There is far, far more historical evidence of the former being chaff than of the latter. Not just anyone can go down to Area 51 any time and stand a likely chance of laying eyes or hands on a Zetan or their vehicles. Pit bulls have very repeatable, very material consequences, and they can be observed almost whenever we like.
I think the original WoW broadcast that caused mass delusion was an epiphany for propagandists in government. It is still studied in public policy courses today.
It was also the beginning of the Progressive Era and the professional-managerial class. They've fancied themselves Philosopher-Kings since their class started forming just before WWI (I don't believe that timing is a coincidence).
I like the tone of this - nothing mealy-mouthed about it. The way I see it, had the short-on-logic- mealy-mouthed talking- out-of-both-sides-of-their-faces "intellectuals" supported Russia in all of this, supported Russia because Russia is in the right, none of the gross human sacrifice of Ukrainians would have happened, along with many Russians, and we wouldn't be a hair's breadth away from destruction. I mean, Christ, 30 years of NATO encroachment of Russia, Maidan brutal and illegal madness, and killing of 14,000 Donbas Russians since 2014, ain't that enough? what "provocation" would have justified a Special Operation" -if that wasn't quite it?
Even the supposed non-mealy mouthed intellectuals like Greenwald, Mate, Hersh, Chomsky, always qualify their statements about the war with something like "Russia's invasion is illegal". Suggesting that there could have been other ways of handling it. Never going into details about those ways. That is, never bothering to go through the whole timeline of all the efforts applied in vain.
Yeah, the SMO is illegal but the invasion of Vietnam, bombing of Serbia, invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are not because the USA is exceptional. Mmm yeah.
The SMO isn't illegal. Legally Ukraine is still part of the Russian Federation and the central Russian government was forced to mount the SMO because the US fomented and funded the Maidan Coup in March 2014 whereafter the unlawful Poroshenko regime (appointed by Victoria Nuland and the US ambassador to Ukraine ramped up hatred of the third of the Krainina population that was ethnically Russian, killing ar least 14,000 of them prior to the SMO. Even so, Russia only mounted the SMO because Ukraine's military. armed trained and funded for the previous eight years, has massed 200, 000 NATO armed and trained troops on the border of Donesk and was poied to invade and massacre the Russian citizens thereinin early March 2022.
STOP believing the Western MSM if you want to understand our world.
Also, the reason that Russia didn't overrun and destroy Ukraine as the US did in Iraq is because it's intention was/is to protect the Russians in eastern Ukraine (NovaRussia), NOT to conquer and kill Ukrainians who are brother Slavs. The Zelensky reginme and its US and NATO sponsors are responsible for all of the war crimes involved, almpst all of which were and are actually committed by 'Uki' fascists. Haventya seen the typical PICs of fascists taping male and female Russian, including children, to posts and trees and publicly flogging them and leaving them to freeze and starve in public places? Before being judgmental about Ukraine or anything, make the effort to establish the facts.
lugansk and donetsk declared their independence. they were independent republics. russia recognised their independence and entered into a mutual defence agreement with the 2 republics. the ukrainians were ramping up the shelling of the republics and an invasion of the 2 republics by ukrainian military seemed imminent. russian troops that were going home after their annual excercises were redirected to start the special military operation. the dismembering of yugoslavia had far less of a legal basis.
I have heard Scott Ritter declare the invasion legal, citing the UN Charter which allows preemptive self-defense. This is disputed by those who say Crimea is not part of Russia. The idea is that the plebiscite was rigged. Putin's 85% approval rating is explained as the populace giving the thumb's up out of fear of being shipped to a camp in Siberia. Their secret wish is to be ruled by the United States of America but are afraid to say so openly. Until they one day cast aside all pretense to rise up and overthrow Vladimir Putin thus bringing about the new era.
Russians yearn to return to the freedom and democracy they enjoyed in the 1990's under the firm yet gentle hand of Boris Yeltsin and his Western advisors.
The religious authorities in any competitive society, possibly but not necessarily unintentionally, project their own atrocities onto others. It lets them symbolically perform penance and restoration without actually experiencing pain or labor.
Some, but not all, of the people you mention, are on my list of the mealy-mouthed. But your comments are right on target. Russia should have done something else, but nobody knows what? Or don't have the character to specify.
I think they have no idea of what could be done, and pronounce those disclaimers for fear of being labeled pro-Russian. That is, they're being cowardly.
I myself hesitate to counter this in writing. In-person voice only. That's still private, though they are now working on that too with the new snitch program.
Would you take us through that preventative timeline? I don’t see it at the moment. I see quite the opposite. Finland being brought into the debacle by Turkey, of all places, just recently.
I'm am shocked the Russian people are so restrained. I certainly would not enter into any treaty with known violators like the u.s. Ukraine will have to exist as a parking lot West of the Dinpro river I think. The Russian strategy isn't what I would call efficient allowing Ukrainian military to crash into the fire and I hesitate to call that humane but, if you want to punch yourself in the face I won't stop you approach seems to be effective. Sad that none of this had to happen. End Stage Capitalism is and will be even more brutal, it demands it.
Garland Nixon's show today is all about why the Russians don't seem to be doing much. They are exercising defensive patience. They are letting the Ukrainians and NATO exhaust themselves and use up all of their men and machines. That will be when the Russians will roll over them once and for all.
What war? There was no official war declared in 2014. It was a coup , inspired by the US, with open season on progressive - VS nationalist, well Nazi, elements: remember Victoria Nuland's notorious presence, cum cookie bag- she supported Western sympathizer Yatsenyuk? - and from there on citizens of Ukraine in the Donbas who retained their Russian identity and later voted to remain part of Russia. The figure of 14,000 dead covers the years 2014- 2021. Ukrainian military? What are you talking about? Sounds like you're confusing the present US, UK proxy war, and in this war about 350,000 Ukrainians have so far been killed, the country reduced from 40 million to between 20-18 million. And the Ukrainian military are just starting to take a hit.
Who is "our" side in your comment? NATO? The U.S.? Ukraine? I do not support Ukraine. They are Nazis, end of story. They are being used by the U.S. empire. And they are losing badly. So now the U.S. is getting ready to pull out, the way they always do. The way they did in Afghanistan. The way they did in Vietnam.
