Perfect. 100%. As I have said a bunch of times this week, I'm disturbed that we Americans have had nothing to say, literally nothing to say, about our federal government's policy of "prevention through deterrence" at our US/MX border, an overt policy of terrorism which has cost a minimum of 8,000 people their lives. Nor did we have anything to say to Obama/Hillary Clinton when they militarily supported the overthrow of democratically elected Manuel Zelaya in Honduras sending that country into a downward spiral of poverty and persecutions against women, indigenous, and lgbt Hondurans. Nor, equally appalling, we Americans (except Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar) could not muster the moral courage to condemn the overthrow of democratically elected Evo Morales in Bolivia and his replacement which the shockingly overt Christian Fascist with an open policy of war on Bolivia's indigenous, Jeanine Añez. I also have been disturbed by the radio silence of our main stream media in the matter of the Department of Homeland Security's recent bulletin declaring that US citizens are in its sights now, applying the term to US citizens who spread what it calls "malinformation" that calls into question the policies of the US government. What is "malinformation"? It is facts. Facts which contradict the official US narrative. Including "malinformation" about Covid. The CDC and the NIH do not agree on the use of ivermectin. Which of them is the terrorist organization? Anyway, thank you, Caitlin.
As the Biden administration slithered into office, Antony Blinken, in a singular display of honesty, explained that sanctions would be the preferred tool of choice for shaping events abroad as opposed to the boots on the ground approach of the Bush years.
We've gotten a taste of this applied domestically by demonetized YouTube channels who stray from the party narrative and the freezing of bank accounts of those who contributed to those protesting vaccine mandates by the petty authoritarian running Canada. As a similar trucker's protest rolls towards Washington we'll see if the same very neoliberal weapon is unleashed again.
Things just aren't getting better. Every quote from some random member of congress sounds idiotic and out of touch. Every utterance drips with hypocrisy. If we all survive this current fix, something must be done about it.
"Something must be done about it." I'm not being a dick when I ask "what is that 'Something,'? I hope you know it's a legit question....what can we do???
I ask myself the same thing every day. And I don't think what that is is going to be that clear until it's viewed in hindsight. I don't mean to be elliptical but these are increasingly elliptical times.
Caitlin often invokes mass spiritual evolution as a way foreword, and that certainly would do it, but maybe the something we need is a 1000 small somethings that ignite big ones. What is it that makes a population suddenly lose their fear and flood the streets? What one thing makes that happen?
Personally, I've done the obvious: stopped supporting mainstream candidates and their skewed Overton Windows of ideas; stopped tuning into corporate "news" and opinion-makers; hold sometimes uncomfortable conversations where opinions may be changed; try not to spend money supporting blatant evil (often a tough one).
There is so much we can't control, but most everyone feels this way. If we tend to improving our own personal landscape then maybe that will pave the way for healthier outward manifestations. If not, at least the'll be one less Jackamoe in the world, which isn't such a bad thing either.
A few things would help. Stop using twit, fb, yt. Only use alternates. Remove your savings from banks, pay bills by other than direct debit. Use cash instead of cards. Don't support shops etc that were hard-line apartheid during lock downs. Don't vote mainstream ever again. Don't support churches that locked you out. Don't support 'friends' who went with the propoganda. Lots of things.
US does war with the use of sanctions. Canada gave us an example of the government getting into your back account if they don't like you dissenting. Biden already gave us the taking of peoples belongings by the police without any charges of wrongdoing allowed. Is this just more of "shock doctrine" and are we the people next in line?
And while everyone screams about Trump being an authoritarian, it must be remembered that it was the Constitutional scholar Obama who stripped away our right to a trial under the guise of fighting terrorism. Whatever rights we may think we possess simply exist on borrowed time.
Now Turkey is going block Russian access to/from the Black Sea. That is stark raving lunacy and must be all about Turkey and the EU and Turkey and NATO.
The US has intercepted Iranian oil tankers bound for Venezuela in violation of our made-up sanctions against that country and I guess everyone's good with that lawless precedent. The world is pretty much run by psychopaths while the rest of us watch.
Very well said. This Russian invasion of Ukraine was the desired outcome of Biden Administration policy. They have already asked Congress for another 7+ billion bucks in war spending because of this, and the American media is saturated with colossally ignorant and willfully deceitful coverage of this war.
