Great post. I'd like to add a couple of things. First, the American Spectator has pivoted with the MIC oligarchy from defending "democratic Ukraine" to containment of the Russian empire. It is ironic indeed that George Kennan, the author of the original containment policy which was the foundation of the US Empire's Cold War strategy, thought NATO had served its purpose and should be dissolved after the fall of the Soviet Union.
It's just a con to keep the grift going, since they know damned well that Vladimir Putin has no ambitions to annex all of Ukraine, much less the Baltic States or anyone else.
Second, every time Biden or any administration official talks about "democracy" they make no sense because they don't MEAN democracy. They mean oligarchy. Substitute oligarchy for democracy every time they say it and they start to become a lot more understandable.
I just heard Schumer say we are winning this war, and that anyone who disagrees with that is working directly with Russia. Speaking of how wars like this are so very great for saving "democracy." Of course it is almost always the opposite, wars like this are fought to help clamp down on domestic dissent about all manner of things.
I am so very glad to be a dissident writing for a few hundred free thinkers, as opposed to being a stenographer for the State.
Schumer and his ilk presided over the death of the empire. They lost in 30 years what better men built over hundreds. He is psychologically incapable of seeing this reality.
Schumer, like Reich and all of their rich liberal ilk, lives in an upside-down, black-is-white fantasy world. The Schumerian ideology states that America should burn its credibility and increasingly fictional "treasure" to arm Ukraine while simultaneously disarming the American people (good luck with that).
Whom do they really fear? Russia or the U.S. populace?
The US populace, for sure. I'm assuming rich liberals are imagining all those military aged men flowing over the border will become the bulwark protecting the rich from Americans: Dick Durbin wants them to become part of the MIC.
if he thinks they'll die to protect rich folks in DC he's dreaming. Reminds me of that piece by Doug Rushkoff about 10 years ago where all these very rich guys in attendance at one of his talks about tech all came to ask him how they could protect themselves when the hoi polloi come for them. They suggested fantasies like "control collars" on their guards and such. Hilarious.
I used to be an Admin at the Doomstead Diner. I used to laugh at the doomsteaders - hoarding all that gold, food, guns makes you the FIRST target. Guess what, rich guys in your compound, unless you are THE warlord, your security will dispatch you posthaste as soon as they see the opening.
I have truly marveled the last eight years and esp since 2020, how so many accuse Trump/MAGA of planning what they have already done and continue to do. It is like authoritarian rule #1 accuse your victim of everything you do.
Trump may very well be the first president elected while sitting in a prison cell. Unless of course the fix is in. My guess, if Biden runs, the game is rigged. If he is replaced at the 11th hour, it is full panic mode.
Crazy times. Very little surprises anymore. I actually think if they put him in a cage he will win in a landslide. But then, Biden "winning" 100mil votes is not out of the realm of hubris, though, reality having been locked up so long, I'm not sure how much longer they can keep that caged.
Good piece. I agree about the media. We assume they are self-aware conmen conspicuously using propaganda. But increasingly they are true believers in some sense.
They have a vision or model of the world, loosely something like GloboHomo, and cannot accept it is fantasy. I think they spend so long fortifying their fantasy utopia against reality they now have many reality-defying cognitive mechanisms to rationalize much of it away. The most observable is the smug disdain; criticism is seen as a lack of sophistication. You just don't get the bigger picture about Ukraine or climate or gender-affirming care.
These are our cultural enemies, and they are increasingly out of touch with real life.
This is it right here. The MSM and people who consume it have built an impenetrable epistemic bubble and have lost the ability to think critically.
I’ve had several conversations over the past couple of years where I’ve tried to gently let down Ukraine supporters with something along the lines of “the Russians are the bad guys, I hope Ukraine perseveres, but (insert historical context, current facts on the ground, and trajectory of the war).”
Their response is to get sad, confused, angry, or to start advocating for a nuclear war with Russia.
I failed many times to discuss Ukraine in a meaningful way with people sporting Ukraine flags. Literally zero knowledge. Some even took Ukrainian refugees into their home. Television is powerful, lol.
