Shittin' BRICS
Oreshnik and the fall of Rome
History is strange stuff – a lot really does depend on where you look and what you remember. Some prefer to find a story that pleases or flatters them, but history geeks don’t work like that – we want to know as much as possible about what really happened – and overcome every kind of corrupting spin.
Then again, I’m also a book nut who realizes that very few people have time for deep reading, and it helps a lot if you can put stuff in clear terms and plain non-specialist language. So, let me begin with an extremely simple sketch covering the last few decades, and then talk about where we are now and how we got here in a little more detail, afterward.
The cold war was not ‘won’ by American weapons spending, nor even the long decades of effort they spent trying to undermine the Soviet Union by other means both overt and covert (bizarrely, even cool Jazz and modern art were pressed into service in this long weird multidimensional struggle).
America “won” the cold war by default – because the contradictions of the Soviet system finally caught up with it, and brought the whole thing down like a house of cards. (Though to be clear, the Afghan war hurt their spirit and economy deeply and the disaster in Chernobyl did perhaps even more damage – to ‘belief in the system’ especially).
Younger people might never have heard this – but the collapse was actually so sudden that not a single one of the western intelligence services (all specialized for Soviet Analysis) saw it coming.
The way Victorious America has conducted itself as sole superpower has undermined it completely (that is, undermined both that very weird sole superpower status, and America (and company) itself).
I was struck by a recent interview with a couple of scholars who are working to update what we know about the collapse of the Roman empire, with rather recent, and far more revealing economic data. The long held belief was that Rome peaked around 100 AD and then spent three centuries in gradual decline, until finally falling to the long-hostile ancient tribal Visigoths on their periphery.
Their fascinating new thesis is that Rome’s economy actually peaked within a half a century of the end (Agricultural/Archeological data supports this), despite the fact that their cultural greatness was by then much thinner than in earlier times. Even more interesting, they suggest the Visigoths were not in fact an ancient tribal grouping, but rather an entirely new kind of political ‘tribe’ created organically, in the process of resisting the Roman way of exploitation (that is – created by, in an equal and opposite Newtonian kind of way). They became what they had to be, to resist and overcome.
Also clueful-feeling – the definition of a Roman was not at all ethnic – they saw themselves as those who put their cultivated minds ahead of, and in control of, their underlying animal nature, and the barbarians were those peoples who were fundamentally instinctive, not intellectual.
Okay – back to the story. The Soviet model was more various and vital than many here understand (Marx was only where they started, not where they ended up, and never entirely gospel), but it was always based on a Victorian idealist’s vision of an ideal human being – one that has never yet existed in real life. Further, their economic development stalled badly, and many disastrously timed idealisms actually made it all go a whole lot worse worse than it might have (Gorbachev – a moralist-teetotaler, had the brilliant plan to radically scale-back production of state Vodka, as a way to sober-up his countrymen – which backfired spectacularly – growing the black market booze-producing gangs and giving them truly vast sums of ready cash, just as the old structures of control buckled and broke).
The point I am trying to make here is that they were not brought down by American brilliance, nor did they go broke trying to compete with “Star Wars” missile defence (which I should note – never did and never will work – unless you count soaking-up billions of taxpayer dollars for already wealthy shareholders – for which purpose it counts as a very high-performance system indeed). It was also not a victory of clean living and superior culture – though it was portrayed as all of these and more.
As a history geek, I can’t help noting that there are a great many old stories which take this shape – “They were defeated because they were a lesser people – whereas we won and are conquerors because we are better human beings – and the victory proves also that we are favoured by god!”
Now – since this is all still very recent history, and most of the stories we’ve told so far, favour politicians and weapons manufacturers, I want to step back and try the thing super objectively.
America had a long beat when it was the unipower – and no other nation on earth could challenge it. One of the diplomats on Gorbachev’s arms control negotiating team, told one of Regan’s negotiators “We are about to do the worst thing one can do to an adversary – we are depriving you of an enemy.”
So let me ask you – would we (could we) say that America has taken this turn at the head of the table to be a wise guiding hand, tending the crops, raising strong healthy generations, being a fantastic neighbour and friend, or setting a tone of honourable conduct, to be emulated by the world?
Not if we have read a single newspaper (watched a newscast, or read anything reality-related online).
America used this weird no-balance geopolitical period to be a truly shitty winner. Not a strong father, but a protection-racket gangster and a rapist of resources and political rights – and the whole rest of the world has watched in horror, as this disease of unhinged psychotic predation spread everywhere.
As I mentioned at the start, so much depends on where you look – many don’t find investments very interesting – and I can understand that. But when you carry the big stick, and force the rest of the world to adopt and comply with rules specifically crafted to advantage your own domestic economy, you’re not just talking investment anymore – it all becomes super political – as in the Asian Financial Crisis – just before the turn of the century. Plenty of bad actors, to be sure – but it was the insistence of Western economies, on very low restrictions on rate of flow of capital which turned so many of the regional economies into a speculation pyramid, and then damaged those same economies, for many years after. We promised capital and growth – but only if they made their economies into casinos!
Many played the games – but we made the rules – and they weren’t supposed to do that (big splat!)
I am almost amused about the way everyone remembers the dot-com bubble, but no one remembers the crashes in 1987 and 1993 – which I remain convinced marked a downward turning for skilled labour (in terms of pay and job benefits) from which they have never since come close to recovering.
Trying to best-case-explain, we might say – perhaps investors really were trying to create more Asian Dragons (takeoff economies) at record speed – but these were the years of corporate raiding and destruction of solid multi-generational companies. Pirate-spirited and lawyer driven, merger and shareholder, screw the public and workers alike, capitalism. Not a time of founders and builders.
Likewise, we might be tempted to say – perhaps North American wages were getting out of control in the late eighties, and needed to be brought into line, to enhance our competitiveness. I watched the last American Television manufacturer close, while I was studying television repair at community college! But it wasn’t because American labour was too pricey, it was because Reagan accused the Japanese of dumping (selling under cost, to damage local producers) into the American market (true).
Thing is (again, part of the history that is already being left out, by almost everyone) Reagan inherited a rich nation, and left it a sad beggar (seriously – the nation went from being the world’s greatest lender, to an ever-pleading debtor, in just a few ‘triumphant’ years – USA USA!)
To respond to Reagan’s accusations of dumping – the Japanese radically slowed their purchase of US Treasury Bills (which prop up American debt) and soon after, that entire sector of American manufacturing simply gave up fighting and folded altogether. And don’t even get me started on the “Free Trade” deal (which, contrary to many American politicians, didn’t ship American jobs to Canada, but stole them from both America and Canada, then gave half of them to robots, and half to Mexico).
