Listen to a reading of this article:
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It’s just incredible how even after all this time, after all those wars, after all those lies, it’s not even occurring to most mainstream westerners to investigate whether the US could possibly have had anything to do with starting the war in Ukraine.
There’s one asshole in the room who always starts shit. Any time any shit has started he’s always been involved. And hardly anyone’s even looking at him thinking, “I wonder if that shit-starting guy has anything to do with this?”
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I am convinced that mainstream culture’s fascination with World War II has made us all dumber. Everyone just lives in this dopey children’s cartoon now where every US enemy is Hitler and they’re the brave hero who is fighting Hitler.
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Ukraine has no chance of winning this war alone, no matter how many weapons are sent to it. All weapons can do is make the war more costly for Russia, which it’s in the US empire’s interests to do. Stop pretending your calls for more weapons are anything more noble than that.
You’re not trying to save lives; only the negotiation of a ceasefire can do that. All you’re doing with your calls to arm Ukraine is helping the most powerful empire that has ever existed make this war more expensive for Moscow and hurt Putin’s popularity at home and abroad.
This was the USA’s strategy in arming the mujahideen in Afghanistan during the first cold war; to give the Soviets their own Vietnam. A costly quagmire that consumed their wealth and military focus for years, contributing to their downfall. They’ve already re-employed this strategy in Syria, where a US official openly admitted they worked to create a “quagmire” for Moscow:
Here is the May 2020 comment of the now former US envoy James Jeffrey that I referenced, in which he described his job in Syria as follows: "My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians." pic.twitter.com/m50XwG7fCF
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) November 14, 2020
Now they’re hoping to pull off the same trick again, to any extent possible. That’s all this is. It’s not about saving lives or stopping a war, it’s about grand chessboard maneuverings to maintain US planetary domination.
Ukraine will be Putin's Afghanistan.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 28, 2022
This will not save lives. In fact if it is successful it will ensure the loss of a great many more as an unwinnable war drags on long after it could have been over. This doesn’t benefit Ukrainians. It doesn’t benefit Americans. It doesn’t benefit Europeans. It only benefits the unipolarist agendas of a few powerful psychopaths.
"Remember, the Russians invaded Afghanistan back in 1980," Hillary Clinton says. "It didn't end well for the Russians…but the fact is, that a very motivated, and then funded, and armed insurgency basically drove the Russians out of Afghanistan." pic.twitter.com/iirtXI4vz4
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 1, 2022
If you still want to support arming Ukraine on the basis that it will benefit the unipolar hegemony of a globe-spanning empire because you believe that empire’s continued dominance is a good thing, be my guest. But again, don’t pretend what you’re cheering for is anything nobler than that.
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After 9/11 we were intensively bombarded with messaging about a sinister foreign leader, creating an environment of shrill hysteria that was very hard to stand up against. This was used to whip up support for pre-existing objectives of US geostrategic dominance.
Sound familiar?
Would people have consented to two back-to-back full-scale ground invasions without 9/11 and the aggressive narrative management campaign which followed? Would people have consented to economic warfare that could hurt us all and nuclear brinkmanship that could get us all killed without the Ukraine invasion and the aggressive narrative management campaign accompanying it?
It’s times like these where it’s most important to be intensely, aggressively skeptical of the agendas of our rulers, and unfortunately it’s also times like these where you’ll get yelled at the most forcefully for doing so. But we know better than to be shouted into silence now.
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More concerning than backing Nazi militias in Ukraine is the far more widespread, far more deadly, and equally white supremacist belief we’re seeing throughout the western world that invading a nation of white people is horrific while invading a nation of brown people is normal.
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There are those who think maintaining a hostile client state on Russia’s border is worth any amount of brinkmanship to accomplish, and then there are those who understand what nuclear war is.
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If these insane escalations between the US and Russia don’t scare the shit out of you it’s either because you don’t understand them or because you are psychologically compartmentalizing away from what you do understand. It’s one or the other.
We are far, far too close to the brink of an unthinkable series of events from which there is no return. And none of the loudest voices are calling for it to be scaled back. They’re calling for it to escalate further. Sometimes a lot further.
https://twitter.com/JohnAllenGay/status/1498396625823309828
Many influential pundits and politicians are now calling for a NATO no-fly zone in Ukraine, which would require directly attacking the Russian air force and Russian air defenses.
Scoop: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging President Biden and NATO to impose a "no-fly zone" over "significant parts" of the country, telling Axios in a statement that Ukraine "can beat the aggressor" if the Western allies "do their part." https://t.co/o9VscRjFwp
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) February 28, 2022
We’re speeding toward a cliff and nobody in charge has a foot anywhere near the brake pedal. If anything, the political/media class is demanding the gas pedal be pushed to the floor.
