Many of you have taken time to point me to excellent articles I missed when they first appeared and are worthy of renewed attention.
First up, a prescient piece by Patrick Armstrong. A good friend reminded my of this piece, which is 6 years old, and still relevant. That is the genuine sign of brilliant writing and analysis. Here are his opening paragraphs (please click here to do the full monty):
First of all, let me start by saying I don’t know why the American Establishment is so obsessed about Russia. I can’t think of any good reason why it should be. All Russia wants is a quiet life so that it can rebuild things – as Putin himself said, back before he was President:
That was not said by someone whose principal purpose is to re-create the USSR or the Russian Empire; it’s someone who wants to re-construct the defective “economic and social situation” of his country. And that requires peace and quiet. In the real world, Russia isn’t any kind of threat whatsoever to the USA. And, one would think, when the “Terror threat looms across the world” it’s a useful and necessary ally.
I do know, and my quotations collection shows, that hostility to Russia never stopped – or even moderated – after the USSR collapsed. Even in 1990 there were people insisting that nothing was real was happening because Russia, in its very essence, was expansionist, dictatorial and hostile to “our values”. Any so-called changes were only illusions calculated to gull the simple-minded. The only possible Russia was an Enemy Russia: all Russians qua Russians – never mind the absence of the temporary Soviet carapace – imagined, thought about, dreamed of, was enmity to Us and to Our Values.
Like I noted above. Six years old and aging like a fine bottle of wine, Kudos to brother Armstrong for his keen foresight.
Next up, Professor Michael Brenner. He provides a similarly engaging look at why Russia is doing its thing in response to western provocations during the last thirty years by employing some entertaining Mafia memes.
The Mafia is not known for its creative use of language beyond terms like “hitman,” “go to the mattresses,” “living with the fishes” and suchlike. There are, though, a few pithy sayings that carry enduring wisdom. One concerns honor and revenge: “If you are going to humiliate someone publicly in a really crass manner, make sure that he doesn’t survive to take his inevitable revenge.” Violate it at your peril.
That enduring truth has been demonstrated by Russia’s actions in the Ukraine which, to a great extent, are the culmination of the numerous humiliations that the West, under American instigation, has inflicted on Russia’s rulers and the country as a whole over the past 30 years.
They have been treated as a sinner sentenced to accept the role of a penitent who, clad in sackcloth, marked with ashes, is expected to appear among the nations with head bowed forever. No right to have its own interests, its own security concerns or even its own opinions.
It looks like Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are now in touch with their inner Twisted Sister. I am not sure what the Russian phrase is for “WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT”, but I am certain some of the subscribers to this blog will chip in with the correct translation.
This video from forty years ago is a great metaphor for the present. Think of angry Dad as the collective leaders of the west (of course, Joe Biden would sell his right testicle to be this coherent). They have spent the last thirty years dedicated to humiliating and bullying Russia. Well, guess what? Russia Ain’t Gonna Take It Anymore.
And Russia’s push back is starting to pay dividends. Remember Lithuania’s audacity a few weeks back when it halted overland resupply to Kaliningrad? Lithuania backed down yesterday (Friday) and lifted it ban on the rail transport of sanctioned goods in and out of the Russian area of Kaliningrad. The leaders of western Europe–Germany, France, and Italy in particular–are staring economic disaster in the face. Sanctions they thought would bring Putin to his knees are doing the exact opposite–the sanctions are ravaging Europe:
Europe is melting under 40C heat. But it’s also facing a winter economic meltdown as gas and electricity prices explode. And that could end its union.
“Some energy utilities in France and Germany are already bust; bailouts are looming. Next up will be industrial firms stricken by rationing,” warns Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) senior fellow Edward Lucas. “Germany shelters its consumers from market prices, but it cannot protect their jobs.”
Gas has proven to be a potent weapon for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Toying with the taps to pipelines carrying the fossil fuel from Siberia to Europe has done more damage to the economies of his enemies than a cruise missile strike.
The insanity of the dire economic picture is underscored by Europe’s insistence that their suffering is because of some malevolent act by Vlad the Impaler Putin when the opposite is true–Europe and the United States imposed the sanctions that caused the gas/energy shortages. They remind me of the teenage girl who slashes her wrists and then blames the parents for the bloody mess.
While the west persists in its refusal to engage on some self-reflection regarding it irrational hatred of Russia, the west is giving the Russians quite a long list of grievances that will account for Russia’s distrust, if not hatred, of the west. They Ain’t Gonna Take It Anymore!!
The inherently immature and adolescent approach to foreign relations is going to be difficult to overcome. It feeds off of itself politically. No one is asking the West to sacrifice its own security interests. What American could want that? How about growing up and recognizing the existence of boundaries within which we mind our own business? A simple but essential life lesson that will pay huge dividends in international respect.
