So far, I have reposted 3 articles in translation from Russian sources, each one with warnings to Trump. The first, from Jan 22, warns vaguely of a possible strike on Kiev with the new super-missile Oreshnik. This older response is the last of the 3 warnings reposted hereinafter.

The first 2, bearing later dates, warn of a nuclear response from Russia.

It is unfortunate that US media do not bother to translate and publish these warnings. Clearly, our journalists, beholden to Washington (and Langley) underestimate [and completely misunderstand] Russian power. This reflects the lack of seriousness of the US authorities and the public toward the recklessness of our clueless leaders.

And it is this cluelessness that we must fear. Perhaps if we stopped electing dumbbells …?

The Russians are in a superior military position and have the capability to respond powerfully to the US regime’s reckless statements and actions.

This is not a good time to be playing games with Russia. Its patience is wearing thin.

I hope the reader will read these warnings attentively and soberly.

The thing is, Russia is winning handily in Ukraine, advancing in Donbas like a hot knife through butter. Therefore, the pretentious Trump is in no position to be threatening Putin – who is clearly winning and has no reason to negotiate with the nonentity Zelensky.

Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]

( https://tsargrad.tv/dzen/jeto-proval-tramp-sryvaet-peregovornyj-process-delo-idjot-k-tretej-mirovoj-vojne_1138335 )

24 January 2025 21:41

This is a failure

Is Donald Trump disrupting the negotiation process? There are opinions that things are heading towards World War III. In this case, attempts at a peaceful settlement are doomed to failure.

During the US elections, Donald Trump made loud statements that he would end the conflict in Ukraine in the first 24 hours of his term in office. Later, the newly elected president decided to move the deadline to six months. We have already received the first signals about how the Republican sees the outcome of the crisis. However, four days after the inauguration, no specific actions have been taken.

The billionaire only gave Russia an ultimatum – to stop military action or face new destructive sanctions. At the same time, Russia, which continues to successfully develop the offensive, was not offered anything in return. [Trump vaunts his skill in the “art of the deal,” but in reality, he is a failure in this art. One of the basics in negotiating is reciprocity. Never demand anything without making a counter-offer. Trump ignores this basic rule, often doing nothing but raw arm-twisting. In the case of Iran, for example: if you don’t do X we will destroy your country] If the billionaire continues in the same spirit, things may even go as far as World War III.

[Our yesterday’s translation of an article by Sergey Karaganov [Russian political scientist who heads the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy] – about the 4th segment here: https://donhank.substack.com/p/our-sincerest-thanks-to-our-middle – is a stark warning by Karaganov about a war that might ensue under certain circumstances. The author specifies the tools to avoid nuclear war:

I will only name the most important ones.

Excerpt

And the Americans simply need to be told that if they continue to add fuel to the fire of the Ukrainian conflict, we will cross the nuclear Rubicon in a few steps, strike their allies, and if there is a non-nuclear response, as they have threatened, there will be a nuclear strike on their bases in Europe and around the world. If they decide to respond nuclearly, they will receive a nuclear strike on their own territory.

First , we must finally tell ourselves, the world and our opponents the obvious. Europe is the source of all the main ills of humanity, two world wars, genocides, anti-human ideologies, colonialism, racism, Nazism and so on down the list. The metaphor of a well-known European official [EU Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell] about Europe as a “blooming garden” sounds much more realistic if we call it a field overgrown with fat weeds, blooming on the humus of hundreds of millions of killed, robbed and enslaved people. And around it rises a garden of ruins of oppressed and robbed civilizations and peoples. Europe must be called what it deserves, in order to make the threat of using nuclear weapons against it more convincing and justified.

Secondly , to point out another obvious truth – any war between Russia and NATO/EU will inevitably acquire a nuclear character or go nuclear if the West continues to fight against us in Ukraine. This indication is necessary, among other things, to limit the unfolding arms race. There is no point in stockpiling huge arsenals of conventional weapons if the armies equipped with them, and the countries themselves that sent these armies, will inevitably be swept away by a nuclear tornado.