But the media believing it? It is one thing to shill for your thirty pieces of silver. But I think Librarian is right. There have been many purges so only the deranged are left.
As much as I'd like to think the beginning of the end of this awful conflict already dawned, Lloyd Austin's comments - sorry, I mispoke, his threats about sending Americans over to die in Ukraine if we didn't pony up the cash like good little tax paypigs to support foreign warmongering makes me think that Con Inc. is more than willing to keep this grift going at the cost of American lives, and many of them are probably disappointed it's taken this long to get to that point. We'll know which way the wind is blowing if Boris Johnson shows back up in Kiev to do another shake-down any time soon. He really is their bagman. Every time that guy shows up in Ukraine, something bad happens shortly after.
Also, I love that bullshit map the NATO thinktank guys who get high off their own farts drew up. I remember when they published that like it was some forgone conclusion, and they had the temerity to say that they had "No intentions of controlling the future of Russia" and would "Allow these new states to chart their own path", when the biggest one has a color-inverted American flag as a their banner. It's enough to make you wonder if this whole thing wasn't a sick joke from the beginning.
Part of the problem for them is there are a some cold blooded realists starting to come back on the stage. Pointed questions are being asked about how we are going to produce the weapons we would need with our industrial capacity. The looming specter of China in the South Pacific is making it difficult with increasing numbers of voices pointing out that we have severely depleted our own stockpiles of munitions. Some idiots are arguing that Russia could beat America in a fight. They are delusional idiots dreaming about the destruction of American empire without thinking it through and it is getting a little annoying at this point. (also that whole nuclear powers thing makes that whole scenario moot and Western Europe probably couldn't be bothered with anything more than "moral support" anyway). The problem is China is nothing like Russia. They have an absolutely massive population and industrial capacity that tops everyone else. China does have a massive weakness in that they lack many of the natural resources they need but that is nothing to feel confident about. At least the Russians would never bother really dealing with the Chinese because they have always known not to trust the... oh wait. Yeah we just screwed that up big time didn't we?
Neither Russia nor the US could beat the other. Russia does not have the resources to launch or sustain a campaign in the Western Hemisphere and the US lacks the political capital with its own population (and the money) to fight a sustained land war in Eurasia.
I'm talking about in plain old military terms without the political considerations existing and the Russians have serious deficiencies of their own that have been shown over and over. We could have seriously degraded their fighting capability just by leaving them alone and never put them into a position where they have to start addressing their deficiencies.
Something I wrote somewhere else:
"You want to know what the stupidest part of The State Department's/American Enterprise Institute's/The Blob's whole plan for degrading Russia's military was? Ukraine showed the Russian military sucked ass. They were trading on their Cold War legacy. Training and doctrine had degraded. Defense graft and casual corruption were everywhere. Leadership were pretty much empty suits. They made amateur tactical, strategic, and logistical mistakes all the damn time. The Russians were seriously lacking in having enough proper high tech equipment. Military industry and production were allowed to languish. They had no practical combat experience against a technologically advanced military. Care to guess what happens when a country is forced to get absolutely serious about fighting a war but they can win without their military suffering unsustainable losses? They get their shit together. The Wehrmacht once made the same mistake thinking the Soviets were incapable of learning anything from the Winter War. Because neocons and neoliberals don’t actually bother to read things like history books, they think they are just kicking the Russians asses. What they are actually doing is kicking their asses into shape. Funny enough, my method of degrading their militarily does not cost a dime. Instead of spending billions, just leave them alone and spend nothing. Go figure. Also, if their military gets back to full strength in just a couple of years, that is not much of an achievement on the West’s side."
Maybe it's time to reinstate the Westphalian system? Maybe those who want a supranational world order don't want it. Who cares? In the multipolar world they no longer get to dictate terms. In Cold War 2.0 the conditions for victory will be set by those who are best able to win 'Hearts and Minds' in the Global South. With China implementing what is effectively a Marshall Plan in Africa whilst the West tries to enforce permanent poverty in the much of the developing world at COP28, it's become clear that the West doesn't even realise they are playing in a new paradigm.
