Month: September 2024

How Washington’s Ukraine obsession almost got Trump killed

The man widely reported to be behind the shooting at the Florida golf club appears to be obsessed with the establishment’s Ukraine narrative

This kook was obsessed with answering the West’s relentless clarion calls on Ukraine. No one should be surprised at this outcome. 

For the second time in as many months, the FBI has confirmed that someone tried to assassinate former (and potentially future) US President Donald Trump – this time while he golfed at his Florida home, Mar-A-Lago, on September 15. 

The suspect has been widely identified as Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii via North Carolina and (more recently) Kiev, where he was keen to jump aboard the bandwagon rolled out by Washington and Ukraine. Clearly a bit too keen. 

In an interview from Ukraine for Newsweek in 2022, Routh said he initially went there to fight. “Everyone around the world should be motivated to come here and support the Ukrainians,” he said, echoing official Washington at the time, and explaining that because he was 56 years old with no military experience, he wasn’t an “ideal candidate” for cannon fodder. So he proceeded to his “Plan B”, which was to mobilize other fighters from around the world on behalf of Ukraine to become cannon fodder. 

By the following year, the US-based media outlet, Semafor, was describing Routh as the “head of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine, a private organization which helps foreigners seeking to assist the war effort connect with military units and aid groups.” 

Routh told the outlet that he “had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa” for US-trained Afghan fighters that he said he was trying to mobilize for Kiev, also citing by name a “former elite Afghan reconnaissance unit member” who said that hundreds of Afghans like him wanted in.  

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The publication noted Ukrainian concerns that Afghans could end up being Russian infiltrators. No mention, however, of the problematic nature of Routh’s enthusiasm. But why would there be? His own country was shoveling billions out the door and sending weapons along with the entire Western world to Kiev as it called for foreigners everywhere to join the fight. This guy took that literally, just as many others did.  

Any kind of dissent or interjection of mitigating factors or analysis to soften the blatant brainwashing from official sources has either been censored outright or dismissed and discredited as disinformation or undue influence.

Just last week, in issuing new sanctions against one platform for alternative analysis and information on Ukraine, RT, the coordinator of the US State Department’s Global Engagement Center, James Rubin, underscored that, “one of the reasons why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be, given that Russia has invaded Ukraine and violated rule number one of the international system, is because of the broad scope and reach of RT.” 

So, is this fella, Routh, supportive enough for you guys in Washington? Doesn’t seem like his enthusiasm has been diluted by any RT viewing. Maybe all this could have been prevented if it had been, though.

In March 2023, the New York Times wrote that “people who would not be allowed anywhere near the battlefield in a US-led war are active on the Ukrainian front, with ready access to American weapons.” The report included “former construction worker” (turned Rambo wannabe) Routh, interviewed by the Times in Washington, DC, who planned to move future Afghan recruits for Kiev’s front lines “in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine.” Totally cool, totally normal.  

Routh raked in $1,865 from an online crowdfunding effort set up by an alleged fiancée back in 2022, claiming that he had “arranged for delivery of 120 drones to the front lines” and “donated his tactical gear to soldiers fighting on the front lines.” The raised cash was earmarked for more supplies, including tactical gear, according to the plea, complete with pictures of him posing alongside Ukrainian fighters.

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Did it ever occur to Washington officials that some of that gear, skills, or unbridled passion, in the hands of a guy who apparently told his fiancée that he was in Kiev “building drones”, could potentially end up being used someday in the attempted assassination of a former American president? 

Washington should have known better. Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade, hailed as heroes in Ukraine and in PR campaigns across the Western world on a summer European tour and prior visits to the UK parliament and elite US college campuses like Stanford, had the French press, Mediapart, pointing out all the Nazi tattoos and social media Hitler glorification that came to light when they trained in France at camp La Courtine. The rebranded Azov Brigade clearly hasn’t strayed far from the roots that had Canadian military brass concerned that they were training guys with Nazi markings at least as far back as 2018, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

There is no way of ascertaining the degree to which Routh may have been influenced by the kind of extremism associated with such groups, but does it really even matter anymore when they’re all literally on the same rhetorical page as actual Western governments, including Washington? Seriously, show me one instance where Washington has attempted to soften, mitigate, criticize, or even fact-check any action or message by these groups rather than outright champion them. I’ll wait. 

