Readers, I just wanted to note it's becoming increasingly hard to find my site and articles via a Google search. And my site is fairly small (roughly 1300 subscribers).
I imagine Google is making it much more difficult to find "alternative" news on much larger sites. Google is fixing the algorithm to send people to corporate-owned news (the CON). Even I'm seeing the effects at my small site.
Thanks to all of you for coming here and exchanging your views freely here.
I don't think anyone is suppressing Bracing Views per se. I think they're suppressing Substack sites en masse, while directing people to "approved" sites that repeat government/corporate lines/lies.
Bill, I'm sorry to read that but take one small comfort from it. The people who've 'persuaded' Google to change the algorithms must consider you a bigger threat than you'd thought.
I have noticed in fairly recent searches that it has become more difficult to find certain articles and sites with information contradicting the officially sanctioned narratives. It appears very much to me that the security establishment have ramped up their efforts to limit visibility to all such factual reporting, through Google (and, I suppose, other search engines?) and through social media platforms where many of us include links to independent journalists.
I suspect it's going to take a massive, well-funded investigation and lawsuits to try to restore Constitutional rights of speech, press, etc. But who will lead it?
There was a time when anyone searching my name on Google, and some people do, there were over 30 pages of results, 95% exclusively showing my Internet footprint with so much more left out. Now there's only a few pages.
When I was a 1 man self-employed Courier, I paid Google $1 every time everyone looking for a Courier clicked on my ad on the 1st page. There were a few days when there were 40-50 clicks on Google's 1st page looking for a Courier with not 1 call for a job. All the money I made went to Google.
God Blessed me though! One Company that used me a couple of Times through the Google Ad, gave me a fantastic 3-1/2 year delivery gig taking 4 hours, 3 days a week to do, and the pay paid weekly, was better than working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
This only emphasizes that we have no idea what is going on inside corporations unless we have a whistleblower tell us. There are a million ways that companies can change things and we can only guess at what is taking place, showing the great power they have to alter the world we know. If ever there was a time to limit the power of business/wealth, this is it.
I don't use social media so being limited on Search is ball ache. Substack seems to have adjusted its algorithms too - I've more subscribers, but less views. Tis the world we're living in. I've got no surprise or outrage to spare.
I listened to the whole interview alone! What I heard, is you having a platform most of us regulars here don't have, amalgamating the views of the majority of us here, and presenting them to a wider audience on behalf of us all. Well done! I would be happy to see you, God willing, on CNN, MSNBC, FOX & BBC following through on the Interview!
After the Last Supper, all the Disciples of Jesus, being fully Human, fell asleep on him and he was alone knowing he was going to be crucified for what he did overturning the tables on the Bankers and Merchants working the Priest approved Shopping Mall on Temple property. He was praying to God his Father he be spared being crucified. Jesus was smart. He could have got out of Jerusalem and started up again someplace else.
God didn't answer that prayer because the Christ had to be crucified in Jerusalem then because of the Values he stood for, when Israel did not exist, because of what comes out of Jerusalem TODAY, now that Old Testament Israel is recreated from the Bible most people despise and discount as meaningless myth!
Trump is batshit crazy for sure. But he also said the sanest most important thing said on the debate stage. Biden and Harris foreign policies-Gaza-Ukraine have pushed us closer to nuclear war. I doubt if Trump read Chomsky or Jeffery Sachs and the host of scholars that agree with Trump on this.
Bill, Marriane Williamson cares about nuance which makes her ideas unavailable to the American public at large-like Jill Stein- Sachs-Chomsky-yourself...to the American public.
Today I read an article by her spelling out very real issues with Haitian immigrants in Springfield that the Democrats are mocking with the eating of the cats and dog story. Much like Hillary mocked unemployed coal workers as a basket of deplorables.
