The created food crisis, whether real or a smoke-and-mirrors psy-op, is all about tearing down the global food system and тАЬbuilding back betterтАЭ тАУ a new dystopian food system built by corporate monoliths and rigidly controlled in the name of the greater good.
The press has been predicting this for years, but up until now it always appeared to be nothing more than fearmongering, designed to worry or distract people, but the signs are there that this time, to quote Joe Biden, it тАЬis going to be realтАЭ.
Nobody knows how bad it could get, except the people who are creating it.
Because the evidence is pretty clear, it is being deliberately & cold-bloodedly created. WeтАЩve been documenting it for months.
We have RussiaтАЩs тАЬspecial operationтАЭ in Ukraine driving up the price of staple foods, wheat and sunflower oil, as well as fertiliser.
We have the sudden тАЬbird flu outbreakтАЭ driving up the price of poultry and eggs.
The soaring price of oil is driving up the cost of food distribution.
The inflation caused by huge influxes of fiat currency means families are spending more money on less food.
And as all this is happening, the US and UK (and maybe others, we donтАЩt know) are literally paying farmers not to farm.
ItтАЩs pretty clear this is The Great Reset: Food Edition. The lockdown melody with slightly different lyrics. A process of breaking down the structures already in place so we can тАЬbuild back betterтАЭ with a more controlled and more corporatised food system
Just as the Covid тАЬpandemicтАЭ was said to highlight тАЬweaknesses in the multilateral systemтАЭ, so this food crisis will show that our тАЬunstable food systems are in need of reformтАЭ and we need to ensure our тАЬfood securityтАЭтАжor a thousand variations on that theme.
ThatтАЩs not supposition. They already started, over a year ago.
The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems & Community Developments published a paper in February 2021 titled:
Dismantling and rebuilding the food system after COVID-19: Ten principles for redistribution and regeneration
In an interview from July last year, Ruth Richardson the Executive Director of the NGO Global Alliance for the Future of Food literally said:
Our Dominant Food System Needs to Be Dismantled and RebuiltтАЭ
Later, in September 2021, the UN convened the first-ever тАЬFood Systems SummitтАЭ, whose mission statement included the line:
Rebuilding the food systems of the world will also enable us to answer the UN Secretary-GeneralтАЩs call to тАЬbuild back betterтАЭ from COVID-19.
Writing in the Guardian two weeks ago, George Monbiot, weathervane for every deep state agenda, states with his trademark lack of subtlety:
The banks collapsed in 2008 тАУ and our food system is about to do the sameтАжThe system has to change.
But what does тАЬchangeтАЭ and тАЬrebuiltтАЭ actually mean in this context?
Well, thatтАЩs no mystery, theyтАЩve been talking it up for years.
Almost all of these are stories from just the past month or so, many of them talking points at the World Economic ForumтАЩs Davos Conference.
As is almost always the case, the problem to which theyтАЩre currently тАЬreactingтАЭ already has a series of pre-ordained solutions.
Just as we saw lockdowns break the economy to pieces whilst the billionaire class land record profits whilst corporate megaliths expanded their monopolies, so too will any proposed food security policies end up benefiting the already mega-rich or installing infrastructure for corporate control.
They just announced the building of the largest тАЬcultured meat factoryтАЭ in the world. Fake meat, of course, canтАЩt be raised at home and is subject to patented processes of creation. Genetically edited or modified plants and animals are likewise subject to patents.
Supranational companies, with profits larger than the budget of some nations, are developing carbon footprint tracker apps which reward people for making the тАЬright decisionsтАЭ. That could easily be applied to food.
While the so-called liberal and conservative corporate mainstream media тАУ all stenographers for the intelligence agencies тАУ pour forth the most blatant propaganda about Russia and Ukraine that is so conspicuous that it is comedic if it werenтАЩt so dangerous, the self-depicted cognoscenti also ingest subtler messages, often from the alternative media.
A woman I know and who knows my sociological analyses of propaganda contacted me to tell me there was an excellent article about the war in Ukraine at The Intercept, an on-line publication funded by billionaire Pierre Omidyar I have long considered a leading example of much deceptive reporting wherein truth is mixed with falsehoods to convey a тАЬliberalтАЭ narrative that fundamentally supports the ruling elites while seeming to oppose them. This, of course, is nothing new since itтАЩs been the modus operandi of all corporate media in their own ideological and disingenuous ways, such as The New York Times, CBS, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, Fox News, CNN, NBC, etc. for a very long time.
Nevertheless, out of respect for her judgment and knowing how deeply she feels for all suffering people, I read the article. Written by Alice Speri, its title sounded ambiguous тАУ тАЬThe Left in Europe Confronts NATOтАЩs Resurgence After RussiaтАЩs Invasion of UkraineтАЭ тАУ until I saw the subtitle that begins with these words: тАЬRussiaтАЩs brutal invasion complicatesтАжтАЭ But I read on. By the fourth paragraph, it became clear where this article was going. Speri writes that тАЬIn Ukraine, by contrast [with Iraq], it was Russia that had staged an illegal, unprovoked invasion, and U.S.-led support to Ukraine was understood by many as crucial to stave off even worse atrocities than those the Russian military had already committed.тАЭ [my emphasis]
While ostensibly about European anti-war and anti-NATO activists caught on the horns of a dilemma, the piece goes on to assert that although US/NATO was guilty of wrongful expansion over many years, Russia has been an aggressor in Ukraine and Georgia and is guilty of terrible war crimes, etc.
There is not a word about the U.S. engineered coup in 2014, the CIA and Pentagon backed mercenaries in Ukraine, or its support for the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and UkraineтАЩs years of attacks on the Donbass where many thousands have been killed. It is assumed these actions are not criminal or provocative. And there is this:
The uncertain response of EuropeтАЩs peace activists is both a reflection of a brutal, unprovoked invasion that stunned the world and of an anti-war movement that has grown smaller and more marginalized over the years. The left in both Europe and the U.S. have struggled to respond to a wave of support for Ukraine that is at cross purposes with a decades long effort to untangle Europe from a U.S.-led military alliance. [my emphasis]
In other words, the article, couched in anti-war rhetoric, was anti-Russia propaganda. When I told my friend my analysis, she refused to discuss it and got angry with me, as if I therefore were a proponent of war. I have found this is a common response.
This got me thinking again about why people so often miss the untruths lying within articles that are in many parts truthful and accurate. I notice this constantly. They are like little seeds slipped in as if no one will notice; they work their magic nearly unconsciously. Few do notice them, for they are often imperceptible. But they have their effects and are cumulative and are far more powerful over time than blatant statements that will turn people off, especially those who think propaganda doesnтАЩt work on them. This is the power of successful propaganda, whether purposeful or not. It particularly works well on тАЬintellectualтАЭ and highly schooled people.
For example, in a recent printed interview, Noam Chomsky, after being introduced as a modern day Galileo, Newton, and Descartes rolled into one, talks about propaganda, its history, Edward Bernays, Walter Lippman, etc. What he says is historically accurate and informative for anyone not knowing this history. He speaks wisely of U.S. media propaganda concerning its unprovoked war against Iraq and he accurately calls the war in Ukraine тАЬprovoked.тАЭ And then, concerning the war in Ukraine, he drops this startling statement:
I donтАЩt think there are тАШsignificant liesтАЩ in war reporting. The U.S. media are generally doing a highly creditable job in reporting Russian crimes in Ukraine. ThatтАЩs valuable, just as itтАЩs valuable that international investigations are underway in preparation for possible war crimes trials.
In the blink of an eye, Chomsky says something so incredibly untrue that unless one thinks of him as a modern day Galileo, which many do, it may pass as true and you will smoothly move on to the next paragraph. Yet it is a statement so false as to be laughable. The media propaganda concerning events in Ukraine has been so blatantly false and ridiculous that a careful reader will stop suddenly and think: Did he just say that?
So now Chomsky views the media, such as The New York Times and its ilk, that he has correctly castigated for propagandizing for the U.S. in Iraq and East Timor, to use two examples, is doing тАЬa highly creditable job in reporting Russian crimes in Ukraine,тАЭ as if suddenly they were no longer spokespeople for the CIA and U.S. disinformation. And he says this when we are in the midst of the greatest propaganda blitz since WW I, with its censorship, Disinformation Governance Board, de-platforming of dissidents, etc., that border on a parody of OrwellтАЩs Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Even slicker is his casual assertion that the media are doing a good job reporting RussiaтАЩs war crimes after he earlier has said this about propaganda:
So it continues. Particularly in the more free societies, where means of state violence have been constrained by popular activism, it is of great importance to devise methods of manufacturing consent, and to ensure that they are internalized, becoming as invisible as the air we breathe, particularly in articulate educated circles. Imposing war-myths is a regular feature of these enterprises.
This is simply masterful. Explain what propaganda is at its best and how you oppose it and then drop a soup├зon of it into your analysis. And while he is at it, Chomsky makes sure to praise Chris Hedges, one of his followers, who has himself recently wrote an article тАУ The Age of Self-Delusion тАУ that also contains valid points appealing to those sick of wars, but which also contains the following words:
PutinтАЩs revanchism is matched by our own.
The disorganization, ineptitude, and low morale of the Russian army conscripts, along with the repeated intelligence failures by the Russian high command, apparently convinced Russia would roll over Ukraine in a few days, exposes the lie that Russia is a global menace.
тАШThe Russian bear has effectively defanged itself,тАЩ historian Andrew Bacevich writes.
But this is not a truth the war makers impart to the public. Russia must be inflated to become a global menace, despite nine weeks of humiliating military failures. [my emphasis]
RussiaтАЩs revanchism? Where? Revanchism? What lost territory has the U.S. ever waged war to recover? Iraq, Syria, Cuba, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, etc.? The U.S.тАЩs history is a history not of revanchism but of imperial conquest, of seizing or controlling territory, while RussiaтАЩs war in Ukraine is clearly an act of self-defense after years of U.S./NATO/Ukraine provocations and threats, which Hedges recognizes. тАЬNine weeks of humiliating military failuresтАЭ? тАУ when they control a large section of eastern and southern Ukraine, including the Donbass. But his false message is subtly woven, like ChomskyтАЩs, into sentences that are true.
тАЬBut this is not a truth the war makers impart to the public.тАЭ No, it is exactly what the media spokespeople for the war makers тАУ i.e. The New York Times (Hedges former employer, which he never fails to mention and for whom he covered the Clinton administrationтАЩs savage destruction of Yugoslavia), CNN, Fox News, The Washington Post, the New York Post, etc. impart to the public every day for their masters. Headlines that read how Russia, while allegedly committing daily war crimes, is failing in its war aims and that the mythic hero Zelensky is leading Ukrainians to victory. Words to the effect that тАЬThe Russian bear has effectively defanged itselfтАЭ presented as fact.
Yes, they do inflate the Russian monster myth, only to then puncture it with the myth of David defeating Goliath.