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson literally stood there with them in London, holding their flag with Nazi symbolism baked right in, basking in the support of other British lawmakers. In June 2024, Washington lifted the ban on providing the Azov Brigade with weapons directly, claiming that any neo-Nazism fears were unfounded. Seems like they’re trying desperately to make a distinction between neo-Nazis who act on their extremism and those who just like to keep the symbolism around as some kind of harmless nod to history. And anyone pointing out how problematic that might be is just rolling for Putin and Russia. 

With the volume being turned up on Western propaganda, Washington has also been pursuing its crackdown on contradictory debate coming from the few sources that platform it (like RT). Is it any wonder that this Routh guy, with a potentially tenuous grasp of reality to begin with, and whose son has spoken out about how single-mindedly obsessed he is with Ukraine, would have allegedly tried to assassinate the US presidential candidate who has been vocal about the need to stop fueling the Ukraine conflict with US weapons and cash and work out a deal with Russia for peace?

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It wouldn’t be the first time that a Western leader publicly portrayed as less than enthusiastic about the establishment’s position on the Ukraine conflict has been violently targeted. Prime Minister Robert Fico, the populist left-wing leader of Slovakia who survived being shot in the stomach earlier this year, has himself echoed what his country’s authorities said about the shooter’s motives being related to Fico’s dissenting views on Ukraine, which have included calls for more peace talks with Russia, and an end to both Ukraine military support and sanctions on Moscow. 

The Western establishment has gone out of its way to eliminate critical thought by censoring and criminalizing platforms that have attempted to inject some balance or reason into the debate – as though they really don’t want there to be any discussion at all when it comes to their official positions, as Rubin’s remarks last week about RT confirm. 

This intolerance of debate is becoming dangerously normalized. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently confirmed the pressure on his own platforms to censor Covid-related narratives that diverged from official government propaganda. Likewise, Canada deployed military-grade propaganda techniques honed on the battlefields of Afghanistan to brainwash its own citizens into Covid narrative compliance. The official radicalism around that issue was as evident as it is on Ukraine. About the only real shocker is that it took so long for a victim of Western brainwashing to actually react to the firehose of propaganda in a way that blows back on American democracy in just about the most horrific way possible.

Ukraine confirms contact with Trump shooter

Ryan Routh had offered his services to Kiev, but was reportedly rejected

The American who allegedly tried to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had visited Kiev and offered his services to Ukraine, but was rejected, the Ukrainian military said on Monday.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested on Sunday after the US Secret Service spotted him at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. His social media posts and a self-published book claimed involvement with the Ukrainian military.

On Monday, the Ukrainian Land Forces Command confirmed to CNN that Routh had been in touch with them, but described his ideas as “delusional” and denied having accepted his services at any point.

“He was offering us large numbers of recruits from different countries but it was obvious to us his offers were not realistic,” Aleksandr Shaguri, a military spokesman, told CNN. “We didn’t even answer, there was nothing to answer to. He was never part of the Legion and didn’t cooperate with us in any way.”

The best way to describe Routh’s message was “delusional ideas,” Shaguri told the outlet.

In the summer of 2022, Routh visited Ukraine and gave multiple interviews to Western media outlets, presenting himself as a liaison to the government in Kiev and seeking to enlist pro-US fighters from Afghanistan for the Ukrainian cause. In one such interview, Routh told Newsweek Romania journalist Remus Cernea he was recruiting people for the International Legion of Ukraine.

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“I viewed him as an idealistic innocent genuine person, without any murderous instinct,” Cernea told CNN after Routh was identified as the Florida gunman. 