I’m not saying it is wrong to try to best-case something, when we just don’t know why – only pointing out, there are a lot of amoral creeps operating all the time, and they get their way, way too often.
Now – I have already spent a lot of time in previous articles (and my podcast show “Conditions Are Always Impossible”) talking about how Neoconservatives in both parties in America have started war after war after war, for the last few decades – too addicted to mass murder for profit, to even bother hiding it well. Some like to say it is all about energy trading (that oil rich dictators were taken out, every time they threatened to stop using the US dollar, as the currency for all oil sales – obligating all trading partners to hold huge US dollar reserves, meaning they are forced to hold US debt, even when the US calls them an enemy and works hard to undermine them, in every possible way).
Some say it is about a long term campaign of support for a regional hegemon project, and that the evil genius freaks at the Hudson institute planned the worst atrocities we’ve ever seen, decades ago.
Some philosophical nationalists say “America must be feared and respected around the world!” and some more cynical folks note – the American economy is so distorted by insane levels of military spending, that they need new enemies on a continual basis, just to keep their key product in demand, and make sure all those workers keep working. (Reminds me of state-control China, where several high-labour but money-losing industries still operate, long past relevance – they can’t actually afford to shut them down – because that much sudden unemployment would be even more expensive).
But as I said, I do try to find the simple line into a thing, where it is useful. In this case, I can’t escape that bleakly realistic phrase which has become so popular, of late:
The purpose of a system is what it does.
Our system takes whatever it wants, from anywhere on earth, and if people there say no to us, we mess with their economies, re-write their laws, screw with their politics, and/or outright kill them.
Of course there are exceptions to this, some very big ones, too – but not so many as you’d think. Last time I checked, America had active sanctions – which have always hurt common citizens, by far the most – on sixty-five different (ostensibly) sovereign nations around the world!
BRICS is most simply and clearly understood as the exact custom Visigoth which we created with our recklessness, greed, immorality, arrogance and our amazingly stupid and sustained disrespect. (and by we, I mean all of us in greater Rome – America and all the lickspittle followers in the zombie west). Not for just one thing, system, people, technology, or economic model – for every thing that isn’t us.
For my millennial friends, yes it is indeed the ultimate “No Homers” club. They are working very hard to be whatever they need to become, so that they never have to rely-on or trust us, ever again, because we have proven to them that they would be stupid to believe they ever could – simple as.
And if you look at us from that “Purpose of a system is what it does” level – we totally deserve it!
As I mentioned in a few recent pieces and my latest show – and told in great detail by the heroic whistleblowers of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), America paid to topple pro Russian governments in Ukraine twice over, and still, when given a chance to vote again, the Ukrainian people elected the candidate who promised to sign a peace agreement (Minsk II) with Russia. Problem was, the people of Ukraine and the leadership of Russia were both being played for suckers – as Angela Merkel and Francoise Hollande have both admitted publicly, the west never was negotiating in good faith, or truly seeking a peaceful relationship with Russia – they used those talks to buy time to arm and train Ukraine’s army for a war they demanded, as the entry price for both NATO and the EU membership (Arestovich, one of Zelenksy’s key advisors in the early days of his government, makes this clearer than any commentator in the west ever has – from a Ukrainian-centric point of view – any who have not heard him, don’t understand what this mess is really about).
Jens Stoltenburg has also given a public speech where he said “Putin warned us that bringing Ukraine into Nato would lead to conflict,” then added with a smile, “Of course we ignored him.”
Finally (triple-finkishly?) the brand new custom purpose comedian-based government (before his TV series, Zelensky was mostly known for playing the piano with his penis) didn’t even realize that they were being played the whole time also. The EU was never seriously considering accepting them, and neither was NATO. What they really wanted to achieve was slavs killing slavs, and going into massive debt in the process, so that they would have to sell-off their land itself, to greedy western investors.
Thanks to military disaster after disaster (more on that side, in a bit) Russia now holds almost a quarter of the territory which would have remained Ukraine to this day, had they only signed the treaty the people elected Zelensky to sign. That absolutely is a staggering amount of sovereign Ukrainian territory to lose – tragic and heartbreaking. But you know what’s really scary? Western speculators like Blackrock and JP Morgan now own even more of Ukrainian land than that.
Shouldn’t have been possible. Ukraine had a law that prevented foreign ownership completely, but the IMF made them repeal it, to get a much needed loan around the turn of the century. Ah, friends!
So – if a system is what it does (a good starting place, at least) what does BRICS aim to DO?
To begin, we have to restrain ourselves from our usual frothing projection of our own goals onto others (always unsound, since no one else on earth is as greedy dishonourable or dangerous as us). Makes us paranoid when we think that way – and so far, the very few stories which have appeared in the west about the BRICS project, have almost all taken that form. Seeking greed, hegemony, etc. (almost as if it is impossible to imagine any other aims or morality but our own gangsterism – so sad).
The most telling clue here, is the way western analysts so sharply fear the creation of one single central BRICS currency. Put simply, American debt is now so badly out of control, that even the slightest disturbance of the T-Bill market (like the Japanese once did, to conclusively defeat the last of the American domestic television manufacturers), can screw up their whole economy, very badly.
Meanwhile – America is outright saying to one of its greatest lenders (China) “You are the enemy.”
China does not say this back (though they do not appreciate outsiders messing with Taiwan politics). China has no history of expansionism, and no lust for global domination – they just want to play the game that we long insisted everyone has to play – capitalism – and as it happens, they have very rationally, with tons of hard work and planning, learned to play that game way better than we do!
(Watching western politicians complain about Chinese “Overproduction” (success) is just so pathetic).
Europe, Canada and Australia are all heavily bound to the American economy, but rather like Vader’s grasp, everyone else has been doing their best to slip through those ever tightening fingers already – and they’re all basically laughing at us now, for still pretending we actually like the sovereignty and dignity-destroying squeeze (it felt like a kiss). Still performing all our grand old pompous rituals, but now – for a fun new plot twist, we’re doing it all live, on the deck of the Titanic! How exciting!
But – spoiler alert – for everyone who ever said they opposed colonialism, or globalism, or economic exploitation, and wished those structures would fall – MERRY CHRISTMAS! If you thought it would look or feel pretty when it did happen, I’m afraid you haven’t been paying attention. This is it, folks!
“I dream of de-dollarization” - Lula DaSilva (President of Brazil, then “Felon” then president again)
Yes, they are so tired of our bullying shenanigans, that many around the world do want to pull all their money out of our rotten old casino-economies for once and for all (and no, we have no plan B, if our old prey economies stop allowing us to hunt them), but they aren’t in any great rush, and they know the stakes are high, when it comes to moving carefully, and getting each foot-fall right. Plus, as Sun Tzu (and every sensible street fighter in history) famously advised – one should never interrupt an enemy, when they are in the middle of making a huge mistake!
