antioxidants Archives - The Automatic Earth

Michael P Senger @MichaelPSenger
“New COVID cases in Australia are skyrocketing to nearly 4x prior record highs despite some of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns, vaccine passes, outdoor mask mandates, banning of protests, strict curfews, military-enforced restrictions, and government quarantine camps.”

They know when you are sleeping…
They know when you’re awake…
They know if you’ve been vaxxed or not,
So, get vaxxed or meet the state.

He actually says it.

• The Value Of The Vaccine Is In Getting People To Take The Vaccine (CTH)

Trust the science they say…. and then, accidentally, the “scientists” admit that what they are doing under the guise of public health has absolutely nothing to do with science. Anthony Fauci appears today on ABC This Week to push the vaccine narrative. When asked about a vaccine passport requirement for airline travel, Facui admits openly the only reason for a vaccine mandate is to force people to get the vaccine. There is no other benefit for the mandate other than to force people to get the vaccine. The vaccine doesn’t stop infection. The vaccine doesn’t stop the spread of infection. The vaccine has no value from the position of decreasing the spread of a COVID-19 virus or any variant therein. The value of the vaccine is in getting people to take the vaccine. It sounds goofy, but that’s exactly what Dr. Anthony Fauci admits in this interview. Watch at 09:10 prompted.

Once again, it seems the vaccine requirements overall are just a tool to create a system for the Vaccine Passport. The passport is then a simple tracking mechanism to identify the movements of all the people being forced to show it. The Vaccine Passport is essentially the gateway to a digital id system. Even with everything that has happened in this Overton window of the past two years, it is still stunning to me how many people now accept the reality of their papers being demanded to move around and live life. The axiom of “papers please” used to trigger a common American aversion. Now, there are millions of people who just comply as if they cannot see what lies at the end of this acceptance.

“There are failures that lose you your job, there are failures that make you a public disgrace, and then there are their failures, the kind that lead to arrest, indictment, imprisonment, and worse.”

• The Beginning of the End? (eugyp)

In the coming months, Omicron will outcompete all other lineages everywhere in the world. At that point, Corona will have completed its transformation into a mild coronavirus that nobody should care about, in the same way that nobody cares about other common human-infecting coronaviruses like hCoV-OC43. Unforeseen developments are always possible; Omicron might in time acquire greater pathogenicity. Particularly if we insist on vaccinating widely, we might drive its evolution in new and potentially dangerous directions. Those are, however, mere possibilities. Right now, everything tells us that the virus part of the pandemic will soon be over. The major question, is how the rest of the Corona Circus will respond. Some thoughts on that:

In the short term, rising cases will probably fuel demand for more vaccinations. This is the blunt, stupid way that our public health experts respond to infections now, but it is not a game that will go well for the vaccinators. The vaccines will fail even more profoundly in stopping Omicron transmission, and there will be far fewer severe outcomes for them to prevent. I don’t know how long the crackpot vaccination regime can survive overt absurdities like this. Omicron will probably also unwind the broader containment regime. South Africa has already abandoned their most intrusive tracing, quarantine and isolation policies, declaring a shift towards mitigation (which is what they should have done in the first place). Trying to defeat a minimally symptomatic highly contagious virus with the comically inadequate tools of the contact tracer is simply too ridiculous.

In the longer term, things look much more uncertain. It is hard to shake the feeling that Corona has swept away the last vestiges of liberal democracy in Europe, and perhaps in the whole world. I don’t think these political systems have been very good for the West, but our new theocratic regimes steered by the Corona astrologers have been vastly worse. As soon as the hysteria boils off, many of these villains will begin trying to get the panic machine up and running again. The alternative is a future where nobody much cares what they have to think, where they’re no longer able to interfere in millions lives, and – perhaps most crucially – where a lot of politicians, journalists, and ordinary people begin to realise what utter failures they and their policies have been. There are failures that lose you your job, there are failures that make you a public disgrace, and then there are their failures, the kind that lead to arrest, indictment, imprisonment, and worse.

Maybe you should make sure you catch Omicron first.

