By their "forbearance" Russia and China become our de facto leaders. Our own having betrayed us as they cannibalize our nations to wage war on the world. It is unfortunate too many millions are indifferent to the greatest betrayal ever.
Could be contemptible weakness or could be macho neo con freakin’ bully and bull dozer we are supreme we’ll show you how it’s done mentality. He’s really been a blight on Gaza and probably has been in Biden’s ear pushing him to not budge on stopping the killing stuff to Israel. Blinken is a Zionist for goodness sake and a neo con. What in his wake would we imagine him doing anything differently?
I don't think Kamala and the other ones really want to be cooked. In war, as more than one general has noted, anything can happen, and one thing that can happen is losing the war. In the case of nuclear weapons, losing means losing with extreme prejudice. I'm just wondering what will happen when these jokers peer into the Abyss and notice that the Abyss, as promised, is peering back at them. Where do they think they're going to go?
There's NO way that they'll survive, even in their bunkers. They can't plant their clubs deep enough because the deeper they go the hotter they get. The planet is heating up the earth itself, so they would theoretically have to put their clubs further from the surface. It's a no win on that account. But say they solve that problem, when any of them or their descendants want to come up there won't be anything to come up for. The planet will be a waste. No humans to maintain the poisons being held back in tanks and caverns. No humans to maintain the nuclear reactors that we use for energy. No sun for solar energy because the weather would be so otherworldly that storms will likely be constant like they are on Jupiter or maybe there will be an atmosphere like Venus, which is what Carl Sagan thought would be the result of this run away climate disaster.
So I guess they will roast in hell as they should.
I think those top USA bods are still under the illusion that they "have the technology" and they also have the overwhelming force and the financial strength. But we know what happened to Goliath.
Watched it again yesterday - simply wonderful - such a mirror of our STUPID 'civilization'! (what is left besides giggling like crazy and be toasted??)
The really obvious issue is that for the larger audiences statements by Russian and Chinese leaders get lost in translation, or rather are purposely never translated. Putin asked to join NATO because (as he said in Russian, but nobody dared translate, let alone publish) he "hoped and expected they could and would help destroy the nuclear arms arsenal both sides are abusing for imaginary stability between former enemies", and (yes, he actually said this) “all this is, is a weapons arsenal from days when leaders were suicidal emotional maniacs”, and “we are presumably above that now, we have more existential problems to solve, like a warming planet and pollution”.
There’s another Putin for you that you will never hear or read about. Right after NATO turned down his third proposal to have Russia join, he noted that the nazi–affiliated groups in Ukraine, who were murdering thousands of innocent russian speaking people in Ukraine were a big problem for NATO. Adding that he “does not understand why NATO even still exists”, and that his “quest to join NATO was merely a way to prove NATO is a useless cold war relic, a museum piece that should be rendered useless for a globally united humanity”. After all; More than half of the uranium being used by US nuclear power plants today has been imported from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. And the US is purchasing over 100000 barrels of crude oil from Russia PER DAY, still (in 2024)! Talk about hypocrites unlimited. So much for the NATO/EU/US war-monger 'sanctions', which are more like trade-wars. It's all so sad, this weird 'the others versus us' mentality by NATO, so incredibly stupid and sad.
and FYI, my mother was a Russian language teacher here in The NL, a Slavic languages/cultures scientist and expert, which is how I got this translation, who I got this text from. Right before she died in 2015 by the way, from a cancer that had its roots in fall-out from the nukes that were once dropped in Nagasaki/Hiroshima because as a child she was in camps in Hindia-Belanda during WW2. Talk about faith..
Gilbert Doctorow, Putin to reporter Pavel Zarubin: 'NATO will be at war with us and our response will be appropriate to the perceived threat'
Pavel Zarubin, a journalist who seems to follow Vladimir Vladimirovich everywhere to gather material for his weekly Sunday evening show 'Moscow, the Kremlin, Putin' put to him the question that is as much on the minds of Russians as it is on the mind of us here in the West: how will Russia respond to the expected American and British go-ahead to Zelensky for use of their missiles to attack the heartland of Russia. Putin gave his answer speaking in a calm and deliberate tone. What he said has been picked up by global media, many of which have presented it to world audiences as being bellicose. It was not bellicose but it was open to various interpretations because its essence is that Russia's response will be calibrated to the level of threat to itself that it sees in any coming attacks from Ukraine.
But before getting to the 'punch line' that everyone awaited, President Putin explained Russia's understanding that what is at issue goes far beyond mere permission for Ukraine to use Western supplied long-range offensive weapons as it sees fit. Per Russian military evaluation, Ukraine by itself does not possess the satellite reconnaissance capability necessary to program the NATO-supplied missiles to target. For this it is totally dependent on NATO countries. More important still, Ukraine does not have the training, the skills to maintain and launch these missiles on its own. Two or three weeks training is utterly inadequate to manage these highly sophisticated weapons systems. Accordingly all of those functions must necessarily be carried out by technical people from the NATO country manufacturers of the weapons. For these reasons, Russia concludes that the missiles effectively represent NATO's direct involvement in the conflict. The status of the conflict moves on from a proxy war to a full-blown war by NATO countries on Russia. That change in the nature of the war requires a change in the way Russia conducts itself. As Putin said, Russia will calibrate its response to any attack to the level of threat it perceives. Period...
..The fact is that Russia is mentally prepared for anything that the West can throw at it today via Ukraine, up to and including, for example, a missile attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant. Due to its unprotected outer structure, a strike there could result in a leakage of radioactivity similar to the Chernobyl catastrophe. We should not doubt that a Russian response to such an incident will be memorable if any of us survives it. https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/putin-to-reporter-pavel-zarubin-nato
True on the one hand (and that is exactly what these 'western morons' are counting on) BUT the old saying is: the jar goes to the well until it breaks - der Krug geht solange zum Brunnen bis er bricht! - I think Mr Putin is under rising pressure to change his rather rational and reluctant strategy ... (as heard by so many well informed level headed (real) experts, the 'western' governments are INSANE!
I'd like to know what Freedoms? The ones they pretended we had before Israel told them to show us the truth of those supposed Freedoms by dismantling the First Amendment and the actual power of the Police State via the Terrorist Act they have been augmenting since 2001?