Thirdly , we need to continue to advance for several more months, grinding down the enemy. But the sooner the better, we need to announce that our patience, our readiness to sacrifice our men for the sake of victory over this bastard, will soon run out and we will announce the price – for every killed Russian soldier, a thousand Europeans will die if they do not stop indulging their rulers who are waging war against Russia. We need to tell the Europeans directly: your elites will make the next portion of cannon fodder out of you, and if the war goes nuclear, we will not be able to protect the civilian population of Europe, as we are trying to do in Ukraine. We will warn of strikes, as Vladimir Putin promised, but nuclear weapons are even less selective than conventional weapons. Of course, the European elites must be confronted with the fact: they and their places of residence will become the first targets for nuclear retaliation strikes. They will not be able to sit it out.

And the Americans simply need to be told that if they continue to add fuel to the fire of the Ukrainian conflict, we will cross the nuclear Rubicon in a few steps, strike their allies, and if there is a non-nuclear response, as they have threatened, there will be a nuclear strike on their bases in Europe and around the world. If they decide to respond nuclearly, they will receive a nuclear strike on their own territory.

The authors of the Telegram channel Tainaya Kantslyariya [Secret Chancellery] speculated on whether Trump is trying to disrupt the negotiation process. One version suggests that the American leader has sided with the Ukrainian authorities and the “war party” in the United States, who advocate continuing to pressure Russia until it capitulates. In this case, attempts at a peaceful settlement are doomed to failure.

Perhaps he is being convinced that the Russian economy is allegedly on the verge of collapse, and it is only necessary to strengthen sanctions and collapse oil prices to force the Kremlin to capitulate. Given that unfounded predictions about the collapse of the Russian economy have been heard for three years, writes “Secret Chancellery”.

At the same time, there is a version that the White House and the Kremlin are already negotiating, but either they have reached a dead end, or Trump wants to increase pressure on President Vladimir Putin through public threats.

If the first version turns out to be true, then in the future we can only expect an escalation of the conflict. At the same time, if the US increases pressure on Russia, the consequences may be unpredictable, the blog authors believe:

[blockquote align=”none” author=””]

Increasing pressure on Russia could push the Kremlin to radical measures, up to and including raising the stakes and threatening to use nuclear weapons. Instead of ending the war, as Trump promised, the world risks finding itself on the brink of a third world war.

[/blockquote]

At the same time, Alexey Naumov, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, believes that Trump’s invitation to talk that has not yet been received is connected solely to the fact that after coming to power, Trump has been forced to resolve other issues.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is not a priority for Donald Trump yet,  the expert explained in an interview with KP.RU.

**

( https://tsargrad.tv/dzen/i-zapustit-oreshnik-v-rossii-prigotovili-otvet-na-ultimatum-trampa_1135885 )

Dateline: January 22, 2025 20:34

"And launch the "Oreshnik"": Russia has prepared a response to Trump's ultimatum

Earlier, US President Donald Trump made an important statement on his social networks regarding the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. The American leader first began to praise the Russians, and ended the post with an ultimatum, to which Russia has already prepared a response.

The Republican said that he loves the Russian people and never believed the lies that radical liberals told about Russia. The politician also thanked Moscow for its contribution to the victory in World War II, and noted that he has always had good relations with President Vladimir Putin. However, after this, the billionaire moved on to threats:

Stop this war! It will only get worse. If we don’t make a deal, and it doesn’t happen soon, I’ll have no choice but to impose high taxes, duties, and sanctions on everything Russia sells to the United States and various other countries. We can do it the easy way or the hard way. [This is nonsense. Russia sells almost nothing to the US. More sanctions would make no difference. This is an example of Trump’s signature ignorance.]

There has been no official response to this public statement on social media from the Russian authorities yet. Meanwhile, Russian Telegram channels have already discussed what the response to Trump’s ultimatum might be. For example, the Win/Win channel recommended not making any concessions, but continuing “what we were doing” before the Republican came to power, that is, systematically moving towards Victory – a real one, not a temporary one within the framework of the “shameful peace”:

You need to answer truly frankly. Donald, if you want a serious conversation, let’s talk. But scare the Canadians with some tariffs. We, Don Donald, are scared. And launch “Oreshnik” at the target in Kyiv.

In addition, the channel’s authors noted that the American leader clearly does not know what to do. Perhaps this is why he has so far avoided an official appeal to the Kremlin and is making do with posts on his social networks:

Trump is only imitating openness and frankness. Because he does not know what to do.[su_divider style=”dotted” divider_color=”#153e75″ size=”7″ margin=”20″]

Trump came close to doing this in Trump 1.0 but ran into headwinds from his advisors and the Pentagon, which apparently told him this could end badly. Well, duh, Iran has thousands of powerful long-range precision missiles hidden away in tunnels beneath a mountain that ae apparently invulnerable to even a nuclear attack and could wreak havoc with US bases in the region. In fact, Iran has warned that it could destroy all of Israel.