They might really want to, but they don’t actually need to pull the rug out from under us just yet, and anyhow, our defeat (or cheap revenge cruelty) is simply not their purpose – what they want is genuine independence from our predation, extortion and long deliberate slowing of their civilizational progress.
As a related aside – a former Japanese PM recently observed that Trump’s focus on domestic affairs and withdrawal from American adventurism and hegemony, might finally allow Japan to form a truly independent government and truly Japanese national policy, for the very first time since the second world war. Think about the weight of that – almost three quarters of a century, on a foreign leash. (Painful for any proud people – and I have Korean friends who feel much the same frustration).
They are working on a universal payment system (BRICS-PAY cards were demonstrated at their recent meeting in Kazan) but this still works by simply converting one currency to another, within the members of the system. A speedy translator, rather than one centralized store of value.
They have also said quite clearly, that a central currency is not a short term goal. The problems really are staggering, trying to coordinate such different and complex economies – even the once shiny Euro is now recognized to be fatally screwed on the foundation level, by the contradictions between economies as radically different as the German and Greek system – how much tougher a problem synchronizing Brazil and India? (may actually be outright impossible).
What they are working on right away is very interesting – a fast growing international development bank to supplant the power of the World Bank and the IMF, which have both been subverted to colonialist economic dominance and exploitation games, almost since their creation (see the story of Kwame Nkrumah and the upper Volta dam, for an early tone-read that still holds true today).
They have already staffed this bank in an interesting way – led for the last few years by Dilma Roussef. For those who don't follow Brazilian politics, she was Lula’s vice president, then the President, after Lula was taken out by law-fare – smeared in a corruption scandal which was later found to be actively promoted by western intelligence, to get people they didn’t like out of power, in favour of their preferred neoliberal candidates. So then, why is Lula back? Because those same western intel agencies like Bolsonaro even less than Lula! (at least the crazy leftist can be reliably bribed, with small concessions from the bankers, for general social advance).
Also because Glenn Greenwald – the reporter who broke the Edward Snowden story (with Laura Poitras) showed the same relentless determination to prove the process which sent Lula away for corruption, was itself profoundly corrupt. (A free press is not optional, if you want political freedom).
Again – you can model a thing a lot of different ways, depending on where and how you look. But if you look a lot of places at once, and keep looking, even when it gets weird, you get way more clues!
The leading BRICS nations have also taken great pains to insist their negotiations are all made on the basis of mutual benefit, and they are trying to model this as a new way of doing business in the world. Not a zero-sum paranoid monopolist’s hard-ball game of winners and losers and force and lying and extortion and dishonour (our modern western economic specialties).
Win-win (Nguyen Nguyen, also). And who all wants to join BRICS? OMG, like, everybody!
Now – for those determined paranoid-projectors, we must be fair and clearly note – there actually is one very long-game move which all of the major players in BRICS are currently making which is definitely ominous, when it comes to long term dollar dominance – they are all buying gold (or mining it, in the case of the especially lucky members) at an incredible rate.
My older friends and the economically interested will remember that we used to have “Gold backed” currencies across the western world, not so long ago, and that was a world designed in such a way that currency speculation (pure parasitism on entire economies, no added value) simply did not exist!
Not saying that that is their definite goal – only that they are putting themselves into a position so that when they are finally ready to issue a dollar-displacing trading currency, it will be a more believable store of value than anything the Americans have been able to offer, since the early seventies.
(My war-geek side insists I here note that it was the misjudged and disastrous American war in Vietnam, which damaged the economy so much they could no longer back their currency with gold).
Now of course, for any watchers of politics and gamesmanship, we already know that you cannot hope to disrupt any super-profitable scam (even a badly stale and decaying one, like ours) without encountering very well-funded and resourced opposition. Slaves run, not walk, ‘cause the very worst and scariest, are always the ones sent after them to drag them back, or make a lesson out of them.
So we must ask ourselves – where are the weak links? Which BRICS members might America try to turn against the project, to sabotage it from within, before it becomes a serious (displacing) threat?
This question actually reveals a lot – because it smashes so much of our ignorant arrogance about the world. For American diplomats it was self-evident that Iran and Saudi Arabia would always be reliable enemies, because one wanted to lead Islam in a Shia direction, and one Sunni. Baked-in conflict – as long as you think of them as nothing but religious people. Thing is, they are much more.
When Chinese diplomats (probably the second best in the world now, after the Russians) announced that they had achieved a rapprochement between the two old enemies, the western world was stunned – but the funny thing was, they were even more shocked by the idea that the Chinese were fantastic diplomats, than they were by the idea of two peoples they considered primitive, making the sophisticated choice to recognize their vast pool of common interest – not least in together escaping the western yoke! (Different forms in both countries, but sanctions or spy games – it all sucks a ton).
So what about India, which played the west and the Soviets off against each other with unusual dexterity, all through the cold war (was played by both, also, to be sure, but got some wins in, too).
They absolutely do have some serious challenges, which many salivating paranoids in the west look at as vulnerabilities which can be exploited. Mind you, they also have the example of Pakistan nearby, which has been effectively controlled by American intelligence (whether civilian or military rule) for many decades. They know what happens when you get too close, to those particular friends.
(see the law-fare destruction of Imran Khan for “Aggressive Neutrality” for contemporary evidence).
And then there is the hilarious fact that India, which produces zero oil domestically, is now one of the biggest oil exporters to Europe, because the Europeans actually need Russian oil (and gas), even though they’ve made it illegal to say so. Still finding a nice profitable angle in the middle, like always.
What about Brazil? Another country which America has never stopped interfering with (much to their frustration). They also have many challenges, badly lagging economic development (tons of frustrated, highly-talented young people) especially. Mind you – we have that problem here, too!
The point is – even though Lula does famously dream of de-dollarization (and says this, with great savour) he also went from president to jail already, and understands it could happen to him again. No one is immune, if foreign powers decide to commit all of their sneaky and de-stabilizing resources.
For those watching BRICS in detail, one of the main worries has been that the rotating leadership passes to Brazil next year. Some think this is why Russia has been working extra hard to advance the project quickly, while they are leading – just in case foreign pressure on Brazil means they all have a lost year, next year (or perhaps an even worse monkey-wrench – clever minds are working on it).