Meanwhile, we don't hear a peep about Covid anymore, which was what the American oligarchy used for two years to distract Americans from what they were doing to us. This Russo-Ukrainian War, which as you say was totally avoidable, also serves as a distraction for the American people.
If you would like to see why I think that, please see my newsletter on the subject:
Formally, and in writing - considering what the West's word is worth - preventing Ukraine from ever joining NATO is trivial to only the disingenuous, or totally ignorant.
So Putin did not release a video where he basically denied Ukraine even exists, NATO expansion being secondary throughout?
Why do Ukrainians fight? It has to be because they are imperialists and not because a fascist state is bombing and invading them. How dare they fight back, and we need to prevent them from having the ability to defend themselves.
I challenge anyone to rebuke this. Key is to fight the overwhelming twitch to invoke “well America did this in…”
Caitlin, this is blatant Russian imperialism, Putin essentially invoked the blood and soil argument, that’s literally what the Nazis used to justify invading other countries.
The de-nazification justification is Russia’s “Iraq has WMDs”
The last Ukrainian elections, neo-Nazis got 2% of the vote. The president is a Jew from the East and Putin claiming that this is some sort of peacekeeping operation not aimed at civilians or Ukrainian soldiers is laughable.
Will you ever write a blog on having solidarity with the Ukrainians fighting for their lives? like the Jews in Warsaw, the rebels in the Hungarian Revolution and the Palestinians in Gaza now.
I like your writing and have been following it for a while, but I’m genuinely concerned that your stuff is descending into straight up “whataboutism” whenever Russia or another American rival commits a crime.
There exists a world where everything doesn’t revolve around America, and as hard as it is, they’re not always in the wrong.
Can anyone sweep 75 years of "whataboutisms" since WWII under the carpet?
I can't.
For 40 years I have advocated for the people pf Palestine, to take just one of hundreds of shocking and inhumane examples of injustice in the world. This is not because I know hundreds of Palestinians, because I do not know a single one and I haven't been to Palestine, ever. And I won't go down the list of “whataboutisms" to list the reasons for my support. I know them all. Perhaps you do as well. What I will do is ask you to reflect on a whole country being treated as they are by the world's only current exponent of the hated apartheid, finally brought to an end in South Africa in 1994. A crime in itself. But the support it receives from the USA is beyond human understanding. It is corrupt and spreads through both houses of government like a disease. And it is all to do with money, bribery and the resulting influence that brings to what was, 20 years ago, a relatively normal process of voting for the best candidate for your electorate…….decent American with decent community values, and there are millions of those in every state, so that your government is there for your country, not for the benefit of a usurper of land in the middle east, a maker of nuclear weapons to use as an eventual threat against every country and an inhumane killer of women and children through cruel impositions of apartheid practices, the restricting of water, food, medical supplies and the gradual dehumanising of a whole race of people, always the long term objective.
Where was the UN? Under US control … .they themselves who have been under the control of Israel itself….well, everyone know the story, and so on it goes, year after year, supported in every regard by the Washington bunch, blindfolding the people. That’s why you end up with the likes of Trump, the weak and led-by-the-nose Biden, the reason why Pelosi can take her sponsored elected buddies for trips to Israel, the reason why people are starving, education is restricted while disgraceful amounts of money are sent to Israel to support their criminal practices.
75 years of inhumane “whataboutisms" cannot be dismissed for convenience. Why? Because some of those practices, have now become the daily norm by the US. No one gives them a second thought any more.The stealing of Syrian oil by the US every day. The starvation of Afghanistan people in a war started by the US after stealing all their assets. The support of Saudi by the US, the UK, Israel in a cruel and indiscriminate war against a little country called Yemen. The threats made against almost every South American country at some time to toe the USA line. The support and control of NATO, a worldwide US instrument of war.
Okay that was an incoherent rant if I’ve ever heard one.
What does any of that have to do with what’s happening in Ukraine? And why is there this strange obsession with muddying every mention of this invasion by Russia with “Well the US did this or that…”
Bro not everything is about America.
Ironically, It’s the same patronising mindset that American right wingers and liberals suffer from and even the left isn’t immune.