"Win" and "loss" depends on the parties and the objectives sought though, no? Given there are ongoing backroom negotiations occurring to (temporarily) end the war now, it's hard to see how Russia merely keeping part of the Donbass and the Crimea with the Ukraine joining NATO would be a win for Russia based upon the initial objectives sought, which sought a quick strike to decapitate Kiev and pull the country out of the West's orbit. Instead, Ukraine is now firmly in the West and will remain so, even though it was firmly in Russia's orbit through 2013 and the East half of the country pro-Russia until this war. Ultimately Russia has since lost the ability to pursue offensive war per now jailed dissident Igor Strelkov. See this great post by Edward Slavsquat analyzing Strelkov's tough, probing questions about Russia's approach to the war: https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/39-questions-about-the-war-in-ukraine
Sure, the average Ukrainian Christian male has suffered terribly, and this white-Christian on white-Christian violence has allowed globohomo to empty out the country and for Blackrock and other ghouls to loot the country. And the schism between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church is a huge globohomo win. From that perspective it's a major loss for Ukraine.
Ultimately I see both Putin and Zelensky controlled by the same puppeteers, and this Ukraine war has been a very large win for them...
"Ukraine is now firmly in the West." There is no Ukraine. What's left of it, when all of this ends, will be a depopulated rump state with the demographics and health profile of an Indian reservation. It will never join NATO, and if it somehow does it will be a sign that NATO is itself on its way out. This war is the greatest tragedy of our age and I fear for God's justice upon my country for our part in it.
Russia is methodically advancing and will continue to do so. Last year there were numerous accounts claiming that with the loss of Prighozin/Strelkov/insert-true-patriot the end was nigh and Russia would fail in its war effort. Behind the scenes there were supposedly all these secret machinations that would come to light and Putin would surrender and so on. None of that came to pass. Everything Russia is doing makes sense from the perspective of a country using its advantages (numbers, industrial production, etc.) to fight a casualty-sensitive war of attrition against an enemy running up against its limitations. It reminds me of the US in WWII.
I don't see Putin and Zelensky as controlled by the same forces. I think on some level people find it comforting to posit that there are some master puppeteers somewhere shaping what looks like unpredictable chaos and destruction. But I doubt it. The great story of our age is the breakup of GAE hegemony into rival civilizational states. The only hidden hand is that of Providence, who has weighed Globohomo in the balance and found it wanting.
I agree with you that the U.S. caused this war, even though Russia was the first-mover-initiator, and globohomo ghouls like Victoria Nuland have a huge amount of blood on her hands. It is a meat-grinder sending hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths on both sides for ulterior motives. It's terrible. I also agree with you that the world is transitioning to a multi-polar world.
However, yes, I do see higher powers behind both this current war (which I delved into back in May, and which I think holds up well: https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/how-real-is-the-russiaukraine-war ) and the shift to a multi-polar world, given the central bank owners control the BRICS countries as much as they control the West (at least as I see it)...As Solzhenitsyn stated after the Soviet Union broke up, "Bolshevism committed the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this enormous crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators.”
When Communism started spreading throughout South and Central America we got our hands dirty and stamped it out morality be damned because a state is not going to accept a geopolitical risk like that even if the threat only becomes serious decades from then. It's how the world works and sorry son but morality does not have much to do with it. Now at the end of the Cold War we had people who understood what the Russian red lines would be and how they would react to them. Kennan and many others warned not to expand NATO eastward and to in fact abolish it entirely. They knew at some point Russia would conclude that a strategic absolute had come into play and force was needed to remove it. Now we are in this mess because neocons and neoliberal interventionists feel the absolute need to play around in other peoples' sandboxes because they are incapable of keeping their hands to themselves. As for Russia itself, I never heard a single good reason why it was important to our interests to mess with them. I hate these "think tank" idiots with a passion.
The western global financial order will eventually adjust to the new multipolar world, either gracefully or not. But don't mistake that for "winning" nor for the idea that there is one united global financial class. Ukraine was the final and massive loss for the globohomo project. China will do as it will, as will Russia. And control of the "world island" Mackinder and Brzezinski fretted their entire lives over has firmly passed out of the orbit of the western financial oligarchy. The dumbest thing they ever did was not bring Russia into the NATO/western fold when Putin asked to join.
