I remember the atmosphere in the US when Yuri Gagarin made his flight. Quite typically for this heavily narcissistic society, it was fear, fear of Soviet Communism taking their fabulous stuff, fear of weaponry launched from space by the Russkies --- in each case, fear whipped up by media, even then, lapdogs of the DOD, CIA et al. This aspect of manufactured fear in service of manufacturing consent is nothing new. It's only that I was too young and naive to really appreciate it back then. What completely blows my mind is that some of my peers who share that deep experience of emotional manipulation seem to never have matured into the realization of how thoroughly they allow their thoughts to be controlled in ongoing fashion. Trump derangement morphs into Putin derangement and so on. What comes next? I'd scream at them to wake TF up, but recognize that all it would achieve is my own marginalization as a Putin puppet. So I speak softly elaborating some history and then beat my head against a wall in frustration, when I get rejected anyway.
OANN is currently showing Ukraine On Fire movie by Oliver Stone today and tomorrow or anyone can download. This is a very accurate depiction of Ukraine and the Nazi / US destruction of Ukraine. This is an excellent movie to watch. It shows the CIAs influence and destruction of Ukraine.
From Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who along with many other courageous Russian citizens, risked her life to protest Putin's war:
"What is going on in Ukraine right now is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor. The responsibility for this aggression lies only on one person and that person is Vladimir Putin... Unfortunately, I have been working at Channel One during recent years, working on Kremlin propaganda. And now I am very ashamed. I am ashamed taht I've allowed the lies to be said on the TV screens."
Who are we supposed to believe? Literal Russian state TV journalists risking it all to admit Putin's "Blame NATO" excuse is a lie? Or some angry yt girl peddling Putin's lies from 6,000 miles away while living by choice under the security blanket of NATO and American capitalism? I mean, please.
I am Russian American and I happen to agree with Caitlin. You don't seem to notice that all sides are lying, about everything. Actually I think NATO's expansion is a legit reason- see John Mearsheimer for eloquent explanation. Secondly, Western puppet Zelensky went to a security conference last year and was told to say "Ukraine is looking into acquiring nuclear weapons". He did so to provoke Russia. US pulled out of Afghanistan and military contractors needed a new war. Finally, US was against the Nord Stream pipeline and Russia just needs to be put in its place. Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe, is just a pretext.
So if Ukraine joins NATO, the next logical step is for NATO to invade Russia and seize Moscow? Pah-leese. If all of Europe joins NATO, Russia will still be Russia and still has nothing to fear from NATO. NATO is a defensive organization - it is there to defend Europe from Russian invasions - not the other way around. Amid all your rambling, you didn't mention Putin ONCE. This entire Ukrainian war is the brain child of one steroid addled dictator - Vladimir Putin. If Putin had a fatal heart attack tomorrow, this war would be OVER and Russia and Ukraine can get back to being vibrant countries looking to attract more tourists.
"All sides are lying, about everything" A cohort that certainly includes you and Caitlin.
Sorry, can't concern troll about Ukrainian corruption while defending Russia, the most corrupt government on the planet. See Stephen Totkin, Cathy Young, and Marina Ovsyannikova for eloquent takedowns of Mearsheimer's gullibility.
Ukraine and the US don't need pretexts: neither country is invading and bombing Russia. It's Putin who is killing and bombing Ukrainians, who bombed Aleppo and Grozny, who invaded Georgia, who murdered Nemstov and Litvinenko, who has shut down free speech and independent media in Russia, who genocides Chechnyan gays, and who is jailing Russian antiwar protestors who know Putin-apologists like you and Caitlin are full of it.
The "pretext" is your lame attempt to use the US's wise opposition to European dependence on Russian energy to justify Putin murdering Ukrainian civilians. Of course you think NATO expansion justifies Putin bombing maternity wards. Many people support murderous, warmongering dictators, have no decency or morals, and think Russia's neighbors have no right to democracy, agency, or autonomy. Sad, but not shocking.
Ukraine *should* seek powerful weapons, since Satan-puppet Putin has broken the security agreement Russia gave Ukraine when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons to Russia in 1994, a mistake given Russia's 500 year history of nonstop warmongering autocracy.
It's funny that she never brought up a single case of lying. Since she worked there she must have known some deliberate lies that she helped disseminate. What was it? Why wouldn't she give examples?