Can you not acknowledge that these Ukrainian’s defiance in the face of tyranny and oppression is the very same in spirit as in Palestine, Myanmar and elsewhere?
I don’t understand that part. It’s this very bizarre notion that US/Western imperialism is unique and is the only type that can be called out while Russia and China get a free pass.
I really don't see why people insist on clinging to absolutes at a time like this. Can't Putin be an authoritarian despot with legitimate concerns about NATO/Western power plays at his border? And can't Biden and the west be manipulating events that they believe will be advantageous to their perceived goals? Cannot both of these realities be playing out before us? Russiagate, COVID BS, naked aggression in the Middle East, and the political clout of weapons manufacturers all supposedly get swept under the rug, simply because Putin is a bad guy.
War is great for drowning out nuance, and American cities are draping themselves in yellow and blue lights with impressive BLM-like uniformity. Voices like mine are never welcomed at the table; and not especially now. Putin remains bad and we're all supposed to gloss over the rest. It's the exact same play we were treated to after 9/11, where we were never allowed to examine our role in creating terrorists, and we all see how that played out.
Putin may well have overplayed his hand; but after he's gone, what about the actors on the other side, who never once get their day in court?
I agree. Let us take one sentence out of Putin's several speeches and see if we can twist it in a way that will make him appear to be trying to recreate the Soviet Union.
You'll have to show me that "blood and soil" argument.
You do know that 15000+ have been killed in the Donbas by the Ukraine Nazis right?
You do know that protestors in Odessa were herded into the Union building and the building burned down -- by the Nazis -- right?
This is a war the US wanted. The US installed the government in 2014. The US is supporting the Nazis (Werner von Braun, inventor of the V2, was a Nazi but became an American).
The US persuaded Ukraine to not abide by the Minsk accords.
The US told Zelensky that NATO would come to his aid, even though there was no way that was going to happen.
At some point, we need to recognize the absolute evil that controls the USA. The pursuit of wealth no matter what the cost. There are just over 600 billionaires in the US. They finance everything. They put Obama in power. They put Trump in power. They put Biden in power.
The Oligarchy is not monolithic and often work at cross purposes, but there it is. "It's the Oligarchy stupid."
What was it they said all the time in "The Godfather"?
Alright, are half of those things you’ve said verified as true?
Obviously without copying and pasting an entire transcript, Putin spoke as far back as Lenin’s day.
He criticised Lenin for ever allowing Ukrainians to have the choice to leave the Soviet Union (obviously that clause was ignored until the late 80s)
And that, because Ukraine has historically been a part of Russia culturally and “spiritually”, it means that Russia has the right to interfere and take.
That’s what a blood and soil argument is, that historical and cultural factors give you the right to take over another county, whatever the population wants being ignored.
Definitely won’t deny there were likely war crimes in Donbas, but it came down from a war that Russia began when they supported terrorists and stirred up the locals with propaganda and then invaded Crimea (and before you speak that they held a referendum supporting integration with Russia, that was before that occurred, so it was still an invasion.
Obviously allowing Nazi paramilitaries is mind boggling, but when you’re being invaded by a much larger and more powerful enemy, you need to get all the help you can get. (Many Ukrainians weren’t happy about it either and worked to disband them)
I can’t accept every allegation at your word I’m sure you’ll understand. But this all seems to place all the blame on the US while you appear to be giving Russia a free pass.
The Russians weren’t following the Minsk accords. This I know is a fact. Ukraine suspended the talks because Russia kept making nonsense of it
What do I mean?
Every time the talks went somewhere, the Russians would shell the Ukrainians to trigger a response then use that as propaganda that Ukraine was the aggressor.
The fact they started it having no mention.
And John, don’t you think if Russia were so confident in its claims that it’s seeking to de-nazify the Eastern European country with the lowest level of anti-semitism, with a Russian speaking Jewish president who comes from the east, where a coalition of far right parties got just 2% of the vote, don’t wonder why they’re now blocking all critical news from inside and outside and telling Russians to only listen to state reports?
Hasn’t Russia lied enough to warrant as much scrutiny as you give the US? Remember when Russia was calling it ridiculous that there were Russians troops even in Ukraine arming the terrorists? And then they said it was ridiculous that the massing of troops was leading to any sort of invasion?
