Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Well you'll be shocked to learn that, while the Ukraine invasion we've been told for weeks was happening any day now still has not occurred, the US and UK have declared that Russia attacked Ukraine in an invisible and unverifiable way for which the evidence is secret.
The word that comes to mind when I think of our politics is dismal. Your Bernie Sanders snippet certainly qualifies.
All the basic things our parents tried to teach us as kids about fairness, kindness, responsibility, and honesty are completely missing from our national life. Is this just a recent phenomena or am I only now waking up to the full extent of it?
The Canadian government is treating its citizens like Palestinians, and the same fate awaits any of us who says or does the wrong thing, which is actually the right thing.
And there isn't even anyone I can see on the national horizon who is worth a damn, politically. Trump? Please.
The image of Biden and Dubya is a perfect accompaniment to this post. Sometimes I think that the only way my country's politicians can be this corrupt --- across the duopoly --- is that their craniums (crania?) are pumped full of the helium of American exceptionalism. Helium's a quite light and stable gas, but it's no substitute for oxygen and negatively impacts brain function. Hence, the outcome is a political cabal of homogeneous delusional thinkers — irrespective of party or supposed location on the left-right spectrum — that spends each day in the virtual world of 1955 singing the praises of U.S. economic and military world domination as though that reality is still relevant 75 years later. When in truth, anyone clinging to this exceptionalist fairy tale is the most genuine exemplar of domestic and global terrorist.
Several things strike me about the reporting on the situation in the Ukraine; 1. There has been little or no attempt to see things from the Russian perspective. The press and reporting have been of one, loud, jingoistic voice that what has happened is a bad thing and should be stopped. There appears to be no though that the Eastern expansion of NATO might be a frightening development for the Russians who have experienced a number of invasions from the West, most recently in WWII that killed 20 million Russians. Call it paranoia, but 20 million dead within living memory may evoke a "never again" mentality. There should at least be a debate on this issue. 2. The overthrowing of a democratically elected government in Ukraine was met with great silence if not outright approval in the West. (February 2014) Victoria Nuland, US President Barack Obama’s agent overseeing the coup, at least during the month of February 2014 when it climaxed, was crucial not only in overthrowing the existing Ukrainian Government, but in selecting and installing its anti-Russian replacement. The 27 January 2014 phone-conversation between her and America’s Ambassador in Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt was a particularly seminal event. It was uploaded to YouTube on 4 February 2014. Nuland there and then abandoned the EU’s hope for a still democratic but less corrupt future government for Ukraine, and Nuland famously said, on that call “Fuck the EU,” and she instructed Pyatt to choose instead the rabidly anti-Russian, and far-right, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This key event occurred 24 days before Ukraine’s President Victor Yanukovych was overthrown on February 20th, and 30 days before the new person to head Ukraine’s Government, Yatsenyuk, became officially appointed to rule. He won that official designation on February 26th. However, this was only a formality: Obama’s agent had already chosen him, on January 27th.What happened to "throwing the bums out" via an election? And when the Easterners started their campaign to sever the ties to a non-elected (non-democratic?) government, well that was a bad and illegal thing. Bad, I assume because we didn't like their point of view. 3. When NATO helped dismember Yugoslavia, that was a "legal" act as far as the West was concerned, but when Russia appears to be doing so in the Ukraine that is an "illegal" act. You may be able to argue on very fine points of some law but the larger law is the same as it has ever been since the time of Thucydides; “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” 4. Over a ten year period the West has tried to install anti-ballistic missiles in Eastern Europe to, as the US claimed, "defend Europe against a small rouge state" and was not, repeat not aimed as a hostile act against Russia, but when Russia annexed the Crimea, many in Congress stated we should move ahead with that project to punish the Russians. That line of thinking seems to expose the real intent of the project all along. My point is instead of simply beating the war drums, let’s have a debate on the issue. Remember our recent attempts to foster democracy (if that is what it was) from Iraq to Afghanistan, to Libya, Egypt, South Sudan, etc. haven't gone quite to plan.
I have been totally booted out of Facebook and not allowed even to post a "like" on a comment. My comments were deleted because some unknown source made complaints. I have been silenced online.
