The other day Simplicius had a thought provoking post which reflected the conclusion that many others are coming to: Last Dance at the Vampire Ball: West Searches for Answers to Its Demise As the reality of the coming Russian victory over the combined NATO Leviathan has slowly dawned on the West,
Matthew Ehret has written much about how UK methodically gained so much control over the US in past 100 yrs or so, esp. during 1940s. UK fears becoming irrelevant, and decided that they must prevent US and Russia from becoming friends and allies because it would make UK look even smaller and less important than ever. If I can find the link I'll leave it here. It might've been in one of Ehret's Strategic Culture articles, but I'll keep looking. Strategic Culture was put on a bad guy list during Trump admin. where it remains today.
Here's citation from Matthew Ehret that since 1800s UK has sought to keep US at odds with Russia: "The original founding of Canada on July 1st, 1867 was designed by British Geopoliticians for the explicit purpose of keeping Canada locked into the British Empire as a wedge separating the potential U.S./Russia alliance that had the power of breaking the system of empire forever."...7/2/2020, "Why Canada Failed the ‘Ben Franklin Challenge’ in 1776. Canada and the British Empire," Ehret, Global Research. Original article in Strategic Culture, 7/2/2020...https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-canada-failed-ben-franklin-challenge-1776/5717556
I don't think that's true, Susan. Strategic Culture was always available until the summer of 2022 it began to be censored. Periodically for about another year you could access the site and all the articles, but since early 2023 you link to a specific writer and gain access to the article, but not the site, at least not on my system. This has been the Democrats under the Biden who are censoring.
Cosmo, In Aug. 2020 Trump State Dept. published lengthy report demonizing Strategic Culture and several other websites it accused of being Russian gov. disinformation proxies. Page 14: "The Strategic Culture Foundation is an online journal registered in Russia, directed by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The outlet plays a central role among a group of linked websites that proliferate Russian disinformation and propaganda. One of its core tactics is to attract authors who are Western fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists, giving them a broader platform and obscuring the Russian origins of the journal. This tactic helps the site appear to be an organic voice within its target audience of Westerners."...https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USSTATEBPA/2020/08/04/file_attachments/1511364/Pillars%20of%20Russias%20Disinformation%20and%20Propaganda%20Ecosystem_08-04-20%20%281%29.pdf...August 2020, "GEC Special Report:
August 2020, Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem." I'm not sure when it became harder to get to the site, I just looked for its content elsewhere such as Global Research. Page 68 of Aug. 2020 State Dept. report defended Bill Gates, accused Strategic Culture of "Covid disinformation": “Other popular content from the outlet [Strategic Culture] also focused on COVID-19-related disinformation that made references to the U.S. government and Bill Gates.”...Strategic Culture Editorial on the matter: 8/12/20, “The Russians Are Coming! Or Have They Already Arrived?” Strategic Culture Editorial. I have the article because I saved it in 2020. I can't find a link to it at the moment.
That wasn't the Trump State Department. It was the Pompeo State Department. In August 2020 Trump was not in a position to fire Pompeo--granted that he shouldn't have been hired ever.
If Trump wasn't able to be in charge and if he wanted to help the country, he should've resigned. The fact that most already knew that US presidents were often powerless was just conversation. I didn't vote for Pompeo. Trump should've been honest and resigned.
If it matters, I will say that I could NOT vote depending on the VP choice. Obviously, I'll never vote Dem, but at Trump's age the VP pick matters hugely.
Excellent analysis. This is why Putin's strategy has been so brilliant. Each passing day not only weakens the Ukrainians but also the West. You can almost here the cracks. And as Sachs so rightly says, there is no understanding on our part. The Russians are still the same bumbling, backward bluffers that they were in 1854. Our delusions are a double edged sword: they guarantee that we will lose, but, again as stated above, they make it terrifyingly likely that we will do something incredibly stupid.
…but by gum at least we hauled the bell from the clock tower of the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Sebastopol back to Jolly Old E where we hung it in the Round Tower at Windsor Castle…for no other reason except brawn and hatred of the Ruskies!
