Before there was "detente" there was "peaceful coexistence."
The problem is a Manichean world view. It's not possible to have a world that recognizes Russia's security concerns in its near abroad. You either want the disintegration of Russia or you support Putin's supposed desire for Russia's domination of the world. Recognition that Putin's objectives are limited to Russia's near abroad is not permitted, even though he has never threatened the territorial integrity of Finland or the Baltic states and withdrew from Georgia after defeating Shakashvili's army.
I have a similar problem when I criticize insane partisan Democrat policies. I'm accused of being "conservative" or a Republican. No, I'm simply criticizing those who hold the reins of power. I criticized Trump for bombing Syria and not withdrawing from that country, for his assassination of Suleimani, for his bullying in Latin America, etc. But partisan Democrats refused to give credit to that because they were OK with him doing that. They went crazy over my criticism of Dems for whining over Hillary's loss, their obsession with "Russia-gate," and the well-advertised efforts to "fortify" the 2020 election. In their Manichean world view, I'm not with them so I must be against them. Insane.
True Trump bombed Syria, no good, and probably a chemical attack not carried out by Assad, but do you remember Clinton applauding Trump for doing it, and that big smile on her face? It would be the first and only time she had a smile for him. She certainly didn't smile, nor did the democrats when he talked about getting along with Russia, nor did they like the idea of him paying Russia a visit. Do you remember the non-stop Trump attack by the dems that Russia supported and abetted a Trump win? Or we could just call it the non-stop Russia attack assisted by the mainstream media and way too many on the left. Do you think that 4 years of anti-Russia propaganda gave the democrats the impedus to make what is happening now possible? In those 4 years they certainly created the anti-Russian propaganda they needed to dumb down the American mind, and implement the agenda they are supporting now which could lead us into a nuclear war. From the beginning of Trump's presidency they certainly made those neocons rush to their side.
My comment was not intended to be exhaustive. I could have said a lot more about both Trump and Clinton. My point was that both Hillary and Trump fans tend to be Manichean, as you've confirmed. Partisan Democrats are orders of magnitude worse than partisan Republicans, largely because of their convention bylaws. Republicans have not been acting like totalitarians and were able to nominate an outsider.
I don't really think I was interested in addressing your comment, and just using it as a platform to discuss Caitlin's article in general, which is how we have come so close to having a nuclear war. Sorry about that, and to address your comment of my black and white thinking, well, with a Master's in the biological sciences that's doubtful. However it was nice to interact with CarbonCopy.
They still own this farm to this day even though Hillary's lawyers have been in court and been made to tell the truth that it was all just made-up and escalated to be bought by all those people who as I said still believe the lie to this day.
Interesting no body was held accountable for carrying a very dangerous, undemocratic charade which created such division in this country. I use to be a registered democrat, but no more, not ever. I was appalled by what they did, and appalled that the left was so willing to assist their fraud.
You and I both! I left the democrats at the same time as Mr. Ralph Nader when they violated his and our constitutional rights during the Busch & Kerry debate.
In 2004 you couldn't tell the difference between the republicans and democrats, all for one, and and all for war. It's interesting that the democrats haven't been liberal since god knows when then forever non-liberal Biden who pushed every war comes in and does everything "liberal" I oppose. Biden'talks Armageddon yesterday and today Jean-Pierre has to talk it down.
The Manichean fallacy has been genetically edited into the Western national psyche( through common socially accepted psychological trauma features of modern life as epigenetic trigger mechanism) as a tool for demonstrating how stupid we are, thus deserving of being robbed, poisoned, imprisoned, lied to, exploited, and cleansed from the earth. Ostensibly for exhaling CO2, potentially having a conscience, and farting methane. The trope usually concludes with an I blame statement...but we really do need to start thinking differently and acting unlike the problem don't we... the beauty of a total collapse personal or societal is the moment where we get to make new dreams, hold ourselves personally responsible to create the social contract many people already live by, and seek redemption until it is found.
Yes. One symptom is the apparent religious belief that there can be only one cause for a phenomenum. Eg, the germ theory vs terrain theory. Fanatics for both theories don't seem to recognize that both poor terrain and germs are required for illness (in most cases). Toxins that overwhelm the body's terrain are the most obvious exception, but then they aren't germs, are they?
For my part, the closest I come to being Manichean is my belief that government-created limited liability private corporations are central to most of the problems of modern society. However, even there the belief that collectives should have the same rights as individual human organisms is also a cause of those problems.
Good timely post. These same psychopaths or their counterparts have been trying to foment Armageddon since the beginning of civilizations. They foment wars because it is their twisted way of finding life (& death) with meaning. If we don't learn to feed the right wolves we will never be rid of this problem. It's not about the wolves, it is about the one's you feed. Even my dogs understand this.
Saying we can't get any more insane and will circle back around is assuming the next level is not going to be faught with stone knives and sticks.. We are on the brink alright,, and the next step is the abyss.
I have been saying for awile now that the mind control of a generation found its stride in Hollywood..it's pervasive influence on the mind of the western world has created this communally reinforced "common knowledge" (false) notion that we forever fight the Russian threat.. Every drama penned in Hollywood has that theme built in and this has created this Russian xenophobia and Putin boogeyman syndrome they now they all suffer from. But this was all in purposes,,especially when you consider the CIA dedicated whole departments to the manipulation of the public through Hollywood. (not a theory, a reality) The neocons and now those wonderful (sarcasm) neoliberals who drank that koolaid their entire second hand hack lives can't see anything but the evil Russians always salivating and rubbing their hands together to "get" the USA, while in fact it's been the exact opposite for that generation of brain washed numptys.
