What an obscene waste of human lives, and resources humanity desperately needs to be allocated elsewhere. There is never been an effort by the West, led by the US, to seek a sincere diplomatic resolution to this human murderous obscenity on the planet - of the 100s of thousands of lives wasted for nothing but some ideological, tribal nonsense that one would think we would have outgrown since the last two world wars. It's hard not to be so angry one can hardly see straight over the stupidity of it all - the human criminality and the buffoonery of corrupt criminals in charge in Washington DC right now. The senile, creepso US President that became president through cheating and bribery - and doesn't have a shred of human decency or integrity as he stumbles his way onto his phony leadership of the free world stage - an unjust mockery of human values and human rights.
Biden's degenerate public performances and the lack of reaction from both the audiences and the western governments/media is everything any reasonable human need to know about the current state of the "free world". The rest of the world - the "non-free" kind - is amused at best, and horrified at worst.
I would only quibble with a small part of your comment that would have great meaning. U.S. should never be capitalized, the proper spelling u.s. , lower case for disrespect : )
I no longer believe peace will be possible with End Stage Capitalism in death throes. Apparently capital sees no other profit than war. I don't like feeling like this, please tell me I am
Putin and his fellow kleptocrats see profit in their conquest of Donestk:
An imperialist economic justification of the annexation of Donbas, by Russian mafia capitalism. "The accession of new territories to Russia is justifiable from the economic point of view and will not have a negative impact on the Russian budget, the Kremlin said."
Your storyline does not hold water. Russia was making money just fine peacefully selling low cost gas to Germany and all of Europe at sub-market prices. They would not have taken action in Ukraine for profit, at the cost of removing peace.
You seek to paint them as irrational which they are not. And which is the mean reason the US has been clearly counting on them to NOT unleash a nuclear war. Because the US knows they are rational.
What's strange about your comment Russia will grow at a higher 1.7% GDP than the u.s.
Russian Mafia Capitalism as opposed to u.s. Mafia Capitalism? I don't really see the difference.
BTW, the war is over. Thankfully the Russian people were not as brutal as the u.s. bombing of Iraq. There would be millions of deaths in Ukraine. Any word on Gonzalo Lira u.s. citizen being held in Ukraine for reporting on the war.
Sad to see anyone that gives statistics created by Putin any credit whatsoever. I live in Florida and see the results of DeSantis massage of stats and he doesn't even have defenestration program.
As far as differences between the plutocrat US and kleptocrat Russia you weren't paying attention in the 90s.
If the war is over why is Putin still killing Ukrainians in violation of international law? Why is Putin still illegally occupying Ukraine territory.?
Neither the Russian nor American people are responsible for the mass murder their leaders commit. Just as Hitler had no right to take over the dictatorships of Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia, and the USSR, Putin has no right to attack the Ukraine dictatorship of Ukraine, no matter how many millions of Jews, Chinese, Muslims, Seminoles, Tartars, Hindus, Quakers, Hawaiians, or Russians have been killed in his death camps.
That's so funny, you mean like statistics from the u.s. Labor Dept. or the famous u.s. Federal Reserve hahahahha . You forgot what the CIA did all over Central and South America.
BTW, those territories voted to leave and become states of Russia. Now maybe the Ukraine bombing of people East of the Dnipro will stop. Have a very nice day. Paying attention in the 90's, 80's, 70's,mid 60's first sit-in and school walk-out over Vietnam, oh that's right Vietnam another shinning example of u.s. foreign affairs.
It's difficult to come up with words to describe how obscene war is in reality. I suppose one reason why the sociopathic old man Elites who push human beings into war, hide the actuality of it as much as they possibly can. And never volunteer their own children for it.
One reason the Vietnam war finally ended was ordinary Americans were subject to the slaughter almost daily on the major networks at the time. The corrupt fuckers who run our country now - have made sure all that is sanitized and hidden from view - as they go about their business of murdering human beings systematically.
Exactly. The "sanitizing" of war has been deliberate and mandatory for all the mainstream media outlets, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. I remember watching CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite with my father and seeing the film of what was happening in Vietnam--often followed by film of protests and marches against the war and photos of body bags being offloaded from military planes. Those images, those hideous sights and sounds is what shut down the Vietnam War. If only some large broadcaster was brave enough to show the truth of Ukraine to the public--every horrific, bloody, frightening, vomit-producing image of what our tax dollars are causing there. Again and again and again...
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
"corrupt fuckers",...I like and share your outrage, but when looking at, say Victoria Nuland, her husband Mr. Kagan, Joe Biden and his wife, the last thing these people do is "fuck". They are either way too fat (Nuland/Kagan) or senile to do so. Maybe the world would he a better place if Victoria got laid more...Anyway, agree with the spirit of your comments.
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
I wish Putin had never launched his genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation against Ukraine.
If only Zelensky capitulated to Putin’s demands tantamount to unconditional surrender before Putn's condemned by the UN imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation of destruction and annexation Putin would not have been forced to destroy Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam and so many lives could have been saved and Russia's war fighting ability would no be so damaged.
You turn a deliberate blind eye to the CIA led coup, and the MINSK agreement.
Your comments are intentionally deceptive as you only talk about one part of the context - and you leave out the rest. Therefore you are an arrogant fraud. The usual kind of shitlib.
Russia is capable of defeating Ukro-Nazistan and NATO too. Stalemate is a media lie or they're insane. Russia is going to continue until there is unconditional surrender. There will be no frozen conflict. This will be dealt with once and for all. Russia is fed up with the lies and broken promises of the USA/NATO, the stalling tactics of Minsk 1 & 2 and they're done playing.
NATO is a Suicide Pill for the World and a dead man walking.
Yep, I was going say I think Russia can and will force a surrender on their terms. NATO hasn't rocked the reckless enemy, the bear is stronger that ever. German hasn't weened itself of gas and rediscovered it's values, it's in recession. France wants to leave both NATO and the EU cos she's fed up being controlled by the US. I have no idea why Scandinavian countries want to join, I thought they were too sensible for that.
I think the Empire knows all this too. They'll just blame Zelensky, throw in the towel and get ready for China. This time it will their own country that's thrown into recession by the semiconductor wars.
I would agree to what you say here, just a little stronger, as Russia MUST do this, as the 'rules based international order' has left them no other way (Russia sees this as an existential threat, looking at 'our' behavior towards them I totally agree - what a crime ... over 8 billion people on a 'burning' planet cannot live together in peace it seems, probably we will burn a little faster than whatever climate change will bring us in the future ...
"Russia MUST do this, as the 'rules based international order' has left them no other way." Yes, Putin must be free to butcher, rape, plunder and destroy especially after the UN condemned his genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation.
The preponderance of “his” and “Putin” in your post, betray a diet of pure propaganda and a huge naïveté.
