Based on John Mearsheimer again, his comment was in 2015. Eight years ago.
Eight years to build up the support required to try and frighten Russia into allowing the Ukraine to become another NATO puppet, one that would have been sitting on its border while Jens Stoltenberg progressed to become the leader of Europe's toy army under the direct control of the USA.
What has happened to the USA during those eight years must be corrected. Finding a respected candidate to run in 2024, one not frightened by the good chance of being assassinated, one who is prepared to close down the CIA, remove the US bases around the globe and one who believes in diplomatic efforts..... not wars, is the first step.
I cannot believe that the American people would not want such a man in the White House.
Someone that can be respected, not owned and controlled by investors, military manufacturers and one prepared to tell Israel to butt out of the US and to take the Neocon brigade with them. These people aren't Americans but trained over decades to manipulate the weaknesses in a system that has been allowed to get out control.
Get your country back America. It used to be such a great place, respected by all and seen as a friend to many.
A president, any president cannot unilaterally change much of anything. What has happened over the past two decades is the influence of money in American politics has exponentially increased to absolute ownership. Identity politics is part of the illusory gimmickry that our fake system offers as a substitute for substance.
What I hope can happen is for a person of integrity and exceptional popularity can force the plastic system to overreact and trigger an unprecedented public outrage, something that even a fake media has to acknowledge. That would be worth getting out of bed to watch.
What you are talking about is dismantling the MIC, a tall order for anyone courageous enough but dangerous to undertake nonetheless. The consequences of taking away the gravy train for Congress and hundreds of thousands of minions who work for the complex and who keep the wheels turning at 750 US bases around the world can be deadly. Any President elect that steps into the Oval Office is aware how far they can go without getting offed. The American public has been reduced to a bunch of zombies willing to accept anything the state feeds them and what the corporate press is willing to dole out. Their own proclivity to following Mob-think makes them the enforcer. As Tocqueville famously observed back in the 1830's
"Americans enjoy freedom of expression but everyone says the same things".
It is said one of the reasons Putin sent the Wagner Group in 2014 into Crimea was to exclude Ukraine from joining NATO because NATO requires settled borders, just as Putin invasion Georgia and Moldova prevented them from joining. Regardless, the most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the children that died from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
Notice how Thomas Baxter doesn't say one word about the Minsk agreement. Nor does he mention the criminal terrorist attack on the Nordstream Pipeline by Uncle Creepso Biden (well documented by Seymour Hersh.) He doesn't mention how Viktor Yanukovych democratically elected president of Ukraine in 2013 was ousted in a CIA instigated violent coup - and since then there was an increasing organized war against Russian speaking people in the Donbass region that continued to be intensified and fueled covertly by the West, after repeated attempts by Putin to diplomatically resolve the ongoing violence.
Notice how Thomas Baxter here doesn't mention any of this at all - he doesn't mention the deliberate sabotage of all diplomacy by the West. Thomas Baxter doesn't mention how the majority of military leading experts predicted the increasing encroachment of NATO on the borders of Russia would lead to a very predictable response by Russia - and in fact the CIA/US knew long beforehand Russia would do just this, to protect its borders. And a most simple solution that would have resolved the conflict before it even began was for Ukraine to commit to the Minsk agreement (that it and the West had already agreed to with Russia) and neutrality from NATO. That's all that was needed.
None of this Thomas Baxter mentions above. Instead, he paints a picture that leaves out important details - and he does so deliberately.
Nor does Thomas Baxter mention that Putin did what any western nation would have done if confronted with the same situation - protect its nations' sovereignty, population, peaceful existence and pride.
Again following the Putin sycophant tradition more ad hominem BS, while ignoring the facts I present. But I'm sure we agree:
The most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the murders of children from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
The more you say, the more you sound like a Nazi-loving supporter of the US owned battleground zone that is Ukraine that's led by the totally incompetent puppet Zelensky.
Good to mention the thousands of words I did not write, bu following the Putin Sycophant tradition of ignoring and deflecting away from what I did. But I'm sure we can agree as all Putin's sycophant do that:
The most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the children that died from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
The most horrible result of major war criminal, per the vote of the UN General Assembly, Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the murder of children by Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
“In their doctrinal role as the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) primary capability specifically organized, trained, manned, and equipped to influence the behavior of foreign Target Audiences (TAs), PSYOP contributes to the accomplishment of the full range of Conventional and Special Operations (SO) missions across the competition continuum (cooperation, competition, and conflict). PSYOP forces provide a low- visibility means for influencing foreign audiences, hostile governments and regimes, supporting or reducing support to insurgencies and limiting conflicts that could potentially destabilize our allies and partners.”
Tom, just wondering if Caitlin Johnstone’s Substack is a legal “target” for U.S. DOD psychological operators because she is foreign?
Thanks for the non-responsive response to my comment. I have yet to figure out why Putin's sycophants present no arguments to my facts. However, here's something I think we can both agree upon:
The most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the children that died from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
I love this take. We are not nearly as conscious of the fantastic beauty and majesty of the planet we evolved from as we should be, never mind grateful. I sat out on the front porch this evening - to get away from it all, and I hoped to see/hear birds, which I love, in the early evening, as was usual at one time. I think I saw one bird in about an hours time. Those goddam corporations that make millions from the manufacture and selling of environmental poisons are to blame, along with the stupid quietist acceptors who imagine nerve/DNA /hormone/tissue affecting poisons won'r affect human beings and other animals. If there is another dimension involved in judging our performance here - cosmic justice - some are in for some kinda hell when their time comes. And maybe even before that.
