Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Oleg Shevchenko
[REGNUM] These days the world celebrates two anniversaries. One is not a round one, but it is important – 81 years since the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Tehran. The other is a “round” anniversary, which concerns primarily the United Kingdom and the former British Empire – 150 years of Churchill.
In fact, the banquet on the occasion of the British Prime Minister's birthday was one of the "highlights of the program" of Tehran-1943. As Stalin's translator Valentin Berezhkov recalled, a luxurious banquet was held at the British embassy. On the main table towered a huge birthday cake with 69 lit candles. The hero of the occasion smiled and cheerfully smoked a cigar. Stalin pleased the "almost hero of the day" more than anyone else by presenting a case of Armenian cognac (in addition to a karakul papakha
…one of those curly Persian lamb hats they wear in the Caucasus…
and a statuette based on a Russian fairy tale).
Perhaps, at that moment, this hall combined what the Prime Minister of the British Empire liked most of all: hearty food, good cigars, quality alcohol and the feeling of being one of the main creators of world history, deciding – here in Tehran – the fate of Poland, the Balkans and the not yet defeated Third Reich.
"It was as if one big family had gathered in this hall, which would always be together. But this feeling did not last long," Berezhkov writes. Happy birthday was overshadowed by a very alarming bell.
Although it seemed to be just General Alan Francis Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, tapping his glass with his knife to make another toast. The general was saying that Britain, fighting since 1939, had made more sacrifices and suffered more losses than the other allies, and therefore had done more to bring about victory. The toast clearly did not please either Roosevelt or, especially, Stalin. So two alaverdi
…toasts?
followed immediately.
Stalin reminded that the USA, "the country of machines", could produce 8-10 thousand planes per month (and England - only 3 thousand, added "Uncle Joe") - and raised a toast to Lend-Lease, first of all the American one. Roosevelt immediately took up the initiative, adding that he valued Soviet military might and our military successes: "While we are here celebrating the birthday of the British Prime Minister, the Red Army continues to push back the Nazi hordes!"
The birthday boy, unlike the head of his General Staff, a cautious and wise man, thought it best to remain silent. But a small incident clearly revealed to him a picture of the post-war future: the world would be determined by the United States and "Soviet Russia" (as the Prime Minister usually called the Soviet Union). At the same time, the role of the empire "on which the sun never sets", for the exaltation of which he did everything possible, would steadily diminish. And under this sign, the last years of Churchill's premiership would pass, and in general - all of British history from 1945 to this day.
"In Tehran I first realized what a small country we are. I was sitting between a huge Russian bear, with his paws spread wide, and a huge American bison, and between them was a poor little English donkey."
However, the British Prime Minister, when necessary, could appear to be a modest “junior partner” and, in general, appear to be someone other than what he really was.
DUKE, JOHN BULL, A REAL INDIAN
Journalists and even historians sometimes call him the Duke of Marlborough. But he did not bear this title (his father, the third son of a duke, was not entitled to such regalia). Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was not an earl, a duke, a viscount, or a baron. He received the prefix "sir" along with his knighthood towards the end of his life.
He is considered fat, stout (perhaps not without Churchill himself, who emphasized the eccentric caricature of his appearance - no worse than Boris Johnson ), but all his life he was a strong, fit and impetuous gentleman. It is impossible to imagine him without a cigar, but this was a well-rehearsed image, he smoked very little.
He rarely refused a good glass of cognac, whiskey or champagne, which for some reason did not prevent him from living actively and soberly to the age of 90. He was “simply” Winston Churchill, or, as the British often call him, “Old Weenie.” In the public consciousness, Churchill is the very embodiment of “John Bull,” a plump, red-faced Londoner who frequents the pub. But in fact, he is half American. His mother was born Jennie Jerome in New York, but – let us note, from the American analogues of the aristocracy – the daughter of a financier and stock speculator.