1. I don’t believe they care that much about Russian speakers there. If they were, they would have intervened in 2014.
2. Russians may not care that much about Ukrainian neo-nazis (they were causing enough destruction for the Ukrainians)
3. Not sure about justification to go beyond Donbass region(?)
I do believe Russia had a strong reason to stand up to NATO/US, especially in view of CIA training troops, military funding, biolabs, nuclear weapons acquisition, etc
There could be other reasons, we just don't know and military time secrecy is not helping.
But I do agree that fake news $hit storm from Ukrainian side has been unbelievable.
Sure, every society has its cancer. Every family has a few black sheep. Has it ever been denied?
The question is - are they being celebrated? Are there streets and cities named after them? Are they being awarded "Hero of Russia"? Are there torchlight parades taking place? Are there anniversaries of Waffen SS where some Russians served during WWII?
I moved to the USA in 1995 and part of the culture shock was getting used to its mass news media. Within a year or so I had declared a new personal slogan: "NPR is the propagandist of the Kozy Konsensus Reality." I didn't get that wrong, did I?
NPR was actually a bit more insidious, back when yuppies smoked dope with proletarian nerds (cultural appropriation with benefits: patent, copywrite & miscegenate). They'd co-opt: ecology, civil-rights, anti-war & feminism/ income-disparity virtue-signalling to get laid. Then, stole free-basing, kraut cars, US audio equipment and "whole food" to go gentrify Black folks out of red-lined homes & partnerships in papa's firm? NPR sounds better on Blaupunct or Nakamici, with Klipsch speakers?
the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq de-masked NPR, and by the time Trump was to be elected, NPR started its main news hour with "Trump finally came out as German American, not Swiss American as he has been claiming all along."
I remember, the last time I'd been at NPR was working in MS, AL & FL. I'd buy a kielbasa, chili, cheese dog on a kaiser roll (exceedingly yankee) and really hoppy ESB and listen to Car Talk or Furniture on the Mend, to block out reality?
Or, Nincompoop Propaganda for Reactionaries? Considering ALL the silly ass Orwellian bullshit we've been gavaged (WAY before Poppy Bush) is reminiscent of boomer's spoon fed Stalinist stereotype of intentionally blatant, authoritarian echo-chamber crazed autocracy. All one has to do is turn off TV and realize that you're still watching it bombard your brain with montage snippets of hobnail boots, bullets, bayonets, boobs, butts, baby jesus and the show never EVER changes!
You are so brilliant Caitlin & absolutely spot on. I’m so sick of this country with it’s backwards patriarchal madness that cares only for money, it’s sickening 😕
Brilliance is an angry, bitter, unhinged, Putinesque screed blaming NATO for everything to be reflexively contrarion to pat yourself on the back for being special and edgy? Lol wut?
Russia has a 500-year history of autocrats waging bloody war on Russia's neighbors, but yeah, it's all NATO. Ivan the Terrible? NATO's fault. Peter the Great? NATO. Mass death and anti-Semitic pogroms under Stalin? NATO forced them.
Putin flattening Aleppo and Grozny? NATO's fault. Putin invading Georgia? NATO. Putin genociding Chechnyan gays? NATO's fault. Putin murdering Nemstov, Livinenko, journalists, and opponents? Because he was scared of NATO or something.
Putin arresting protestors, arresting his military and spy chiefs, shutting down media outlets, and banning words? NATO made him do it. Putin bombing hospitals, maternity wards, and civilians? It's NATO.
Left out of Johnstone's profane ranting and tantruming is any mention of what Ukrainians (and Russia's neighbors) want. Because to a knowlege that means to treat their concerns about Russian aggression as valid, to acknowledge that Russia's neighbors have a right to agency and autonomy. And that Putin and his apologists can never do.
I think a large part of the USA's arrogance is due to the fact that they have not yet experienced a real war on their territory. Maybe if that happened they would really taste the medicine they keep selling to others...
Well, twice: one killed ~780K (but lots more, afterwards!) The other was several million, mostly germ warfare & starvation. But, they weren't white, so nobody bothered to count?
Caitlin, once again all I have is gratitude and awe for your research and writing, for your courage at putting it all out there. This one touched my heart. It is time to wake up indeed. The western world seems to be nation upon nation of children—and not even nice children, certainly not fun, carefree children, rather psychologically abused children, broken spirits, the children who fast become scared, spoiled, entitled, self-centered and violent, cry-baby, bully children. I must keep asking myself, what must I do to break free of that? And then doing it!