Almost everyone spoke Russian, including Zelensky! What does that prove? You can be a Nazi and speak any language you please. The sentiment, the mobilization was still anti-Russia!!!
This is not credible. We're talking about before the war, when the people in the Donbass just wanted to go on living as they had, and neoNazis and fanatic pro-Europeans wanted to ban the speaking of Russian. So you're telling me the Ukraine military went in there, thousands of them were killed, while Donbass civilians had almost no deaths? Tell me another one. No don't.
"So you're telling me the Ukraine military went in there ..."
No: they shelled the region from a distance, at a frequency which went up slowly over the years, and more rapidly when "NATO" wanted to precipitate the "war".
It's the same technique as was used to start WW2. You start terrorising a region that's kind of part of a country and kind of separate (SE oblasts of Ukraine and East Prussia); you convince the suckers in the trigger country (Ukraine and Poland) that you will come to their aid if attacked but an attack won't happen (William Bullett and ... I don't know, V. Nuland?); then you increase the terrorism until sufficient pressure is put on the target country (Russia and Germany) to act.
Since at least the 1970’s the late American writer Gore Vidal dedicated his life’s work to exposing the lies and failures of the American Empire. Anyone addicted to Caitlin’s bold analyses will find themany recorded interviews of Vidal worthwhile. Here’s one from 1987:
"Speech is violence and cluster bombs are peace. Homelessness and war are normal and opposing nuclear armageddon is treason. You're a serious person if you believe our brains are being scrambled by Russian ray guns and a kooky conspiracy theorist if you're skeptical about UFOs."
Wonderful.
These things should be read on the radio to like 1,000,000,000 people, at least.
It seems irony - and sarcasm especially - are more and more considered mauvais ton in the West. Too touchy the westerners are. The skin is so thin as being absent.
Caitlin, I just heard from Diane Perlman, who has been trying to reach you about your possible participation in the Daniel Ellsberg tribute during the Whistleblower Summit on 7/30. She has asked me to read my poem "Ode to a Whistleblower" (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/ode-to-a-whistleblower) and would love to include something by you as well. You can record a video for them to play during the event. See details here:
I would also like to connect with you about a project related to #FreeAssange. I have been in touch with Stella Assange and Chris Hedges and would love to invite you to participate as well if you are interested. You can reach me by signing up for my newsletter and replying to the welcome email (I would be honored to comp you a subscription as a token of my gratitude for your good work if you do), or I can try replying to one of your newsletters if you have that option enabled and would prefer that.
"Start looking at them as two weapons on the same enemy."
Exactly. The duopoly factions always work in tandem. They work remarkably well together--and yet somehow voters never seem to see that until it's too late. Their rights to abortion and free speech are stolen, and we're forced into paying for yet another war for oil. The enemy isn't the puppet we've elected from whatever faction deemed worthy at the moment. The enemy is the one who owns and manipulates us all. That is the enemy we need to give the knockout punch too--the sooner the better!
The title put me off. Do I really want to read this? Haven't I waded through enough evil and sleaze already this year? Glad I did though. A very succinct and well stated and argument. Doesn't, uh., pull any punches.
It is long overdue to publicly state and restate that we have been and are in the middle of largest US conspiracy ever.
Conspiracy led by Hillary DNC team (including St. Obama, Pelosi, Biden, Schiff, etc.) and Deep State (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.) and also select RINO GOP collaborators.
The unprecedented and on-going CONSPIRACY includes
• Russia-gate 5-year hoax and major election interference,
• coup in Ukraine and attempted coup against elected US president,
• Hunter laptop premediated lies, silencing of US president in social media and resulting stealing of 2020 election,
• protection of Biden and Biden’s family major corruption,
• Jan. 6 armed insurrection set-up (with almost ten dead according to AOC),
• Building a major censorship apparatus led by CIA and FBI executives in State media, Internet, major universities and technology giant firms – that is still maintained
• Persecution, prosecution, and silencing leading 2024 presidential candidates who are opposing the US War uni-party
And -- a bit more on St. Obama and his CIA, FBI and NSA executives: Barack Obama was/is a spook (i.e., CIA operative/spy ), from a spook family, and his political campaigns were financed by spooks… ). Snowden disclosed the all-encompassing surveillance of US population under St. Obama after Clapper directly lied about it in Senate and to all of us.
In 1965 CIA organized a coup against Indonesia founding president Sukarno by CIA-trained generals. The US considered Sukarno too progressive (he implemented land-reform – same reason for CIA coup in Guatemala which resulted with a genocide of high-land Mayas). CIA installed one of the most murderous military regime (under Suharto dictatorship) on Earth which killed more than two millions ( 2M ) civilians – the massacres are known as “The Jakarta Method” (see book by Vincent Bevins) used subsequently in Africa (Angola, Mozambique) and throughout Latin and Central America.
What is important here is that Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, worked for U.S. government agencies and allied NGOs—the Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, Development Alternatives Inc., and United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—in Indonesia in the 1960s and 1970s as well as later in Ghana, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Thailand.\
Obama’s mother married Indonesian Lt. Col. Lolo Soetoro; they had a daughter Maya Soetoro when Barack Obama was four. The colonel was from an aristocratic family which lost out in Sukarno’s land reform; the marriage was likely arranged, Obama’s mother may have acted as a female “honeypot” for the CIA whose job was to recruit assets
Obama always lied and claimed that his mother did not know about the countless atrocities that were committed by the Suharto government, which is implausible given her CIA background and the fact that they were much reported on by mainstream newspapers at the time (although mostly favorably by right-wing media). Of significance, Obama underplayed his stepfather Lolo’s army rank in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope.
Soetoro went on to become an executive at Mobil Oil and its liaison to Suharto, whose policies Obama’s mother praised. And – Obama became a labor and community “organizer” – while he actually worked for a large corporate foundation.
A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - October 1, 2021 ( Note: Photos themselves are truly fascinating )
A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA - CovertAction Magazine
Damn Caitlin, you're a great boxing coach but remember the left hook and uppercut. However, your boxing analogy regarding the Uniparty is on the button.
As a matter of history, Trump did not "set up" the war in Ukraine.
As Professor Jefferey Sachs (and John Mearsheimer) has clearly documented, the die was cast by the Neoconservatives as far back as 1992. Suggest folks do the Google - I'm too buzzed to do the Google.