Nations of the size of Russia do not operate purely on the whim of one man and they are not suicidal. Should be rather obvious that they have seen the steady march of the US in Ukraine since 2014 and have no plan to be mowed down on their own front lawn.
Well, Sir, you are free to have your own OPINION (it is definitely NOT MINE). The book about Russophobia by Swiss Journalist/Politician Guy Mettan would be an informative read. But of course our good politicians and MSM are now for decades living in Orwellian 1984-times: War is peace -- Freedom is slavery -- Ignorance is strength. So for us (who have no influence and no say in anything) it is just waiting for the fiery end or hopefully a few 'crumbs' to survive for a little longer. As Ms Caitlin recently wrote, if Russia or China had as many military bases around the US, we would be LONG TOASTED.
I was hoping that Finland would reconsider its mistake of joining NATO when Russia-hating party girl Sana Marin was defeated in the last election. But, apparently, they're not as smart as I thought. Once gripped by War Fever, rationality leave the stage. Why would they take the chance of becoming the next Ukraine?
I too can not understand why Finns would have any fear of Putin. Some say it was Putin's criminal, genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation and his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam. All condemned by the UN and some by the ICC. But like you I think it was just hatred of Russia.
Don't think Putin blew the pipelines, looking at the evidence. Do think Putin was wrongly condemned by the UN for launching his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation of destruction and annexation destroying Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam and killing so many Ukrainian children?
But i understand many people think Putin had the right to subjugate Ukraine as he did, Georgia, Moldova and Chechnya and like Hitler no obligation to honor any treaty he signed.
Thanks for fulfilling my expectations of Putin's sycophants by refusing to address any of my facts and only using ad hominem attacks.
If you ask Finns or Swedes why they joined NATO, most will say they were sacred shitless because of Putin's violation of Ukraine's neutrality in his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation of destruction and annexation condemned by the UN and his destroying Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam
They never admit wrong. They invaded Afghanistan on a pretence and stayed for 20 years. Then left with no admittance or anything.
Europe cannot survive 20 years of war in Ukraine, turning the place into a wasteland and unleashing all its poor, corrupt masses of refugees into European countries. There will be nothing left of Europe worth defending.
Now trying out their expansion plans in Southeast Asia.They may even encourage little Australia with its 25 million population and memberships in QUAD, AUKUS, ANZUS and anything else on the US agenda to become a member of NATO as well. Then they can realise one day soon, as they will, that being a partner (puppet) for the USA has some serious disadvantages when one or more of the following occurs, or comes to pass….
* US dollar discarded as the International trading currency.
Soon
* The US tries to produce all the products it wants to sell in the world by removing all the skillsets developed in China, using the obvious low Chinese costs of labour and then manufacturing ithe same product n the US, based on US salaries.
Watch out, Apple.
* “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests” . Kissinger.
Unlikely ever to change.
* Someone is building a rocket base in South America. Another 1962 Missile Emergency.
So many countries would compete enthusiastically to be the location of the base.
You have sanctioned and bullied us for too long, America.
* There seems to be a couple of unidentified submarines off the coast of New York in International waters. Just sitting there, doing nothing. Why are they there?
Nothing like the number off the coast of China or surrounding Russia though, I hear you say.
Best move as soon as possible from New York, people.
Fair is fair, Hypocritical Biden….(Corporate / military-owned, Israel controlled etc) and also known as “Stumbles, Neocon Supremo, Feebles, , a weak man with no chance of success in 2024.
Just a couple comments to add to your excellent list.
“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”. America also has no permanent values. And that is its true fatal flaw. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? The Bill of Rights? The Constitution? Not just dead, but intentionally holocausted and burnt to ash in the ovens of academia, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Washington, D.C.
Could Russia defeat NATO? In a conventional war, yes, of course. No question. NATO has been proven a military paper tiger. If Russia were so inclined, it would take far less time for Russia to win in Western Europe than in Ukraine. The U.S. just lost its last endless war to 80,000 Taliban fighters (the highest estimate I’ve read, probably far fewer) who had no artillery, no armor, no Air Force, no Navy, and no nukes. The Taliban’s main battle weapon was an AK rifle. And NATO thinks it can beat a vastly larger, better trained military, now with proven battle experience and superior weapons, all staged on NATO’s doorstep and ready to roll? Fortunately, the Russians do not have to invade Western Europe, since Europe has already swallowed the poison pill administered by the US. The EU and NATO have already been militarily defeated. All that’s left now is for the western empire to collapse under the weight of its own political incompetence and evil.
One of the surprises of this conflict - just how little value the absurdly expensive weapons produced by US weapon contractors from Lockheed Martin to Boeing have performed against the Russians. Yet another demonstration of a society centered on greed and profits without a rational accountability by a government owned by the 1%. The MIC/War industry has become nothing but a place for extraction of wealth and profits, not about actually winning a war. Same goes for Wallstreet - Wallstreet isn't about actual value in the US marketplace - its become a place of illicit means of extraction of wealth, a casino of computerized stock trading and ponzi scheme theft.
The latest propaganda blames the lack of success of the Ukrainian offensive on inadequate training and arming of the Ukrainian military.
Are we supposed to forget all the stories over the last year and a half of the tens of billions of military aid provided by the US and its vassals?
Russia's military budget for 2023 is under $100 billion USD, which includes a blue-water navy.
What, pray tell, are we getting for our money? We recall the stories earlier in the Ukraine War about Ukrainian corruption and diversion of military equipment sent to them. It seems the corruption in the US is orders of magnitude larger and done in plain sight through approved military procurement contracts.
Values aren't free. We're getting the dollar's value for our money. The continuity of the US government and its capitalist policing arm are the only things which make the greenback or any foreign property deed worth more than its caloric value.
Exactly. It turns out its not just the Ukrainian war machine procurement which is corrupt - but US procurement has been corrupt now for decades. And there is no democratic oversight of it. Americans are so propagandized they are more than willing to look the other way when a yearly 1 trillion dollar budget is handed over to the MIC or deep state agencies - but when it comes time for something like a Universal Health Care program for all Americans, we are then told we can't afford it.
Right. This is no Syria and no Afghanistan. That was another time the empire's hubris was in overdrive. The biggest propaganda was that the Soviet Union ' invaded' Afghanistan. At the time Afghanistan had a communist government led by Babrak Kamal and later by Najibullah. Among other social welfare policies, women were emancipated, they were in universities, in most of the professions - they even wore miniskirts (not that I consider wearing a miniskirt is emancipation!) Then the US/West happened , "to make the world safe for democracy". A fundamentalist Mujahideen was created and weaponised, poppy fields flourished to get the Soviet army ( invited in to help in fighting against the Islamic fundamentalists ), addicted and demoralised. Najibullah was tortured and killed. The same fate that was to happen to Gaddaffi. The Afghan people are still suffering the effects of that war as are the Syrians.
hmm, ''humans'' ? especially 'eu' inbreds are not capable of rational reasoning (omit thinking!) !...If one looks through History books (killings around the world , from Africa, Asia S. and N America Australia oops all of GLOBE!), one can clearly see this , except, well 'eu' inbreds!... sad , pathetic and pitiful!..