Either humanity comes together with the realization that our governmental and societal structures have left us and institute something radically different or we continue being led along darker and darker paths for the benefit of a relatively few misshapen individuals who regard humanity as their blank canvas to deface at will. I can see no middle ground. Like Trump, this war is a symptom of things long gone wrong.
Yes, we should be able to figure it out, all by ourselves. We don't need Divine Revelation, Big Daddy in the Sky, or Big Daddy anywhere. The facts are available, and can be easily processed by the average person. Bad positions and policies have tell-tale marks: arrogance, lack of respect for the audience or alternate view, that is, rational and fair analysis is substituted for prejudice, insult and lies. A country that screams when fascist apologists are "cancelled", but bans the long-dead and great artists of a country as a tactic in discrediting and demonizing it, and demands personal denunciations of heads of state -like I don't know what goddam mind control dictator in some cheap, comedic novel - is not a country to be much respected, isn't, in fact, respected, and counts on brute force rather than good example and reason in its objectives. But this has been the world order since at least 9/11. We must demand better as an existential imperative.
Threads gave me nightmares. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time. When the wind blows was even worse. A cartoon about a loveable couple and nuclear armageddon. Tortuous.
Jacqui, 'When the Wind Blows' was what woke me up. A terrifying prediction, wrapped in a charmingly told, and beautifully illustrated tale. Ultimately, it was that almost-completely white page that got to me. I still choke up remembering that.
Putin is bad so Yuri Gagarin didn't go to space and Tchaikovsky wasn't a good composer and Dostoevsky was a lousy writer and Sputnik was designed by Lockheed Martin and Anton Chekhov was Welsh and Khabib Nurmagomedov was born in Minnesota.
I was around during WWII and I don’t recall highly respected conductors in those days like Otto Klemperer having concerts cancelled because of some foreign bloodline, or programs changed because it was Beethoven’s First Symphony, or a Schubert Trio becoming a duet because the cellist was German or Schumann’s song cycles being translated into French to avoid embarrassment.
I used to play Elizabeth Schwartzkopj every day and no one sent me to reform school. In those early days, for a short period, the leader of the world against the Third Reich was imperial Britain and being battered to death every night by German bombers added a level of realism to their lives. Staying alive in a blitzkrieg in London was important as it must have been also for Iraqis during the one-sided “shock and awe" campaign from Bush & Co, built on a disgraceful lie. Criminal charges laid? Sorry. Just a joke.
No battering from across the seas on the USA, they’ve made sure of that. They prefer to fight on other people’s land, lay on the deadly sanctions one after another, kill thousands of people, support apartheid murderers and then capitalise on making a big buck by selling everyone military gear in the billions of dollars to keep the destructive climate moving. The name of their game was and still is…. making money from death. For that they are better qualified than any other country in history. Makes them proud. They thrive on it.
So Yuri Gagarin, forgive them for removing your name. They’re called Americans and they’re exceptional. Just ask them.
By the way. Did any concert with a US artist get cancelled because of Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Vietnam?
I watched one of Mr. Lira's videos where he claims Russia is winning and the west is setting up a false flag. While the west's willingness to do so should never be in doubt, I was left wondering about what I was seeing. Russia winning the war was never in doubt, given their vast superiority in vehicles and manpower, yet here we are weeks later in a conflict that would seem to have been over in a matter of days. To my mind, if the Russian offensive were as optimal as Mr. Lira contends, why would Putin be turning to Afghanistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Syria for support and manpower? I don't think one needs to be a military expert or suffer from propaganda to see Russian forces who are clearly plagued by incompetence and a serious lack of morale.
Another contention was his assertion that instances of Russian's attacking civilian targets are merely propaganda exercises to enlist western sympathies, yet there are clear instances of shells landing on apartment buildings and non-military targets. Granted, I'm not there and have no way of knowing who fired these munitions, but I'm left to wonder if we're getting a one-sided account tailored to satisfy yet one more favored agenda.
I've been watching Gonazalo Lura too, and his early Kiev videos were very helpful. It was a very strange start to the war - there was no bombings and they had internet, electricity, running trains, etc. He kinda made sense explaining that Russians wanted to capture Ukraine intact, not destroy it. We have to remember that Crimea and Donbass regions are very pro-Russian and there was a warm welcome, not resistance. Maybe they were hoping it would be the case for more areas.
I was also very surprised to see strong resistance from Ukrainian army - that is, until I learned that CIA and NATO trained them for 8 years. According to Scott Ritter - 40 batallions.