People always need somebody to hate. If there is no one around that’s hate-able, our government will create one for us. And big bad Russia with its gigantic land mass (especially on paper maps) and 6,000 nukes is a very convincing one.
The US ‘establishment’s’ hatred of Russia, in my opinion, has it’s roots in the British Empire’s fanatical obession to maintain lines of communication with, the British Raj of India. Russia’s eastward expansion was one of the factors in the “Great Game’. British foreign policy and spycraft propoganda were directed at preventing interference with its crown jewel. In turn, the US was schooled by British influencers via the indoctrination – to distrust Russia – of anglophiles, 20th Century , Secretary of State John and CIA Director Allen Dulles. Standard operating policy for the American-Anglo propoganda machine is to cozy up to obeidient dictators and to demonize those who don’t want to play be the rules. Therefore, in a word : Russia (Putin) is to be hated.
To further speculate, when one consider’s the concept of McKinder’s and Brzezenski’s “Heartland”, that geopolitic ‘center potentialy has four bastions (Russia, China, India, & the Mid-East, which, if acting in cooperation with each other, would prevent an overland intrustion by the “West’ following a (unipolar) policy of divide and conquer.
“Know the ground… ” and “On the ground of intersecting highways, join hands with your allies. Sun Tzu.
Great thoughts. I’m inclined to think along the same lines, to explain at least some of the reasons (it’s still a bit of a head-scratcher, but more on that below). Some books I have in my library on the region that go beyond the standard theorizing (they delve deep into the private diaries and writings of some of the players) are “The Arabists” by Robert Kaplan, and “Spies of Arabia” by Priya Satia.
My former prof, a Japanologist by training, Kent Calder, drew inspiration from Mackinder in his 2019 book, “Supercontinent: The Logic of Eurasian Integration” (he’s now Reischauer Chair at JHU).
Yes, there is “Zbig” and his Grand Chessboard and all of that, but that is very “structural”, should be no emotion, pure BOP/realist stuff (a la Mearshimer) and does not explain to me what you point out – the hatred, the seeming *emotional* reactions of some of these folks.
When I think about it , at the end of the day, I think it’s something basic: it’s all about wealth/power and the desire for control (for the sake of control itself, even beyond control as a means to acquire/maintain wealth and power). Russia has just enormous resources (my training is in economics, finance, and IR, but I focused mostly on India, and East/Southeast Asia – had not really studied anything about Russia until very recently). Ginormous, I’m not sure most folks, even experts, know the full extent of just how much/how varied.
But some folks have done deep research, I’m convinced, and covet those resources and want the ability to own or control them – through public companies, private companies, large institutional funds/pension funds.
And so this hatred is almost like that of a small child who is denied something he/she covets.
Other than this, I really can’t think of any other reason that would account for the sort of visceral emotions and language I’m seeing.
Your example of Twisted Sister reminded me of Procol Harem’s Simple Sister. We are in the realm of the twisted and simple, and wurst.
Simple sister
Got whooping cough
Have to burn her toys
Take her treats
Eat her sweets
Scare off all the boys
Simple sister
Got whooping cough
Have to put her out
Wear her clothes
Steal her bows
Tell her that she’s stout
Simple sister
Got whooping cough
Lock her in a cell
Throw the key
Into the sea
Hope she never gets well
https://youtu.be/xqA_aAMZ_3I
The song captures many of my sentiments these days.
How many think punkymox was spread by the See I’m Gay to terrorize Mama and Papa bears of America with the horrors of permanently scarred children at precisely the time they up the arms shipments to Yukedraine, Jet fighters are on their way too and US, UK and other soldiers are acknowledged as being “Over There?” Today the WHO announced something. (Not the rock group).
“No Harrietta, Ozzie and I can’t join the Anti-War protest march, sorry. Beaver and Wally have come down with the munquipocks on top of the Covid and Vax side effects.”
Sorry for the bad english. Anyway greetings from Germany.
The majority opinion in Germany is not the published one. In Germany … the press is widely referred to as the lying press.
Serious clashes could erupt this winter. Many hope so. The colder the winter, the more likely it is.
In the East there is a clear majority pro-Russian.
Greetings
My Friend – Lügenpresse is no longer allowed. The Authorities will let you use Nuttenpresse these days.
🙂
I am thinking that a good, albeit not literal, translation of “We’re not gonna take it”, which is very applicable to this situation, could be “Nyet means nyet” (No means no) – the title of one of the memos William Burns (now the director of CIA, then, in 2005-2005, the US ambassador to Russia) sent to Condoleezza Rice. The memo was about how Russia considered the NATO enlargement as a potential military threat. A particularly ominous passage from that memo was (again by Burns in 2008 !!!): “Experts tell us
that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face. “
When you look at the condition Russia was in when Putin took over vs where they are now, it is remarkable! They have such a high degree of self sufficiency, the worlds most powerful military with multiple technologies the west has no counter to (Zircon, Sarmat, Poseidon) and a leadership that actually cares about it’s own people.
