Category Archives: Politics

Pretend-O-Rama, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on January 27, 2023 | 1 comment

Ukraine is shining a spotlight on both Russia’s ascent and the U.S.’s descent. From James Howard Kuntler at kunstler.com:

I doubt that many Americans — even the masses sunk in vaccine smuggery and obsessive Trump-o-phobia — believe that America’s Ukraine project is working out for us. Of course, to even begin thinking about this debacle, you must at least suspect that our government is lying about virtually everything it has its hand in. Name something it is not lying about, I dare you.

So, what is the Ukraine project about? To use that sad-ass country as a vector to disable and destroy Russia. You can’t over-state the stupidity of that objective. And why did we want to do that? Because… reasons. Oh? And what were they? Well, Russia was… there. Oh? And what was it doing? Trying to take over the world? Uh, no. It was actually just trying to be a normal European nation again after its traumatic 75-year-long experiment with communism, which ended in 1991.

And then, after that, coming along pretty well under Mr. Putin. Did I say that? Yes, I did, because it is a fact. Russia wrote new private property laws, made commerce legal again, and allowed its citizens to do business. Russia wasn’t threatening any other nations, most particularly not its former province, Ukraine. It had even invited Ukraine to be a sovereign member of its trade association, the customs union, with a bunch of other regional states who had rational interests in good regional relations. That’s what set off the maniacs at the US State Department — under Secretary John Kerry, a.k.a. the haircut-in-search-of a-brain — who, in 2014, decided to overthrow Ukraine’s government.

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

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This Time It’s Different, by Douglas Macgregor

Posted on January 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

The U.S.’s proxy war against Russia is a bust. From Douglas Macgregor at theamericanconservative.com:

Neither we nor our allies are prepared to fight all-out war with Russia, regionally or globally.

Until it decided to confront Moscow with an existential military threat in Ukraine, Washington confined the use of American military power to conflicts that Americans could afford to lose, wars with weak opponents in the developing world from Saigon to Baghdad that did not present an existential threat to U.S. forces or American territory. This time—a proxy war with Russia—is different.

Contrary to early Beltway hopes and expectations, Russia neither collapsed internally nor capitulated to the collective West’s demands for regime change in Moscow. Washington underestimated Russia’s societal cohesion, its latent military potential, and its relative immunity to Western economic sanctions.

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As a result, Washington’s proxy war against Russia is failing. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was unusually candid about the situation in Ukraine when he told the allies in Germany at Ramstein Air Base on January 20, “We have a window of opportunity here, between now and the spring,” admitting, “That’s not a long time.”

Alexei Arestovich, President Zelensky’s recently fired advisor and unofficial “Spinmeister,” was more direct. He expressed his own doubts that Ukraine can win its war with Russia and he now questions whether Ukraine will even survive the war. Ukrainian losses—at least 150,000 dead including 35,000 missing in action and presumed dead—have fatally weakened Ukrainian forces resulting in a fragile Ukrainian defensive posture that will likely shatter under the crushing weight of attacking Russian forces in the next few weeks.

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Posted in Geopolitics, Governments, Military, Politics, Propaganda, Technology, War

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The Race to the Bottom Accelerates, by Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on January 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

Everywhere you look, products and services are getting worse. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:

When competence, transparency and accountability are all punished, the Race to the Bottom accelerates.

Race to the Bottom describes the process of competitive devaluation, where value is gutted to remain competitive with those who are grabbing market share by stripping out quality, value, durability, transparency, accountability and competence.

We see the global Race to the Bottom in everyday products: the quality of goods has plummeted as manufacturers compete to reduce costs to maintain high profit margins by stripping out the quality and durability of components. We see it in shrinkflation, where the cereal box contains less cereal while the price ratchets higher.

We see it when cereals that once contained no sugar are now sickly-sweet because the manufacturer is losing market share to less healthy sugar-bomb cereals.

We see it in healthcare where costs have been so ruthlessly stripped out to boost profits that it takes months to get an appointment and overworked caregivers no longer have the “luxury” of providing the care they were trained to provide. Routine procedures and hospital stays now carry pricetags equal to four years college tuition or a modest house.