For a detailed history of how it happened that the US, in the words of Cecil Rhodes, was "recovered for the British Empire," please see my own new book, "Our Country, Then and Now."
Now, having lost their proxy wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the US is about to kick over the chessboard. My own opinion is that they are about to launch the next "plandemic" in order to cancel the 2024 presidential election and keep the Biden gang in power.
Just saw that in Geneva at the WHO headquarters, the vote failed to pass the new “pandemic treaty.” Don’t know if the media in general has picked it up. LOL
“Après de longues négociations piétinant sur leurs bases, le Directeur Général de l’OMS et les pays membres de l’Organisation viennent d’annoncer publiquement l’échec de l’accord sur le traité mondial sur les pandémies venant de s’achever à Genève.¹”
“After long and difficult negotiations, the Director General of WHO and member countries have announced the failure to reach an agreement on the worldwide pandemic treaty which has just concluded in Geneva.”
Good news (short term) and bad news (medium term). Now that that didn't work they'll only get more desperate: The Disease X with special gain of function features or more war? Or both?
My mental image for these evil nutjobs has been for a long time now the Terminator emerging out of the flames when we all thought he really would have been destroyed. But no. He keeps on coming.
I can see the them trying the next plandemic to steal the election again (even if a lot more people know what they are up to). But what are they going to fight WWIII with? We don't have the industrial capacity, the money, the equipment, the troops, the logistics, or the training to do that! Who could they possibly fight against where it would last more than a few weeks?
This is a very important observation. They are committing genocide against their own population, destroying the strength of our nation. It's elite-driven suicide. My own view that the coming "plandemic" was also meant to take down the RIC nations. However, these nations have built up their own resistance and will be left standing after the US and its "allies" collapse. We are at the end game for sure.
I quote Alex Mercouris from memory: "They have a plan, but being the neocons, it will be a stupid plan. And it won't work" He usually gives a rather infectious giggle too as he says this.
FWIW, I think the plan is to remain the global hegemon. To do that the US has to fight and win proxy wars (ie, using missiles and other people's sons) and, most importantly, they have to remain in power (ie, 'win' the election).
I think their tactics, whether perceived by us as 'crazy' or not, will include anything that advances the plan. Electing Biden is not crazy if it advances the plan. Even a Trump win is not crazy (for them) if he can be co-opted into advancing the plan. Even a Trump win is not crazy if the Uniparty remains in control.
A defeat would be a Trump win, withdrawal from Ukraine and Israel (good luck with the latter!) and implementation of a plan of national renewal (ie, MAGA).
I completely agree w you guys that the $35 trillion is a critical element of the puzzle. I agree that remaining the hegemon greatly simplifies the debt problem.
Once China and Russia succeed in setting up an alternative settlement system who needs dollars?
But as long as we are China’s largest trading partner, I suppose they will keep taking our dollar-denominated IOUs. Then the day will come when they have a more developed domestic market and sufficient alternative international markets that they won’t have to take American ‘promises’ in payment for Chinese goods. Then we’ll have to pay for flat screen TVs in real money.
I agree that that's the big picture of the plan. The problem starts with $35 trillion in debt and the important countries that control real resources, i.e., no EU, bailing on the dollar. Thus, the only real plan the Neocons have is to fight wars to force the rest of the world to take on more dollar debt. But that's not going well, and turnaround isn't in sight. At this point I don't believe that they really have any other plan. Even Yellen conceded the other day that, yeah, inflation is a problem. I saw too that the 'smart' money--Silicon Valley and much of Wall St.--is supposedly bailing on Zhou. It's not that they're our friends, of course, just that they are getting really scared.
I live in an area where the government schools are supposed to be top notch--people are paying a premium to send their kids to schools where only about half the kids are at grade level in reading and math. Of course, Asian kids are close to 80% proficient. I'd be willing to bet that Russian kids do a lot better, too. Americans have this goofy notion that the world owes us. I'm afraid we're about to get a schooling in some hard truths in living.