The USA is the dangerous empire bent on full spectrum dominance and control and enslavement of every man women and child on this planet,, they simply project that onto Russia..if not outright enslavement then economically and as orwelian as it gets. But we can't address that because of the suspension of disbelief the Hollywood mind control machine has created as a norm.
Re Hollywood: somehow I ran into couple Gore Vidal documentaries on youtube and the topic is raised. Also, he had quite a few sayings about wars, politics, presidents etc. As if talking about the current situation.
Moral: it's been said over and over by many different people over a long time. It didn't freaking matter. Until it's an armageddon of a significant enough scale nobody will pay attention.
I just remem William F Buckley's response to Vidal's reasoned arguments: " well, you're a homosexual " ad hominem attacks are the candy of an intellect deprived of nourishment.
Additionally I see these video games as a big part of the programming. Even the military has produced them. For kids to become numb to the horrors of war and enjoy it is as far down the rabbit hole you can go!
Good spotting that...setting them up to be cannon fodder by instilling this romanticizing conflict is no different than the bread and circuses of the colosseum. Sports is the modern equivalent,, they used to have military drills at halve time, if anything was more blatant I don't know of it.
This all goes back thousands of years getting the average useful idiot to celebrate being cannon fodder for rich people's international chess games.
This is also why the notion of hierarchy is pushed in science and education. But even Darwin concluded that cooperation was a higher outcome strategy than war and contest. That part is ignored to use the idea of survival of the fittest and dog eat dog to lend itself to the idea we must always be in perpetual war for survival.. The hierarchy fallacy is very deeply ingrained into the human psych and system are set up to make that a realty as a proof. Its all wrong. Even John Nash demonstrated the opposite in contrast to his "fuck you buddy" idea and scenario.
The mind control in all this is very deep. Sadly it might just be our final undoing. The cancer kills the host then also dies but it cant help being the cancer, humans just have a board of directors.
Agreed. In the 80s & 90s it was the liberals who were for detente, although Reagan met with Gorby. In 1982 I was one of a million people in NYC Central Park marching for a nuclear freeze, with baby in stroller. In 1984 I went to the USSR asa citizen diplomat with the Association of humanistic Psychology to meet our counterparts. There is a strategy to reverse the arms race, called GRIT - Graduated Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction by Charles Osgood, And there is actually a word for things going so extreme they turn into their opposite - Enantiodromia - by Hericlitis, used by Jung.
Those 4 areas that once were Ukraine, wanted to be and voted to become part of Russia again. And secondly, the us set events in motion back in 2014 for Russia to be provoked into entering Urkraine this past Feb. Thirdly, there have been American, NATO and British soldiers in Ukraine fighting Russia since Feb 2022.
American media has been pushing nuclear war because it's good for their bottom line and Biden is a babbling mush brain crook that does what MIC, neocons and neo-libs want.
I can still picture myself as a kid doing those absurdly useless under-the-desk nuke drills during the late 50's. I recall that, even back then, I wondered "WTF is the sense of this?" Now, 70 years later, the lack of cognitive evolution in our idiot species is poignantly framed by that same question, that cognitive and ethical stasis emphasized by the fact that so many war criminals continue to walk free — and enriched. In my darkest inhumane fantasies, I picture Bolton et al. sharing a filthy windowless damp dungeon cell in the Bastille with a one-gallon paint can as a latrine, while being served maggots on burned toast for breakfast. Sadly, the depths of my disgust for these sociopaths buffer me from feeling any remorse for conjuring such a horrific image.
There but for fortune go you or I. Demonizing people is what the empire does. Punishment is what the empire does. Things will not change until we change.
NORAD bunkers. 1000 people trapped 2 miles in a mountain, strategically engineering the destruction of the planet, willingly I might add. Ok boys and girls, everyone is dead, what do we do now?
This basic dynamic is why tensions can ever always only be ratcheted up and never down, lest the other party pounce and scream about weakness and Munich.
Biden could push The Button now and Team R would insist that they would have pushed it sooner and better. And of course, when Trump was president, Team D was practically drooling for war.
I am looking for accurate information about the battlefield--where Russia is winning, and where Ukraine/NATO is winning. I've looked and looked, and am having a hard time finding actual honest information. Does anyone have any good sources?
I do tend to trust what Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, and Candice Owens say because they are all opposed to nuclear apocalypse, and they are good about going back to the promises the U.S. made to Gorbachev, and how we've reneged on those promises.
I would also like to find some people on the left--probably Roger Waters--who are trustworthy on these topics. The people I am interested in want detente and deescalation. We also would like to see the deep state lose power.
It may bother some people that I am willing to listen to people on the left and on the right. If it bothers you, please just skip this comment. However, if you have an actual news source about what is happening on the ground that is as factual as possible, I would deeply appreciate it.
For military analysis on YouTube (and other platforms like Rumble), former Marine officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is excellent, as is former Marine Brian Berletic (at The New Atlas YouTube channel). For political (and some military) analysis, Alexander Mercouris of The Duran is brilliant.
In print, Aaron Mate here on Substack is a journalist of the highest integrity.
most of them still fell for the Putin boogeyman syndrome though,,hollywood has made that drama after drama depicting the evil russians as the world's problem and all the while the CIA has dedicated a whole department to influencing the public through hollywood.
