Category Archives: Imperialism

Is the Whole World United in Isolating Russia? By Ted Snider

Posted on March 11, 2022 | Leave a comment

Not by a long shot is the whole world leaving Russia out in the cold. From Ted Snider at antiwar.com:

The governments and media of the US, Canada and Europe have painted the map in one color that is all on the US side of condemning and isolating Russia. But condemning and isolating are not the same thing. Though the world has rightly condemned Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine and the suffering it has caused, it is less clear that the map can be painted in one color when it comes to isolation.

Though the sanctioning of Russia has been massive in scale, it is hard to call Russia isolated when neither China nor India has joined the sanction regime. The two largest countries in the world make up nearly a third of the world’s population and are two of the world’s fastest growing economies. Both giants refused to join the US by abstaining from both the UN Security Council vote and the General Assembly vote condemning the Russian invasion.

Despite intense pressure from the US for India to take a clear position and abandon Russia, India abstained in the Security Council and then again in the General Assembly. China also abstained both times, implicitly denouncing NATO encroachment on Russia, calling for Ukrainian neutrality and for addressing the legitimate security concerns of Russia. On March 7, China reiterated that Russia is its “most important strategic partner” and added for emphasis that “The friendship between the two peoples is iron clad.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that China is against any actions that “add fuel to the flames.” In a news conference, Wang called for dialogue and said “Washington is to blame for the conflict for failing to take Russia’s security concerns into consideration.” He reminded the US of the effect of NATO’s expanding east to Russia’s borders.

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Posted in Business, Government, History, Imperialism, Politics, Propaganda, War

Why Did the Russians Intervene in Ukraine and is Europe Heading for a New Dark Age? By Dragana Trifkovic

Posted on March 11, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Ukraine-Russia war is more ominous for the U.S. and Europe than it is for Russia and China. From Dragana Trifkovic at lewrockwell.com:

“Russia started a war in Ukraine” – the Western media claim. An absolutely abject lie. The war in Ukraine began in 2014 after an organized coup, one more in a series of those orchestrated by the United States.

Intoxicated by false hopes, the unfortunate Ukrainians did not realize that they were just a mere tool in the hands of a tyrant from Washington. Despite their enormous resources and potential, they became beggars at the gates of the EU, where no one had any intention of receiving them.

For thirty years, the Western powers have been spreading anti-Russian propaganda in Ukraine through NGOs and the media, wanting what Brzeziński[1] considered necessary to separate Russia from Ukraine.

And they did not hesitate to do so, whether by supporting the neo-Nazi government or silently watching the genocide it was carrying out against the Russian population in Ukraine. Russians and Ukrainians are one people and almost every family in Russia has a relative in Ukraine. But why should anyone in London and Washington care, when they have their “strategic” goals.

The current anti-Russian hysteria in the Western media reminds me of the 1990s and the persecution of the Serbs.[2] In this campaign, the terrorists became victims, and the victims became terrorists – deprived of any possibility to say a single word to the world in their defense. For the verdict was already written in advance. The special operations and media executions did their job well. Then Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria… always the same scenario. For how many decades has the world been subjected to the violence of the Americans who have established the law of force instead of international law? And all this under the guise of the fight for democracy, human rights, and freedom…

“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is power”, wrote Orwell, the visionary, in his book “1984”. The fact that Orwell was recently censored and declared persona non grata shows how far Western totalitarianism has gone.

Hypocrisy and lies have reached their peak. I had the opportunity in 2014 and 2015 to visit Donbass several times. The war was still going on. Confused and frightened people showed us demolished houses, monuments, damaged hospitals and kindergartens, demolished churches, and fresh graves.

They did not understand why they were bombed by the army of the country they lived in. Ukraine forbade the Russian population to speak their own language and to remember their ancestors. None of the great Western watchdogs said that this was a violation of basic human rights.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Imperialism, Military, Politics, Propaganda, Tyranny, War

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On the Edge of a Nuclear Abyss, by Edward Curtin

Posted on March 11, 2022 | Leave a comment

Having trouble shaking the nagging doubt that the Ukraine-Russia war may go nuclear? From Edward Curtin at lewrockwell.com:

Two days after Russia attacked Ukraine and the day before Vladimir Putin put Russia on nuclear alert, I wrote a little article whose first sentence was: “Not wanting to sound hyperbolic, but I am starting to conclude that the nuclear madmen running the U.S./NATO New Cold War they started decades ago are itching to start a nuclear war with Russia.”