"But that's not going well" - to say the least. Another often mentioned "benefit" of wars for the warmongers is the excuse they provide for the monetization of fiscal debt. When more money goes into circulation (for example to pay for wars) the value of the Dollar lessens (inflates) and thus the "real" cost of servicing existing debt goes down. But they are in a spot now where the debt is already so ridiculous that foreign countries no longer want to purchase or hold Treasury Bonds. You do reach a point, if you keep "printing," that eventual default is inescapable.
Agreed. Their plan is coming apart at the seams. I do think it's really important that our growing band of alert commentators to keep up the pressure. Thanks for your work. None of us has the complete picture of course, but we have to keep up the dissection.
I saw the Simplicius essay when it came out and thought it one of his best. Not surprised that you picked up on it, Mark, and thanks for adding your thoughts.
I'm just spitballing here but a couple of things came to mind around the English/British/UK vs. Russia phenomenon:
1) Could be "small man / small dog syndrome." A tiny island nation has an unending need to prove its greatness to the rest of the world and make the rest of the world fearful of it. Also known as "Napoleon syndrome" quite ironically. Willing to use the U.S. as its "bigger friend" to scare what it sees as the larger "person" and potential bully in the neighborhood.
2) In support of #1 is the idea that either you are always growing or you are contracting. This idea can apply to people, organizations, companies, or nations. Typically it applies to companies and companies are penalized if there is the slightest inkling among the public that the company may have peaked and is now going to contract. Same perceptions can apply to how nations view one another.
Obviously the former British Empire has been on the downswing for a long time but wants to maintain its empire-established "quota" of the world's resources and power (by proxy if necessary). For a junior example see "le petit roi" Macron in France now.
3) The idea that geopolitics is a zero-sum game. What Russia gets we can't have. What we get Russia can't have. Any advantages of mutual trade, diplomacy, common national interests, economic blocs or leverage, etc. are all out the window because Russia might make out better than us (the UK or the US). Because nations are on the way up or the way down. In the end, our elites in the US want to rule the world and so do the Brit elites. They think that together they can.
JCC. I usually try not to upvote people's comments who upvote my comments... just because. In this case your last sentence is worth violating my rule. So true. Thanks.
…and add in the historical grievances and even vengefulness of the Eastern European jews - Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians etc. - which has been imo no small part of the utter madness of taking on Russia, only to destroy Ukraine (Blinken Nuland and co.).
Perhaps the basis of British hatred for Russia doesn't begin in the physical realm but the spiritual?
Also, Matt Ehret has pointed out that Russia came to the defense of the US, against the British, in both the US Revolutionary War and the US Civil War. That may have something to do with it.
I've heard about the Russia providing ships to President Lincoln's disposal during the Civil War, but I had not heard of Russia providing to the colonists effort during the Revolutionary War. What help did Russia provide?
I got it wrong. Russia was formally neutral in the American Revolution and did not send any ships. But they strung the British along about an alliance and ultimately worked against the British through their neutrality.
"So Putin very thoughtfully concluded that what he needed was a weapon that even a totally moronic and uninformed individual could understand there's no hope of stopping." -- The Kinzhal is a thing of beauty, yes?
I did a search something like "in ukraine and gaza the twilight of the ruled based order". lots of articles on that theme.
Matthew Ehret has written much about how UK methodically gained so much control over the US in past 100 yrs or so, esp. during 1940s. UK fears becoming irrelevant, and decided that they must prevent US and Russia from becoming friends and allies because it would make UK look even smaller and less important than ever. If I can find the link I'll leave it here. It might've been in one of Ehret's Strategic Culture articles, but I'll keep looking. Strategic Culture was put on a bad guy list during Trump admin. where it remains today.
Here's citation from Matthew Ehret that since 1800s UK has sought to keep US at odds with Russia: "The original founding of Canada on July 1st, 1867 was designed by British Geopoliticians for the explicit purpose of keeping Canada locked into the British Empire as a wedge separating the potential U.S./Russia alliance that had the power of breaking the system of empire forever."...7/2/2020, "Why Canada Failed the ‘Ben Franklin Challenge’ in 1776. Canada and the British Empire," Ehret, Global Research. Original article in Strategic Culture, 7/2/2020...https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-canada-failed-ben-franklin-challenge-1776/5717556
I don't think that's true, Susan. Strategic Culture was always available until the summer of 2022 it began to be censored. Periodically for about another year you could access the site and all the articles, but since early 2023 you link to a specific writer and gain access to the article, but not the site, at least not on my system. This has been the Democrats under the Biden who are censoring.