As Pepe Escobar emphasizes, the economic integration process with the likes of BRI, SCO, EAEU, BRICS+ etc is now unstoppable. Respect for Soverignity is the key. It is now a multipolar world and there is nothing that the western oligarchs can do about it. Although it remains to be seen how many innocent lives they will ruin and destroy before they themselves are hunted down for causing so much global misery.
How will they be “hunted down” and by whom? Are they known? I’d truly like to see this take place but it’s both a mystery on who, where and how this will take place. Perhaps you’re just imagining this to happen but similar to the fact that deNazification in the west has to take place by Russia, how do we take out the causes of all this global misery? Thanks.
The WEF has become the greatest evil in human history that now controls most western governments, the media, the WHO and UN. They are the ones pushing the 2 biggest frauds in human history with climate change and covid shots both of which are tied to a global depopulation agenda. The supply chain disruptions, energy and food shortage inflation will result in mass poverty and starvation especially third world countries. Virtually everything the Biden administration has done has been to destroy the US from within. Same for the WEF puppets running the EU with their suicide sanctions. It will be fascinating to watch how much civil unrest and regime change takes place in many countries next year.
The maggots like Schwab, Gates & Soros were dumb enough to think they could get the whole world to yield soverignity to the corrupt UN so they could rule the world. Now they want to instigate war because the financial system that they controlled for so long is falling apart as Martin Armstrong has warned.
So yes probably wishful thinking on my part about those scum being hunted as IMHO they deserve death a thousand times over.
Oh by the way, water is also going to be a rather huge issue for those in the US West. Another nightmare curtesy of the deep state.
https://usawatchdog.com/40-million-in-us-west-without-water-in-2023-dane-wigington/
Follow the money! The “hatred”, which comes from their “phantom menace” fear propaganda, is contrived to support the Military Industrial Congressional Complex (Eisenhower’s original that he cut down to MIC for political reasons) and the “intelligence” agencies. Remember how they failed to predict the fall of the Soviets because that would have meant fewer dollars and less power (no difference, really) for all of them. Remember that corporations live and die on the next quarterly income statement – lower profits mean find a new job for the current rulers of those insatiable zombies – Capitalism depends on ever increasing profits supported by ever increasing debt – until the ruling bankers (not the nice guy or gal who runs your local bank), until those addicts collapse the system, put many out of work and bankrupt many of the medium and small businesses and a few of the big ones so the rich can buy up their assets for pennies on the dollar – and then begin again. TPTB control the propaganda machine, aka “free press”. “Democracy” does not exist. We live in a Republic where the sheep are controlled by that alleged “free press” to elect whom our masters want.
“When we say ‘our rulers’, we mean those who are engaged in the manipulation of symbols. We must consider ourselves a symbolic, semantic class of life, and cannot cease from being so… those who control the symbols rule us…
“Our rulers: politicians, ‘diplomats’, bankers, priests of every description, economists, lawyers, [media,] etc. and the majority of teachers [of our rulers] and work together. They do not produce any values but manipulate the values produced by others, and often pass signs for no value at all. … are ignorant of modern science, scientific methods, structural linguistic and semantic issues of [today] and … historical and anthropological background, without which a sane orientation is impossible. … as long as such ignorance of our rulers prevails, no solution of our human problems is possible. Scientists and teachers also comprise a ruling class. They produce the main values mankind has, but, at present, they do not realize this. They are, in the main, ruled by the cunning methods of the first class.”
Korzybski
Boris Johnson is now appearing in a video where he is performing alongside Ukrainians that my country is misguidedly training to fight Russians. He is full combat gear and aiming weapons plus throwing a grenade. The anti Russia belligerence is just shocking.
I am no military expert but the training they show looks like classic light infantry operations in urban areas. Just like the British Army fighting insurgents. The western game plan here is deeply troubling. These guys will just be cannon fodder for Russian forces that try not to close within rifle range.
Once there their survival time will be a few days at the most.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQaIXMUucxE for anyone that’s interested. It’s just a pathetic LARP.
The Homosexual Minister of the Interior of Spain, Mr. Marlaska, who is really the one in charge in the army and not the defense minister, had to run out of a restaurant with his entire escort because of the crowd of people who surrounded him asking for his head… Spain is a quiet country for now despite this incident as long as you can watch football (soccer) and keep the Fiesta going.
What about the monkeypox?
I think Sniffer Joe would sell both testicles to be coherent.