I don't have a single source for accurate information on the battlefield. I have numerous sources that I look to. The best source of accurate information is Antiwar.com. To quote Noam Chomsky, "Antiwar.com has been almost alone in regularly providing essential information about these critical matters... Media censorship and one-sided narratives prevail in the western world, but are especially bad in the United States. Antiwar.com stands as a critically significant exception... I read Antiwar.com regularly because it has served as a reliable source for news on a daily basis, independent and unfiltered." They don't focus on battlefield news, but when their guys, like Dave DeCamp and Kyle Anzalone cover it, they are pretty reliable.
For military matters, sources like Col Douglas Macgregor, Lt Col Daniel Davis (https://www.19fortyfive.com/author/daniel-l-davis/), Moon of Alabama, are fairly good. The Grayzone is also a good source.
Recall, though, that the first casualty of war is the truth. In the fog of war, the most honest reporter must report fog. Other than that, remember the Biblical "Believe nothing until it is officially denied three times."
I totally abide by this dictum. No one can tell what's happening on the battlefield. There are no reliable sources, we just have to wait. There are people I respect who will say things like, I don't trust the Times on analysis, it's too ideological, but their raw reporting is very good... NO. Both the raw reporting (which is pretty cooked, really) and the analysis are thoroughly untrustworthy. We may be thirsting for information on what's happening on the battlefield, but it's impossible to tell.
The times is one of the most prolific propaganda rags out there...NO mainstream outlet tells the truth..everything is cleverly framed and skewed mind control..
I was on telegram getting russian front line news but was kicked off,,,by whom i don't know. the west is bludgeoned with skewed and distorted false information and propaganda and all the western news and social media giants are in on it.
Hi Carol. I missed Tucker’s account of the British Empire. As a child I recall it was difficult not yo be proud of such individuals as “Clive of India” . Our wRs with China from which we obtained treaty ports and of course Hong Kong.
No at age 71 I feel ashamed of our imperial past. Our invasions, theft of wealth and the deaths of so many people.
We were not of course the only aggressive, empire seeking country. France, Holland, Germany all took overseas possessions. The Belgium
Good comments Tim. I have been watching Tucker over here in Blighty, or perhaps I should call it Blighted , after all our energy price hikes, food price increases and interest rate rises.
What I am curious about is how Tucker gets away with his views on Ukraine, which I totally support. The Fox News owners, i.e., the Murdoch family are utterly vitriolic in their anti Russian narrative in the UK and I suspect in the US also?
I believe it is purely political. They are Republicans and were the biggest mouth pieces of the Busch wars so anything that can be put on the democrats is OK up to a point (where their wars start showing the true colors!) then silence.
I wonder if Tucker has a contract where they can't fire him, like Rogan. There are a few people who slipped through the matrix. Substack seems very open, too.
"Does anyone have any good sources?" - there can be no good sources while this type of a thing is going on. Years later we'll be able to start piecing things together.
You can't ride the line because when you fall off your in one shit pile or the other. It's very apparent that you are still clinging to a belief that either of those corrupted systems will provide you with what you seem to believe will be a middle ground! They are one and the same. Both warmongering whores who do the bidding of their masters (Rothchild's for one) who have bought and paid for them. The bullshit back and forth between the two allows the bullshit to be pulled over everyone's eyes as they blame the other party and do nothing but get rich! Understand everything they say is a lie and you can start to see the truth!
Also Roger Waters is not on the left! He is fully aware of what corrupt filth these criminals are. He is a "Realist" as am I. Why anytime we say something normal we are automatically called far left or left I just don't get because I sure as hell am no Democrat!
Arguing about "right" and "left" is pointless. The problem is that all of the Western liberal democracies, including those not in NATO have Zionist occupied governments, even Hungary. It doesn't matter if they are "left" or "right", they continue down the road of self destruction through mass immigration, and/or "free trade" which only benefits corporations. Not one of them dares criticize Israel, which is now heavily invested in Ukraine. What benefit was there to expanding NATO, other than arms sales for the US, UK, and a few others? The pragmatism of the politicians was, for more than a century, eroded until all we are left with is ideologues, who converge on only one topic - war with imaginary enemies. They are all political whores owned by special interest groups. They may be easy but they aren't cheap. They aren't going to give up the ride on the gravy train with their sugar daddy for you, me, or any other citizen who can't afford their services. Democrat, Republican, "conservative", "liberal" is only the makeup these whores put on.
I would also like to get past left and right, but in an ideal sense, over the centuries, they both have their advantages, as certain psychologists have outlined.
Dead on the money! The truth in full! This is a different form of what I just said. And isn't the real issue "How to stop this insanity before the planet is dust"!?
I suspect that Republican leadership knows their party is split so they try to cater to all. Probably, though, when the enemy (Dems) threaten they will unite.
We must not forget to thank Hillary Clinton for pointing out how Russia helped get The Donald elected, thus laying important groundwork for the joys of today.
The sight and sound of people who’ve never experienced war, except in video games and movies, thought experimenting with nuclear conflict is like an East of Eden rerun. But when teens play chicken with cars, it endangers neither their relatives, countrymen or their planet.
Putin has been trying to de-escalate since 2014. He advised Donetsk and Luhansk AGAINST having the original referendums to be autonomous regions within Ukraine, not even independent republics. He was agreeable to Yanukovitch's plan to have an election in 90 days consulting with Obama if he agreed and if it was acceptable to the Americans...Obama said yes.