The U.S. thinks what it is doing is super-sophisticated “information warfare”. No doubt some contractor in the intelligence industry gets a juicy sum for this nonsense. Yet, as we've come to expect from spy agencies, it is obvious to all—especially to Putin and the Russians—that the American secret squirrels are inadvertently looking like the Pink Panther rather than James Bond. This gross hubris-driven incompetence would be hysterical if it was a movie. But of course it’s real, and we’re slouching toward nuclear annihilation.
Bernie: "It is tragic that Putin seems to reject it."
Me (astonished): "Don't you mean "It is tragic that Biden seems to reject it"?
Bernie, you were there in 1992 when George I started the first Persian Gulf War, when 9 out of 10 American people opposed it, and wanted a diplomatic resolution. I went to Washington from Minnesota to lobby against the war, and there were 500,000 other Americans from all over the country demonstrating (peacefully) *on that weekend alone*. YOU WERE THERE. Sorry you became a Democratic Party shill in 2016.
While it is true that the MSM (WaPo, NYT, etc) are pushing an extremely right wing agenda, there are plenty of voices "out there" with some very interesting perspectives. Their articles often make concrete sense because they discuss what's going on on the "other side" and they include a much bigger picture than just the shenanigans in Kiev. They make it very clear that this is all about the Oligarchy gaining an economic advantage and/or laundering money from American Taxpayers through Ukraine back to the American Oligarchs. There are not even 1000 American Oligarchs. Yes, they have a cadre that supports them which the Oligarchs pay off, but if we were to concentrate on the Oligarchs, and confront them, I feel we would be able to accomplish more.
Michael Hudson: especially good on the Economics of the situation
Scott Ritter: outstanding in military and political analysis.
Moderate Rebels: a podcast put out by the Gray Zone, excellent reporting on Latin America
Op-Ed News: although pick and choose among the articles carefully.
The US is playing a very dangerous game and the "rest of us" are going to pay a very heavy economic price while the Oligarchy fiddles away whatever it was we used to call the "American Dream".
I'm upset that the "like button" seems to often fail to register. I have submitted a complaint to support.substack.com. It will work the "first" time on a given page, but then not work there after. It -appears- that if you click on a like and then reload the page, it may show up.
I just want you guys to know when I sometimes agree with you. ;-)
Authors can only turn community on or off so this is a substack problem.
The word that comes to mind when I think of our politics is dismal. Your Bernie Sanders snippet certainly qualifies.
All the basic things our parents tried to teach us as kids about fairness, kindness, responsibility, and honesty are completely missing from our national life. Is this just a recent phenomena or am I only now waking up to the full extent of it?
The Canadian government is treating its citizens like Palestinians, and the same fate awaits any of us who says or does the wrong thing, which is actually the right thing.
And there isn't even anyone I can see on the national horizon who is worth a damn, politically. Trump? Please.
Like I said, it's dismal.
The image of Biden and Dubya is a perfect accompaniment to this post. Sometimes I think that the only way my country's politicians can be this corrupt --- across the duopoly --- is that their craniums (crania?) are pumped full of the helium of American exceptionalism. Helium's a quite light and stable gas, but it's no substitute for oxygen and negatively impacts brain function. Hence, the outcome is a political cabal of homogeneous delusional thinkers — irrespective of party or supposed location on the left-right spectrum — that spends each day in the virtual world of 1955 singing the praises of U.S. economic and military world domination as though that reality is still relevant 75 years later. When in truth, anyone clinging to this exceptionalist fairy tale is the most genuine exemplar of domestic and global terrorist.