But being in the business of mind games (too much consistency leads to clarity and gives the game away), one can expect them to scramble their messages on an ongoing basis to serve the U.S. agenda in Ukraine and further NATO expansion in the undeclared war with Russia, for which the Ukrainian people will be sacrificed.
Orwell called it тАЬdoublethinkтАЭ:
Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty.To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality one denies тАУ all this is indispensably necessaryтАж.with the lie always one step ahead of the truth.
Revealing while concealing and interjecting inoculating shots of untruths that will only get cursory attention from their readers, the writers mentioned here and others have great appeal for the left intelligentsia. For people who basically worship those they have imbued with infallibility and genius, it is very hard to read all sentences carefully and smell a skunk. The subterfuge is often very adroit and appeals to readersтАЩ sense of outrage at what happened in the past тАУ e.g. the George W. Bush administrationтАЩs lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Chomsky, of course, is the leader of the pack, and his followers are legion, including Hedges. For decades they have been either avoiding or supporting the official versions of the assassinations of JFK and RFK, the attacks of September 11, 2001 that led directly to the war on terror and so many wars of aggression,and the recent Covid-19 propaganda with its devastating lockdowns and crackdowns on civil liberties. They are far from historical amnesiacs, of course, but obviously consider these foundational events of no importance, for otherwise they would have addressed them. If you expect them to explain, you will be waiting a long time.
Almost the entire left intelligentsia has remained psychically stuck in March 2020. Its members have applauded the new biosecurity repression and calumniated as liars, grifters, and fascists any and all who dissented. Typically, they did so without even engaging evidence and while shirking public debate. Among the most visible in this has been Noam Chomsky, the self-described anarcho-syndicalist who called for the unvaccinated to тАЬremove themselves from society,тАЭ and suggested that they should be allowed to go hungry if they refuse to submit.
ParentiтАЩs critique of the leftтАЩs response (not just ChomskyтАЩs and HedgesтАЩ) to Covid also applies to those foundational events mentioned above, which raises deeper questions about the CIAтАЩs and NSAтАЩs penetration of the media in general, a subject beyond the scope of this analysis.
For those, like the liberal woman who referred me to The Intercept article, who would no doubt say of what I have written here: Why are you picking on leftists? my reply is quite simple.
The right-wing and the neocons are obvious in their pernicious agendas; nothing is really hidden; therefore they can and should be opposed. But many leftists serve two masters and are far subtler. Ostensibly on the side of regular people and opposed to imperialism and the predations of the elites at home and abroad, they are often tricksters of beguiling rhetoric that their followers miss. Rhetoric that indirectly fuels the wars they say they oppose.
Smelling skunks is not as obvious as it might seem. Being nocturnal, they come forth when most are sleeping.
Permanent war has cannibalized the country. It has created a social, political, and economic morass. Each new military debacle is another nail in the coffin of Pax Americana.
The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.
The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $ 6 trillion more than the US GDP of $ 24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $ 813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.
We are paying a heavy social, political, and economic cost for our militarism. Washington watches passively as the U.S. rots, morally, politically, economically, and physically, while China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, and other countries extract themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. dollar and the international Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging network banks and other financial institutions use to send and receive information, such as money transfer instructions. Once the U.S. dollar is no longer the worldтАЩs reserve currency, once there is an alternative to SWIFT, it will precipitate an internal economic collapse. It will force the immediate contraction of the U.S. empire shuttering most of its nearly 800 overseas military installations. It will signal the death of Pax Americana.
Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison dтАЩ├йtat of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of тАЬnational security.тАЭ The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.
There were three restraints to the avarice and bloodlust of the permanent war economy that no longer exist. The first was the old liberal wing of the Democratic Party, led by politicians such as Senator George McGovern, Senator Eugene McCarthy, and Senator J. William Fulbright, who wrote The Pentagon Propaganda Machine. The self-identified progressives, a pitiful minority, in Congress today, from Barbara Lee, who was the single vote in the House and the Senate opposing a broad, open-ended authorization allowing the president to wage war in Afghanistan or anywhere else, to Ilhan Omar now dutifully line up to fund the latest proxy war. The second restraint was an independent media and academia, including journalists such as I.F Stone and Neil Sheehan along with scholars such as Seymour Melman, author of The Permanent War Economy and Pentagon Capitalism: The Political Economy of War. Third, and perhaps most important, was an organized anti-war movement, led by religious leaders such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr. and Phil and Dan Berrigan as well as groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). They understood that unchecked militarism was a fatal disease.
None of these opposition forces, which did not reverse the permanent war economy but curbed its excesses, now exist. The two ruling parties have been bought by corporations, especially military contractors. The press is anemic and obsequious to the war industry. Propagandists for permanent war, largely from right-wing think tanks lavishly funded by the war industry, along with former military and intelligence officials, are exclusively quoted or interviewed as military experts. NBCтАЩs тАЬMeet the PressтАЭ aired a segment May 13 where officials from Center for a New American Security (CNAS) simulated what a war with China over Taiwan might look like. The co-founder of CNAS, Mich├иle Flournoy, who appeared in the тАЬMeet the PressтАЭ war games segment and was considered by Biden to run the Pentagon, wrote in 2020 in Foreign Affairs that the U.S. needs to develop тАЬthe capability to credibly threaten to sink all of ChinaтАЩs military vessels, submarines and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours.тАЭ
The handful of anti-militarists and critics of empire from the left, such as Noam Chomsky, and the right, such as Ron Paul, have been declared persona non grata by a compliant media. The liberal class has retreated into boutique activism where issues of class, capitalism and militarism are jettisoned for тАЬcancel culture,тАЭ multiculturalism and identity politics. Liberals are cheerleading the war in Ukraine. At least the inception of the war with Iraq saw them join significant street protests. Ukraine is embraced as the latest crusade for freedom and democracy against the new Hitler. There is little hope, I fear, of rolling back or restraining the disasters being orchestrated on a national and global level. The neoconservatives and liberal interventionists chant in unison for war. Biden has appointed these war mongers, whose attitude to nuclear war is terrifyingly cavalier, to run the Pentagon, the National Security Council, and the State Department.
Since all we do is war, all proposed solutions are military. This military adventurism accelerates the decline, as the defeat in Vietnam and the squandering of $8 trillion in the futile wars in the Middle East illustrate. War and sanctions, it is believed, will cripple Russia, rich in gas and natural resources. War, or the threat of war, will curb the growing economic and military clout of China.
These are demented and dangerous fantasies, perpetrated by a ruling class that has severed itself from reality. No longer able to salvage their own society and economy, they seek to destroy those of their global competitors, especially Russia and China. Once the militarists cripple Russia, the plan goes, they will focus military aggression on the Indo-Pacific, dominating what Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, referring to the Pacific, called тАЬthe American Sea.тАЭ
You cannot talk about war without talking about markets. The U.S., whose growth rate has fallen to below 2 percent, while ChinaтАЩs growth rate is 8.1 percent, has turned to military aggression to bolster its sagging economy. If the U.S. can sever Russian gas supplies to Europe, it will force Europeans to buy from the United States. U.S. firms, at the same time, would be happy to replace the Chinese Communist Party, even if they must do it through the threat of war, to open unfettered access to Chinese markets. War, if it did break out with China, would devastate the Chinese, American, and global economies, destroying free trade between countries as in World War I. But that doesnтАЩt mean it wonтАЩt happen.
Washington is desperately trying to build military and economic alliances to ward off a rising China, whose economy is expected by 2028 to overtake that of the United States, according to the UKтАЩs Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The White House has said BidenтАЩs current visit to Asia is about sending a тАЬpowerful messageтАЭ to Beijing and others about what the world could look like if democracies тАЬstand together to shape the rules of the road.тАЭ The Biden administration has invited South Korea and Japan to attend the NATO summit in Madrid.
But fewer and fewer nations, even among European allies, are willing to be dominated by the United States. WashingtonтАЩs veneer of democracy and supposed respect for human rights and civil liberties is so badly tarnished as to be irrecoverable. Its economic decline, with ChinaтАЩs manufacturing 70 percent higher than that of the U.S., is irreversible. War is a desperate Hail Mary, one employed by dying empires throughout history with catastrophic consequences. тАЬIt was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable,тАЭ Thucydides noted in the History of the Peloponnesian War.
A key component to the sustenance of the permanent war state was the creation of the All-Volunteer Force. Without conscripts, the burden of fighting wars falls to the poor, the working class, and military families. This All-Volunteer Force allows the children of the middle class, who led the Vietnam anti-war movement, to avoid service. It protects the military from internal revolts, carried out by troops during the Vietnam War, which jeopardized the cohesion of the armed forces.
The All-Volunteer Force, by limiting the pool of available troops, also makes the global ambitions of the militarists impossible. Desperate to maintain or increase troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military instituted the stop-loss policy that arbitrarily extended active-duty contracts. Its slang term was the backdoor draft. The effort to bolster the number of troops by hiring private military contractors, as well, had a negligible effect. Increased troop levels would not have won the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but the tiny percentage of those willing to serve in the military (only 7 percent of the U.S. population are veterans) is an unacknowledged Achilles heel for the militarists.
тАЬAs a consequence, the problem of too much war and too few soldiers eludes serious scrutiny,тАЭ writes historian and retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich in After the Apocalypse: AmericaтАЩs Role in a World Transformed. тАЬExpectations of technology bridging that gap provide an excuse to avoid asking the most fundamental questions: Does the United States possess the military wherewithal to oblige adversaries to endorse its claim of being historyтАЩs indispensable nation? And if the answer is no, as the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suggest, wouldnтАЩt it make sense for Washington to temper its ambitions accordingly?тАЭ
This question, as Bacevich points out, is тАЬanathema.тАЭ The military strategists work from the supposition that the coming wars wonтАЩt look anything like past wars. They invest in imaginary theories of future wars that ignore the lessons of the past, ensuring more fiascos.
The political class is as self-deluded as the generals. It refuses to accept the emergence of a multi-polar world and the palpable decline of American power. It speaks in the outdated language of American exceptionalism and triumphalism, believing it has the right to impose its will as the leader of the тАЬfree world.тАЭ In his 1992 Defense Planning Guidance memorandum, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz argued that the U.S. must ensure no rival superpower again arises. The U.S. should project its military strength to dominate a unipolar world in perpetuity. On February 19, 1998, on NBCтАЩs тАЬTodayShowтАЭ, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave the Democratic version of this doctrine of unipolarity. тАЬIf we have to use force it is because we are Americans; we are the indispensable nation,тАЭ she said. тАЬWe stand tall, and we see further than other countries into the future.тАЭ
This demented vision of unrivaled U.S. global supremacy, not to mention unrivaled goodness and virtue, blinds the establishment Republicans and Democrats. The military strikes they casually used to assert the doctrine of unipolarity, especially in the Middle East, swiftly spawned jihadist terror and prolonged warfare. None of them saw it coming until the hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center twin towers. That they cling to this absurd hallucination is the triumph of hope over experience.