Even earlier. The Western allies helped Banderites escape from the Soviet Union's rough handling - likely death - and settle them mainly in Canada. The work to maintain their legacy and prepare for the future never ceased since then.
Yes, and we can go back to 1917. But the most direct and concrete causal factor in the NATO expansion engineered by US "unipolar" "end of history" "democracy promotion" Neocons.
There are some factions who play the long game going back even unto the times of the Khazars who then [temporarily] occupied the region. Today's Khazarians are determined to re-occupy their perceived homeland along with the jewel in the crown, Crimea. All this on top of their ongoing efforts to steal Palestine on their way to a so-called 'greater' israel that provides huge geopolitical control over the worthless ones, the useless eaters, the cattle people, etc.
The current war criminal president continues the previous war criminal president's war crimes. I guess you could say no one president 'set up' anything. Trump did his bit... guilty.
Much that is instructive for any government or system outside the Overton Window.
The entire link is worth reading and internalizing, but the real meat is this:
"All of this will make many readers uneasy. It seems “mean.”
Get out of the game. You aren’t fit for it. This is all mean. Millions of people die every year and millions more are ruined by the current system. If you’re in this game to win it, rather than feel good about yourself, you will have to play real power politics by the actual rules of the game.
Too many left-wingers try to play by what they think the rules are. “We have a fair election every X years and the losers accept the result and don’t sabotage the winner (or start a coup).”
Those aren’t the real rules. If the right is really losing, they will cheat and cheat massively. They will think nothing of running death squads, making a deal with the US to support guerrillas, and so on.
You directly threaten their wealth and power, if you are a real left-winger. Even if all you want is a 50s style social democracy with racial and gender equality, that would destroy almost all of what they have. They remember what FDR did to them, even if you don’t. They remember all the lost power and fortunes.
It is not possible to have a fair, egalitarian, prosperous society, and have very rich and powerful elites. It cannot be done. Brandeis was exactly right when he said you can have democracy or great wealth in the hands of a few, but you can’t have both.
Either you’re willing to do what it takes, including the ugly bits, or you aren’t. There are sometimes local exceptions, places where a lot of the ugly isn’t needed, but there aren’t a lot of those places left in the world. This isn’t the post-war era and even then, in the South (as opposed to Scandinavia), actual egalitarian, developed economies mostly weren’t allowed. You can ask Central and South America about that.
Most left-wing movements get into power without having properly thought out what they’ll do once in power and without a realistic understanding of how deeply their right-wing opponents lack any belief in democratic norms.
Break your enemy’s power. If you’re any sort of left-winger worth your salt, you ethically do not believe in huge concentrations of power and money in the hands of a few people anyway. Act on your beliefs.
And if they’ve committed a pile of crimes (and they almost always have), use those crimes against them.
Then remember the world system is set up expressly to stop what you are doing.
You’re trying to tackle the dragon, and most people who do that get eaten. We tell the stories of the dragonslayers because they are so few.
So, know the odds are against you and be willing to do what is required to improve them. If you aren’t, stay home."
The only true left wing movement is the International Committee of the Fourth International, represented by the Socialist Equality Party around the world. They publish the World Socialist Web Site. More people need to read that site's reporting.
Too much of what is going on is out right bullying and bullies must be confronted and challenged.
Today I watched a video of Robert Kennedy in the Congressional hearings on censorship where he was being bullied. There were those who tried to block his right to speak and when he did get to speak he "punched" back in the true Kennedy style shaming his accusers . Like his father and uncle words are his weapons and he knows how to use them.
This is a class war and the US public is losing badly and has to start punching back . Bullies thrive on passivity, seeing it as tacit acceptance.
The malice directed at Kennedy is horrendous as he is a truth teller, in the times of the big lie. Reform minded candidates need vocal public support and this means no more passivity. The American public needs to start speaking out as they did during Vietnam when public opinion brought the 20 year war to an end.
In Canada where I live I can no longer follow federal politics. It so totally FUBAR with a Parliament that is an adult day care center and a leader who stumbles from one scandal to another, one disaster to another and is publicly mocked.
Your boxing analogy is similar to my wild bronco busting analogy. I describe the D's as being the rough and tough bronco buster, will saddle up and stay atop that wild bucking bronc until it gives up and allows man to ride it. Tamed. But the wildest bucking broncs don't break easy, can't be ridden, toss the rough and tough bronc buster on the ground. Enter the horse whisperer R's. "There, there, it's ok, I understand you, not going to hurt you" whisper, whisper, whisper, calm soothing voice. Settles the wild bronc down, disarms it. Maybe that tames the bronc. Maybe it doesn't. Back to the D's bronc buster, riding it hard, determined to break it, ride it longer. The cycle continues. Until they finally break the wildest bucking bronc. The most free, independent among us are the wildest broncos. The easiest to break are already broken. This is the game between the two parties, working together as a team to break the wildest broncos. They'll fail. But doesn't mean they won't keep trying.
It's a calculation of power they do. If they thought they could get away with slaughtering all of the wild Broncos instead of taming them they would. But they know...for the time being...that if they did then 51% wouldn't support them or sit back quietly and let it happen. But the moment that calculation changes there's no illusion they wouldn't slaughter us. There is no moral, ethical or legal restraint they are encumbered by. Power. Raw power. Can they eliminate us who are in their way or not. Which is why we must grow our herd, not allow them to intimidate us and shrink in fear. Herd immunity. That's what changes their calculus. Nothing else.
This is one of the main reasons they need to be called out as what they are "Mass Murdering Sociopaths". No country, no politician no one has the right to kill thousands or millions of people. There is no excuse for this crime and they are every last one of them criminal Sociopaths.
"I've watched so many people transform from bright-eyed supporters of Sanders, Corbyn etc into braindead wingnuts because their hatred of what passes for the "left" in the mainstream west led them to start taking up the opposite position from that faction on all issues."
I am close to that point. Im a commie, but over the past six years or so I learned to hate the so-called "enter-left" in the west so much that I sympathize more and more with the right.
In my country, Germany, there are six relevant parties, and five of them are fully in with the war against Russia. Only one party is against that war. And that is the Nazi Party. I have no illusions about that party, I know they are not a peace party, they are only against this particular war, but still: This war is the most important issue for me---so who should I vote for next time? I will have to wrestle with myself between not voting and voting for the Nazis.