You said, "Russia is capable of defeating Ukro-Nazistan and NATO too." Then why was Russia's invasion was stopped in its tracks and been forced into retreat since late last year by Ukro-Nazistan? Then why can't Russia defend Belgorod, Moscow, Rostov or the Kerch Bridge from attack or occupation?
Good to see a brilliant military strategist as you posting. Too bad you weren't advising Putin before his sneak attack with overwhelming force was stopped in its tracks. I also fear Putin my destroy the world implementing his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation.
I agree that Putin had every right under Minsk to keep the 'civilian' Wagner Group and fund FSB's Strelkov/Girkin' 'civilian' militia fighting Ukraine in Donetsk.
You're right. No one wins in a nuclear war. NATO was never there to threaten a conventional war with USSR anyway. Tactical nuclear weapons was always going to be its primary means of defending Europe, and early on, at least the original NATO relied heavily on tactical nukes and the threat of their use as a deterrent.
Although given this last year and a half of performance, and the Russia adept use of hypersonic missiles - one wonders just how effective NATO is - after decades of money driven war products by the war profiteers/contractors and incompetency of corrupt leadership in DC.
NATO is very effective at generating money for its backers in the war profiteering industry.
None of these countries has a war on poverty or has ever pledged any amount of GDP to eliminating poverty. Yet NATO snaps their fingers and they all - in violation of democratic rights of their population - agree to pledge X amount of their GDP to “defense” aka the war industries that back NATO.
From the perspective of the "Military Industrial Congressional Complex" they don't want a winner on either side, perpetual war is their "Raison d'etre".
Slaughtering patriots and civilians is "Just Business" to these psychopaths.
The saddest part in all this is utter stupidity of the completely zombified Ukrainians that's taken place over some three decades now (since their so called "independence"). During which they were being told over and over that that's what is going to happen if they go on with their re-banderization and willingness to lick the West's ass unconditionally and brainlessly.
"Germany has weaned itself from dependence on Russian energy and, in many ways, rediscovered its sense of values."
Germany is now fully dependent on US energy and that will ruin the industry totally in the following months and years. Only complete idiots like German or EU politicians rely on a repressive partner like the US.
Which values were rediscovered? From my personal view with my fellow co-inhabitants I would say this are the values of Nazi Germany with all the hate and contempt of the slavic subhuman. No development I prefer.
Also the line 'weaned itself' suggests that Germany willingly made the decision, when in fact the US forced the issue by blowing up the Nordstream pipeline. If the US hadn't done that, Germany would probably still be buying Russian gas. That is the peak of propaganda deception when you weave a little lie/distortion into a line to try and help make a lie fact in people's minds.
This is nothing surprising. The US is run by highly educated savages who do not value the lives of their own masses let alone that of their vassals. And they have a long track record - Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq - of crating quagmires and wastelands that they then exit claiming victory.
But it’s not surprising the U.S. is doing it. They don’t admit failures and they double down on failures with propaganda. It’s psychotic.
However the spotlight should be on Europeans, as a country in Europevis now getting the standard U.S. wasteland formula, which means terrorism and inequality poverty are likely to be exported across Europe before long. And European boys and girls will soon be conscripted into the meat grinder. First the nutcase countries like Poland Latvia and Lithuania then the rest of the silent fools.
They're not savages, at all. They're too highly developed to care about the material world (they have slaves to worry after all that). They live in the land of "values" and ideals and other mind-numbing religious blather that people tend to develop when they don't do enough physical labor toward primary production.
I call them educated savages precisely because they are not developed.
They jave big degrees in very narrow fields from Harvard, Stamford, West Point, Georgetown, etc, but have zero education or culture when it comes to: human relations, civil ideas, social responsibility, respect for nature and environment that humans depend on.
That’s how you get to the point where “security” = ravaging the planet and its people. Endlessly.
In other words, you're sneering invidiously at anyone who does not align themselves with the infantile myths of the Holy Sacred White Middle Class, as if they and their ideals weren't the problem. OK
"Development", the idea that what exists can be, and probably needs to be, reformed, IS the problem, and your usage of the term with a positive valence actually continues and supports the problem.
>Postdevelopment theory (also post-development or anti-development or development criticism) holds that the whole concept and practice of development is a reflection of Western-Northern hegemony over the rest of the world. Postdevelopment thought arose in the 1980s out of criticisms voiced against development projects and development theory, which justified them.
You’re babbling about nothing to do with me. I didnt write about about “development”. I wrote that these people have no interest in preserving humanity or the planet.
Delete your “reply” to me and post it under your own post. Not a fake “reply” to me.
"They live in the land of "values" and ideals and other mind-numbing religious blather that people tend to develop when they don't do enough physical labor toward primary production."
But only sometimes. Their American master snaps its fingers and they drop to their knees the way a crack addicted hooker drops to a c-note.
Exactly this... The only place where I would differ, is in the NeoCon fantasy that Russia can't win this war. In fact, they appear to be doing just that. As the remaining Ukrainian fighters (Nazis and Conscripts, alike) get ground into meat, and the NATO weapons stocks grow shorter - Russia is poised to achieve its stated goals of De-Nazifying, De-Militarizing and Neutralizing Ukraine. Military Experts like Scott Ritter and Col. Macgregor seem to think that a Ukrainian collapse is inevitable. Whether that means Russia stopping at Kharkov, Odessa, and a land bridge to Transnistria - or driving on to the Polish border, remains to be seen.
If Ukraine had any real prospects of victory - they wouldn't be wasting their ammunition on iconographic terrorist attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, like the Kerch Strait Bridge, or on shelling civilians in Donetsk.
"... the NeoCon fantasy the Russia can't win this war." Only the truly imbecilic among them might believe it. The rest must keep saying this so the dumb Banderites continue to carry on.
Then it may be the Poles' turn. Those are no less dumb given the number of times they were betrayed by their western "allies" in the past. It'll be no different this time.
I watch both Scott Ritter and Col. Macgregor regularly (along with the Duran). They have been on target and accurate with everything they have predicted and militarily analyzed now for over a year. While at the same time, all the pronouncements from MSM, or announcements from the White House based on Intelligence reports have been grossly innacurate or deliberately false propaganda. If more Americans knew just how much they are consistently lied to, just how much propaganda they are fed on a daily basis ...
Very well said Kaitlin. Of course the US's objective has always been as stated by Lloyd Austin "our aim is to damage Russia" and of course this requires that the war last for as long as possible, regardless of the death and destruction in Ukraine. Hence peace has always been unacceptable and has been actively sabotaged by the US, including the Minsk peace agreement (the US poured arms and training into Ukraine to facilitate Ukraine's violence against their own people in the east in violation of the UN endorsed Minsk agreement), the draft treaties submitted by Putin in November 2021 (which were perfectly reasonable but rejected out of hand by the US and their acolyte NATO), the draft peace framework agreed to by Ukraine and Russia in March/April 2022 (which the US and UK vigorously opposed - in the words of Naftali Bennett which the US/UK "vetoed").