BUT – I can’t help thinking that the G20 Summit was a clue to his resolve – and indeed, that of many other nations (Vader’s grip, once again). When it was time for the big group photo – Joe Biden (and Trudeau, hilariously) were AWOL. They took the picture anyhow, without the stragglers, big smiles!
Then, as they were leaving the photo-stand, someone called out that Biden was coming – and every single one of those world leaders – just kept right on walking! Freakin’ hilarious! (but couldn’t someone have found Joe a pith-helmet, for that shot of him, wandering off into the jungle?)
So, okay, maybe not bribery and corruption, maybe we’ve exhausted even that kind of soft-power, or at least strengthened the resolve of everyone else on earth to resist it, with THEIR own institutions.
Well then, what does a west with a terrifying debt crisis, steady economic implosion (and financialized gambling of the whole of it – on top of that weakness – that is, both chronic and acute), structural underemployment, vast social apathy and no area of dominance left, except projection of force, try?
Yeah, force, of course. Because if you can’t trade and compete fairly anymore, or sell-off your debt, or bribe leaders elsewhere, to send you raw materials dirt cheap, that’s pretty much all you’ve got left.
Problem is – we’ve Visigothed ourselves on that side of the deal – no less thoroughly.
The United States, and Joe Biden personally in particular, spent many many years preparing Ukraine to fight a war that they were sure was in US interests. Jeffrey Sachs is probably the single clearest and most authoritative voice on this subject (there, at so many of the key moments, over the years), but many others, from a shockingly wide range of starting views (full left anti-war to full right hawks) understood in advance that what was being planned, was sure to end in tragedy and disaster.
As I mentioned in “Third Act Fafo and the Suez moment” the US also worked hard to provoke Japan into some kind of an attack, that it could use as a “Just Cause” to enter the second world war. The controversy about the Pearl Harbour attack (total surprise or cynical manipulation of public sentiment) always misses the point we least want to remember – the shocking racism and contempt on the part of American planners, who were sure Japanese soldiers and military gear were both substandard, and that their fighting forces would be easily overcome by American grit and know-how.
All of the most powerful military commands in the world entered that conflict with many assumptions, based upon older conflicts. Battleships and Cruisers (similar, but with less armour and more speed) were considered the most important weapons systems of all – when in reality, they were already obsolete. The British learned this early, when they sent HMS Prince of Wales and the Battlecruiser Repulse to intercept Japanese troop ships and help defend critical possessions like Hong Kong and Singapore. These mighty ships were sent to the bottom by land-based long-range bomber aircraft, before they could even really enter the battle. Hong Kong and Singapore (and the prestige of the British Empire) all fell, soon after – since contrary to Imperial assumptions, Japanese forces were not just extremely well-equipped and valiant, they were also brilliantly commanded.
Robert Anton Wilson once observed that the way political debates are framed in the west is almost always two-sides-false. The fight about the Vietnam war was cast as one group who believed in the domino theory, and the duty to defend the interests of the state, against another group who believed that the Vietcong were the good guys automatically, just because the US was being hyper-violent.
If you wanted to have a more realistic debate about such an important topic, you might instead want to approach it as a debate between “What are ACTUAL American interests (genuine strategic considerations) and does any of this truly make America stronger?” (Emphatic NO, on that). Versus another team, I’m tempted to call them ‘based idealists’ who simply point out - “That isn’t our country and it isn’t our business to decide, and as John Quincy Adams pointed out some time ago...”
“But she [America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign Independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of Freedom and Independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an Imperial Diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”
– John Quincy Adams
That is – if you’re going to do it, do it only because you have conclusive EVIDENCE of state benefit. And if you’re going to oppose it, you don’t have to be Hanoi Jane and designate the hero with your superior supremacist judgement, just say “Not our call, guys, theirs to decide on, and to fight for.”
Why do I pick these two, rather strange-feeling positions? That is, completely clear-eyed cynical realism, and simple ethical fairness and restraint, along the lines so beautifully presented by JQA? Because using either one of those two metrics, that war would never have been started, or at least it would have been wound-down very quickly, when the starting goals (to prevent genuine Vietnamese independence from their fickle colonial masters the French – who had surrendered Vietnam to the Japanese without firing a single shot in its defence) were recognized to be illusory – which they were very early on, by many intelligence people in the field, like the extraordinary Daniel Ellsburg himself.
This isn’t helping our power OR this isn’t good for our soul. Not which outcome should we superior judging outsiders force on them the lesser, and which should we designate the good or bad uns. Their country – their choices and sacrifices – always!
Problem is – That isn’t ours to say – requires functional modesty – the mirror-check we will not do. John Mearsheimer, the old master of the realist school said in a recent interview, “I served in the military for years, and when you do, you get a very clear sense of the limits of what military power can do.”
Civilian leaders who lack that experience, and that deep and profound aversion to unneeded conflict (the one common quality I have found, in every single veteran and war-survivor friend of mine), make all kinds of reckless choices, based upon their delusional fantasies of what armies can achieve (at least for their personal power, and the stock prices of their arms and energy sector political backers).
When Khrushchev wrote to Kennedy, during the Cuban Missile crisis, “You and I must not pull harder on this knot of war...” he knew he was writing to a veteran, who understood that war was a devastating evil force, which, once unleashed, quickly ran far beyond any possibility of control. Gambling all the wealth and good of your entire civilization, all for the right to do massive damage to someone else’s.
Now – because the lies have been so dense and so continuous, here are the essential realities. Russia has already won the war in Ukraine, and there is no weapon on earth which can change this outcome.
But it’s a whole lot worse than that, folks. Nato spent eight years training and equipping the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and also holding an incredibly high tempo of military exercises (super expensive). This starting army was battle-primed and full of our best combat tactics, strategic ideas and many of our best fighting systems (though several of them were withheld early, then added to the field, later).
As I said earlier, the people of Ukraine elected Zelensky because he ran on a promise to sign the Minsk II accords – under which Ukraine would still be intact, and a million people (at least) would not now be dead or wounded (plus more than ten million who have fled the country, and will never be able to return to the Ukraine they once knew). But Minsk was a scam – war was always the plan.
This doesn’t make Putin a nice guy (or the vietcong cute and cuddly) it is just a historical fact that he was trying to use diplomacy, and we in the West insisted that we absolutely would not take peace for an answer.
You don’t believe me? (reading too much NYT?) Do a tiny bit of research for yourself on “The Istanbul Agreements”. Again, we have multiple third parties on the record, testifying to the functional peace agreement achieved there.
The Russians even insist that they withdrew their forward forces (which were almost enveloping Kiev at the time, though nowhere near numerous enough to actually take it), as part of a back-channel agreement with the French, as a demonstration of good faith in the negotiations. But the strategic “geniusususus” in the US, who have managed to lose every war in the last seventy years, considered Russia’s willingness to compromise to be a sign not of maturity, but of weakness.
