State of the Western News 3

 Before, I glanced at all the different news, but did not go in depth, so I'm not sure if this is new, or if I just missed it before.

Basically, the Russian news says they are liberating the pro-Russian Ukraine. The Western news says the entire Ukraine hates everything Russian, and, as the Russians invaded, all the Ukraine joined the Ukrainian military and repulsed the Russians, just about all of the first attack force has been eradicated, but the Russians have sent a few more soldiers in to be slaughtered as well.

Only, before being slaughtered, those evil Russian soldiers murdered civilians and raped all the women and girls.

So now the West are promising war crimes trials of the surviving Russian soldiers and the Russian leadership, something like Nuremberg. Russia, it seems, at least on the Western news--all of it: CNN, France 24, BBC, DW, Euronews, etc., etc.--is now in the same state as Nazi Germany in 1945. The Russians, they inform us, are lying and trying to deny their defeat and their crimes, but the world can see.

What some find amazing is how the Western media can be in such agreement on such a proposition, but they are.

State of the News 2

 I used to glance at CNN, France 24, BBC, Euronews, etc., etc., and all had the same news: Russia attacks Ukraine, wants to reestablish USSR, Ukraine defenders winning. The Russian version was fairly well blocked.

I note that the Iran version, presstv.com, was blocked for one day. Then the Iranians opened presstv.ir which the US cannot block. The Taliban website alemarahenglish.com was blocked for about a year, but they figured out how to get around US blocks: alemarahenglish.af 

But Russia is still having trouble getting past the US blocks and massive DDoS. The Russians need to ask the Persians and Afghans for help!

The Western media now repeat Ukraine military talking points: Russians do not take prisoners: any Ukrainian who surrenders will be tortured and killed. The Russians are raping all the Ukrainian women and girls. The Russian atrocities demand justice, and the US will ensure that justice is delivered!

Seeing the Russian version is difficult but not quite impossible. A Chechen soldier who saw the A3OB killing a mother and child, so he and the other Chechens attacked and killed the A3OB Battalion murderers: odysee.com/@EoTInternational:1

So what's TRVE?

Russia reports from the front lines. CNN also reports from the front lines in Warsaw. Or Manhattan, from which one gets an excellent view of the Ukraine. A few insist the CNN version is fake. Not the dead bodies, but the timings: CNN says they have proof the dead bodies were there when the Russian military was there, and not before. Others say those dead bodies appeared after the Russian military left.

The unipolar world is truly unipolar. A team from the OPCW went to Syria and said they saw no evidence of anyone using chemical weapons. Their report was edited by the Director to say they had irrefutable proof the Syrian government had used chemical weapons to kill many innocent civilians, and since he was the Director, his version was the official version. Some members of the team complained, and were told they had to be team players or they'd be fired.

The US version is the only version allowed. Back in the day, when I was a lad, one night Walter Cronkite said he had proof the US government had been lying about Vietnam. 

The US government learned. Only those who repeat the official US government version can be allowed as news anchors. So never again has any US news said the US government lied. And now the US dominates NATO, the EU who are not in NATO, plus most Europe countries not yet in the EU. Also Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Nothing but the US version of the news. Even the English Chinese news reiterates the US version of the news (but not the Chinese Chinese news).

So, again, what's TRVE? Could it be the Western version? Or the Russian version? Or are both lying?

State of the News

Turn on CNN, BBC, France 24, DW, Euronews, etc., etc., and get the exact same news: Putin is trying to rebuild the USSR. He started by lopping off a piece of Georgia. If I may borrow from Walt Kelley, he was trying to annex President Carter's peanut ranch, and might have gotten part of it. And now Putin is trying to add the Ukraine. The world must stand up to Putin. If the world let Putin destroy the democracy flourishing in the Ukraine, he will not stop at the Ukraine, but will try to impose Soviet rule on the entire world.

Before 24 February, Russia had a national broadcast channel, a much smaller version of the BBC that had English/Spanish/French-speaking staff who tried to give the Russian take on the news in English, Spanish, and French. The English-speaking staff were based in the US, UK, and Russia. After 24 February, every effort was made by the West to shut down all the Russian channels, banning them and blocking them.