Sniffer Joe is so far gone he doesn’t even know he has testicles….
Several commenters have focused on the money – I think that is too simple and devalues that culture even exists – a modern American disease? – the West has been invading Russia for many many centuries, and for much of them there weren’t resources worth the cold effort.
I think it firstly arises from the east west religious schism and was inherited by the US from Europe along with (the right to fight over) the European colonial empire – US Russia relationships in the 1800s were not poor.
I also think the example of a different (and functioning) economic system (not bank run/oligarchy) is a major threat to the continued looting of the US economy by our oligarchs who plan to move to Mars (or new Zealand). Ironic how the economic war against Russia defanged the Russian oligarchs to the advantage of the Russian economy.
As I mentioned in my earlier comment, I don’t think it’s the money/wealth *per se*, or even the power *per se* that the wealth would bring. At some level, for some of the folks involved, I think it’s the *desire for control*, and a visceral anger/hatred towards anyone/anything that is in a position to deny you that control, and/or is actively denying from moving towards that control.
The religion angle is interesting: I’d not thought about that, and confess that I have zero knowledge about that issue, though now I’m intrigued enough to read about it.
But I think there needs to be some experts in psychology/psychiatry analyze some of these folks like the Kagans, etc. – what is driving them? Are they narcissists, sociopaths, driven by deep-seated feelings of inferiority/inadequacy, all of the above?
The archetypical American superhero needs a supervillain to keep the story going. IMHO, historically Russia is more convenient for a supervillain image than any other country.
They executed Queen Victoria’s grandson Czar Nicolas 11 in 1917. That was an existential threat to the reigning European heads of State. Europe then found it’s self in economic difficulty, particularly Germany. Fearing the Bolsheviks, Hitler was to be the ideal bailiwick to keep then out of Europe and as the enemy of our enemy we financed him, thanks to Prescot Bush and friends.
On no blowback! Hitler bites the hand that feeds and WW11 kicks of. How many strong men has the US backed since that have turned and bit them?
Who is in charge in the West? It is beyond credibility that the nominal heads of the major countries are anything other than placeholders.
It looks like we have been given front row seats for a grand spectacle that many of us won’t survive
I think it is a complex issue, but fostering hatred of Russia is an effective way to manipulate and mislead the American people. It’s an easy way is to exploit the gullible American Hollywood movie mentality, with its unrealistic content, and stereotypical characters – the good guy, bad guy – scenario. As you say, Vlad, the Impaler Putin, it’s a winner. By blaming Russia, the financial and political elite can deflect attention from their economic and political failures, dishonest dealings and duplicity, thereby avoiding accountability. Always blame someone else, and who better than a nebulous entity and country on the other side of the world in a faraway place many know nothing about, apart from stereotypical movie villains and ‘secret agents’. And the contrary is pretty impossible to prove. Think Russiagate, numerous hackings, Russian disinformation and now every economic failure of the current regime. No one to blame = no one to fight = no profit for the MIC. You might call it the Russia Card.
Since nobody wanna say it, I figure I just do it for everyone. The West hates Russia because the principle actors and rules of the collective west are all from a certain tribe that traces back to Southern Russia and Crimea. Kagan was the king then in Khazaria and the husband of Under Sec Nuland is what fellas ? You guessed it right Kagan. Nuland herself have her root in Crimea. So lets stop beating around the bush and just call it as it is. The other big reason they hate Russia is her traditional stance to the family, like father and mother, man and woman and NO to all this many sexes that you now have in the collective west. They would rather have a Yetsin instead of Putin and because they can´t is eating and killing them alive. I am glad Russia is rising and standing up and hopefully we will have that fair world order.
Indeed – it’s a mania with this Tribe. Like extreme irrational hysteria.
Interesting.
It’s also interesting that the khazarians were converts to Judaism and therefore not Semites.
Nuland certainly is a key driver. Her grandfather left USSR/ Russia dye to anti semitism, he was depressed about this which resulted in her father having a bad childhood, mental issues and dying young at 45 I understand.
Nuland and Bkinken etc are also reported Straussians
It’s important to keep in mind the great ethnic and political diversity if the Jewish community and seperate that from one person’s experience
Nuland and Blinkered are both shaped by family negative experiences in Easter Europe/ Russia. It’s personal for them perhaps in the way oppression is always personal to the descendants who are directly impacted.
Israel will ultimately have a Palestinian majority or a very large minority. It’s apartheid state is not viable long term as a distinctly Jewish state and it does not want to live with the non Jews in high numbers
Therefore, the project to make a new Jerusalem stretching from Odessa to Crimea was started. It’s not just a place to colonize it’s around where the khazarians are from and where Ashkenazi would feel at home.
60% or so of Jews killed in the Holocaust died in Ukraine. Many also in Poland.