I once saw a documentary on a Haitian voodoo ceremony, not to say service. They were sacrificing domestic animals there. I didn’t like the look on Kamala Harris’ face when he told her his thoughts on Springfield but I hope you’re not right in the conclusion to be drawn about the campaign from your comparison with Hillary. Although as a British “Subject”, if Kamala follows Biden in apparently urging that we try British cruise missiles on Russia first, so that Biden can gauge whether he’s winning another game of chicken, I would be pretty freaked out. Or possibly bombed out. Here in Scotland there was a prophet called the Brahan Seer on the Black Isle, which is a peninsular tract of land near Inverness, who prophesied a black rain over Scotland. He was boiled in oil by the laird’s wife after correctly “seeing” her husband cavorting with ladies of easy virtue on the Continent. So he got that one right. But he predated human- induced nuclear fallout by some centuries. So he wasn’t to know about it. Unless he did.
Thanks for regularly sounding the alarm, Bill. As I sometimes do, I shared your post to my FB page today, and this is how I introduced it:
"Lt.Col. (Ret.) Bill Astore - no stranger to the study of war - asks the obvious question: "To what end" is NATO (primarily the US and UK) so drastically raising the risk of WW III ?
This isn't hyperbole. No one should assume that rational people are in charge in the West, reason will win out, and they'll be able to control the situation. And no one should assume that if it erupts, it will be confined to Europe. That's not how it works, when the escalations involve long-range missile strikes into the heart of another nuclear-armed nation (Russia).
Maybe it's time for everyone to tell their Congress-folk that it's time to stop this march to global annihilation; because if we remain silent, we'll all too soon regret our silence."
One can't really be too alarmist in such a situation as we face today. Keep sounding that alarm and I'll do what I can as well. We can't force the masses to heed it, but those who grasp it do have a duty to try to wake the others up.
It has never been about defending Ukraine, only about how to somehow defeat/destroy Russia and all of those chicken hawks are leading us into the literal Dark Ages that will follow a nuclear war which of course leaves no winners...actually leaves only a small remnant of humanity struggling to survive. The black is white and white is black view of the neocons is "wonderfully" (eyes rolling) summed up in this alert from Politico: "Putin threatens war as Western allies near deal on missile strikes in Russia". What nation wouldn't threaten war if it's enemies were setting up missile strikes against it?
Have you seen the docuseries 'Russia From Above'. Absolutely glorious, my favourite, and ironically the most successful in Germany. My point is that when someone in Washington saw it, they saw a prize - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9642838/
Any use of NATO's (e.g., UK and US) long-range weapons will, I think, be met with strikes by Russia on the missile-assembly locations and F16 bases in Poland. That will be met by the hysteria in this country by politicians of both parties screaming for "strength". Those will be the first steps on the road to our destruction.
I will add, based on the history of its nuclear doctrine and a personal experience in the military, the U.S. will be the first to use nuclear weapons.
My like for your comment, Tom, is not because I like the scenario you describe I've been pointing to as the Future Probability in many previous articles in BV going years back since I took to Bill's thoughts, perceptions and writing reflecting my own developing thoughts.
The like is because you have eyes wide open, and in a few words, very clearly, incisively, told it like it is, as this Material World approaches this very old perception and place of the Jewish Prophet writing, "Multitudes! Multitudes! In the Valley of Decision! The Day of The Lord is near in the Valley of Decision."
The neocon psychopaths and fanatics running foreign policy, led by Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, are hell bent on realizing their vision of destroying Russia and breaking it into pieces. This is a battle between the forces that want to maintain US global hegemony at any cost vs. those trying to forge a new multipolar world order. It has now turned into an existential battle for both sides. The stakes could not be higher. The world is on a precipice.
And don't forget Victoria Nuland - who has been part of the major debacles and atrocities for over 20 years - and is still treated as someone of importance and relevance. She, along with McCain (praised by Harris) were the chief faces of the 2014 Maidan coup.
I started one of my posts with: Yesterday, the Devil visited CSIS, one of her favourite cults, to televise how her plans for Earth are doing. She rubbed her red right hand over her behemoth figure, and asked her host, Max Bergmann, how she looked. He responded, “Victoria Nuland’s body suits you.”
Missiles/long range strikes don't capture territory, they are only a way of saying "take THAT!" to irritate and enrage the opponent which can only result in redoubling the opponent's will to engage more strongly. Continuing to up the ante with long range weapons that we supply is a great danger to US national security but we go on regardless, just as we allow Israel to go on regardless, steadily lowering our image in the view of the world.