This is the insanity of the US Government and the NATO alliance. The Russians have been underestimated and dismissed as irrelevant for too long. This is the "house that Biden, Blinkin and Nuland built". That house is about to come down on all of our heads.
Amen Brother. Ray McGovern, Col. Doug Macgregor, Scott Ritter, Larry Johnson, Prof. John Mearsheimer and a few others have made this point almost continuously for over two years. Our country has been hijacked by Identity politics, DEI and political ideologues.
The country is hijacked by Zionists and right wing ideologiues.
“.. DEI and Identity politics..” are not the problem in America.
Biden, Blinken, Schumer, Sullivan, Mike Johnson, the Kochs, the Pritzkers, Waltons, Adelsons, the Rockefellers, the CEOs are. They are who controls America. They are who ruins America.
You know what those are? Old men and Zionists who think they are “white”
If identity politics is the issue, then it’s a white supremacy identity problem.
It’s not “DEI” or “identity politics” that gets you numbskulls like Biden, Sullivan, Nuland & Blinken failing upwards their entire careers. It’s Zionist connections, amorality and zealotry about manifest destiny - that’s the nexus of the right wing and the Zionists.
I should not have limited "Ideologues" to the "far left" alone. I made that edit to my comment. Thank you for pointing that out. For the record, I consider "Zionists" as ideologues as they clearly fit that definition. However, DEI and Identity politics are a serious issue, at least here in the States. They are, at least, major contributing factors to US Problems.
Wrong. That's the Spin of Culture Wars to keep your eye off the correct hand, the hand that MIGHT have the pea, though most of the time there's no pea. It's a Distraction you're falling for.
Not really. They have nothing to do with the oligarchs in charge of our country. They are made up argument points that the sheep like to focus on, but have nothing to do with the failures of our political and economic systems.
You're both right. Identity politics are an intentional distraction to keep the masses from noticing the criminality of the ruling class, while providing a gloss of virtue. It's function as a useful, highly effective distraction is what makes identity politics also part of the problem. Sure, DEI would be beside the point were it not for the fact that we live in an age when victimization has become a virtue --- the new status symbol --- which puts identity politics at the forefront of discussion. And we can't expect peoples who've been historically marginalized to simply ignore DEI talking points. But now we have new categories of victimization, and the list keeps growing like a metastasizing cancer on our consciousness, taking our awareness away from much larger, more urgent problems.
Those cause you list are TALKING POINTS to divide us. It's part of the manipulation. Those aren't causes of the fall of our empire.
The Fall of our Empire is the mindset of those that are running the table. The mindset is always do a Zero Sum play... Always. That's leads to Zero Sum in totality!
Look at it. No diplomacy in at least 30 years. Yes maybe lip service, but NO actual talking to our competition. Competition is good it spurs growth. Crushing your competition kills growth, the killer has no reason to excell at anything. You see this country decimating the schools, replacing actual facts and science with pseudo belief systems. That's not growing an intelligent nation. As it is, we have to steal brains from countries that invest in their future.
That's what happens to Plutocracies. Their children don't mature, gain wisdom or get a decent education because they are coddled. It all turns into a Kakocracy. Which is what is happening now. Very very stupid people in charge. I've, all of us have, seen this happen to businesses, organizations, even the Mafia and families that hand the reigns to their children who are not qualified and the elders can't see what their descendants are out right stupid.
The arrogance, stupidity and brutality of the west never ceases to amaze me. Western elites don't have to be like this, but I guess they just don't know how to be any other way.
They make their money also by destroying the earth, taxing the poor, using those taxes to enrich themselves. Corporate welfare is real and so is a caste system that treats the majority of humans as Dalits in India who because of their caste are forced to clean public latrines with their hands and all they have to protect themselves is oil rubbed on the skin. Humanity is evolving alright, in the wrong direction. Monsters like Hitler and now the Zionists of Israel who are competing with Hitler and Stalin as major monsters.
That is mostly western propaganda. Just like today, we’re told that China and Russia are so evil, and they want to destroy our he United States. These things aren’t true, and if you can separate yourself from the propaganda, you’ll see the killers, criminals, and thieves are in the US government.
The more I contemplate the sheer contempt that the American regime has for 1) the will of the people; 2) diplomacy; 3) human life; 4) its own legacy; 5) the rule of law, the more surreal these past few years have felt.
Scott Ritter has written and spoken about the sea change in how American elites officially look at the deployment of nuclear weapons.
Where, for many years, deterrence was a revered nuclear posture, the abdication of multiple treaties, and the messianic self-image of the warmongering neocons who see provocation as a positive tactic, have resulted in preemption as a favored posture.
Preemption is absolute madness. It has the underlying logic of the “stand your ground” laws that identify a shooter’s state of mind as a legal justification for being an aggressor. If Russia believes that the U.S. will seek to harm it seriously, I would expect America and its NATO allies to to all be targets of retaliation. This would be preemption in action.
When the Russian concerns about their sovereignty and national security are simply ignored, the aforementioned surrealism gets ramped up. Where does this approach to governance come from? It is “because we can” stupidly. It makes no attempt to make sense. Surreal is too vague a word. It really feels like the red hour before a tragic reckoning.
The terrifying thing is that 'the Elites" have ascertained that The World can survive a nuclear attack even if WE dont. But we don't matter to them. We just clutter up and disfigure what could be a pristine,rewilded world just for them and a low level population of neccesary serfs for any labour not done by AI. So get a degree in cleaning toilets. Thanks to their CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT at Chernobyl,yes CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT,they,and we,know it's not a "nuclear winter". Thus this new relaxed,shrug of shoulders attitude to nukes. No ones organizing peace marches. But if they do thanks to all the new laws slipped in during COVID theyll all go to jail. Except we are told there are no prison places left available. Even I know shrug and say "Oh bloody well got on with it then and stop threatening us (via the news) all the time. Of course USA wants to provoke Russia into acting first so they can pretend they are murdering in self defence. This Tony Blinken is a disgusting MAFIA style Slime Ball. I've heard his voice on the radio (I dont have tv),it's one of those cheesey and greasy slime ball USA voices a Snake Oil salesman. Every word sounds like the LIE it is. And to think Abortion was legal when he was concieved.