So it was that Biden dispatched his toady Boris Johnson to tell Zelensky to walk away from the deal, and promise him that he’d get more, by fighting on – even though “Istanbul” like Minsk II, would have left Ukraine intact (except for Crimea) and simply restored language and cultural rights to the millions of Ukrainian citizens of Russian (and also Hungarian and Romanian) background.
Now please think hard about this – please. That Istanbul agreement was negotiated and initialled by representatives from both the Ukrainian and the Russian side – FIVE WEEKS INTO THE WAR.
Before the destruction of entire cities, the loss of entire regions, the devastation of entire generations.
So now let me ask you the question that a whole lot of Ukrainians will be asking, when the horrible truth sinks in. What was the west offering (and to who?), which was so much better than peace?
Screaming “Unprovoked” is not only inaccurate, it is also carefully constructed, cynical pro-war propaganda. But claiming that any of this has been “Helping Ukraine” is an even more cynical, deadly and unforgivable lie.
Helping Ukraine would have meant neutrality, peace, development and prosperity – not forcing war – especially considering the fact that their supposed “friends” from the west never truly meant their offer of EU or NATO membership. That stuff isn’t just done on a pinky-swear, there are many very serious requirements in terms of security and economics, which Ukraine, a country long recognized as an economic and corruption basket-case, simply could not ever meet.
And lest you think a massive campaign of institutional reform might have taken care of that, they should have sent someone to ask Turkey about their experience on the infinite waiting list for the EU. Every condition you meet, they come up with yet another condition (simply to stall you off for longer).
It has actually got so bad at this point, not just insulting culturally, but also economically frustrating, that Turkey has pretty much given up on even trying for the EU and turned instead toward BRICS for their future – even though they know that puts their (strategically crucial) role in NATO at serious risk.
But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. Let me finish the hard-knocks review.
In World War Two – hyper-expensive battleships proved obsolete. Giant gold plated targets, mostly. Financing licensing and manufacture all got very weird and contrary, also. Ford even sued the US government after WWII, for air bombing damage done to Ford owned plants in Germany which were making equipment for (and profits from) the German reich, the whole time America was at war with it!
We are no less stupid, lost in the past, morally and economically compromised now – nor is there any sign we’ve learned anything from over a century of war for money and energy (power and power).
As of World War Two, the imperial powers (including America, which was so obviously going to contest global trade hegemony that the Washington Naval treaty of 1921, was really designed to prevent an arms race and inevitable war between Great Britain and America – the Japanese were included in the treaty, almost as an afterthought) were completely confident, based partly on inertia and partly on racism, that only the white western powers truly were serious contenders. In fact, the only part of the Japanese military the west did respect was their (truly spectacular) battleship fleet.
When the Americans cut off oil imports to Japan (violating long term contracts) they knew that Japan would be forced to make a grab for some possessions, to fill their resource needs. This would give the Americans the excuse to join the war (very late in the day, and so, poised to emerge by-far the most intact major power, even aside from the natural advantages of oceans for defence and incredibly plentiful resources and manufacturing capacity) and set them up to scoop the maximum possible loot from that giant international orgy of death and smashing – the same basic trick they pulled in world war one (logistical saviour/looting gangster, as an inseparable package and un-refusable offer).
But as I said in Third Act FAFO and the Suez Moment – their racism blinded them to the reality that the Japanese were incredibly capable and well equipped. So while they fully expected – and wanted – a Japanese attack, they were absolutely shocked by the bloody nose they took at Pearl Harbour.
Now let’s have a little think about the decades of the cold war, and the way the two main powers shaped one another’s military, over time. Each constantly attempting to leap-frog the other, technologically, while also countering the best trick of the other side, in the cheapest way possible.
The mid sixties are perhaps the most outlandish period (in a dark-humour way) with absolutely insane amounts of money being poured into aerospace technologies in particular. Some have even argued that the Vietnam war was extended so long, simply to amortize the development costs of all those helicopters! (and then to realize a substantial profit which one cannot, in any way, call healthy).
But the stuff on the drawing board just before the Vietnam war badly drained the national loot-chest (why we don’t already have a permanent moon-base, among many other high-watermark losses) was truly mind-blowing. The HL10 lifting body still takes the prize for coolest looking real thing, ever (and contributed much data for the later, infinitely less elegant, space shuttle program). But the XB70 Valkyrie was probably the most over-the-top airplane of all time. Even further past the technology of the day than Northrop’s also incredible flying wings (which badly needed computers, for stabilization).
The Valkyrie was a brute force solution to the “kill the most, the fastest” problem (the central problem which absorbed the life-time efforts of mind-bogglingly many brilliant people, for all those misdirected decades). A supersonic heavy bomber, which could fold down its wings and ride its own shockwave!
The complexity of the thing was outrageous (like the budget). So much so, that they had multiple “chase planes” flying alongside the beast on every flight, just to make sure the landing gear cycled properly, and the enormous engines weren’t bleeding hydraulic fluid, and were burning properly.
Of course the Soviets were aware of the program (way too big to hide, and too many people involved, anyhow). They had a few high-speed heavy bombers also, but these were early jets, and the fuel consumption limited their range, greatly. Useful over Europe, but to attack the US, they would have had to launch missiles from their gigantic lumbering propellor planes (the 1952 Tupolev TU95 Bear, still in use today – just like the only very slightly more modern (1955) cold war US Boeing B52).
So what did the Soviets build, to counter the threat of the Valkyrie? They built the Mig25 “Foxbat”. The funny thing is, the foxbat program, begun to counter an American weapon, scared the Americans so much they developed the F15 platform, basically their own copy of the Russian design (yes, it went both ways, the whole time, despite our consistent propaganda disparagement). And that F15, developed to counter a fighter developed to counter a cancelled 1960s American bomber, is still one of the premier American attack machines in the sky. Optimized for fighting, instead of stealth (way more killing, way faster – that basic crazy goal, so long at the heart of our culture’s greatest striving).
Anyone see where I’m going here, yet? America is an air-fighting power – addicted to Battleships.
Why does Iran now have more advanced conventional missiles than the US? Because they saw what the US did to Iraq, and knowing they couldn’t out-airplane the all time airplane experts, they said – what’s the thing that makes airplanes look like battleships – and why don’t we just do that, instead?