It was an intuition based on my knowledge of U.S./Russia history, including the U.S engineered coup in Ukraine in 2014, and a reading of current events.  I refer to it as intuition, yet it is based on a lifetime’s study and teaching of political sociology and writing against war.  I am not a Russian scholar, simply a writer with a sociological, historical, and artistic imagination, although my first graduate academic study in the late 1960s was a thesis on nuclear weapons and why they might be someday used again.

It no longer sounds hyperbolic to me that madmen in the declining U.S. Empire might resort, like rats in a sinking ship, to first strike use of nuclear weapons, which is official U.S. policy.  My stomach is churning at the thought, despite what most experts say: that the chances of a nuclear war are slight.  And despite what others say about the Ukraine war: that it is an intentional diversion from the Covid propaganda and the Great Reset (although I agree it achieves that goal).

My gut tells me no; it is very real, sui generis, and very, very dangerous now.

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Posted in Collapse, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Imperialism, Military, Morality, Politics, Propaganda, War

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The Rise of Global Fascism and the End of the World as We Know It, by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead

Posted on March 10, 2022 | Leave a comment

What will the end of the world look like? From John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead at rutherford.org:

“This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

— “The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot

Barely three years into the 2020s, and we seem to be living out the prophesies of the Book of Revelation with its dire warnings about plague, poverty, hatred and war.

Just as the government hysteria over the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be dying down, new threats have arisen to occupy our attention and fuel our fears: food shortages, spiking inflation, rocketing gas prices, and a Ukraine-Russia conflict that threatens to bring about a world war.

Is this the end of the world as we know it? Or is this the beginning of the end of the world?

Will the world end with a bang or will it end, as T.S. Eliot concludes, with a whimper?

Robert Frost, torn between a vision of the world ending in fire (the hot flame of violence, anger and greed) or ice (the cold burn of hatred), suggests that either would suffice to do the job.

And then there’s the Polish-American poet Czeslaw Milosz, who envisioned the day the world ends as a day like any other: “Those who expected lightning and thunder are disappointed. And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps do not believe it is happening now. As long as the sun and the moon are above, as long as the bumblebee visits a rose, as long as rosy infants are born, no one believes it is happening now… There will be no other end of the world.”

In Milosz’ words can be found a distant echo of a warning issued by Bertram Gross in his book Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America:

“Anyone looking for black shirts, mass parties, or men on horseback will miss the telltale clues of creeping fascism. In any First World country of advanced capitalism, the new fascism will be colored by national and cultural heritage, ethnic and religious composition, formal political structure, and geopolitical environment… In America, it would be supermodern and multi-ethnic-as American as Madison Avenue, executive luncheons, credit cards, and apple pie. It would be fascism with a smile. As a warning against its cosmetic facade, subtle manipulation, and velvet gloves, I call it friendly fascism. What scares me most is its subtle appeal. I am worried by those who fail to remember-or have never learned -that Big Business-Big Government partnerships, backed up by other elements, were the central facts behind the power structures of old fascism in the days of Mussolini, Hitler, and the Japanese empire builders.”

Look beyond the drum-pounding distractions of war and the fear-inducing tactics of the Deep State, and consider the long-term ramifications of the so-called sanctions being levied against Russia right now: not just the governmental sanctions, but the corporate lockdowns.