All these policies can change at any time (for any of these countries). Such "policies" are useless (and more for posturing a position than anything else). What matters is reality on the ever-shifting ground.
The US has said and it was printed in one of their mouth pieces, the New York Times, that we now have a Strike First Policy. The plans are to strike Russia, China and North Korea at the same time no matter what the thing is that makes a brain damaged President Flinch.
Everywhere I turn, there are crazy people in "control" who are pushing us to a position that will be impossible to control or survive. I continue to go to demos. To sign petitions. To speak out against killing people. In Gaza. In Ukraine. The empire is out of control. I think they know it and that makes them even more dangerous because like a child who does not want to go to sleep they will try anything to get what they want. Or think they want. Or don't care about at all. I am not able any longer to really understand what or why this is all happening. And if I did fully understand, perhaps that would be even worse.
They think they, themselves will survive in the cushy bunkers. That's absolutely not true. They've been sold horse manure and they're eating it like it's caviar. No One will survive. If they hurry up and build a civilization on another planet, they might survive, but no, not a single human will survive in the long term.
Primo Levi survived Auschwitz and his words ring true today concerning the genocide of the Palestinians; "It happened, therefore it can happen again ; this is the core of what we have to say." One should read Isabel Wilkerson's book, Caste, to understand it is not racism, but caste that shares common systems and traits between what is happening in Gaza, what happened in Germany, the caste system of India, and 400 hundred of years of slavery. How many know, I wonder, that Germany studied the US and it methods and tactics of dehumanization in Deep South slavery before implementing and the genocide of the Jews.
Blinken should not have the authority he apparently is given. He’s demonstrated his ignorance and prejudice regarding Israeli genocide and Gaza. He has no business messing with Russia. He’s going to kill us all. Typical neo-con - never fought a war on the ground with a gun as a soldier in his whole life and now ….such a lightweight
"Status quo politics are quite literally driving us to armageddon."
Exactly. We can't pretend it's politics as usual anymore. These capitalist bastards want to get us all killed. Fight back. Vote outside the box. Stand up against genocide.
That's not how nuclear war, climate crisis, and a global economic collapse would work out at all bud. There's no 'secret bunker' strategy to outlast a dead planet.
It's literally Continued Existence or Suicide By Capitalism right now.
The scenario rhymes historically with the Nazi and Italian Fascist testing of weapons and maneuvers on the Basque in 1937 Spain at the invitation of Francisco Franco. America seems to be engaged in exactly the same war preparation maneuvers while it pushes aggressively against Russia in the proxy war and weapons line to Ukraine to target deep into Russia.
Looking at history, corporate America has always supported such violent insanity. Only the actions of humanitarians have kept the amoral capitalist wealth accumulators from waging war on an entire planet.
“Genocide in the foreground, world war looming in the background.” Once again Caitlin gets it right. The world is perilously close to a war of annihilation. Sane people should ask why has the world come to this?
The Israeli/US/West war in occupied Palestinian land is a settler colonial project which is supported by the old settler colonial states. What they did to most Global South countries is what Israel is now doing to the Palestinians. Israel also is doing the vital work for the empire in destabilising the whole Middle East - willing and greedy for expansion and with no qualms about a genocide.
By now we are aware that more vital is the preservation of US empire and its vassal states hegemony, which they perceive as being under threat from a rising China. The undercurrent of racism and white supremacy cannot be denied.
It is nakedly obvious the reason for US/NATO aggression against Russia - its refusal to roll over and get balkanised. So Russia has to be punished and diminished. Very conveniently the fascist Ukraine was willing to sacrifice its own. Ukraine's insatiable appetite for more and more weapons keeps the Military Industrial Complex happy.
With Russia preoccupied with the horror of an existential war, the empire could ramp up its aggression of isolating and encircling China. We see this happening everyday with tariffs, sanctions, propaganda and any number of provocations.
Accidents can happen with nuclear threats. Judging by the farce of a debate, the quality of the US ruling class is nothing but cringeworthy. It was not only bizarre, xenophobic, racist and crude when Trump came out with his " eating cats and dogs ". For this kind of leadership to be in charge of pressing the nuclear button is a nightmare from which we may not wake up!
Living in a country which has as its claim to fame a total subservience to everything American, it is so hard to reconcile what is happening in the world right now to feelings of interest in and respect for both China and the 1.4 billion Chinese and Russia and the Russian people.
Perhaps if one reflects on past decades and past American and British military dalliances and based on the results from those disgraceful exploits and what they didn't achieve of value to literally any country anywhere, but decades of successful and unwanted hegemonic results, perhaps the same feelings being felt now should also have been felt then.
Politicians in the countries who supported America then were far more easily respected. They weren't necessarily little puppets then as they are now. But now? They are so disrespected as leaders with their blatant support for the Israel genocidial murderers, as just one example and their fawning reaction to the dictates of the world's worst criminal country in history. The USA.
What kind of a threat was Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and the dozens of other US targets during the last 100 years. Hitler, yes. He started the wars in Germany and other European countries and he needed to be stopped. That was certainly different.
But nothing since that date has been a threat to anyone but the USA's drive for world dominance.
For that the whole world suffers.
So my sympathies are clear. I defy any person to say that anyone who doesn't hate the Russians and the Chinese is disloyal to his or her country in September 2024 and there is nothing that will happen now or in the future if and after the USA hits the WWIII button, that will change my mind.
Nothing. Neither China or Russia have done anything to warrant my hatred of their countries or their people. In fact what China has achieved since the end of WWII is nothing short of a miracle. From a peasant country to a world power in 75 years is a record unequalled in history.
As for Russia their contribution to the successes in WWII make them one of the most respected countries in history, their losses and sacrifices during that period were far worse than any other Allied power. Their contribution to the removal of a dictator, the most effective
But the USA leaders and the pathetic examples of most other leaders in the Western world in 2024 with their sickening subservience to the criminal apartheid stolen state of Israel together with the total arrogance of America and other Western hangers on, they are different. They are weak,
They are criminal in every respect. In the main, they are disliked by their populations as well.
That's disdain for the weak leaders only. The people, like people everywhere are the pawns without a true voice and driven to their control by corrupt politicians by a corrupt media.
Much like the Balkan countries and Ukraine, the US has been a consistently active and malevolent influence in the region for roughly just short of a hundred years now.