You can understand the descendants thinking they are owed their homeland back in some way.
There was never a South African style truth and reconciliation forum after WWII. There should have been.
In addition to your observations, most White Americans assume that the average Black person signs on to the homosexual and trans- movement. Blacks are among the most tolerant people given their lived experiences with discrimination both they are equally amongst the most conservative, even more conservative than Hispanics when it comes to homosexuality. Let me be clear about stating facts, not opinions nor suppositions.
The point is as follows: BLM’s manifesto was anti-male head of household, and anti-male in general. They scrubbed the website so you will have difficulty finding the truth now. I never supported BLM, said on Twitter that “Defund the Police” was a 6th-grade level of thinking, most of your Black homeowners and taxpayers are Baby Boomers. I also believe BLM was a Democrat Party/CIA psychop operation.
It’s no small wonder that Blacks and Hispanics are leaving the Democratic Party, they haven’t signed on to the myriad nonsensical policies nor ventures like the Ukraine proxy war that is causing world-wide negative repercussions.
White folks should hesitate to link all Blacks with the Democratic Party Agenda in totality, just like Black folks are foolish to believe all Trump supporters are racist. Many of them are our neighbors and co-workers, so we know better.
Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and any other ethnicity or group need to understand we’re being manipulated into Divide and Conquer politics by forces choosing to forces on our differences versus our similarities.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/27/5-facts-about-black-democrats/
Look at FACT #2 in particular but even FACT #1: Blacks are tolerant because they’ve experienced discrimination, not because they accept Woke Ideology.
My parents (compared to some of my peers GRANDPARENTS) were Miss. sharecroppers, who moved to Iowa in 1961 when I was 4 years old.
Despite their hardships, they NEVER instilled in us dislike or hatred for white people because for them reality and existence was based upon Christian principles and they understood that even in the sweltering racism of the Miss. Delta there were good White people, irrespective of competing belief and social organizing systems.
The average Black person is but a useful idiot or pawn in this Globalist agenda of divide and conquer. Most Black folk have not a clue about the BLM anti-male, pro-homosexual, trans agenda.
Most working class people irrespective of cultural, racial, ethnic background don’t have issues with many progressive slates. However, how many of us understand that the Labor Force’s leverage is short-lived. Robotics and AI are slated to solve labor shortages as near and long-range solutions.
Can anyone of us dispute the safety, risk analysis, reliability, reduction in kitchen accident functions of AI cooking French fries vs. uninspired humans?
Everyone of us has gay and/or bi-sexual family members who we love unconditionally, but we must not confuse TOLERANCE for support of a particular agenda.
My proof in the pudding??? Are politicians visiting Black Churches for support or Gay/Trans institutions? How may Dem Candidates choose Planned Parenthood visits over local churches??
You know the answer, don’t get upset about it. Understand it.
Let’s get the plebes to self-monitor their “carbon footprint” as we lecture them while riding our empty private jets.
Uh huh. lol
I suppose it never occurred to them to just ask.
> BLM’s manifesto was anti-male head of household, and anti-male in general.
The biggest discrepancy in police killings in America (and law enforcement in general) is that between men and women. So the fact that BLM was headed by two lesbians should have triggered everyone’s Spidey sense. Lo and behold look they ended up ripping off all their donors.
One commenter early in the previous post comments section said exactly this. He went into details of the Khazar people and Khazar Jews.
I think it comes down to old fashioned racism.
The Russians are a Slavic people and therefore “untermenchen”
Anything else is just post rationalisation of this odious position
dear Larry I understand that it must be difficult for a pragmatic american to understand, but when Putin says that the West is in the hands of a sect of pedophile satanists he is not joking! I add: satanists with nukes!
There are mysterious aspects to the hatred of these elites for anyone who turns against them, something dark and horrible.
A “hubrys” in which it is useless to see a sense, except in the fact that these people consider themselves superior to anyone else, at ANY cost.
I have little to add that others haven’t already mentioned. I was completely unaware of the Khazar connection and Nuland’s background – I did recall reading of the Khazar conversion to Judaism, but never connected any dots.
FYI the censors over at Wikipedia have already tried to head it off: ‘The Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, often called the Khazar myth by its critics, is a largely abandoned historical hypothesis … The hypothesis has been abused at times by anti-Zionists to challenge the idea that Jews have ties to ancient Israel, and it has also played some role in antisemitic theories propounded by fringe groups of American racists, Russian nationalists and the Christian identity movement.’ Unfortunately, the censors forgot to edit the main article on the Khazars, which lets slip that their elites converted to Judaism in the 8th century.