• Alpha Covid Variant Mutates To Evade Innate Immune System (RT)

The Alpha Covid variant, in the process of mutating, has gained specific ‘skills’ to block the innate immune system response. The scientists who discovered this hope it will lead to a better understanding of how the virus evolves. According to the research, published in Nature magazine, the Alpha variant’s new isolates “more effectively suppress innate immune responses in airway epithelial cells” compared to first wave isolates. According to the report, Alpha, which was first discovered in the UK in November 2020 and quickly spread around the world, “has dramatically increased” the protein levels of “innate immune antagonists.” This means that Alpha has ‘learned’ how to evade the body’s first line of response. It does so by blocking the sensors in the airways, which under normal circumstances ‘warn’ the immune system of the virus’ presence and prompt it to produce the ‘anti-viral’ protein interferon.

The researchers say the “more effective innate immune suppression” increases the chances of transmission, as well as the duration of illness. “It will be fascinating to see how the other variants, such as Delta and Omicron, perform comparatively in our lung epithelial systems,” a co-author of the research, Dr. Lucy Thorne, said, as quoted by Science Daily. A better understanding of the mechanisms used by different variants to evade the immune defenses, “will teach us not only about the viruses themselves but also about human biology,” Thorne added. The recent spread of the Omicron variant has caused a new wave of cases and prompted countries to reintroduce restrictions and travel bans.

The conclusion is right. The way they arrive at it is shoddy. You can’t keep on saying how effective the vaccines are, and then conclude the opposite.

• ‘Israel Could Be Completely Unprotected Against Covid-19 In A Month’ (JPost)

Israel’s Pandemic Response Team was warned last Tuesday night that Israel could go from being reasonably protected against Omicron to not being protected at all within just a month. As a result, the team – along with the COVID-19 Vaccination Advisory Board – voted to allow the country’s highest risk population to receive a fourth shot of the Pfizer COVID vaccine, sparking controversy in Israel and around the world. Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash has still not approved the recommendation – and may not – as more data about the likelihood of developing serious infection from the Omicron variant is starting to emerge. But why did the committee make a recommendation if it did not have all the data?

The presentations shown to the committee by the COVID-19 National Information and Knowledge Center – a division of the Israel Defense Forces – as well as by a separate joint medical research team could be the reason for what seemed like an unexpectedly bold decision. “Within a month or two, the protection in Israel could be almost back to where it was before vaccines,” a report by the knowledge center warned. “The transition from Delta to Omicron will make Israel go from being reasonably protected to being almost not protected at all.” In its presentation, which The Jerusalem Post reviewed, the center showed that the protection afforded people ages 60 and older who received a third dose is expected to decline from 75% to only 25% within a month as the Omicron variant becomes the dominant strain in Israel.

Part of the reason for this is that the vaccine wanes quickly, as explained by a separate presentation to the committee made by researchers from the Health Ministry, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Hebrew University, the Technion and the Gertner Institute. A graph presented by the Weizmann Prof. Ron Milo showed that the Pfizer vaccines began to wane after only three months for both the second and third doses. In Israel, most of the elderly population (845,779 people) received their booster shots more than four months ago. “The excellent defense against infection by the Delta variant from the third dose begins to erode,” the slide said. It showed that the third shot at first provided four times more protection than the second one but stressed that “the noted protection against infection with the Delta variant for those vaccinated with the booster begins to decline.”

“It’s time to “rethink” the notion that COVID is above all a respiratory illness [..] ..it’s actually an “immune-and-respiratory” condition..”

• Israeli Study Urges ‘Rethink’ Of Covid, Indicates Antioxidants May Help (ToI)

It’s time to “rethink” the notion that COVID is above all a respiratory illness, as new research suggests it’s actually an “immune-and-respiratory” condition, Israeli scientists say. The team behind the new peer-reviewed research says the idea may help explain the unusual nature of COVID-19, and might even pave the way for over-the-counter antioxidants to help treat the disease. The geneticists from Ben Gurion University studied the mitochondria. Often called the “power plants” of cells, they generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. “We expected to see a change in the mitochondria in the lung but not the blood, because after all, COVID-19 is supposed to be a lung disease,” Prof. Dan Mishmar, the lead researcher and president of the Genetic Society of Israel, told The Times of Israel.

“But to our surprise, we found the opposite was true. “We saw no change to mitochondria in the lung, but saw a significant change in the blood, with a reduction in mitochondria gene expression.” But Mishmar said that as the blood is a strong indicator of the state of the immune system, his study suggests that immune disruption comes before any respiratory issues. (SARS-CoV-2) But Mishmar said that as the blood is a strong indicator of the state of the immune system, his study suggests that immune disruption comes before any respiratory issues. His hypothesis is that abnormally functioning mitochondria lead to some of the most concerning effects of COVID-19, including the cytokine storm, which is often characterized as an immune overreaction that can cause rapid demise.