The Romanian reporter recalled that Routh saw the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “black and white… good versus evil,” and that in another interview he described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “terrorist” who “needs to be ended.” 

In multiple posts on Twitter – now X – that year, Routh wrote that he was willing to die for Ukraine and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.” His account has since been scrubbed, however.

In 2023, Routh self-published a 291-page book titled ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War’, which at one point advocates killing Trump over his decision to exit the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” he wrote, referring to the fact that the man he called “brainless and a “retarded child” was elected US president in 2016. “But I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize.”

“No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection,” he added. 

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Trump said the gunman “believed the rhetoric of [President Joe] Biden and [Vice President Kamala] Harris, and he acted on it,” pointing to their statements that the former president and Republican presidential candidate is a “threat to democracy” that must be stopped.

Italy calls for ‘serious’ Ukraine peace talks

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has suggested holding another summit this year

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has called for an international effort dedicated to resolving the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking to Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday, the minister stated that he hopes “a serious peace conference can be held before the end of the year.”

The last international summit dedicated to resolving the Ukraine crisis was held this summer in Switzerland. Russia, however, was not invited to participate, and the much-hyped event failed to deliver any concrete results, with many nations in attendance refusing to support the summit’s joint declaration.

“I believe that we must work to find a peace table, a conference like the one held in Switzerland months ago with the participation of Russia and China. Obviously, Russia cannot arrive with the request for the total surrender of Ukraine. Peace is something else, it must be a just peace that guarantees the independence of Ukraine,” Tajani told journalists in Cagliari on the sidelines of a press conference with his party Forza Italia this weekend.

Moscow slammed the Swiss summit as a “parody of negotiations,” because the event was primarily dedicated to discussing Vladimir Zelensky’s so-called ‘peace formula’, which Russia has dismissed as unrealistic.

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Several other European leaders have started to call for a second round of international negotiations on Ukraine, this time with the participation of Russia.

Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that a new peace conference was needed soon and that “Russia must be at the table.” He insisted that Kiev and its Western backers needed to “explore what options are available” to settle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has never refused to negotiate with Ukraine but has pointed out that such talks must not be based on some “ephemeral demands” but on the realities on the ground and documents signed during the last Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Türkiye in 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted last week, however, that Moscow does not see the proper conditions to begin peace talks to settle the conflict, and that it has yet to hear any statements on the matter from “the country that is actually directing this entire process,” apparently referring to the US.

French EU commissioner claims von der Leyen stabbed him in back

Thierry Breton resigns in a rebuke of the leadership of European Commission President

A powerful French member of the European Union’s executive branch resigned in a fiery letter on Monday, accusing his boss, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of undermining him.

Thierry Breton had been nominated by French President Emmanuel Macron for a second term as the bloc’s internal market commissioner in Brussels. However, Breton unexpectedly pulled the plug, accusing von der Leyen of going behind his back to try to convince Macron to ditch him.

“A few days ago, in the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me,” Breton wrote, in a scorching message to von der Leyen on X.

The shock resignation comes a day before the commission president was expected to unveil the makeup of the College of Commissioners, which she wants to be more gender-balanced. Smaller EU members, including Slovenia and Romania have withdrawn male candidates under pressure from von der Leyen, replacing them with women, according to Politico.

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“In light of these latest developments – further testimony to questionable governance – I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College,” Breton continued.

“I am therefore resigning from my position as European Commissioner, effective immediately.”

Breton went on to accuse von der Leyen of having offered France a more influential portfolio if Macron were to switch candidates, a tactic she has reportedly tried with smaller EU member countries.

Tensions between Paris and Brussels over France’s potential portfolio in the next European Commission have reportedly been rising over the past days. “France is not satisfied with the portfolio scope allocated to Thierry Breton,” a senior French official from Macron’s party told Politico, before addressing rumors that Italy’s commissioner designate would get a coveted economics job.

Breton and von der Leyen are believed to have clashed repeatedly, both in private and in public, during the last five years.