I was reading a book on archeology about discovering ancient long buried cities and it occurred to me that at least part of what destroys empires is their inability to change the way they do things. Over time corruption sets in, but the overall structure of empire stubbornly resists change even when it is obvious that things are not working. For the wealthy, now or in ancient times, corruption is a benefit and they will do all they can to see that the system enriching them is not altered, as rotten as it may be. Then comes an invader whose tactics/strategy are flexible, ready to do any thing to succeed. Down comes empire only for the systemic hardening of the arteries to begin all over again. The US has a serious case of hardening of the arteries.
This morning I saw a CNN post, “Ukraine’s Kursk offensive was seen as a major success, but it came at a huge cost.”
“…seen as a major success.” This immediately took me back to May 2003 when six weeks into the Iraq War, Bush proclaimed, "Mission Accomplished … Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
I also saw in Dave Decamp’s report that Zelensky has acknowledged that the Russians are now launching a major counteroffensive against this Kursk invasion, however, not to worry, as these “counteroffensive actions were according to our Ukrainian plan,” as it is part of the “victory plan.”
“… but it came at a huge cost.” I don’t think it is at all arguable that Zelensky, Blinken, Lammy and all the other GD fools that keep this war going care even the slightest for the slaughter that happens day after day after day—ever escalating; no reverse gear.
No, it is not at all arguable. All those victims (likely, hundreds of thousands now), are mere objects - cannon fodder- in their cold, expressionless eyes.
"Long-range missiles launched into Russia aren’t going to turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor. But they may provoke a devastating response from Russia that could provoke a far wider conflict. And for what, exactly?"
For profits and career advancements (including advancements to the U.S. presidency) on behalf of the world's worst people. In the hysterical debates of the future, if the world survives long enough for such debates to occur, the "boogy-people" won't be Hitler anymore. (Sooo 20th Century!) In fact, practically none of them will be Germans. (Maybe Baerbock and von der Leyen.) They'll be Americans.
It is the land on which we live. While wars may be fought on the seas and in the air, they are insignificant. Only the wars on land matter. Having been invaded many times, Russians are well aware of this.
My favorite political cartoon was one showing two Soviet generals standing on the shore at Dunkirk. They were looking upward into the sky and one said to the other, "I wonder who won the air war".
This reminds me of the documentary "The Guns of August", in which Europe marches to World War I. The steps seem inexorable and foolish. Just like the ones Europe (and the US) are taking now.
Alex and Alexander say that the generals are against the escalation. It's the crazies in the British government and the warmongers in the Biden administration (Blinken, Sullivan, etc) who seem to be for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_TNxeeWe6g
The same video (towards the end) talks about the Trump/Vance plan for the Ukraine war: 1. Demilitarized zone, 2. Ukraine neutrality, 3. Europe to pay for Ukraine reconstruction. Isn't that a great proposal? Well you wanted peace candidates. There they are.
If you didn't see the prank call between the Russian jokesters Vovan & Lexus and the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, you should take a listen, you'll get a good laugh. Not sure if this link is paywalled. The Polish minister thinks he is talking to the Ukrainian, Poroshenko. He spills the beans on a lot, including that NATO is bluffing on things like sending NATO troops to Ukraine.
Readers, I just wanted to note it's becoming increasingly hard to find my site and articles via a Google search. And my site is fairly small (roughly 1300 subscribers).
I imagine Google is making it much more difficult to find "alternative" news on much larger sites. Google is fixing the algorithm to send people to corporate-owned news (the CON). Even I'm seeing the effects at my small site.
Thanks to all of you for coming here and exchanging your views freely here.
I don't think anyone is suppressing Bracing Views per se. I think they're suppressing Substack sites en masse, while directing people to "approved" sites that repeat government/corporate lines/lies.
Bill, I'm sorry to read that but take one small comfort from it. The people who've 'persuaded' Google to change the algorithms must consider you a bigger threat than you'd thought.
I have noticed in fairly recent searches that it has become more difficult to find certain articles and sites with information contradicting the officially sanctioned narratives. It appears very much to me that the security establishment have ramped up their efforts to limit visibility to all such factual reporting, through Google (and, I suppose, other search engines?) and through social media platforms where many of us include links to independent journalists.