And Mishmar said if he is right, patients’ conditions could be improvable with existing antioxidants. “Until now the mitochondria as a system was almost overlooked, and now we’re identifying it as a central player in the disease, and starting to explore how to help and improve mitochondria function and potentially lead to an improvement in symptoms,” he said. “There are over-the-counter drugs, or strictly speaking supplements, that could help to do exactly that — they are antioxidants. They reduce the signals generated by the mitochondria, and given that the cytokine storm is essentially a signaling storm, could be very helpful in preventing this from happening.”

The vaccines have failed dramatically in Israel. Time for desperate measures.

• Israel Attorney General Gives Nod to Sanctions on Unvaccinated (Haaretz)

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has approved the imposition of government restrictions on unvaccinated people in an effort to encourage them to get the jab, regardless of whether those restrictions are demonstrably epidemiologically effective. In view of the attorney general’s legal brief, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz are weighing bringing a few proposals to the cabinet, designed to bolster restrictions on unvaccinated people. Until now, the attorney general has prevented the government implementing policies whose sole intention is to encourage vaccination regardless of whether it is epidemiologically justified. The prohibition included both the awarding of benefits to those who do get the vaccine and the imposing of restrictions on people refusing to get vaccinated.

Before any decision on augmenting restrictions, representatives of the attorney general generally request an expert opinion from the Health Ministry regarding the policy’s epidemiological efficacy. Policies would be implemented only after such an opinion was received. These opinions have been used by the state in responding to the numerous petitions objecting to various coronavirus-related restrictions that have been submitted to the High Court of Justice. With the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the attorney general’s has shifted his position. The reversal came during a cabinet debate on a proposal that would restrict entry to malls to fully vaccinated people, while prohibiting entry to unvaccinated people, even when they present negative COVID-19 test results. Several proposals came up during the discussion, including rewarding vaccinated people through a financial bonus or giving coupons to parents who vaccinate their children.

“There was always going to be “that uncle” who refused, you know, and now he’s laughing while everyone else in the family is puking or coughing their lungs out.”

• Sorry Not Sorry (Denninger)

There are now reports coming in of people being very cranked off at physicians offices and hospitals. Why? Well, they took the jabs, in many cases got boosted, and then got *****-19 anyway. Oh well. Now the docs and nurses are bent that their customers are pissed off and using the “B” word or even the “C” and “F” words. Awwwww, cry me a ****ing river. You ought to count your blessings you’re not getting shivved in the ER and Minute Clinics! Which docs strongly advocated for these jabs? Which ones backed up the so-called “official government advice” with exhortations of their own, pestering and hounding their customers? Which ones went even further and demanded it? Many threatened to fire customers (patients) who refused, and more than a few did do exactly that.

How many nurses and doctors wrote OpEds basically threatening the unjabbed with death if they didn’t take the shot? How many verbally accosted people — or worse, even engaged in assault? Remember we were all told you won’t get ***** if you take the shot and then that pivoted to you won’t get materially ill. Well, people are getting quite sick! WITH *****. AFTER BEING “FULLY” JABBED AND EVEN BOOSTED! “Oh but it would have been worse” the scolds say on the Internet. Except….. now we have multiple families showing up where only the jabbed people are getting hit. There was always going to be “that uncle” who refused, you know, and now he’s laughing while everyone else in the family is puking or coughing their lungs out.

Still trust doctors eh? Still think you should be nice to doctors or nurses? I think if you flim-flam someone, and these people clearly did, you deserve everything you get. Especially when the people you screwed took the risk of serious or even fatal side effects and now, it appears, the jabs made them more susceptible to infection rather than less! PS: It’s not just there. It’s also in England and….. the land of jab-a-holics, Australia where they literally arrest you if you try to refuse!

“The NY Times has thus far made no reference to Tejada having received his booster shot just hours before his premature death.”