As a native English speaker, I watched the English version of the Russian national channel to get the Russian take on the news and compare that with the Western take, but after 24 Feb, the US and UK banned the Russian channel from operating in their country, so the English version lost most of its staff, and now produces very little new material: a single, 30 minute news summary, repeated all day long, and about five 30 minute discussion program a week, also repeated many times. Plus some old documentaries, many about the history of the Ukraine, all several years old.

Meanwhile, the Western version that everything on the Russian national channel is a lie is broadcast 24/7 on all the Western channels, along with the warning that Russia must be stopped, must be evicted from the Ukraine, must have all trade cut off to kill the Russian economy and thereby kill the Russian military and keep peace in the world. Or else face a brutal, world-wide dictatorship, a much larger, possibly worldwide version of the old USSR.

The West has won the narrative, at least in the West. Given that the Russian channel is blocked, most believe the Western channels about what is really happening. But is this perception that the West is more reliable than Russia based on reality or Western propaganda?

Which version is correct? The Russian? The Western? Neither?

All the Western channels reiterate the exact same story. Is this because there is only one TRVTH, and, since all are telling the TRVTH, all are telling the same story? Or is it because the establishment media channels are owned by a very small number of owners, all of whom agree to propagate the same lie, crafted by the US, translated into every major language, and then printed or broadcast on all the establishment news networks?

And then the social media are all dominated by Alphabet, Meta, Apple, and Twitter, so do the owners stamp out every site that carries a version that deviates from their preferred version if it has more than a few thousand followers? Is that why few have ever seen alternative versions of what is really happening?

So the Western version has definitely won the narrative, but is it correct?

And how can we find out?

Lost Key?

 People keep referring to the US$ as the World Reserve Currency. This is not the correct terminology (I got this from Adam Smith in his book, Paper Money, 1982). The Reserve Currencies are all those currencies kept in reserve by international banks. These are the US$, UK£, €, Swiss CHF, and Japanese ¥.

Before, the two major currencies were the UK£ and the French ₣, but after WWI, both were weakened, and after WWII, both quickly descended to a fraction of their old value, while the US$, guaranteed to be worth 0.88 gm of 24K gold (approx: the real value was 1/35 Troy oz, but even those who know a normal ounce have no idea what a Troy ounce is, but 1/35 Troy oz is approximately 0.88 gm).

So the US$ became the world's Key Currency, all other currencies had their value defined in US$. So, in the absence of any alternatives, the US$ became the currency of just about all International Trade, since the value of the US$ was set in 24K gold, while other currencies values varied, so a seller did not want to be paid in the buyer's currency which might be devalued, nor did a buyer want a contract to pay in the seller's currency which might be up-valued. So international transactions were (mostly) denominated in US$, making the US$ the Key Currency.

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For years, the US has attacked and forced regime change in horrible dictatorships with massive armies that threatened the entire world: Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and similar. Now, the US is taking on the weak, impuissant Russia and the PRC, which should be much easier than any of their predecessors, since both are weak, primitive nations without major militaries. At least according to US intelligence (an oxymoron).

So now the US is starting with severe sanctions. Note that, when Saddam said he wanted to be paid in Euros, not US$, the US military saw that he was hanged. And when Gaddafi said he wanted to be paid in Euros, the US had him killed (the US had been trying since President Reagan, but Obama finally got him, confirming the validity of Obama's Nobel Prize as America's Best President EVER).

Russia is no Libya nor Iraq nor Panama, but is now (according to US intelligence) so weak that regime change should be a bowl of borscht.

After all, what does Russia have? One of the top 3 exporters of oil and gas (didn't help Saddam nor Gaddafi); top exporter of corn; leading exporter of metals and fertilizer; & etc., but the world can do without Russian oil or gas or corn. Prices have doubled, and will treble or quadruple (if we're lucky), but we still have to sanction Russia, so we're just going to have to live without heat in winter nor A/C in summer and not enough food.

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But another thing: Saudi now accepts payment in c, and Russia accepts payments in ₹, something we haven't seen since Bretton Woods, 1944. And if other currencies become common for International Trade, those currencies will  rise in value. And then the world will not have a Key Currency!