Strangest thing – entire world watching a massive Russian armor formation plow towards Kyiv, we cheer on Ukraine, but we’re holding ourselves back. NATO Air Force could end this in 48 hrs. Understand handwringing about what Putin would do, but we can see what’s coming
— Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) February 28, 2022
Is what the US and its allies are trying to accomplish in Ukraine worth continually risking nuclear armageddon for? This is the single most important question in the world right now, and hardly anyone seems to be asking it.
If people want to oppose a no-fly zone, fine. But understand that is an act of appeasement no different to our appeasement of Hitler in 1938. We are refusing to do what we know is morally right out of fear. We are prepared to let a free nation die to safeguard ourselves.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) March 1, 2022
Our rulers are rolling the dice on the life of every terrestrial organism, and people are still babbling about whether Democrats or Republicans are harder on Russia and trying to score political points. Hardly anyone has their head up and their eyes fixed on what may be coming.
Perhaps the biggest risk-calculation/moral dilemma of the war so far. A massive Russian convoy is abt 30 miles from Kyiv. The US/NATO could likely destroy it. But that would be direct involvement against Russia and risk, everything. Does the West watch in silence as it rolls?
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) February 28, 2022
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If you heard something, looked outside, and saw a mushroom cloud growing in the distance, how much thought do you imagine you’d be having about the importance of NATO’s open-door policy with Ukraine?
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Everyone’s freaking out about RT when all they’d have to do to kill it is simply allow leftist and antiwar opinions on western mass media. You’d steal their entire audience. But we all know that’s never going to happen because it was never actually about Russian state media; it’s about silencing opponents of the official imperial narrative.
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Dear shitlibs,
Saying that hawkish escalations spearheaded by the most powerful empire in history led to undesirable consequences in Ukraine is not actually the same as an abuser saying “look what you made me do” and does not have “what-was-she-wearing energy.”
Love, Caitlin
This criticism shows up in my online notifications literally every single time I talk about the role of the US empire in paving the way to the Ukraine invasion, and to be clear, the battered spouse and rape victim in their analogy is not Ukraine but the US empire. The poor widdle US empire. They’re literally demanding that no one on the internet criticize the most dangerous actions of the most powerful and destructive government on the face of this planet. At all. It’s just unbelievable that they think this is a normal and acceptable thing to do.
It’s simply forbidden to talk about the role the world’s largest power structure had in this conflict. You’re only allowed to say it’s happening solely because Putin is evil and hates freedom.
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“You can criticize the US empire AND Russia, Caitlin.”
One of those is already being criticized at fever pitch by literally all government and mainstream media institutions in the entire western world, while the other is almost never criticized by those institutions in any meaningful way.
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I saw someone in the comments of a post about nuclear war say “it would be Putin’s fault” if one happens. Like that would be any consolation to anyone on earth when the bombs go off. People still think about this thing in terms of political point-scoring, that’s how fucked we are.
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Deteriorating material conditions can cause people to rise up against their government. Imperialists understand this, which is why they work to foment unrest with starvation sanctions in empire-targeted nations while at home keeping people fed just enough to prevent an uprising.
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50 responses to “Every US Enemy Is Hitler: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
The small, megalomaniac Austrian with the fly mustache somehow & mysteriously seems to have survived.
At least he’s still haunting all over world history and popping up here and there from time to time. He seems to be somehow “multidimensional” and obviously “gender-fluid”, because he appears in several places at the same time and sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman.
German ex-Chancellorette Merkel was Hitler several times during her 15 years in office, as was French President Macron and other European politicians.
Both POTUSes, Bush jr & sen, were repeatedly Hitler and of course their most beloved hate-objects e.g. Saddam and Ghaddaffi were Hitler, too.
Putin is currently très en vogue as Hitler, I think Xi Jinping will soon be Hitler too (or is he already? Did I miss something?). It is also interesting that specific spatiotemporal manifestations of Hitler apparently accuses other Hitlers of being Hitler and at the same time vehemently deny being Hitler themselves.
The matter seems – though not really entirely conclusive or logical – at least to be complicated and urgently needs further scientific examination.
QUOTE: ***This will not save lives. In fact if it is successful it will ensure the loss of a great many more as an unwinnable war drags on long after it could have been over. This doesn’t benefit Ukrainians. It doesn’t benefit Americans. It doesn’t benefit Europeans. It only benefits the unipolarist agendas of a few powerful psychopaths.***
Let us see the names of these psychopaths so we can place a CURSE on them that will make them suffer a little. I’m not joking, I’m talking seriously about the use of occult forces here. There are a couple books on Amazon that teach you how. I’ve provided the link to one of them. If enough people come together to form a circle to curse the miscreants, I’m sure they’ll be taught a most unforgettable lesson.
https://www.amazon.com/Angels-Wrath-Wield-Magick-Darkness/dp/1521469938/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Funny how Killery Klinton so easily forgets that the super well funded insurgency in Afghanistan became al qaeda, which after 9/11 morphed into the super well funded ISIS. Way to go Amerika, the number one self-flagellating global terrorist state!