For those who were looking for roots from the former "rebellious colony", the Prime Minister had a family legend of the Jeromes (not necessarily reliable) about the blood of the Iroquois Indians flowing in their blood. So the same Boris Johnson, a descendant of King George II, who loves to flaunt his Turkish roots, is by no means the first eccentric gentleman in the Prime Minister's chair.
Equal in eccentricity, perhaps, but Sir Winston was infinitely better as a prime minister.
PROFESSION: MILITARY CORRESPONDENT
The real Winston Churchill, not the one hiding behind masks, probably had one true passion. To make a name for himself. And he found unconventional ways to do so. Having received a meager and fragmentary liberal arts education at school, never having attended college or university (despite their connections and pedigree, the Churchills were extremely poor – for their circle, of course), young Winston was forced to make his own career. To do this, he chose two spheres on which the 20th century would “stand”: war and mass media.
He participated as an officer in all the military conflicts he could get his hands on – fortunately, the size of the empire provided a wide choice of colonial campaigns – from suppressing the Pashtun uprising on the borders of British India to the war with the Mahdists in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
The Daily Telegraph publishes the notes of the cavalryman Churchill. "I broke into a trot and galloped towards the enemy, shooting them in the face with a pistol, and killed several - three for sure, two unlikely, and one more - very doubtfully," the officer of Her Majesty's 4th Hussars informed readers. And when, during the Anglo-Boer War, the already retired officer and now military correspondent Churchill was captured by the Transvaal militia - and escaped, this became the reason for the book.
And a good springboard for a political career, where Churchill immediately showed a flair for the situation.
MASTER OF THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
The defeated Boers are actively integrated into the British South African Dominion. And now the war hero, the young Conservative MP Churchill, delivers a speech calling for mercy for the vanquished and launches the first of his media "memes": "If I were a Boer, I hope I would fight on the battlefield."
The Tory cabinet's policy begins to sag, and Churchill promptly goes into opposition, to the Liberals. And when the Conservatives lose, the promising parliamentarian is taken into the Liberal cabinet. As Deputy Minister for Colonial Affairs, Churchill writes a constitution for the same South Africa. And when a friend, David Lloyd George, takes the prime minister's chair, his career takes off. Churchill is the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
But in 1915, after the stunning failure of the Dardanelles operation, he was made a scapegoat. And the once brilliant politician, effectively the third person in the state… decides to join the army. He had to go to the front as an ordinary infantry officer. The army command promoted him to lieutenant colonel, since before the start of his political career, Churchill had already served as an army officer in India and Africa, and provided him with the post of battalion commander. Churchill even agrees to this. And in 1917, he returns the portfolio to the War Ministry.
And again he managed to catch the trend. When necessary, he advocated the Ten Year Rule - a doctrine according to which the military budget would be built on the assumption that Britain would not be drawn into conflicts for 10 years after the end of the world war. And when it was politically advantageous - he turned out to be almost the main hawk, more than others demanding intervention in Russia during our Civil War.
“The Bolshevik tyranny is the worst… far worse than German militarism,” Churchill insisted. The switch to the right was prudent – after all, he intended to switch from the Liberals back to the Tories (which he did). But when, by the late 1930s, it became clear that a showdown was coming between the Soviet Union and a new edition of German militarism in the form of the Third Reich, Churchill again acted wisely. He became the most vocal critic of the policy of appeasement of Hitler – and thereby prepared the basis for Britain’s future alliance with the USSR.
And it was he, Churchill, who came up with the idea in 1945 to strike an atomic blow at the exhausted Soviet Union, his ally, and to move tank divisions against the Soviet armies. Moreover, to place Wehrmacht troops in the forward units. Extreme cynicism and betrayal? No, simply an understanding of the pragmatic interests of the British Empire.