They say money talks. Capitalism in America, the neoconservative insanity of an excuse to kill nations, babies and all creation for the lifeblood of corporate capitalism, profit - is the manager of elected and appointed positions in American power, and the owner of all legislation to reach either floor of Congress. Money doesn’t talk it screams insanities at the moral consciousness of People stunted and demeaned in the unconscionable travesty of America the Corporate. There is no respite in media, it is psychological warfare on the soul of human beings to render the smallest wish and dream into a product aimed at the meager earnings allowed by Duopoly corporate rule. Only a Third Party can break the chains of profit, über alles. A corporate free political party exists and is on the ballot of nearly all American states. That party is being systematically bankrupted by the Democratic hue of Duopoly, and the use of Lawfare, a warfare on justice so imbued in Republican MAGA defense of an indefensible Donald Trump, is waging legal warfare on the Green Party to bankrupt the corporate-free donations of American citizens abhorrent of the disasters caused and to come of corporate rule. Figure the vote for either Duopoly party to be the act of a sniper, a political sniper who figures the vote for either Democrat or Republican will salve the wounds of injustice, yet it will kill the last chance for a corporate free America, denying the future of a nation of People, where Citizen is the highest office in the land - ended by an unconscionable vote.
The few, sane people in Government ARE protesting, but they are being SILENCED (in multiple ways). It's the nature of the beast (the US Empire) and the power structure - SANE people are systematically SILENCED or PURGED.
Anyone remember those journalists in Panama or Libya? I still do.
People in the know *are* protesting, but the internet is so strangled into walled gardens now it's hard to hear anything over the endless roar of ads and exploration.
Protected from what? career suicide? Because that's what happens when you speak out against the system - just as it applies to whistleblowers in corporations and the government. There are no protections - especially when the ones doing the protecting ARE the problem that you are fighting against. The only protection are the PEOPLE (like you and me).
(a) you seem to be living in your own reality (and not the real world)
(b) you have an erroneous/incomplete perception of how the world (various systems) work.
It would take too long to explain it all, so I'll say what I can:
>>"However our elected officials swear to uphold our laws"
The world doesn't work on "swears". It doesn't matter what someone swears or doesn't swear.
>>"would not be able to stop them from running for office"
It's really easy to stop people from running from office. Money influences elections. All one has to do is finance the opposition (take the example of AIPAC spending money to elect officials that answer to their interests).
>>"our tax money committing genocide..."
This is a statement made by many people that don't understand the fiscal and monetary policies and the working of the Federal Reserve, Central Banks, and the US financial system. Even if ALL taxation were stopped immediately, the Fed could print as much money as it needs (through various strategies) for whatever it needs. It doesn't need "TAXES" to fund things. As an example, the US debt is over $25 trillion -> through the selling of various government bonds and securities and the interest-rate system. This is how the Govt. creates money to fund projects, not through taxation. Taxation has other purposes.
>>"putting us in the way of nuclear war"
The people don't have a choice. The elected representatives (senators, representatives) DON'T represent the interests of the people. They represent the interests of the Power Elite, Empire Managers and Oligarchs. Until you understand this, you will continue living in your "la-la land".
>>"but they swore an oath and choosing to ignore that puts all in danger"
Are you 5 years old? That is so naive. Swearing an oath means NOTHING.
Sorry to say, but your comment reflects a naive understanding of human psychology and the way the world works and does not even remotely reflect reality.
Zelensky has said Putin's 'red lines' are nothing. And the US/UK has taken that and escalated. Russia is unlikely to escalate with attacks on NATO countries directly. It does not need to. Russia will just plod on... they don't even look worried. Just like Iran refusing to respond to Israel's desperate provocations, the ploy to get the US engaged in war with Iran, is the most effective strategy.
But Russia can hurt the US and UK in the same way Iran can but at another time and place where US assets are most vulnerable. It is a case of how much can the US/UK absorb when Russia's/Iran's asymmetric response comes before they negotiate? It's a very old game.
Yes, that is true, although I was referring to Zelensky's recent comments. Biden had many 'red lines'; Tanks, F16s, Long range missiles etc...all apparently would threaten WW3 ...and yet he has crossed them all.
Pretend Russia or any other country were lobbing missiles at the United States. How would the US respond?
The West sees Russian forbearance as contemptible weakness and responds accordingly.
Our lives are a sacrifice that the rulers of the West are happy to make to maintain global hegemony.
By their "forbearance" Russia and China become our de facto leaders. Our own having betrayed us as they cannibalize our nations to wage war on the world. It is unfortunate too many millions are indifferent to the greatest betrayal ever.
No, as neither Russia's nor China's orders are obeyed.
Could be contemptible weakness or could be macho neo con freakin’ bully and bull dozer we are supreme we’ll show you how it’s done mentality. He’s really been a blight on Gaza and probably has been in Biden’s ear pushing him to not budge on stopping the killing stuff to Israel. Blinken is a Zionist for goodness sake and a neo con. What in his wake would we imagine him doing anything differently?
I don't think Kamala and the other ones really want to be cooked. In war, as more than one general has noted, anything can happen, and one thing that can happen is losing the war. In the case of nuclear weapons, losing means losing with extreme prejudice. I'm just wondering what will happen when these jokers peer into the Abyss and notice that the Abyss, as promised, is peering back at them. Where do they think they're going to go?
To their bunkers in New Zealand. That's where all the millionaires/billionaires have their bomb shelters I'm told.
like that would save them.
They're betting on it. That's why we should have a supply of concrete ready to pour down their air vents once they seal themselves in.
There's NO way that they'll survive, even in their bunkers. They can't plant their clubs deep enough because the deeper they go the hotter they get. The planet is heating up the earth itself, so they would theoretically have to put their clubs further from the surface. It's a no win on that account. But say they solve that problem, when any of them or their descendants want to come up there won't be anything to come up for. The planet will be a waste. No humans to maintain the poisons being held back in tanks and caverns. No humans to maintain the nuclear reactors that we use for energy. No sun for solar energy because the weather would be so otherworldly that storms will likely be constant like they are on Jupiter or maybe there will be an atmosphere like Venus, which is what Carl Sagan thought would be the result of this run away climate disaster.
So I guess they will roast in hell as they should.