It's only been in the last 60.years that the majority of people have become completely seperated from nature. And each other. Something to think about.
Unfortunately, we are all paying for the stupidity and greed of a relative few- unless we can adapt very quickly to 50 degrees C and the effects on food production as well. Yes, something has happened, the inevitable overwhelming callousness of a capitalist system has permeated society, has poisoned the soul. Perhaps a better system , socialism, will evolve - in time.
Our plan is to get more than 3 votes and then howl election fraud because feral cats were not allowed to vote and the election was clearly stolen. Good Kitty is far better than Trump at howling. Good Kitty looks forward to your support and thanks you.
In the first part Caitlin says that capitalism and US-led imperialism aren't working. This is like saying that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were failures (which many do say). It all depends on whether the objectives of those wars were the ostensible, official ones: bring democracy to the Middle East. Improve lives of Afghani women. Get rid of an oppressive dictator. Save us from weapons of mass destruction. If THOSE were the objectives, then the wars were failures. But if the REAL objectives were: to feed the gargantuan military-industrial complex. To make of certain countries on object lesson in what happens to countries whose leaders refuse orders from Washington. To steal the oil for US oil companies. In the case of Ukraine, to block cheap Russian gas from Europe so strapped US gas companies can make them buy much more expensive US gas instead. Oh, I left out o render countries with critical natural resources into failed states so US corporations can loot them at will. Well--then those wars have been resounding successes, haven't they? Similarly, if capitalism and US hegemony were supposed to deliver freedom and prosperity to all, they're failures. But if they were supposed to cement the power of a global ruling class and arrange for the transfer of ever more wealth to them from the natural world and from the poor people of everywhere, then they have been working beautifully. It's true that they've delivered us a world where the 1% own almost everything and have virtually total control of governments, but also where humanity's survival is threatened by imminent nuclear war, climate change and biodiversity loss, resource depletion and emerging technologies--but hey, it's achieving the immediate objective!
Mearsheimer is ok but he portrays China as the "real threat," just like the imbeciles that portray Russia as a threat. The only real threats are nuclear holocaust and environmental collapse, and the only way to combat them is to concentrate on "business," which is to say, making everybody on the planet as happy as possible. This is what China and Russia are both trying to do now, which of course they cannot do if their very existence is constantly threatened by the warmongering West. The neocon nuts want to rule the world and are constantly provoking and bullying anybody who dares to object, that is, to prefer a multipolar world. I think it is as simple as that. Hard as it may be for non-Americans to believe, there is a significant portion of the US population who actually believe in American Exceptionalism, which means the US must rule the world or else it (the world is doomed), and unfortunately these sickos have been in power for decades (neo-cons or just plain old "patriots" in the sickest sense of the word). This is nothing more than the bully in school who thinks he has to control everybody or else he will beat them to a pulp -- if necessary all at the same time. This is a simple but exactly correct analogy in my opinion. What do you say about this bully? How do you deal with him -- and her (Victoria Fuck the EU Nuland et al.)? This is exactly what Russia and China are having to deal with -- the US bully. Can he be brought to his senses before he goes on a final rampage and there is a free-for-all that ends up destroying everything and everybody? Sometimes it is easy to overthink things. This is actually quite simple. Much too simple for the morons who are currently running our various Western countries.
While the narrative is "safety through world domination," I believe the actual motive is money. American casualties endanger the good will upon which the grift depends. Moves that might endanger the grift are carefully avoided. Protect the grift!
I suggested the Biden's campaign slogan be "keep the grift going." But did they listen to me?
I'll send an email to the White House to see if Biden takes up your suggestion. Assuming he isn't crawling around in the Rose Garden looking for his sunglasses.
Mearsheimer's analysis is correct within its frame of reference.
But he totally ignores economics, political economy, and domestic politics.
He also limits his critique of US motives to those of arrogance, hubris and ignorance, much like many critics of the Vietnam war did. But the US has immoral and bad faith motives operating. Mearsheimer never accuses the US and west of this.
I am told that many bullies are cowardly. Larry Wolhuter of South Africa was in a military unit. The biggest strongest guy bullied everyone until he tried it on a little man so ectomorphic he was known as Taffy. Taffy yelled "I'll give you the greatest thrashing you ever had!" The bully ran off and hid.
When Teddy Roosevelt was in the New York legislature there was a big bully known as The McManus. Teddy shouted, "I'll hit you, I'll beat you, I'll kick you in the balls, so had better leave me alone." The McManus backed down.
So, how does this compare with the USA? They were on the verge of war with Iran. Iran struck a Saudi refinery. The US backed down.
Related news: Later in Dakota Territory Teddy urged his cowpokes to "Hasten forward quickly now." They thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard.
Elinor Roosevelt's speech sounds exactly like Margaret Thatcher.
One of your best IMHO. Context is everything to understanding anything. Being old adds context, studying the past, listening to experts who’s bias is exposed improves context. John M. is not a prophet he’s an expert at global power politics and his track record is hall of fame caliber. Modern day Roman’s inhabit the 21st century West and are poised to suffer the same fate, by spending too much time enjoying their comfort and not enough worrying about the corruption their paying for, it’s masochistic.
Christianity has carried forth the *Greek* philosophy of literally everything being a contest. The Greeks actually kinda won (in a somehow Pyrrhic sense), and the ascendancy of Russia as the guarantor of global hospitality to private property seems to underscore that fact.