I personally think LJ hit the nail on the head, vis a vis the 2022 edition of western Russophobia, with ‘Russia’s embrace of tradition Christian values and its persistent refusal to accept homosexuality as normal.’ I don’t know how obvious it is from outside America, but our media and political elites have basically been coccooned by homosexuals and pedophiles.
Some well-informed Brits follow this blog. As LJ noted the other day, the MI-6 chief continues spouting transparent nonsense that he himself can’t possibly believe. I’d like to hear from some Brits their ideas about the bizarre, almost comic-book nature of the anti-Russian conspiracy theories propagated by British officials. They remind one of 1960s Bond movie plots, but much less plausible.
In particular, I mean straight-faced claims that Putin routinely assassinates dissidents with WMD on British soil – but nowhere else.
Our UK Establishment, made up of aristocrats, old-school bankers, Civil Servants, Military etc is united across Europe & EU elites in their Imperialist mindset. These snobs ‘infected’ the wealthy/leadership class of America with this notion of inherited superiority and good-breeding. But really all these people are dim or quite clever, rarely wise. All they are is rich and well-connected and have all the arrogance and over-confidence that elitist fast-track route to the top entails. Materially they have it easy and have done so for generation after generation.
This lot of aristo’s, in Europe and America, have been hypnotised by the apparent ‘brilliance’ of Soros, WEF and their ilk.
They are becoming increasingly scared for their safety. In their misguided attempts to fend off the masses they opt for wokeness as they believe the horde, the people, are their enemies. But all the online virtue-signallers they are appeasing are their children! As a result they are becoming enemies of the common man. They spout green nonsense whilst they dash around in 4×4’s and private jets. So, becoming utter hypocrites. They are going mad.
In Europe today you cannot find a private jet to hire for love nor money.
As far as Russia-phobia is concerned this class of snobs resent the ‘vulgar’ wealth of the Russians. They are becoming increasingly aware of their hypocrisy, and resent that fact. The climate emergency is known by the common man in Britain to be a scam – laughable.
I think Napoleon’s adage of not disturbing your enemy whilst he is making mistakes rings true. Just let them get on with it. The common man thrives in spite of them. So infuriating!
As with the neo-Con elite in US and our neo-Con Western elites, they are making fools of themselves. They need to be destroyed once and for all.
Like WW1 started the process of getting rid of kings in Europe and WW2 finished them off – yet they linger…
Well said, Larry.
Perhaps the real danger in the Russo-Ukranian War is the Western perceptual management efforts being used for psyops against Russia. Another way of looking at this war is that Russia is addressing the existential threat of a NATO presence aimed at Russia early lest it escalate into a direct attack on Russia later. Russia has stated that this is a prime reason for the war and Putin knows that the Empire of Lies does not cease escalating this war agenda against Russia. This is the historical pattern not seen by most of the public who are looking the other way or only listening to the propaganda. Quite frankly when one considers that Russia is not a strategic threat to the USA, one should start to consider that the motivations for all this aggression is psychotic. The West in its Globalist and Hegemonic confusions has made a contest with the East predictable, if not moral or ethically a reality. The West is essentially a criminalized civilization as it is based on predation and hegemony. The motive for war is no less than motivated by this sad fact.
https://www.rt.com/russia/559194-new-normal-russia-nato-relations/
FWIW,
L.
The primary drivers for the Ukraine conflict and Russia attacks seem to be more MI6 and the British than the Americans. The Americans seem to have been pursuaded by the Brits that this was a good idea. Could be wrong.
The reported security detail around Zekensky according to Martynov is all British special forces.
The dodgy Trump dossier was British former or likely current covert MI6 Steele. The Brits wanted Trump out more than the Americans did.
The dodgy dossier for the Iraq war, full of lies, also British.
Don’t underestimate the extent to which the UK is able to manipulate the US to be it’s colonial attack dog.
Not say US is without agency. But on Russia affairs I think much of the US wanted good relations. The British didn’t. They wanted to be the key cog. A friendship with US Russia would push them out.
EU economy driven by Russia also not to their benefit. Germany, France down, leaves UK up. The EU is severely severely weakened and the Brits seen as the plucky hero’s of the day backing Zekensky like a bitch on heat.
Forget the Kazarians, the Brits were humping this from the start.
Note unlike EU, prewar the UK had reduced dependency on Russian gas etc to less than 3% I believe.
Not true, Ash, what the Government says is Norwegian gas is in fact Russian gas, the Norwegian are only cleaning it before it’s pumped to Europe.
Indeed. Good points Ash, I learn as much reading the comments here as I do from Larry’s posts.
Addendum to my earlier comment: Bernhard reckons that the unintentionally hilarious media memes about Putin’s illnesses were MI6-inspired: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/07/50-sick-headlines-about-vladimir-putins-health.html#more
Don’t forget that when all this started – in 2014 – the uk was still part of EU. The Ukrainian shibboleth is a EU wheeze supported by NATO – ie the supposed force of USA – to control Russian resources. The unipolar concept that all Western nations can feed off… if successful.