There is a deep loathing among the public for these elitist Ivy League architects of American imperialism. Imperialism was tolerated when it was able to project power abroad and produce rising living standards at home. It was tolerated when it restrained itself to covert interventions in countries such as Iran, Guatemala, and Indonesia. It went off the rails in Vietnam. The military defeats that followed accompanied a steady decline in living standards, wage stagnation, a crumbling infrastructure and eventually a series of economic policies and trade deals, orchestrated by the same ruling class, which deindustrialized and impoverished the country.
The establishment oligarchs, now united in the Democratic Party, distrust Donald Trump. He commits the heresy of questioning the sanctity of the American empire. Trump derided the invasion of Iraq as a тАЬbig, fat mistake.тАЭ He promised тАЬto keep us out of endless war.тАЭ Trump was repeatedly questioned about his relationship with Vladimir Putin. Putin was тАЬa killer,тАЭ one interviewer told him. тАЬThere are a lot of killers,тАЭ Trump retorted. тАЬYou think our countryтАЩs so innocent?тАЭ Trump dared to speak a truth that was to be forever unspoken, the militarists had sold out the American people.
Noam Chomsky took some heat for pointing out, correctly, that Trumpis the тАЬone statesmanтАЭ who has laid out a тАЬsensibleтАЭ proposition to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The proposed solution included тАЬfacilitating negotiations instead of undermining them and moving toward establishing some kind of accommodation in EuropeтАжin which there are no military alliances but just mutual accommodation.тАЭ
Trump is too unfocused and mercurial to offer serious policy solutions. He did set a timetable to withdraw from Afghanistan, but he also ratcheted up the economic war against Venezuela and reinstituted crushing sanctions against Cuba and Iran, which the Obama administration had ended. He increased the military budget. He apparently flirted with carrying out a missile strike on Mexico to тАЬdestroy the drug labs.тАЭ But he acknowledges a distaste for imperial mismanagement that resonates with the public, one that has every right to loath the smug mandarins that plunge us into one war after another. Trump lies like he breathes. But so do they.
The 57 Republicans who refused to support the $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, along with many of the 19 bills that included an earlier $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine, come out of the kooky conspiratorial world of Trump. They, like Trump, repeat this heresy. They too are attacked and censored. But the longer Biden and the ruling class continue to pour resources into war at our expense, the more these proto fascists, already set to wipe out Democratic gains in the House and the Senate this fall, will be ascendant. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during the debate on the aid package to Ukraine, which most members were not given time to closely examine, said: тАЬ$40 billion dollars but thereтАЩs no baby formula for American mothers and babies.тАЭ
тАЬAn unknown amount of money to the CIA and Ukraine supplemental bill but thereтАЩs no formula for American babies,тАЭ she added. тАЬStop funding regime change and money laundering scams. A US politician covers up their crimes in countries like Ukraine.тАЭ
Democrat Jamie Raskin immediately attacked Greene for parroting the propaganda of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Greene, like Trump, spoke a truth that resonates with a beleaguered public. The opposition to permanent war should have come from the tiny progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which unfortunately sold out to the craven Democratic Party leadership to save their political careers. Greene is demented, but Raskin and the Democrats peddle their own brand of lunacy. We are going to pay a very steep price for this burlesque.
In the history of civilization, Politics has more often than not, been a matter reduceable to the question of тАЬwhose side are you on?тАЭ
Granted it is not an easy affair to discern what most-nearly approaches truth in the fog of тАЬthe present.тАЭ Hindsight is 20/20 they say, although that is also not entirely true, for the interpretation of history is just another battlefield, albeit in much slower motion.
In a world of increased division, where we are told there is only black or white, the best we mere тАЬciviliansтАЭ can hope for is to not get hit by the crossfire. However, that is becoming increasingly harder to do.
It is not a matter of holding тАЬopinionтАЭ any longer, it is about upholding a тАЬconviction,тАЭ not earned with your own personal scrutiny and research, but by your тАЬfaithтАЭ in such a conviction and the authorities who shape it.
Increasingly, it does not truly matter what the тАЬfactsтАЭ are, but the question of тАЬwhose side are you on?тАЭ
If that is what тАЬrealityтАЭ has been reduced to by those forces controlling the state, then any enemy to those forces controlling that state will be a villain, regardless of their actions, regardless of their ideology; and any ally to those forces controlling that state will be a hero, regardless of their actions, regardless of their ideology.
And thus, in our shaped reality of today, what makes a тАЬHeroтАЭ or a тАЬVillainтАЭ will be determined by the simple question тАЬwhose side are you on?тАЭ
If this is troubling to you, I suggest we do a little exercise together. Let us dare to discern the тАЬfactsтАЭ for ourselves. Only then, will we cease being mere cheerleaders for a team; only then, can we qualify ourselves to ask in all honest sincerity, тАЬwhose side are we truly on?тАЭ
Are Nazis Now the New тАЬGood GuysтАЭ?
There is a bit of mixed messaging that has been going on, especially in the last few weeks. Are there significant numbers of Nazis in Ukraine and are these тАЬbadтАЭ or тАЬgoodтАЭ Nazis in the context that they are fighting the Russian тАЬinvadersтАЭ?
In one breath we hear the counter, how can there be Nazis in Ukraine when there is a Jewish President calling the shots? In another breath we hear Facebook is now allowing users to praise the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion while they are fighting Russians. In yet another breath we hear, well its complicated, Ukrainian Nationalism should be considered at the forefront of any debate, even if it overlaps with Nazi ideology.
On Feb. 27, 2022, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland held a scarf bearing the slogan тАЬSlava Ukraini,тАЭ meaning тАЬGlory to Ukraine,тАЭ with the тАЬBlood and SoilтАЭ colors of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) (who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII and massacred thousands of Jews and Poles).
According to FreelandтАЩs press secretary, this was just another case of a тАЬclassic KGB disinformation smearтАж accusing Ukrainians and Ukrainian-Canadians of being far right extremists or fascists or Nazis,тАЭ which is a confusing statement on multiple levels.
It is not clear how this is a case of тАЬRussian disinformation,тАЭ since the picture is indeed authentic, Freeland does not deny this. And she is indeed holding a тАЬBlood and SoilтАЭ emblem, which originated with the Nazis, clear for everyone to see. Lastly, it is confusing as to why the Canadian government seems to be unaware that the KGB no longer exists. Are they also under the impression that the Soviet Union still exists?
Not irrelevant in all of this is the fact that FreelandтАЩs grandfather was the chief editor of a Nazi newspaper during WWII in Galicia and that she is indeed aware of this and apparently unapologetic. Whenever she is questioned about this, she does not deny anything, but simply blames such a focus of inquiry on Russian disinformation with the intent to тАЬdestabilize Western democracies.тАЭ That is, it is not a question of what is oneтАЩs historical or ideological background, but a question of тАЬwhose side are you on?тАЭ
Interestingly, it was the Canadian newspaper тАЬThe Globe and MailтАЭ who reported this story, titled тАЬFreeland knew her grandfather was editor of Nazi newspaper,тАЭ thus, not a Russian publication last time I checked. And upon whom did they base such information? None other than FreelandтАЩs own uncle, John-Paul Himka, who is now professor emeritus at the University of Alberta.
According to the Globe and Mail, Freeland was aware for more than two decades that her grandfather Michael Chomiak, was the chief editor of a Nazi newspaper that vilified Jews and supported the Nazi cause.
тАЬKrakivski Visti [Krakow News] was set up in 1940 by the German army and supervised by German intelligence officer Emil Gassert. Its printing presses and offices were confiscated by the Germans from a Jewish publisher, who was later murdered at the Belzec concentration camp.
The article titled тАШKravivski Visti and the Jews, 1943: A contribution of Ukrainian Jewish Relations during the Second World WarтАЩ was written by Ms. FreelandтАЩs uncle, John-Paul Himka, now professor emeritus at the University of Alberta.
In the foreword to the article, Prof. Himka credits Ms. Freeland for тАШpointing out problems and clarifications.тАЩ Ms. Freeland has never acknowledged that her grandfather was a Nazi collaborator and suggested on Monday that the allegation was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
In 1996, Prof. Himka wrote about Mr. ChomiakтАЩs work for Kravivski Visti, a Ukrainian-language newspaper based in Krakow that often published anti-Jewish diatribes including тАШcertain passages in some of the articles that expressed approval of what the Nazis were doing to the Jews.тАЩтАЭ [emphasis added]
Oddly, Freeland helped to edit and clarify Prof. HimkaтАЩs article discussing her grandfather as the chief editor of a Nazi newspaper, however, refused to acknowledge her grandfatherтАЩs role publicly and accused any reference to this as part of a тАЬRussian disinformation campaign.тАЭ According to this topsy-turvy logic, FreelandтАЩs uncle, Prof. Himka is part of this тАЬRussian disinformation campaign,тАЭ and she is guilty of providing assistance to this тАЬRussian disinformation campaign,тАЭ all to ruin her political career and тАЬdestabilize Western democracies.тАЭ
Freeland also told her uncle, Prof. Himka, which is included in his article, that according to her father, her grandfather Michael Chomiak was also working to some extent with the anti-Nazi resistance. However, Prof. Himka was unable to verify this information, which he described as тАЬfragmentary and one-sided.тАЭ
This past April, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova delivered an explosive response to Chrystia FreelandтАЩs recent obnoxious efforts to ban Russia from all international organizations and financial institutions, revealing the real sort of work FreelandтАЩs grandfather was in the business of. You can read the full speech here.
Then there is the strange case of NATO tweeting in celebration of international womenтАЩs day, this past March 8, a picture of a female Ukrainian soldier wearing the Black Sun symbol which is tied to Nazi occultism, and Satanism. NATO wrote in their post тАЬAll women and girls must live free and equal,тАЭ sending a very mixed message. NATO also ended up taking down their picture of the Black Sun symbol.
The timing of Freeland and NATOтАЩs twitter posts are most strange. It also begs the question, why post something at all if you are just going to delete it? Is this just a matter of not being aware of such things, or is it a matter of certain groupings getting increasingly bolder and unapologetic as to where their true allegiance lies? Has Chrystia Freeland or NATO undergone any real questioning or backlash for such public displays? Not really.
Fact Checking the тАЬFact-CheckersтАЭ on Ukraine
Before we go through the situation of Ukraine today, I wanted to share with you a very relevant story of how the CIA buys News.
Udo Ulfkotte was a well-known German journalist and author of numerous books. He worked for 25 years as a journalist, 17 of which were for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), including his role as editor. In his 2014 book тАЬJournalists for Hire: How the CIA Buys News,тАЭ Ulfkotte goes over how the CIA along with German Intelligence (BND) were guilty of bribing journalists to write articles that either spun the truth or were completely fictitious in order to promote a pro-western, pro-NATO bent, and that he was one of those bought journalists.