I just checked to see how much my states Congress members contributed to the US Gov. Lack of conscience. Both House members voted recently declaring support of Israel “ it’s not a racist or apatheid state”. Both senate members voted no to eliminate all US military aid to the Ukraine. I don’t support Israel or Ukraine or Russia, etc.
What Caitlin and many others here consistently ignore and get wrong is that Electoral campaigns are about a LOT more than voting.
Frame a vision. Consolidate an ideological analysis. Articulate a platform and program. Educate, organize, and mobilize. Discredit the elites and mainstream media and the hegemonic narrative and ideology and undermine the status quo.
All of this can be done in the electoral campaign process - it's not just about the 4 minutes it takes to registry, pull a lever and vote.
But this simplistic and narrow anti-electoral voting undermines the ability to do any of this necessary work.
I can't go back far enough to trace your attitudes but I am under impression you were supporting *voting* per se, but now somehow have switched to "electoral process". What you describe here makes sense and sounds a good strategy. It does not, though, excuse participation in the scam process called voting.
MLK Jr. did just as you said - framed a vision, articulated his ideology - and never was part of a corrupt Electoral process. The current Actors/Writers strike in Hollywood is not part of a corrupt electoral process. The UPS potential strike, which apparently came to a tentative agreement today - was not involved with either corrupt political party.
Now think about it: MLK Jr. the current UPS Strike. Chris Smalls Amazon strike. The now ongoing Actors/Writers strike - will achieve more than the US electoral process has achieved in the last two decades.
So where should one put there energy into? An electoral process that achieves jack shit, or on the ground anti-war protests, and pro-labor strikes? When was the last time you saw Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, or even RFK Jr. put on a pair of shoes and join ordinary Americans on strike against corporate American? When was the last time we saw Trump join a picket line? Where were all these heroes of ordinary Americans at the last large Anti-War rally, "Rage Against the War Machine"?
That was half a century ago. The corruption and wealth inequality is far worse now. And the duopoly is far, far more corrupt. Along with mass media collusion owned by a few billionaires. Playing the electoral game is not the same given both parties are deeply corrupted. But it appears RFK Jr. is really beginning to discover this. We'll see how long he'll put up with it. I doubt it will be for very long.
That's not my problem here i.e. RFK Jr being more on the "Left". My problem is the electoral process and a very corrupt democratic party. I do not believe that corruption can be fixed from the inside.
So we differ on our views here. That's all. I think we agree upon quite a few things, but we do not agree regarding the efficacy of the electoral process. And, after watching more of RFK Jr. lately, my views toward him have softened a bit. But I will not be voting for anyone who is running in the Democratic party. If you hate me for that, so be it!
Yo Bill, not my intention to piss you off. I had to think about whether I should respond to your original comment or not. Since it was me who went off the rails last time, now you've gone off a bit yourself.
I just think Bobby Kennedy is a pretty hard act to follow - for anyone, including RFK Jr.
Read or watch Kennedy's announcement speech - he is explicitly rejecting and opposing the corruption you note. He "discovered" that. throughout a 30+ year career suing corporations and governments
I liked the book Bobby wrote "The Enemy Within" - read it a long time ago. Some video clips of his back and forth with Jimmy Hoffa are legendary. I recall Bobby Kennedy using the line against Hoffa (repeatedly) that he wasn't tough enough to make his money legitimately. That really drove Hoffa up a wall. You could see it in the hearings. Hoffa visibly shaking whenever RFK accused him of cowardice.
So it's about accumulating retainers and slaves, just like any other heroic ruling institution.
Nah. This Christian unity LARP never produced anything except slaves and debtors. Adding, if you really want to change the world, hide in a church, not a theater of competitive predation.
Mearsheimer's analysis is correct within its frame of reference.
But he totally ignores economics, political economy, and domestic politics.
He also limits his critique of US motives to those of arrogance, hubris and ignorance, much like many critics of the Vietnam war did. But the US has immoral and bad faith motives operating. Mearsheimer never accuses the US and west of this.
"Foreign policy realists like John Mearsheimer correctly predicted that western actions would provoke an invasion of Ukraine while many others (including myself) got it wrong because they had at the forefront of their analysis the fact that great powers will never accept threats from other great powers on their borders. This understanding is key."
Take away Russia and Poland would go from America's Special Little Buddy to a rather yappy midtier backwater satrapy, like Colombia, but with delusions of grandeur and no cocaine.
Ukraine would go from Muh Beacon Of Democracy to a pariah state.
☼ We need to stop being bossed around by [imaginary] money so beloved by the finance capitalists who are the ones taking us rightly or wrongly for utterly hypnotised fools while those banksters party like there's no tomorrow.
☼ Yes, this is a breathtakingly gorgeous/awesome/staggering world/cosmos we find ourselves in. Easy to forget when one is staring at a computer screen and the rent is due and so on! However, most entities here on Earth are busy eating each other alive but there again we're all sourced from one & will return there to that single energy entity that is so incomprehensibly vast but yet cannot simultaneously be the observer and the observed. Perhaps it needs to know what it really is so here we all are watching & experiencing ourselves in this necessarily fragmented but fundamentally illusory world/cosmos or something like that, going through each creation cycle forever & ever but manifestly different each time! We'll all have a bash at everything that way, one supposes!
It is striking that there is anything at all. Why is there even reality? It would seem far more likely there would be nothing at all. And then there is the mystery of "love". Is love just some kind of random chemical reaction simply meant to perpetuate our brief physical existence, or is it something far deeper, imbedded in a meaningful way in our consciousness, which is itself a profound part of existence, and may even be the reason there is existence at all?