He supported Minsk 1, 2 and the Normandy Format talks. He was prepared to negotiate before February 16th (when Kiev broke the ceasefire and started heavy shelling of the region. He was prepared to negotiate even after the SMO started. He was prepared to sign an agreement in April. The Russians Valentina Matviyenko (3rd most powerful Russian official in the Kremlin) said a couple of days ago Russia is still open and prepared for talks.
And another thing, Russia did not 'invade' Ukraine. They were invited, by the new republics, to help stop the imminent wholesale slaughter of the people in their regions (which, in accordance with international law is correct; Putin has a lawyer's training and mind).
If you doubt Kiev's intentions just look at the statements made by Ukraine nationalists prior to Kiev's unprovoked attack on the Donbas as far back as 2014. Statements regarding what they thought of the Russian speakers in these areas (terrorists, they actually called their war on the Donbas an ATO) along with the openly racist government policies forced through the Rada at literal gunpoint by the Nazis, the mass arming and training by NATO forces of Nazi militias (deemed terrorist organizations by Obama's administration) After the burning alive of over 50 Russian speakers in Odessa, Russians take these threats very seriously (The Ukrainian SS had a penchant for burning Russians alive...history repeating)
The modern UPA/OUM counterparts (Pravii Sektor and Azov) made open death threats to any Ukrainian leader who tries to implement Minsk...this along with the repeated threat to put nukes in Poland, NATO in Ukraine and Zelensky's threats to put his own nukes in Ukraine; yes, Ukrainians know how and they have the Uranium to do it..(He did this at Munich Security Conference earlier in the year before this phase of the conflict) there was absolutely no option left to Russia but intervene in a measured limited way (Special Military Operation is actually a thing, look it up on Wiki).
But now because negotiation is not open to the Kremlin; they have been lied to and cheated so many times over Minsk (Germany and France refusing to act on their role as guarantors), Washington's refusal to engage (not one call from Washington to the Kremlin in the first months of the war. Unheard of behaviour in the such circumstances) The UK doing everything to stymie agreement and end the war (Johnson flying to Kiev to stop Zelensky signing the April agreement). And now on top of that Zelensky yesterday asking for pre-emptive nuke strikes on Russia. (although Rada officials walked it back later) where to go for the kremlin?. 'Invasion'? If Russia declared war with Ukraine, celebrities and the political psychophants of Europe would not be taking the luxury train to Kiev from Poland. There would be no train, no railway and probably no Kiev.
If anyone tells me that "nuclear war is a good thing" I will ask them if they'd like to stand in front of an x-ray machine for several hours, swallow some radioactive iodide tablets, and then jump into the cooling pond of a nuclear power plant. Some folks just gotta learn the hard way, I guess.
We should have been somewhat prepared to see this reaction to potential nuclear war when we watched nearly all of humanity start wearing paper masks everywhere they went, even in their vehicles. That bit of obedience to government and media was a signal that the propaganda machine can get away with literally anything and can get the population to go along with it. How do we hope to convince people like that that what they believe and what they are asking for will end life on the planet?
There are so many dimensions to this issue, I am not sure where to start.
The Pentagon is not seeking a nuclear exchange, but the national security system needs an incident involving radiation that it can use to create sufficient urgency to justify a state of emergency in the US.
The use of a tactical nuke of any kind (possibly a false flag) would enable the authorities to do what they need to enact the extreme policies needed to perpetuate the regime. They are looking for a plausible excuse for dispensing with whatever remains of the rule of law. They need a war or near-war so as to hold future elections under conditions in which voting can be safely rigged and protest/opposition shut-down. A monkey-pox lockdown would be hard to justify...a nuclear crisis attributed to the Kremlin would meet Washington's needs perfectly. The sabotage directed at Nordstream was a Rubicon. There is no turning back.
Thanks again Caitlin. I want to put this little bit of information on here as I just could not believe the political bias of ICAN. Up until yesterday I have been a member of ICAN you know against nuking the fucking planet! Well I got my latest email from them and they state "Putin's illegal Annexation" of the 4 regions and that's as far as I got. His move to have his government do exactly what it did WAS PERFECTLY LEGAL! If these criminals here in the states weren't criminals we would be part of and recognize the rulings of the ICS! I think if you are going to be an "International" organisation you would at least have a better understanding of the laws and not just suck up to criminals who will never give you what you want.
Before there was "detente" there was "peaceful coexistence."
The problem is a Manichean world view. It's not possible to have a world that recognizes Russia's security concerns in its near abroad. You either want the disintegration of Russia or you support Putin's supposed desire for Russia's domination of the world. Recognition that Putin's objectives are limited to Russia's near abroad is not permitted, even though he has never threatened the territorial integrity of Finland or the Baltic states and withdrew from Georgia after defeating Shakashvili's army.
I have a similar problem when I criticize insane partisan Democrat policies. I'm accused of being "conservative" or a Republican. No, I'm simply criticizing those who hold the reins of power. I criticized Trump for bombing Syria and not withdrawing from that country, for his assassination of Suleimani, for his bullying in Latin America, etc. But partisan Democrats refused to give credit to that because they were OK with him doing that. They went crazy over my criticism of Dems for whining over Hillary's loss, their obsession with "Russia-gate," and the well-advertised efforts to "fortify" the 2020 election. In their Manichean world view, I'm not with them so I must be against them. Insane.
They always make it binary - it's either what we want you to do, or something totally crazy. Like you take our vaccine, or you want Grandma dead.
That's propaganda for you.
