a Russian perspective, “what they would like to tell us today is that ‘Look, last night’s strike was non-nuclear in payload, but, you know, if whatever you do continues, the next strike might be with a nuclear warhead.’” London’s The Economist saw the Oreshnik strike as a harbinger of a new era of missile warfare. “Simply put, Mr. Putin wants Ukraine and its Western allies to believe that he might escalate either ‘vertically’ within Ukraine or ‘horizontally,’ by directly attacking NATO states,” it reported. “‘We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons,’ he noted on November 21st, as he described Oreshnik, ‘against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.’ On the same day, Ukrainian lawmakers were warned that the country’s parliament building in Kyiv was at risk of Russian missile attack.” It continued: “These threats ought to be taken seriously, but not always literally…. More broadly, the use of Oreshnik and its ilk is part of a new era of missile warfare…. Oreshnik is the first-ever intermediate-range missile with multiple warheads to be fired in combat. It may not be the last.”