By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The yanko and jingo-centric podcasters are being overtaken by the political realism of events. This is forcing a change of calculation in how the apparently powerless can and do defeat the apparently omnipotent without beating their chests, flogging their backs, or putting their adversaries’ heads in baskets. Bribery of President Donald […]

by Editor - Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Nuri al-Said, the long-serving but ill-fated Iraqi prime minister of the 1940s and 1950s, once said that you can rent an Arab but you can’t buy him. On July 15, 1958, he ended up shot by an Iraqi Army coup, buried, dug up, and his corpse mutilated as it was dragged […]

by Editor - Monday, February 2nd, 2026
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Realism in politics is M +V+ B = P. That’s to say: Money plus Votes plus Bullets equal Power.  The equation is simple arithmetic – everyone can count.   But almost everyone can count on missing one or more of the variables —  usually all three of them —  so power is very […]

by Editor - Sunday, February 1st, 2026
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