But doesn't hiding in tunnels make you 'Hamas' ? - and therefore legitimate targets!
And Hawaii! Don't forget Zuckerberg has a bunker there
Gotta love the absurdly wealthy building underground structures on islands that are slowly being swallowed by rising ocean levels. Lmao
Volcanic, too. : D
I think those top USA bods are still under the illusion that they "have the technology" and they also have the overwhelming force and the financial strength. But we know what happened to Goliath.
It’s the Rapture! Hallelujah! Apparently they’re hedging their bets. If they can’t get in Palestine, by golly, they’ll get it anyway they can.
No slaves to work for them though.
That's us!
Ever see "Don't Look Up!:?
Watched it again yesterday - simply wonderful - such a mirror of our STUPID 'civilization'! (what is left besides giggling like crazy and be toasted??)
Yeah, hegemony over what? A broken world smoldering in radioactive ruins? What a noble thing to aspire to!
Nobility has nothing to do with it.
👏👏
The really obvious issue is that for the larger audiences statements by Russian and Chinese leaders get lost in translation, or rather are purposely never translated. Putin asked to join NATO because (as he said in Russian, but nobody dared translate, let alone publish) he "hoped and expected they could and would help destroy the nuclear arms arsenal both sides are abusing for imaginary stability between former enemies", and (yes, he actually said this) “all this is, is a weapons arsenal from days when leaders were suicidal emotional maniacs”, and “we are presumably above that now, we have more existential problems to solve, like a warming planet and pollution”.
There’s another Putin for you that you will never hear or read about. Right after NATO turned down his third proposal to have Russia join, he noted that the nazi–affiliated groups in Ukraine, who were murdering thousands of innocent russian speaking people in Ukraine were a big problem for NATO. Adding that he “does not understand why NATO even still exists”, and that his “quest to join NATO was merely a way to prove NATO is a useless cold war relic, a museum piece that should be rendered useless for a globally united humanity”. After all; More than half of the uranium being used by US nuclear power plants today has been imported from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. And the US is purchasing over 100000 barrels of crude oil from Russia PER DAY, still (in 2024)! Talk about hypocrites unlimited. So much for the NATO/EU/US war-monger 'sanctions', which are more like trade-wars. It's all so sad, this weird 'the others versus us' mentality by NATO, so incredibly stupid and sad.
and FYI, my mother was a Russian language teacher here in The NL, a Slavic languages/cultures scientist and expert, which is how I got this translation, who I got this text from. Right before she died in 2015 by the way, from a cancer that had its roots in fall-out from the nukes that were once dropped in Nagasaki/Hiroshima because as a child she was in camps in Hindia-Belanda during WW2. Talk about faith..
Gilbert Doctorow, Putin to reporter Pavel Zarubin: 'NATO will be at war with us and our response will be appropriate to the perceived threat'
Pavel Zarubin, a journalist who seems to follow Vladimir Vladimirovich everywhere to gather material for his weekly Sunday evening show 'Moscow, the Kremlin, Putin' put to him the question that is as much on the minds of Russians as it is on the mind of us here in the West: how will Russia respond to the expected American and British go-ahead to Zelensky for use of their missiles to attack the heartland of Russia. Putin gave his answer speaking in a calm and deliberate tone. What he said has been picked up by global media, many of which have presented it to world audiences as being bellicose. It was not bellicose but it was open to various interpretations because its essence is that Russia's response will be calibrated to the level of threat to itself that it sees in any coming attacks from Ukraine.
But before getting to the 'punch line' that everyone awaited, President Putin explained Russia's understanding that what is at issue goes far beyond mere permission for Ukraine to use Western supplied long-range offensive weapons as it sees fit. Per Russian military evaluation, Ukraine by itself does not possess the satellite reconnaissance capability necessary to program the NATO-supplied missiles to target. For this it is totally dependent on NATO countries. More important still, Ukraine does not have the training, the skills to maintain and launch these missiles on its own. Two or three weeks training is utterly inadequate to manage these highly sophisticated weapons systems. Accordingly all of those functions must necessarily be carried out by technical people from the NATO country manufacturers of the weapons. For these reasons, Russia concludes that the missiles effectively represent NATO's direct involvement in the conflict. The status of the conflict moves on from a proxy war to a full-blown war by NATO countries on Russia. That change in the nature of the war requires a change in the way Russia conducts itself. As Putin said, Russia will calibrate its response to any attack to the level of threat it perceives. Period...
..The fact is that Russia is mentally prepared for anything that the West can throw at it today via Ukraine, up to and including, for example, a missile attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant. Due to its unprotected outer structure, a strike there could result in a leakage of radioactivity similar to the Chernobyl catastrophe. We should not doubt that a Russian response to such an incident will be memorable if any of us survives it. https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/putin-to-reporter-pavel-zarubin-nato
We've heard a lot of idle Russian threats over the past two plus years.
True on the one hand (and that is exactly what these 'western morons' are counting on) BUT the old saying is: the jar goes to the well until it breaks - der Krug geht solange zum Brunnen bis er bricht! - I think Mr Putin is under rising pressure to change his rather rational and reluctant strategy ... (as heard by so many well informed level headed (real) experts, the 'western' governments are INSANE!
Yes, Bush ll was ultimate useful idiot among so many others.
👏🤢
I'd like to know what Freedoms? The ones they pretended we had before Israel told them to show us the truth of those supposed Freedoms by dismantling the First Amendment and the actual power of the Police State via the Terrorist Act they have been augmenting since 2001?
This is the insanity of the US Government and the NATO alliance. The Russians have been underestimated and dismissed as irrelevant for too long. This is the "house that Biden, Blinkin and Nuland built". That house is about to come down on all of our heads.
Ray McGovern has come out and flat out called them stupid. Plain and simple.
America has once ceased to be run by its smartest. Now it's the rule of stupid thugs and ideologues.
Amen Brother. Ray McGovern, Col. Doug Macgregor, Scott Ritter, Larry Johnson, Prof. John Mearsheimer and a few others have made this point almost continuously for over two years. Our country has been hijacked by Identity politics, DEI and political ideologues.
Wrong.
The country is hijacked by Zionists and right wing ideologiues.
“.. DEI and Identity politics..” are not the problem in America.