• NY Times Editor, 49, Dies One Day After Moderna Booster Shot (NP)

Carlos Tejada, a New York Times Deputy Asia Editor, has died at the age of 49. He suffered a heart attack less than a day after posting to social media that he had received a Moderna booster vaccination. Tejada, who worked in part on the paper’s COVID-19 coverage, was married with two children. He had worked at the Wall Street Journal prior to moving to the Times, where he worked for almost five years. According to Tejada’s own Instagram page, he was grateful to receive the mRNA/LNP booster while in Seoul, South Korea. Tejada originally received the Johnson & Johnson DNA/AAV COVID-19 vaccination in July 2021. Less than a day after receiving his Moderna booster on December 17th, Tejada died of a heart attack. The news was shared via Tejada’s social media by his wife Nora the following morning. The Times confirmed his death on December 22nd.

Former NY Times journalist Alex Berenson reported on his Substack that Tejada did not given informed consent to receive the booster shot, as the consent form was written in Korea and Tejada did not read Korean. On his social media, Tejada joked that Omicron could “hit [him] with your wet snot,” before going on to say, “all I had to do was fill out this form in a language I cant read. Translation software tells me I now belong to the BTS army.” Berenson also noted that there have been no clinical trials on the efficacy of mixing two different types of vaccinations. Studies conducted on COVID-19 vaccinations suggest that those who receive vaccines in rapid succession are more likely to develop heart complications, such as myocarditis and pericarditis.

The NY Times has thus far made no reference to Tejada having received his booster shot just hours before his premature death. To this, Berenson, a former employee of the newspaper, said he hoped that Tejada’s death would finally “wake the Times.” Studies published to AAHA have suggested that mRNA vaccines increase inflammatory markers in patients. Prior to Tejada receiving his Moderna booster, the CDC announced that 80 percent of COVID-19 Omicron “variant” cases were found in “fully-vaccinated” individuals.

“Algerian footballer, Sofiane Loukar (30) has became the 4th footballer to die of a heart attack this week The others include Croatian footballer Marin Cacic (23), Oman international player Mukhaled Al-Raqadi (39), Egyptian goalkeeper, Ahmed Amin 35).”

• Algerian Football Player Dies After Collapsing On Pitch (RT)

Algerian footballer Sofiane Loukar has died after collapsing while captaining his team Mouloudia Saida in a second division match on Saturday. Loukar is said to have collided with his own goalkeeper in the 26th minute of the Algerian Ligue 2 meeting with rivals ASM Oran. After receiving treatment the player was cleared to return to the pitch, only to collapse suddenly around 10 minutes later. According to Reuters, citing local media, Loukar was attended to at the scene and then rushed to hospital but died of a heart attack on the way. Other reports have indicated that the cause of death has not been determined. The Algeria Press Service indicated that Loukar was 28 at the time of his death, although elsewhere he has been listed as age 30. Adding to the tragedy, the footballer is said to have married just one week before Saturday’s fatal incident.

Footage shared by UAE news outlet Gulf Today purported to show Loukar’s grief-stricken teammates after they discovered the news that he had passed away. Other clips circulating online apparently showed the desperate efforts to revive him. The tragedy comes after young Croatian footballer Marin Cacic died three days after being placed into a coma following a sudden collapse during training with his team NK Nehaj Sinj. Cacic’s club confirmed his passing at the age of just 23 in a touching message on social media on Christmas Eve. In another tragedy to rock football, Omani footballer Mukhaled Al-Raqadi died at the age of 29 on Wednesday after collapsing during the warm-up for a top-flight match for Muscat in his homeland.Local reports indicated that the cause was a heart attack, with Muscat and the Oman Football Association paying tribute on social media.

“..certain supplements or foods containing vitamins and minerals might help boost your immune system, such as zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C and quercetin.”

• Florida Surgeon General Promotes Nutraceuticals for COVID-19 (Mercola)

Florida’s new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has issued a statewide public service announcement in support of commonsense COVID prevention strategies such as optimizing your vitamin D, staying active, eating nutrient-dense foods, and boosting your immune system with supplements. Florida Health’s HealthierYouFL.org website now urges Floridians to “Talk to your health care provider about how certain supplements or foods containing vitamins and minerals might help boost your immune system, such as zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C and quercetin.” These are all well-known supplements that have been shown to have a positive impact on your COVID-19 risk. The surgeon general also supports the use of monoclonal antibodies in acute cases, and as prevention in high-risk patients who have been exposed to COVID-19.