If that sounds like I’m making too broad a point, or writing-off American power too quickly, please check the news. Ansr'Allah (who we call “The Houthis”, though they are a political, and not merely a racial group) has now chased-away two American aircraft carrier groups in a row (Ike, then Abe). There is also significant evidence to suggest both carriers sustained damage – since they are running all the way back across the ocean to home ports that can make repairs, and not a nearer supply port. And this result from one of the poorest countries on planet earth, which has already been at war for many years (literally hundreds of thousands killed, by what they always knew were American weapons), and they are still standing – against “The World’s Sole and Indispensable Superpower”
So – the thing about the west spending years arming and training Ukraine, and then forcing a war, was that they didn’t just want the resources they expected to harvest, cheap, by using Ukraine to smash Russia, and then rushing in afterwards with deep reconstruction pockets, to buy absolutely everything, they actually NEED those resources, dirt-cheap. They here being WE, you understand.
We were supposed to show-off our amazing military skill on the battlefield using the outstandingly brave Ukrainian soldiers we had trained and armed as our proof of superiority. We were also confident that using our unfair control over the global financial system, we could strangle the Russian economy and shatter that huge state into many smaller weaker warring territories.
Here’s the thing – our NATO tactics are no longer relevant to modern warfare. I know that sounds a bit much, but if you had also been watching the tragic “progress” of the Kursk offensive daily, you too would understand this has now been conclusively proven, and in detail. (Many western mercenaries are fighting there, with our very best gear, not the dusty rusty stuff they shipped to the AFU).
Item one – airplanes really are almost battleships now. Very expensive targets.
Witness – the recent “Storm Shadow” attack in the Kursk region was only 30Km past the border – a far cry from the “Deep strike” threatened. Why? Because the Storm Shadow only has a 300KM range, and the drop-aircraft were afraid to get any closer than 250 KM from the border, to release them – because the Russian Air Defence is currently the best in the entire world, by at least one full generation (arguably two). Simplicius the Thinker recently shared captioned audio of a Russian pilot being vectored, and doing a whole series of crazy high-G maneuvers in a row, to avoid multiple patriot missiles which were launched at him – absolutely terrifying stuff – so this vulnerability works both ways. Aircraft can no longer operate where modern air defence is active.
Israel’s recent retaliation “Strike” on Iran (for which we still see no convincing satellite imagery evidence of damage to real targets) was also based on the old aircraft dominance model – and reflected every one of the now obvious downsides of this obsolete approach. First, they had to penetrate unfriendly airspace more than once along the way, just to get to the release point for their missiles – and even then, they had to use mid-air refuelling, to keep those gas-hungry jets in the air so long. But unexpectedly (as if the US hasn’t had enough bad dominance-smashing news, lately), it seems, from the number of aircraft involved and the number of munitions released, that the second and third waves of the strike were called-off altogether, after the first wave not only failed to take down Iranian air defences, these vanguard F35 STEALTH aircraft were ‘painted’ (detected and targeted) by a system the Israelis and Americans had never before encountered!
Once again, are the Russians building stealthy-er fighters? Yes they are. But are they building stupid chunks of origami, and sacrificing all usefulness of the aircraft in the process? Nope, they are just building way better radars, to effectively nullify that ruinously expensive detour in American design.
System after system, plan after plan, this pattern is repeated. We thought our artillery systems were far superior, and would give Ukraine a huge advantage. The Excalibur guided artillery shell was particularly impressive, on paper. Sure it’s $155,000.00 – per bullet – but just think of how much you save, if you hit the exact thing you want, instead of blowing up the whole area around it, while trying.
Like I said, a convincing argument, on paper – but in the field the Russians started working on the Excalibur system right away, with their electronic countermeasures, and within a couple of months, these insanely expensive super-bullets were even less accurate then conventional ‘dumb’ artillery. Worse still, the mechanisms of the Western artillery like to be kept clean and well maintained, and the barrels are designed for very high pressure, and so wear-out much faster than the Russian equivalents. We don’t make enough barrels to keep them in service, or enough shells for them to fire (that is, Russia alone, out-produces every single country in NATO put together, including USA).
The HIMARS were also supposed to be “game changers” when introduced, but again, their accuracy was hugely degraded by the Russians, only a few weeks after they were deployed on the battlefield. The Russians now reliably shoot down 90 percent of these multi-million dollar missiles.
Western technical assistance on drone warfare was another place where we thought our obvious advantages would ‘kick their ass’. But while many truly frightening developments in drone warfare have been added by the Ukrainians – like large Carrier-drones that can save the batteries of strike drones that they deploy, only after flying well behind enemy lines, and repeater drones, to allow low flying drones to stay in touch with controllers at ranges far beyond normal line of sight radio limits – but anything the Ukrainians use, to surprise the Russians, soon comes back at them in a Russian version, only with many times the manufacturing capability, and thus frighteningly more numerous.
Computers on the battlefield (Elon’s contribution from the outset) made a big difference, and that lag has lasted longer than the overcoming of hyper-expensive western boutique guided munitions, mostly because of western sanctions – but again, our press dishonesty makes us make racist assumptions which are stupid, contradictory and militarily unwise (in the extreme).
We are supposed to believe the Russians are both so desperate that they are cannibalizing washing machines for chips, AND they are also poised to conquer all of Europe! It makes your brain hurt!
Nope, twice over – and Russians aren’t the only ones the west is messing with, with sanctions, so they aren’t the only ones with motivation to defeat them. (I can’t help being reminded of that old line – to the internet, censorship looks like a malfunction, and is quickly bypassed – ah, the glory days!)
The thing about Russian air defence is that they have proven they can quickly learn to stop our very best stuff, by doing exactly that, again and again – which means that by deploying these multi billion dollar systems to Ukraine, we have now rendered them combat ineffective, against anyone Russia likes enough to share with (still practical limits – advanced AD must be stationed way in the rear, to be safe from drones now, so things can still sneak-up on stuff much closer to the line, before they can be detected/intercepted, as in the recent Stormshadow strike on Kursk – but that’s the whole point – still, all the best targets are too far away to be hit anyhow).
The thing about Russian missiles, even before they started pulling whole new arrows out of their quiver, is that their best absolutely can defeat even our best air defence systems – again, this has now been repeatedly tested and conclusively proven. As I said in “This won’t be that kind of war” Russia has been forced into a situation where it now realizes it actually does have a potential to get away with a nuclear-first strike on the west – bomb our missiles before we can even launch them. WE CAN’T STOP THEM – NOR CAN WE DO THE SAME. (And yet, we keep provoking them, WTF?)
My friends, as of right now, they are better than us, at almost everything except playing battleships.
Even in terms of tactics, the constant lies have obscured a clear truth. Ukraine has been using the best NATO satellite intelligence surveillance reconnaissance (ISR), strategy, planning and targeting doctrine – and they keep losing, every damn time (not saying they aren’t incredible fighters – they absolutely are – but they are horribly led).