Biden, Blinken, Schumer, Sullivan, Mike Johnson, the Kochs, the Pritzkers, Waltons, Adelsons, the Rockefellers, the CEOs are. They are who controls America. They are who ruins America.
You know what those are? Old men and Zionists who think they are “white”
If identity politics is the issue, then it’s a white supremacy identity problem.
It’s not “DEI” or “identity politics” that gets you numbskulls like Biden, Sullivan, Nuland & Blinken failing upwards their entire careers. It’s Zionist connections, amorality and zealotry about manifest destiny - that’s the nexus of the right wing and the Zionists.
I should not have limited "Ideologues" to the "far left" alone. I made that edit to my comment. Thank you for pointing that out. For the record, I consider "Zionists" as ideologues as they clearly fit that definition. However, DEI and Identity politics are a serious issue, at least here in the States. They are, at least, major contributing factors to US Problems.
Wrong. That's the Spin of Culture Wars to keep your eye off the correct hand, the hand that MIGHT have the pea, though most of the time there's no pea. It's a Distraction you're falling for.
Not really. They have nothing to do with the oligarchs in charge of our country. They are made up argument points that the sheep like to focus on, but have nothing to do with the failures of our political and economic systems.
You're both right. Identity politics are an intentional distraction to keep the masses from noticing the criminality of the ruling class, while providing a gloss of virtue. It's function as a useful, highly effective distraction is what makes identity politics also part of the problem. Sure, DEI would be beside the point were it not for the fact that we live in an age when victimization has become a virtue --- the new status symbol --- which puts identity politics at the forefront of discussion. And we can't expect peoples who've been historically marginalized to simply ignore DEI talking points. But now we have new categories of victimization, and the list keeps growing like a metastasizing cancer on our consciousness, taking our awareness away from much larger, more urgent problems.
Those cause you list are TALKING POINTS to divide us. It's part of the manipulation. Those aren't causes of the fall of our empire.
The Fall of our Empire is the mindset of those that are running the table. The mindset is always do a Zero Sum play... Always. That's leads to Zero Sum in totality!
Look at it. No diplomacy in at least 30 years. Yes maybe lip service, but NO actual talking to our competition. Competition is good it spurs growth. Crushing your competition kills growth, the killer has no reason to excell at anything. You see this country decimating the schools, replacing actual facts and science with pseudo belief systems. That's not growing an intelligent nation. As it is, we have to steal brains from countries that invest in their future.
That's what happens to Plutocracies. Their children don't mature, gain wisdom or get a decent education because they are coddled. It all turns into a Kakocracy. Which is what is happening now. Very very stupid people in charge. I've, all of us have, seen this happen to businesses, organizations, even the Mafia and families that hand the reigns to their children who are not qualified and the elders can't see what their descendants are out right stupid.
The arrogance, stupidity and brutality of the west never ceases to amaze me. Western elites don't have to be like this, but I guess they just don't know how to be any other way.
Yes. - Wouldn’t it be easier to just do the right thing, do what’s sensible and stay on the right side of history?
Easier? For who?
You? Me? sure. and better too.
But not for the ruling class. They make their money destroying the economy.
Yes, they will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, they already did it.
lotta good their money is gonna do them if this scenario plays out as badly as it could
They make their money also by destroying the earth, taxing the poor, using those taxes to enrich themselves. Corporate welfare is real and so is a caste system that treats the majority of humans as Dalits in India who because of their caste are forced to clean public latrines with their hands and all they have to protect themselves is oil rubbed on the skin. Humanity is evolving alright, in the wrong direction. Monsters like Hitler and now the Zionists of Israel who are competing with Hitler and Stalin as major monsters.
Remove Stalin from the 'monster' list and you might have a point.
Have you not read about the forced starvation of millions in Ukraine, Romania, elsewhere. Stalin was a monster. Educate yourself.
I did educate myself. That's why I said that.
Stalin was a hero of the working class.
.
And he sure did not pay the clouds to not rain.
Famine is real.
Deliberate genocide by Stalin is not.
.
Ukraine is famous for killing its own people and blaming Russia.
Get some education outside liberal western media.
That is mostly western propaganda. Just like today, we’re told that China and Russia are so evil, and they want to destroy our he United States. These things aren’t true, and if you can separate yourself from the propaganda, you’ll see the killers, criminals, and thieves are in the US government.
I read about the forced starvation in Ireland.
So much respect, admiration and love to you Caitlin. Thank you for being in our lives... in truth.
The more I contemplate the sheer contempt that the American regime has for 1) the will of the people; 2) diplomacy; 3) human life; 4) its own legacy; 5) the rule of law, the more surreal these past few years have felt.
Scott Ritter has written and spoken about the sea change in how American elites officially look at the deployment of nuclear weapons.
Where, for many years, deterrence was a revered nuclear posture, the abdication of multiple treaties, and the messianic self-image of the warmongering neocons who see provocation as a positive tactic, have resulted in preemption as a favored posture.
Preemption is absolute madness. It has the underlying logic of the “stand your ground” laws that identify a shooter’s state of mind as a legal justification for being an aggressor. If Russia believes that the U.S. will seek to harm it seriously, I would expect America and its NATO allies to to all be targets of retaliation. This would be preemption in action.
When the Russian concerns about their sovereignty and national security are simply ignored, the aforementioned surrealism gets ramped up. Where does this approach to governance come from? It is “because we can” stupidly. It makes no attempt to make sense. Surreal is too vague a word. It really feels like the red hour before a tragic reckoning.
The terrifying thing is that 'the Elites" have ascertained that The World can survive a nuclear attack even if WE dont. But we don't matter to them. We just clutter up and disfigure what could be a pristine,rewilded world just for them and a low level population of neccesary serfs for any labour not done by AI. So get a degree in cleaning toilets. Thanks to their CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT at Chernobyl,yes CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT,they,and we,know it's not a "nuclear winter". Thus this new relaxed,shrug of shoulders attitude to nukes. No ones organizing peace marches. But if they do thanks to all the new laws slipped in during COVID theyll all go to jail. Except we are told there are no prison places left available. Even I know shrug and say "Oh bloody well got on with it then and stop threatening us (via the news) all the time. Of course USA wants to provoke Russia into acting first so they can pretend they are murdering in self defence. This Tony Blinken is a disgusting MAFIA style Slime Ball. I've heard his voice on the radio (I dont have tv),it's one of those cheesey and greasy slime ball USA voices a Snake Oil salesman. Every word sounds like the LIE it is. And to think Abortion was legal when he was concieved.