Still, for many, there remain many open/unanswered questions about the nature of reality and ourselves. As Leo Tolstoy wrote: "We can only know that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom."
The question that may be facing 'It' is, "Who Am I?". The wonderful lysergic acid soaked Country Joe & The Fish explore this question in their own inimitable way: https://youtu.be/KQ1OWvpfW44
Well, true enough Jameta folks have a right to believe what they want to . But if their religious beliefs included things like women are inferior and homosexual are evil then I believe that I have the moral right to oppose such views. It would be a less sad world if folks would follow the advise of the wise man Jesus who said know the truth and that knowledge will set you free. But instead they defied him and he became part of mythology instead .
I see what you're saying and it's hard not to ignore some of the stupid crap many religions put out and people uncritically believe in. On the other hand, I feel like we're living in a time where there is no tolerance for anything except making money for the 1%, and insisting we are suppose to believe we are products of happenstance physical particles that came together over billions of years, and will soon disappear forever as will our individuality.
I think there needs to be more of a middle ground when it comes to spirituality and organized religion. I think my problem right now is an assault on all spirituality and religion, where the real problem is that certain spiritual beliefs and religious dogma needs to be opposed (such as you say, the constant denigration of homosexuals etc.) but not spirituality itself - which people should be free to maintain for themselves, regardless of the flaws.
What I am saying is that our lives and our actions should be based on love. Even to the extent that the wise man Jesus said love even you enemy. Obviously he is not suggesting that we should attempt to cuddle someone who is attempting to kill us but rather defend ourselves and feel sad that a fellow human being is resorting to such violence . Violence in defense of our selves and to defend the land we live on is regretab le and we should always earnestly seek an end to it..
Mearsheimer said a couple things that I don’t hear much. When, in 2008, the U.S. was pushing to get the EU to go along with the plan to bring both Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, Andrea Merkel told the Americans to chill, but when, in 2022, the U.S. told the Germans that the west was paying for armaments for Ukraine, and levying sanctions on Russia, the Germans showed absolutely no leadership. Instead, Germany is fully invested in the proxy war against a significant trade partner.
Another point that Mearsheimer made in 2015, was that America was leaving Europe, as a zone of interest and focus, in its rear view mirror. This point makes the first point hugely historic. If Germany doesn’t wake up and recognize that there is no rich uncle when trouble arises, Europe may well revert to once proud scrap heap. Ukraine should fit in nicely.
Fox News has to be America’s most overt, shameless spewer of propaganda, to the point where it invents stories and proudly repeats refuted lies. TBS, ALL commercial media engage in more subtle forms of propaganda. A great BS Detector is FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting), and here is an example of the great work that they do. Apparently, the oligarchs are sensing the masses are getting restless.
Democrats think they are on the left because propaganda thinks they are on the left. Most don't even consider the possibility od other left ideas like the nordic economic model(which is modified capitalism). Or truly inalienable rights that can't be amended, let alone socialism or anarchy...eglitarism is a word not in their vocabulary...only because they are told what the left is by propaganda. Anything left to what Democrats say is considered bad.
Speaking of art, I can't help but think of all the earlier human species that made art, who literally overcame the fear of death every day. The left behind ideas that have remained for thousands of years. They were no less human and despite their fears, they valued art enough to create it and share it. Did they do it wrong? No... People forget that. The only way to do art wrong is not doing it at all.
One thing about John Mearsheimer is that he is seldom wrong. His comment on Ukraine, spot on.
Based on John Mearsheimer again, his comment was in 2015. Eight years ago.
Eight years to build up the support required to try and frighten Russia into allowing the Ukraine to become another NATO puppet, one that would have been sitting on its border while Jens Stoltenberg progressed to become the leader of Europe's toy army under the direct control of the USA.
What has happened to the USA during those eight years must be corrected. Finding a respected candidate to run in 2024, one not frightened by the good chance of being assassinated, one who is prepared to close down the CIA, remove the US bases around the globe and one who believes in diplomatic efforts..... not wars, is the first step.
I cannot believe that the American people would not want such a man in the White House.
Someone that can be respected, not owned and controlled by investors, military manufacturers and one prepared to tell Israel to butt out of the US and to take the Neocon brigade with them. These people aren't Americans but trained over decades to manipulate the weaknesses in a system that has been allowed to get out control.
Get your country back America. It used to be such a great place, respected by all and seen as a friend to many.
You can do it.
Neither legacy party will allow it.
Basically, the alphabet agencies have secured a de facto veto on nominations.
A president, any president cannot unilaterally change much of anything. What has happened over the past two decades is the influence of money in American politics has exponentially increased to absolute ownership. Identity politics is part of the illusory gimmickry that our fake system offers as a substitute for substance.
What I hope can happen is for a person of integrity and exceptional popularity can force the plastic system to overreact and trigger an unprecedented public outrage, something that even a fake media has to acknowledge. That would be worth getting out of bed to watch.
What worked for FDR was a Congress elected by pledging to his platform.
With Carter and Trump we witnessed the futility of acting without this.
You still need to believe that FDR was on your side. Piety is identical to stupidity.