I’m concerned you may be a bit reluctant to hold Russia to those same standards you judge the US by when the right thing to do is to hold all imperial power accountable.
Please please, do not just counter by referring to another topic. Stay on Ukraine, please.
All the things I've said are true and have been verified. They are reported in Consortium News and covered in the video I posted here. I'm not saying that I support what Russia is doing, but I do so tire of the unquestioning repetition of the Empire's propaganda. (The Russians weren't following the Minsk accords -- the Russians were not a participant in Minsk! You don't know crap.)
Just provide a link so I can read what you think Putin said rather than have you edit it to meet your agenda.
In the world I want to live in Nazis wouldn't be shelling the Russians living in the Donbas and the USA wouldn't be stealing Syrian Oil or providing weapons systems to Saudi Arabia to be used on Yemen women and children. You want me to stay focused on Ukraine?
How is supporting Ukraine against Russian invasion “repetition of the Empire’s agenda”
Oh come on, the “rebels” don’t move an inch anywhere without say so from Moscow (which makes sense considering they are their troops)
Everyone talks about “what Russia is expected to deal with” but I don’t see many “anti imperialists” talking about Ukraine has to put up with in its own country: state sponsored terrorists occupying parts of their country while expected to be happy and accepting of it, while getting labelled as Nazis for wanting to get it back.
Perfect. 100%. As I have said a bunch of times this week, I'm disturbed that we Americans have had nothing to say, literally nothing to say, about our federal government's policy of "prevention through deterrence" at our US/MX border, an overt policy of terrorism which has cost a minimum of 8,000 people their lives. Nor did we have anything to say to Obama/Hillary Clinton when they militarily supported the overthrow of democratically elected Manuel Zelaya in Honduras sending that country into a downward spiral of poverty and persecutions against women, indigenous, and lgbt Hondurans. Nor, equally appalling, we Americans (except Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar) could not muster the moral courage to condemn the overthrow of democratically elected Evo Morales in Bolivia and his replacement which the shockingly overt Christian Fascist with an open policy of war on Bolivia's indigenous, Jeanine Añez. I also have been disturbed by the radio silence of our main stream media in the matter of the Department of Homeland Security's recent bulletin declaring that US citizens are in its sights now, applying the term to US citizens who spread what it calls "malinformation" that calls into question the policies of the US government. What is "malinformation"? It is facts. Facts which contradict the official US narrative. Including "malinformation" about Covid. The CDC and the NIH do not agree on the use of ivermectin. Which of them is the terrorist organization? Anyway, thank you, Caitlin.
As the Biden administration slithered into office, Antony Blinken, in a singular display of honesty, explained that sanctions would be the preferred tool of choice for shaping events abroad as opposed to the boots on the ground approach of the Bush years.
We've gotten a taste of this applied domestically by demonetized YouTube channels who stray from the party narrative and the freezing of bank accounts of those who contributed to those protesting vaccine mandates by the petty authoritarian running Canada. As a similar trucker's protest rolls towards Washington we'll see if the same very neoliberal weapon is unleashed again.
Things just aren't getting better. Every quote from some random member of congress sounds idiotic and out of touch. Every utterance drips with hypocrisy. If we all survive this current fix, something must be done about it.
"Something must be done about it." I'm not being a dick when I ask "what is that 'Something,'? I hope you know it's a legit question....what can we do???
I ask myself the same thing every day. And I don't think what that is is going to be that clear until it's viewed in hindsight. I don't mean to be elliptical but these are increasingly elliptical times.
Caitlin often invokes mass spiritual evolution as a way foreword, and that certainly would do it, but maybe the something we need is a 1000 small somethings that ignite big ones. What is it that makes a population suddenly lose their fear and flood the streets? What one thing makes that happen?
Personally, I've done the obvious: stopped supporting mainstream candidates and their skewed Overton Windows of ideas; stopped tuning into corporate "news" and opinion-makers; hold sometimes uncomfortable conversations where opinions may be changed; try not to spend money supporting blatant evil (often a tough one).