Several things strike me about the reporting on the situation in the Ukraine; 1. There has been little or no attempt to see things from the Russian perspective. The press and reporting have been of one, loud, jingoistic voice that what has happened is a bad thing and should be stopped. There appears to be no though that the Eastern expansion of NATO might be a frightening development for the Russians who have experienced a number of invasions from the West, most recently in WWII that killed 20 million Russians. Call it paranoia, but 20 million dead within living memory may evoke a "never again" mentality. There should at least be a debate on this issue. 2. The overthrowing of a democratically elected government in Ukraine was met with great silence if not outright approval in the West. (February 2014) Victoria Nuland, US President Barack Obama’s agent overseeing the coup, at least during the month of February 2014 when it climaxed, was crucial not only in overthrowing the existing Ukrainian Government, but in selecting and installing its anti-Russian replacement. The 27 January 2014 phone-conversation between her and America’s Ambassador in Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt was a particularly seminal event. It was uploaded to YouTube on 4 February 2014. Nuland there and then abandoned the EU’s hope for a still democratic but less corrupt future government for Ukraine, and Nuland famously said, on that call “Fuck the EU,” and she instructed Pyatt to choose instead the rabidly anti-Russian, and far-right, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This key event occurred 24 days before Ukraine’s President Victor Yanukovych was overthrown on February 20th, and 30 days before the new person to head Ukraine’s Government, Yatsenyuk, became officially appointed to rule. He won that official designation on February 26th. However, this was only a formality: Obama’s agent had already chosen him, on January 27th.What happened to "throwing the bums out" via an election? And when the Easterners started their campaign to sever the ties to a non-elected (non-democratic?) government, well that was a bad and illegal thing. Bad, I assume because we didn't like their point of view. 3. When NATO helped dismember Yugoslavia, that was a "legal" act as far as the West was concerned, but when Russia appears to be doing so in the Ukraine that is an "illegal" act. You may be able to argue on very fine points of some law but the larger law is the same as it has ever been since the time of Thucydides; “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” 4. Over a ten year period the West has tried to install anti-ballistic missiles in Eastern Europe to, as the US claimed, "defend Europe against a small rouge state" and was not, repeat not aimed as a hostile act against Russia, but when Russia annexed the Crimea, many in Congress stated we should move ahead with that project to punish the Russians. That line of thinking seems to expose the real intent of the project all along. My point is instead of simply beating the war drums, let’s have a debate on the issue. Remember our recent attempts to foster democracy (if that is what it was) from Iraq to Afghanistan, to Libya, Egypt, South Sudan, etc. haven't gone quite to plan.
I have been totally booted out of Facebook and not allowed even to post a "like" on a comment. My comments were deleted because some unknown source made complaints. I have been silenced online.
The U.S. thinks what it is doing is super-sophisticated “information warfare”. No doubt some contractor in the intelligence industry gets a juicy sum for this nonsense. Yet, as we've come to expect from spy agencies, it is obvious to all—especially to Putin and the Russians—that the American secret squirrels are inadvertently looking like the Pink Panther rather than James Bond. This gross hubris-driven incompetence would be hysterical if it was a movie. But of course it’s real, and we’re slouching toward nuclear annihilation.
Bernie: "It is tragic that Putin seems to reject it."
Me (astonished): "Don't you mean "It is tragic that Biden seems to reject it"?
Bernie, you were there in 1992 when George I started the first Persian Gulf War, when 9 out of 10 American people opposed it, and wanted a diplomatic resolution. I went to Washington from Minnesota to lobby against the war, and there were 500,000 other Americans from all over the country demonstrating (peacefully) *on that weekend alone*. YOU WERE THERE. Sorry you became a Democratic Party shill in 2016.
While it is true that the MSM (WaPo, NYT, etc) are pushing an extremely right wing agenda, there are plenty of voices "out there" with some very interesting perspectives. Their articles often make concrete sense because they discuss what's going on on the "other side" and they include a much bigger picture than just the shenanigans in Kiev. They make it very clear that this is all about the Oligarchy gaining an economic advantage and/or laundering money from American Taxpayers through Ukraine back to the American Oligarchs. There are not even 1000 American Oligarchs. Yes, they have a cadre that supports them which the Oligarchs pay off, but if we were to concentrate on the Oligarchs, and confront them, I feel we would be able to accomplish more.
Consortium News: Joe Lauria
Pepe Escobar: where ever you can find him
theSakar: https://thesaker.is
Michael Hudson: especially good on the Economics of the situation
Scott Ritter: outstanding in military and political analysis.
Moderate Rebels: a podcast put out by the Gray Zone, excellent reporting on Latin America
Op-Ed News: although pick and choose among the articles carefully.
The US is playing a very dangerous game and the "rest of us" are going to pay a very heavy economic price while the Oligarchy fiddles away whatever it was we used to call the "American Dream".
I'm upset that the "like button" seems to often fail to register. I have submitted a complaint to support.substack.com. It will work the "first" time on a given page, but then not work there after. It -appears- that if you click on a like and then reload the page, it may show up.
I just want you guys to know when I sometimes agree with you. ;-)
Authors can only turn community on or off so this is a substack problem.
This after a Western backed sabotage mission to bomb the car of the President of Donetsk. This Bien is a disgrace.