What you are talking about is dismantling the MIC, a tall order for anyone courageous enough but dangerous to undertake nonetheless. The consequences of taking away the gravy train for Congress and hundreds of thousands of minions who work for the complex and who keep the wheels turning at 750 US bases around the world can be deadly. Any President elect that steps into the Oval Office is aware how far they can go without getting offed. The American public has been reduced to a bunch of zombies willing to accept anything the state feeds them and what the corporate press is willing to dole out. Their own proclivity to following Mob-think makes them the enforcer. As Tocqueville famously observed back in the 1830's
"Americans enjoy freedom of expression but everyone says the same things".
It is said one of the reasons Putin sent the Wagner Group in 2014 into Crimea was to exclude Ukraine from joining NATO because NATO requires settled borders, just as Putin invasion Georgia and Moldova prevented them from joining. Regardless, the most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the children that died from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
Notice how Thomas Baxter doesn't say one word about the Minsk agreement. Nor does he mention the criminal terrorist attack on the Nordstream Pipeline by Uncle Creepso Biden (well documented by Seymour Hersh.) He doesn't mention how Viktor Yanukovych democratically elected president of Ukraine in 2013 was ousted in a CIA instigated violent coup - and since then there was an increasing organized war against Russian speaking people in the Donbass region that continued to be intensified and fueled covertly by the West, after repeated attempts by Putin to diplomatically resolve the ongoing violence.
Notice how Thomas Baxter here doesn't mention any of this at all - he doesn't mention the deliberate sabotage of all diplomacy by the West. Thomas Baxter doesn't mention how the majority of military leading experts predicted the increasing encroachment of NATO on the borders of Russia would lead to a very predictable response by Russia - and in fact the CIA/US knew long beforehand Russia would do just this, to protect its borders. And a most simple solution that would have resolved the conflict before it even began was for Ukraine to commit to the Minsk agreement (that it and the West had already agreed to with Russia) and neutrality from NATO. That's all that was needed.
None of this Thomas Baxter mentions above. Instead, he paints a picture that leaves out important details - and he does so deliberately.
Nor does Thomas Baxter mention that Putin did what any western nation would have done if confronted with the same situation - protect its nations' sovereignty, population, peaceful existence and pride.
Again following the Putin sycophant tradition more ad hominem BS, while ignoring the facts I present. But I'm sure we agree:
The most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the murders of children from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
The more you say, the more you sound like a Nazi-loving supporter of the US owned battleground zone that is Ukraine that's led by the totally incompetent puppet Zelensky.
Deliberately? Maybe Thomas Baxter is a ......a........Brainwashed Zombie!!! Can they be considered to have free will?
https://science1arts2and3politics.substack.com/p/are-you-a-brainwashed-zombie
It is believed that if a Brainwashed Zombie can be shielded from repeated consumption of the zombie cucumber then they will naturally recover.
🙌🏼
Good to mention the thousands of words I did not write, bu following the Putin Sycophant tradition of ignoring and deflecting away from what I did. But I'm sure we can agree as all Putin's sycophant do that:
The most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the children that died from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
Nobody gives two fucks about your moral dispositions, submissive idiot Patrice. Frag your commander and go away.
The most horrible result of major war criminal, per the vote of the UN General Assembly, Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the murder of children by Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
Thomas Baxter: I’ve been thinking about a career in psyops. Wondering if you could give me some professional advice?
In particular, I was reading about psyop careers and ran across this U.S. Army document on “Psychological Operations (CMF 37) Career Progression Plan” (https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2022/07/13/27b2ab7a/cmf-37-final-5-nov-21.pdf), which says:
“In their doctrinal role as the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) primary capability specifically organized, trained, manned, and equipped to influence the behavior of foreign Target Audiences (TAs), PSYOP contributes to the accomplishment of the full range of Conventional and Special Operations (SO) missions across the competition continuum (cooperation, competition, and conflict). PSYOP forces provide a low- visibility means for influencing foreign audiences, hostile governments and regimes, supporting or reducing support to insurgencies and limiting conflicts that could potentially destabilize our allies and partners.”
Tom, just wondering if Caitlin Johnstone’s Substack is a legal “target” for U.S. DOD psychological operators because she is foreign?
Thanks for the non-responsive response to my comment. I have yet to figure out why Putin's sycophants present no arguments to my facts. However, here's something I think we can both agree upon:
The most horrible result of major war criminal Putin's genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation is not his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam nor the children that died from Putin's shelling and terror bombing, but the growth of NATO's size and cohesion doubling the Russia-NATO border.
You're welcome! Thanks for labeling me as a Putin sycophant.
Do you support/justify/alibi/excuse Putin, then you're a Putin Sycophant.
That's nice dear. Nothing you want to talk about is important and nothing you love matters. Frag your commander and be free!
One thing about Dr. John Mearsheimer is that he is frequently, subtely wrong and sometimes right.
One that right point, quoted here - May, 2022.
Ukraine Notes - The Long War. It will not be over fr some time.
https://les7eb.substack.com/p/ukraine-notes-the-long-war
Another public figure I only recently heard about, of course, all the wrong people with the loudest voices are elevated to the top.
I love this take. We are not nearly as conscious of the fantastic beauty and majesty of the planet we evolved from as we should be, never mind grateful. I sat out on the front porch this evening - to get away from it all, and I hoped to see/hear birds, which I love, in the early evening, as was usual at one time. I think I saw one bird in about an hours time. Those goddam corporations that make millions from the manufacture and selling of environmental poisons are to blame, along with the stupid quietist acceptors who imagine nerve/DNA /hormone/tissue affecting poisons won'r affect human beings and other animals. If there is another dimension involved in judging our performance here - cosmic justice - some are in for some kinda hell when their time comes. And maybe even before that.