I have a masters in international relations. In the course of study, I learned all of the theoretical frameworks for analyzing and trying to predict the behavior of states in the international arena. Realism, liberalism, constructivism, etc. But US foreign policy since WWII does not fit these frameworks. US foreign policy has been completely hijacked by psychopathic oligarchs. The primary outcome of US foreign policy is mass death and impoverishment of ordinary people at home and abroad while funneling public money into the private hands of MIC oligarchs. This is not an accident. This is the objective. No one in charge ever believed Ukraine would “win”. They believed only that tons of ordinary people would die and that oligarchs would rake in billions. So in this sense, mission accomplished! Again! At some point, these psychopaths are no longer entitled to the benefit of Hanlon’s razor. We are well past that point. Truly evil people run the world.
Lib neighbour: “ukraine is crushing Russia”. Me. “Nope. This will destroy Ukraine, horribly.” Neighbour: “oh you like Putin do you.” Said with a sneer. Me: “America gets tired of foreigners crashing their southern border and takes 100 miles from Mexico right across the border. Making a ‘No Mans Land’. To prevent illegal border crossings. Mexico objects. The world supports Mexico. It sends tons of armaments to Mexico. Mexico fights America. Who wins? Mexico or America?” Neighbour: “Well that is ridiculous. America wins.” Me: “Right. Same situation. Russia is in an existential position. Ukraine will be demolished. It will take 25 years to get back to normal. And it might never. You are enthusiastically egging on a situation that is a disaster.” “So, Russia just wins then?” “Yup. Pretty much.”
There may be some confusion that needs correcting. The article you linked and labeled the “American Spectator” which you then go on and disparage is actually “The Spectator”. The Spectator is a London based publication not affiliated with The American Spectator. The American Spectator is a fine and actual conservative journal with perspectives across the conservative spectrum. I have no affiliation except as a subscriber but feel it’s appropriate to suggest you correct the article and the premise.
I did make a mistake. The article I quoted (and correctly disparaged) was from the US edition of the UK-based Spectator; I believed them to have an institutional affiliation (US Spectator and American Spectator) but upon further research that has proven to not be the case. I will make an editor's note and correct my piece.
Perusing their articles on the subject, it seems that while they brook a bit more dissent than the UK Spectator they still come down largely on the side of continuing the war on the grounds advanced by the Biden government and its NATO allies. I will note that I have enjoyed reading the American Spectator in the past; as I noted, sometimes conservative media gets things right. But on this issue I believe they are tragically mistaken.
"Now if we can afford to spend this on trains, surely we can lay out a measly $10,000 million ferfillion kabillion for Ukraine. It’s a small price to pay for Our Democracy.". 🤣😂🤣😅🤣🤣
Iraq 1, Afghanistan, Iraq 2, Libya, Syria and then the fun in Ukraine. When Ukraine is a smoldering ruin, which lucky country will be our next playground?
Great post. I'd like to add a couple of things. First, the American Spectator has pivoted with the MIC oligarchy from defending "democratic Ukraine" to containment of the Russian empire. It is ironic indeed that George Kennan, the author of the original containment policy which was the foundation of the US Empire's Cold War strategy, thought NATO had served its purpose and should be dissolved after the fall of the Soviet Union.
It's just a con to keep the grift going, since they know damned well that Vladimir Putin has no ambitions to annex all of Ukraine, much less the Baltic States or anyone else.
Second, every time Biden or any administration official talks about "democracy" they make no sense because they don't MEAN democracy. They mean oligarchy. Substitute oligarchy for democracy every time they say it and they start to become a lot more understandable.
Yes, as Michael Hudson points out - democracy is oligarchy and autocracy is a leader strong enough to stand up to oligarchy.
I just heard Schumer say we are winning this war, and that anyone who disagrees with that is working directly with Russia. Speaking of how wars like this are so very great for saving "democracy." Of course it is almost always the opposite, wars like this are fought to help clamp down on domestic dissent about all manner of things.