Your post is nothing but neoliberal disinformation. The WEF has no interest in ending property rights, at all, simply owning everything. Property was always theft and now you're just whining because you're on the wrong end of it, like that lady who complained when the cops started attacking the 1/6 protestors.
I am in the same situation: have been voting "left" for all my (long) life but unwilling to do so after those 5 German parties are warmongering except for the AFD which is excluded as I think of them as Neo-Nazi as well. I just hope Wagenknecht gets her act together.
I'm familiar with AfD's labeling as a Nazi party but I'd like to know more about why is that. What is the definition of Nazism in Germany?
The past incarnation of Nazism - and the way it is practiced currently in Ukraine - to me is characterized by:
- racism
- concrete plans of dealing with the discriminated elements, namely: isolation, enslaving, extermination
- implementation of the above plans
There are plenty racist parties, movements, and governments in the world. What comes immediately to mind is Israel as being closest to being labeled as a Nazi state. How does AfD compare? Hitler spelled out everything explicitly in his "Mein Kampf". Does AfD have anything like that?
That's just what legalist states do, and the Nazis, the Progressives before them, and the PMC that succeeded them are all of one zealous, totalitarian piece.
Another important piece of the Nazi platform was the right of Germany to have colonies. Literal settler colonialism expansion was a big part of the deal too.
This falls under the second bullet point I provided. The colonies are to be exploited strictly to the benefit of the master race and in the manner it sees fit. The Lebensraum concept.
Damit, I just wrote a long reply to you, and deleted it completely with one wrong click! Cant write all that again, so tldr:
The AfD is not really a Nazi-party in the sense that they would go for genocide and war, but they are the current vassel for all the people who harbor the feelings and thoughts that the original Nazi party, the NSDAP, was based on, too.
With long replies I usually do it in a text editor first to avoid such mishaps...
As to the substance - the people's feelings and thoughts are usually pretty ugly even for those belonging to the so called "clean" parties. If you could go back and ask people in Germany in 1930s who supported Nazism were they really all in for its plans? Unlikely. They were just going along with the "current thing".
On the other hand, many folks who are "not Nazis" often can be found to commit the most horrible things, in fact qualifying for being Nazis-in-practice.
Bottom line, I think putting AfD on the same level with Nazis is a psyop by your government and media. Just like any argument for Russia in your country is automatically assigned "Putinversteher" label and you're considered a leper.
"If you could go back and ask people in Germany in 1930s who supported Nazism were they really all in for its plans?"
There's a fair amount of historical record. Interviews with ordinary Germans and Shirer, who was there in person. The Nazis were popular largely because they created full employment with their war spending. Before and maybe even during the war Hitler never used a bodyguard or other security. The brownshirts created jobs for unemployed laborers. The party offered very cheap jaunts on cruise ships for workers. The racial thing was popular in Austria and Bavaria, not so much elsewhere. There wasn't any enthusiasm for the world war. The Hitler Youth was popular. The euthanasia effort was a complete flop, no cooperation. The programs to get young women pregnant by SS soldiers without benefit of wedlock were controversial. The party's strongest support was amongst women of all ages.
All in all for a while to many they looked good compared with Weimar, which fed the haves and did nothing for the havenots, then destroyed life savings so even the middle class turned against them. The height of popularity was likely during the early victories against Poland and France.
The whole thing was a political machine, a lot like Mayor Daley's Chicago. While workers had no rights, if you didn't like something you called up the party. If they got enough calls they'd take care of it. The easy way or the hard way.
In those days a laborer was a man who lifted bricks or dug ditches or moved stone all day. They were so strong that their body was a weapon. They could dominate an ordinary man.
If they joined the Brownshirts they would be in the streets soliciting funds for the Winter Relief. So they said, but the money went to the Party. If you passed by enough times without giving they might give you a lesson in generosity.
At first the big losers were small stores. They were under price controls so strict they couldn't survive if followed so they all had to break the rules. Evidently their customers understood and went along with it. You don't want the corner store to go under.
What if UFOs are just billionaires from other planets?
UFO's are either mass delusion, or government psi-op. Quite possibly a little of both.
... or maybe actually real. We simply don't know at this moment.
Why do you need an imaginary friend bigger than you to exist?
*If* UFOs are real, then they are real, regardless whether I want or need them.
I don't need pit bulls, but wishing won't make the damn things go away.
There is far, far more historical evidence of the former being chaff than of the latter. Not just anyone can go down to Area 51 any time and stand a likely chance of laying eyes or hands on a Zetan or their vehicles. Pit bulls have very repeatable, very material consequences, and they can be observed almost whenever we like.
Pitbulls, unfortunately, are undoubtedly real, which is why I chose that example. I still have no need for the nasty things.
I think the original WoW broadcast that caused mass delusion was an epiphany for propagandists in government. It is still studied in public policy courses today.
It was also the beginning of the Progressive Era and the professional-managerial class. They've fancied themselves Philosopher-Kings since their class started forming just before WWI (I don't believe that timing is a coincidence).
Just like viruses!
Anti-Musk
There’s no accounting for taste.
I like the tone of this - nothing mealy-mouthed about it. The way I see it, had the short-on-logic- mealy-mouthed talking- out-of-both-sides-of-their-faces "intellectuals" supported Russia in all of this, supported Russia because Russia is in the right, none of the gross human sacrifice of Ukrainians would have happened, along with many Russians, and we wouldn't be a hair's breadth away from destruction. I mean, Christ, 30 years of NATO encroachment of Russia, Maidan brutal and illegal madness, and killing of 14,000 Donbas Russians since 2014, ain't that enough? what "provocation" would have justified a Special Operation" -if that wasn't quite it?
Even the supposed non-mealy mouthed intellectuals like Greenwald, Mate, Hersh, Chomsky, always qualify their statements about the war with something like "Russia's invasion is illegal". Suggesting that there could have been other ways of handling it. Never going into details about those ways. That is, never bothering to go through the whole timeline of all the efforts applied in vain.
Yeah, the SMO is illegal but the invasion of Vietnam, bombing of Serbia, invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are not because the USA is exceptional. Mmm yeah.