True Trump bombed Syria, no good, and probably a chemical attack not carried out by Assad, but do you remember Clinton applauding Trump for doing it, and that big smile on her face? It would be the first and only time she had a smile for him. She certainly didn't smile, nor did the democrats when he talked about getting along with Russia, nor did they like the idea of him paying Russia a visit. Do you remember the non-stop Trump attack by the dems that Russia supported and abetted a Trump win? Or we could just call it the non-stop Russia attack assisted by the mainstream media and way too many on the left. Do you think that 4 years of anti-Russia propaganda gave the democrats the impedus to make what is happening now possible? In those 4 years they certainly created the anti-Russian propaganda they needed to dumb down the American mind, and implement the agenda they are supporting now which could lead us into a nuclear war. From the beginning of Trump's presidency they certainly made those neocons rush to their side.
My comment was not intended to be exhaustive. I could have said a lot more about both Trump and Clinton. My point was that both Hillary and Trump fans tend to be Manichean, as you've confirmed. Partisan Democrats are orders of magnitude worse than partisan Republicans, largely because of their convention bylaws. Republicans have not been acting like totalitarians and were able to nominate an outsider.
I don't really think I was interested in addressing your comment, and just using it as a platform to discuss Caitlin's article in general, which is how we have come so close to having a nuclear war. Sorry about that, and to address your comment of my black and white thinking, well, with a Master's in the biological sciences that's doubtful. However it was nice to interact with CarbonCopy.
They still own this farm to this day even though Hillary's lawyers have been in court and been made to tell the truth that it was all just made-up and escalated to be bought by all those people who as I said still believe the lie to this day.
Interesting no body was held accountable for carrying a very dangerous, undemocratic charade which created such division in this country. I use to be a registered democrat, but no more, not ever. I was appalled by what they did, and appalled that the left was so willing to assist their fraud.
You and I both! I left the democrats at the same time as Mr. Ralph Nader when they violated his and our constitutional rights during the Busch & Kerry debate.
In 2004 you couldn't tell the difference between the republicans and democrats, all for one, and and all for war. It's interesting that the democrats haven't been liberal since god knows when then forever non-liberal Biden who pushed every war comes in and does everything "liberal" I oppose. Biden'talks Armageddon yesterday and today Jean-Pierre has to talk it down.
The Manichean fallacy has been genetically edited into the Western national psyche( through common socially accepted psychological trauma features of modern life as epigenetic trigger mechanism) as a tool for demonstrating how stupid we are, thus deserving of being robbed, poisoned, imprisoned, lied to, exploited, and cleansed from the earth. Ostensibly for exhaling CO2, potentially having a conscience, and farting methane. The trope usually concludes with an I blame statement...but we really do need to start thinking differently and acting unlike the problem don't we... the beauty of a total collapse personal or societal is the moment where we get to make new dreams, hold ourselves personally responsible to create the social contract many people already live by, and seek redemption until it is found.
Yes. One symptom is the apparent religious belief that there can be only one cause for a phenomenum. Eg, the germ theory vs terrain theory. Fanatics for both theories don't seem to recognize that both poor terrain and germs are required for illness (in most cases). Toxins that overwhelm the body's terrain are the most obvious exception, but then they aren't germs, are they?
For my part, the closest I come to being Manichean is my belief that government-created limited liability private corporations are central to most of the problems of modern society. However, even there the belief that collectives should have the same rights as individual human organisms is also a cause of those problems.
Right on the money!
Good timely post. These same psychopaths or their counterparts have been trying to foment Armageddon since the beginning of civilizations. They foment wars because it is their twisted way of finding life (& death) with meaning. If we don't learn to feed the right wolves we will never be rid of this problem. It's not about the wolves, it is about the one's you feed. Even my dogs understand this.
Personally, I'd rather feed the cats.
Saying we can't get any more insane and will circle back around is assuming the next level is not going to be faught with stone knives and sticks.. We are on the brink alright,, and the next step is the abyss.
I have been saying for awile now that the mind control of a generation found its stride in Hollywood..it's pervasive influence on the mind of the western world has created this communally reinforced "common knowledge" (false) notion that we forever fight the Russian threat.. Every drama penned in Hollywood has that theme built in and this has created this Russian xenophobia and Putin boogeyman syndrome they now they all suffer from. But this was all in purposes,,especially when you consider the CIA dedicated whole departments to the manipulation of the public through Hollywood. (not a theory, a reality) The neocons and now those wonderful (sarcasm) neoliberals who drank that koolaid their entire second hand hack lives can't see anything but the evil Russians always salivating and rubbing their hands together to "get" the USA, while in fact it's been the exact opposite for that generation of brain washed numptys.
The USA is the dangerous empire bent on full spectrum dominance and control and enslavement of every man women and child on this planet,, they simply project that onto Russia..if not outright enslavement then economically and as orwelian as it gets. But we can't address that because of the suspension of disbelief the Hollywood mind control machine has created as a norm.
Re Hollywood: somehow I ran into couple Gore Vidal documentaries on youtube and the topic is raised. Also, he had quite a few sayings about wars, politics, presidents etc. As if talking about the current situation.
Moral: it's been said over and over by many different people over a long time. It didn't freaking matter. Until it's an armageddon of a significant enough scale nobody will pay attention.
So sad but so true!
I just remem William F Buckley's response to Vidal's reasoned arguments: " well, you're a homosexual " ad hominem attacks are the candy of an intellect deprived of nourishment.