I am so very glad to be a dissident writing for a few hundred free thinkers, as opposed to being a stenographer for the State.
Schumer and his ilk presided over the death of the empire. They lost in 30 years what better men built over hundreds. He is psychologically incapable of seeing this reality.
Schumer, like Reich and all of their rich liberal ilk, lives in an upside-down, black-is-white fantasy world. The Schumerian ideology states that America should burn its credibility and increasingly fictional "treasure" to arm Ukraine while simultaneously disarming the American people (good luck with that).
Whom do they really fear? Russia or the U.S. populace?
The US populace, for sure. I'm assuming rich liberals are imagining all those military aged men flowing over the border will become the bulwark protecting the rich from Americans: Dick Durbin wants them to become part of the MIC.
if he thinks they'll die to protect rich folks in DC he's dreaming. Reminds me of that piece by Doug Rushkoff about 10 years ago where all these very rich guys in attendance at one of his talks about tech all came to ask him how they could protect themselves when the hoi polloi come for them. They suggested fantasies like "control collars" on their guards and such. Hilarious.
I used to be an Admin at the Doomstead Diner. I used to laugh at the doomsteaders - hoarding all that gold, food, guns makes you the FIRST target. Guess what, rich guys in your compound, unless you are THE warlord, your security will dispatch you posthaste as soon as they see the opening.
How can a war being fought for a puppet dictator that has stopped all elections and has a state run media save democracy?? Asking for a friend.
That double question mark clearly must be a code that you are a Putin-ist!!!
Democracy is the State keeping us safe from PutinTrump!!
My apologies, I did forget that point. Only by throwing politicians al opponents and his followers in jail can you save democracy these days.
I have truly marveled the last eight years and esp since 2020, how so many accuse Trump/MAGA of planning what they have already done and continue to do. It is like authoritarian rule #1 accuse your victim of everything you do.
Trump may very well be the first president elected while sitting in a prison cell. Unless of course the fix is in. My guess, if Biden runs, the game is rigged. If he is replaced at the 11th hour, it is full panic mode.
Crazy times. Very little surprises anymore. I actually think if they put him in a cage he will win in a landslide. But then, Biden "winning" 100mil votes is not out of the realm of hubris, though, reality having been locked up so long, I'm not sure how much longer they can keep that caged.
The best part is half the things they screech about Trump "potentially" doing Dubya and Obumer already did years ago.
Good piece. I agree about the media. We assume they are self-aware conmen conspicuously using propaganda. But increasingly they are true believers in some sense.
They have a vision or model of the world, loosely something like GloboHomo, and cannot accept it is fantasy. I think they spend so long fortifying their fantasy utopia against reality they now have many reality-defying cognitive mechanisms to rationalize much of it away. The most observable is the smug disdain; criticism is seen as a lack of sophistication. You just don't get the bigger picture about Ukraine or climate or gender-affirming care.
These are our cultural enemies, and they are increasingly out of touch with real life.
This is it right here. The MSM and people who consume it have built an impenetrable epistemic bubble and have lost the ability to think critically.
I’ve had several conversations over the past couple of years where I’ve tried to gently let down Ukraine supporters with something along the lines of “the Russians are the bad guys, I hope Ukraine perseveres, but (insert historical context, current facts on the ground, and trajectory of the war).”
Their response is to get sad, confused, angry, or to start advocating for a nuclear war with Russia.
I failed many times to discuss Ukraine in a meaningful way with people sporting Ukraine flags. Literally zero knowledge. Some even took Ukrainian refugees into their home. Television is powerful, lol.
But the media believing it? It is one thing to shill for your thirty pieces of silver. But I think Librarian is right. There have been many purges so only the deranged are left.
I recall how that went for Stalin, all the purging, when Germany invaded.
As much as I'd like to think the beginning of the end of this awful conflict already dawned, Lloyd Austin's comments - sorry, I mispoke, his threats about sending Americans over to die in Ukraine if we didn't pony up the cash like good little tax paypigs to support foreign warmongering makes me think that Con Inc. is more than willing to keep this grift going at the cost of American lives, and many of them are probably disappointed it's taken this long to get to that point. We'll know which way the wind is blowing if Boris Johnson shows back up in Kiev to do another shake-down any time soon. He really is their bagman. Every time that guy shows up in Ukraine, something bad happens shortly after.