There is so much we can't control, but most everyone feels this way. If we tend to improving our own personal landscape then maybe that will pave the way for healthier outward manifestations. If not, at least the'll be one less Jackamoe in the world, which isn't such a bad thing either.
A few things would help. Stop using twit, fb, yt. Only use alternates. Remove your savings from banks, pay bills by other than direct debit. Use cash instead of cards. Don't support shops etc that were hard-line apartheid during lock downs. Don't vote mainstream ever again. Don't support churches that locked you out. Don't support 'friends' who went with the propoganda. Lots of things.
And STOP getting the smiley face packages on your porch!
The bent penis? It's saying bend over, and boy don't their customers do just that.
"Star Wars"?
US does war with the use of sanctions. Canada gave us an example of the government getting into your back account if they don't like you dissenting. Biden already gave us the taking of peoples belongings by the police without any charges of wrongdoing allowed. Is this just more of "shock doctrine" and are we the people next in line?
And while everyone screams about Trump being an authoritarian, it must be remembered that it was the Constitutional scholar Obama who stripped away our right to a trial under the guise of fighting terrorism. Whatever rights we may think we possess simply exist on borrowed time.
Now Turkey is going block Russian access to/from the Black Sea. That is stark raving lunacy and must be all about Turkey and the EU and Turkey and NATO.
...and apparently ships bound for Russia are being intercepted on the high seas. Naval Blockades are just asking for total war.
The US has intercepted Iranian oil tankers bound for Venezuela in violation of our made-up sanctions against that country and I guess everyone's good with that lawless precedent. The world is pretty much run by psychopaths while the rest of us watch.
Very well said. This Russian invasion of Ukraine was the desired outcome of Biden Administration policy. They have already asked Congress for another 7+ billion bucks in war spending because of this, and the American media is saturated with colossally ignorant and willfully deceitful coverage of this war.
Meanwhile, we don't hear a peep about Covid anymore, which was what the American oligarchy used for two years to distract Americans from what they were doing to us. This Russo-Ukrainian War, which as you say was totally avoidable, also serves as a distraction for the American people.
If you would like to see why I think that, please see my newsletter on the subject:
https://ohiobarbarian.substack.com/p/the-great-distraction-shifts-from?utm_source=url
Good stuff. But why attack Kyiv. Still disturbingly fucked up.
That's where the Nazis are. A 2+ hour podcast but it explains a lot: https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/25/watch-cn-live-russia-hits-back/
I especially appreciated the last 15 minute starting @ 1:57. The hysterical laughing and Ritter's seriousness.
Formally, and in writing - considering what the West's word is worth - preventing Ukraine from ever joining NATO is trivial to only the disingenuous, or totally ignorant.
So Putin did not release a video where he basically denied Ukraine even exists, NATO expansion being secondary throughout?
Why do Ukrainians fight? It has to be because they are imperialists and not because a fascist state is bombing and invading them. How dare they fight back, and we need to prevent them from having the ability to defend themselves.
I challenge anyone to rebuke this. Key is to fight the overwhelming twitch to invoke “well America did this in…”
Caitlin, this is blatant Russian imperialism, Putin essentially invoked the blood and soil argument, that’s literally what the Nazis used to justify invading other countries.
The de-nazification justification is Russia’s “Iraq has WMDs”
The last Ukrainian elections, neo-Nazis got 2% of the vote. The president is a Jew from the East and Putin claiming that this is some sort of peacekeeping operation not aimed at civilians or Ukrainian soldiers is laughable.
Will you ever write a blog on having solidarity with the Ukrainians fighting for their lives? like the Jews in Warsaw, the rebels in the Hungarian Revolution and the Palestinians in Gaza now.
I like your writing and have been following it for a while, but I’m genuinely concerned that your stuff is descending into straight up “whataboutism” whenever Russia or another American rival commits a crime.
There exists a world where everything doesn’t revolve around America, and as hard as it is, they’re not always in the wrong.
Can anyone sweep 75 years of "whataboutisms" since WWII under the carpet?
I can't.