Attacking Ukraine is just one head of the hydra. If Putin & China had issued gold backed cbdc currencies that would have bankrupted the US Dollar & the west would have collapsed in free fall & there would be no more wars funded by the unlimited trillions of debt issued by the Fed.
Next time, so eejut gets in your face about Putin, shove them so good old fashion William Blum (RIP)
https://williamblum.org/
The US side blocked most Russian news sites for absolutely no good reason, because not much information about war could be found there.
They did it just to completely isolate Russia? or us in the West from Russia.
In all obviousness the ground war is proceeding, and the US/Nato is not going to participate in it in person.
But they want to turn it into another prolonged war of terror. So that’s what they are doing now.
Also terrorizing us in the West using the MSM so we will support their continued 20+ year long war of terror.
They have to do it because over these 20+ years they built up a huge war of terror machine and many people’s jobs are at stake (and also their federal funding). The US intelligence community reacted very strongly today to Russia warning about upcoming strike on the Ukrainian Intelligence Center in Kiev, by increasing media censorship in the US to the point of complete moral outrage. Thank you Obama.
The US ruling class are getting dumber if that’s even possible. It’s just as Bob Dylan says when he sings ‘just when you thought you’d lost everything, you find out you can lose a little more’!
This idea that they can draw Russia into a never ending war of insurgency highlights how little they understand this. Russia does not want Ukraine and they won’t stay there ( Western spinmeisters will have to explain why Russia has left after saying this was about imperial expansion). Russia is ridding Ukraine of its pro NATO orientation and will never allow it to re-emerge. To do this they are disarming the Ukrainian military and destroying Ukraines ability to wage war. This mission is nearly complete because the bulk of the Ukrainian military is surrounded so they are done. The Chechen fighters have been brought in for the specific task of killing the Nazis and purging the country of them. When this is done the Russians leave and tell the US to clean up the mess they caused to happen. The Eastern pro Russian part of the country will be restored and for the Western part of the country Putin might even tell Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to help themselves and take back the land Stalin stole from you in 1939. That is the literal interpretation of Putin’s reference to decommunisation of the country. But stay in Ukraine – no way! That’s another Western projection that will fail.
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I’m so depressed about having to think to go through all that shit living policies in a divided world again.
Fuck everything, fuck everyone.
I am impressed that some of the most vociferous COVID-19 disinformation commenters seem to have nothing to say about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It must have been that COVID-19 disinformation was the only mission in their portfolios.
It takes a while to switch from being a biomedical expert into a foreign policy expert. Give them a few more days.
I am going to sanction US oligarchs by canceling my Amazon account and giving up shopping completely.
US economy is 70% based on consumer spending.
I have enough staff to last until the end of the world.
They are cancelling Covid restrictions to prep US economy for 3rd world war.
And all last year I have seen job ads for women come work for Raytheon; women worked in weapons manufacturing during 2nd WW.
The US’s use of sanctions shows how powerful they think their money is. Like the last meeting minutes before the barbarians knock the fence down.
……for the curious…..read any first hand accounting of any survivor from hiroshima or nagasaki….that’s preppin’ enough!…….
Every once in a while, one has to do some soul searching and put one’s principles in question. Otherwise one gets into a rut, ages, withers and dies before you can even begin to utter Jack Robinson. Criticizing the Americans as we all tend to do on this site is all nice and dandy but it’s not getting anybody anywhere. At some stage, one has to renounce idealism for realpolitik. It’s a fact that they’re the leaders of the free world and so one has to be humble and reconsider.
I decided to give it a go and experiment living by the US’ geopolitical standards: 1/ whatever you do, try to make a buck, 2/ might is right and 3/ be a fucking hypocrite on penalty of plunging the country into fucking civil war before you can say J.R. (Jack Robinson).
I needed money because it was the end of February and I always find it difficult to make ends meet at the end of the month, especially the last thirty days – like the US Treasury. There was this little old lady close by fiddling with an ATM. As the bills came out, I knocked her on the head, took the money and ran. See? That was an encouraging start both in the might is right and make a buck sections.
Then I got into my car and this cyclist came from the right. I’ve got a 4X4 with bull bars which always come handy in town. The cyclist didn’t stand a chance. As Dubya would have said, priority is just a phrase on a piece of paper! I knocked the guy down easily but I had to stop nevertheless to steal his wallet while he was lying on the ground crying for help to make good in the make a buck section too…
Next thing you know, a cop knocks on my door as I was getting home. He said someone had seen me bump into the cyclist and he planned to book me for it. I snapped back that this was gross Russian disinformation and he immediately apologized, adding with a sigh: “This rot is everywhere now… Last week, a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to me told me my wife cheated on me. Of course I asked her when I got home and guess what… It turned out it was fucking Russian disinformation again! What’s the world coming to? And it’s got worse under Putin, everybody will tell you! The media, the CIA, the MIC, the president, everybody! If I was J.R. (Joe Robinette) I’d take advantage of the fact that he is invading Ukraine to nuke the Kremlin and offer the Russians the real choice between two sides of the same coin that we call democracy and the freedom to say what we want!”