I keep hoping for the "before that".
It's only been in the last 60.years that the majority of people have become completely seperated from nature. And each other. Something to think about.
Unfortunately, we are all paying for the stupidity and greed of a relative few- unless we can adapt very quickly to 50 degrees C and the effects on food production as well. Yes, something has happened, the inevitable overwhelming callousness of a capitalist system has permeated society, has poisoned the soul. Perhaps a better system , socialism, will evolve - in time.
Good Kitty says hi and remember to always keep your claws sharp!
Good Kitty 2024 for president!
Good Kitty all the way!
Our plan is to get more than 3 votes and then howl election fraud because feral cats were not allowed to vote and the election was clearly stolen. Good Kitty is far better than Trump at howling. Good Kitty looks forward to your support and thanks you.
But the process has been going on for as long as philosophy has existed. It may be time to close the book on "greatness", permanently.
Sociopaths could not care less, except as that beauty benefits them.
In the first part Caitlin says that capitalism and US-led imperialism aren't working. This is like saying that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were failures (which many do say). It all depends on whether the objectives of those wars were the ostensible, official ones: bring democracy to the Middle East. Improve lives of Afghani women. Get rid of an oppressive dictator. Save us from weapons of mass destruction. If THOSE were the objectives, then the wars were failures. But if the REAL objectives were: to feed the gargantuan military-industrial complex. To make of certain countries on object lesson in what happens to countries whose leaders refuse orders from Washington. To steal the oil for US oil companies. In the case of Ukraine, to block cheap Russian gas from Europe so strapped US gas companies can make them buy much more expensive US gas instead. Oh, I left out o render countries with critical natural resources into failed states so US corporations can loot them at will. Well--then those wars have been resounding successes, haven't they? Similarly, if capitalism and US hegemony were supposed to deliver freedom and prosperity to all, they're failures. But if they were supposed to cement the power of a global ruling class and arrange for the transfer of ever more wealth to them from the natural world and from the poor people of everywhere, then they have been working beautifully. It's true that they've delivered us a world where the 1% own almost everything and have virtually total control of governments, but also where humanity's survival is threatened by imminent nuclear war, climate change and biodiversity loss, resource depletion and emerging technologies--but hey, it's achieving the immediate objective!
Mearsheimer is ok but he portrays China as the "real threat," just like the imbeciles that portray Russia as a threat. The only real threats are nuclear holocaust and environmental collapse, and the only way to combat them is to concentrate on "business," which is to say, making everybody on the planet as happy as possible. This is what China and Russia are both trying to do now, which of course they cannot do if their very existence is constantly threatened by the warmongering West. The neocon nuts want to rule the world and are constantly provoking and bullying anybody who dares to object, that is, to prefer a multipolar world. I think it is as simple as that. Hard as it may be for non-Americans to believe, there is a significant portion of the US population who actually believe in American Exceptionalism, which means the US must rule the world or else it (the world is doomed), and unfortunately these sickos have been in power for decades (neo-cons or just plain old "patriots" in the sickest sense of the word). This is nothing more than the bully in school who thinks he has to control everybody or else he will beat them to a pulp -- if necessary all at the same time. This is a simple but exactly correct analogy in my opinion. What do you say about this bully? How do you deal with him -- and her (Victoria Fuck the EU Nuland et al.)? This is exactly what Russia and China are having to deal with -- the US bully. Can he be brought to his senses before he goes on a final rampage and there is a free-for-all that ends up destroying everything and everybody? Sometimes it is easy to overthink things. This is actually quite simple. Much too simple for the morons who are currently running our various Western countries.
While the narrative is "safety through world domination," I believe the actual motive is money. American casualties endanger the good will upon which the grift depends. Moves that might endanger the grift are carefully avoided. Protect the grift!
I suggested the Biden's campaign slogan be "keep the grift going." But did they listen to me?
I'll send an email to the White House to see if Biden takes up your suggestion. Assuming he isn't crawling around in the Rose Garden looking for his sunglasses.
The old story: war (and the threat of war) is a racket. The cannon fodder are oblvious, no matter how often it happens.
War is the health of the racket.
Mearsheimer's analysis is correct within its frame of reference.
But he totally ignores economics, political economy, and domestic politics.
He also limits his critique of US motives to those of arrogance, hubris and ignorance, much like many critics of the Vietnam war did. But the US has immoral and bad faith motives operating. Mearsheimer never accuses the US and west of this.
I am told that many bullies are cowardly. Larry Wolhuter of South Africa was in a military unit. The biggest strongest guy bullied everyone until he tried it on a little man so ectomorphic he was known as Taffy. Taffy yelled "I'll give you the greatest thrashing you ever had!" The bully ran off and hid.
When Teddy Roosevelt was in the New York legislature there was a big bully known as The McManus. Teddy shouted, "I'll hit you, I'll beat you, I'll kick you in the balls, so had better leave me alone." The McManus backed down.
So, how does this compare with the USA? They were on the verge of war with Iran. Iran struck a Saudi refinery. The US backed down.
Related news: Later in Dakota Territory Teddy urged his cowpokes to "Hasten forward quickly now." They thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard.
Elinor Roosevelt's speech sounds exactly like Margaret Thatcher.
I wouldn't be surprised if prayer were more effective than voting for a President.
I'm going to laugh all day over that .
God help us???
Or is it GOD HELP US!!!
Maybe a write in God? But what party? It'll never work.....
They're the same picture.
Love your segue from asute observations into the beauty of existence - a great combination of "left and right hemisphere" thinking!