Is this the moment? https://youtu.be/GsYk316Q23o?t=650
Additionally I see these video games as a big part of the programming. Even the military has produced them. For kids to become numb to the horrors of war and enjoy it is as far down the rabbit hole you can go!
Good spotting that...setting them up to be cannon fodder by instilling this romanticizing conflict is no different than the bread and circuses of the colosseum. Sports is the modern equivalent,, they used to have military drills at halve time, if anything was more blatant I don't know of it.
This all goes back thousands of years getting the average useful idiot to celebrate being cannon fodder for rich people's international chess games.
This is also why the notion of hierarchy is pushed in science and education. But even Darwin concluded that cooperation was a higher outcome strategy than war and contest. That part is ignored to use the idea of survival of the fittest and dog eat dog to lend itself to the idea we must always be in perpetual war for survival.. The hierarchy fallacy is very deeply ingrained into the human psych and system are set up to make that a realty as a proof. Its all wrong. Even John Nash demonstrated the opposite in contrast to his "fuck you buddy" idea and scenario.
The mind control in all this is very deep. Sadly it might just be our final undoing. The cancer kills the host then also dies but it cant help being the cancer, humans just have a board of directors.
Agreed. In the 80s & 90s it was the liberals who were for detente, although Reagan met with Gorby. In 1982 I was one of a million people in NYC Central Park marching for a nuclear freeze, with baby in stroller. In 1984 I went to the USSR asa citizen diplomat with the Association of humanistic Psychology to meet our counterparts. There is a strategy to reverse the arms race, called GRIT - Graduated Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction by Charles Osgood, And there is actually a word for things going so extreme they turn into their opposite - Enantiodromia - by Hericlitis, used by Jung.
I'm a big fan of Jung, and have been reading as much as I have time for since May 2022.
Those 4 areas that once were Ukraine, wanted to be and voted to become part of Russia again. And secondly, the us set events in motion back in 2014 for Russia to be provoked into entering Urkraine this past Feb. Thirdly, there have been American, NATO and British soldiers in Ukraine fighting Russia since Feb 2022.
American media has been pushing nuclear war because it's good for their bottom line and Biden is a babbling mush brain crook that does what MIC, neocons and neo-libs want.
Right. And these criminals never care about who was elected or who voted except when they rigged it!
I can still picture myself as a kid doing those absurdly useless under-the-desk nuke drills during the late 50's. I recall that, even back then, I wondered "WTF is the sense of this?" Now, 70 years later, the lack of cognitive evolution in our idiot species is poignantly framed by that same question, that cognitive and ethical stasis emphasized by the fact that so many war criminals continue to walk free — and enriched. In my darkest inhumane fantasies, I picture Bolton et al. sharing a filthy windowless damp dungeon cell in the Bastille with a one-gallon paint can as a latrine, while being served maggots on burned toast for breakfast. Sadly, the depths of my disgust for these sociopaths buffer me from feeling any remorse for conjuring such a horrific image.
There but for fortune go you or I. Demonizing people is what the empire does. Punishment is what the empire does. Things will not change until we change.
NORAD bunkers. 1000 people trapped 2 miles in a mountain, strategically engineering the destruction of the planet, willingly I might add. Ok boys and girls, everyone is dead, what do we do now?
This basic dynamic is why tensions can ever always only be ratcheted up and never down, lest the other party pounce and scream about weakness and Munich.
Biden could push The Button now and Team R would insist that they would have pushed it sooner and better. And of course, when Trump was president, Team D was practically drooling for war.
I have a big problem with Lindsey Graham, especially. He's willing to fight to the last Ukrainian. He'll help them die.
Suggest to Lindsay he has a free ticket and military equipment to fight in Ukraine. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see his reaction.
He seemed to be quite excited at this prospect, even said things are "doing very well".
Pure shit on a political platter! Another piece of filth that needs flushing!
That guy is scary.
What is scary is that he is in Congress, rather than in a hospital for the criminally insane.
Hmm? How many are there? Let's see.... I think 99%?
Regarding your first sentence. Yes, this is propaganda.
Excellent post.
I am looking for accurate information about the battlefield--where Russia is winning, and where Ukraine/NATO is winning. I've looked and looked, and am having a hard time finding actual honest information. Does anyone have any good sources?
I do tend to trust what Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, and Candice Owens say because they are all opposed to nuclear apocalypse, and they are good about going back to the promises the U.S. made to Gorbachev, and how we've reneged on those promises.
I would also like to find some people on the left--probably Roger Waters--who are trustworthy on these topics. The people I am interested in want detente and deescalation. We also would like to see the deep state lose power.
It may bother some people that I am willing to listen to people on the left and on the right. If it bothers you, please just skip this comment. However, if you have an actual news source about what is happening on the ground that is as factual as possible, I would deeply appreciate it.
God bless humanity.
For military analysis on YouTube (and other platforms like Rumble), former Marine officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is excellent, as is former Marine Brian Berletic (at The New Atlas YouTube channel). For political (and some military) analysis, Alexander Mercouris of The Duran is brilliant.
In print, Aaron Mate here on Substack is a journalist of the highest integrity.
most of them still fell for the Putin boogeyman syndrome though,,hollywood has made that drama after drama depicting the evil russians as the world's problem and all the while the CIA has dedicated a whole department to influencing the public through hollywood.