If Russia had indeed wished to capture Ukraine intact, they seemed to have abandoned that plan in bloody fashion, where they are randomly leveling Mariupol along with its population, long cutoff from electricity, food, and water. Meanwhile, scores are voting with their feet and fleeing west into Poland and other western destinations.
Why should Ukraine's resistance surprise anybody? I protested Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, but if China, let's say, had invaded the US back in 2003, I would have resisted them as the invaders they were. A population with a long memory of Soviet starvation and brutality during and after WWII shouldn't surprise us either by resisting Putin's tanks and bombs.
I believe Putin allowed himself to be convinced that Ukrainians would welcome his invasion and use it as an opportunity to throw off a supposed unpopular, Nazi-infested government. Apparently he's not the only one to be consumed by this faulty and convenient line of reasoning.
Nazi-infested government WAS unpopular, Zelensky had 31% approval rate in December. I do agree with you that Putin likely thought there won't be as much resistance (Crimea and Donbass welcomed Russians).
So they abandoned the initial "velvet gloves" plan after 1st week. It's the Russian Army. Anybody expected them to tuck their tail and leave?
Zelensky should have known better - he sacrificed his citizens to be on global TV. Talk about megalomaniac.
This is exactly what I was talking about. Russia brutally invades, commits Israeli-level human rights abuses and still you can only blame Zelenski. I guess since Biden's approval ratings are crap that means any foreign invader shouldn't also be repelled. This sort of bullshit cant is disgusting. You pretend to be moral but you are anything but. You're using the people of Ukraine just as much as any CIA drone.
I think his was one of the, if not the first videos by any American in Kiev right from the streets telling it like it is. I think it was the day after they gave weapons away to anybody who turned up.
The video was circulating on Telegram, I don't see it on his channel.
I was 7 during the Cuba missile crisis. It had a traumatizing effect on me. For 20 years after that, anytime there was a siren sound in the night, I'd wake up in a start, sweating.
We were told that Russia had backed down because the US refused to, knowing they were in the right. The underlying narrative was that the Soviets knew they were in the wrong and were too coward to risk a nuclear war for that. Well, I thought at the time it meant that the Russians were humans instead of the esoteric evil beings we had come to think.
Much later, I learned it was actually the US that had backed down, withdrawing their missiles from Turkey and promising not to invade Cuba. Taking credit for the resolution of the crisis didn't matter much to the USSR.
Now, the US propaganda is trying to convince everyone that Russia isn't really worried about missiles in Ukraine. And the sad thing is it's working. Matt Taibi did recently a brilliant article demonstrating we're exactly in Orwell's 1984. I posted a French translation of it on my Facebook wall and though I have more than a thousand "friends", no one was interested.
I'm sure the dominant class wouldn't mind wiping out most of humanity if they could go on living with the help of robots and amuse themselves with a bunch of slaves. But they're thoroughly aware we're very far from that being possible.
I can't think of a meaner, more childish, evil thing to do than take away the honors of a late cosmonaut. Who are they hurting? Yuri is gone, but they're hurting his kids and grandkids. It doesn't take away from his accomplishment and it certainly doesn't do jacksh*t to stop an unjust proxy war for oil.
Thanks for the Nation article link ...hadn't seen it...! Every high school kid should read this article twice thrice or more. it tells you why America is CONSTANTLY searching for wars. CONSTANTLY.
I remember the atmosphere in the US when Yuri Gagarin made his flight. Quite typically for this heavily narcissistic society, it was fear, fear of Soviet Communism taking their fabulous stuff, fear of weaponry launched from space by the Russkies --- in each case, fear whipped up by media, even then, lapdogs of the DOD, CIA et al. This aspect of manufactured fear in service of manufacturing consent is nothing new. It's only that I was too young and naive to really appreciate it back then. What completely blows my mind is that some of my peers who share that deep experience of emotional manipulation seem to never have matured into the realization of how thoroughly they allow their thoughts to be controlled in ongoing fashion. Trump derangement morphs into Putin derangement and so on. What comes next? I'd scream at them to wake TF up, but recognize that all it would achieve is my own marginalization as a Putin puppet. So I speak softly elaborating some history and then beat my head against a wall in frustration, when I get rejected anyway.
OANN is currently showing Ukraine On Fire movie by Oliver Stone today and tomorrow or anyone can download. This is a very accurate depiction of Ukraine and the Nazi / US destruction of Ukraine. This is an excellent movie to watch. It shows the CIAs influence and destruction of Ukraine.
It's very good for explaining Ukraines background.
From Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who along with many other courageous Russian citizens, risked her life to protest Putin's war:
"What is going on in Ukraine right now is a crime. And Russia is the aggressor. The responsibility for this aggression lies only on one person and that person is Vladimir Putin... Unfortunately, I have been working at Channel One during recent years, working on Kremlin propaganda. And now I am very ashamed. I am ashamed taht I've allowed the lies to be said on the TV screens."
Who are we supposed to believe? Literal Russian state TV journalists risking it all to admit Putin's "Blame NATO" excuse is a lie? Or some angry yt girl peddling Putin's lies from 6,000 miles away while living by choice under the security blanket of NATO and American capitalism? I mean, please.
I am Russian American and I happen to agree with Caitlin. You don't seem to notice that all sides are lying, about everything. Actually I think NATO's expansion is a legit reason- see John Mearsheimer for eloquent explanation. Secondly, Western puppet Zelensky went to a security conference last year and was told to say "Ukraine is looking into acquiring nuclear weapons". He did so to provoke Russia. US pulled out of Afghanistan and military contractors needed a new war. Finally, US was against the Nord Stream pipeline and Russia just needs to be put in its place. Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe, is just a pretext.
"all sides are lying, about everything". Can you give examples for both sides? Of the kind equalling each other in degree?
So if Ukraine joins NATO, the next logical step is for NATO to invade Russia and seize Moscow? Pah-leese. If all of Europe joins NATO, Russia will still be Russia and still has nothing to fear from NATO. NATO is a defensive organization - it is there to defend Europe from Russian invasions - not the other way around. Amid all your rambling, you didn't mention Putin ONCE. This entire Ukrainian war is the brain child of one steroid addled dictator - Vladimir Putin. If Putin had a fatal heart attack tomorrow, this war would be OVER and Russia and Ukraine can get back to being vibrant countries looking to attract more tourists.
Before thecwar,Ukraine was a kakistocracy by any rational standard.
Hardly a "vibrant " country.
"All sides are lying, about everything" A cohort that certainly includes you and Caitlin.
Sorry, can't concern troll about Ukrainian corruption while defending Russia, the most corrupt government on the planet. See Stephen Totkin, Cathy Young, and Marina Ovsyannikova for eloquent takedowns of Mearsheimer's gullibility.
Ukraine and the US don't need pretexts: neither country is invading and bombing Russia. It's Putin who is killing and bombing Ukrainians, who bombed Aleppo and Grozny, who invaded Georgia, who murdered Nemstov and Litvinenko, who has shut down free speech and independent media in Russia, who genocides Chechnyan gays, and who is jailing Russian antiwar protestors who know Putin-apologists like you and Caitlin are full of it.
The "pretext" is your lame attempt to use the US's wise opposition to European dependence on Russian energy to justify Putin murdering Ukrainian civilians. Of course you think NATO expansion justifies Putin bombing maternity wards. Many people support murderous, warmongering dictators, have no decency or morals, and think Russia's neighbors have no right to democracy, agency, or autonomy. Sad, but not shocking.
Ukraine *should* seek powerful weapons, since Satan-puppet Putin has broken the security agreement Russia gave Ukraine when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons to Russia in 1994, a mistake given Russia's 500 year history of nonstop warmongering autocracy.
California liber-tarian. Say no more 🤣 you don't understand anything about other US states, not to mention countries. Stay clueless
https://missionlocal.org/2022/03/san-francisco-is-now-boycotting-most-of-the-united-states/
Triggered liar. I grew up in Georgia, and spend a third of the year in Europe. Stay a liar.
It's funny that she never brought up a single case of lying. Since she worked there she must have known some deliberate lies that she helped disseminate. What was it? Why wouldn't she give examples?
Well, maybe half-truths to justify the invasion.
1. I don’t believe they care that much about Russian speakers there. If they were, they would have intervened in 2014.
2. Russians may not care that much about Ukrainian neo-nazis (they were causing enough destruction for the Ukrainians)
3. Not sure about justification to go beyond Donbass region(?)
I do believe Russia had a strong reason to stand up to NATO/US, especially in view of CIA training troops, military funding, biolabs, nuclear weapons acquisition, etc
There could be other reasons, we just don't know and military time secrecy is not helping.
But I do agree that fake news $hit storm from Ukrainian side has been unbelievable.
Your replies show they're your opinions. You think this, you believe that, and so on. Can you actually point to definite, proven lies?
Russia has its own neonazis, which is a fact.