It occurred to me after watching the weaponization hearings last week that rather than continually quoting and citing all the propaganda rags like NYT, WAPO, Reuters, Cable News, etc., maybe it would be better to ignore them off the face of the planet.
It's akin to interviewing a crazy neighbor every day, and then running around telling everyone you know what crazy things they said today.
Maybe it would be better if Dr. West didn't go on CNN with CIA/Pharma shill Anderson Cooper. Maybe James Carville's corpse isn't worth refuting. Maybe we don't need to know if John Bolton's mustache still needs a trim.
Legacy media is already reeling from lack of viewership and advertising. The only thing propping it up is dark money payments from the CIA, salaries out of the 72 million Joe Biden's campaign raised in the 2nd quarter, and Pfizer payoffs to corrupted actors pretending to be newscasters and writers.
Because what are we really afraid of? That Aunt Joyce and her Boomer card club play bridge while watching MSNBC? That their bloc believes what they are told and will vote accordingly?
Other than the Boomers, who is buying this shit? Or is the real problem that there are just so many people paid off and bought out that they alone represent enough of a voting bloc to continue the insanity that passes as the official narratives?
It seems to me that every time we reference these propaganda sources, we give them validation.
Either I'm missing something, or we may well be served by not giving these sources any attention at all.
Like the Simpson's Halloween episode where the advertising came to life and was destroying Springfield, maybe Paul Anka's solution in song that defeated the evil advertising is fit.
“Who is buying this shit?”...Indeed. That’s a fukn fantastic question. The answer might scare the shit out of me, for one, but you have hit the nail on the head.👌
Prestige goods, such as high "news", tend not to be traded as commodities. I forget who said that Meet The Press has met its viewership goals as long as Congress and the White House tune in.
1. That the message has shifted from Ukraine is winning to this will resolve to a stalemate?
2. That the West has not adjusted its publicly stated position on negotiations in response to that changed message? If the West were humane, in response to 1, they should shift from "no peace until Ukraine finishes the job of throwing Putin out" to encouraging a negotiated end to a conflict that they now claim is fruitless for both sides?
I'm glad you liked my comment. I intended it as a backdrop for Caitlin's article:
They're not even making the lies they tell us consistent, so relatively poorly informed people--myself included--can see upfront that there is something wrong with the Narrative.
Then others, like Caitlin in this article, come along with the facts, the goods, the smoking guns, and those like me can say, "Yes, our hunch is confirmed."
Caitlin - not only does she write well on topics interesting to many of us, but she backs it up with links i.e. citations - she does her homework. It's like reading a well cited academic paper, on a near daily basis. It's particularly impressive.
It seems like Zelensky thinks he is Saruman, but he, like all Ukrainians, is just another orc, to the West. And Saruman never realized that he was just another tool for Mordor.
Of course, and the cheerleaders insist that just a few hundred billion more in weapons and sweet sweet cash, only a few hundred thousand more lives, and we got this, baby!
Yet they never seem to want to go themselves and partake in the glorious victory that is just around the corner.
n.b. "Blackadder Goes Fourth" might as well have been a documentary.
You left out one key objective, one that has been resoundingly achieved already--cut off Europe from Russian gas and get them to accept gas from the US though it's much more expensive, environmentally as well as economically. The US empire has corporations in the driver's seat; the same is true with its attempt to gin up a war with China. China is a "threat" not because it claims rights to its own surrounding ocean, but because its economic growth makes it a serious rival to US business interests. Which is true largely because those same interests offshored millions of American factory jobs to low-wage China...so now the economies of the US and China (and the EU, Australia, the world) are so entangled that it's problematic how they could have a war. But maybe they don't really want a war, they just hope to initimidate Chinese leaders into folding their metaphoric hands and allowing the US to continue exploiting the rest of the world unchallenged.
China is a threat because it grows by controllling its own fate, and by ensuring that its masses get the benefits of development, rather than handing over everything to the US/angle-colonial empire and its barons.
China is also a threat because other developing countries see this and can imagine another path of economic development is possible, rather than only exploitation by he anglo colonials.
I don't usually comment on articles, but I like to mark the occasions when I genuinely still feel actually flabbergasted at the proportion of lie, underhandness propaganda and that utter plumbing of the depths doesn't have the whole world hitting the roof right with them about now. You really never can be cynical enough to keep up.
Imagine if the world survives and culturally recovers somehow, and a serious minded filmmaker decides to make the definitive Waterloo-type movie of the Ukraine war someday. And he finds this. How could you seriously portray them as much better than the Nazis?
What an obscene waste of human lives, and resources humanity desperately needs to be allocated elsewhere. There is never been an effort by the West, led by the US, to seek a sincere diplomatic resolution to this human murderous obscenity on the planet - of the 100s of thousands of lives wasted for nothing but some ideological, tribal nonsense that one would think we would have outgrown since the last two world wars. It's hard not to be so angry one can hardly see straight over the stupidity of it all - the human criminality and the buffoonery of corrupt criminals in charge in Washington DC right now. The senile, creepso US President that became president through cheating and bribery - and doesn't have a shred of human decency or integrity as he stumbles his way onto his phony leadership of the free world stage - an unjust mockery of human values and human rights.
Biden's degenerate public performances and the lack of reaction from both the audiences and the western governments/media is everything any reasonable human need to know about the current state of the "free world". The rest of the world - the "non-free" kind - is amused at best, and horrified at worst.
BS. Nonsense.
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-obtains-and-releases-fbi-record-alleging-vp-biden-foreign-bribery-scheme
We are duly assured that this is all "unverified", like Hunter's laptop.
I would only quibble with a small part of your comment that would have great meaning. U.S. should never be capitalized, the proper spelling u.s. , lower case for disrespect : )
I no longer believe peace will be possible with End Stage Capitalism in death throes. Apparently capital sees no other profit than war. I don't like feeling like this, please tell me I am
wrong. Run to the Light.
Putin and his fellow kleptocrats see profit in their conquest of Donestk:
An imperialist economic justification of the annexation of Donbas, by Russian mafia capitalism. "The accession of new territories to Russia is justifiable from the economic point of view and will not have a negative impact on the Russian budget, the Kremlin said."
https://english.pravda.ru/russia/154170-russia_new_territories/?fbclid=IwAR28cnxbmD11SFiPD1dhook9bS1sBpSz-MAC1VrMJERcyiU4J8CcE1F-uF0
Your storyline does not hold water. Russia was making money just fine peacefully selling low cost gas to Germany and all of Europe at sub-market prices. They would not have taken action in Ukraine for profit, at the cost of removing peace.