The above-quoted phrase about the “little donkey” (as Churchill felt himself to be in Tehran in 1943) continues: “I am a poor little English donkey who alone among the three knew the true way home.” Biographers of the politician explain: by “the way home” they meant preserving and strengthening British influence in the Mediterranean. And he defended these imperial interests with all his might.
"IT'S STRIKINGLY REMINISCENT OF HITLER."
The Prime Minister achieved his personal goal – he became, perhaps, the most famous English politician of the 20th century, an example for future Prime Ministers. When the member of the House of Commons Sir Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965, at the age of 90 (having outlived Stalin, Roosevelt, and many allies and opponents in London), representatives of 112 countries were present at the farewell, and 350 million people watched the television broadcast of the funeral.
But still, the "bell" at Churchill's birthday in Tehran was not in vain. It was under him - and, of course, against his will - that Britain ceased to rule the seas and set the tone in world politics. Churchill was born in a state with 700 million subjects, and died in a country with a population of no more than 60 million (if, of course, you do not count the Commonwealth countries).
The Empire lost: Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, Mandatory Palestine, the Suez Canal, and many territories in Africa. But despite such catastrophic losses, thanks in large part to Winston Churchill, Great Britain remained and continues to remain one of the great countries in the world, desperately fighting to strengthen its influence on the world chessboard.
And most importantly, Churchill left behind a very dangerous principle, which is followed in both London and Washington. Stalin said this in an interview with Pravda on March 14, 1946:
"Mr. Churchill and his friends are strikingly reminiscent of... Hitler and his friends. Hitler began the business of unleashing war by proclaiming a racial theory, declaring that only people speaking German constitute a full-fledged nation. Mr. Churchill also begins the business of unleashing war with a racial theory, asserting that only nations speaking English are full-fledged nations, called upon to decide the destinies of the entire world."
[ConservativeTreehouse] The latest announcement by President Trump via Truth Social [SEE HERE] should not come as a surprise to anyone here.
As the economic impact of MAGAnomics starts to sink-in to the global psyche, once again it is predictable that China and the EU will use their central banking system in a defensive posture against President Trump’s economic, trade and tariff policies. As a direct result, the value of the dollar increases, and as we noted before, “Exports from the USA ultimately cost more because the dollar is stronger against EU and Asia currencies. However, a stronger dollar is an offset to BRICS leverage and allows Trump to play economic chess.”
That’s the background for this:
Donald Trump’s statement on Truth Social can be seen here.
President Trump knows how to leverage U.S. market access as part of the economic security program for the entire country. President Trump is the only person who can do this. If a nation wants to align with an alternative trade currency, President Trump will tariff their products at 100%, and/or shut them out of the USA market completely.
MAGAnomics Simplified: Everyone who is a pragmatic critical thinker knows that China will (a) subsidize their targeted industries; then (b) devalue their currency to lower the impact of exports to the USA. Beijing controls the banks, and they did this before. As a result, the dollar value increases and imports cost less.
The Chinese imports then enter the USA at a lower price consistent with their cost estimate as a tariff offset. China takes in a lower price but retains access. That’s just how it works. The importers pay the tariff with a lowered price and a higher valued dollar. Essentially statis for the time being.
[LiberalForum] PUTIN’S EUROPE
The publication by Project:Polska, has taken on the task of dissecting and explaining the extent of Russia’s influence across Europe. The initiative brings together twenty experts from across the continent to articulate how Vladimir Putin’s actions and ideologies are affecting the lives of everyday Europeans.
THERE ARE NO PLACES IN EUROPE IN WHICH PUTIN WOULD NOT BE INTERESTED
On 24 February 2022, the Europeans awoke from their peaceful slumber. The tranquillity of the last few years turned out to be a delusion, and Europeans began to fear seriously for the future of their beautiful home. With the war, it became clear that Europe, the European Union and its member states were not free from Putin. From his influence, his money, his ideology, his rhetoric. A wave of self-audits overflowed from east to west.