Also, I love that bullshit map the NATO thinktank guys who get high off their own farts drew up. I remember when they published that like it was some forgone conclusion, and they had the temerity to say that they had "No intentions of controlling the future of Russia" and would "Allow these new states to chart their own path", when the biggest one has a color-inverted American flag as a their banner. It's enough to make you wonder if this whole thing wasn't a sick joke from the beginning.
My favorite is the United States of Siberia. That's basically just bootleg Canada.
Your latest is great by the way.
Thank man, I appreciate it.
Part of the problem for them is there are a some cold blooded realists starting to come back on the stage. Pointed questions are being asked about how we are going to produce the weapons we would need with our industrial capacity. The looming specter of China in the South Pacific is making it difficult with increasing numbers of voices pointing out that we have severely depleted our own stockpiles of munitions. Some idiots are arguing that Russia could beat America in a fight. They are delusional idiots dreaming about the destruction of American empire without thinking it through and it is getting a little annoying at this point. (also that whole nuclear powers thing makes that whole scenario moot and Western Europe probably couldn't be bothered with anything more than "moral support" anyway). The problem is China is nothing like Russia. They have an absolutely massive population and industrial capacity that tops everyone else. China does have a massive weakness in that they lack many of the natural resources they need but that is nothing to feel confident about. At least the Russians would never bother really dealing with the Chinese because they have always known not to trust the... oh wait. Yeah we just screwed that up big time didn't we?
Neither Russia nor the US could beat the other. Russia does not have the resources to launch or sustain a campaign in the Western Hemisphere and the US lacks the political capital with its own population (and the money) to fight a sustained land war in Eurasia.
I'm talking about in plain old military terms without the political considerations existing and the Russians have serious deficiencies of their own that have been shown over and over. We could have seriously degraded their fighting capability just by leaving them alone and never put them into a position where they have to start addressing their deficiencies.
Something I wrote somewhere else:
"You want to know what the stupidest part of The State Department's/American Enterprise Institute's/The Blob's whole plan for degrading Russia's military was? Ukraine showed the Russian military sucked ass. They were trading on their Cold War legacy. Training and doctrine had degraded. Defense graft and casual corruption were everywhere. Leadership were pretty much empty suits. They made amateur tactical, strategic, and logistical mistakes all the damn time. The Russians were seriously lacking in having enough proper high tech equipment. Military industry and production were allowed to languish. They had no practical combat experience against a technologically advanced military. Care to guess what happens when a country is forced to get absolutely serious about fighting a war but they can win without their military suffering unsustainable losses? They get their shit together. The Wehrmacht once made the same mistake thinking the Soviets were incapable of learning anything from the Winter War. Because neocons and neoliberals don’t actually bother to read things like history books, they think they are just kicking the Russians asses. What they are actually doing is kicking their asses into shape. Funny enough, my method of degrading their militarily does not cost a dime. Instead of spending billions, just leave them alone and spend nothing. Go figure. Also, if their military gets back to full strength in just a couple of years, that is not much of an achievement on the West’s side."
Maybe it's time to reinstate the Westphalian system? Maybe those who want a supranational world order don't want it. Who cares? In the multipolar world they no longer get to dictate terms. In Cold War 2.0 the conditions for victory will be set by those who are best able to win 'Hearts and Minds' in the Global South. With China implementing what is effectively a Marshall Plan in Africa whilst the West tries to enforce permanent poverty in the much of the developing world at COP28, it's become clear that the West doesn't even realise they are playing in a new paradigm.
I predict that in a few months they will say that they *always* supported a peaceful solution.
And were always against Covid lockdowns.
Only a hateful, racist, misinformed Nazi would doubt that!
Covid never existed. It was just Russian misinformation.