You seek to paint them as irrational which they are not. And which is the mean reason the US has been clearly counting on them to NOT unleash a nuclear war. Because the US knows they are rational.
So no, you’re utterly wrong there.
What's strange about your comment Russia will grow at a higher 1.7% GDP than the u.s.
Russian Mafia Capitalism as opposed to u.s. Mafia Capitalism? I don't really see the difference.
BTW, the war is over. Thankfully the Russian people were not as brutal as the u.s. bombing of Iraq. There would be millions of deaths in Ukraine. Any word on Gonzalo Lira u.s. citizen being held in Ukraine for reporting on the war.
Sad to see anyone that gives statistics created by Putin any credit whatsoever. I live in Florida and see the results of DeSantis massage of stats and he doesn't even have defenestration program.
As far as differences between the plutocrat US and kleptocrat Russia you weren't paying attention in the 90s.
If the war is over why is Putin still killing Ukrainians in violation of international law? Why is Putin still illegally occupying Ukraine territory.?
Neither the Russian nor American people are responsible for the mass murder their leaders commit. Just as Hitler had no right to take over the dictatorships of Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia, and the USSR, Putin has no right to attack the Ukraine dictatorship of Ukraine, no matter how many millions of Jews, Chinese, Muslims, Seminoles, Tartars, Hindus, Quakers, Hawaiians, or Russians have been killed in his death camps.
That's so funny, you mean like statistics from the u.s. Labor Dept. or the famous u.s. Federal Reserve hahahahha . You forgot what the CIA did all over Central and South America.
BTW, those territories voted to leave and become states of Russia. Now maybe the Ukraine bombing of people East of the Dnipro will stop. Have a very nice day. Paying attention in the 90's, 80's, 70's,mid 60's first sit-in and school walk-out over Vietnam, oh that's right Vietnam another shinning example of u.s. foreign affairs.
Preach! And to quote peace activist Matthew Hoh, "War is the obscenity."
It's difficult to come up with words to describe how obscene war is in reality. I suppose one reason why the sociopathic old man Elites who push human beings into war, hide the actuality of it as much as they possibly can. And never volunteer their own children for it.
Chris Hedges just two days ago came out with a powerful substack article on war, and is able to communicate some of the obscenity of it here: https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/there-are-very-few-good-films-about
One reason the Vietnam war finally ended was ordinary Americans were subject to the slaughter almost daily on the major networks at the time. The corrupt fuckers who run our country now - have made sure all that is sanitized and hidden from view - as they go about their business of murdering human beings systematically.
Exactly. The "sanitizing" of war has been deliberate and mandatory for all the mainstream media outlets, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. I remember watching CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite with my father and seeing the film of what was happening in Vietnam--often followed by film of protests and marches against the war and photos of body bags being offloaded from military planes. Those images, those hideous sights and sounds is what shut down the Vietnam War. If only some large broadcaster was brave enough to show the truth of Ukraine to the public--every horrific, bloody, frightening, vomit-producing image of what our tax dollars are causing there. Again and again and again...
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/there-are-very-few-good-films-about
“… If we truly saw war, it would be so shocking, so disturbing, so disgusting, war would be hard to wage.…”
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
Note that when Victoria Nuland said in 2014, “#uck the EU”, what she really meant was “#uck all of Europe, Ukraine included”.
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
"corrupt fuckers",...I like and share your outrage, but when looking at, say Victoria Nuland, her husband Mr. Kagan, Joe Biden and his wife, the last thing these people do is "fuck". They are either way too fat (Nuland/Kagan) or senile to do so. Maybe the world would he a better place if Victoria got laid more...Anyway, agree with the spirit of your comments.
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
Seems you live on planet Trafalmadore, sir. How is the weather there, currently?
Thanks for doing your job as a Putin sycophant.
If only Putin had not launched his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation, Ukraine would not be suffering the horrors of war today.
You seem to be repeating neoliberal propaganda talking points over and over again. Go take a couple of aspirins and lie down now, Thomas. Better yet, check out this excellent post: https://open.substack.com/pub/joebrunoli/p/zelensky-the-selling-of-a-president
I'm for the truth, not matter who tells it.
I'm for justice, no matter who is for or against.
I wish Putin had never launched his genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation against Ukraine.
If only Zelensky capitulated to Putin’s demands tantamount to unconditional surrender before Putn's condemned by the UN imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation of destruction and annexation Putin would not have been forced to destroy Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam and so many lives could have been saved and Russia's war fighting ability would no be so damaged.
What horseshit.
You turn a deliberate blind eye to the CIA led coup, and the MINSK agreement.
Your comments are intentionally deceptive as you only talk about one part of the context - and you leave out the rest. Therefore you are an arrogant fraud. The usual kind of shitlib.
Russia is capable of defeating Ukro-Nazistan and NATO too. Stalemate is a media lie or they're insane. Russia is going to continue until there is unconditional surrender. There will be no frozen conflict. This will be dealt with once and for all. Russia is fed up with the lies and broken promises of the USA/NATO, the stalling tactics of Minsk 1 & 2 and they're done playing.
NATO is a Suicide Pill for the World and a dead man walking.
Yep, I was going say I think Russia can and will force a surrender on their terms. NATO hasn't rocked the reckless enemy, the bear is stronger that ever. German hasn't weened itself of gas and rediscovered it's values, it's in recession. France wants to leave both NATO and the EU cos she's fed up being controlled by the US. I have no idea why Scandinavian countries want to join, I thought they were too sensible for that.
I think the Empire knows all this too. They'll just blame Zelensky, throw in the towel and get ready for China. This time it will their own country that's thrown into recession by the semiconductor wars.
I would agree to what you say here, just a little stronger, as Russia MUST do this, as the 'rules based international order' has left them no other way (Russia sees this as an existential threat, looking at 'our' behavior towards them I totally agree - what a crime ... over 8 billion people on a 'burning' planet cannot live together in peace it seems, probably we will burn a little faster than whatever climate change will bring us in the future ...
perhaps it's a mercy to us and everyone else to make our funeral pyre burn brighter and faster
"Russia MUST do this, as the 'rules based international order' has left them no other way." Yes, Putin must be free to butcher, rape, plunder and destroy especially after the UN condemned his genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation.
The preponderance of “his” and “Putin” in your post, betray a diet of pure propaganda and a huge naïveté.
Nations of the size of Russia do not operate purely on the whim of one man and they are not suicidal. Should be rather obvious that they have seen the steady march of the US in Ukraine since 2014 and have no plan to be mowed down on their own front lawn.
People like Jeffrey Sachs and Mearsheimer and even the Rand Corps own strategic study “Unbalancing and Overextending Russia”, ( https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/RB10000/RB10014/RAND_RB10014.pdf. ) have laid this out in detail. Long ago.
But here you are still dribbling out debunked propaganda that has been fed to you.