The European Liberal Forum, supported by the Project: Poland Foundation, has taken on the crucial task of dissecting and explaining the extent of Russia’s influence across Europe. The initiative brings together twenty experts and editors from across the continent to articulate how Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s actions and ideologies affect everyday Europeans’ lives. This exploration is not just a narrative of external geopolitical manoeuvres; it delves into the internal dynamics of European countries, highlighting how Putin’s reach has infiltrated various sectors, including the economy, politics, media, and social organizations.
The study describes universal phenomena and trends. Even when the starting point for describing a problem is a single country or a group of countries, it does not at all mean that this problem is limited to this particular geographical area. On the contrary, it should be assumed that it is or will be present in one form or another in other countries as well. The question is: when and with what intensity? Because there are no places in Europe in which Putin would not be interested. Destabilising or subjugating every patch, even small or remote from Moscow, brings the dictator closer to his goal: reconstructing the empire, building Putin’s Europe.
[IsraelTimes] If someone gives you a document, they’re always pursuing an agenda, says Kai Diekmann; he also discusses the paper’s unique stance on Israel and his most dramatic meeting with Netanyahu.
The hour-plus long video of the discussion can be seen at the link.
[IsraelTimes] Speaking with Piers Morgan, special rapporteur calls ICC arrest warrant for PM and former defense chief ‘too narrow,’ urges Israel to hand Netanyahu and Gallant over to global court
Reluctantly acknowledging that Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... ’s October 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 in southern Israel and hostage-taking of 251 to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... "could qualify" as terrorism, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Paleostinian Territories La Belle Francesca Albanese nonetheless told British television personality Piers Morgan that the nature of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist group’s rampage was illegal.
Interviewed on Tuesday by Morgan for his Uncensored YouTube program, Albanese said that, on "the day Israel was attacked, it had all the rights to defend itself, to protect its citizens in its territory and therefore to repel the attack with all necessary and proportional measures — which means using force, including lethal force, arresting, detaining all persons involved and found on its territory — which happened on the 7th, 8th and 9th of October."
However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... she went on, "Israel didn’t have the right to wage a war against the Paleostinians in Gaza."
When it was put to her by Morgan that "absolutely" Israel had the right to go after the 3,000 Death Eaters who had poured over its border and massacred its people, and had taken the hostages to Gaza, and that "it doesn’t stop at the border," she replied that Morgan should be "very careful because... this ’eye for an eye’ logic would justify what had happened on October 7."
"The fact that we call it terrorism doesn’t justify what Israel has done since," said Albanese, arguing that "waging a war" was "not proportionate."
Albanese told Morgan that she believed the International Criminal Court’s case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant was too narrow, and should address Israel’s entire offensive beyond its borders.
Albanese has a history of antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Hamas statements.
On October 11, 2023, four days after the attack, Albanese said she doubted reports of rape and sexual violence. Rather, she said the US and Israel were spreading these claims to escalate tensions.
In February, Israel’s foreign and interior ministries announced that Albanese is not allowed into Israel following a tweet to French President Emanuel Macron in which she stated, "The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression."
She recently told a Harvard University gathering that when Hamas refers to killing Jews ("Yahudi"), it does not actually mean Jews.
In the Tuesday interview, addressing the recently issued arrest warrants by the ICC, she called on Israeli authorities to hand over Netanyahu and Gallant.
"If they had nothing to fear they would stand justice. They would just defend themselves in front of the International Criminal Court. What do they have to fear if they did nothing wrong?" she said in the interview, which was followed by a panel of four Jewish personalities who discussed the issues she touched on.
After Hamas’s shock October 7 attack, which was accompanied by brutal assaults including sexual violence, Israel began carrying out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on the terrorist organization and launched a ground invasion later the same month with the objectives of dismantling the terror group, which rules Gaza, and retrieving the hostages.
Arguing for Israel in a subsequent panel debate hosted by Morgan were American lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.