Cosmo, In Aug. 2020 Trump State Dept. published lengthy report demonizing Strategic Culture and several other websites it accused of being Russian gov. disinformation proxies. Page 14: "The Strategic Culture Foundation is an online journal registered in Russia, directed by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The outlet plays a central role among a group of linked websites that proliferate Russian disinformation and propaganda. One of its core tactics is to attract authors who are Western fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists, giving them a broader platform and obscuring the Russian origins of the journal. This tactic helps the site appear to be an organic voice within its target audience of Westerners."...https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USSTATEBPA/2020/08/04/file_attachments/1511364/Pillars%20of%20Russias%20Disinformation%20and%20Propaganda%20Ecosystem_08-04-20%20%281%29.pdf...August 2020, "GEC Special Report:
August 2020, Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem." I'm not sure when it became harder to get to the site, I just looked for its content elsewhere such as Global Research. Page 68 of Aug. 2020 State Dept. report defended Bill Gates, accused Strategic Culture of "Covid disinformation": “Other popular content from the outlet [Strategic Culture] also focused on COVID-19-related disinformation that made references to the U.S. government and Bill Gates.”...Strategic Culture Editorial on the matter: 8/12/20, “The Russians Are Coming! Or Have They Already Arrived?” Strategic Culture Editorial. I have the article because I saved it in 2020. I can't find a link to it at the moment.
That wasn't the Trump State Department. It was the Pompeo State Department. In August 2020 Trump was not in a position to fire Pompeo--granted that he shouldn't have been hired ever.
If Trump wasn't able to be in charge and if he wanted to help the country, he should've resigned. The fact that most already knew that US presidents were often powerless was just conversation. I didn't vote for Pompeo. Trump should've been honest and resigned.
That's hopelessly simplistic.
If it matters, I will say that I could NOT vote depending on the VP choice. Obviously, I'll never vote Dem, but at Trump's age the VP pick matters hugely.
I get it here in Switzerland, no probs, Kat. Are you on DuckDuckGo?
Yes................
Perhaps that's the reason. I'm not sure why though, do you know?
Here's the link I use. Do you have the same? https://strategic-culture.su/
No, I had the older .org instead of .su. So thank you for the link, that works!
This could be where a VPN could come in handy?
Thanks for adding your remarks. I have been talking to my younger brother (the savvy software engineer) about VPN. Which do you use?
It's beyond me. IIRC, it was impossible to get for a while last year, but now no problems. Hope you can get back in.
A truly evil enemy will burn his own country to the ground in order to lord over the ashes
Excellent analysis. This is why Putin's strategy has been so brilliant. Each passing day not only weakens the Ukrainians but also the West. You can almost here the cracks. And as Sachs so rightly says, there is no understanding on our part. The Russians are still the same bumbling, backward bluffers that they were in 1854. Our delusions are a double edged sword: they guarantee that we will lose, but, again as stated above, they make it terrifyingly likely that we will do something incredibly stupid.
…but by gum at least we hauled the bell from the clock tower of the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Sebastopol back to Jolly Old E where we hung it in the Round Tower at Windsor Castle…for no other reason except brawn and hatred of the Ruskies!
That bell is now tolling for the West. Dangerous times.
https://www.grunge.com/1015134/the-morbid-history-of-the-royals-and-the-sebastopol-bell/
For a detailed history of how it happened that the US, in the words of Cecil Rhodes, was "recovered for the British Empire," please see my own new book, "Our Country, Then and Now."
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Country-Then-Richard-Cook/dp/1949762858
Now, having lost their proxy wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the US is about to kick over the chessboard. My own opinion is that they are about to launch the next "plandemic" in order to cancel the 2024 presidential election and keep the Biden gang in power.