The difference is that in Ukraine, the neonazis get their own legalized paramilitaries, not to mention a voice in policy.
Sure, every society has its cancer. Every family has a few black sheep. Has it ever been denied?
The question is - are they being celebrated? Are there streets and cities named after them? Are they being awarded "Hero of Russia"? Are there torchlight parades taking place? Are there anniversaries of Waffen SS where some Russians served during WWII?
Isn't Russia bringing up this resolution annually and only two countries voting it down - the USA and Ukraine? https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3894841?ln=en
So, this your example doesn't hold. Keep looking.
NPR = National Propaganda Radio
I moved to the USA in 1995 and part of the culture shock was getting used to its mass news media. Within a year or so I had declared a new personal slogan: "NPR is the propagandist of the Kozy Konsensus Reality." I didn't get that wrong, did I?
The phrase "Kozy Konsensus Reality" was lifted from Hakim Bey "Resolution for the 90's: Boycott Cop Culture", which was included in T.A.Z., and that you can read https://hermetic.com/bey/boycott-cop-culture or listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWqWD_YTglc I find it still a very useful idea.
NPR was actually a bit more insidious, back when yuppies smoked dope with proletarian nerds (cultural appropriation with benefits: patent, copywrite & miscegenate). They'd co-opt: ecology, civil-rights, anti-war & feminism/ income-disparity virtue-signalling to get laid. Then, stole free-basing, kraut cars, US audio equipment and "whole food" to go gentrify Black folks out of red-lined homes & partnerships in papa's firm? NPR sounds better on Blaupunct or Nakamici, with Klipsch speakers?
the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq de-masked NPR, and by the time Trump was to be elected, NPR started its main news hour with "Trump finally came out as German American, not Swiss American as he has been claiming all along."
I remember, the last time I'd been at NPR was working in MS, AL & FL. I'd buy a kielbasa, chili, cheese dog on a kaiser roll (exceedingly yankee) and really hoppy ESB and listen to Car Talk or Furniture on the Mend, to block out reality?
Or, Nincompoop Propaganda for Reactionaries? Considering ALL the silly ass Orwellian bullshit we've been gavaged (WAY before Poppy Bush) is reminiscent of boomer's spoon fed Stalinist stereotype of intentionally blatant, authoritarian echo-chamber crazed autocracy. All one has to do is turn off TV and realize that you're still watching it bombard your brain with montage snippets of hobnail boots, bullets, bayonets, boobs, butts, baby jesus and the show never EVER changes!
You are so brilliant Caitlin & absolutely spot on. I’m so sick of this country with it’s backwards patriarchal madness that cares only for money, it’s sickening 😕
Brilliance is an angry, bitter, unhinged, Putinesque screed blaming NATO for everything to be reflexively contrarion to pat yourself on the back for being special and edgy? Lol wut?
Russia has a 500-year history of autocrats waging bloody war on Russia's neighbors, but yeah, it's all NATO. Ivan the Terrible? NATO's fault. Peter the Great? NATO. Mass death and anti-Semitic pogroms under Stalin? NATO forced them.
Putin flattening Aleppo and Grozny? NATO's fault. Putin invading Georgia? NATO. Putin genociding Chechnyan gays? NATO's fault. Putin murdering Nemstov, Livinenko, journalists, and opponents? Because he was scared of NATO or something.
Putin arresting protestors, arresting his military and spy chiefs, shutting down media outlets, and banning words? NATO made him do it. Putin bombing hospitals, maternity wards, and civilians? It's NATO.
Left out of Johnstone's profane ranting and tantruming is any mention of what Ukrainians (and Russia's neighbors) want. Because to a knowlege that means to treat their concerns about Russian aggression as valid, to acknowledge that Russia's neighbors have a right to agency and autonomy. And that Putin and his apologists can never do.
One thing doesn’t negate the other sir, both are true, lol
I think a large part of the USA's arrogance is due to the fact that they have not yet experienced a real war on their territory. Maybe if that happened they would really taste the medicine they keep selling to others...
Well, twice: one killed ~780K (but lots more, afterwards!) The other was several million, mostly germ warfare & starvation. But, they weren't white, so nobody bothered to count?
Where was the civil war experienced? In Europe?
Wow. "That you are is much more interesting than how you are." Thank you, Caitlin! You cut right through the knot.
Good line; truism Id say.