On the anti-Israel side were British journalist and author Matt Kennard and Katie Halper, host of the podcast A Jew For Ceasefire Now.
Ugh.
Albanese called the ICC warrants "necessary" and "long due" and said they were "very meaningful."
"The evidence is overwhelming that starvation has been used as a tool of war and it cannot be justified by any possible circumstance," Albanese told Morgan.
Dershowitz said the arrest warrants, while they would stop Netanyahu from traveling to other countries to "make the case for Israel," were detrimental to the ICC as well because they improperly issued. The court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, he said, "was supposed to go to Israel to look at both sides of the issue but after he was accused of sexual harassment, he canceled that trip because he wanted to issue the arrest warrants very quickly."
Conricus echoed the sentiment, calling Khan "suspicious and controversial" and saying the process had been "totally flawed."
"All the information has been based on false or incomplete information. I think there is proof verified by non-Israeli sources that contradicts all the allegations," he said, although he did not name any specific sources.
Morgan argued that the IDF’s refusal to allow foreign journalists into Gaza to report on what was happening in the Strip prevented such evidence from coming to light and raised suspicion against Israel.
While all four panelists agreed that foreign journalists should be allowed into Gaza, Kennard — who called Israel a "rogue terrorist regime" but refused to apply the epithet to Hamas or label its October 7 attack as terrorism — accused Israel of deliberately targeting Paleostinian media officials to stop them from reporting on its alleged crimes against humanity, a claim that Israel categorically denies.
Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung... Conricus said the real obstacle to reliable reporting from within Gaza was Hamas, which he accused of controlling Paleostinian media in the enclave.
"I’ve seen it happen in real-time. Instead of doing their job of reporting on Hamas’s war crimes, it’s been documented but not reported because Hamas won’t let them and it’s been stifling them," he said.
Last month, Israel published documents that it said provided evidence that journalists killed by the IDF were active members of Hamas or the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , an allegation it has made repeatedly over the last 13 months of the war.
Many of the specific journalists named were employees of Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... -based al-Jazeera, which Israel’s government took off the air and blocked in April.
In June, a court found a direct and causal connection between individuals who have carried out terror attacks inside Israel and the consumption of Al Jazeera content. It also determined that there was a "close connection" between Al Jazeera and Hamas, that some Al Jazeera news hounds in Gaza had turned themselves into "assistants and partners" with Hamas, and that some of them had even carried out terror attacks.
Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung... addressing comments she made last month urging the UN to consider suspending Israel as a member state, Albanese accused Israel of violating international law and insulting UN officials and organizations more than any other country in the world.
Among Israel’s alleged crimes was killing 240 UN staff members and firing at UN peacekeepers in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , Albanese said.
Israel has alleged that more than 10 percent of the staff of the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees, UNRWA, in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.
In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and button men hiding out in UNRWA schools.
Israel has been accused of genocide numerous times, most notably in an ongoing case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 42,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 Death Eaters inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
During the interview, Albanese said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which she called colonies, were also war crimes, declaring that "Israel needs to withdraw the occupation because it has given the chance for violence to fester."
She also criticized outgoing US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Too old and senile to be prosecuted, not too old and senile to set national policy... ’s administration, saying the US had supplied Israel with more military, economic, financial, and political aid in the last 14 months than it ever has.
"I understand, as a European, why Jewish people have such a deep connection to Israel, but what I do question is third state responsibility. How member states act vis-a-vis a state this is committing genocide which it has been committing for 50 years and unlawful occupation and unlawful apartheid," she said.
Albanese concluded that she hoped incoming US president Trump would "step away from this precipice and do the right thing."
Dershowitz was bullish on Trump’s reelection, saying he would be "tough on Iran" — the backer of terror groups including Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — which would likely lead to peace.
"If Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is disarmed we will see real peace in the region," he said.
Kennard, however, called Trump a "disaster for the Paleostinian cause" because he "has Israel’s interests at heart."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