Well, Sir, you are free to have your own OPINION (it is definitely NOT MINE). The book about Russophobia by Swiss Journalist/Politician Guy Mettan would be an informative read. But of course our good politicians and MSM are now for decades living in Orwellian 1984-times: War is peace -- Freedom is slavery -- Ignorance is strength. So for us (who have no influence and no say in anything) it is just waiting for the fiery end or hopefully a few 'crumbs' to survive for a little longer. As Ms Caitlin recently wrote, if Russia or China had as many military bases around the US, we would be LONG TOASTED.
I was hoping that Finland would reconsider its mistake of joining NATO when Russia-hating party girl Sana Marin was defeated in the last election. But, apparently, they're not as smart as I thought. Once gripped by War Fever, rationality leave the stage. Why would they take the chance of becoming the next Ukraine?
The US will make damn sure that no politician who questions Finland's subservience will get into office.
So you support Putin's criminal policies because it is not as evil as the US. Not a very high standard to hold mass murders to.
I too can not understand why Finns would have any fear of Putin. Some say it was Putin's criminal, genocidal, imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation and his destruction of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam. All condemned by the UN and some by the ICC. But like you I think it was just hatred of Russia.
While going on your ignorant rant, devoid of any historical knowledge, why not blame Putin for blowing up the Nordstream pipelines too?
Don't think Putin blew the pipelines, looking at the evidence. Do think Putin was wrongly condemned by the UN for launching his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation of destruction and annexation destroying Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam and killing so many Ukrainian children?
But i understand many people think Putin had the right to subjugate Ukraine as he did, Georgia, Moldova and Chechnya and like Hitler no obligation to honor any treaty he signed.
Thanks for fulfilling my expectations of Putin's sycophants by refusing to address any of my facts and only using ad hominem attacks.
If you ask Finns or Swedes why they joined NATO, most will say they were sacred shitless because of Putin's violation of Ukraine's neutrality in his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation of destruction and annexation condemned by the UN and his destroying Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kharkiv, Bucha, Maryinka and the Kakhovka Dam
No, no, no.
They never admit wrong. They invaded Afghanistan on a pretence and stayed for 20 years. Then left with no admittance or anything.
Europe cannot survive 20 years of war in Ukraine, turning the place into a wasteland and unleashing all its poor, corrupt masses of refugees into European countries. There will be nothing left of Europe worth defending.
NATO. "Dead man walking" An apt description.
Now trying out their expansion plans in Southeast Asia.They may even encourage little Australia with its 25 million population and memberships in QUAD, AUKUS, ANZUS and anything else on the US agenda to become a member of NATO as well. Then they can realise one day soon, as they will, that being a partner (puppet) for the USA has some serious disadvantages when one or more of the following occurs, or comes to pass….
* US dollar discarded as the International trading currency.
Soon
* The US tries to produce all the products it wants to sell in the world by removing all the skillsets developed in China, using the obvious low Chinese costs of labour and then manufacturing ithe same product n the US, based on US salaries.
Watch out, Apple.
* “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests” . Kissinger.
Unlikely ever to change.
* Someone is building a rocket base in South America. Another 1962 Missile Emergency.
So many countries would compete enthusiastically to be the location of the base.
You have sanctioned and bullied us for too long, America.
* There seems to be a couple of unidentified submarines off the coast of New York in International waters. Just sitting there, doing nothing. Why are they there?
Nothing like the number off the coast of China or surrounding Russia though, I hear you say.
Best move as soon as possible from New York, people.
Fair is fair, Hypocritical Biden….(Corporate / military-owned, Israel controlled etc) and also known as “Stumbles, Neocon Supremo, Feebles, , a weak man with no chance of success in 2024.
Not a single chance.
Just a couple comments to add to your excellent list.
“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”. America also has no permanent values. And that is its true fatal flaw. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? The Bill of Rights? The Constitution? Not just dead, but intentionally holocausted and burnt to ash in the ovens of academia, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Washington, D.C.
Could Russia defeat NATO? In a conventional war, yes, of course. No question. NATO has been proven a military paper tiger. If Russia were so inclined, it would take far less time for Russia to win in Western Europe than in Ukraine. The U.S. just lost its last endless war to 80,000 Taliban fighters (the highest estimate I’ve read, probably far fewer) who had no artillery, no armor, no Air Force, no Navy, and no nukes. The Taliban’s main battle weapon was an AK rifle. And NATO thinks it can beat a vastly larger, better trained military, now with proven battle experience and superior weapons, all staged on NATO’s doorstep and ready to roll? Fortunately, the Russians do not have to invade Western Europe, since Europe has already swallowed the poison pill administered by the US. The EU and NATO have already been militarily defeated. All that’s left now is for the western empire to collapse under the weight of its own political incompetence and evil.
America's permanent values are Unity and Subordination, same as every other emperor in the Greek "civilizational" narrative.
One of the surprises of this conflict - just how little value the absurdly expensive weapons produced by US weapon contractors from Lockheed Martin to Boeing have performed against the Russians. Yet another demonstration of a society centered on greed and profits without a rational accountability by a government owned by the 1%. The MIC/War industry has become nothing but a place for extraction of wealth and profits, not about actually winning a war. Same goes for Wallstreet - Wallstreet isn't about actual value in the US marketplace - its become a place of illicit means of extraction of wealth, a casino of computerized stock trading and ponzi scheme theft.
The latest propaganda blames the lack of success of the Ukrainian offensive on inadequate training and arming of the Ukrainian military.
Are we supposed to forget all the stories over the last year and a half of the tens of billions of military aid provided by the US and its vassals?
Russia's military budget for 2023 is under $100 billion USD, which includes a blue-water navy.
What, pray tell, are we getting for our money? We recall the stories earlier in the Ukraine War about Ukrainian corruption and diversion of military equipment sent to them. It seems the corruption in the US is orders of magnitude larger and done in plain sight through approved military procurement contracts.
Values aren't free. We're getting the dollar's value for our money. The continuity of the US government and its capitalist policing arm are the only things which make the greenback or any foreign property deed worth more than its caloric value.
Exactly. It turns out its not just the Ukrainian war machine procurement which is corrupt - but US procurement has been corrupt now for decades. And there is no democratic oversight of it. Americans are so propagandized they are more than willing to look the other way when a yearly 1 trillion dollar budget is handed over to the MIC or deep state agencies - but when it comes time for something like a Universal Health Care program for all Americans, we are then told we can't afford it.
Right. This is no Syria and no Afghanistan.