I'm happy to know that there are people like you are out there...
One of your best IMHO. Context is everything to understanding anything. Being old adds context, studying the past, listening to experts who’s bias is exposed improves context. John M. is not a prophet he’s an expert at global power politics and his track record is hall of fame caliber. Modern day Roman’s inhabit the 21st century West and are poised to suffer the same fate, by spending too much time enjoying their comfort and not enough worrying about the corruption their paying for, it’s masochistic.
Christianity has carried forth the *Greek* philosophy of literally everything being a contest. The Greeks actually kinda won (in a somehow Pyrrhic sense), and the ascendancy of Russia as the guarantor of global hospitality to private property seems to underscore that fact.
I just checked to see how much my states Congress members contributed to the US Gov. Lack of conscience. Both House members voted recently declaring support of Israel “ it’s not a racist or apatheid state”. Both senate members voted no to eliminate all US military aid to the Ukraine. I don’t support Israel or Ukraine or Russia, etc.
What Caitlin and many others here consistently ignore and get wrong is that Electoral campaigns are about a LOT more than voting.
Frame a vision. Consolidate an ideological analysis. Articulate a platform and program. Educate, organize, and mobilize. Discredit the elites and mainstream media and the hegemonic narrative and ideology and undermine the status quo.
All of this can be done in the electoral campaign process - it's not just about the 4 minutes it takes to registry, pull a lever and vote.
But this simplistic and narrow anti-electoral voting undermines the ability to do any of this necessary work.
I can't go back far enough to trace your attitudes but I am under impression you were supporting *voting* per se, but now somehow have switched to "electoral process". What you describe here makes sense and sounds a good strategy. It does not, though, excuse participation in the scam process called voting.
MLK Jr. did just as you said - framed a vision, articulated his ideology - and never was part of a corrupt Electoral process. The current Actors/Writers strike in Hollywood is not part of a corrupt electoral process. The UPS potential strike, which apparently came to a tentative agreement today - was not involved with either corrupt political party.
Now think about it: MLK Jr. the current UPS Strike. Chris Smalls Amazon strike. The now ongoing Actors/Writers strike - will achieve more than the US electoral process has achieved in the last two decades.
So where should one put there energy into? An electoral process that achieves jack shit, or on the ground anti-war protests, and pro-labor strikes? When was the last time you saw Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, or even RFK Jr. put on a pair of shoes and join ordinary Americans on strike against corporate American? When was the last time we saw Trump join a picket line? Where were all these heroes of ordinary Americans at the last large Anti-War rally, "Rage Against the War Machine"?
I saw Bobby Kennedy mobbed by crowds in Appalachia - No UPS or Amazon workers going there anytime soon.
That was half a century ago. The corruption and wealth inequality is far worse now. And the duopoly is far, far more corrupt. Along with mass media collusion owned by a few billionaires. Playing the electoral game is not the same given both parties are deeply corrupted. But it appears RFK Jr. is really beginning to discover this. We'll see how long he'll put up with it. I doubt it will be for very long.
Also: RFK Jr. is not Bobby Kennedy.
RFK, Jr. is far to the left of his father. Far to the left.
That's not my problem here i.e. RFK Jr being more on the "Left". My problem is the electoral process and a very corrupt democratic party. I do not believe that corruption can be fixed from the inside.
So we differ on our views here. That's all. I think we agree upon quite a few things, but we do not agree regarding the efficacy of the electoral process. And, after watching more of RFK Jr. lately, my views toward him have softened a bit. But I will not be voting for anyone who is running in the Democratic party. If you hate me for that, so be it!
condescending arrogant asshole comment, erroneously assumes ignorance on my part. I used BOBBY you jerk.
Yo Bill, not my intention to piss you off. I had to think about whether I should respond to your original comment or not. Since it was me who went off the rails last time, now you've gone off a bit yourself.
I just think Bobby Kennedy is a pretty hard act to follow - for anyone, including RFK Jr.
No shit, Sherlock.
Read or watch Kennedy's announcement speech - he is explicitly rejecting and opposing the corruption you note. He "discovered" that. throughout a 30+ year career suing corporations and governments
And yet he's signed up for the Democratic party.
Maybe a photo can help? See:
Why Was There No “West Virginia Summer” Campaign?
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2021/09/why-was-there-no-west-virginia-summer-campaign/
Nothing comes up with your link.
Wow. Did they somehow kill my blog too? The link works for me - try again, if it doesn't work let me know:
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2021/09/why-was-there-no-west-virginia-summer-campaign/
I liked the book Bobby wrote "The Enemy Within" - read it a long time ago. Some video clips of his back and forth with Jimmy Hoffa are legendary. I recall Bobby Kennedy using the line against Hoffa (repeatedly) that he wasn't tough enough to make his money legitimately. That really drove Hoffa up a wall. You could see it in the hearings. Hoffa visibly shaking whenever RFK accused him of cowardice.
So it's about accumulating retainers and slaves, just like any other heroic ruling institution.
Nah. This Christian unity LARP never produced anything except slaves and debtors. Adding, if you really want to change the world, hide in a church, not a theater of competitive predation.
Mearsheimer's analysis is correct within its frame of reference.
But he totally ignores economics, political economy, and domestic politics.
He also limits his critique of US motives to those of arrogance, hubris and ignorance, much like many critics of the Vietnam war did. But the US has immoral and bad faith motives operating. Mearsheimer never accuses the US and west of this.