The Race to the Bottom isn’t limited to goods and services. Consider the bedrock of the social order, civility. Civility in discourse is now rarer than sightings of UFOs / UAPs.

In politics, scoring cheap points while ignoring the nation’s social decay and unsustainable bubble economy is another example of the Race to the Bottom. Is getting to the bottom of the Taylor Swift ticketing “fiasco” really the most pressing issue that politicians need to address? It would seem so.

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Posted in Business, Collapse, Crime, Cronyism, Culture, Government, Media, Medicine, Politics

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Judge Blocks California’s COVID-19 Misinformation Law, by Caden Pearson

Posted on January 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

There is still some judicial sanity out there. From Caden Pearson at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

A California judge on Wednesday halted the state’s so-called COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation law, which was challenged by doctors in two lawsuits, claiming it violates their constitutional rights.

A doctor checks on a 34-year-old COVID-19 patient at a medical center in Tarzana, Calif., on Sept. 2, 2021. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)

In Hoeg v. Newsom, five doctors alleged that the state law, AB 2098, is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. A separate related lawsuit, Hoang v. Bonta, makes similar allegations.

Both lawsuits sought a preliminary injunction to prevent California from enforcing the law.

The five doctors, Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi, filed their lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials, including the president and members of the Medical Board of California.

They argued the law prevents them from providing information to their patients that may contradict what the law permits or prohibits. They also alleged the law was used to intimidate and punish physicians who disagreed with prevailing views on COVID-19.

Judge William Shubb, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his ruling (pdf) it was plausible that the medical board would determine their conduct violates AB 2098, and therefore the doctors’ fears are reasonable “given the ambiguity of the term ‘scientific consensus’ and of the definition of ‘misinformation’ as a whole.”

Shubb noted that this weighed in favor of the plaintiffs having standing.

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Posted in Politics, Government, Medicine, Civil Liberties, Science, Propaganda

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The Covid Narrative Tide is Turning, by Sheryl Collmer

Posted on January 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

Finally, the truth is surfacing, as the truth has a way of doing. From Sheryl Collmer at crisismagazine.com:

As more information about the Covid vaccines and other media narratives are released, those of us who’ve been consigned to the Conspiracy Theory bin for the last few years are being sadly vindicated.

High tide at Galveston Island occurred at 12:16 a.m. today. Aside from consulting a tide table, you would only know that if you were walking on the beach and saw the waves receding farther down the shore. The turning of the tide is something you only observe in hindsight, just as the moon can only be known to have reached its fullest once it begins to wane.

Are we watching the turning of the tide in our failing country?

Medical studies that call into question the Covid narrative are making it through the censors. Twitter has opened the tap on evidence of collusion between government and media to deceive the public about Covid. More and more people know someone who has been disabled or killed by the so-called “vaccine.” Are we beginning to approach a critical mass of people who understand that we have been played on a gigantic scale?

We used to call that “conspiracy theory.” Now it’s called “discernment.”

Little will change until we reach a critical mass of awareness. Congress, on both sides of the aisle, will continue to act against the will of the majority (see: Omnibus Spending Bill). Corrupt leaders will continue to be treated as heroes (see: Zelensky). Children will continue to be victimized on the altar of adult derangement (see: Gender Ideology). The world will spin on as usual until there is an armada of people who care enough about truth, children and the Kingdom of God to stand up, speak up, and fight back.

There used to be an attraction at Six Flags Over Texas called Casa Magnetica. The house was built at odd angles so that visual cues told your brain you were walking slantways. It was positively vertigo-inducing. When you emerged, the world righted itself and the brain settled down from its crisis state.

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Posted in Government, Media, Medicine, Politics, Propaganda, Science

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Some Questions for Our Congressmen and Senators on Ukraine, by Karen Kwiatkowski

Posted on January 27, 2023 | 1 comment

Wouldn’t it be great if Congress critters, Senators, and high executive branch officials periodically had to undergo Q & A sessions with members of the public? From Karen Kwiatkowski at lewrockwell.com:

Dear Representative and Senators,

As we approach twelve months of the Russian SMO to end Kiev’s war on Russians of east and south Ukraine, and resolve the NATO head fake of Minsk II, it’s question and answer time for London, Washington, and Poland – and each of you.