"Win" and "loss" depends on the parties and the objectives sought though, no? Given there are ongoing backroom negotiations occurring to (temporarily) end the war now, it's hard to see how Russia merely keeping part of the Donbass and the Crimea with the Ukraine joining NATO would be a win for Russia based upon the initial objectives sought, which sought a quick strike to decapitate Kiev and pull the country out of the West's orbit. Instead, Ukraine is now firmly in the West and will remain so, even though it was firmly in Russia's orbit through 2013 and the East half of the country pro-Russia until this war. Ultimately Russia has since lost the ability to pursue offensive war per now jailed dissident Igor Strelkov. See this great post by Edward Slavsquat analyzing Strelkov's tough, probing questions about Russia's approach to the war: https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/39-questions-about-the-war-in-ukraine
Sure, the average Ukrainian Christian male has suffered terribly, and this white-Christian on white-Christian violence has allowed globohomo to empty out the country and for Blackrock and other ghouls to loot the country. And the schism between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church is a huge globohomo win. From that perspective it's a major loss for Ukraine.
Ultimately I see both Putin and Zelensky controlled by the same puppeteers, and this Ukraine war has been a very large win for them...
"Ukraine is now firmly in the West." There is no Ukraine. What's left of it, when all of this ends, will be a depopulated rump state with the demographics and health profile of an Indian reservation. It will never join NATO, and if it somehow does it will be a sign that NATO is itself on its way out. This war is the greatest tragedy of our age and I fear for God's justice upon my country for our part in it.
Russia is methodically advancing and will continue to do so. Last year there were numerous accounts claiming that with the loss of Prighozin/Strelkov/insert-true-patriot the end was nigh and Russia would fail in its war effort. Behind the scenes there were supposedly all these secret machinations that would come to light and Putin would surrender and so on. None of that came to pass. Everything Russia is doing makes sense from the perspective of a country using its advantages (numbers, industrial production, etc.) to fight a casualty-sensitive war of attrition against an enemy running up against its limitations. It reminds me of the US in WWII.
I don't see Putin and Zelensky as controlled by the same forces. I think on some level people find it comforting to posit that there are some master puppeteers somewhere shaping what looks like unpredictable chaos and destruction. But I doubt it. The great story of our age is the breakup of GAE hegemony into rival civilizational states. The only hidden hand is that of Providence, who has weighed Globohomo in the balance and found it wanting.
I agree with you that the U.S. caused this war, even though Russia was the first-mover-initiator, and globohomo ghouls like Victoria Nuland have a huge amount of blood on her hands. It is a meat-grinder sending hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths on both sides for ulterior motives. It's terrible. I also agree with you that the world is transitioning to a multi-polar world.
However, yes, I do see higher powers behind both this current war (which I delved into back in May, and which I think holds up well: https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/how-real-is-the-russiaukraine-war ) and the shift to a multi-polar world, given the central bank owners control the BRICS countries as much as they control the West (at least as I see it)...As Solzhenitsyn stated after the Soviet Union broke up, "Bolshevism committed the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this enormous crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators.”
When Communism started spreading throughout South and Central America we got our hands dirty and stamped it out morality be damned because a state is not going to accept a geopolitical risk like that even if the threat only becomes serious decades from then. It's how the world works and sorry son but morality does not have much to do with it. Now at the end of the Cold War we had people who understood what the Russian red lines would be and how they would react to them. Kennan and many others warned not to expand NATO eastward and to in fact abolish it entirely. They knew at some point Russia would conclude that a strategic absolute had come into play and force was needed to remove it. Now we are in this mess because neocons and neoliberal interventionists feel the absolute need to play around in other peoples' sandboxes because they are incapable of keeping their hands to themselves. As for Russia itself, I never heard a single good reason why it was important to our interests to mess with them. I hate these "think tank" idiots with a passion.
The western global financial order will eventually adjust to the new multipolar world, either gracefully or not. But don't mistake that for "winning" nor for the idea that there is one united global financial class. Ukraine was the final and massive loss for the globohomo project. China will do as it will, as will Russia. And control of the "world island" Mackinder and Brzezinski fretted their entire lives over has firmly passed out of the orbit of the western financial oligarchy. The dumbest thing they ever did was not bring Russia into the NATO/western fold when Putin asked to join.