I’m quite happy with this experiment so far. Tomorrow I’ll kill somebody, see how it goes if it’s not with a drone in Afghanistan…
PS: in the section “Duck, you sucker!”, here’s exactly what you have to do if you’re atom bombed:
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/fema-case-nuclear-explosion-maintain-social-distancing-and-wear-mask?
I decline responsibility if you kill yourself laughing :o)
That might be funny on a comedy show or an Onion piece but from FEMA, the US Federal Emergency Mis-management Agency, it’s annoyingly insulting. Just be afraid of everything; you can’t think straight if you’re afraid; we’ll do that for you.
FEMA” “Many people already feel fear and anxiety about the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The threat of nuclear explosion can add additional stress.”
No, really? Yes. And in the event of a nuclear explosion, assuming you’re not already a shadow scorched on concrete], you must find shelter from lethal radiation, but do remember to follow proper covid protocol because, well, just be afraid: fear is the mind killer
“Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household,” and “If possible, wear a mask if you’re sheltering with people who are not part of your household.”
….you don’t just get up and look out the window and ” gee wiz, a mushroom cloud!”…… it’s more like…..you feel an intense pressure happening, maybe ear popping, then the structure you are in is blown away, and so are you, then a fireball or firestorm blows through, reducing everything around for 50-75 miles to a radioactive bbq……this all depends on your distance from the target zone….some weapons will be dumped into areas that are military installations….many are located in populated areas…..some will be off target say, 25-50 miles…..you’re still fucked……and for those peppers that think they have an edge…..radiation released by numerous weapons going off at once or in a sequence of military strategy will kill most off sooner and later……let’s not forget the govt. prepper strategy…..they intend to rise again….after hiding in their gazillion dollar tax funded secret shelters who knows what lurks next?…..my guess is that it all starts over…..maybe……..so for $19.99 a month YOU CAN BE PREPARED!……that’s right!…and the best way is to be able to KISS YOUR OWN ASS GOODBYE!…..this package contains easy instructions on how to QUICKLY KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!….simple instructions to follow….to properly, easily, and thoroughly KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!…..so start bending over and grab that credit card and CALL NOW!……1/800/666-4355…..c’mon….you don’t have be in a yoga class to master this…..CALL NOW!…..don’t be locked out of the fallout shelter……YOUR ASS DEPENDS ON IT!….
Good stuff.
I spent an hour or so this morning going round and round on Facebook about sending small arms to Ukraine. There is a sizeable number who agree it’s a bad idea. However, there are some diehards that refuse to admit putting guns in the hands of untrained civilians just makes them a target. I gave examples. I quoted Chris Hedges. I used everything I could think of and no luck. When it comes to challenging the legitimacy of the US empire, some people just won’t budge. I have to wonder if I’m attracting trolls, which is kind of flattering in a perverse way. I come back to Mark Twain’s observation that it’s easier to fool someone than convince them they’ve been fooled.
” …then there are those who understand what nuclear war is.”
Are there? Because in 20 years of searching for them on the internet,* I haven’t found any, not on this side of the globe anyway.
One of my favorite questions I like to ask, have asked hundreds of times in various forms, is what would happen if all 90 US nuclear facilities were vaporized, while in the same brief instant in geologic time, 200 air-burst EMPs detonated all over the skies above our glorious land. Would things return to normal after awhile, due good ole American pluck and guile?
It quite possible you won’t see a mushroom cloud Ms. Johnstone, should the 20 minute long game begin, unless you live near a US nuclear facility, or you reside in or around the Beltway Complex. I think the Russian Federation will use the old Soviet playbood for Washington, and attempt to saturiate it, for old time’s sake.
As for the coasts, if you live along em, you just might just see that 500 meter tall wall of water coming at you, although I doubt it. I don’t believe the Russian’s have created 200 megaton warheads. I think that was, Russian disinformation. But I do believe they’ve developed their Poseidons and deployed them. I was a skeptic for many, many years, but the more I read about the technology, the more I realized the Poseidon may be simplest nuclear delivery system since the Enola Gay.
So it’ll be more like 100 to 200 meter tall tsunamis that will be crashing into our to our coastal cities, harbours and expensive beachfront properties, because we all know the Russian’s have plenty of leftover warheads lying around in the 10 to 20 megaton range. It’s just a matter of picking em up, and packing the em into a torpedo. Well, the Poseidon not technically a torpedo. It’s a little nuclear powered submarine, is what is, that cruises into postion and then lies dormant on an ocean floor, awaiting orders.
*Seaching for them in real life? That was a lost cause, long, long ago.
Dementia Joe told Americans they should not worry about nuclear war.