The SMO isn't illegal. Legally Ukraine is still part of the Russian Federation and the central Russian government was forced to mount the SMO because the US fomented and funded the Maidan Coup in March 2014 whereafter the unlawful Poroshenko regime (appointed by Victoria Nuland and the US ambassador to Ukraine ramped up hatred of the third of the Krainina population that was ethnically Russian, killing ar least 14,000 of them prior to the SMO. Even so, Russia only mounted the SMO because Ukraine's military. armed trained and funded for the previous eight years, has massed 200, 000 NATO armed and trained troops on the border of Donesk and was poied to invade and massacre the Russian citizens thereinin early March 2022.
STOP believing the Western MSM if you want to understand our world.
Also, the reason that Russia didn't overrun and destroy Ukraine as the US did in Iraq is because it's intention was/is to protect the Russians in eastern Ukraine (NovaRussia), NOT to conquer and kill Ukrainians who are brother Slavs. The Zelensky reginme and its US and NATO sponsors are responsible for all of the war crimes involved, almpst all of which were and are actually committed by 'Uki' fascists. Haventya seen the typical PICs of fascists taping male and female Russian, including children, to posts and trees and publicly flogging them and leaving them to freeze and starve in public places? Before being judgmental about Ukraine or anything, make the effort to establish the facts.
I think you missed the sarcasm light that was blinking over longtrails comment ! You are factual correct of course.
Thank you notbob. You got it but Ron didn't.
Ron I'm fully aware of your points and your history is correct. The USA/NATO is the world's foremost terrorist organization.
I'm glad Ron gave the story, though. There may be readers who don't know the timeline.
You've said everything I wanted to say. Thank you.
Thanks Carolyn,
Of course that's a truncated condensed version but I suspect many people don't know any of it.
Ron
lugansk and donetsk declared their independence. they were independent republics. russia recognised their independence and entered into a mutual defence agreement with the 2 republics. the ukrainians were ramping up the shelling of the republics and an invasion of the 2 republics by ukrainian military seemed imminent. russian troops that were going home after their annual excercises were redirected to start the special military operation. the dismembering of yugoslavia had far less of a legal basis.
Precisely.
I have heard Scott Ritter declare the invasion legal, citing the UN Charter which allows preemptive self-defense. This is disputed by those who say Crimea is not part of Russia. The idea is that the plebiscite was rigged. Putin's 85% approval rating is explained as the populace giving the thumb's up out of fear of being shipped to a camp in Siberia. Their secret wish is to be ruled by the United States of America but are afraid to say so openly. Until they one day cast aside all pretense to rise up and overthrow Vladimir Putin thus bringing about the new era.
Russians yearn to return to the freedom and democracy they enjoyed in the 1990's under the firm yet gentle hand of Boris Yeltsin and his Western advisors.
Are you trolling? How are the American homeless doing under their Western leadership?
Guess.
You're gonna have to learn to provide your own /s in this world, kid.
Without a doubt this is a hit in various asylums. Which are plentiful nowadays for they're not necessarily labeled such.
The religious authorities in any competitive society, possibly but not necessarily unintentionally, project their own atrocities onto others. It lets them symbolically perform penance and restoration without actually experiencing pain or labor.
What are your actual beliefs? I'm confused by your comment.
Belief is an error. Reject aesthetics, embrace nihilism.
You must have a section of the zingers on various quotes sites. I should look for them in the future.
It's just a method, nothing so high or developed as doctrine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowclone
Some, but not all, of the people you mention, are on my list of the mealy-mouthed. But your comments are right on target. Russia should have done something else, but nobody knows what? Or don't have the character to specify.
I think they have no idea of what could be done, and pronounce those disclaimers for fear of being labeled pro-Russian. That is, they're being cowardly.
I myself hesitate to counter this in writing. In-person voice only. That's still private, though they are now working on that too with the new snitch program.
Good to know.
Would you take us through that preventative timeline? I don’t see it at the moment. I see quite the opposite. Finland being brought into the debacle by Turkey, of all places, just recently.
what "provocation" would have justified a Special Operation"
Well, just like Syria provoked invasion by the United States by, uh, by, uh, by all those bad things they did.
"What provocation ... ?"
Shelling the ethnic Russian population since 2014.
Perhaps I should let Patrick speak for himself, but I believe he was being sarcastic.
Quite so; but I still think it is important to be able to actually answer that question! Most people can't. ;-)
Patrick was not my target audience: let's hope the comments get read by more than just the writers.
It's hard to know when to jump in on a thread on someone else's behalf. Maybe:
"Speaking for myself in X's defense, ...."
I'm am shocked the Russian people are so restrained. I certainly would not enter into any treaty with known violators like the u.s. Ukraine will have to exist as a parking lot West of the Dinpro river I think. The Russian strategy isn't what I would call efficient allowing Ukrainian military to crash into the fire and I hesitate to call that humane but, if you want to punch yourself in the face I won't stop you approach seems to be effective. Sad that none of this had to happen. End Stage Capitalism is and will be even more brutal, it demands it.
Garland Nixon's show today is all about why the Russians don't seem to be doing much. They are exercising defensive patience. They are letting the Ukrainians and NATO exhaust themselves and use up all of their men and machines. That will be when the Russians will roll over them once and for all.
The Greek obsession with contest poisoned the whole earth worse and for longer than Chernobyl will.
What 'evidence' shows "that most of them were Ukrainian military?"
What war? There was no official war declared in 2014. It was a coup , inspired by the US, with open season on progressive - VS nationalist, well Nazi, elements: remember Victoria Nuland's notorious presence, cum cookie bag- she supported Western sympathizer Yatsenyuk? - and from there on citizens of Ukraine in the Donbas who retained their Russian identity and later voted to remain part of Russia. The figure of 14,000 dead covers the years 2014- 2021. Ukrainian military? What are you talking about? Sounds like you're confusing the present US, UK proxy war, and in this war about 350,000 Ukrainians have so far been killed, the country reduced from 40 million to between 20-18 million. And the Ukrainian military are just starting to take a hit.
You have your idea of events and what is credible. I have mine.
That doesn't answer anything. Your "idea" and the truth are not necessarily the same thing.