Caitlin, once again all I have is gratitude and awe for your research and writing, for your courage at putting it all out there. This one touched my heart. It is time to wake up indeed. The western world seems to be nation upon nation of children—and not even nice children, certainly not fun, carefree children, rather psychologically abused children, broken spirits, the children who fast become scared, spoiled, entitled, self-centered and violent, cry-baby, bully children. I must keep asking myself, what must I do to break free of that? And then doing it!
Either humanity comes together with the realization that our governmental and societal structures have left us and institute something radically different or we continue being led along darker and darker paths for the benefit of a relatively few misshapen individuals who regard humanity as their blank canvas to deface at will. I can see no middle ground. Like Trump, this war is a symptom of things long gone wrong.
Yes, we should be able to figure it out, all by ourselves. We don't need Divine Revelation, Big Daddy in the Sky, or Big Daddy anywhere. The facts are available, and can be easily processed by the average person. Bad positions and policies have tell-tale marks: arrogance, lack of respect for the audience or alternate view, that is, rational and fair analysis is substituted for prejudice, insult and lies. A country that screams when fascist apologists are "cancelled", but bans the long-dead and great artists of a country as a tactic in discrediting and demonizing it, and demands personal denunciations of heads of state -like I don't know what goddam mind control dictator in some cheap, comedic novel - is not a country to be much respected, isn't, in fact, respected, and counts on brute force rather than good example and reason in its objectives. But this has been the world order since at least 9/11. We must demand better as an existential imperative.
Threads gave me nightmares. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time. When the wind blows was even worse. A cartoon about a loveable couple and nuclear armageddon. Tortuous.
Thankyou for your wonderful writing.
Jacqui, 'When the Wind Blows' was what woke me up. A terrifying prediction, wrapped in a charmingly told, and beautifully illustrated tale. Ultimately, it was that almost-completely white page that got to me. I still choke up remembering that.
I've been tempted to buy it on DVD but I think as a much older person with grandchildren it'll scare me even more.
It definitely shaped the adult I became.
Putin is bad so Yuri Gagarin didn't go to space and Tchaikovsky wasn't a good composer and Dostoevsky was a lousy writer and Sputnik was designed by Lockheed Martin and Anton Chekhov was Welsh and Khabib Nurmagomedov was born in Minnesota.
I was around during WWII and I don’t recall highly respected conductors in those days like Otto Klemperer having concerts cancelled because of some foreign bloodline, or programs changed because it was Beethoven’s First Symphony, or a Schubert Trio becoming a duet because the cellist was German or Schumann’s song cycles being translated into French to avoid embarrassment.
I used to play Elizabeth Schwartzkopj every day and no one sent me to reform school. In those early days, for a short period, the leader of the world against the Third Reich was imperial Britain and being battered to death every night by German bombers added a level of realism to their lives. Staying alive in a blitzkrieg in London was important as it must have been also for Iraqis during the one-sided “shock and awe" campaign from Bush & Co, built on a disgraceful lie. Criminal charges laid? Sorry. Just a joke.
No battering from across the seas on the USA, they’ve made sure of that. They prefer to fight on other people’s land, lay on the deadly sanctions one after another, kill thousands of people, support apartheid murderers and then capitalise on making a big buck by selling everyone military gear in the billions of dollars to keep the destructive climate moving. The name of their game was and still is…. making money from death. For that they are better qualified than any other country in history. Makes them proud. They thrive on it.
So Yuri Gagarin, forgive them for removing your name. They’re called Americans and they’re exceptional. Just ask them.
By the way. Did any concert with a US artist get cancelled because of Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Vietnam?
Americans just canceled Karl Marx too. Because he's apparently Russian🤣 With some exceptions, American education system is a joke
https://twitter.com/ChunqiaoC/status/1504843846902972418?s
Every one of these neocon warmongers should be asked on camera about what they plan to do in the event of a nuclear attack on America.
I just was introduced to Gonzalo Lira. I find his soliloquies as informative as Caitlin's writing. If you haven't been introduced to him: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxpPT4b4vnDlX0sBGz3r4Q/videos
His latest, "System Pigs" is an outstanding indictment of the MSM.
He is in Ukraine right now and reports "Russia is winning because I hear the artillery getting closer and closer."
I watched one of Mr. Lira's videos where he claims Russia is winning and the west is setting up a false flag. While the west's willingness to do so should never be in doubt, I was left wondering about what I was seeing. Russia winning the war was never in doubt, given their vast superiority in vehicles and manpower, yet here we are weeks later in a conflict that would seem to have been over in a matter of days. To my mind, if the Russian offensive were as optimal as Mr. Lira contends, why would Putin be turning to Afghanistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Syria for support and manpower? I don't think one needs to be a military expert or suffer from propaganda to see Russian forces who are clearly plagued by incompetence and a serious lack of morale.