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Statement on Russian-Ukrainian Crisis, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

Posted on March 9, 2022 | Leave a comment

Please go to the linked site for the full statement by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, which is a lengthy but comprehensive and incisive summation of the Ukraine situation. From Viganò at lewrockwell.com.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Imperialism, Military, Morality, Politics, Propaganda, Psychology, Religion, Science, Tyranny, War

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History Always Repeats: Ukraine, by William Gudal

Posted on March 8, 2022 | Leave a comment

The U.S. position today is similar to that of Great Britain in the latter half of the 19th century—an empire that had seen its best days and was on a downward slope. From SLL contributor William Gudal:

To understand developments in Ukraine we need to go back in time to somewhere unexpected, England in 1900. It’s not really a stretch; stay with me. As the 19th century rolled into the next one, England was as the height of its supremacy, at least on the surface. Its navy truly ruled the waves. The City was the leading source and allocator of capital. From Jamaica to Bangalore the Sun never set on the Queen’s flag. However, ominously, a tide was beginning to turn. It was during this period, 1880 to 1914 that the British share of world trade shrank from 23 percent to 17 percent. By contrast, during the same period Germany’s share rose from 17 percent to 27 percent. Germany’s steel output for example, 17.6 million tons, was larger than the combined output of Britain, France and Russia. Perhaps other than the US, Germany was the fastest growing country in the world, vibrant with energy and leadership in chemicals, electronics, agriculture and infrastructure development. German tentacles were reaching all around the world, much like Russia and China today.

The result of course was that Great Britain had a mental breakdown. It could tolerate the vibrancy of the economy of its US cousin, in part because there was little it could do about it. But a Continental challenger was a completely different matter. Significantly underpopulated by comparison, 42 million in Britain, compared with 68 million in Germany and 53 million in Austria-Hungary, something had to be done, fast. So Britain launched armed war against Germany. Notwithstanding the absence of any ideological quarrel with Germany, the British propaganda machine was wildly successful in creating massive hate for Germany and the German people. WWI was the most meaningless war ever, with millions of young boys and men, age 18 to 26 killing and maiming each other all over the most unexplainable ideological nothingness. Economic rivalry completely explains the cause and conduct of the war. WWI changed world civilization and society more significantly than all wars combined during the past 200 years. Everything  – everything – changed.

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By using Ukraine to fight Russia, the US provoked Putin’s war, by Aaron Maté

Posted on March 7, 2022 | 1 comment

Check out the picture below. John McCain never met a U.S. intervention he didn’t love, and when he showed up at one it invariably turned out disastrously for the U.S. He was a big promoter of the U.S.’s 2014 regime change in Ukraine. From Aaron Maté at mate.substack.com:

After backing a far-right coup in 2014, the US has fueled a proxy war in eastern Ukraine that has left 14,000 dead. Russia’s invasion is an illegal and catastrophic response.

“The United States aids Ukraine and her people,” Adam Schiff declared in January 2020, “so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.”

Schiff made this statement during the opening of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, where the Democratic Party’s bid to ensure unimpeded US weapons sales to Ukraine was presented, and widely accepted, as a valiant defense of US democracy and national security.

Two years later, the US use of Ukraine to “fight Russia over there” has reached its logical end-game: illegally, murderously, and catastrophically, Russia has invaded Ukraine to end the fight.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter. Without UN authorization, states are allowed to use armed force only in cases of self-defense or to prevent an imminent attack. Although the US has used Ukraine as a proxy in its fight against Russian-backed Ukrainian rebels in the Donbas, that conflict is still within Ukraine’s sovereign borders. Even if a case could be made that Russia has the right to defend besieged ethnic Russians, that argument is undercut by Russia’s decision to attack far deeper into Ukrainian territory. If defending the Donbas was Russia’s aim, then it could have pushed harder for an international peacekeeping force, or any number of non-military, diplomatic options.

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Back In the USSR, by Good Citizen

Posted on March 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

Russians may be set to reject their dalliance with Western culture, and that may not be a bad thing. From Good Citizen at thegoodcitizen.substack.com:
A brief glitch in the Russian Matrix.

It was probably fun while it lasted. A brief thirty year flirtation with western decadence and shameless mass consumerism in post-soviet Russia is quickly coming to an end. It took two decades to get the engines going but now it’s time to shut them down again. The remnants will stick around for a generation or so, but the speed with which fashion and trends enter and exit the popular culture will ensure Russia crystallizes this moment in time in a similar way to the nations trapped behind the iron curtain in the middle of last century. It won’t be quite the same however because this time things are different.