Russia has a no 1st strike policy for nukes. The USA does not. Agreed that this is madness.
All these policies can change at any time (for any of these countries). Such "policies" are useless (and more for posturing a position than anything else). What matters is reality on the ever-shifting ground.
The US has said and it was printed in one of their mouth pieces, the New York Times, that we now have a Strike First Policy. The plans are to strike Russia, China and North Korea at the same time no matter what the thing is that makes a brain damaged President Flinch.
I hope you're mistaken. I fear you're not
Everywhere I turn, there are crazy people in "control" who are pushing us to a position that will be impossible to control or survive. I continue to go to demos. To sign petitions. To speak out against killing people. In Gaza. In Ukraine. The empire is out of control. I think they know it and that makes them even more dangerous because like a child who does not want to go to sleep they will try anything to get what they want. Or think they want. Or don't care about at all. I am not able any longer to really understand what or why this is all happening. And if I did fully understand, perhaps that would be even worse.
Oil and minerals. Oh and 💰. They're killing people for profit.
They think they, themselves will survive in the cushy bunkers. That's absolutely not true. They've been sold horse manure and they're eating it like it's caviar. No One will survive. If they hurry up and build a civilization on another planet, they might survive, but no, not a single human will survive in the long term.
Primo Levi survived Auschwitz and his words ring true today concerning the genocide of the Palestinians; "It happened, therefore it can happen again ; this is the core of what we have to say." One should read Isabel Wilkerson's book, Caste, to understand it is not racism, but caste that shares common systems and traits between what is happening in Gaza, what happened in Germany, the caste system of India, and 400 hundred of years of slavery. How many know, I wonder, that Germany studied the US and it methods and tactics of dehumanization in Deep South slavery before implementing and the genocide of the Jews.
An important point that German Nazis took inspiration from US South's Jim Crow regime. And then Israel.
So true! And the book you recommend "Caste" is a wonderful and eye-opening book (that I think everyone should read).
Thank you!
I know. But nobody in power seems my advice,lol
Blinken should not have the authority he apparently is given. He’s demonstrated his ignorance and prejudice regarding Israeli genocide and Gaza. He has no business messing with Russia. He’s going to kill us all. Typical neo-con - never fought a war on the ground with a gun as a soldier in his whole life and now ….such a lightweight
"Status quo politics are quite literally driving us to armageddon."
Exactly. We can't pretend it's politics as usual anymore. These capitalist bastards want to get us all killed. Fight back. Vote outside the box. Stand up against genocide.
Because they want a clear out so they can rewild the world.
That's not how nuclear war, climate crisis, and a global economic collapse would work out at all bud. There's no 'secret bunker' strategy to outlast a dead planet.
It's literally Continued Existence or Suicide By Capitalism right now.
The evil empire knows that it's an economic basket case. Global war would be a handy distraction
Isn’t it amazing that just doing the right thing would make so much more sense and be so much easier.
Margaret Thatcher used that device.The Falklands "conflict" was a useful political survival strategy for her.
The scenario rhymes historically with the Nazi and Italian Fascist testing of weapons and maneuvers on the Basque in 1937 Spain at the invitation of Francisco Franco. America seems to be engaged in exactly the same war preparation maneuvers while it pushes aggressively against Russia in the proxy war and weapons line to Ukraine to target deep into Russia.
Looking at history, corporate America has always supported such violent insanity. Only the actions of humanitarians have kept the amoral capitalist wealth accumulators from waging war on an entire planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Compassionate_Spy
“Genocide in the foreground, world war looming in the background.” Once again Caitlin gets it right. The world is perilously close to a war of annihilation. Sane people should ask why has the world come to this?
The Israeli/US/West war in occupied Palestinian land is a settler colonial project which is supported by the old settler colonial states. What they did to most Global South countries is what Israel is now doing to the Palestinians. Israel also is doing the vital work for the empire in destabilising the whole Middle East - willing and greedy for expansion and with no qualms about a genocide.
By now we are aware that more vital is the preservation of US empire and its vassal states hegemony, which they perceive as being under threat from a rising China. The undercurrent of racism and white supremacy cannot be denied.
It is nakedly obvious the reason for US/NATO aggression against Russia - its refusal to roll over and get balkanised. So Russia has to be punished and diminished. Very conveniently the fascist Ukraine was willing to sacrifice its own. Ukraine's insatiable appetite for more and more weapons keeps the Military Industrial Complex happy.
With Russia preoccupied with the horror of an existential war, the empire could ramp up its aggression of isolating and encircling China. We see this happening everyday with tariffs, sanctions, propaganda and any number of provocations.
Accidents can happen with nuclear threats. Judging by the farce of a debate, the quality of the US ruling class is nothing but cringeworthy. It was not only bizarre, xenophobic, racist and crude when Trump came out with his " eating cats and dogs ". For this kind of leadership to be in charge of pressing the nuclear button is a nightmare from which we may not wake up!
Living in a country which has as its claim to fame a total subservience to everything American, it is so hard to reconcile what is happening in the world right now to feelings of interest in and respect for both China and the 1.4 billion Chinese and Russia and the Russian people.
Perhaps if one reflects on past decades and past American and British military dalliances and based on the results from those disgraceful exploits and what they didn't achieve of value to literally any country anywhere, but decades of successful and unwanted hegemonic results, perhaps the same feelings being felt now should also have been felt then.
Politicians in the countries who supported America then were far more easily respected. They weren't necessarily little puppets then as they are now. But now? They are so disrespected as leaders with their blatant support for the Israel genocidial murderers, as just one example and their fawning reaction to the dictates of the world's worst criminal country in history. The USA.
What kind of a threat was Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and the dozens of other US targets during the last 100 years. Hitler, yes. He started the wars in Germany and other European countries and he needed to be stopped. That was certainly different.
But nothing since that date has been a threat to anyone but the USA's drive for world dominance.
For that the whole world suffers.
