Dear CCI Friends,

Hello from St. Petersburg where it is Orthodox Christmas night, Monday, January 7th. This morning when I awakened about 8 am, the sight out my window was a blanket of snow over everything … all was covered in pristine white … from Moika Canal and 19th century buildings all the way down to St. Isaacs’ gold dome: there were no people to be seen anywhere (the first time ever for my eyes). Few automobiles and no trucks or city buses were seen out of my windows. St. Petersburg appeared frozen in time… silent, like in the centuries past.  It has been the quietest beginning of a day I’ve ever experienced in Russia.

In the afternoon traffic picked up a bit. Going outside my door, from the flat next to me, a Russian man of about 50 years rushed off wishing me Happy Christmas and mentioned he was on his way to St. Nicholas’ Church services. Later there was more foot traffic going in the direction of the church. What a wonderfully pensive day to enjoy the snow and the quiet … and to ponder.

  ~~~~~~~

Late in the day, an amazing article arrived on my computer. I call your attention to it, since it is the most rational writing I’ve experienced that deals with the challenges we Americans face today.  I urge you to take sufficient time to absorb it seriously. I scanned it first, then realized I’d not digested it sufficiently; whereupon, I went back and read it aloud to myself to really get the essence of it.  I’ve not seen any other article quite so specific, so truthful, so focused on where we Americans are at this particular time in our history.  I urge you to digest this piece … whether you are Democrat or Republican, whether you abhor Trump or think he is good for our country.

[Continue Reading]

Dear Friends,

A brilliant 18 minute TED Talk, Is war between China and the US inevitable?, was presented just over a month ago, and it’s already had over 1.8 million hits.

The subject: whether the US will resort to war that will go global … as China becomes the world hegemon within the next few years.  Across the centuries, there have been 16 times when one nation rose and another fell from power; a massive war occurred in 12 of them, killing millions of ordinary citizens.

Graham Allison, eminent Professor of Political Science at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and part of the “Establishment,” explains the phenomenal miracle occurring in China which at this moment, shortens the very notion of America’s No.1 place in the world. This YouTube SHOCKS the senses, both in how fast China is rising and how soon this change of power will take place.

Allison provides no magic bullets. He coolly presents the world’s history with such circumstances and then questions how a US-China war (that would be the last on planet earth) could be avoided … and whether we will be aware enough to search for ways to live constructively with this rapidly escalating situation?

[Continue Reading]

Friends,

Professor Stephen F. Cohen, America’s rigorous and courageous historian on all things Soviet and Russian, speaks out in his latest book, War with Russia?, a book he never intended to write.

By bluff, accident or design, we may be headed toward a nuclear war in the near future. Everything we hold dear could be vaporized in an instant.  The rhetoric coming out of Washington and the Deep State must be changed or our future is predictable.

U.S. mainstream media and a predominance of our Congressional leaders mouth ill-put-together rumors regarding Russia, the only country on the planet that could obliterate us. They jump on scant unverified facts and reflexively blame Russia. How many times do they have to “cry wolf” for Americans to wake up?

[Continue Reading]