Right. This is no Syria and no Afghanistan. That was another time the empire's hubris was in overdrive. The biggest propaganda was that the Soviet Union ' invaded' Afghanistan. At the time Afghanistan had a communist government led by Babrak Kamal and later by Najibullah. Among other social welfare policies, women were emancipated, they were in universities, in most of the professions - they even wore miniskirts (not that I consider wearing a miniskirt is emancipation!) Then the US/West happened , "to make the world safe for democracy". A fundamentalist Mujahideen was created and weaponised, poppy fields flourished to get the Soviet army ( invited in to help in fighting against the Islamic fundamentalists ), addicted and demoralised. Najibullah was tortured and killed. The same fate that was to happen to Gaddaffi. The Afghan people are still suffering the effects of that war as are the Syrians.
hmm, ''humans'' ? especially 'eu' inbreds are not capable of rational reasoning (omit thinking!) !...If one looks through History books (killings around the world , from Africa, Asia S. and N America Australia oops all of GLOBE!), one can clearly see this , except, well 'eu' inbreds!... sad , pathetic and pitiful!..
You said, "Russia is capable of defeating Ukro-Nazistan and NATO too." Then why was Russia's invasion was stopped in its tracks and been forced into retreat since late last year by Ukro-Nazistan? Then why can't Russia defend Belgorod, Moscow, Rostov or the Kerch Bridge from attack or occupation?
Good to see a brilliant military strategist as you posting. Too bad you weren't advising Putin before his sneak attack with overwhelming force was stopped in its tracks. I also fear Putin my destroy the world implementing his imperialist, revanchist failed Special Military Operation NOT A WAR of destruction and annexation.
I agree that Putin had every right under Minsk to keep the 'civilian' Wagner Group and fund FSB's Strelkov/Girkin' 'civilian' militia fighting Ukraine in Donetsk.
https://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/157193-strelkov_putin/
If you were a ukrsnisn would you be happy living under Putin ?
I definitely think Russia can defeat the Ukraine, but not NATO. Russian land invasion of all of Europe, successfully? Get outta here!
You're right. No one wins in a nuclear war. NATO was never there to threaten a conventional war with USSR anyway. Tactical nuclear weapons was always going to be its primary means of defending Europe, and early on, at least the original NATO relied heavily on tactical nukes and the threat of their use as a deterrent.
Although given this last year and a half of performance, and the Russia adept use of hypersonic missiles - one wonders just how effective NATO is - after decades of money driven war products by the war profiteers/contractors and incompetency of corrupt leadership in DC.
NATO is very effective at generating money for its backers in the war profiteering industry.
None of these countries has a war on poverty or has ever pledged any amount of GDP to eliminating poverty. Yet NATO snaps their fingers and they all - in violation of democratic rights of their population - agree to pledge X amount of their GDP to “defense” aka the war industries that back NATO.
From the perspective of the "Military Industrial Congressional Complex" they don't want a winner on either side, perpetual war is their "Raison d'etre".
Slaughtering patriots and civilians is "Just Business" to these psychopaths.
The saddest part in all this is utter stupidity of the completely zombified Ukrainians that's taken place over some three decades now (since their so called "independence"). During which they were being told over and over that that's what is going to happen if they go on with their re-banderization and willingness to lick the West's ass unconditionally and brainlessly.
"Germany has weaned itself from dependence on Russian energy and, in many ways, rediscovered its sense of values."
Germany is now fully dependent on US energy and that will ruin the industry totally in the following months and years. Only complete idiots like German or EU politicians rely on a repressive partner like the US.
Which values were rediscovered? From my personal view with my fellow co-inhabitants I would say this are the values of Nazi Germany with all the hate and contempt of the slavic subhuman. No development I prefer.
Also the line 'weaned itself' suggests that Germany willingly made the decision, when in fact the US forced the issue by blowing up the Nordstream pipeline. If the US hadn't done that, Germany would probably still be buying Russian gas. That is the peak of propaganda deception when you weave a little lie/distortion into a line to try and help make a lie fact in people's minds.
This is nothing surprising. The US is run by highly educated savages who do not value the lives of their own masses let alone that of their vassals. And they have a long track record - Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq - of crating quagmires and wastelands that they then exit claiming victory.
But it’s not surprising the U.S. is doing it. They don’t admit failures and they double down on failures with propaganda. It’s psychotic.
However the spotlight should be on Europeans, as a country in Europevis now getting the standard U.S. wasteland formula, which means terrorism and inequality poverty are likely to be exported across Europe before long. And European boys and girls will soon be conscripted into the meat grinder. First the nutcase countries like Poland Latvia and Lithuania then the rest of the silent fools.
Hell, we pour hundreds of billions into Ukraine with no accountability.
The citizens of East Palestine cannot get so much as a hotel voucher.
For the Empire, its own citizens are at most bodies to buy the trinkets and man the ranks, and at worst an inconvenience to be grudgingly tolerated.
They're not savages, at all. They're too highly developed to care about the material world (they have slaves to worry after all that). They live in the land of "values" and ideals and other mind-numbing religious blather that people tend to develop when they don't do enough physical labor toward primary production.
I call them educated savages precisely because they are not developed.
They jave big degrees in very narrow fields from Harvard, Stamford, West Point, Georgetown, etc, but have zero education or culture when it comes to: human relations, civil ideas, social responsibility, respect for nature and environment that humans depend on.
That’s how you get to the point where “security” = ravaging the planet and its people. Endlessly.
They are just savages.
In other words, you're sneering invidiously at anyone who does not align themselves with the infantile myths of the Holy Sacred White Middle Class, as if they and their ideals weren't the problem. OK
If you think caring about people and planet rather than bombing people for power, is “infantile”….you are the problem yourself.
"Development", the idea that what exists can be, and probably needs to be, reformed, IS the problem, and your usage of the term with a positive valence actually continues and supports the problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postdevelopment_theory
>Postdevelopment theory (also post-development or anti-development or development criticism) holds that the whole concept and practice of development is a reflection of Western-Northern hegemony over the rest of the world. Postdevelopment thought arose in the 1980s out of criticisms voiced against development projects and development theory, which justified them.
You’re babbling about nothing to do with me. I didnt write about about “development”. I wrote that these people have no interest in preserving humanity or the planet.
Delete your “reply” to me and post it under your own post. Not a fake “reply” to me.
Final warning.
"They live in the land of "values" and ideals and other mind-numbing religious blather that people tend to develop when they don't do enough physical labor toward primary production."
But only sometimes. Their American master snaps its fingers and they drop to their knees the way a crack addicted hooker drops to a c-note.
One of those values Western thought celebrates is eager, anticipatory service. Take that as you will.
"Bad human! Don't touch what you can't afford!"
Exactly this... The only place where I would differ, is in the NeoCon fantasy that Russia can't win this war. In fact, they appear to be doing just that. As the remaining Ukrainian fighters (Nazis and Conscripts, alike) get ground into meat, and the NATO weapons stocks grow shorter - Russia is poised to achieve its stated goals of De-Nazifying, De-Militarizing and Neutralizing Ukraine. Military Experts like Scott Ritter and Col. Macgregor seem to think that a Ukrainian collapse is inevitable. Whether that means Russia stopping at Kharkov, Odessa, and a land bridge to Transnistria - or driving on to the Polish border, remains to be seen.