In an interview, Ulfkotte describes how he finally built up the nerve to publish the book, after years of it collecting dust, in response to the erupting 2014 crisis in Ukraine stating:
тАЬI felt that the right time had come to finish it and publish it, because I am deeply worried about the Ukrainian crisis and the possible devastating consequences for all of Europe and all of usтАжI am not at all pro-Russia, but it is clear that many journalists blindly follow and publish whatever the NATO press office provides. And this type of information and reports are completely one-sidedтАЭ. [emphasis added]
In another interview Ulfkotte stated:
тАЬit is clear as daylight that the agents of various Services were in the central offices of the FAZ, the place where I worked for 17 years. The articles appeared under my name several times, but they were not my intellectual product. I was once approached by someone from German Intelligence and the CIA, who told me that I should write about Gaddafi and report how he was trying to secretly build a chemical weapons factory in Libya. I had no information on any of this, but they showed me various documents, I just had to put my name on the article. Do you think this can be called journalism? I donтАЩt think so.тАЭ
Ulfkotte has publicly stated:
тАЬI am ashamed of it. The people I worked for knew from the get-go everything I did. And the truth must come out. ItтАЩs not just about FAZ, this is the whole system thatтАЩs corrupt all the way.тАЭ [emphasis added]
Udo Ulfkotte has since passed away. He died January 2017, found dead in his home, it is said by a heart attack. His body was quickly after cremated, thus preventing any possibility of an autopsy from occurring. His book has been made pretty much impossible to find available for purchase at this point.
TodayтАЩs situation concerning media reporting on Ukraine does not seem to be any different, if anything, it is much much worse.
To bolster support for the Ukrainian military, Kiev has churned out a steady stream of sophisticated propaganda aimed at stirring public and official support from Western countries.
UkraineтАЩs propaganda strategy earned it praise from a NATO commander who told the Washington Post, тАЬThey are really excellent in stratcom тАФ media, info ops, and also psy-ops.тАЭ The Post ultimately conceded that тАЬWestern officials say that while they cannot independently verify much of the information that Kyiv puts out about the evolving battlefield situation, including casualty figures for both sides, it nonetheless represents highly effective stratcom.тАЭ
тАЬKey to the propaganda effort is an international legion of public relations firms working directly with UkraineтАЩs Ministry of Foreign Affairs to wage information warfare. According to the industry news site PRWeek, the initiative was launched by an anonymous figure who allegedly founded a Ukraine-based public relations firmтАж
According to the anonymous figure, more than 150 public relations firms have joined the propaganda blitz.
The international effort is spearheaded by public relations firm PR Network co-founder Nicky Regazzoni and Francis Ingham, a top public relations consultant with close ties to the UKтАЩs government. Ingham previously worked for BritainтАЩs Conservative Party, sits on the UK Government Communication Service Strategy and Evaluation Council, is Chief Executive of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation, and leads the membership body for UK local government communicators, LG Comms.тАЭ
Thus, Ingham who has been a member of the UK government and continues to have very high-level connections within the British government, is playing a leading role in shaping how the Ukraine war is being represented.
Dan Cohen provides a thorough explanation of how these тАЬPR firmsтАЭ have been responsible for reporting and spreading fabricated news and that even when such reports are found conclusively to be untrue, they continue to use them nonetheless. These PR tools include propaganda graphics, which are created in order to encourage radicalisation and promotion of ultra-nationalist identity; using xenophobic and racist language (not just to Russians), outright praise of Ukrainian neo-Nazis as heroes, the idolisation of Nazi affiliated Unit-B leader Stefan Bandera, and the encouragement of violent acts against other individuals (see CohenтАЩs article for examples).
If you have ever wondered who is behind the omnipotent тАЬfact-checkersтАЭ, in the case of StopFake who have self-described themselves as such, they are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) aka the fully-rogue department of the CIA, the Atlantic Council, the International Renaissance Foundation (funded by Open Society FoundationтАЩs billionaire George Soros), the British Embassy in Ukraine, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the German Marshall Fund, among others.
StopFake was hired by Facebook in March 2020 to тАЬcurb the flow of Russian propagandaтАЭ but was found to be employing multiple figures closely tied to violent neo-Nazis. This has, however, not deterred Facebook from continuing to work with StopFake.
At the end of the day, it does not seem to matter how many times these arbiters of truth are found to be wrong, for US officials have already admitted that they are literally just lying to the public about what is going on in Ukraine.
Josh Cohen for the Atlantic Council writes [links are from the original article]:
тАЬIt sounds like the stuff of Kremlin propaganda, but itтАЩs not. Last week Hromadske Radio revealed that UkraineтАЩs Ministry of Youth and Sports is funding the neo-Nazi group C14 to promote тАЬnational patriotic education projectsтАЭ in the countryтАжтАЭ
After the March 8 2018 attacks against International WomenтАЩs Day marchers, Amnesty International wrote тАЬUkraine is sinking into a chaos of uncontrolled violence posed by radical groups and their total impunity. Practically no one in the country can feel safe under these conditions.тАЭ
Josh Cohen writes:
тАЬTo be clear, far-right parties like Svoboda perform poorly in UkraineтАЩs polls and elections, and Ukrainians evince no desire to be ruled by them. But this argument is a bit of тАЬred herring.тАЭ ItтАЩs not extremistsтАЩ electoral prospects that should concern UkraineтАЩs friends, but rather the stateтАЩs unwillingness or inability to confront violent groups and end their impunity.тАЭ [emphasis added]
However, we heard it, straight from Yevhen KarasтАЩs mouth, the leader of UkraineтАЩs neo-Nazi group C14, what determines who holds power in Ukraine has never really been about polls and elections.
Watch Yevhen Karas the leader of Ukraine's neo-Nazi terror gang C14's speech from Kiev earlier this month. Straight from the horses' mouth, he dispels the many narratives pushed by the left, the mainstream media and the State Department. pic.twitter.com/VWJqWPUGUp
As the famous тАЬf*ck the EUтАЭ tape revealed to the dumbfounded world, the Ukrainian people donтАЩt actually have a say in who runs their government. After the so-called тАЬRevolution of DignityтАЭ where Ukrainians literally died for тАЬdemocracy,тАЭ the US went on to тАЬinfluenceтАЭ the roster of the newly formed Ukrainian government, specifically around members of Svoboda and Pravyi Sector (Right Sector) who held five senior roles in the new government, including the post of deputy prime minister.
But neo-Nazis have not just been receiving western support in the political sphere.
Just this past October, as a reaction to her failed diplomatic visit to Russia, Victoria Nuland, according to French journalist Thierry Meyssan, went ahead and тАЬimposedтАЭ Dmytro Yarosh onto President Zelensky. On Nov. 2, 2021, President Zelensky appointed Dmytro Yarosh (leader of the neo-Nazi affiliated ultra-nationalist paramilitary group Right Sector 2013-2015) as Adviser to the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
This is the very same Dmytro Yarosh who has been on InterpolтАЩs тАЬwanted listтАЭ since 2014.
Neo-Nazis have also received ongoing training by the CIA, British SAS (Special Air Service) as well as other NATO countries such as Canada since at least 2014. This training has continued despite RussiaтАЩs entry into Ukraine, which has been confirmed by The Times, Ottawa Citizen, CTV News, and Radio Canada.
The Canadian government has attempted to deny any knowledge of training neo-Nazi militants in Ukraine and have made the claim that they are not responsible for verifying who they are in fact training, but that this is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government. However, such claims of ignorance fell through when the very neo-Nazis they were training went ahead and posted pictures on their social media accounts, showcasing their neo-Nazis badges identifying them as such, plain for everyone to see.
US and Canadian military officers meet uniformed members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion during a November 2017 multinational training session in Ukraine.
On the same day as the untoward NATO tweet on International WomenтАЩs Day of a Ukrainian soldier with the Nazi Black Sun occult symbol, photographs appeared on NEXTAтАЩs twitter feed showing the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion receiving training by instructors from тАЬNATO countriesтАЭ on how to use NLAW grenade launchers.
A shipment of NLAW grenade launchers and instructors from #NATO countries arrived in #Kharkiv. The Azov regiment was the first to learn about new weaponry pic.twitter.com/CCzjN40rW7
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the House of Commons on March 9 that тАЬas of today, we have delivered 3,615 NLAWs [to Ukrainian forces] and continue to deliver more. We will shortly be starting the delivery of a small consignment of anti-tank Javelin missiles as well.тАЭ
For a full list of all the weapons sent to Ukraine since 2014 by all involved countries, refer here.
For those especially adamant that neo-Nazis are not тАЬofficiallyтАЭ a part of the Ukrainian army, you should be informed that the Azov Battalion is part of UkraineтАЩs National Guard, and thus, yes it is officially part of UkraineтАЩs military.
Andriy Biletsky, the Azov BattalionтАЩs first commander and later a National Corps parliamentarian previously led the neo-Nazi paramilitary organisation тАЬPatriot of Ukraine,тАЭ and once stated in 2010 that it was the Ukrainian nationтАЩs mission to тАЬlead the white races of the world in a final crusadeтАж against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].тАЭ
тАЬThe Azov Battalion is emerging as a critical node in the transnational right-wing violent extremist networkтАж [Its] aggressive approach to networking serves one of the Azov BattalionтАЩs overarching objectives, to transform areas under its control in Ukraine into the primary hub for transnational white supremacy.тАЭ
The Soufan Center described how the Azov BattalionтАЩs тАЬaggressive networkingтАЭ reaches around the world to recruit fighters and spread its white supremacist ideology. Foreign fighters who train and fight with the Azov Battalion then return to their own countries to apply what they have learned and recruit others.
NATO has recently gone so far as to make a short film honoring the Baltic Nazi collaborators the тАЬForest Brothers.тАЭ The NATO film lionises the тАЬForest Brothers,тАЭ former Waffen SS fighters who voluntarily collaborated with the Nazis, as anti-communist heroes.
This is the story of the Forest Brothers who fought the Soviet army for their homelands after WWII pic.twitter.com/4JcfuJPmeO
Dovid Katz, a leading historian and anti-Nazi investigator condemned the NATO film for rewriting history:
тАЬBy going beyond turning a blind eye to the worship of pro-Hitler forces in Eastern EuropeтАж[NATO] is crossing the line right into offering its moral legitimization of Nazi forces such as the Latvian Waffen SS.тАЭ [emphasis added]
David Ignatius, the Washington Post columnist and reliable voice of the US intelligence apparatus, noted that even prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, тАЬthe United States and NATO allies [were] ready to provide weapons and training for a long battle of resistance.тАЭ
This is the very same David Ignatius who was once President of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (aka specialists in color revolutions), who arrogantly stated in a 1991 interview that тАЬa lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIAтАжThe biggest difference is that when such activities are done overtly, the flap potential is close to zero. Openness is its own protectionтАЭ.
