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Russian Foreign Policy: Differential Respect

The Russians are known to be very punctilious in their diplomatic exchanges. They are not however always respectful. Case in point: yesterday's telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

As the Russian readout makes clear, the phone call took place at the initiative of the U.K. This isn't surprising. The British always follow the Americans. The moment Washington decided to make nice with Moscow, it was inevitable that London would immediately follow its lead. However, if Boris Johnson's government was expecting the courteous, respectful treatment that the Biden administration received, it was in for a rude awakening. While Russia may dislike the United States, Russia respects it as a Great Power and a formidable adversary. Russia does not accord the same respect to the United Kingdom.

Russia refuses to regard the U.K. as a serious power. Russia does not regard the U.K. as an independent actor on the world stage. As Russia sees it, the U.K. either follows the United States slavishly or worse (as has happened in recent years), the U.K. tries to be more Catholic than the Pope. In other words, the U.K. tries to be more hawkish, more belligerent toward the U.S.'s adversaries, than the United States itself. Not surprisingly, Russia refuses to accord the U.K. even the grudging respect it is willing to accord, say, France or Germany. France and Germany at times distance themselves from the United States, particularly on issues that matter to Russia such as Ukraine.

Russia's lack of respect for the U.K. of Boris Johnson is only too apparent from the Russian readout of the phone conversation between Lavrov and Raab. I have attached a Google Translate version of the Russian readout. The U.K. readout, by contrast, is terse and pro forma:

On 17 June, the Foreign Secretary spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.

They discussed a number of issues where the UK and Russia profoundly differ, but also key global challenges such as international security, COVID-19, and climate change ahead of COP26.

The pair agreed to speak again soon.

Clearly, the U.K. got an earful, and did not enjoy it very much.

The English translation of the Russian readout is a little rough, but the gist is clear.

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The Gaggle Music Club: Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain"

This week's selection for The Gaggle Music Club is "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839–1881), one of the most distinctive voices in 19th-century Russian music, was a member of the “Mighty Handful” that also included Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The Five’s mission was to break from Western European models and forge an authentically Russian style, drawing on folk melody, native idioms and Orthodox liturgy. Mussorgsky was perhaps the least conventional of the group, and the one whose music most strongly resisted later academic tidying up. His rejection of Western compositional norms, favoring speech-like vocal lines, abrupt modulations and stark orchestral colors, made him seem unrefined to contemporaries, but visionary to later composers.

The piece that is now called "Night on Bald Mountain" was not a single, straightforward composition. The piece audiences are most familiar with is Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1886 orchestration ...

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August 20, 2025

https://www.rt.com/news/623339-netanyahu-macron-france-antisemitism/

This guy is pure fucking evil!! If that is antisemitic, then I’m damn proud of it. Netanyahu is a poster child for antisemitism .

Why doesn’t Trump and idiot wife write a letter to this scumbag about the children of Gaza. History will not take kindly to the inaction of the US, Europe or Russia to stop Israel and this cretin

August 20, 2025

Obama's NATO Ambassador Admits to British Lords: Trump Just Ended 80 Years of Global Control

Promethean Updates

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Aug 20, 2025 The Midweek Update

Get our FREE newsletter at https://www.PrometheanAction.com — In this episode, Susan Kokinda from Promethean Action reveals crucial insights into the recent shift in US foreign and economic policy under President Donald Trump. Highlighting the testimony of Ivo Daalder, former NATO ambassador, before the British House of Lords, Kokinda discusses how Trump's administration is challenging the post-war rules-based order that has guided Western policies for decades. The video outlines Trump's success in resolving global conflicts, reestablishing national economic sovereignty, and dismantling the strategies of imperial global elites. Subscribe for a deeper understanding of these monumental developments and their global repercussions.

4 hours ago

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abrego-garcia-released-from-jail-returned-maryland-await

THIS IS A JOKE!! So much for Trumps tough on illegal immigrants. This mother -fucker is released from jail, and is protected by a judges order not to be taken into ICE custody after release from Tenn. custody. This enrages me, he is in the US illegally and is protected by US judges from deportation.

And I have a relative who cannot get a US visa to visit, when they have a home, family and business in their country of origin, and I have provided my financial records to guarantee that they would not over stay their welcome. It makes me sick. I hope this scumbag gets deported to South Sudan.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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More Leftie Than Thou
"Jacobin" Magazine Celebrates A Strike Against Ol' Blue Eyes

Here at "The Gaggle" we have very little time for the "more Leftie than thou" school of thought--that's the approach to life according to which the only thing that matters is whether you take the right position on every issue under the sun from Abortion to Zelensky. No one in the world meets the exacting standards of this school of thought; any Leftie leader anywhere is always selling out to the bankers and the capitalists. The perfect exemplar of this is the unreadable Jacobin magazine. 

The other day I came across this article from 2021. It's a celebration of trade union power. And not simply trade union power, but the use of trade union power to secure political goals. Of course (and this is always the case with the "more Leftie than thou" crowd), this glorious, never-to-be-forgotten moment on the history of organized labor took place many years ago--in the summer of 1974 to be exact. Yes, almost half a century has gone by since that thrilling moment when the working-class movement of Australia mobilized and prepared to seize the means of production, distribution and exchange. 

Well, not quite. Organized labor went into action against...Ol' Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, the Voice; yes, Frank Sinatra. Why? What had Sinatra done? Sinatra was certainly very rich, and he owned a variety of properties and businesses. But if the Australian trade union movement were, understandably, searching for the bright, incandescent spark that would finally awaken the working class from its slumber there were surely richer, greedier, more dishonest, more decadent, above all more Australian individuals it could have discovered. Australia was never short of them. Rupert Murdoch immediately springs to mind. Why Sinatra?

 

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