If Ukraine had any real prospects of victory - they wouldn't be wasting their ammunition on iconographic terrorist attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, like the Kerch Strait Bridge, or on shelling civilians in Donetsk.
"... the NeoCon fantasy the Russia can't win this war." Only the truly imbecilic among them might believe it. The rest must keep saying this so the dumb Banderites continue to carry on.
Then it may be the Poles' turn. Those are no less dumb given the number of times they were betrayed by their western "allies" in the past. It'll be no different this time.
I watch both Scott Ritter and Col. Macgregor regularly (along with the Duran). They have been on target and accurate with everything they have predicted and militarily analyzed now for over a year. While at the same time, all the pronouncements from MSM, or announcements from the White House based on Intelligence reports have been grossly innacurate or deliberately false propaganda. If more Americans knew just how much they are consistently lied to, just how much propaganda they are fed on a daily basis ...
The conduct of this war by the US and its NATO lackey's has been utterly immoral. As they talk of weakening Russia they weaken themselves.
The US is losing global credibility as countries rush into the waiting arms of BRICS.
Even as it has lost in Ukraine it contemplates opening a second front against China!!!
Washington is the drunk who can't put the cork in the bottle and determined to hit bottom. The longer the fall the harder the landing.
Very well said Kaitlin. Of course the US's objective has always been as stated by Lloyd Austin "our aim is to damage Russia" and of course this requires that the war last for as long as possible, regardless of the death and destruction in Ukraine. Hence peace has always been unacceptable and has been actively sabotaged by the US, including the Minsk peace agreement (the US poured arms and training into Ukraine to facilitate Ukraine's violence against their own people in the east in violation of the UN endorsed Minsk agreement), the draft treaties submitted by Putin in November 2021 (which were perfectly reasonable but rejected out of hand by the US and their acolyte NATO), the draft peace framework agreed to by Ukraine and Russia in March/April 2022 (which the US and UK vigorously opposed - in the words of Naftali Bennett which the US/UK "vetoed").
It occurred to me after watching the weaponization hearings last week that rather than continually quoting and citing all the propaganda rags like NYT, WAPO, Reuters, Cable News, etc., maybe it would be better to ignore them off the face of the planet.
It's akin to interviewing a crazy neighbor every day, and then running around telling everyone you know what crazy things they said today.
Maybe it would be better if Dr. West didn't go on CNN with CIA/Pharma shill Anderson Cooper. Maybe James Carville's corpse isn't worth refuting. Maybe we don't need to know if John Bolton's mustache still needs a trim.
Legacy media is already reeling from lack of viewership and advertising. The only thing propping it up is dark money payments from the CIA, salaries out of the 72 million Joe Biden's campaign raised in the 2nd quarter, and Pfizer payoffs to corrupted actors pretending to be newscasters and writers.
Because what are we really afraid of? That Aunt Joyce and her Boomer card club play bridge while watching MSNBC? That their bloc believes what they are told and will vote accordingly?
Other than the Boomers, who is buying this shit? Or is the real problem that there are just so many people paid off and bought out that they alone represent enough of a voting bloc to continue the insanity that passes as the official narratives?
It seems to me that every time we reference these propaganda sources, we give them validation.
Either I'm missing something, or we may well be served by not giving these sources any attention at all.
Like the Simpson's Halloween episode where the advertising came to life and was destroying Springfield, maybe Paul Anka's solution in song that defeated the evil advertising is fit.
"Just Don't Look."
“Who is buying this shit?”...Indeed. That’s a fukn fantastic question. The answer might scare the shit out of me, for one, but you have hit the nail on the head.👌
It's like "Stepford Wives" or "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers".
I don't understand who these people are, and why everyone seems to go along with it.
Prestige goods, such as high "news", tend not to be traded as commodities. I forget who said that Meet The Press has met its viewership goals as long as Congress and the White House tune in.
HA good point!
Have the propagandized in the West noticed:
1. That the message has shifted from Ukraine is winning to this will resolve to a stalemate?
2. That the West has not adjusted its publicly stated position on negotiations in response to that changed message? If the West were humane, in response to 1, they should shift from "no peace until Ukraine finishes the job of throwing Putin out" to encouraging a negotiated end to a conflict that they now claim is fruitless for both sides?
So true.
I'm glad you liked my comment. I intended it as a backdrop for Caitlin's article:
They're not even making the lies they tell us consistent, so relatively poorly informed people--myself included--can see upfront that there is something wrong with the Narrative.
Then others, like Caitlin in this article, come along with the facts, the goods, the smoking guns, and those like me can say, "Yes, our hunch is confirmed."
Caitlin - not only does she write well on topics interesting to many of us, but she backs it up with links i.e. citations - she does her homework. It's like reading a well cited academic paper, on a near daily basis. It's particularly impressive.
It seems like Zelensky thinks he is Saruman, but he, like all Ukrainians, is just another orc, to the West. And Saruman never realized that he was just another tool for Mordor.
Of course, and the cheerleaders insist that just a few hundred billion more in weapons and sweet sweet cash, only a few hundred thousand more lives, and we got this, baby!
Yet they never seem to want to go themselves and partake in the glorious victory that is just around the corner.
n.b. "Blackadder Goes Fourth" might as well have been a documentary.
We've clearly answered the question: "Are we the bad guys?" They'll drag this war out at least until the 2024 presidential election!
You left out one key objective, one that has been resoundingly achieved already--cut off Europe from Russian gas and get them to accept gas from the US though it's much more expensive, environmentally as well as economically. The US empire has corporations in the driver's seat; the same is true with its attempt to gin up a war with China. China is a "threat" not because it claims rights to its own surrounding ocean, but because its economic growth makes it a serious rival to US business interests. Which is true largely because those same interests offshored millions of American factory jobs to low-wage China...so now the economies of the US and China (and the EU, Australia, the world) are so entangled that it's problematic how they could have a war. But maybe they don't really want a war, they just hope to initimidate Chinese leaders into folding their metaphoric hands and allowing the US to continue exploiting the rest of the world unchallenged.
China is a threat because it grows by controllling its own fate, and by ensuring that its masses get the benefits of development, rather than handing over everything to the US/angle-colonial empire and its barons.
China is also a threat because other developing countries see this and can imagine another path of economic development is possible, rather than only exploitation by he anglo colonials.
That is the only “threat” from China.
I don't usually comment on articles, but I like to mark the occasions when I genuinely still feel actually flabbergasted at the proportion of lie, underhandness propaganda and that utter plumbing of the depths doesn't have the whole world hitting the roof right with them about now. You really never can be cynical enough to keep up.
Imagine if the world survives and culturally recovers somehow, and a serious minded filmmaker decides to make the definitive Waterloo-type movie of the Ukraine war someday. And he finds this. How could you seriously portray them as much better than the Nazis?
Anyway. Ahem:
Oh, and love your blog, Caitlin.
I'm flabbergasted!