I guess the NED has had a change of heart on тАЬopenness is its own protection.тАЭ
Jeremy Kuzmarov for Covert Action Magazine writes in an article titled тАЬNational Endowment for Democracy Deletes Records of Funding Projects in UkraineтАЭ [links from the original article]:
The archived webpage captured February 25, 2022 from 14:53 shows that NED granted $22,394,281 in the form of 334 awards to Ukraine between 2014 to the present. The capture at 23:10 the same day shows тАЬNo results foundтАЭ for Ukraine. As of right now, there are still тАЬNo results foundтАЭ for UkraineтАж
Who will suffer the most in this plan for a long battle of resistance? The Ukrainian people.
If PutinтАЩs top reason for going into Ukraine is to тАЬdenazifyтАЭ the country, and the CIA, NATO and co. are persistently тАЬnazifyingтАЭ the political and military components of Ukraine, you can see how this is making a situation for peace in Ukraine impossible, and that it is the CIA and NATO that are to blame for this.
You can also understand how UkraineтАЩs entry into NATO was unacceptable merely by its geographic location (the distance between UkraineтАЩs border and Moscow is 450 km), however, add in the fact that NATO is involved in the promotion of neo-Nazi militants in Ukraine and that now both Sweden and Finland have also expressed a desire to join NATO (with no referendum since democracy is officially dead in Cold War 2.0) and we have ourselves a real sh*t storm.
However, this is not just a threat to Russia. The reality of the situation is that Ukraine has been in a civil war these past 8 years, though the western media refuses to acknowledge this very important fact.
тАЬPeople who take at face value the Western media coverage would have a very distorted perception of the Ukraine conflict and its originтАж They omit or deny that there is a civil war in Donbas even though the majority of scholars who [have] published or presented concerning this conflict in Western academic venues classify it as a civil war with Russian military intervention. The Western media also omitted that recent тАШunity marchesтАЩ in Kharkiv and Kyiv and a staged training of civilians, including a grandmother, were organized and led by the far right, in particular, the Neo-Nazi Azov [Battalion].тАЭ
Robert Parry from Consortium News writes [link is from original article]:
тАЬOn Sunday, a Times article by Andrew E. Kramer mentioned the emerging neo-Nazi paramilitary role in the final three paragraphsтАжIn other words, the neo-Nazi militias that surged to the front of anti-Yanukovych protestsтАжhave now been organized as shock troops dispatched to kill ethnic Russians in the east [of Ukraine] тАУ and they are operating so openly that they hoist a Swastika-like neo-Nazi flag over one conquered village with a population of about 10,000.
Burying this information at the end of a long article is also typical of how the Times and other U.S. mainstream news outlets have dealt with the neo-Nazi problem in the past. When the reality gets mentioned, it usually requires a reader knowing much about UkraineтАЩs history and reading between the lines of a U.S. news account.тАЭ [emphasis added]
In the above image which outlines the population distribution of ethnic Ukrainians and Russians within Ukraine, you can understand how an ultra-nationalist view that identifies as solely ethnic Ukrainian would be a catalyst for a civil war.
The people of Donbass have understandably asked for independence from Ukraine, yet the Ukrainian government has refused to allow this nor intervene for a peaceful resolution. What does this mean? The war can only end when one side is fully dead.
Not only is it publicly known that the US and NATO have been funding and training neo-Nazis, but they have also been supplying a massive supply of arms (as previously mentioned). It got to such a point where in 2018, Congress had to ban the United States from sending further arms to Ukraine militia linked to neo-Nazis, specifically mentioning the Azov Battalion. For some reason this ban was to only last for three years thus it is apparently fair game now?
But you may say, what about RussiaтАЩs crimes against the Ukrainian people, arenтАЩt they far worse than even vicious neo-Nazis? Namely the bombing of the Mariupol theater and the Bucha massacre. Thorough journalistic investigations have already been done on the former, which can be found here, that conclusively shows the bombing of the Mariupol theater was a false-flag.
As for the Bucha massacre, there has been no evidence presented as of yet that conclusively proves who committed this atrocity, there have only been assertions. Recall that the chemical attacks in Syria were also full of assertions, to which investigative journalist Seymour Hersch wrote a report titled тАЬWhose Sarin,тАЭ which conclusively proved that the popular assertions being pushed by the Obama government in their attempt to incriminate the Syrian government, were in fact false. Rather, it was pointing to the fact that the actual terrorists were the ones using sarin on the Syrian civilians, who were receiving American and co. funding and arms.
Unfortunately, time is of the essence in investigating crimes such as these, and despite the outcries of the inhumanity of such events, there is always heavy foot-dragging if not outright dismissal over an official and neutral investigation of such crime scenes. Why is this?
Instead, the response to this was for the UN to suspend Russia from its human rights body. Thus, not only denying an official investigation, but denying Russia a voice in responding to the matter.
The disturbing elephant in the room in all of this, is that the Azov Battalion has already been found guilty of similar atrocities against its own Ukrainian people, which has been thoroughly investigated by Max Blumenthal and Esha Krishnaswamy and which can be found here (warning there is graphic content).
The Azov Battalion has also been found guilty of purposefully putting Ukrainian citizens in jeopardy by positioning their artillery and military in residential areas and buildings, including daycares and hospitals, to which even the Washington Post had to acknowledge in their misleadingly titled article тАЬRussia has killed civilians in Ukraine. KyivтАЩs defense tactics add to the danger.тАЭ
However, these are not simply тАЬdefense tactics,тАЭ they are blatant war crimes that are recognised as such by international law. These war crimes are publicly acknowledged to be going on, causing the deaths of a significant number of Ukrainians. Just to be clear here, during times of war, to which the Washington Post also acknowledges, Ukrainian soldiers and weaponry are legitimate targets for the Russian military. It is not Russia that is committing the war crime here, it is the Ukrainian government. They have literally been caught using their own people as human shields.
Does this still sound like a patriotic nationalist movement for the welfare and sovereignty of the Ukrainian people?
According to an interview with Scott Ritter, former US Marine Intelligence Officer, the Russian military have made it clear that they are using тАЬSyrian tacticsтАЭ in Ukraine.
Scott Ritter explains, the Russian militaryтАЩs tactic in Syria was:
тАЬтАжto surround urban areas where these jihadists had been gathered, terrorizing the population, surround them and give them the opportunity to evacuate on buses with their security guaranteed by Russian military police. A soft approach that protected civilians, that protected civilian areas.тАЭ
It was this tactic that allowed the Russians along with the Syrian army to defeat ISIS and other terrorist affiliates. Today they only occupy the Idlib province. These terrorists who remain would not have been possible without Turkish support. This initiative to rid Syria of ISIS was something that the United States has clearly never been interested in supporting.
In the image on the left the red and largely the blue represent the region controlled by terrorists, or as Obama liked to call them тАЬmoderate rebelsтАЭ in the year 2017, in the image to the right the purple and grey represent the region controlled by terrorists in the year 2021. The green is the United States and co.тАЩs illegal presence in the country.
Interestingly, when the Russians entered Syria to combat the terrorists at the behest of the Syrian government, this was also called a тАЬRussian invasionтАЭ by certain quarters of western media. However, it was not the Russians who bombed Syrian cities to the ground, that was the good olтАЩ US of A.
In the same interview, Scott Ritter stated that these very terrorists who have been stationed in Idlib are now being brought into Ukraine:
тАЬтАж[Zelensky] has opened the door for illegal warriors, the mercenaries from EuropeтАжthe exploiters of conflictтАж[and] they brought in the jihadistsтАжthey brought in the people..[who] ostensibly want to kill RussiansтАжItтАЩs a poison pillтАжnow we are going to have these jihadists, who are being armed by the way with javelin missiles and stinger missiles. Imagine what happens when a bunch of bloodthirsty jihadists take these weapons into Europe. Would you like to be the German Chancellor driving on a highway knowing that up in the hills could be a jihadist hit-team armed with javelins?тАжThis is literally the worst kind of decision-making ever to put that much weaponry into Ukraine in an uncontrolled fashion. Even before the jihadist came in you were giving it to neo-Nazis who canтАЩt surrender. They canтАЩt surrender because they will be killed, rightfully so. So what do desperate people do when they canтАЩt surrender and they donтАЩt die? They run away with the weaponry they have. TheyтАЩll be burying it, making caches, falling back on it, continuing the futile resistance and in their anger to the West theyтАЩll lash out at the WestтАжthat is how global terrorism is born.тАЭ
How is this in the best interest of anyoneтАЩs welfare in Europe, let alone Ukraine? It isnтАЩt.
Many have been especially confused as to how Ukraine can have such a serious neo-Nazi problem, when they have a Jewish President.
There is something you should know about the position of тАЬPresidentтАЭ of Ukraine since 2014, in a country where neo-Nazis have been made more confident than the mafia ever was, that they literally cannot be touched since they have the direct backing and protection of the United States and NATO.
When President Poroshenko (June 2014 тАУ May 2019) negotiated the Minsk agreements in September 2014, he agreed, with Germany and France, to the special autonomous status of Donetsk and Lugansk, and that under this special condition, they would stay part of Ukraine.
According to an interview[1] with Scott Ritter, this was unacceptable to the neo-Nazis who threatened PoroshenkoтАЩs life, if such a thing were to be implemented.
The Minsk agreements were never put into action. Instead, Ukraine entered a civil war that has gone on for 8 years and continues to this day. The Minsk agreements were officially expired on February 21st, 2022, the same day that the State Duma of Russia passed a bill officially recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states. This ultimate rejection by the Ukrainian government was a clear indication that their war against Donbass would be escalated.
The situation with President Zelensky is no different.
In October 2019, President Zelensky (who assumed office in May 2019), had a recorded face-to-face confrontation with the militants from the Azov Battalion, who had launched a campaign to sabotage the peace initiative called тАЬNo to Capitulation.тАЭ
тАЬтАЩListen, Denys [Yantar], IтАЩm the president of this country. IтАЩm 41 years old. IтАЩm not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons. DonтАЩt shift the conversation to some protests,тАЩ Zelensky said, videos of the exchange show. As he said this, Zelensky aggressively approached Yantar, who heads the National Corps, a political offshoot of the far-right Azov volunteer battalion, in Mykolaiv city.
тАШBut weтАЩve discussed that,тАЩ Yantar said.
тАШI wanted to see understanding in your eyes. But, instead, I saw a guy whoтАЩs decided that this is some loser standing in front of him,тАЩ Zelensky said.тАЭ
The Kyiv Post continues in their article, that this reaction by President Zelensky received a strong backlash from certain quarters of Ukraine:
тАЬAndriy Biletsky, head of National Corps and the Azov Battalion, threatened Zelensky on his YouTube channel that more veterans would head to Zolote if the president tried to evict them from the town. тАШThere will be thousands there instead of several dozen,тАЩ he saidтАж
Singer Sofia Fedyna, who is a lawmaker with the European Solidarity party of former President Petro Poroshenko, which has 27 seats in parliament, was particularly aggressive in her response. She issued physical threats against Zelensky.