I don't have a single source for accurate information on the battlefield. I have numerous sources that I look to. The best source of accurate information is Antiwar.com. To quote Noam Chomsky, "Antiwar.com has been almost alone in regularly providing essential information about these critical matters... Media censorship and one-sided narratives prevail in the western world, but are especially bad in the United States. Antiwar.com stands as a critically significant exception... I read Antiwar.com regularly because it has served as a reliable source for news on a daily basis, independent and unfiltered." They don't focus on battlefield news, but when their guys, like Dave DeCamp and Kyle Anzalone cover it, they are pretty reliable.
For military matters, sources like Col Douglas Macgregor, Lt Col Daniel Davis (https://www.19fortyfive.com/author/daniel-l-davis/), Moon of Alabama, are fairly good. The Grayzone is also a good source.
Recall, though, that the first casualty of war is the truth. In the fog of war, the most honest reporter must report fog. Other than that, remember the Biblical "Believe nothing until it is officially denied three times."
I totally abide by this dictum. No one can tell what's happening on the battlefield. There are no reliable sources, we just have to wait. There are people I respect who will say things like, I don't trust the Times on analysis, it's too ideological, but their raw reporting is very good... NO. Both the raw reporting (which is pretty cooked, really) and the analysis are thoroughly untrustworthy. We may be thirsting for information on what's happening on the battlefield, but it's impossible to tell.
Western reporting can be dismissed outright because they never had any reporters on the other side. No need to ask why.
The times is one of the most prolific propaganda rags out there...NO mainstream outlet tells the truth..everything is cleverly framed and skewed mind control..
Exactly. Which is the great thing about Antiwar.com, because it is very aware of the fog of war.
I like Col. Douglas MacGregor. The others I need to familiarize myself with.
I was on telegram getting russian front line news but was kicked off,,,by whom i don't know. the west is bludgeoned with skewed and distorted false information and propaganda and all the western news and social media giants are in on it.
Richard Medhurst is a must.
rt.com is far better than any "news" I see here.
I listen to anyone who prefers the truth over where one is on the political fence.
Go to Big Serge’s blog or listen to Scott Ritter who have the courage to be curious.
I've listened to Scott Ritter on various podcasts and found him enlightening.
I just heard the most ridiculous revisionist history about the British empire come out of Tucker's mouth.
Hi Carol. I missed Tucker’s account of the British Empire. As a child I recall it was difficult not yo be proud of such individuals as “Clive of India” . Our wRs with China from which we obtained treaty ports and of course Hong Kong.
No at age 71 I feel ashamed of our imperial past. Our invasions, theft of wealth and the deaths of so many people.
We were not of course the only aggressive, empire seeking country. France, Holland, Germany all took overseas possessions. The Belgium
Congo story seems particularly bloody.
Good comments Tim. I have been watching Tucker over here in Blighty, or perhaps I should call it Blighted , after all our energy price hikes, food price increases and interest rate rises.
What I am curious about is how Tucker gets away with his views on Ukraine, which I totally support. The Fox News owners, i.e., the Murdoch family are utterly vitriolic in their anti Russian narrative in the UK and I suspect in the US also?
I believe it is purely political. They are Republicans and were the biggest mouth pieces of the Busch wars so anything that can be put on the democrats is OK up to a point (where their wars start showing the true colors!) then silence.
I wonder if Tucker has a contract where they can't fire him, like Rogan. There are a few people who slipped through the matrix. Substack seems very open, too.
Is it Blighted, though? So hard to find reports that aren't confused by an almost universal information catastrophizing.
What have you noticed, what's changed in 2022 that's directly blighted your day to day life?
I am likewise in the UK - though in my case, Scotland.
"Does anyone have any good sources?" - there can be no good sources while this type of a thing is going on. Years later we'll be able to start piecing things together.
Right! Additionally isn't the only and real issue how do we stop this insanity!?
You can't ride the line because when you fall off your in one shit pile or the other. It's very apparent that you are still clinging to a belief that either of those corrupted systems will provide you with what you seem to believe will be a middle ground! They are one and the same. Both warmongering whores who do the bidding of their masters (Rothchild's for one) who have bought and paid for them. The bullshit back and forth between the two allows the bullshit to be pulled over everyone's eyes as they blame the other party and do nothing but get rich! Understand everything they say is a lie and you can start to see the truth!
Also Roger Waters is not on the left! He is fully aware of what corrupt filth these criminals are. He is a "Realist" as am I. Why anytime we say something normal we are automatically called far left or left I just don't get because I sure as hell am no Democrat!
Arguing about "right" and "left" is pointless. The problem is that all of the Western liberal democracies, including those not in NATO have Zionist occupied governments, even Hungary. It doesn't matter if they are "left" or "right", they continue down the road of self destruction through mass immigration, and/or "free trade" which only benefits corporations. Not one of them dares criticize Israel, which is now heavily invested in Ukraine. What benefit was there to expanding NATO, other than arms sales for the US, UK, and a few others? The pragmatism of the politicians was, for more than a century, eroded until all we are left with is ideologues, who converge on only one topic - war with imaginary enemies. They are all political whores owned by special interest groups. They may be easy but they aren't cheap. They aren't going to give up the ride on the gravy train with their sugar daddy for you, me, or any other citizen who can't afford their services. Democrat, Republican, "conservative", "liberal" is only the makeup these whores put on.
I would also like to get past left and right, but in an ideal sense, over the centuries, they both have their advantages, as certain psychologists have outlined.
Dead on the money! The truth in full! This is a different form of what I just said. And isn't the real issue "How to stop this insanity before the planet is dust"!?