Who is "our" side in your comment? NATO? The U.S.? Ukraine? I do not support Ukraine. They are Nazis, end of story. They are being used by the U.S. empire. And they are losing badly. So now the U.S. is getting ready to pull out, the way they always do. The way they did in Afghanistan. The way they did in Vietnam.
What I've heard is that 11,000 were Russian-speaking Ukrainians, leaving about 3000 for rightwing Ukrainians.
Almost everyone spoke Russian, including Zelensky! What does that prove? You can be a Nazi and speak any language you please. The sentiment, the mobilization was still anti-Russia!!!
This is not credible. We're talking about before the war, when the people in the Donbass just wanted to go on living as they had, and neoNazis and fanatic pro-Europeans wanted to ban the speaking of Russian. So you're telling me the Ukraine military went in there, thousands of them were killed, while Donbass civilians had almost no deaths? Tell me another one. No don't.
"So you're telling me the Ukraine military went in there ..."
No: they shelled the region from a distance, at a frequency which went up slowly over the years, and more rapidly when "NATO" wanted to precipitate the "war".
It's the same technique as was used to start WW2. You start terrorising a region that's kind of part of a country and kind of separate (SE oblasts of Ukraine and East Prussia); you convince the suckers in the trigger country (Ukraine and Poland) that you will come to their aid if attacked but an attack won't happen (William Bullett and ... I don't know, V. Nuland?); then you increase the terrorism until sufficient pressure is put on the target country (Russia and Germany) to act.
Again. Who is "our" side?
Since at least the 1970’s the late American writer Gore Vidal dedicated his life’s work to exposing the lies and failures of the American Empire. Anyone addicted to Caitlin’s bold analyses will find themany recorded interviews of Vidal worthwhile. Here’s one from 1987:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CGYMkJPLO2w
Vidal has some great stuff indeed.
Fantastic link. Vidal is so casually on the money with his analysis.
"Speech is violence and cluster bombs are peace. Homelessness and war are normal and opposing nuclear armageddon is treason. You're a serious person if you believe our brains are being scrambled by Russian ray guns and a kooky conspiracy theorist if you're skeptical about UFOs."
Wonderful.
These things should be read on the radio to like 1,000,000,000 people, at least.
"These things should be read on the radio to like 1,000,000,000 people, at least."
The irony would completely bypass a depressingly large segment of the population.
It seems irony - and sarcasm especially - are more and more considered mauvais ton in the West. Too touchy the westerners are. The skin is so thin as being absent.
Caitlin, I just heard from Diane Perlman, who has been trying to reach you about your possible participation in the Daniel Ellsberg tribute during the Whistleblower Summit on 7/30. She has asked me to read my poem "Ode to a Whistleblower" (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/ode-to-a-whistleblower) and would love to include something by you as well. You can record a video for them to play during the event. See details here:
• https://coronawise.substack.com/p/whistleblower-summit-tribute-to-dan
I would also like to connect with you about a project related to #FreeAssange. I have been in touch with Stella Assange and Chris Hedges and would love to invite you to participate as well if you are interested. You can reach me by signing up for my newsletter and replying to the welcome email (I would be honored to comp you a subscription as a token of my gratitude for your good work if you do), or I can try replying to one of your newsletters if you have that option enabled and would prefer that.
"Start looking at them as two weapons on the same enemy."
Exactly. The duopoly factions always work in tandem. They work remarkably well together--and yet somehow voters never seem to see that until it's too late. Their rights to abortion and free speech are stolen, and we're forced into paying for yet another war for oil. The enemy isn't the puppet we've elected from whatever faction deemed worthy at the moment. The enemy is the one who owns and manipulates us all. That is the enemy we need to give the knockout punch too--the sooner the better!
War for oil.
C'mon Caitlin, tell us what you REALLY feel! 🏋️♂️ fugem allll...
The title put me off. Do I really want to read this? Haven't I waded through enough evil and sleaze already this year? Glad I did though. A very succinct and well stated and argument. Doesn't, uh., pull any punches.
How about fuck respectability politics and punch it in the face too?
However as it is presented if I recommend it to my friends they'll be grossed out and won't read it.
You have pussies for friends then.
0.0
He seems to have assumed a full on troll mode so...
Thank you, once again !!!
It is long overdue to publicly state and restate that we have been and are in the middle of largest US conspiracy ever.
Conspiracy led by Hillary DNC team (including St. Obama, Pelosi, Biden, Schiff, etc.) and Deep State (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.) and also select RINO GOP collaborators.
The unprecedented and on-going CONSPIRACY includes
• Russia-gate 5-year hoax and major election interference,
• coup in Ukraine and attempted coup against elected US president,
• Hunter laptop premediated lies, silencing of US president in social media and resulting stealing of 2020 election,
• protection of Biden and Biden’s family major corruption,
• Jan. 6 armed insurrection set-up (with almost ten dead according to AOC),
• Building a major censorship apparatus led by CIA and FBI executives in State media, Internet, major universities and technology giant firms – that is still maintained
• Persecution, prosecution, and silencing leading 2024 presidential candidates who are opposing the US War uni-party
I see that I am not the only one who calls him "St. Obama". Cool.
Thanks !!
And -- a bit more on St. Obama and his CIA, FBI and NSA executives: Barack Obama was/is a spook (i.e., CIA operative/spy ), from a spook family, and his political campaigns were financed by spooks… ). Snowden disclosed the all-encompassing surveillance of US population under St. Obama after Clapper directly lied about it in Senate and to all of us.
In 1965 CIA organized a coup against Indonesia founding president Sukarno by CIA-trained generals. The US considered Sukarno too progressive (he implemented land-reform – same reason for CIA coup in Guatemala which resulted with a genocide of high-land Mayas). CIA installed one of the most murderous military regime (under Suharto dictatorship) on Earth which killed more than two millions ( 2M ) civilians – the massacres are known as “The Jakarta Method” (see book by Vincent Bevins) used subsequently in Africa (Angola, Mozambique) and throughout Latin and Central America.