тАШMr. President thinks he is immortal,тАЩ she said in a video shared on Facebook. тАШA grenade may explode there, by chance. And it would be the nicest if this happened during MoscowтАЩs shelling when someone comes to the front line wearing a white or blue shirt.тАЩ
Zelensky has previously visited the front line dressed in civilian clothing, rather than military fatigues.тАЭ
Thus, the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion publicly threatened Zelensky if he were to intervene on attempting to negotiate peace and end UkraineтАЩs civil war.
However, this is not the full story.
President Zelensky is also backed by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who sponsored ZelenskyтАЩs rise to presidency, not just with his presidential campaign, but also in the tv show тАЬServant of the People,тАЭ that Zelensky literally тАЬplay-actedтАЭ as President for three seasons, which ran from November 16th, 2015 to March 28th, 2019. Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine less than two months after the last episode, on May 20th, 2019.
Former President Poroshenko even publicly called Zelensky тАЬKolomoiskyтАЩs puppetтАЭ during the presidential campaign.[2]
тАЬFor years, ZelenskyтАЩs company has produced shows for KolomoiskyтАЩs biggest TV channel, 1 + 1. In 2019, KolomoiskyтАЩs media channels gave a big boost to ZelenskyтАЩs presidential campaign. After, ZelenskyтАЩs victory, Kolomoisky kept up his relationship with the president, nominating over 30 lawmakers to ZelenskyтАЩs newly established party, and maintaining influence with many of them in parliament.тАЭ
Since ZelenskyтАЩs presidency, Kolomoisky has been able to secure control over a significant portion of UkraineтАЩs energy sector, including Ukrnafta and Centrenergo, as well as Burisma Holdings.
A 2012 study of Burisma Holdings done in Ukraine by the AntiCorruption Action Centre (ANTAC) found that the true owner of Burisma Holdings was none other than Kolomoisky.
Recall the Joe and Hunter Biden scandal over Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company. The Bidens ties with Kolomoisky and the situation of Ukraine today is not a coincidence.
In 2016, Ukraine nationalized PrivatBank from Kolomoisky and his business partner, Gennadiy Boholiubov. A U.S. Justice Department civil forfeiture complaint from December 2020, said the two men тАЬembezzled and defrauded the bank of billions of dollars.тАЭ [emphasis added]
There is also the matter of the Pandora Papers, which has confirmed that Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoisky was funneling millions of dollars in concealed assets offshore. Zelensky was also implicated in this. And what this of course also means, is that the City of London is tied into all of this.
Kolomoisky has a notorious history of being a literal тАЬraiderтАЭ of Ukrainian companies, as confirmed by HarperтАЩs Magazine, and Forbes.
тАЬBogolyubov and Kolomoisky fostered strong reputations as corporate raiders in the mid-2000s, becoming notorious for a series of hostile takeovers. Hostile takeovers Ukrainian style, that is, which often included the active involvement of PrivatтАЩs quasi-military teams.тАЭ
Kolomoisky, who is Jewish, is also a funder of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion since it was formed in 2014, which has been confirmed by Reuters, Newsweek, and Aljazeera.
He has also bankrolled private militias like the Dnipro and Aidar Battalions and has personally deployed them to protect his financial interests.
In other words, Kolomoisky is funding the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who have been fighting Eastern Ukrainians for these past 8 years, and thus has been directly fueling the civil war in Ukraine. One of the reasons for this, is that Donbass is a region with many natural resources, especially for the energy sector, to which Kolomoisky would very much like to be in possession of. This could only occur with the extermination or occupation of the people of Donbass.
Interestingly, this past Victory Day (May 8th), First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry PolyanskyтАЩs interview was cut short on Sky News when he brought up that Zelen
After years of civil war, the city of Mariupol has now been liberated. Do you think the people in the West will ever hear about this?
Where do We go from Here?
Well, let me put it this way. The United States and NATO know they cannot defeat Russia or China in a direct war, hence all of these proxy wars these past several years under the guise of тАЬWar on Terror.тАЭ As David Ignatius honestly expressed, their desire is for a long-drawn war. This is because they believe that they can bankrupt Russia and/or set the stage for internal unrest and eventual coup. However, things are clearly not going as planned.
What has been greatly underestimated in this situation is 1) ChinaтАЩs solid alliance with Russia, 2) that Russia is the most resource abundant country in the world to which Europe is dependant on, and 3) the economic brilliance of Sergey Glazyev.
RussiaтАЩs rouble has also not tanked as expected. In fact, it has actually grown stronger than ever.
тАЬKeynesians in the West have misread this situation. They think that the Russian economy is weak and will be destabilised by sanctions. That is not true. Furthermore, they would argue that a currency strengthened by insisting that oil and natural gas are paid for in roubles will push the Russian economy into a depression. But that is only a statistical effect and does not capture true economic progress or the lack of it, which cannot be measured. The fact is that the shops in Russia are well stocked, and fuel is freely available, which is not necessarily the case in the West.
The advantages for Russia are that as the WestтАЩs currencies sink into crisis, the rouble will be protected. Russia will not suffer from the WestтАЩs currency crisis, she will still get inflation compensation in commodity prices, and her interest rates will decline while those in the West are soaring. Her balance of trade surplus is already hitting new records.тАЭ
It is the West who has miscalculated in all of this, and it is their economy that will utterly tank from this тАЬlong-drawnтАЭ war these oligarchs have been having wet dreams about for God knows how many years.
We have done this to ourselves. And if we truly want to correct the matter, we should first have the respect to admit the truth in our complicity to much of the worldтАЩs woes during this Cold War period. Those of us who have lived in abundance, in comfort, and security, should take the first step to speak out and say no more to the rest of the world living in starved war-torn agony.
We must stop caring for ourselves first at the expense of all else. We must start caring for others first and foremost and acknowledge the crimes that have been committed in our name. Only then can we truly have the humility to see that the solution has been in front of our face the whole time.
If we fail in this, the western world will not be able to sustain itself for much longer economically. And when it falls, what sort of people do you think you will be surrounded by after all these years of supporting fascism under your very nose?
The author can be reached at cynthiachung.substack.com
The Western sanctions against Russia, decided unilaterally by Washington, are presented as a just punishment for the aggression against Ukraine. But, without mentioning their illegality under international law, everyone can see that they do not reach their target. In practice, the United States is isolating the West in the hope of maintaining its hegemony over its allies.
The United States, which was a late participant in the World Wars and suffered no losses on its territory, emerged victorious from the world conflicts. Inheriting the European empires, it developed a system of domination that made it the “worldтАЩs policeman. However, their hegemony was fragile and could not resist the development of large nations. As early as 2012, political scientists began to describe the “Thucydides trap” by analogy with the Greek strategistтАЩs explanation of the wars between Sparta and Athens. According to them, ChinaтАЩs rise to power also made a confrontation with the United States inevitable. Noting that, if China had become the first world economic power, Russia had become the first military power, Washington decided to fight them one after the other.
It is in this context that the war in Ukraine took place. Washington presents it as “Russian aggression”, adopts sanctions and forces its allies to take them too. The first thing that comes to mind is that the United States, knowing that it is militarily inferior but economically superior, decided to choose its battlefield. However, an analysis of the forces involved and the measures taken belies this reading of events.
THE WORLD ECONOMIC SYSTEM
The global economic system was created by the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944. They aimed to establish a framework for capitalism beyond the crisis of 1929, for which Nazism had not been the solution. The United States imposed its currency as a gold-convertible benchmark. Neither the Soviet Union nor China participated in the conference.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon decided to unofficially end the dollarтАЩs parity with gold. This allowed him to finance the war in Vietnam. In practical terms, there were no longer any fixed exchange rates. The measure was not formalized until after the war, in 1976. It was also at this time that China formed an alliance with the Anglo-Saxon multinationals. The European Community (the forerunner of the European Union) adapted by regulating the now-floating exchange rates in 1972 (the “currency snake”), and then by creating the euro.
From 1981 onwards, the United States began to let its debt slip away. It went from 40% of its GDP to 130% today. They tried to globalize the world economy, i.e. to impose their rules on the solvent countries and to destroy the state structures of the remaining countries (the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy). To pay their debt, they printed dollars, spied on the companies of their allies and stole all the reserves of two big oil states, Iraq and Libya. Nobody dared to say anything, but from 2003 onwards, the US economic system was no longer what it claimed to be. Officially they were still liberal, but everyone could see that they were no longer producing their own food and necessities, and that they were living on rapine.
The US economy, which was one third of the world economy when the USSR dissolved, is now only one tenth.
Many states anticipated the end of the Bretton Woods rules and thought about a new deal. In 2009, Brazil, Russia, India and China, soon joined by South Africa for Africa, created the BRICS. These countries have set up financial institutions which, unlike the IMF and the World Bank, do not make their loans conditional on structural reforms or political commitments to align with Washington. They prefer to invest on a leasing basis, with the host country becoming the owner of the investment when it is profitable.
In 2010, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, soon joined by Armenia, founded the Eurasian Economic Union. These border countries established a free trade zone with Egypt, China, Iran, Serbia, Singapore and Vietnam. They could be joined by South Korea, India, Turkey and Syria. In 2013, China began its vast “New Silk Roads” project. The following year, when its GDP surpassed that of the United States at purchasing power parity, Beijing created the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and in 2020, it regulated foreign capital.
In 2021, the European Union devised its Global Gateway to compete with China and impose its political model. But this demand was seen as colonial overreach by many countries and was rejected en masse.
Gradually, the Russian and Chinese blocs have come closer together thanks to the joint project of the Great Eurasian Global Partnership (2016) within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The aim is to develop the whole space by creating balanced communication channels on the ideological bases defined by Kazakh Sultan Nazerbayev: inclusiveness, sovereign equality, respect for cultural and socio-political identity, openness and readiness to integrate other ensembles.
WashingtonтАЩs attempt to destroy this emerging entity has no chance of success. It is striking that : the economic attack began not with the invasion of Ukraine, but two days before. it is primarily directed against Russian banks, Russian billionaires and the Russian gas industry and not at all against the new Eurasian communication system. Finally, it aims at excluding Russia from international organizations, but does not concern the states that refuse to condemn Russia. Therefore it will push them into the arms of Beijing.
In other words, the US is not isolating Russia, but it is isolating the West (10% of humanity) from the rest of the world (90% of humanity).
THE PROCESS OF SEPARATING THE WEST FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD
0. The very day after Moscow recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk PeopleтАЩs Republics (February 21, 2022), the United States launched an economic attack on Russia (February 22). The European Union followed suit the day after (February 23). Vnesheconombank and Promsvyazbank were excluded from the global financial system.
Vnesheconombank (VEB.RF) is a regional development bank. It could have helped the Donbass. Promsvyazbank (PSB) invests mainly in the defense sector. It could have played a role under the Mutual Assistance Treaty.