So instead, Trump ordered a deadly attack on General Soleimani, which was one of the stupidest blunders in US history.

If Trump – and other presidents – were truly devoted to defending the US, no president would ever embark on such a harebrained adventure as an attack on Iran.

All US military adventures in the Middle East, including the Iraq war, based on lies, have been waged for the sake of our so-called “ally” Israel, which is in fact – with the facade stripped away – one of the most dangerous and vicious enemies of the American people, although it is portrayed by our fake news purveyors in msm as a “valuable” ally.

Trump worries me personally more than any other US politician because he is avowedly the most Israel-loyal president we have ever had.

That means we are in uncharted territory now. Unbelievably, Trump has already essentially promised US boots on the ground in Gaza, a potentially illegal move. But Trump specializes in illegal shoot-em-up adventures and is proud of being the most notorious outlaw president in US history.

Personally? I am more scared now than ever of a possible nuclear war.

Trump threatens to obliterate Tehran if…

None of this would be happening if Trump had not stupidly murdered General Soleimani. That murder was unprovoked. Trump did this for Israel, which had been dunning the US for years to launch a joint strike on Iran. Trump at least had enough sense to know – after warnings from the Pentagon and military experts – that attacking Iran was not an option.

Shortly after the senseless murder of Soleimani, Iran launched missiles at the Iraqi airbase of Ayn al-Asad, which hosted US service people, 100 of whom suffered brain traumas.

The fact that Trump did not respond to this retaliatory strike indicated that he had no options. He knew that Iran had enough precision missiles to hit a lot more US bases.

Trump knows that Iran is not helpless and he is scared because of the rumor that Iran wants to kill him – like he did Soleimani (he should have thought of this back then).

Several writers (Kevin Barrett, Prof. Arthur Noble and me) have said that the attack on Soleimani was the worst or one of the worst blunders in US history.

So we re-elect the fool who did it and now he wants to obliterate Tehran.

**

The supposed ceasefire never happened. It just shifted to the West Bank!

This Trump era is vastly more dangerous than what went before … there is still unjustified euphoria over Trump’s supposed achievements, but these are fake, just like almost everything he and his sycophants are claiming he is doing.

[su_divider style=”dotted” divider_color=”#153e75″ size=”7″ margin=”20″]

3.
From Code Pink (copied from a newsletter, no link available)

Dear Don,

Over the weekend I opened my phone and saw videos of explosions in Palestine, again. So I scrolled and scrolled to see if something had changed regarding the ceasefire in Gaza, but then I found out the video was from Jenin — a city in the West Bank. Israel blew up twenty buildings in Jenin in a single day and displaced 15,000 Palestinians, but millions of people around the world didn’t even hear about it. It’s important to recognize why this gap in reporting is happening, so let’s talk about it — but first I want you all to take a really important and impactful action with me and I’ll explain why it’s so important.

One thing contributing to the radio silence on media reporting on Palestine is the constant attempts to silence people who care about what’s happening, in any sphere of our society. Dr. Rupa Marya is being silenced by UC San Francisco for not supporting the bombing of hospitals. You can help her get reinstated, we need doctors like her ringing the alarm about blatant attacks on medical staff in Palestine!

There are a few reasons why people may not have heard about the bombing of Jenin, other than the blatant censorship of activists. In the last week President Trump:

• Announced tariffs on Mexico
• Announced tariffs on Canada
• Announced tariffs on China
• Let Elon Musk have access to the treasury???
• Kept yapping about the federal funding freeze
• And said the US would take over Gaza

All of this consumed the media cycle. The tariffs were very quickly postponed but not before the media spiraled about how devastating they would be for the cost of living crisis in the U.S. Coupled with the federal funding freeze that threatens people’s healthcare and access to food — this is all naturally scary! Not only were Americans consumed with the fear mongering over tariffs, all of North America was.

These shock and awe tactics by the Trump Administration serve a very specific purpose: to distract the masses from what is actually going on so they can do whatever they want around the world.