Available treatment locations can be found on FloridaHealthCOVID19.gov. Florida Health even highlights emerging treatments such as fluvoxamine and inhaled budesonide. Importantly, Florida Health now states that: “Physicians should use their clinical judgment when recommending treatment options for patients’ individualized health care needs. This may include emerging treatment options with appropriate patient informed consent, including off-label use or as part of a clinical trial.” Well, no one could be happier about this than I. I’ve been calling for vitamin D recommendations since the earliest days of the pandemic—ideally nationwide, but statewide is at least a start, especially considering that Florida is the sunshine state.

Ladapo was appointed Florida surgeon general and secretary of the Florida Department of Health by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sept. 21, 2021, and it’s refreshing to finally see COVID guidance that makes sense. In his acceptance speech, Ladapo said: “I am honored to have been chosen by Governor DeSantis to serve as Florida’s next Surgeon General. We must make health policy decisions rooted in data and not in fear. “I have observed the different approaches taken by governors across the country, and I have been impressed by Governor DeSantis’ leadership and determination to ensure that Floridians are afforded all opportunities to maintain their health and wellness while preserving their freedoms as Americans.”

No prophylaxis, no early treatment, but euthanasia is fine.

“It turns the ethos of medicine on its head..”

• New Zealand Okays Euthanasia For Covid Patients (CH)

Patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 can die by euthanasia if doctors decide they might not survive, the New Zealand government has declared. The Ministry of Health confirmed that a right to a lethal injection under a new euthanasia law could extend to patients who were either dying from the coronavirus or suffering unbearably from its consequences. In response to a request for clarity on a euthanasia law which came into force last month, the government declared that “in some circumstances a person with COVID-19 may be eligible for assisted dying”. The admission that COVID patients were eligible for a lethal jab came after Henoch Kloosterboer, editor of the anti-euthanasia The Defender website, made a request under the Official Information Act – the New Zealand equivalent to the 2000 Freedom of Information Act.

He said the policy left “the door wide open for abuse” of elderly and vulnerable patients – especially if the country’s health service came under pressure from a COVID surge. He said: “It would not be hard to envisage a situation in which a speedy and sizeable rise in COVID-19 hospitalisations could result in pressure to utilise euthanasia and assisted suicide as tools to resolve such a serious crisis.” The euthanasia law, he added, “has now made the COVID-19 pandemic potentially even more dangerous for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand”. The 2019 End of Life Choice Act is considered to be one of the most extreme euthanasia laws anywhere in the world, and critics say the safeguards are so flimsy that they are easily circumvented.

It permits both euthanasia and assisted suicide for adults suffering from an illness which would be terminal within six months, or who were in an advanced state of irreversible physical decline or who were suffering unbearably. The law, ratified following a referendum in 2020, guarantees all residents the right of access to a doctor who will kill them within a period as short as four days from receiving a request. Doctors receive a government fee of $1,000 plus expenses for every euthanasia death they perform. Just 96 of the country’s 16,000 doctors have offered to participate, however, and all but one of the nation’s 32 hospices have indicated that they will not permit euthanasia.

In the UK, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a professor of palliative medicine, said the New Zealand euthanasia law contradicted the fundamental purpose of medicine and health services to heal the sick. She said: “It is bizarre that a country which has been trying to protect it citizens by closing down completely from a virus from which people can fully recover … is now suggesting that these patients should be killed by their doctors. “It turns the ethos of medicine on its head,” she said. “You really cannot predict death 100 per cent,” she added. “So why not support them while they are dying and leave the door open in case they are in the group that defies all odds and recovers completely?”

Itty-bitty problem: the BMJ itself censors too…

• Facebook Now Censoring the British Medical Journal (NYNR)

Fiona Godlee, the editor of The British Medical Journal (BMJ), has written a letter to Facebook (Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg blasting him for the social media platform’s “inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible … fact-check” protocols that we now know are just a censorship tool. One of the oldest and most highly respected scientific journals in the world, The BMJ recently published a report entitled, “Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial” that calls into question the “science” behind Pfizer’s Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccine.” Because the report does not unquestioningly praise the jabs as “safe and effective,” Facebook “fact checked” it and deemed it as containing “false information.”