I told my son not to worry, because it will be over in 10 minutes, and we all will be defeated (dead).
Much is being made of the current mental health status of Vlad the Psychically Troubled. Now you can call me a mad and paranoid conspiracy theorist, but it does seem to me that there might be eesny weensy tiny little bit of deflection going on here.
My leader was speaking to me other day, trying to rally my spirits I think, in these troubling times, and he was telling me as an American citizen I need to … and for the next three or four seconds his words were unitelligible garbledeegook.
So I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do.
Yes, inmates of the asylum for the criminally insane, including Nancy and Hillary have diagnosed Putin as mentally ill, probably from long covid. He’s clearly delusional and paranoid to think we’re out to get him and that NATO is anything but a self-defense club. From his speech he makes it sound like the US wants to take over the world.
” … what would happen if all 90 US nuclear facilities were vaporized, while in the same brief instant in geologic time, 200 air-burst EMPs detonated all over the skies above our glorious land. Would things return to normal after awhile, due good ole American pluck and guile?”
I have never recieved an answer, btw. Hundreds of attempts, no replies. Much like Vlad the Incredulous, I’ve only been met by silence.
Silence of the lambs
In the 80’s I bought a book on the effects of nuclear weapons published by the Department of Energy. Interesting stuff. It even came with a circular slide rule type calculator to determine various effects of specific yields at different radii from ground zero.
The take away is after a nuclear attack, you’re on your own. There will be no functional infrastructure, no rescues, no medicine, no food or water. The target zones will be full of corpses and debris. If you survive the initial blast effects you’ll likely die soon after. If you’re beyond the blast radius wherein the overpressures are about two pounds per square foot, you’re still screwed because everything you depend on will stop working. And there’s a good chance you will have been blinded by the flash.
Bringing up Afghanistan is just plain stupid.
Yeah, sure, Russia invaded, we armed the Afghan, and it didn’t end well for Russia.
But then, the Afghans refused to be our grateful puppets, so we invaded the place, and are stuck in an even longer quagmire, and it will end very bad for us.
Only an idiot would try that debacle again.
“Is what the US and its allies are trying to accomplish in Ukraine worth continually risking nuclear armageddon for?”
Equally: “Is what Russia and its allies are trying to accomplish in Ukraine worth continually risking nuclear armageddon for?”
I have no influence over the decisions of either group of allies save the vanishingly small weight of public opinion. Unlike Sting, I hope the Russians love their children MORE than the USA-ans do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHylQRVN2Qs
Assholes blocked gazeta.ru now (in the US).
I am gonna have to sign up for Bill Gate’s book club, featuring his own book.
And will have to buy books from Jeff Bezos.
I watched a Timeline (British) video about the start of 2nd WW, featuring Hitler, Stalin and (almost said Rumsfeld) Churchill.
The British take on this was that Hitler and Stalin both had a psychology of mass murderer. While Churchill was the savior of (the supreme race) nation.
Having been taking courses about Economics and History, I immediately recalled the mass murders of non-white people that Churchill presided over during his military service for the British Queen.
Stalin was the antagonist of Hitler.
If we accepted that both Stalin and Hitler were the same (both Hitler), in such worldview any false statement would be accepted as true, because you took a contradiction as an axiom. Then of course Churchill not being a mass murderer could also be true.
Also in British view, Hitler lost the war not because of Stalin’s opposition, but because he Hitler was crazy and eventually this made him make miscalculations.
Hello world, you can thank Stalin and Russia for defeating Hitler and Nazis.
Stalin killed lots of Russians too, however that does not make him Hitler.
Thinking in simple terms, like good and bad, is easier but is not necessarily correct.
https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/empire-of-rent?utm_source=url
Link to this excerpt is blocked by internet AI today, but maybe the excerpt will be accepted:
Professor Michael Hudson clarifies the “interests” which are being served, interests which need more rent going forward, as everybody is crushed by excessive rent burdens already.
America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century: The MIC, OGAM and FIRE Sectors Conquer NATO (excerpted)
The recent prodding of Russia by expanding Ukrainian anti-Russian ethnic violence by Ukraine’s neo-Nazi post-2014 Maiden regime was aimed at (and has succeeded in forcing a showdown in response the fear by U.S. interests that they are losing their economic and political hold on their NATO allies and other Dollar Area satellites as these countries have seen their major opportunities for gain to lie in increasing trade and investment with China and Russia.
To understand just what U.S. aims and interests are threatened, it is necessary to understand U.S. politics and “the blob,” that is, the government central planning that cannot be explained by looking at ostensibly democratic politics. This is not the politics of U.S. senators and representatives representing their congressional voting districts or states.