I suspect it's going to take a massive, well-funded investigation and lawsuits to try to restore Constitutional rights of speech, press, etc. But who will lead it?
There was a time when anyone searching my name on Google, and some people do, there were over 30 pages of results, 95% exclusively showing my Internet footprint with so much more left out. Now there's only a few pages.
When I was a 1 man self-employed Courier, I paid Google $1 every time everyone looking for a Courier clicked on my ad on the 1st page. There were a few days when there were 40-50 clicks on Google's 1st page looking for a Courier with not 1 call for a job. All the money I made went to Google.
God Blessed me though! One Company that used me a couple of Times through the Google Ad, gave me a fantastic 3-1/2 year delivery gig taking 4 hours, 3 days a week to do, and the pay paid weekly, was better than working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
This only emphasizes that we have no idea what is going on inside corporations unless we have a whistleblower tell us. There are a million ways that companies can change things and we can only guess at what is taking place, showing the great power they have to alter the world we know. If ever there was a time to limit the power of business/wealth, this is it.
I don't use social media so being limited on Search is ball ache. Substack seems to have adjusted its algorithms too - I've more subscribers, but less views. Tis the world we're living in. I've got no surprise or outrage to spare.
In case anyone's interested, on Wednesday I spoke with Burt Cohen on a lot of military matters:
https://keepingdemocracyalive.com/a-military-security-state-and-the-erosion-of-freedom/
The interview is just under an hour.
I listened to the whole interview alone! What I heard, is you having a platform most of us regulars here don't have, amalgamating the views of the majority of us here, and presenting them to a wider audience on behalf of us all. Well done! I would be happy to see you, God willing, on CNN, MSNBC, FOX & BBC following through on the Interview!
After the Last Supper, all the Disciples of Jesus, being fully Human, fell asleep on him and he was alone knowing he was going to be crucified for what he did overturning the tables on the Bankers and Merchants working the Priest approved Shopping Mall on Temple property. He was praying to God his Father he be spared being crucified. Jesus was smart. He could have got out of Jerusalem and started up again someplace else.
God didn't answer that prayer because the Christ had to be crucified in Jerusalem then because of the Values he stood for, when Israel did not exist, because of what comes out of Jerusalem TODAY, now that Old Testament Israel is recreated from the Bible most people despise and discount as meaningless myth!
Trump is batshit crazy for sure. But he also said the sanest most important thing said on the debate stage. Biden and Harris foreign policies-Gaza-Ukraine have pushed us closer to nuclear war. I doubt if Trump read Chomsky or Jeffery Sachs and the host of scholars that agree with Trump on this.
If Harris can celebrate the Cheneys and John McCain, maybe Trump can channel Chomsky and Sachs. Talk about irony!
Bill, Marriane Williamson cares about nuance which makes her ideas unavailable to the American public at large-like Jill Stein- Sachs-Chomsky-yourself...to the American public.
Today I read an article by her spelling out very real issues with Haitian immigrants in Springfield that the Democrats are mocking with the eating of the cats and dog story. Much like Hillary mocked unemployed coal workers as a basket of deplorables.
I once saw a documentary on a Haitian voodoo ceremony, not to say service. They were sacrificing domestic animals there. I didn’t like the look on Kamala Harris’ face when he told her his thoughts on Springfield but I hope you’re not right in the conclusion to be drawn about the campaign from your comparison with Hillary. Although as a British “Subject”, if Kamala follows Biden in apparently urging that we try British cruise missiles on Russia first, so that Biden can gauge whether he’s winning another game of chicken, I would be pretty freaked out. Or possibly bombed out. Here in Scotland there was a prophet called the Brahan Seer on the Black Isle, which is a peninsular tract of land near Inverness, who prophesied a black rain over Scotland. He was boiled in oil by the laird’s wife after correctly “seeing” her husband cavorting with ladies of easy virtue on the Continent. So he got that one right. But he predated human- induced nuclear fallout by some centuries. So he wasn’t to know about it. Unless he did.
Boiled in oil -- a tough way to go. Enhanced interrogation technique?
And, you consider that response from Trump as "batshit crazy"?