The really creepy thing about this new type of warfare is that massed formations of high-tech armour, are now just as obsolete on the battlefield as fighter-bombers without effective air-defence cover.
The internet is full of absolutely horrifying footage of armoured vehicles being destroyed by drones – especially nasty for armoured personnel carriers – so many casualties, all at once!
We might have actually taken this particular hint a full fifty years ago, when we were cold war planning cheap ways to counter the vast numerical superiority of Soviet armour. Our solution was the A10 attack plane – a low and slow, highly armoured ground-attack jet, which shoots supposedly “Depleted” uranium bullets, and has left behind a trail of birth defects, every place it was ever fired.
The point is, we already knew the right weapon could turn tanks and APCs into death traps, long ago, but we never started thinking about what to do next. The Russians hadn’t got that far either, but they have been forced to work it out now, and their current assault tactics seem almost crazy, but are proving incredibly effective.
First – let me back up my claim that western tactics simply aren’t working anymore. Remember the great summer offensive that Ukraine was going to launch, to drive those Russkies out for good? That was not only entirely planned by NATO – they also pressured Ukraine to launch the attack, even though their own commanders were skeptical. What happened? They faced Russian lines with three layers of defence (obstacles, pre-planned fire points and vehicle choke points, barriers, trenches).
They fought with incredible courage and resolution, and the best thinking of our ‘brightest’ minds – and they did not even penetrate the first layer of defence – never actually came into direct contact with the Russian foe – just the defensive drones, artillery and smaller fires, which were devastating.
Now – Russia has a long history of corruption also – but just as with the tactical lessons, they have been steadily working to overcome these defects, as they go (several waves of arrests of powerful bosses on the take, in various civil and military posts, seems to have signalled others to clean it up).
By contrast, Ukraine has been too desperate to put much focus on that issue, and so we still see videos all over the web, of “dragon’s teeth” (those triangle tank obstacles, which the Swiss army calls “Toblerones”) piled-up in a big heap, when they were supposed to be installed on a defensive line already, and also many videos of “trench-works” for which local government officials received a lot of money, which look like they were dug-out yesterday, by an amateur with a back-hoe. (You can even see Ukrainian soldiers complaining about this online – especially the ones who have to contemplate falling back to these shoddily prepared positions, and actively contrasting them, with the reinforced and sheltered fortifications the Russians have been building, every time they move the line).
Here’s the really frightening thing though – even with a huge advantage in artillery (Russia alone, makes more shells per year than the US and every other NATO country combined – by multiples), and with all kinds of corruption hampering the extraordinarily determined Ukrainian defenders, the Russians have had huge trouble with assaults, also. Tanks are targets, all large formations are vulnerable to drones now!
So what do they do? They send in a squad of six or seven guys on dirt=bikes (electric, if they can get them, to take advantage of the silence-bonus) to ride behind the Ukrainian lines so fast that the FPV drones can’t catch them, and then get into cover and observe the key Ukrainian positions carefully.
After that, they call-in fire from their own best guided munitions trick of the war, which unlike all of the NATO systems, is not only inexpensive (a retro-fit kit, for cheap bomb-types that go back to Soviet days) but also remains accurate and effective, despite the best efforts of the Ukrainians to defeat or somehow jam the system.
The so called “FAB” glider-bombs are not only cheap (on the scale of munitions) they also pack far more destructive war-loads than infinitely more expensive missile systems. With forward observer teams that can outrun the drones (unlike tanks), guiding the FABS to hit the key defensive points, the Ukrainians can only sit there and watch whatever is giving them cover, get methodically blown to bits.
So – like I said (and whether we like it or not) Russia has won the war in Ukraine that we forced. At this point, they are making steady methodical progress, forcing the AFU further and further back, and taking the strategic fortress towns, one by one (animated maps of the line, are now outright scary).
The other thing which is scary is that roughly two thousand Ukrainians are being killed or wounded PER DAY. The war can only end with negotiation, and the US won’t even talk about peace (or talk to Russia). It’s as if twelve year old girls are running the state department – we aren’t talking to HER.
But it isn’t funny, people are dying, every single day. “Helping Ukraine” has done irreparable damage to that entire nation, and now they are talking about sending their teenagers to the front, en masse – which is to say, committing suicide as a culture, for several generations to come. I can understand why the club of war-first American planners who hate Russians (and also Ukrainians, only a tiny bit less) would want this bloodletting to continue, and why those who manufacture weapons would consider it desirable. But not how any sane person, or ethical nation, could possibly justify it.
As Kathe Kollwitz so stirringly said “Seed corn must not be ground!”
Now I appreciate that those of you have not been watching weapons procurement and financial shenanigans, studying demented Doctor Strangelove style war plans from the creeps at RAND, or poring through old histories for useful clues for the last few decades, have already come a long way.
But just consider the view from this vantage, for just a moment. Russia faced all of these sanctions, expressly designed to cripple it – and faced the resources of all of NATO arrayed against it on the battlefield, and yet it now has faster growth than any nation in Europe, and the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of PPP – or purchasing-power-parity (even the CIA economic analysts confirm this now, months after the world bank said so). That means three of the four biggest economies (and roughly half the population of the world, BTW) are already BRICS, and way more are lined-up to join.
China knows that once (big if) America destroys Russia, they are the next target (because blowhard idiot American politicians never tire of saying so – need some trigger-discipline for those mouths!)
So – we woke up the Bear and pissed off the Dragon (both obvious cautions, way up there with “Don’t fight a land war in Asia”) and in doing so, we formed an incredibly solid bond of mutual interest between a fantastic source of energy, resources, hard work and brilliance, with the manufacturing (and increasingly, the financial and shipping) hub of the world. All a direct result of our FORCE.
And now – Joe Biden wants to make this Ukraine conflict an open war between NATO and Russia. (Sorry, I mean “Spray of Pearls” of course, or whoever has been signing his name to stuff, lately).
Again, there are quite a few ways to look at this. Some say he’s just an angry old man, and thinks Russia is still the old Soviet Union (evil empire). Some say he is still mad at Trump, for setting up the withdrawal from Afghanistan for his term, and wants to “Screw him back.”
Some very serious, well informed (and frightening) people suggest that the west is so debt-ridden and backward, that they actually want to provoke a world war, just to be able to “reset the books” radically.
In any case, the Russians, with no history whatsoever of bluffing, already clearly said that any use of deep strike western missiles, would be considered a direct aggression by the west on Russia, since those systems cannot be operated by the Ukrainians (True – the intel-stream for targeting them, is NOFORN secret (that is, no foreigners may be given this intel, under any circumstances)).