For 40 years I have advocated for the people pf Palestine, to take just one of hundreds of shocking and inhumane examples of injustice in the world. This is not because I know hundreds of Palestinians, because I do not know a single one and I haven't been to Palestine, ever. And I won't go down the list of “whataboutisms" to list the reasons for my support. I know them all. Perhaps you do as well. What I will do is ask you to reflect on a whole country being treated as they are by the world's only current exponent of the hated apartheid, finally brought to an end in South Africa in 1994. A crime in itself. But the support it receives from the USA is beyond human understanding. It is corrupt and spreads through both houses of government like a disease. And it is all to do with money, bribery and the resulting influence that brings to what was, 20 years ago, a relatively normal process of voting for the best candidate for your electorate…….decent American with decent community values, and there are millions of those in every state, so that your government is there for your country, not for the benefit of a usurper of land in the middle east, a maker of nuclear weapons to use as an eventual threat against every country and an inhumane killer of women and children through cruel impositions of apartheid practices, the restricting of water, food, medical supplies and the gradual dehumanising of a whole race of people, always the long term objective.
Where was the UN? Under US control … .they themselves who have been under the control of Israel itself….well, everyone know the story, and so on it goes, year after year, supported in every regard by the Washington bunch, blindfolding the people. That’s why you end up with the likes of Trump, the weak and led-by-the-nose Biden, the reason why Pelosi can take her sponsored elected buddies for trips to Israel, the reason why people are starving, education is restricted while disgraceful amounts of money are sent to Israel to support their criminal practices.
75 years of inhumane “whataboutisms" cannot be dismissed for convenience. Why? Because some of those practices, have now become the daily norm by the US. No one gives them a second thought any more.The stealing of Syrian oil by the US every day. The starvation of Afghanistan people in a war started by the US after stealing all their assets. The support of Saudi by the US, the UK, Israel in a cruel and indiscriminate war against a little country called Yemen. The threats made against almost every South American country at some time to toe the USA line. The support and control of NATO, a worldwide US instrument of war.
Had enough?
So has the whole world.
Okay that was an incoherent rant if I’ve ever heard one.
What does any of that have to do with what’s happening in Ukraine? And why is there this strange obsession with muddying every mention of this invasion by Russia with “Well the US did this or that…”
Bro not everything is about America.
Ironically, It’s the same patronising mindset that American right wingers and liberals suffer from and even the left isn’t immune.
Can you not acknowledge that these Ukrainian’s defiance in the face of tyranny and oppression is the very same in spirit as in Palestine, Myanmar and elsewhere?
I don’t understand that part. It’s this very bizarre notion that US/Western imperialism is unique and is the only type that can be called out while Russia and China get a free pass.
"What does any of that have to do with what’s happening in Ukraine? "
It must take a lot of will power and mental gymnastics to blind yourself to something so obvious.
But then you used the "get out of jail free" slur -- incoherent. I guess we should all acknowledge your superior logic.
I'm kind of upset with myself that I've stooped to your name-calling level, but there it is.
Caitlin writes about the obvious. How sad that the obvious is so well hidden and denied that she has to.
I really don't see why people insist on clinging to absolutes at a time like this. Can't Putin be an authoritarian despot with legitimate concerns about NATO/Western power plays at his border? And can't Biden and the west be manipulating events that they believe will be advantageous to their perceived goals? Cannot both of these realities be playing out before us? Russiagate, COVID BS, naked aggression in the Middle East, and the political clout of weapons manufacturers all supposedly get swept under the rug, simply because Putin is a bad guy.
War is great for drowning out nuance, and American cities are draping themselves in yellow and blue lights with impressive BLM-like uniformity. Voices like mine are never welcomed at the table; and not especially now. Putin remains bad and we're all supposed to gloss over the rest. It's the exact same play we were treated to after 9/11, where we were never allowed to examine our role in creating terrorists, and we all see how that played out.
Putin may well have overplayed his hand; but after he's gone, what about the actors on the other side, who never once get their day in court?
I agree. Let us take one sentence out of Putin's several speeches and see if we can twist it in a way that will make him appear to be trying to recreate the Soviet Union.
You'll have to show me that "blood and soil" argument.
You do know that 15000+ have been killed in the Donbas by the Ukraine Nazis right?
You do know that protestors in Odessa were herded into the Union building and the building burned down -- by the Nazis -- right?
This is a war the US wanted. The US installed the government in 2014. The US is supporting the Nazis (Werner von Braun, inventor of the V2, was a Nazi but became an American).