If you have any perception at all, you recognize Trump's style as being not like your style, but otherwise clear, informed and accurate.
Get over your insistence on style and research the facts. Stop killing the MESSENGER.
Revised Republican history states that Harris moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and her kids are in business with Israel.
Thanks for regularly sounding the alarm, Bill. As I sometimes do, I shared your post to my FB page today, and this is how I introduced it:
"Lt.Col. (Ret.) Bill Astore - no stranger to the study of war - asks the obvious question: "To what end" is NATO (primarily the US and UK) so drastically raising the risk of WW III ?
This isn't hyperbole. No one should assume that rational people are in charge in the West, reason will win out, and they'll be able to control the situation. And no one should assume that if it erupts, it will be confined to Europe. That's not how it works, when the escalations involve long-range missile strikes into the heart of another nuclear-armed nation (Russia).
Maybe it's time for everyone to tell their Congress-folk that it's time to stop this march to global annihilation; because if we remain silent, we'll all too soon regret our silence."
Thanks, Roger.
Not to be too alarmist, but if we remain silent, we collectively run the risk of a silent nuclear mass grave.
One can't really be too alarmist in such a situation as we face today. Keep sounding that alarm and I'll do what I can as well. We can't force the masses to heed it, but those who grasp it do have a duty to try to wake the others up.
I wish I had a optimistic vision of our future...! R.I.P. Lieut. Lothar Zogg
I didn't know that was his full name in Dr. Strangelove. We learn, good!
I had to look up the reference. Perfect tribute and comment in the context of that movie.
Me too.
It has never been about defending Ukraine, only about how to somehow defeat/destroy Russia and all of those chicken hawks are leading us into the literal Dark Ages that will follow a nuclear war which of course leaves no winners...actually leaves only a small remnant of humanity struggling to survive. The black is white and white is black view of the neocons is "wonderfully" (eyes rolling) summed up in this alert from Politico: "Putin threatens war as Western allies near deal on missile strikes in Russia". What nation wouldn't threaten war if it's enemies were setting up missile strikes against it?
Very clear take on this abhorrent situation.
Have you seen the docuseries 'Russia From Above'. Absolutely glorious, my favourite, and ironically the most successful in Germany. My point is that when someone in Washington saw it, they saw a prize - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9642838/
Any use of NATO's (e.g., UK and US) long-range weapons will, I think, be met with strikes by Russia on the missile-assembly locations and F16 bases in Poland. That will be met by the hysteria in this country by politicians of both parties screaming for "strength". Those will be the first steps on the road to our destruction.
I will add, based on the history of its nuclear doctrine and a personal experience in the military, the U.S. will be the first to use nuclear weapons.
My like for your comment, Tom, is not because I like the scenario you describe I've been pointing to as the Future Probability in many previous articles in BV going years back since I took to Bill's thoughts, perceptions and writing reflecting my own developing thoughts.
The like is because you have eyes wide open, and in a few words, very clearly, incisively, told it like it is, as this Material World approaches this very old perception and place of the Jewish Prophet writing, "Multitudes! Multitudes! In the Valley of Decision! The Day of The Lord is near in the Valley of Decision."
The neocon psychopaths and fanatics running foreign policy, led by Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, are hell bent on realizing their vision of destroying Russia and breaking it into pieces. This is a battle between the forces that want to maintain US global hegemony at any cost vs. those trying to forge a new multipolar world order. It has now turned into an existential battle for both sides. The stakes could not be higher. The world is on a precipice.
And don't forget Victoria Nuland - who has been part of the major debacles and atrocities for over 20 years - and is still treated as someone of importance and relevance. She, along with McCain (praised by Harris) were the chief faces of the 2014 Maidan coup.
I started one of my posts with: Yesterday, the Devil visited CSIS, one of her favourite cults, to televise how her plans for Earth are doing. She rubbed her red right hand over her behemoth figure, and asked her host, Max Bergmann, how she looked. He responded, “Victoria Nuland’s body suits you.”
I think there might be two suits - the other is the H. Clinton body
One devil, but many body suits hanging in the cupboard.