So my sympathies are clear. I defy any person to say that anyone who doesn't hate the Russians and the Chinese is disloyal to his or her country in September 2024 and there is nothing that will happen now or in the future if and after the USA hits the WWIII button, that will change my mind.
Nothing. Neither China or Russia have done anything to warrant my hatred of their countries or their people. In fact what China has achieved since the end of WWII is nothing short of a miracle. From a peasant country to a world power in 75 years is a record unequalled in history.
As for Russia their contribution to the successes in WWII make them one of the most respected countries in history, their losses and sacrifices during that period were far worse than any other Allied power. Their contribution to the removal of a dictator, the most effective
But the USA leaders and the pathetic examples of most other leaders in the Western world in 2024 with their sickening subservience to the criminal apartheid stolen state of Israel together with the total arrogance of America and other Western hangers on, they are different. They are weak,
They are criminal in every respect. In the main, they are disliked by their populations as well.
That's disdain for the weak leaders only. The people, like people everywhere are the pawns without a true voice and driven to their control by corrupt politicians by a corrupt media.
"But nothing since that date [1945] has been a threat to anyone but the USA's drive for world dominance."
I'd say the Korean and First Iran Wars were successful defenses against unjustified aggression.
what's the first Iran War? The US committed genocide in Korean, too.
Much like the Balkan countries and Ukraine, the US has been a consistently active and malevolent influence in the region for roughly just short of a hundred years now.
They say money talks. Capitalism in America, the neoconservative insanity of an excuse to kill nations, babies and all creation for the lifeblood of corporate capitalism, profit - is the manager of elected and appointed positions in American power, and the owner of all legislation to reach either floor of Congress. Money doesn’t talk it screams insanities at the moral consciousness of People stunted and demeaned in the unconscionable travesty of America the Corporate. There is no respite in media, it is psychological warfare on the soul of human beings to render the smallest wish and dream into a product aimed at the meager earnings allowed by Duopoly corporate rule. Only a Third Party can break the chains of profit, über alles. A corporate free political party exists and is on the ballot of nearly all American states. That party is being systematically bankrupted by the Democratic hue of Duopoly, and the use of Lawfare, a warfare on justice so imbued in Republican MAGA defense of an indefensible Donald Trump, is waging legal warfare on the Green Party to bankrupt the corporate-free donations of American citizens abhorrent of the disasters caused and to come of corporate rule. Figure the vote for either Duopoly party to be the act of a sniper, a political sniper who figures the vote for either Democrat or Republican will salve the wounds of injustice, yet it will kill the last chance for a corporate free America, denying the future of a nation of People, where Citizen is the highest office in the land - ended by an unconscionable vote.
Unbearable….why aren’t the (few?) sane people in government protesting loudly? Madness is about in the land.
The few, sane people in Government ARE protesting, but they are being SILENCED (in multiple ways). It's the nature of the beast (the US Empire) and the power structure - SANE people are systematically SILENCED or PURGED.
Not to mention imprisoned, tortured, assassinated, and genocided.
Anyone remember those journalists in Panama or Libya? I still do.
People in the know *are* protesting, but the internet is so strangled into walled gardens now it's hard to hear anything over the endless roar of ads and exploration.
Yes, of course…but senators and representatives could be protected after speaking out.
I was warned not to get into a discussion on social media because of unpleasant people. Sorry to say they were right.
Protected from what? career suicide? Because that's what happens when you speak out against the system - just as it applies to whistleblowers in corporations and the government. There are no protections - especially when the ones doing the protecting ARE the problem that you are fighting against. The only protection are the PEOPLE (like you and me).
Yes, it is courageous to speak out to power. However our elected officials swear to uphold our laws, wild horses
would not be able to stop them from running for office, and part of their obligation is to speak out when necessary.
And now is necessary with our tax money committing genocide and putting us in the way of nuclear war. This may
sound insensitive but they swore an oath and choosing to ignore that puts all in danger. (There are body
guards available to protect official persons in danger.)
Your comment indicates 2 things:
(a) you seem to be living in your own reality (and not the real world)
(b) you have an erroneous/incomplete perception of how the world (various systems) work.
It would take too long to explain it all, so I'll say what I can:
>>"However our elected officials swear to uphold our laws"
The world doesn't work on "swears". It doesn't matter what someone swears or doesn't swear.
>>"would not be able to stop them from running for office"
It's really easy to stop people from running from office. Money influences elections. All one has to do is finance the opposition (take the example of AIPAC spending money to elect officials that answer to their interests).
>>"our tax money committing genocide..."
This is a statement made by many people that don't understand the fiscal and monetary policies and the working of the Federal Reserve, Central Banks, and the US financial system. Even if ALL taxation were stopped immediately, the Fed could print as much money as it needs (through various strategies) for whatever it needs. It doesn't need "TAXES" to fund things. As an example, the US debt is over $25 trillion -> through the selling of various government bonds and securities and the interest-rate system. This is how the Govt. creates money to fund projects, not through taxation. Taxation has other purposes.
>>"putting us in the way of nuclear war"
The people don't have a choice. The elected representatives (senators, representatives) DON'T represent the interests of the people. They represent the interests of the Power Elite, Empire Managers and Oligarchs. Until you understand this, you will continue living in your "la-la land".
>>"but they swore an oath and choosing to ignore that puts all in danger"
Are you 5 years old? That is so naive. Swearing an oath means NOTHING.
Sorry to say, but your comment reflects a naive understanding of human psychology and the way the world works and does not even remotely reflect reality.
this is a good reply to that asshole who whined "why should I care about Palestinians". because their fate is intertwined with yours fool.
Zelensky has said Putin's 'red lines' are nothing. And the US/UK has taken that and escalated. Russia is unlikely to escalate with attacks on NATO countries directly. It does not need to. Russia will just plod on... they don't even look worried. Just like Iran refusing to respond to Israel's desperate provocations, the ploy to get the US engaged in war with Iran, is the most effective strategy.
But Russia can hurt the US and UK in the same way Iran can but at another time and place where US assets are most vulnerable. It is a case of how much can the US/UK absorb when Russia's/Iran's asymmetric response comes before they negotiate? It's a very old game.
Yes, that is true, although I was referring to Zelensky's recent comments. Biden had many 'red lines'; Tanks, F16s, Long range missiles etc...all apparently would threaten WW3 ...and yet he has crossed them all.