I have a masters in international relations. In the course of study, I learned all of the theoretical frameworks for analyzing and trying to predict the behavior of states in the international arena. Realism, liberalism, constructivism, etc. But US foreign policy since WWII does not fit these frameworks. US foreign policy has been completely hijacked by psychopathic oligarchs. The primary outcome of US foreign policy is mass death and impoverishment of ordinary people at home and abroad while funneling public money into the private hands of MIC oligarchs. This is not an accident. This is the objective. No one in charge ever believed Ukraine would “win”. They believed only that tons of ordinary people would die and that oligarchs would rake in billions. So in this sense, mission accomplished! Again! At some point, these psychopaths are no longer entitled to the benefit of Hanlon’s razor. We are well past that point. Truly evil people run the world.
Lib neighbour: “ukraine is crushing Russia”. Me. “Nope. This will destroy Ukraine, horribly.” Neighbour: “oh you like Putin do you.” Said with a sneer. Me: “America gets tired of foreigners crashing their southern border and takes 100 miles from Mexico right across the border. Making a ‘No Mans Land’. To prevent illegal border crossings. Mexico objects. The world supports Mexico. It sends tons of armaments to Mexico. Mexico fights America. Who wins? Mexico or America?” Neighbour: “Well that is ridiculous. America wins.” Me: “Right. Same situation. Russia is in an existential position. Ukraine will be demolished. It will take 25 years to get back to normal. And it might never. You are enthusiastically egging on a situation that is a disaster.” “So, Russia just wins then?” “Yup. Pretty much.”
There may be some confusion that needs correcting. The article you linked and labeled the “American Spectator” which you then go on and disparage is actually “The Spectator”. The Spectator is a London based publication not affiliated with The American Spectator. The American Spectator is a fine and actual conservative journal with perspectives across the conservative spectrum. I have no affiliation except as a subscriber but feel it’s appropriate to suggest you correct the article and the premise.
I did make a mistake. The article I quoted (and correctly disparaged) was from the US edition of the UK-based Spectator; I believed them to have an institutional affiliation (US Spectator and American Spectator) but upon further research that has proven to not be the case. I will make an editor's note and correct my piece.
That’s great. Also read some of the TAS articles. They have a good group of writers.
Perusing their articles on the subject, it seems that while they brook a bit more dissent than the UK Spectator they still come down largely on the side of continuing the war on the grounds advanced by the Biden government and its NATO allies. I will note that I have enjoyed reading the American Spectator in the past; as I noted, sometimes conservative media gets things right. But on this issue I believe they are tragically mistaken.
"Now if we can afford to spend this on trains, surely we can lay out a measly $10,000 million ferfillion kabillion for Ukraine. It’s a small price to pay for Our Democracy.". 🤣😂🤣😅🤣🤣
Very very nicely done
We 🇺🇸 need to withdraw to the Western Hemisphere and point our restless nature at space.
Our restless nature is a given.
By the way we’re the only nation at present that can settle space.
We 🇺🇸 go to space or man doesn’t.
John Carter was just just writing about that today.
Here’s good news, more to Space than Musk. Serious people.
https://a16z.com/why-america-must-develop-space-and-how-well-do-it/
We aren't even willing to defend our own hemisphere, let alone our border. We are pretty much down to nothing. Been a good ride.
problem is we just want to ride.
We have everything we need except the Will to throw over our corrupt tormentors.
Iraq 1, Afghanistan, Iraq 2, Libya, Syria and then the fun in Ukraine. When Ukraine is a smoldering ruin, which lucky country will be our next playground?
American Midwest.
Que?
in the last week I've been hearing the real reasons for the failures in Ukraine from the Kinzinger etc crowd. they are:
1. MAGA Republicans
2. partisan Republicans
3. Trump
4. Christian Nationalists
pretty simple really...
I heard it was antivaxxers and institutional white supremacy.
haha, in the comments I keep reading about how a Nazi presence in Ukraine is such obvious 'Russian Disinformation'...
Very funny article. I laughed so much, I briefly forgot I'm living in a dystopian hellscape lorded over by the forces of evil incarnate.