Another contention was his assertion that instances of Russian's attacking civilian targets are merely propaganda exercises to enlist western sympathies, yet there are clear instances of shells landing on apartment buildings and non-military targets. Granted, I'm not there and have no way of knowing who fired these munitions, but I'm left to wonder if we're getting a one-sided account tailored to satisfy yet one more favored agenda.
I've been watching Gonazalo Lura too, and his early Kiev videos were very helpful. It was a very strange start to the war - there was no bombings and they had internet, electricity, running trains, etc. He kinda made sense explaining that Russians wanted to capture Ukraine intact, not destroy it. We have to remember that Crimea and Donbass regions are very pro-Russian and there was a warm welcome, not resistance. Maybe they were hoping it would be the case for more areas.
I was also very surprised to see strong resistance from Ukrainian army - that is, until I learned that CIA and NATO trained them for 8 years. According to Scott Ritter - 40 batallions.
If Russia had indeed wished to capture Ukraine intact, they seemed to have abandoned that plan in bloody fashion, where they are randomly leveling Mariupol along with its population, long cutoff from electricity, food, and water. Meanwhile, scores are voting with their feet and fleeing west into Poland and other western destinations.
Why should Ukraine's resistance surprise anybody? I protested Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, but if China, let's say, had invaded the US back in 2003, I would have resisted them as the invaders they were. A population with a long memory of Soviet starvation and brutality during and after WWII shouldn't surprise us either by resisting Putin's tanks and bombs.
I believe Putin allowed himself to be convinced that Ukrainians would welcome his invasion and use it as an opportunity to throw off a supposed unpopular, Nazi-infested government. Apparently he's not the only one to be consumed by this faulty and convenient line of reasoning.
Nazi-infested government WAS unpopular, Zelensky had 31% approval rate in December. I do agree with you that Putin likely thought there won't be as much resistance (Crimea and Donbass welcomed Russians).
So they abandoned the initial "velvet gloves" plan after 1st week. It's the Russian Army. Anybody expected them to tuck their tail and leave?
Zelensky should have known better - he sacrificed his citizens to be on global TV. Talk about megalomaniac.
This is exactly what I was talking about. Russia brutally invades, commits Israeli-level human rights abuses and still you can only blame Zelenski. I guess since Biden's approval ratings are crap that means any foreign invader shouldn't also be repelled. This sort of bullshit cant is disgusting. You pretend to be moral but you are anything but. You're using the people of Ukraine just as much as any CIA drone.
I think his was one of the, if not the first videos by any American in Kiev right from the streets telling it like it is. I think it was the day after they gave weapons away to anybody who turned up.
The video was circulating on Telegram, I don't see it on his channel.
I was 7 during the Cuba missile crisis. It had a traumatizing effect on me. For 20 years after that, anytime there was a siren sound in the night, I'd wake up in a start, sweating.
We were told that Russia had backed down because the US refused to, knowing they were in the right. The underlying narrative was that the Soviets knew they were in the wrong and were too coward to risk a nuclear war for that. Well, I thought at the time it meant that the Russians were humans instead of the esoteric evil beings we had come to think.
Much later, I learned it was actually the US that had backed down, withdrawing their missiles from Turkey and promising not to invade Cuba. Taking credit for the resolution of the crisis didn't matter much to the USSR.
Now, the US propaganda is trying to convince everyone that Russia isn't really worried about missiles in Ukraine. And the sad thing is it's working. Matt Taibi did recently a brilliant article demonstrating we're exactly in Orwell's 1984. I posted a French translation of it on my Facebook wall and though I have more than a thousand "friends", no one was interested.
I'm sure the dominant class wouldn't mind wiping out most of humanity if they could go on living with the help of robots and amuse themselves with a bunch of slaves. But they're thoroughly aware we're very far from that being possible.
And, for now, it's the only assurance we have
I can't think of a meaner, more childish, evil thing to do than take away the honors of a late cosmonaut. Who are they hurting? Yuri is gone, but they're hurting his kids and grandkids. It doesn't take away from his accomplishment and it certainly doesn't do jacksh*t to stop an unjust proxy war for oil.
Thanks for the Nation article link ...hadn't seen it...! Every high school kid should read this article twice thrice or more. it tells you why America is CONSTANTLY searching for wars. CONSTANTLY.