Starting on November 10, Facebook users who tried to share the article encountered problems. Many were unable to share it at all while others say the post was flagged with a warning that stated: “Missing context … Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.” Still others were prompted with warnings advising them to not try to share “false information.” It turns out that Facebook contractor “Lead Stories” was responsible for all this censorship. After learning what had happened, Godlee ripped Zuckerberg a new one, highlighting the following points about the so-called “fact check” in her letter to him:

• It did not present any assertions of fact that The BMJ article supposedly got wrong.
• It used the following nonsensical title: “Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials.”
• The first paragraph inaccurately labeled The BMJ a “news blog.”
• A screenshot of The BMJ report that Facebook posted with a “Flaws Reviewed” stamp over the top of it failed to identify anything false or untrue.
• It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert.”
• Lead Stories was contacted by The BMJ concerning these and other issues but the company refused to make any changes.
• The BMJ also tried to contact Facebook directly about removing the “fact check,” but was refused.

Not the strongest article, but a major point.

• Declassified Documents Show How US Lied To Russia About NATO in 1990s (RT)

In April 2014, President Vladimir Putin addressed Russia’s Federal Assembly in the wake of Moscow’s reabsorption of Crimea. Over the course of his speech, he laid the blame for an increase in tensions on the West, which he insisted had “lied to us many times, made decisions behind our backs, placed us before an accomplished fact.” At the heart of this apparent duplicity was NATO’s expansion to the East, “as well as deployment of military infrastructure at our borders,” contrary, he said, to its promises. Ever since, disproving the idea that Western leaders had assured Moscow the bloc wouldn’t encroach on its borders has become an obsession for think tanks and lobby groups.

For example, UK policy institute Chatham House brands the suggestion that any pledge was made not to enlarge the controversial military bloc one of the key “myths and misconceptions in the debate on Russia,” while NATO’s own website likewise claims it is wholly manufactured. Significant evidence to the contrary has long-been easily accessible, but now the National Security Archive has published a tranche of never-before-seen, highly revealing documents detailing how then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin was consistently manipulated by his US counterpart Bill Clinton on the question during the mid-1990s, while bold, false promises of a “strategic partnership” of the countries faded into nothingness.

Take for instance the transcript of a cordial July 5 1994 telephone conversation between the pair, at which time the US president was preparing to depart for Poland – which had been pushing for rapid absorption by NATO – and the Baltic states, before meeting with Yeltsin at the G7 summit in Italy. Yeltsin urged Clinton to raise the plight of Russophones in Estonia and Latvia, because “a public statement from you that the US will not support any infringement on the rights of the Russian-speaking people” would mean these countries “will act differently.” He noted Lithuania’s quick granting of citizenship to its Russian minority had prompted Moscow to withdraw its troops from Vilnius, and the same could happen by August in Tallinn and Riga if assurances were made. Yeltsin also wished to discuss NATO expansion.

In response, Clinton swore he’d “raise the issue of the Russian minorities,” and reassured Yeltsin that while NATO might “eventually expand,” he’d set out “no timetable and no requirements.” Instead, he indicated that he’d “like us to concentrate” on Partnership for Peace, a US-led initiative seeking to “achieve a united Europe where people respect each other’s borders and work together.” Yeltsin could be entirely forgiven for thinking the Partnership was Washington’s primary focus, and the military alliance an afterthought, by the conclusion of the chat.

Putin may lose his patience.

• Russia Advises NATO to (Finally) Honor ‘Not One Inch Eastward’ Pledge (Bridge)

As NATO continues its mission creep inexorably towards the Russian border, Moscow issued a security proposal to the Western military bloc, which is in fact nothing less than an ultimatum: halt any further eastward military advances or Russia will be forced to act on behalf of its national interests. The date February 9, 1990 will be forever remembered among historians as a ‘day of infamy’ as far as NATO-Russia relations are concerned. That was the date when U.S. Secretary of State James Baker famously assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, during glasnost-era talks on German unification that the Western military bloc would not advance “one inch eastward” towards Russia’s borders.

The level of deception contained in that empty pledge is easily discernible today as NATO membership has exploded since the Cold War times to 30 member states. In 2004, the former Soviet states of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined NATO at the 2004 Istanbul summit; Albania and Croatia became members in 2009, while North Macedonia joined in 2020. Already, the Western military bloc abuts Russia’s northwestern border in the Baltic States of Latvia and Estonia. But now with the political tinderbox known as Ukraine actively seeking membership in NATO, Moscow has produced what amounts to an ultimatum, where the carrot is simply the preservation of peace among the world’s nuclear superpowers.

Will the US-led organization bite? On the question of NATO, the draft agreement on security states that “The United States of America shall take measures to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and deny accession to the Alliance to the former USSR republics.”