America’s three oligarchies in control of U.S. foreign policy
It is more realistic to view U.S. economic and foreign policy in terms of the military-industrial complex, the oil and gas (and mining) complex, and the banking and real estate complex than in terms of the political policy of Republicans and Democrats. The key senators and congressional representatives do not represent their states and districts as much as the economic and financial interests of their major political campaign contributors. A Venn diagram would show that in today’s post-Citizens United world, U.S. politicians represent their campaign contributors, not voters. And these contributors fall basically into three main blocs.
Three main oligarchic groups that have bought control of the Senate and Congress to put their own policy makers in the State Department and Defense Department. First is the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) – arms manufacturers such as Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, have broadly diversified their factories and employment in nearly every state, and especially in the Congressional districts where key Congressional committee heads are elected. Their economic base is monopoly rent, obtained above all from their arms sales to NATO, to Near Eastern oil exporters and to other countries with a balance-of-payments surplus. Stocks for these companies soared immediately upon news of the Russian attack, leading a two-day stock-market surge as investors recognized that war in a world of cost-plus “Pentagon capitalism” (as Seymour Melman described it) will provide a guaranteed national-security umbrella for monopoly profits for war industries. Senators and Congressional representatives from California and Washington traditionally have represented the MIC, along with the solid pro-military South. The past week’s military escalation promises soaring arms sales to NATO and other U.S. allies, enriching the actual constituents of these politicians. Germany quickly agreed to raise is arms spending to over 2% of GDP.
The second major oligarchic bloc is the rent-extracting oil and gas sector, joined by mining (OGAM), riding America’s special tax favoritism granted to companies emptying natural resources out of the ground and putting them mostly into the atmosphere, oceans and water supply. Like the banking and real estate sector seeking to maximize economic rent and maximizing capital gains for housing and other assets,, the aim of this OGAM sector is to maximize the price of its energy and raw materials so as to maximize its natural-resource rent. Monopolizing the Dollar Area’s oil market and isolating it from Russian oil and gas has been a major U.S. priority for over a year now, as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline threatened to link the Western European and Russian economies more tightly together…
The third major oligarchic group is the symbiotic Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector, which is the modern finance-capitalist successor to Europe’s old post-feudal landed aristocracy living by land rents. With most housing in today’s world having become owner-occupied (although with sharply rising rates of absentee landlordship since the post-2008 wave of Obama Evictions), land rent is paid largely to the banking sector in the form of mortgage interest and debt amortization (on rising debt/equity ratios as bank lending inflates housing prices). About 80 percent of U.S. and British bank loans are to the real estate sector, inflating land prices to create capital gains – which are effectively tax-exempt for absentee owners.
The Western warmongers don’t want a no-fly zone over Ukraine, though that’s what they’re saying. What they want is NATO planes flying over Ukraine, shooting and bombing Russian targets. No-fly to them means they fly, bomb and attack at will. It’s a distinctly Orwellian phrase, meaning the exact opposite of what any reasonable person would expect, and purposely designed to confuse and mislead. We should call it what it would be if it comes about, a NATO-flies zone.
No-fly means no-one-else-flies.
Problem is, America’s not pretending.
It’s convinced that they way to deal with mass shootings is . . . to arm everybody.
The way to stop massacres in schools is . . . to arm the teachers.
The way to stop violence caused by black men is, first, to believe that all black men are violent, and second, to shoot them. If they don’t die after the first volley, pump more bullets into them.
Therefore, obviously, the way to keep the international peace is to arm everybody to the teeth with the deadliest weapons we can build.
If violence does happen to break out, oops, just bomb, rocket and drone them until they stop. From a safe distance of course.
This is the rules-based order. This is democracy. This is freedom.
Thanks for providing this important counterpoint to the main stream narrative Caitlin.
~
I think the fact that 750,000 women and children in the Donbass area fled to Russia, instead of a western allied country, says a lot about this conflict. I think this whole thing would be over if Zelenskyy would agree to let Luhansk and Donesk hold an election to determine if they stay with Ukraine or join the Russian Federation. Besides ending this conflict, this would also tell the world what the people living in the Donbass area of Ukraine really desired all along.
None of this would have happened if Ukronaziusa had simply implemented the Minsk Agreement 7 years ago. They didn’t, and the guarantors France and Germany — NOT Russia — didn’t lift a finger.
You mean Punch and Judy?
No, ‘we’ don’t want to know the truth because it would destroy our nefarious narrative. Most are parrots repeating something they heard without even knowing what it is all about. And too many don’t even care. And most wouldn’t even know where to find Russia or Ukraine on a map.
What bothers me is the droves of clueless that believe everything they hear on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC along with all thier supporting propaganda outlets of truth.