The US persuaded Ukraine to not abide by the Minsk accords.
The US told Zelensky that NATO would come to his aid, even though there was no way that was going to happen.
A 2+ hour podcast but it explains a lot: https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/25/watch-cn-live-russia-hits-back/
At some point, we need to recognize the absolute evil that controls the USA. The pursuit of wealth no matter what the cost. There are just over 600 billionaires in the US. They finance everything. They put Obama in power. They put Trump in power. They put Biden in power.
The Oligarchy is not monolithic and often work at cross purposes, but there it is. "It's the Oligarchy stupid."
What was it they said all the time in "The Godfather"?
"It's just business."
Alright, are half of those things you’ve said verified as true?
Obviously without copying and pasting an entire transcript, Putin spoke as far back as Lenin’s day.
He criticised Lenin for ever allowing Ukrainians to have the choice to leave the Soviet Union (obviously that clause was ignored until the late 80s)
And that, because Ukraine has historically been a part of Russia culturally and “spiritually”, it means that Russia has the right to interfere and take.
That’s what a blood and soil argument is, that historical and cultural factors give you the right to take over another county, whatever the population wants being ignored.
Definitely won’t deny there were likely war crimes in Donbas, but it came down from a war that Russia began when they supported terrorists and stirred up the locals with propaganda and then invaded Crimea (and before you speak that they held a referendum supporting integration with Russia, that was before that occurred, so it was still an invasion.
Obviously allowing Nazi paramilitaries is mind boggling, but when you’re being invaded by a much larger and more powerful enemy, you need to get all the help you can get. (Many Ukrainians weren’t happy about it either and worked to disband them)
I can’t accept every allegation at your word I’m sure you’ll understand. But this all seems to place all the blame on the US while you appear to be giving Russia a free pass.
The Russians weren’t following the Minsk accords. This I know is a fact. Ukraine suspended the talks because Russia kept making nonsense of it
What do I mean?
Every time the talks went somewhere, the Russians would shell the Ukrainians to trigger a response then use that as propaganda that Ukraine was the aggressor.
The fact they started it having no mention.
And John, don’t you think if Russia were so confident in its claims that it’s seeking to de-nazify the Eastern European country with the lowest level of anti-semitism, with a Russian speaking Jewish president who comes from the east, where a coalition of far right parties got just 2% of the vote, don’t wonder why they’re now blocking all critical news from inside and outside and telling Russians to only listen to state reports?
Hasn’t Russia lied enough to warrant as much scrutiny as you give the US? Remember when Russia was calling it ridiculous that there were Russians troops even in Ukraine arming the terrorists? And then they said it was ridiculous that the massing of troops was leading to any sort of invasion?
I’m concerned you may be a bit reluctant to hold Russia to those same standards you judge the US by when the right thing to do is to hold all imperial power accountable.
Please please, do not just counter by referring to another topic. Stay on Ukraine, please.
All the things I've said are true and have been verified. They are reported in Consortium News and covered in the video I posted here. I'm not saying that I support what Russia is doing, but I do so tire of the unquestioning repetition of the Empire's propaganda. (The Russians weren't following the Minsk accords -- the Russians were not a participant in Minsk! You don't know crap.)
Just provide a link so I can read what you think Putin said rather than have you edit it to meet your agenda.
In the world I want to live in Nazis wouldn't be shelling the Russians living in the Donbas and the USA wouldn't be stealing Syrian Oil or providing weapons systems to Saudi Arabia to be used on Yemen women and children. You want me to stay focused on Ukraine?
This is what Ukraine is all about! The Oligarchy!
How is supporting Ukraine against Russian invasion “repetition of the Empire’s agenda”
Oh come on, the “rebels” don’t move an inch anywhere without say so from Moscow (which makes sense considering they are their troops)
Everyone talks about “what Russia is expected to deal with” but I don’t see many “anti imperialists” talking about Ukraine has to put up with in its own country: state sponsored terrorists occupying parts of their country while expected to be happy and accepting of it, while getting labelled as Nazis for wanting to get it back.
I see. Russia Bad. US good.
Simplistic thinking like that will get you a job in Biden's state department.
Because that’s what I actually said.
You’re fucking childish