1. As Russia started a special military operation in Ukraine (February 24), the United States extended the exclusion of the first two banks from the global financial system to all Russian banks (February 25). The European Union followed suit (February 25).
2. In order to prevent as many states as possible from joining Russia, Washington extended the trade bans to Belarus. The European Union began to deny Russian banks access to the SWIFT system as previously instructed by the United States, extended sanctions to Belarus and censored the Russian state media, Russia Today and Sputnik (March 2)
3. Washington began to target wealthy Russian citizens (erroneously called “oligarchs”) with bad relations with the Kremlin (March 3) and to ban imports of Russian energy sources (March 8). The European Union followed suit, but resisted a ban on the import of much-needed Russian gas (March 9).
4. Washington extended financial sanctions in the IMF and World Bank, expanded the list of oligarchs and bannned the export of luxury goods to Russia (March 11). The European Union followed suit (March 15).
5. Washington ensuref that members of the Duma and oligarchs no longer have any rights in the West; that Russia would no longer be able to use its assets in the USA to pay its debts to the USA; and that it would no longer be able to use its gold to pay its debts abroad (24 March). The European Union followed in these prohibitions. It pronounced a ban on the import of Russian coal and oil, but still no ban on gas.
The table below summarizes the communications from the White House and Brussels.
It is an extremely surprising phenomenon to observe: the U.S. has managed to sway a majority of states to its side, but these states are the least populous in the world. It is as if they have no means of putting pressure on countries capable of independence.
Due to the unilateral actions of the Anglo-Saxons and the European Union, the world is being divided into two heterogeneous spaces. The era of economic globalization is over. The economic and financial bridges are being broken one by one.
Reacting swiftly, Russia has convinced its BRICS partners to stop trading in dollars and to eventually create a common virtual currency for their exchanges. Until then, they will proceed in gold. This currency should be based on a basket of BRICS currencies, weighted according to the GDP of each member state, and on a basket of commodities listed on the stock exchange. This system should be much more stable than the current one.
Above all, Russia and China appear to be much more respectful of their partners than the West. They never demand structural reforms, neither economic nor political. The Ukrainian affair shows that Moscow does not seek to take power in Kiev and occupy Ukraine, but to push back NATO and fight the Banderites (the “neo-Nazis” according to Kremlin terminology). Nothing but very legitimate, even if the method is brutal.
In practice, we are witnessing the end of four centuries of domination by Westerners and their empires. It is a confrontation between different ways of thinking. Westerners now think only in terms of weeks. With this short-sightedness, they may have the impression that the United States is right and the Russians wrong. On the contrary, the rest of the world thinks in decades, even centuries. In this case, there is no doubt that the Russians are right and the West as a whole is wrong. Moreover, the West rejects international law. They attacked Yugoslavia and Libya without the authorization of the Security Council and lied to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. They only accept the rules they make. On the contrary, the other states aspire to a multipolar world in which each actor would think according to their own culture. They are aware that only international law would make it possible to preserve peace in the world as they dream of it.
Rather than confronting Russia and China, the United States has chosen to withdraw into its empire: to isolate the West in order to maintain its hegemony.
Since 2001, all world leaders have viewed the West, and particularly the United States, as wounded predators. They do not dare to confront them and look for ways to accompany them gently to the cemetery. No one ever imagined that they would isolate themselves to die.
US Senator Joe Manchin said at the World Economic Forum on Monday that he opposes any kind of peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
Manchin, who at the moment is one of the most powerful elected officials in Washington, added that only the complete forcible ejection of Russia from all of Ukraine is acceptable, that the war should ideally be used to remove Putin from power, and that he and the strategists he talks to see this war as an тАЬopportunityтАЭ.
тАЬI am totally committed, as one person, to seeing Ukraine to the end with a win, not basically with some kind of a treaty; I donтАЩt think that is where we are and where we should be,тАЭ Manchin said.
тАЬI mean basically moving Putin back to Russia and hopefully getting rid of Putin,тАЭ Manchin added when asked what he meant by a win for Ukraine.
Joe Manchin, speaking today at the World Economic Forum, rejects the idea that the Ukraine war should ever be resolved with "some type of a treaty." Instead demands fighting "to the end," until total victory — which includes "getting rid of Putin" pic.twitter.com/wPj8qfsF1P
Manchin clarified that he did not mean pushing Putin back to тАЬpre-FebruaryтАЭ, ostensibly meaning with Russia still controlling the largely MoscowтАУloyal Crimea and supporting separatist territories in the Donbass, but with Kyiv fully reclaiming all parts of the nation.
тАЬOh no, I think Ukraine is determined to take their country back,тАЭ Manchin said when asked to clarify, further clarifying that he wants his call for regime change in Russia to be carried out by тАЬthe Russian people.тАЭ
тАЬI believe strongly that I have never seen, and the people I talk strategically have never seen, an opportunity more than this, to do what needs to be done,тАЭ Manchin later┬аadded. тАЬAnd Ukraine has the determination to do it. We should have the commitment to support it.тАЭ
Joe Manchin, one of the most powerful elected officials in Washington, tells the WEF that he opposes any kind of peace agreement in Ukraine and only wants total victory with the ultimate goal of regime change in Russia. In the next clip, he calls this war an "opportunity". 1/2 pic.twitter.com/gsgCUzA0TF
ManchinтАЩs comments fit in perfectly with what we know about the US-centralized empireтАЩs real agendas in Ukraine.
Earlier this month Ukrainian media reported that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the nationтАЩs president Volodymyr Zelensky on behalf of NATO powers that тАЬeven if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not.тАЭ
Last month US Secretary of тАЬDefenseтАЭ Lloyd Austin acknowledged that the goal in this war is not peace in Ukraine or the mere military defeat of Russia but to actually weaken Russia as a nation, saying тАЬWe want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it canтАЩt do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.тАЭ
Last week The New York Times reported that the Biden administration is developing plans to тАЬfurther choke RussiaтАЩs oil revenues with the long-term goal of destroying the countryтАЩs central role in the global energy economy.тАЭ
Just the other day UkraineтАЩs military intelligence chief announced that the mission has already creeped forward from the goal of defeating the Russian invaders to reclaiming the Crimean territory which was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014.
Two months ago Biden himself acknowledged what the real game is here with an open call for regime change, saying of Putin, тАЬFor GodтАЩs sake, this man cannot remain in power.тАЭ
Statements from the Biden administration in fact indicate that they expect this war to drag on for a long time, making it abundantly clear that a swift end to minimize the death and destruction is not just uninteresting but undesirable for the US empire.
This is not a proxy war with peace as an option anywhere within sight. ItтАЩs not about saving Ukrainian lives. ItтАЩs not even about beating Russia in Ukraine. ItтАЩs about achieving regime change in Moscow, no matter how many lives need to be destroyed in the process.
Peace is not on the menu.
Yes, The Ukraine War Could Have Been Prevented
An agreement in which Ukraine promised to remain a neutral country and the fulfilment of the Minsk accords could have stopped PutinтАЩs invasion, @I_Katchanovski explains.https://t.co/iZjTYxNaA8
This war could easily have been prevented with a little diplomacy and reasonable compromise. As the University of OttawaтАЩs Ivan Katchanovski recently explained to The Maple, тАЬan agreement in which Ukraine promised to remain a neutral country and the fulfilment of the Minsk accords could have stopped PutinтАЩs invasion.тАЭ
We know now that the US intelligence cartel had good visibility into what the Kremlin had planned for Ukraine, so they would have known exactly what could have been done to prevent the invasion. They knowingly chose to do none of those things, because the goal was to provoke this war the entire time and then weaponize it against Moscow.
ThatтАЩs why the Biden administration has been hindering diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to this war, why it has refused to provide Ukraine with any kind of diplomatic negotiating power regarding the possible rollback of sanctions and other US measures to help secure peace, and why WashingtonтАЩs top diplomats have consistently been conspicuously absent from any kind of dialogue with their counterparts in Moscow.
Empire spinmeisters and their propagandized victims like to claim that Ukrainian forces are fighting for тАЬpeaceтАЭ in Ukraine. The other day Kyiv IndependentтАЩs Illia Ponomarenko, who has called the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion his тАЬbrothers in arms,тАЭ tweeted this:
Good god, I want peace in Ukraine by Christmas time. Fireworks and joy in the snowy streets of Kyiv. Patriotic music, strangers hugging each other at the Maidan, тАЬmerry Christmas, war is over.тАЭ That would be just awesome, donтАЩt you guys think so?
— Illia Ponomarenko ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗж (@IAPonomarenko) May 21, 2022
But anyone who understands this war knows this is ridiculous. Peace is not the goal in Ukraine. Most of the Ukrainians doing the fighting surely believe they are fighting for peace in their homeland, and peace is surely their intention, but thatтАЩs not something the empire will allow if the empire gets any say in the matter.
Even if Ukraine does somehow avoid being used as cannon fodder to draw Moscow into a long and costly slog as US officials have admitted was done in both Afghanistan and in Syria, and even if they do somehow manage to deliver a crushing and conclusive defeat to Moscow in the near term (which is far less probable than the western media would have you believe), that wouldnтАЩt be the end of the war. The war would just change shape as the empire and its proxies go on the offensive against Moscow.
This war does not end with Russia being driven from Ukraine, it ends with regime change and the balkanization of the Russian Federation. Really it doesnтАЩt end until the rise of China has been stopped and US unipolar hegemony secured. Or when the empire collapses. Or when we all die in a nuclear holocaust.
All forward motion in this war has nothing but violence as far as the eye can see on its trajectory into the future. No matter how much wealth and war machinery you pour into this conflict, that trajectory of death and destruction will just keep stretching out to the horizon. As Chris Hedges recently explained, war is the only path the empire has left open to itself.
IтАЩve seen some cute kids in my time, but nobodyтАЩs as adorable as people who think the US pours weapons into foreign nations in order to achieve peace.
My forebodings/predictions about the KremlinтАЩs limited go-slow war in Ukraine are proving correct.┬а┬аPutin and Russia are demonized.┬а┬аUnprecedented sanctions amounting to piracy and theft have been imposed on Russia. The US and Europe are joining the war as de facto combatants. More countries are joining NATO with the result being the prospect of more US missile bases on RussiaтАЩs borders. The Western media controls the narrative, which is Russia is losing and can be defeated with more many billions of dollars from the US and more weapons that enrich the US military/security complex.┬а┬аWhy any Russian government would expose itself to this and so many chances for miscalculation that ends in WW III is a mystery.┬а┬аWhat did the Kremlin imagine it was achieving by creating a situation that exposed Rusaia to many months of war propaganda, punishment, and Western preparations for wider war?
What peace needed was a quick decisive Russian victory that demonstrated extraordinary military power that completely stopped any further Western provocations of Russia. But the Kremlin was too liberal-minded to do what was neccessary. Consequently the Kremlin made a strategic error, dropped the ball and has failed to protect Russia from provocations that are leading to WW III.
