As one can see from the above presentation, only three countries engaged in any major expulsion of Russian diplomats… the USA, the UK, and the Ukraine. No one outside the Anglosphere and the EU axis expelled any diplomats. No one. In short, the only countries isolated aren’t Russia and China, but rather the USA and its close ally, the UK, and its dog-like puppet, the Ukraine. Puts a different spin on the shit emanating from CNN, the BBC, and NPR, doesn’t it?
BMD
As the EU increasingly faces an atmosphere of disunity and disruption, Trump’s ditching the JCPOA only threatens to make matters worse for Europe. However, that’s not all, EU foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini noted that it also increasingly isolates America. She pointed up, “no country’s big enough to face this world alone”. It seems that Trump’s hubris is big enough to try it.
Politico reported that on Friday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the Iran nuclear deal can survive without US support. Speaking at a State of the Union conference, Mogherini said she received assurances from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that his country would stand by the agreement, despite US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw and reimpose sanctions on Iran earlier this week. Mogherini said:
We’re determined to keep this deal in place, only Iran has the power to wreck the deal unilaterally.
The Italian diplomat will meet with the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and the UK… the three European powers that brokered the nuclear deal along with the EU, USA, China, and Russia… in Brussels Tuesday to discuss the future of the agreement. The European diplomats will also meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Europeans seek to demonstrate that they can still deliver most of the economic benefits they promised Tehran in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons programme and allowing a robust system of international inspections, as well as persuade European companies active in Iran not to abandon their deals out of fear of penalties from the USA. In her speech, Mogherini took several shots at Trump, though she didn’t mention the US President by name, saying:
It seems that screaming, shouting, insulting, and bullying, systematically destroying and dismantling everything that’s already in place, is the mood of our times. While the secret of change… and we need change… is to put all energies not in destroying the old, but rather in building the new. This impulse to destroy isn’t leading us anywhere good. It isn’t solving any of our problems.
Europe has gone along with just about everything that America has asked for, and sometimes, even volunteering. Whether it’s been war or economic sanctions, Europe was gung-ho about showing some solidarity with American interests in the hopes of scoring some brownie points with the Americans, both over the business of security, as well as obtaining America’s interest in joining in on European market initiatives. However, it hasn’t all been quite as rosy as was hoped. Europe hasn’t been paying attention to America’s belligerent and narcissistic ways. America has overthrown régimes, waged wars and slighted international law whenever it suits them. Why, then, should they be expected to be a reliable partner in anything, when they have such a long history of breaking their word and violating their own principles? Now, it seems, Europe is finally starting to see what their unfaithful partner is really about.
13 May 2018
The Duran
http://theduran.com/trump-destroying-and-dismantling-everything-says-eu-foreign-policy-chief/
Editor:
Trump has three options, none of them good.
The last is the most likely outcome. However, Trump is used to “firing” those who displease him, but he has no control over foreign figures. He can’t simply fire and humiliate them like a character on The Apprentice. That’s where the danger comes in. Trump is juvenile, narcissistic, and sadistic. When vexed, he tends to strike out (I should mention that as bad and incoherent as Trump is, Hillary is far worse… her feral and grasping narcissism makes his self-centred greed seem innocent and childlike in comparison). As POTUS, he has control of the “bomb button”. If that doesn’t scare you…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
13 May 2018. To Be Or Not To Be… That’s the Question! Shall Bart Grant Autocephaly to the Uncanonical Ukrainians?
Tags: autocephalous churches, Autocephaly, Christian, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Kirill Gundyaev, Kirill I of Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Patriarch Bartholomew, Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, Patriarch Kirill I, political commentary, politics, Pyotr Poroshenko, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Ukraine, United States, USA
Metropolitan Onufry Berezovsky of Kiev and all the Ukraine, First Hierarch of the UPTs/MP, the only canonical Orthodox Church in the Ukraine
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Three weeks ago, a news item flashed through the Orthosphere:
I decided to “wait and see”… this looked “interesting”, but would it have “legs?” A senior archpriest commented:
Another senior voice said:
After getting communications like this, I decided to let the issue sit and develop. Interestingly, it seems to have gone doggo, if not dead. Buffeted from all sides, Bart checked himself into hospital, then, he left, apparently none the worse. It appears as though HH spoke and Bart listened. Patriarch Kirill is the effectual primus inter pares in Orthodoxy, and all know it. Apparently, Bart was getting pressure from both ends (his American minders and HH), so, he checked into hospital to cool things down. It appears to have simply fallen off the face of the earth. My guess is that American and Canadian Galician nutters working for the American and Canadian special services came up with this cockamamie idea, sold it to their superiors, getting Poroshenko on board, without really informing Bart of what was going on. After this hiatus, the whole thing does appear to be “something run up by the apprentice whilst the blacksmith was out”.
Is it dead? I think not. The Yanks are getting desperate, as none of their foreign policy initiatives are working out at all. China and Russia set up the historic peace meeting in Korea… China, Russia, and Iran stymied American efforts to topple the legitimate Syrian government… China and Russia, possibly joined by the Continental members of the EU, signalled their intent to ignore Trump’s ripping up of the Iranian nuclear accord… the Ukraine can’t get its act together; it can’t topple the patriot Peoples Republics. Therefore, the USA may continue to press Bart to do this. So far, he’s resisted them. It’s been a behind-the-scenes affair… but Bart knows that if events actually came up to a decision, if he didn’t give in to Washington, he’d suffer the same fate as Emmanuel Vaportzis in 1948… the CIA would depose him and replace him with a willing stooge. Would he stand firm or would he punk out? No one knows (I hope that we never have to come to that point).
If Bart were to do this, it’d set up a schism as serious as the one of 1054. Happily, he appears to realise this and isn’t eager to do the bidding of the Anglos. Shall it pass? Only time will tell us… what with the usual shortage of crystal balls and time machines, I don’t know what’ll happen… no one does. Pray for this chalice to pass…
BMD