On “evil” Russia: may I suggest the concept applied is hundreds (and more) years old and can be found in 66-book Biblical texts.
Some diligent and deep study will present the case that there is NO DEVIL/SATAN nor is there a HELL. The Hebrew and Greek terms that give us our Satan and Hell are–Satan is adversary and Hell is, simply, the grave.
It was those hundreds of years ago that the determination was made by ‘the authorities’ (that would be the temple folk who sort of ran the daily operations of society) that there must be some mechanism to keep the illiterate common folk ‘in line’–behaving.
Basically, two things were instituted: an extreme punishment for ‘not behaving as the authorities required’ (1) and some adversary who/what tempted one (2).
And, as time passed, it got more interesting and more interesting.
I have a good friend who served as a Christian pastor for more than 50 years. After many, many hours of friendly and deep discussion he has come to agree with me that 1-each and every person who has ever lived was/is/has been CHOSEN. Some for this; some for that. And 2- that each and every person who has ever lived was UNIQUE–not exactly like anyone else–in other words ‘begotten’ as an ‘only’.
(Hope I didn’t run you off with that!)
Just above I spoke of ‘the authorities’. Those who make up ‘the authorities’ have been at their game for centuries/millenia. To ‘get the common folk’ to behave and to follow directions there must be an ADVERSARY that, on a scale of 0-10, is constantly at 10. So, whatever must be done to dress the ADVERSARY in terribleness is fair game and a constant enterprise.
Then there is this: if the ‘most perfect’ example of GOOD can be sacrificed for the common folk, it only stands to reason that some other ‘exceptionals’ can be called on to make the ultimate sacrifice. In military terms those are often spoken of as ‘cannon fodder’.
So, even being ‘exceptional’ does not exempt anyone from ‘paying whatever price is called for’ by the authorities. Look at the “preached” reward for sacrifice. Look at the punishment to be inflicted upon the ‘bad’.
The ‘set up’ is one of constructing/promoting some exterior factor as the ULTIMATE EVIL who is ‘out to get all’.
So, today, Russia must be SO BAD that any fumbling “we” might do is insignificant and, by comparison, meaningless.
There’s only one prism through which to view the behaviour of the American Governing Elites, it’s that of an Empire that’s falling apart, the one thing the death of a hegemony cannot afford is a world at peace with itself, countries trading with each other on equal terms, the absence of conflicts.
That’s the reason we see nothing but conflicts flaring up everywhere.
Most of the American manufacturing capacity that formed the basis of the country’s post WW2 hegemony has been moved offshore (mostly to China) except for the design, manufacture and servicing of the military equipment, the tools of killing are still produced not fully but to large extend domestically within the US.
The companies engaged in the manufacture of the military hardware are in every one of the fifty States of the Republic.
The military sector, defined at its broadest, furnishes one in fifteen of the 160mn American jobs, and almost everyone in employment of any kind has the 401(k) pension plan that contains the stock and shares of the companies involved in making the military gear (only some 13 percent of Americans aged 60 or older did not have any retirement savings as of January 2020).
The above forms the powerbase of the military/industrial complex, it’s what runs America, and by and large the world.
Could any American politician seriously argue for the curtailment of the military/industrial complex and hope to get elected if the outcome of such a policy would inevitably result in lower aggregate employment, a massive reduction in the value of individual pension plans, and above all the cut in the remuneration and other benefits of the top layer of management of the military companies and the multiplicity of advisory boards populated with retired politicians and such?
There’s an interview on YouTube with Stephen F. Cohen – who was probably the foremost scholar on Russia until his death in 2020, and his wife Katrina vanden Heuvel and Dan Rather where he makes this exact same point. Cohen said that the he believed that the dossier was a product of Western intelligence and mentions John Brennan specifically as being behind it. The dossier, he said, was so full of obvious mistakes that Russians would never make, such as people holding positions they did not have, that they couldn’t have been behind it. He believed that the deep state was targeting Trump because of his statements about NATO and his statements like “wouldn’t it be nice if we could get along with Russia?” There are a bunch of videos with Cohen going back decades where he’s warning what would happen if NATO continued to provoke the Russians. Now we’re living the consequences.
Sorry meant to post this under PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS A VICTIM OF ESPIONAGE, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC story.
The West’s hatred of Russia is for the same reason as its hatred of everything that isn’t it, and is ‘in the way’. Native peoples everywhere have been treated with the same contempt and ruthlessness.
But what makes them even more furious is the fact that Russia, unlike the Apaches and Arapaho, and Souix can kick the shit out them…and they know it.