The comparisons between the current Russian actions in the Ukraine and World War II being made in barrages of propaganda and resulting popular reactions remind me that what I, as a young historian, taught about the Japanese “infamy” at Pearl Harbor was very mistaken, that in fact, the United States had done everything possible to force the Japanese to attack and that FDR had even wired MacArthur to attack the Japanese if they failed to react to American provocations. It was necessary to manipulate the Japanese into launching the first strike in order to manipulate the American people into war. A similar situation occurred with respect to the sinking of the Lusitania as a cause for war in World War I, the USS Maine in the Spanish American War and the purported attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin as the causa belli for the Vietnam “conflict”. We historians, as a group, have proved too easy to manipulate making it difficult to really learn the lessons our past mistakes should have made obvious. One thing I think I’ve learned is that censorship, the prohibition on even researching certain hypotheses, whatever they are, is a sign that truth is being obfuscated, and that as historians, it is our duty to oppose restrictions on the expression of any perspectives at all, if truth is our goal.
9/11 is Ground Zero of today’s geopolitical gaslighting. As long as this abscess isn’t drained, we’ll live in Cuckooland. And it will never be drained. Instead it will increasingly solidify into a taboo. As Napoleon said, history is a pack of lies on which we all agree.
If the captain of a ship hit an iceberg
and then on his next voyage he hit an iceberg
and then on his next voyage he hit an iceberg
at what point do you stop blaming the icebergs?
:
Get that captain off the bridge, for heaven’s sake.
Certainly don’t enable him!
No way would you support him, no matter how big and nasty
was the iceberg. “Get him off the bridge!”
:
But our captain hit more icebergs
and here we are being called traitors if we say
“blame the captain!”.
:
Afghanistan – debacle, 20 years of it!
Iraq – debacle, debacle, debacle.
Lebanon (2006) – debacle (yes, that was Bush).
Georgia (2008) – debacle (Bush, again).
Pakistan drones – on going debacle.
Libya – debacle.
Yemen – debacle.
Syria – debacle.
Ukraine coup (2014) – debacle.
Ukraine, Donbas war I – debacle.
Ukraine, Donbas war II – debacle.
:
All these icebergs
and the demand for support of the captain
and condemnation of those that have memory
continue.
Isn’t it so typical Yankee…always blame others???
The war on Vietnam, and Laos and Cambodia, was another such debacle, if you want to use that word, resulting in at least three million dead.
A few short years after it ended, prominent US voices were gleefully calling for another Vietnam, this time in Afghanistan, without direct US military involvement.
The captain would have icebergs made if none were around to hit.
https://archive.globalpolicy.org/us-westward-expansion/26024-us-interventions.html
Actually you forgot to mention
1946 Iran Troops deployed in northern province.
1946-1949 China Major US army presence of about 100,000 troops, fighting, training and advising local combatants.
1947-1949 Greece US forces wage a 3-year counterinsurgency campaign.
1948 Italy Heavy CIA involvement in national elections.
1948-1954 Philippines Commando operations, “secret” CIA war.
1950-1953 Korea Major forces engaged in war in Korean peninsula.
1953 Iran CIA overthrows government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Read More
1954 Vietnam Financial and materiel support for colonial French military operations, leads eventually to direct US military involvement.
1954 Guatemala CIA overthrows the government of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.
1958 Lebanon US marines and army units totaling 14,000 land.
1958 Panama Clashes between US forces in Canal Zone and local citizens.
1959 Haiti Marines land.
1960 Congo CIA-backed overthrow and assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
1960-1964 Vietnam Gradual introduction of military advisors and special forces.
1961 Cuba CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion.
1962 Cuba Nuclear threat and naval blockade.
1962 Laos CIA-backed military coup.
1963 Ecuador CIA backs military overthrow of President Jose Maria Valesco Ibarra.
1964 Panama Clashes between US forces in Canal Zone and local citizens.
1964 Brazil CIA-backed military coup overthrows the government of Joao Goulart and Gen. Castello Branco takes power. Read More
1965-1975 Vietnam Large commitment of military forces, including air, naval and ground units numbering up to 500,000+ troops. Full-scale war, lasting for ten years.
1965 Indonesia CIA-backed army coup overthrows President Sukarno and brings Gen. Suharto to power.
1965 Congo CIA backed military coup overthrows President Joseph Kasavubu and brings Joseph Mobutu to power.
1965 Dominican Republic 23,000 troops land.
1965-1973 Laos Bombing campaign begin, lasting eight years.
1966 Ghana CIA-backed military coup ousts President Kwame Nkrumah.
1966-1967 Guatemala Extensive counter-insurgency operation.
1969-1975 Cambodia CIA supports military coup against Prince Sihanouk, bringing Lon Nol to power. Intensive bombing for seven years along border with Vietnam.
1970 Oman Counter-insurgency operation, including coordination with Iranian marine invasion.
1971-1973 Laos Invasion by US and South Vietnames forces.
1973 Chile CIA-backed military coup ousts government of President Salvador Allende. Gen. Augusto Pinochet comes to power.
1975 Cambodia Marines land, engage in combat with government forces.
1976-1992 Angola Military and CIA operations.
