The Post-Partisan Emporium

  It’s War: The Real Meat Grinder Starts Now PEPE ESCOBAR   No more shadow play. It’s now in the open. No holds barred. Exhibit 1:  Friday, March 22, 2024. It’s War. The Kremlin, via Peskov, finally admits it, on the record. The money quote: “Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that has a documented intention to use any methods to take Crimea away from it, not to mention the territory of new regions.” Translation: the Hegemon-constructed Kiev mongrel is doomed, one way or another. The Kremlin signal: “We haven’t even started” starts now. Exhibit 2:  Friday afternoon, a few hours after Peskov. Confirmed by a serious European – not Russian – source. The first counter-signal. Regular troops from France, Germany and Poland have arrived, by rail and air, to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. A substantial force. No numbers leaked. They are being housed in schools. For all practical purposes, this is a NATO force. That signals, “Let the games begin”. From a Russian point of vi

  Poland and the Demon in Democracy Liberal authoritarianism’s tusks have been bared across the West N.S. LYONS “Democracy has won” in Poland following the election of a new government in October – or at least so  declared  the country’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk. The former top European Union official’s party only won 30% of the vote compared to the 36% of his incumbent conservative, EU-skeptical rivals, the Law and Justice (PiS) party, but was nonetheless able to assemble a coalition of leftists to take power. Since entering office, Tusk has moved quickly to prove his particular commitment to “democracy.” Which is to say that, in a particularly striking example of what all of us can now increasingly anticipate whenever “democracy” wins elections in the West these days, he immediately began trampling the constitution in order to jail his political opponents. First, on January 9, he  dispatched police  to storm the presidential palace and arrest two opposition lawmakers seeking r