I suspect that Republican leadership knows their party is split so they try to cater to all. Probably, though, when the enemy (Dems) threaten they will unite.
Detente? Isn't that half cooked pasta?
Indeed. And they won't even question the spelling.
For me Lol moments are rare. Thank you!
Me thinks it's "El Dente"?
dilettante
Right!
We must not forget to thank Hillary Clinton for pointing out how Russia helped get The Donald elected, thus laying important groundwork for the joys of today.
Yes, but if she'd won we would probably have been having these conversations five years ago.
The sight and sound of people who’ve never experienced war, except in video games and movies, thought experimenting with nuclear conflict is like an East of Eden rerun. But when teens play chicken with cars, it endangers neither their relatives, countrymen or their planet.
Well stated Caitlin. As usual.
Putin has been trying to de-escalate since 2014. He advised Donetsk and Luhansk AGAINST having the original referendums to be autonomous regions within Ukraine, not even independent republics. He was agreeable to Yanukovitch's plan to have an election in 90 days consulting with Obama if he agreed and if it was acceptable to the Americans...Obama said yes.
He supported Minsk 1, 2 and the Normandy Format talks. He was prepared to negotiate before February 16th (when Kiev broke the ceasefire and started heavy shelling of the region. He was prepared to negotiate even after the SMO started. He was prepared to sign an agreement in April. The Russians Valentina Matviyenko (3rd most powerful Russian official in the Kremlin) said a couple of days ago Russia is still open and prepared for talks.
And another thing, Russia did not 'invade' Ukraine. They were invited, by the new republics, to help stop the imminent wholesale slaughter of the people in their regions (which, in accordance with international law is correct; Putin has a lawyer's training and mind).
If you doubt Kiev's intentions just look at the statements made by Ukraine nationalists prior to Kiev's unprovoked attack on the Donbas as far back as 2014. Statements regarding what they thought of the Russian speakers in these areas (terrorists, they actually called their war on the Donbas an ATO) along with the openly racist government policies forced through the Rada at literal gunpoint by the Nazis, the mass arming and training by NATO forces of Nazi militias (deemed terrorist organizations by Obama's administration) After the burning alive of over 50 Russian speakers in Odessa, Russians take these threats very seriously (The Ukrainian SS had a penchant for burning Russians alive...history repeating)
The modern UPA/OUM counterparts (Pravii Sektor and Azov) made open death threats to any Ukrainian leader who tries to implement Minsk...this along with the repeated threat to put nukes in Poland, NATO in Ukraine and Zelensky's threats to put his own nukes in Ukraine; yes, Ukrainians know how and they have the Uranium to do it..(He did this at Munich Security Conference earlier in the year before this phase of the conflict) there was absolutely no option left to Russia but intervene in a measured limited way (Special Military Operation is actually a thing, look it up on Wiki).
But now because negotiation is not open to the Kremlin; they have been lied to and cheated so many times over Minsk (Germany and France refusing to act on their role as guarantors), Washington's refusal to engage (not one call from Washington to the Kremlin in the first months of the war. Unheard of behaviour in the such circumstances) The UK doing everything to stymie agreement and end the war (Johnson flying to Kiev to stop Zelensky signing the April agreement). And now on top of that Zelensky yesterday asking for pre-emptive nuke strikes on Russia. (although Rada officials walked it back later) where to go for the kremlin?. 'Invasion'? If Russia declared war with Ukraine, celebrities and the political psychophants of Europe would not be taking the luxury train to Kiev from Poland. There would be no train, no railway and probably no Kiev.
If anyone tells me that "nuclear war is a good thing" I will ask them if they'd like to stand in front of an x-ray machine for several hours, swallow some radioactive iodide tablets, and then jump into the cooling pond of a nuclear power plant. Some folks just gotta learn the hard way, I guess.
We should have been somewhat prepared to see this reaction to potential nuclear war when we watched nearly all of humanity start wearing paper masks everywhere they went, even in their vehicles. That bit of obedience to government and media was a signal that the propaganda machine can get away with literally anything and can get the population to go along with it. How do we hope to convince people like that that what they believe and what they are asking for will end life on the planet?
There are so many dimensions to this issue, I am not sure where to start.
The Pentagon is not seeking a nuclear exchange, but the national security system needs an incident involving radiation that it can use to create sufficient urgency to justify a state of emergency in the US.
The use of a tactical nuke of any kind (possibly a false flag) would enable the authorities to do what they need to enact the extreme policies needed to perpetuate the regime. They are looking for a plausible excuse for dispensing with whatever remains of the rule of law. They need a war or near-war so as to hold future elections under conditions in which voting can be safely rigged and protest/opposition shut-down. A monkey-pox lockdown would be hard to justify...a nuclear crisis attributed to the Kremlin would meet Washington's needs perfectly. The sabotage directed at Nordstream was a Rubicon. There is no turning back.
May more reasonable choices prevail!
Thanks again Caitlin. I want to put this little bit of information on here as I just could not believe the political bias of ICAN. Up until yesterday I have been a member of ICAN you know against nuking the fucking planet! Well I got my latest email from them and they state "Putin's illegal Annexation" of the 4 regions and that's as far as I got. His move to have his government do exactly what it did WAS PERFECTLY LEGAL! If these criminals here in the states weren't criminals we would be part of and recognize the rulings of the ICS! I think if you are going to be an "International" organisation you would at least have a better understanding of the laws and not just suck up to criminals who will never give you what you want.