Thank you very much, Mr Johnson, for another fantastic and thought-provoking article.
A visit to your blog is always a joy; it enriches my mind by raising important questions.
First, two important quotations:
“The price of hating someone is loving yourself less.” – Eldridge Cleaver in his “Soul on Ice.”
“My biggest fear is that by the time the Whiteman will discover love, the Blackman would have turned to hatred.” Alan Paton in his classic book, “Cry the Beloved Country.”
Some of the questions that most agitated my mind during my sojourn in Europe were:
Why can’t Westerners invest their science and technology to investigate what makes it impossible for them to live and let live?
Why the incurable pathology to constantly seek The Enemy?
Why the unbridled desire not to live in harmony with either nature and their co-sojourners on Mother Earth?
Why the untempered arrogance to address the world only in aggressive, adversarial and confrontational manner?
Why the penchant to want to dominate and talk to other people from the “position of strength?”
What drives the psychological fear of The Other by the most-armed people on earth?
My Yoruba people have this proverb: Oju orun to gbogbo eye lati fo, lai fara gbara / The sky is big enough for all the birds to fly without touching wings.
I will never understand why people in the West have this belief that the world is their oyster.
I will never understand a people whose philosophy appears to hinge on: Why pay for it, when you can kill for it.
I also will never understand why Westerners accept their governments spending inordinate amount of money to antagonize China, Russia, Iran etc, when the money could have been spent on repairing crumbling infrastructures at home, give decent jobs to citizens, and provide them with quality education, health and other services.
Shameless plug: I addressed some of these in my article for The Saker blog: https://thesaker.is/in-search-of-enemies/
As the heart of the Russian hate is the good old human greed (I want their riches), which comes from our history of being insecure.
After all we are weak animals, we have no claws, impressive denture, speed, or even some fur to protect us from the cold (some have :).
What we have to survive is a BIG brain. And that perfect machine called BRAIN is programmable and it can create anything, including monsters. Monsters creations seems easy, for some reason (for sure is has to do with some evolutionary species protection mechanism).
Once you count in the insecurity of the Anglo sphere, many pieces start to fall in their proper places (why do you think the Americans need comic books as adults?)
Americans are not reflective. Even now you cannot understand where Russophobia came from.
We owe Russophobia in American society to the era of McCarthyism. During WWII, there was active propaganda in the United States, in which the USSR was presented as a good country. After WWII, the Cold War began and it was necessary to eradicate the sympathy of Americans for the Russians, the society needed to be explained why the USSR is now an enemy.
Therefore, the American elites began to actively spread Russophobia. For 40 years, Russophobia has become part of the political culture in the United States.
Russophobia is not an American invention. The Americans did not come up with anything new. They simply took in Europe those ideas that existed there for 400 years.
Russophobia appeared in Europe in the middle of the 16th century. This is the time of the formation of the Russian state as an empire.
The new ruler of the Russian state, Ivan IV, declared himself Tsar (Emperor) and began a war with fragments of the Golden Horde. Russia captured Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia, having tripled in decades.
After that, the Russian Tsardom entered the war for the Livonian inheritance. Excessive self-confidence in their own abilities played a cruel joke on the Russians. Russia was simultaneously drawn into the war against Sweden, Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Modern Belarus + Ukraine without the Black Sea), the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire.
As a result, Russia lost the war and plunged into turmoil, the next expansion will begin only after 100 years.
The war itself terribly frightened the Poles and Lithuanians, the poor and sparsely populated state put up huge military contingents (Tsar Ivan brought 35 thousand horse soldiers near Polotsk). In order to secure support from their Western neighbors, the Poles distributed propaganda leaflets in Europe (there was already printing at that time). In these propaganda leaflets, the Russians were presented as barbarians, similar to the Turks, and the Poles as the eastern bastion of the civilizational world. The local goals of Russia in the Livonian War (control of part of the Baltic states) were replaced by the desire to capture the whole of Europe.
Given that Russia has not gone away, but continued to be a powerful military power for centuries, each war in Europe with the participation of Russians caused new bouts of Russophobia, the ideas of which were expanded and supplemented. At various times, Russophobia was developed by the Poles, Swedes, French and British. They added new stereotypes, but the basic stereotypes have not changed since the 16th century. They include the tyranny of Russian rulers, the disenfranchisement of most of the Russian population, barbarism and cultural backwardness.
The modern American manual on Russophobia is almost no different from the Polish one of the 16th century.
The US simply borrowed these ideas from Europe. Is it possible to get these ideas out of American society?! I doubt. To do this, Russia must disappear from the world, or the United States.
Democrats hate the Russians. Republicans hate the Chinese.
Neither party has the guts to say, quoting the great Pogo, “we have met the enemy, and they are us.”