This time it’s the west that’s degrading toward the worst elements of the USSR faster than Russia. Every horrible thing they tell us about Putin and Russia exists in the west and ten-fold in some cases. Political prisoners held without trial. Censorship. Pravda media. Kangaroo committees. Secret police for internal coups. Shutting down protests of one political nature while allowing others. Unequal protection under the law. Oligarchies posing as democracies. Fascism posing as liberalism. Things are certainly trending backward toward tyranny to say nothing of coerced bioweapons injections and democidal agendas. How about surrounding Russia with secret bio labs for twenty years and doing experiments on Ukrainian soldiers?1

We haven’t even arrived at the endless bloody wars for greed and profit that saw no cries or pleas of mercy, no Iraqi, Afghan, Yemeni, Libyan or Syrian flag emojis or disgraceful America-phobia of the likes we’re presently witnessing against Russia. The depleted uranium used by American forces in Falluja alone sent the cancer rates sky rocketing among locals there. Did you see any western monuments light up with the colors of the Iraqi flag for them? We did see western governments nod in approval as Colin Powell spoke of fictitious weapons of mass destruction at the United Nations. Selective outrage is a funny thing, reserved for certain peoples, with certain agendas, all of whom should certainly never be trusted again.

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Ukraine Is A Sacrificial Pawn On The Imperial Chessboard, by Caitlin Johnstone

Posted on March 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

Does the U.S. government care a whit about the Ukrainian people, or is it just trying to provoke a war with Russia? From Caitlin Johnstone at caitlinjohnstone.com:

The war is not going well for Kyiv, and it would be unreasonable to expect that to change. As a vastly superior military force overwhelms the US client state, reality is in the process of crashing down hard in the face of western liberals who bought into the war propaganda that the brave, sexy comedian was leading an upset victory to kick Putin’s ass out of Ukraine.

Zelensky is now raging at NATO powers for refusing to intervene militarily against Russia, apparently having previously been given the impression that the US-centralized empire might risk its very existence defending its dear friends the Ukrainians from an invasion.

“Unfortunately, today there is a complete impression that it is time to give a funeral repast for something else: security guarantees and promises, determination of alliances, values that seem to be dead for someone,” Zelensky said Friday.

“All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you,” Ukraine’s president added. “Because of your weakness, because of your disunity.”

It must be hard, the process of learning that you were never actually a valued partner in western civilization’s fight for freedom and democracy. That you were always just one more sacrificial pawn on the imperial chessboard.

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Russia Ukraine 2: the World Order Has Changed, by Patrick Armstrong

Posted on March 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

The American empire is over. From Patrick Armstrong at unz.com:

TACTICS, STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS

So far the Russian military operation in Ukraine has been a reconnaissance in force preceded by the destruction of the supplies and headquarters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by standoff weapons. The object being to suss out where the Ukrainian forces are, to surround them, to check existing Russian intelligence against reality and, at the same time, destroy known headquarters, air and naval assets, supplies and ammunition depots. And, perhaps, there was the hope that the speed and success (Russian/LDPR forces dominated an area of Ukraine about the size of the United Kingdom in the first week) would force an early end (aka recognition of reality).

At the moment they are readying for the next phase. The long column that so obsessed the “experts” on CNN is the preparation for the next phase. And that is this: “You didn’t get the hint, so now we have to hit you”. The fact that the column has been sitting there indicates that the Russians know they have complete air superiority. Secondly it is a message to the Ukrainian armed forces that it’s over, give up. (And one should never forget that the Russians/Soviets have always been the best at strategic deception, so who knows what’s actually there versus what the images show?)

As far as I can see they’ve created three cauldrons (encirclements). Probably the most important one is the one around Mariupol where the main concentration of Azov, the principal nazi force, is. Another is being established around the main concentration of the Ukrainian Armed Forces facing LDPR. And there appears to be another developing to the east of Kiev. A super cauldron of all three is visible. The nazis will be exterminated; the ordinary Ukrainian soldier will be allowed to go home. The nightmare question is how many ordinary Ukrainians will be free to choose.

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