So – launching deep strikes with ATACMS and Stormshadows and Scalps, is the west’s way of saying – we dare you to give us an excuse to tell our populations you attacked us for no reason.
BEGGING for a Pearl Harbour – because otherwise, we are going to do some accounting, and we are going to be in for a real shock, when the real numbers finally come in (from all over, to be sure).
The pressure on Putin, who is actually, contrary to western portrayals, far more restrained and judicious than many senior Russian politicians, to respond sharply, has been intense. Some are openly calling for an escalation to de-escalate. Remind the idiots (us) why nuclear war is a bad idea, by perhaps destroying a small Polish town (key hub for weapons distribution from NATO to Ukraine) or missile base.
He found another way, and while Ukraine is definitely hurting, the rest of the world should be glad.
Oreshnik (Hazel-nut) the new arrow he just pulled out of his quiver, is, like Russian Air Defence systems, at least a full generation ahead of our very best stuff. If we were still a science literate people, more interested in the world, than comforting propaganda, this would be a Sputnik moment – that is, a profound shock to our complacency, smugness, and racist presumptions about others.
I have listened to several experts discuss the system in detail, but the most expert of these still admit there is a great deal we do not know. Still, a few things are clear. There is no system on earth which can respond to one missile travelling at that hypersonic (mach ten, plus) speed – let alone thirty-six individual targets. Also scary, the version they used, to completely destroy what was, in Soviet days, the largest missile factory in the world – all at once – didn’t even have explosives! The damage was done entirely by the force of deceleration. Drop a rock, fast enough...
Best estimate says it was a multiple warhead system, and each warhead had sub-munitions – but like I say, this version was just chunks of metal, coming in really fast. Other versions could deploy a nuke and literally dozens of decoys, or several nukes at once, to several far-distant targets.
Putin is saying stop it, come to the table and talk. Trump wants to do exactly that, Biden want to block him (and keep killing thousands of Ukrainians every week, for no other reason than his dumb ego). And of course, America trots-out a rear admiral to bellow that the USA is ready to fight a nuclear war!
NO THEY ARE NOT. We the citizens of the west, and the whole rest of the world, are not up for that either. No one is represented by this madness, no civilization is advanced or worthy goals met. The US is so used to getting their way (let the wookie win, style), it feels like a right, but that’s over.
MULTIPOLARITY (and hazel nuts). Baseline reality now. We ain’t boss. Get used to it, folks.
Like I said at the start – it never was going to be pretty (no big change in history, ever has been) but if you really meant your opposition to globalism, exploitation, western oligarchs and war mongers – rejoice – for the moment is at hand!
And if you aren’t among the opponents of international capitalist domination? Honestly? You might as well do your best to find a good reason to rejoice anyhow. There is no doubt it will get ugly, before it begins to get stable again, but this change is a tide, not a trend, and it will not now be stopped.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And OMG do I ever want to do ten more pages about how Canada should be the trading bridge between BRICS and the G20 – not only tons of Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and Iranians, but also an increasingly navigable North West passage, to cut shipping times and costs and reduce emissions (but we’d need a grownup at the helm, so, no hope there), but I’ve kept you all long enough today – and anyhow, who but Canadians actually gives the slightest shit about Canada? (Not saying I don’t, just apologizing for much recent blowhard supremacy – false-branding, I swear) ;o)
Here’s that really interesting interview with the authors of a new view of Roman collapse.
For information about what is happening with BRICS, I recommend tuning-in to Judge Napolitano’s youtube channel “Judging Freedom” on Mondays, and looking for his latest half hour with Pepe Escobar. You should also be watching Alistair Crooke, Larry Johnson, Ray McGovern and Scott Ritter (all regular guests on Mondays – the guy is an intereview machine, in a way no network would support). And the guests he has on other days are stellar, too – smart and brave, without fail.
They used to say that reading the Christian Science monitor for a decade, was equivalent to taking a bachelors degree in international affairs (it really was a smart internationalist newspaper, once).
I would say that even though the judge requires no less filtering, for his clear (and also principled) bias, watching him interview this particular group of journalists and whistleblowers, for a few months in a row, will soon get you up to speed on the frightening reality which corporate news is working so hard (Menendez!) to paper over, so we can keep pretending we are the best damn thing ever.
And yes – I apologize in advance for the new worries you will have, but on the other hand, grappling with reality is always better than struggling against distortions and phantoms from your own mind!
https://www.youtube.com/@judgingfreedom
For realistic information on the war in Ukraine, and some truly outstanding international affairs guests (all of whom seem to genuinely like Danny - himself a whistleblower from the Afghan war) you want to check out Daniel Davis Deep Dive. Theodore Postol (US nuclear weapons expert) is especially scary and informative, but John Mearsheimer, Larry Johnson and Doug Macgregor also have perspectives most don’t expect to hear from American theorists – that is, realistic and sanity-based!
https://www.youtube.com/@DanielDavisDeepDive
Larry Johnson (ex CIA) also does his own superb show called Counter Currents, with many fascinating guests you have never heard before, and writes Sonar 21
https://www.youtube.com/@counter_currents_channel
Alexander and Alex (and sometimes Glenn Deisen) from “the Duran” bring a smart and critical European perspective on current events. They all have their own smart and internationalist-minded solo shows, also.
Finally, because you probably don’t have time to chase-down all of those leads, I must put you on to a really fine source for summaries and key events, which are far too easily missed in all the chaos. “Meaning in History” is written by Mark Wauck, who is retired FBI, and a philosophically serious Catholic (and by serious, I mean principled, not reactionary). He is not only extremely hard working (watches and reads even more reports than I do, which is a lot) – he always points-to what I agree are the most important parts of any argument or statement. Lots of very important global-reality content you will never see on the corporate profit-driven evening news.
If you want one central node from which to branch out and read more courageous journalists and whistleblowers both, it is very hard to do better, for current affairs.
(and thank you sincerely for it, Mark!)
Deep and thought provoking. At the same time, it breaks my heart watching Putin be successful while slaughtering his population and the populations of countries of the former USSR. I can’t decide if he is the ultimate scorpion, game player or Gandhi and style game player. Or maybe a combination of both, subverting, the traditional power structures, well sacrificing his own people. Thanks again for provoking more deep thought and providing your references. I look forward to listening to them.
Here's a fresh sharp and smart take from Simplicius the thinker - pairs rather well with Ambassador Craig Murray's courageous and heartfelt piece "We Are the Bad Guys"
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/cynical-overtakes-sacred-as-the-west