What is important here is that Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, worked for U.S. government agencies and allied NGOs—the Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, Development Alternatives Inc., and United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—in Indonesia in the 1960s and 1970s as well as later in Ghana, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Thailand.\
Obama’s mother married Indonesian Lt. Col. Lolo Soetoro; they had a daughter Maya Soetoro when Barack Obama was four. The colonel was from an aristocratic family which lost out in Sukarno’s land reform; the marriage was likely arranged, Obama’s mother may have acted as a female “honeypot” for the CIA whose job was to recruit assets
Obama always lied and claimed that his mother did not know about the countless atrocities that were committed by the Suharto government, which is implausible given her CIA background and the fact that they were much reported on by mainstream newspapers at the time (although mostly favorably by right-wing media). Of significance, Obama underplayed his stepfather Lolo’s army rank in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope.
Soetoro went on to become an executive at Mobil Oil and its liaison to Suharto, whose policies Obama’s mother praised. And – Obama became a labor and community “organizer” – while he actually worked for a large corporate foundation.
A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - October 1, 2021 ( Note: Photos themselves are truly fascinating )
A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA - CovertAction Magazine
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/10/01/a-company-family-the-untold-history-of-obama-and-the-cia/
Thank you Caitlin🙏
Damn Caitlin, you're a great boxing coach but remember the left hook and uppercut. However, your boxing analogy regarding the Uniparty is on the button.
Could be a supplementary source of income?
As a matter of history, Trump did not "set up" the war in Ukraine.
As Professor Jefferey Sachs (and John Mearsheimer) has clearly documented, the die was cast by the Neoconservatives as far back as 1992. Suggest folks do the Google - I'm too buzzed to do the Google.
Even earlier. The Western allies helped Banderites escape from the Soviet Union's rough handling - likely death - and settle them mainly in Canada. The work to maintain their legacy and prepare for the future never ceased since then.
Yes, and we can go back to 1917. But the most direct and concrete causal factor in the NATO expansion engineered by US "unipolar" "end of history" "democracy promotion" Neocons.
There are some factions who play the long game going back even unto the times of the Khazars who then [temporarily] occupied the region. Today's Khazarians are determined to re-occupy their perceived homeland along with the jewel in the crown, Crimea. All this on top of their ongoing efforts to steal Palestine on their way to a so-called 'greater' israel that provides huge geopolitical control over the worthless ones, the useless eaters, the cattle people, etc.
Disturbing stuff.
The current war criminal president continues the previous war criminal president's war crimes. I guess you could say no one president 'set up' anything. Trump did his bit... guilty.
Obama did his bit first, in 2014.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/7-rules-for-running-a-real-left-wing-government/
Much that is instructive for any government or system outside the Overton Window.
The entire link is worth reading and internalizing, but the real meat is this:
"All of this will make many readers uneasy. It seems “mean.”
Get out of the game. You aren’t fit for it. This is all mean. Millions of people die every year and millions more are ruined by the current system. If you’re in this game to win it, rather than feel good about yourself, you will have to play real power politics by the actual rules of the game.
Too many left-wingers try to play by what they think the rules are. “We have a fair election every X years and the losers accept the result and don’t sabotage the winner (or start a coup).”
Those aren’t the real rules. If the right is really losing, they will cheat and cheat massively. They will think nothing of running death squads, making a deal with the US to support guerrillas, and so on.
You directly threaten their wealth and power, if you are a real left-winger. Even if all you want is a 50s style social democracy with racial and gender equality, that would destroy almost all of what they have. They remember what FDR did to them, even if you don’t. They remember all the lost power and fortunes.
It is not possible to have a fair, egalitarian, prosperous society, and have very rich and powerful elites. It cannot be done. Brandeis was exactly right when he said you can have democracy or great wealth in the hands of a few, but you can’t have both.
Either you’re willing to do what it takes, including the ugly bits, or you aren’t. There are sometimes local exceptions, places where a lot of the ugly isn’t needed, but there aren’t a lot of those places left in the world. This isn’t the post-war era and even then, in the South (as opposed to Scandinavia), actual egalitarian, developed economies mostly weren’t allowed. You can ask Central and South America about that.
Most left-wing movements get into power without having properly thought out what they’ll do once in power and without a realistic understanding of how deeply their right-wing opponents lack any belief in democratic norms.
Break your enemy’s power. If you’re any sort of left-winger worth your salt, you ethically do not believe in huge concentrations of power and money in the hands of a few people anyway. Act on your beliefs.
And if they’ve committed a pile of crimes (and they almost always have), use those crimes against them.
Then remember the world system is set up expressly to stop what you are doing.
You’re trying to tackle the dragon, and most people who do that get eaten. We tell the stories of the dragonslayers because they are so few.
So, know the odds are against you and be willing to do what is required to improve them. If you aren’t, stay home."
The only true left wing movement is the International Committee of the Fourth International, represented by the Socialist Equality Party around the world. They publish the World Socialist Web Site. More people need to read that site's reporting.
Too much of what is going on is out right bullying and bullies must be confronted and challenged.
Today I watched a video of Robert Kennedy in the Congressional hearings on censorship where he was being bullied. There were those who tried to block his right to speak and when he did get to speak he "punched" back in the true Kennedy style shaming his accusers . Like his father and uncle words are his weapons and he knows how to use them.
This is a class war and the US public is losing badly and has to start punching back . Bullies thrive on passivity, seeing it as tacit acceptance.
The malice directed at Kennedy is horrendous as he is a truth teller, in the times of the big lie. Reform minded candidates need vocal public support and this means no more passivity. The American public needs to start speaking out as they did during Vietnam when public opinion brought the 20 year war to an end.
In Canada where I live I can no longer follow federal politics. It so totally FUBAR with a Parliament that is an adult day care center and a leader who stumbles from one scandal to another, one disaster to another and is publicly mocked.
Your boxing analogy is similar to my wild bronco busting analogy. I describe the D's as being the rough and tough bronco buster, will saddle up and stay atop that wild bucking bronc until it gives up and allows man to ride it. Tamed. But the wildest bucking broncs don't break easy, can't be ridden, toss the rough and tough bronc buster on the ground. Enter the horse whisperer R's. "There, there, it's ok, I understand you, not going to hurt you" whisper, whisper, whisper, calm soothing voice. Settles the wild bronc down, disarms it. Maybe that tames the bronc. Maybe it doesn't. Back to the D's bronc buster, riding it hard, determined to break it, ride it longer. The cycle continues. Until they finally break the wildest bucking bronc. The most free, independent among us are the wildest broncos. The easiest to break are already broken. This is the game between the two parties, working together as a team to break the wildest broncos. They'll fail. But doesn't mean they won't keep trying.