They want you to live in a constant state of fear of what they will do. With every ounce of our being we have to shake that off. Do we really want to be frozen and in crisis for the next four years? We cannot build a movement by being reactionary to every insane thing that Trump or Elon do. We simply do not have the time — Palestinians under new bombardments in Jenin do not have the time.

[su_divider style=”dotted” divider_color=”#153e75″ size=”7″ margin=”20″]

Thursday, January 09, 2025 04:18

4.
Imam Khamenei: Popular Mobilization Forces are one of the important elements of Iraqi power

Translation from Arabic with my notes in bold and in [brackets]

https://alkhanadeq.org.lb/post/8141/الإمام-الخامنئي-الحشد-الشعبي-أحد-عناصر-القوة-العراقية-المهمة

In response to an official invitation from the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Massoud Pezeshkian, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani visited Iran, with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries, and discussing regional developments and mechanisms to support stability in the region, especially with the continued US-Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and after the events that took place in Syria, and the repercussions that will inevitably be reflected on the entire region of West Asia.

The visit began, as is the protocol, from Saadabad Palace in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where President Mohammed Shia al-Sudani arrived at the head of a government delegation. After the meeting between Presidents Pezeshkian and Al-Sudani, the former stated that he expressed “concern about the possibility of activating terrorist cells in the region,” adding that the Islamic Republic and Iraq have “common security concerns in Syria,” and that they discussed “plans for joint security cooperation between the two countries and removing obstacles to the concluded agreements,” describing the talks as “good regarding bilateral relations between the two countries and witnessing their best levels,” and that the presidency of the Islamic Republic places “developing relations with the neighborhood, especially Iraq” among its priorities.

In turn, President Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said that “the stability of Syria is the key to the stability of the entire region,” calling for “a comprehensive political solution that preserves Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and puts an end to foreign interventions that harm the interests of the Syrian people,” and stressing respect for “the will of the Syrian people and support for any political system or constitution they choose themselves without foreign interventions.”

The Popular Mobilization Forces are one of the important elements of Iraqi power

The most prominent part of the visit was the meeting with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, which included many striking positions and messages, especially regarding the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, which some Arab and foreign parties, under American guidance, are trying to target by spreading the slogan of no need for this institution, which contradicts in reality all the developments in the region, especially in Syria, which has proven the importance of the existence of such institutions that are emanating from the people and capable of confronting the challenges and threats of takfirism or even Israeli ambitions.

During the meeting of Imam Khamenei with President Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and his accompanying delegation, the Leader of the Revolution said that the Popular Mobilization Forces constitute one of the important elements of power in Iraq and that efforts must be made to preserve and strengthen it further, indicating that the presence of the occupying American forces in Iraq is illegal and conflicts with the interests of the Iraqi people and government. He pointed out that “evidence and evidence confirm that the Americans are seeking to establish and expand their presence in Iraq, so this occupation must be seriously confronted.”

Ayatollah Khamenei expressed his appreciation for the positive steps taken by the Sudanese president to rebuild Iraq and enhance its security, stressing that “the more prosperous and secure Iraq is, the more it is in the interest of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well.” Pointing to the importance of good relations between the Iraqi government and its people, he stressed the need to maintain unity and harmony among different sects and ethnicities in Iraq.

Then, referring to the developments in the region, especially in Syria, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “The role of foreign governments in these issues has become completely clear.”

In this meeting, which was also attended by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, President Mohammad Shia al-Sudani expressed his pleasure with the talks he held in the Islamic Republic, hoping that the talks and agreements reached would further strengthen and deepen relations between the two countries. He pointed out that the people, the Popular Mobilization Forces, national unity and harmony, and the religious authority are all elements of strength in Iraq. Speaking about the attacks of the temporary entity in Gaza and Lebanon, he stressed that Iraq’s basic position is to support the people of Gaza and Lebanon as well as the resistance in the region. Consequently, these positions reflect the firmness of the Iraqi state’s position on the one hand, and confirm on the other hand that the axis of resistance with its components remains cohesive and steadfast on its principles, contrary to what some claim about America’s dominance over the region.

Writer: Editorial Room

**

5.
Trump-Bibi presser

Trump will send US troops to Gaza [I remember presidents doing horrible things, getting us into wars with countries that were NOT enemies! But THIS is likely the most IMMORAL and lame-brained things any president has ever done. And he’s only beginning! How many Americans will have to die for the criminal entity of Israel in the years to come!?]

Thanks for reading Don’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.