See this: https://rickycook21.substack.com/p/good-luck-world
The next and final step, with the population huddled in lockdown, launch WWIII.
See this: https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2023/03/world-war-3/
I hope it doesn't happen this way. But don't underestimate them.
I've no doubt they have something planned, but I doubt a pandemic will work again.
Just saw that in Geneva at the WHO headquarters, the vote failed to pass the new “pandemic treaty.” Don’t know if the media in general has picked it up. LOL
“Après de longues négociations piétinant sur leurs bases, le Directeur Général de l’OMS et les pays membres de l’Organisation viennent d’annoncer publiquement l’échec de l’accord sur le traité mondial sur les pandémies venant de s’achever à Genève.¹”
“After long and difficult negotiations, the Director General of WHO and member countries have announced the failure to reach an agreement on the worldwide pandemic treaty which has just concluded in Geneva.”
Good news for now…
Good news (short term) and bad news (medium term). Now that that didn't work they'll only get more desperate: The Disease X with special gain of function features or more war? Or both?
My mental image for these evil nutjobs has been for a long time now the Terminator emerging out of the flames when we all thought he really would have been destroyed. But no. He keeps on coming.
Fantastique!
Yep. For all the dooming, it's not going to work. There will be many opt-outs. A nice little farewell present for Klaus Schwab.
The state governors have been following this. I agree, I don't think it will work again. People have caught on.
Yes, reassuring.
I can see the them trying the next plandemic to steal the election again (even if a lot more people know what they are up to). But what are they going to fight WWIII with? We don't have the industrial capacity, the money, the equipment, the troops, the logistics, or the training to do that! Who could they possibly fight against where it would last more than a few weeks?
That's the danger, Diss. They have nothing - except nukes.
I have said all along that the Biden presidency will end in tears and nukes.
Yeah and they absolutely can not tolerate 25,000 Americans in the Bronx coming out to hear and see Trump. It is time, alright.
Did you see the video of AOC's townhall there? About 20 people. By contrast Biden's The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
This is a very important observation. They are committing genocide against their own population, destroying the strength of our nation. It's elite-driven suicide. My own view that the coming "plandemic" was also meant to take down the RIC nations. However, these nations have built up their own resistance and will be left standing after the US and its "allies" collapse. We are at the end game for sure.
I don't claim to have the total plan, but I do tend to the view that most of what's going on is part of a plan--that's gone haywire. Or gone agley.
I quote Alex Mercouris from memory: "They have a plan, but being the neocons, it will be a stupid plan. And it won't work" He usually gives a rather infectious giggle too as he says this.
Me, too, as I read it and type this. I am still giggling.
FWIW, I think the plan is to remain the global hegemon. To do that the US has to fight and win proxy wars (ie, using missiles and other people's sons) and, most importantly, they have to remain in power (ie, 'win' the election).
I think their tactics, whether perceived by us as 'crazy' or not, will include anything that advances the plan. Electing Biden is not crazy if it advances the plan. Even a Trump win is not crazy (for them) if he can be co-opted into advancing the plan. Even a Trump win is not crazy if the Uniparty remains in control.
A defeat would be a Trump win, withdrawal from Ukraine and Israel (good luck with the latter!) and implementation of a plan of national renewal (ie, MAGA).
We'll know in a year whether we've won or lost.
I completely agree w you guys that the $35 trillion is a critical element of the puzzle. I agree that remaining the hegemon greatly simplifies the debt problem.
Once China and Russia succeed in setting up an alternative settlement system who needs dollars?
But as long as we are China’s largest trading partner, I suppose they will keep taking our dollar-denominated IOUs. Then the day will come when they have a more developed domestic market and sufficient alternative international markets that they won’t have to take American ‘promises’ in payment for Chinese goods. Then we’ll have to pay for flat screen TVs in real money.
This will be ‘interesting’.