Infinitely more significant is actually quite accurate. Caitlin’s point withstanding, I would add:
We ARE the infinite. We ARE the Universe. We ARE interconnected with everything everywhere.
"Foreign policy realists like John Mearsheimer correctly predicted that western actions would provoke an invasion of Ukraine while many others (including myself) got it wrong because they had at the forefront of their analysis the fact that great powers will never accept threats from other great powers on their borders. This understanding is key."
Take away Russia and Poland would go from America's Special Little Buddy to a rather yappy midtier backwater satrapy, like Colombia, but with delusions of grandeur and no cocaine.
Ukraine would go from Muh Beacon Of Democracy to a pariah state.
☼ We need to stop being bossed around by [imaginary] money so beloved by the finance capitalists who are the ones taking us rightly or wrongly for utterly hypnotised fools while those banksters party like there's no tomorrow.
☼ Yes, this is a breathtakingly gorgeous/awesome/staggering world/cosmos we find ourselves in. Easy to forget when one is staring at a computer screen and the rent is due and so on! However, most entities here on Earth are busy eating each other alive but there again we're all sourced from one & will return there to that single energy entity that is so incomprehensibly vast but yet cannot simultaneously be the observer and the observed. Perhaps it needs to know what it really is so here we all are watching & experiencing ourselves in this necessarily fragmented but fundamentally illusory world/cosmos or something like that, going through each creation cycle forever & ever but manifestly different each time! We'll all have a bash at everything that way, one supposes!
It is striking that there is anything at all. Why is there even reality? It would seem far more likely there would be nothing at all. And then there is the mystery of "love". Is love just some kind of random chemical reaction simply meant to perpetuate our brief physical existence, or is it something far deeper, imbedded in a meaningful way in our consciousness, which is itself a profound part of existence, and may even be the reason there is existence at all?
Still, for many, there remain many open/unanswered questions about the nature of reality and ourselves. As Leo Tolstoy wrote: "We can only know that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom."
The question that may be facing 'It' is, "Who Am I?". The wonderful lysergic acid soaked Country Joe & The Fish explore this question in their own inimitable way: https://youtu.be/KQ1OWvpfW44
A favorite quote of mine by Carl Jung: "Most people confuse 'self-knowledge' with knowledge of their conscious ego personalities."
Well, true enough Jameta folks have a right to believe what they want to . But if their religious beliefs included things like women are inferior and homosexual are evil then I believe that I have the moral right to oppose such views. It would be a less sad world if folks would follow the advise of the wise man Jesus who said know the truth and that knowledge will set you free. But instead they defied him and he became part of mythology instead .
I see what you're saying and it's hard not to ignore some of the stupid crap many religions put out and people uncritically believe in. On the other hand, I feel like we're living in a time where there is no tolerance for anything except making money for the 1%, and insisting we are suppose to believe we are products of happenstance physical particles that came together over billions of years, and will soon disappear forever as will our individuality.
I think there needs to be more of a middle ground when it comes to spirituality and organized religion. I think my problem right now is an assault on all spirituality and religion, where the real problem is that certain spiritual beliefs and religious dogma needs to be opposed (such as you say, the constant denigration of homosexuals etc.) but not spirituality itself - which people should be free to maintain for themselves, regardless of the flaws.
I agree true spirituality is based on love as the ultimate value of existence.
I live my life assuming you are right, although I have my doubts. We see the horrible tragedy in Ukraine right now (for example).
What I am saying is that our lives and our actions should be based on love. Even to the extent that the wise man Jesus said love even you enemy. Obviously he is not suggesting that we should attempt to cuddle someone who is attempting to kill us but rather defend ourselves and feel sad that a fellow human being is resorting to such violence . Violence in defense of our selves and to defend the land we live on is regretab le and we should always earnestly seek an end to it..
Mearsheimer said a couple things that I don’t hear much. When, in 2008, the U.S. was pushing to get the EU to go along with the plan to bring both Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, Andrea Merkel told the Americans to chill, but when, in 2022, the U.S. told the Germans that the west was paying for armaments for Ukraine, and levying sanctions on Russia, the Germans showed absolutely no leadership. Instead, Germany is fully invested in the proxy war against a significant trade partner.
Another point that Mearsheimer made in 2015, was that America was leaving Europe, as a zone of interest and focus, in its rear view mirror. This point makes the first point hugely historic. If Germany doesn’t wake up and recognize that there is no rich uncle when trouble arises, Europe may well revert to once proud scrap heap. Ukraine should fit in nicely.
Fox News has to be America’s most overt, shameless spewer of propaganda, to the point where it invents stories and proudly repeats refuted lies. TBS, ALL commercial media engage in more subtle forms of propaganda. A great BS Detector is FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting), and here is an example of the great work that they do. Apparently, the oligarchs are sensing the masses are getting restless.
https://fair.org/home/twisting-statistics-to-fake-the-collapse-of-europe/
Democrats think they are on the left because propaganda thinks they are on the left. Most don't even consider the possibility od other left ideas like the nordic economic model(which is modified capitalism). Or truly inalienable rights that can't be amended, let alone socialism or anarchy...eglitarism is a word not in their vocabulary...only because they are told what the left is by propaganda. Anything left to what Democrats say is considered bad.
Speaking of art, I can't help but think of all the earlier human species that made art, who literally overcame the fear of death every day. The left behind ideas that have remained for thousands of years. They were no less human and despite their fears, they valued art enough to create it and share it. Did they do it wrong? No... People forget that. The only way to do art wrong is not doing it at all.