They only need 51%.
It's a calculation of power they do. If they thought they could get away with slaughtering all of the wild Broncos instead of taming them they would. But they know...for the time being...that if they did then 51% wouldn't support them or sit back quietly and let it happen. But the moment that calculation changes there's no illusion they wouldn't slaughter us. There is no moral, ethical or legal restraint they are encumbered by. Power. Raw power. Can they eliminate us who are in their way or not. Which is why we must grow our herd, not allow them to intimidate us and shrink in fear. Herd immunity. That's what changes their calculus. Nothing else.
This is one of the main reasons they need to be called out as what they are "Mass Murdering Sociopaths". No country, no politician no one has the right to kill thousands or millions of people. There is no excuse for this crime and they are every last one of them criminal Sociopaths.
"I've watched so many people transform from bright-eyed supporters of Sanders, Corbyn etc into braindead wingnuts because their hatred of what passes for the "left" in the mainstream west led them to start taking up the opposite position from that faction on all issues."
I am close to that point. Im a commie, but over the past six years or so I learned to hate the so-called "enter-left" in the west so much that I sympathize more and more with the right.
In my country, Germany, there are six relevant parties, and five of them are fully in with the war against Russia. Only one party is against that war. And that is the Nazi Party. I have no illusions about that party, I know they are not a peace party, they are only against this particular war, but still: This war is the most important issue for me---so who should I vote for next time? I will have to wrestle with myself between not voting and voting for the Nazis.
St. Barack did more to neuter the antiwar movement than anything Dick Cheney ever could have done.
Then when Trump started making some vague antiwar noises, leftists morphed into fawning neocons and CIA leghumpers.
Points for using “leghumpers” in a sentence.
Don't fall victim to watching the thinly disguised Punch and Judy show: take a look around the back! Inform yourself with some history. Read
https://whatdoino.substack.com/p/why-you-should-stop-using-the-concepts-a49
Fantastic link. Thanks for sharing.👌
Your post is nothing but neoliberal disinformation. The WEF has no interest in ending property rights, at all, simply owning everything. Property was always theft and now you're just whining because you're on the wrong end of it, like that lady who complained when the cops started attacking the 1/6 protestors.
Did you misplace this? None of it seems to have anything to do with my post or link.
I am in the same situation: have been voting "left" for all my (long) life but unwilling to do so after those 5 German parties are warmongering except for the AFD which is excluded as I think of them as Neo-Nazi as well. I just hope Wagenknecht gets her act together.
Yes! Wagenknecht would be the only chance of voting without holding one's nose!
I'm familiar with AfD's labeling as a Nazi party but I'd like to know more about why is that. What is the definition of Nazism in Germany?
The past incarnation of Nazism - and the way it is practiced currently in Ukraine - to me is characterized by:
- racism
- concrete plans of dealing with the discriminated elements, namely: isolation, enslaving, extermination
- implementation of the above plans
There are plenty racist parties, movements, and governments in the world. What comes immediately to mind is Israel as being closest to being labeled as a Nazi state. How does AfD compare? Hitler spelled out everything explicitly in his "Mein Kampf". Does AfD have anything like that?
That's just what legalist states do, and the Nazis, the Progressives before them, and the PMC that succeeded them are all of one zealous, totalitarian piece.
Another important piece of the Nazi platform was the right of Germany to have colonies. Literal settler colonialism expansion was a big part of the deal too.
"How can anyone be properly middle-class without a plantation of their very own?" -Eurogardeners, and also some Cuban chick
This falls under the second bullet point I provided. The colonies are to be exploited strictly to the benefit of the master race and in the manner it sees fit. The Lebensraum concept.
Damit, I just wrote a long reply to you, and deleted it completely with one wrong click! Cant write all that again, so tldr:
The AfD is not really a Nazi-party in the sense that they would go for genocide and war, but they are the current vassel for all the people who harbor the feelings and thoughts that the original Nazi party, the NSDAP, was based on, too.
With long replies I usually do it in a text editor first to avoid such mishaps...
As to the substance - the people's feelings and thoughts are usually pretty ugly even for those belonging to the so called "clean" parties. If you could go back and ask people in Germany in 1930s who supported Nazism were they really all in for its plans? Unlikely. They were just going along with the "current thing".
On the other hand, many folks who are "not Nazis" often can be found to commit the most horrible things, in fact qualifying for being Nazis-in-practice.
Bottom line, I think putting AfD on the same level with Nazis is a psyop by your government and media. Just like any argument for Russia in your country is automatically assigned "Putinversteher" label and you're considered a leper.
"If you could go back and ask people in Germany in 1930s who supported Nazism were they really all in for its plans?"
There's a fair amount of historical record. Interviews with ordinary Germans and Shirer, who was there in person. The Nazis were popular largely because they created full employment with their war spending. Before and maybe even during the war Hitler never used a bodyguard or other security. The brownshirts created jobs for unemployed laborers. The party offered very cheap jaunts on cruise ships for workers. The racial thing was popular in Austria and Bavaria, not so much elsewhere. There wasn't any enthusiasm for the world war. The Hitler Youth was popular. The euthanasia effort was a complete flop, no cooperation. The programs to get young women pregnant by SS soldiers without benefit of wedlock were controversial. The party's strongest support was amongst women of all ages.
All in all for a while to many they looked good compared with Weimar, which fed the haves and did nothing for the havenots, then destroyed life savings so even the middle class turned against them. The height of popularity was likely during the early victories against Poland and France.
The whole thing was a political machine, a lot like Mayor Daley's Chicago. While workers had no rights, if you didn't like something you called up the party. If they got enough calls they'd take care of it. The easy way or the hard way.
In those days a laborer was a man who lifted bricks or dug ditches or moved stone all day. They were so strong that their body was a weapon. They could dominate an ordinary man.
If they joined the Brownshirts they would be in the streets soliciting funds for the Winter Relief. So they said, but the money went to the Party. If you passed by enough times without giving they might give you a lesson in generosity.
At first the big losers were small stores. They were under price controls so strict they couldn't survive if followed so they all had to break the rules. Evidently their customers understood and went along with it. You don't want the corner store to go under.