I agree that that's the big picture of the plan. The problem starts with $35 trillion in debt and the important countries that control real resources, i.e., no EU, bailing on the dollar. Thus, the only real plan the Neocons have is to fight wars to force the rest of the world to take on more dollar debt. But that's not going well, and turnaround isn't in sight. At this point I don't believe that they really have any other plan. Even Yellen conceded the other day that, yeah, inflation is a problem. I saw too that the 'smart' money--Silicon Valley and much of Wall St.--is supposedly bailing on Zhou. It's not that they're our friends, of course, just that they are getting really scared.
I live in an area where the government schools are supposed to be top notch--people are paying a premium to send their kids to schools where only about half the kids are at grade level in reading and math. Of course, Asian kids are close to 80% proficient. I'd be willing to bet that Russian kids do a lot better, too. Americans have this goofy notion that the world owes us. I'm afraid we're about to get a schooling in some hard truths in living.
That is shocking about the schools.
"But that's not going well" - to say the least. Another often mentioned "benefit" of wars for the warmongers is the excuse they provide for the monetization of fiscal debt. When more money goes into circulation (for example to pay for wars) the value of the Dollar lessens (inflates) and thus the "real" cost of servicing existing debt goes down. But they are in a spot now where the debt is already so ridiculous that foreign countries no longer want to purchase or hold Treasury Bonds. You do reach a point, if you keep "printing," that eventual default is inescapable.
Agreed. Their plan is coming apart at the seams. I do think it's really important that our growing band of alert commentators to keep up the pressure. Thanks for your work. None of us has the complete picture of course, but we have to keep up the dissection.
I saw the Simplicius essay when it came out and thought it one of his best. Not surprised that you picked up on it, Mark, and thanks for adding your thoughts.
I'm just spitballing here but a couple of things came to mind around the English/British/UK vs. Russia phenomenon:
1) Could be "small man / small dog syndrome." A tiny island nation has an unending need to prove its greatness to the rest of the world and make the rest of the world fearful of it. Also known as "Napoleon syndrome" quite ironically. Willing to use the U.S. as its "bigger friend" to scare what it sees as the larger "person" and potential bully in the neighborhood.
2) In support of #1 is the idea that either you are always growing or you are contracting. This idea can apply to people, organizations, companies, or nations. Typically it applies to companies and companies are penalized if there is the slightest inkling among the public that the company may have peaked and is now going to contract. Same perceptions can apply to how nations view one another.
Obviously the former British Empire has been on the downswing for a long time but wants to maintain its empire-established "quota" of the world's resources and power (by proxy if necessary). For a junior example see "le petit roi" Macron in France now.
3) The idea that geopolitics is a zero-sum game. What Russia gets we can't have. What we get Russia can't have. Any advantages of mutual trade, diplomacy, common national interests, economic blocs or leverage, etc. are all out the window because Russia might make out better than us (the UK or the US). Because nations are on the way up or the way down. In the end, our elites in the US want to rule the world and so do the Brit elites. They think that together they can.
Great comment. England's fear of Russia taking India is a perfect example of #3. A big dog just wonders what the little dog's problem is.
JCC. I usually try not to upvote people's comments who upvote my comments... just because. In this case your last sentence is worth violating my rule. So true. Thanks.
…and add in the historical grievances and even vengefulness of the Eastern European jews - Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians etc. - which has been imo no small part of the utter madness of taking on Russia, only to destroy Ukraine (Blinken Nuland and co.).
Perhaps the basis of British hatred for Russia doesn't begin in the physical realm but the spiritual?
Also, Matt Ehret has pointed out that Russia came to the defense of the US, against the British, in both the US Revolutionary War and the US Civil War. That may have something to do with it.
I've heard about the Russia providing ships to President Lincoln's disposal during the Civil War, but I had not heard of Russia providing to the colonists effort during the Revolutionary War. What help did Russia provide?
I got it wrong. Russia was formally neutral in the American Revolution and did not send any ships. But they strung the British along about an alliance and ultimately worked against the British through their neutrality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_the_American_Revolution
"So Putin very thoughtfully concluded that what he needed was a weapon that even a totally moronic and uninformed individual could understand there's no hope of stopping." -- The Kinzhal is a thing of beauty, yes?