Instead, the Kremlin filled with liberal delusions long discarded in the West decided to show a good side by limiting itself to the rescue of the Donbass Russians. This gave the West all it needed to present Russia as a military incompetent upstart. Among the KremlinтАЩs errors, the Kremlin overlooked that UkraineтАЩs distress from the limited Russian intervention created an opportunity for Poland to claim former Polish territories in western Ukraine where there are no Russian troops engaged. It is possible that the Polish government, disinformed by Western mediaтАЩs picture of Russian military failure in Ukraine, will occupy western Ukraine as preparation to reclaiming it as Russia did Crimea and now Donbass. As Russia will have eastern and southern Ukraine, the country could simply disappear as Poland resurrects greater Poland. In its history, Ukraine has either been part of PolandтАЩs empire or part of Russia.
If Poland moves into western Ukraine as it is tempted to do, opportunities for Polish-Russian conflict arise. As Poland is a NATO member, Washington has given Poland, as the British government did with World War IIтАЩs тАЬPolish Guarantee,тАЭ the power to start a world war.
The Polish government has a penchant for emotional decisons, not responsible decisions. Just as the Polish military dictatorship thought the тАЬBritish GuaranteeтАЭ protected them, causing them to spurn HitlerтАЩs demand for the return of German territory stripped from Germany in the Versailles Treaty despite President WilsonтАЩs тАЬguaranteeтАЭ of no territorial losses, the Polish government thinks today that NATO membership protects Poland from Russian retaliation.
The government in Warsaw does not comprehand that the тАЬNATO GuaranteeтАЭ is worth no more than the British GovernmentтАЩs guarantee that launched WW II.
The governments that comprise the Western World have given Poland, once again, the decision whether there is to be a World War.
This deplorable and unsettling fact stares us in the face, but no Western media, not even online media, acknowledges it.
The situation that exists today is that either Russia and China must accept US hegemony or the neoconservaties will push Russia and China into war with the West. The hegemonic ambition of the neoconservatives is inconsistent with a peaceful world.
For all the people outside the UK who donтАЩt understand what the тАЬQueens SpeechтАЭ actually is, itтАЩs a farcical state occasion in which the Queen (or, in this case, Prince Charles since her majesty is ill/secretly dead/having тАЬmobility issuesтАЭ) makes a speech about what тАЬher governmentтАЭ intends to do for the next 12 months.
Of course, the Queen doesnтАЩt actually write the speech, or have any input on its content, or have any control at all over what тАЬherтАЭ government intends to do. SheтАЩs just a mouthpiece in a big gold hat.
ItтАЩs the UK equivalent of the State of the Union, only done in Halloween costumes made out of shiny stolen rocks.
The whole thing is nothing but a grand, gilt statement of intent from the British Deep State, wrapped in mink and draped in medals they never earned. ItтАЩs a joke, but it is worth listening to.
Or, if you have a sensitive stomach, you can just read the full text the next day on the UK governmentтАЩs website (thatтАЩs what I do).
A lot of the content is entirely predictable.
More money to Ukraine, with a promise the UK will тАЬlead the way in championing security around the worldтАЭ. More online censorship via the тАЬOnline Safety BillтАЭ. A compulsory register for homeschooled children via the тАЬSchools Reform BillтАЭ.
ThereтАЩs also mention of тАЬsecuring the constitutionтАЭ by introducing the UKтАЩs own тАЬBill of RightsтАЭ. We broke down that particular Trojan Horse back in February.
But the part I found most interesting is the stated plan to тАЬencourage agricultural and scientific innovation at homeтАЭ via the proposed Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill.
To quote the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), the legislation would тАЬtake certain precision breeding techniques out of the scope of restrictive GMO rulesтАЭ.
Essentially, this would see new тАЬgene-editedтАЭ foods as distinct from old-fashioned тАЬgenetically modifiedтАЭ foods, and therefore not subject to the same rules and oversight.
The claimed distinction is that gene editing, as opposed to genetic modification, doesnтАЩt introduce DNA from other species. Therefore, in effect, is merely speeding up what could potentially naturally happen over time.
Now, you might think this is just semantics, and that such a law will just provide a loophole for ALL тАЬgenetically modifiedтАЭ foods to simply rebrand themselves as тАЬgenetically editedтАЭ foods, and thereby avoid regulation. But that is disgustingly cynical and shame on you for even thinking it.
All in all, this is pretty on-message stuff, and not especially surprising. WhatтАЩs noteworthy is тАУ by pure happenstance, IтАЩm sure тАУ it appears to coincide with a renewed push on the GM food front in other countries all over the world.
In December 2021, Switzerland added an amendment to its moratorium on GMO crops, permitting the use of certain тАЬgene editingтАЭ techniques.
Last month, Egypt announced their new strain of GM wheat. Just two days ago, EthiopiaтАЩs National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center announced they had researched, and the country will now be growing, genetically modified cotton and maize.
BritainтАЩs deregulation of GM food is always described as a тАЬpost-BrexitтАЭ move тАУ with the EU chided around the world for its тАЬprecautionary principleтАЭ on GM crops тАУ and yet as long ago as last April, the EU was calling for a тАЬrethinkтАЭ on GM crops.
In fact, just today, European Biotechnology Magazine reports:
The EU Commission has launched its final consultation on the deregulation of new breeding techniques in agriculture
WHY THIS? WHY NOW?
So, weтАЩre seeing a sudden increase in the variety of GM crops available and a simultaneous push for deregulation of the industry in Western nations.
Why would they be doing this now?
Well, there is a food crisis.
Or, more accurately, they have just created a food crisis. And as the cliched Hegelian dialectic inevitably goes, their manufactured тАЬproblemтАЭ is now in need of their contrived тАЬsolutionтАЭ.
We should expect to see genetic engineering pitched as a solution to our food crisis in the very near futureтАжlike yesterday. Or indeed, two months ago.
ThatтАЩs how fast they work now, with barely a pretence at concealing the plan. Spitting out the answer so fast they make it obvious they knew the question beforehand.
On March 15th, when the тАЬspecial operationтАЭ in Ukraine was less than 3 weeks old, the Time was already headlining:
War forces farmers to think again about GM crops
тАжand reporting:
Genetic modification could make BritainтАЩs food system less susceptible to geopolitical turmoil
A week later Verdict published an article titledтАЬImproving food self-sufficiency with GM crops during geopolitical crisesтАЭ
Can gene editing help farmers satisfy the rising demand for food?
Four days ago, the Manila Times published an article titled тАЬIn times of food scarcity: Revisiting genetically modified cropsтАЭ.
Two days ago (so before the QueenтАЩs speech specifically mentioning the gene editing bill), ScotlandтАЩs Press & Journal ran an opinion piece headlined: тАЬScottish Government must lift GM crop ban to ease cost of living crisisтАЭ.
The Ukraine-Russia conflict has demonstrated the fragility and vulnerability of global and European food supply chains. Around the world, governments in leading agricultural-producing countries are now catching up with the United States, both to better legislate gene-edited (GE) products, as well as differentiate them from the older Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) technology, and its negative connotations to some consumers, commentators, farmers, retailers, politicians and lawmakers.
And just today, the Genetic Literacy Project published an article by Ukrainian-Canadian David Zaruk, railing against the EUтАЩs тАЬprecautionary principleтАЭ on GMOs and calling for an embracing of тАЬnew technologyтАЭ to prevent widespread hunger and increase food sovereignty.
It goes on and on and on.
тАжLETтАЩS NOT FORGET CLIMATE CHANGE, GUYS
Of course, itтАЩs not all about the food crisis тАУ giving corporate giants free rein to genetically alter all the food we eat will also be good for the planet. They talk about that a lot recently.
On February 8th this year, the University of Bonn published a new study claiming тАЬGenetic engineering can have a positive effect on the climateтАЭ
On February 24th this year, the Cornell-based NGO тАЬAlliance for ScienceтАЭ published an article claiming тАЬGMOs could shrink EuropeтАЩs climate footprintтАЭ, based on the study mentioned above.
In a response to the QueenтАЩs Speech, the UKтАЩs National Institute of Agriculture and Botany claimed that genetic modification will make farming тАЬmore sustainableтАЭ.
In a reminder weтАЩre not just talking about crops but genetically engineering livestock as well, in February Deutsche Welle suggested that genetically altered тАЬClimate sheep and eco pigs could combat global heatingтАЭ.
The narrative is clearly set: Genetically engineered food will save us all from the food crisis, and global warming too. Plus anything else they can think of.
THE KNIVES ARE OUT FOR ORGANICS
Not content with the semi-constant fluffing of the GM business, the MSM are also turning their guns on organic farming and giving it both barrels.
Ukraine Crisis Reveals the Folly of Organic Farming: As food prices skyrocket, the world needs to admit it canтАЩt live without modern, efficient agriculture.
The тАЬAllliance for ScienceтАЭ article mentioned above goes out of its way to criticise the EUтАЩs pro-organic тАЬfarm to forkтАЭ plans, claiming тАЬ[organic farming] has lower yields and would be associated with increases in global [greenhouse gas] emissions by causing land-use changes elsewhereтАЭ.
Meanwhile, Erik Fyrwald, the CEO of the Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta (so possessing somewhat of a conflict of interests), told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that the West must тАЬstop organic farming to help future food crisisтАЭ, adding that organic farming is worse for the planet, because ploughing up fields releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
NOTE: In an interesting (again, probably totally accidental) parallel, the currently simmering тАЬBird Flu outbreakтАЭ has also hit organic and free-range farmers hard, with one (sponsored) Guardian article asking if тАЬyear-roundтАЭ bird flu could spell тАЬthe end of free-range eggsтАЭ.
CONCLUSION
Having just seen how the Covid19 тАЬvaccineтАЭ campaign unfolded, itтАЩs not hard to see how the pro-GM push will go from here. Genome-edited crops and farm animals are going to become the new тАЬsettled scienceтАЭ.
They will be sold to the public as cheaper, more nutritious, better for the environment and good for тАЬpreventing future pandemicsтАЭ (yes, they literally did say that already).
Naturally, anyone who resists the push for gene-edited food, and/or mourns the planned death of organic farming, will be accused of тАЬquestioning the scienceтАЭ.
Eating British GM foods will be тАЬdoing your partтАЭ and тАЬhelping UkraineтАЭ, while people who want more expensive organic products will be deemed тАЬunpatrioticтАЭ or тАЬselfishтАЭ.
Just as we saw Covid sceptics denounced as spreading тАЬRussian disinformationтАЭ, despite RussiaтАЩs willing complicity in the Covid lie, those who argue against genome-edited food will be said to be тАЬsharing Russian talking pointsтАЭ or тАЬdoing PutinтАЩs work for himтАЭ despite Russia being well onboard the gene-editing train.
It all gets very predictable from there. Organic farmers will probably be тАЬanti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist Russian spiesтАЭ by the end of the summer.
After the Crash 