Missiles/long range strikes don't capture territory, they are only a way of saying "take THAT!" to irritate and enrage the opponent which can only result in redoubling the opponent's will to engage more strongly. Continuing to up the ante with long range weapons that we supply is a great danger to US national security but we go on regardless, just as we allow Israel to go on regardless, steadily lowering our image in the view of the world.
I was reading a book on archeology about discovering ancient long buried cities and it occurred to me that at least part of what destroys empires is their inability to change the way they do things. Over time corruption sets in, but the overall structure of empire stubbornly resists change even when it is obvious that things are not working. For the wealthy, now or in ancient times, corruption is a benefit and they will do all they can to see that the system enriching them is not altered, as rotten as it may be. Then comes an invader whose tactics/strategy are flexible, ready to do any thing to succeed. Down comes empire only for the systemic hardening of the arteries to begin all over again. The US has a serious case of hardening of the arteries.
Exactly right.
War is a criminal and violent act.
There are so many other ways to accomplish what you desire.
This is not 1700!
We need to remove neo-cons from the US government.
They can't think clearly. They have one aim only, and it is not in our best interests.
Replace these criminals with humans who can sit at a table and do business fairly and decently.
This is 2024!
This morning I saw a CNN post, “Ukraine’s Kursk offensive was seen as a major success, but it came at a huge cost.”
“…seen as a major success.” This immediately took me back to May 2003 when six weeks into the Iraq War, Bush proclaimed, "Mission Accomplished … Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
I also saw in Dave Decamp’s report that Zelensky has acknowledged that the Russians are now launching a major counteroffensive against this Kursk invasion, however, not to worry, as these “counteroffensive actions were according to our Ukrainian plan,” as it is part of the “victory plan.”
“… but it came at a huge cost.” I don’t think it is at all arguable that Zelensky, Blinken, Lammy and all the other GD fools that keep this war going care even the slightest for the slaughter that happens day after day after day—ever escalating; no reverse gear.
No, it is not at all arguable. All those victims (likely, hundreds of thousands now), are mere objects - cannon fodder- in their cold, expressionless eyes.
Well put!
"Success" and "cost" are self-contradictory.
"Long-range missiles launched into Russia aren’t going to turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor. But they may provoke a devastating response from Russia that could provoke a far wider conflict. And for what, exactly?"
For profits and career advancements (including advancements to the U.S. presidency) on behalf of the world's worst people. In the hysterical debates of the future, if the world survives long enough for such debates to occur, the "boogy-people" won't be Hitler anymore. (Sooo 20th Century!) In fact, practically none of them will be Germans. (Maybe Baerbock and von der Leyen.) They'll be Americans.
It is the land on which we live. While wars may be fought on the seas and in the air, they are insignificant. Only the wars on land matter. Having been invaded many times, Russians are well aware of this.
My favorite political cartoon was one showing two Soviet generals standing on the shore at Dunkirk. They were looking upward into the sky and one said to the other, "I wonder who won the air war".
Excellent moral in that view.
I'm reading Max Hastings book Catastrophe 1914 right now, about the first year of WW1 and the events that led up to it.
The history says "Don't Do This Thing." Are the only people who get the message those who lack any deciding influence in the Corridors Of Power?
This reminds me of the documentary "The Guns of August", in which Europe marches to World War I. The steps seem inexorable and foolish. Just like the ones Europe (and the US) are taking now.
Alex and Alexander say that the generals are against the escalation. It's the crazies in the British government and the warmongers in the Biden administration (Blinken, Sullivan, etc) who seem to be for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_TNxeeWe6g
The same video (towards the end) talks about the Trump/Vance plan for the Ukraine war: 1. Demilitarized zone, 2. Ukraine neutrality, 3. Europe to pay for Ukraine reconstruction. Isn't that a great proposal? Well you wanted peace candidates. There they are.
If you didn't see the prank call between the Russian jokesters Vovan & Lexus and the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, you should take a listen, you'll get a good laugh. Not sure if this link is paywalled. The Polish minister thinks he is talking to the Ukrainian, Poroshenko. He spills the beans on a lot, including that NATO is bluffing on things like sending NATO troops to Ukraine.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/zelenskys-last-hail-mary-gets-off