1980 Iran Special operations units land in Iranian desert. Helicopter malfunction leads to aborting of planned raid.
1981 Libya Naval jets shoot down two Libyan jets in maneuvers over the Mediterranean.
1981-1992 El Salvador CIA and special forces begin a long counterinsurgency campaign.
1981-1990 Nicaragua CIA directs exile “Contra” operations. US air units drop sea mines in harbors.
1982-1984 Lebanon Marines land and naval forces fire on local combatants.
1983 Grenada Military forces invade Grenada.
1983-1989 Honduras Large program of military assistance aimed at conflict in Nicaragua.
1984 Iran Two Iranian jets shot down over the Persian Gulf.
1986 Libya US aircraft bomb the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, including direct strikes at the official residence of President Muamar al Qadaffi.
1986 Bolivia Special Forces units engage in counter-insurgency.
1987-1988 Iran Naval forces block Iranian shipping. Civilian airliner shot down by missile cruiser.
1989 Libya Naval aircraft shoot down two Libyan jets over Gulf of Sidra.
1989 Philippines CIA and Special Forces involved in counterinsurgency.
1989-1990 Panama 27,000 troops as well as naval and air power used to overthrow government of President Noriega.
1990 Liberia Troops deployed.
1990-1991 Iraq Major military operation, including naval blockade, air strikes; large number of troops attack Iraqi forces in occupied Kuwait.
1991-2003 Iraq Control of Iraqi airspace in north and south of the country with periodic attacks on air and ground targets.
1991 Haiti CIA-backed military coup ousts President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
1992-1994 Somalia Special operations forces intervene.
1992-1994 Yugoslavia Major role in NATO blockade of Serbia and Montenegro.
1993-1995 Bosnia Active military involvement with air and ground forces.
1994-1996 Haiti Troops depose military rulers and restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to office.
1995 Croatia Krajina Serb airfields attacked.
1996-1997 Zaire (Congo) Marines involved in operations in eastern region of the country.
1997 Liberia Troops deployed.
1998 Sudan Air strikes destroy country’s major pharmaceutical plant.
1998 Afghanistan Attack on targets in the country.
1998 Iraq Four days of intensive air and missile strikes.
1999 Yugoslavia Major involvement in NATO air strikes.
2001 Macedonia NATO troops shift and partially disarm Albanian rebels.
2001 Afghanistan Air attacks and ground operations oust Taliban government and install a new regime.
2003 Iraq Invasion with large ground, air and naval forces ousts government of Saddam Hussein and establishes new government.
2003-present Iraq Occupation force of 150,000 troops in protracted counter-insurgency war
2004 Haiti Marines land. CIA-backed forces overthrow President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Simply tremendous post, THANK you so very much! “We’ve got one here, who can SEE!” Lizard Lady in “They Live”
I’d been surveying “reverse image look-up” of propaganda images in Guardian, Sun, NYT, FT and of COURSE, Bezos’ WaPo (who’d been paid to shill Prop’RNot neo-McCarthyism by Ukranian Nazis) to kill off all websites debunking their LIES. They’d targeted CounterPunch, Naked Capitalism, BAR, Intercept, ShadowProof, TruthOut, Fair.org what’s become Mint, GrayZone… & formerly GREAT sites, that have now joined Bell¿ngcat, Atlantic Council style CIA/ MI6 & K Street lie machine.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/disarming-ukraine-day-5-economic-war-on-russia-day-1.html
https://mobile.twitter.com/lopp/status/1498105349064253446
https://scheerpost.com/2022/02/27/hedges-the-greatest-evil-is-war/
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/new-cdc-covid-guidance-caves-to-great-barrington-is-not-science-based-finagles-the-metrics-and-destroys-masking-as-a-public-health-measure-just-in-time-for-the-sotu.html
US knows the terrible hard reality is the USA is a Full Spectrum Piece of Shit. Creating misery through through a Hollywood perception filter is all it’s got, is all it’s good at. The US Perception managers will create a support-your-footballTeam and Hollywood Movie atmosphere to pull the folks together in their hatred of the other team.
Putin is not Hitler. I think that he has been channeling Stalin most of his life. The invasion of Ukraine is illegal and unjustified, as well as unjustifiable. It is an international crime. That does not make the US invasion of Iraq any less of a crime, or disaster for that matter. I can only hope that the Ukraine’s people fair better than Iraq’s did. You are right about sanctions being murderous and brutal, a form of collective punishment even, however as we are seeing war or “military operations” are worse.
Leon, did you read the previous lengthy comment of all the war, interventions, etc. by the USA? They are world wide. Ukraine is on Russia’s border. The USA was willing to destroy the world to remove missiles from Cuba. To say Putin is channeling Stalin is really no different than using Hitler. You are claiming without proof that Putin has ambitions to take over the world or at least roll into Europe. That sounds like fearmongering. Maybe he is responding to the eastward expansion of NATO. Russia does have those 800 military bases circling the globe, no wait, they don’t.
First you have to convince everyone that apples are oranges.