The US Congress approved over $100 Billion in arms and aid to Ukraine in the past year.  At the same time, Russian forces have secured 20% of the former Ukrainian landmass, nearly everything east of the Dneiper River, and have established not only a formidable defensive line, they have begun rebuilding political, economic, defense and civil society in the eastern Republics.

First question:  What, in your opinion, will the next $100 Billion – gain for the United States?

My apologies.  It isn’t fair to state that $100 Billion in US aid to Ukraine actually went into the Ukraine war effort.  Over half of these funds went directly into US defense contracts.. A reasonable percentage was defrauded along the way, or lost somehow in Ukraine.  In any US government operation there is also predictable waste and loss.  It is not clear whether Joe, his family and his friends in Ukraine and New York City got their 10%.

Beyond this, all of this aid arrived in Ukraine piecemeal. As the Pentagon raided the back of their closet for Ukraine, random supplies, materials and ammunition – useable or not to Ukraine – were sent.   NATO countries simultaneously did the same thing, amplifying the randomness and often pointlessness of such aid.

The US Inspector General admits that this aid and the weapons shipped in cannot be tracked.  Neither US or NATO had a system of logistical tracking or feedback in place prior to the shipments of weapons, materials and ammunition, and to date they still don’t.

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

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A Bit of Good News, by Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on January 26, 2023 | Leave a comment

It would indeed be good news if we can dance on the coffin of Davos. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:

Ekaterina Blinova Reports “Globalization has died and Davos 2023 was its funeral.”  Read her report:

https://sputniknews.com/20230121/globalization-has-died-and-davos-2023-was-its-funeral-ceremony-scholars-sum-up-1106556837.html

The neoconservative attack on Russia and China has a silver lining.  It has killed Globalism.  Russia and China and the countries dependent on Russian energy and Chinese goods and financing have been cut off from the WEF’s effort to unify the world under US hegemony.  Globalism was never anything but a way for Washington to exploit the rest of the world.  As Ms. Blinova says, the World Economic Forum is an elite club that intended to dictate Washington’s rules to the rest of the world. Washington would rule under the guise of “globalism.”

Klaus Schwab, in his 80s will soon be gone and the WEF with him.  Bill Gates might try to keep the WEF going for his own sick agenda, but today the US is a considerably smaller force on the world scene than it was during the Reagan presidency.

Washington is such an inbred system that the consequence is stupidity.  People  capable of thinking outside of official narratives are simply not accepted.  It is no longer possible for leadership based in objective reality to  take hold in Washington.

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The West Is Incentivizing Russia To Hit Back, by Caitlin Johnstone

Posted on January 26, 2023 | Leave a comment

If Russia reacted to every U.S. and Ukrainian provocation we’d already be in a full-on war with Russia. From Caitlin Johnstone at caitlinjohnstone.com:

Well the omnicidal war sluts won the debate over sending tanks to Ukraine, so now it’s time to start arguing for sending F-16s.

In an article titled “Ukraine sets sights on fighter jets after securing tank supplies,” Reuters reports the following:

“Ukraine will now push for Western fourth generation fighter jets such as the U.S. F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister said on Wednesday.

Ukraine won a huge boost for its troops as Germany announced plans to provide heavy tanks for Kyiv on Wednesday, ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock on the issue. The United States is poised to make a similar announcement.

Just in time for the good news, Lockheed Martin has announced that the arms manufacturing giant happens to be all set to ramp up production of F-16s should they be needed for shipment to Ukraine.

“Lockheed Martin has said that it’s ready to meet demands for F-16 fighter jets if the US and its allies choose to ship them to Ukraine,” Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp reports. “So far, the US and its allies have been hesitant to send fighter jets to Ukraine due to concerns that they could be used to target Russian territory. But the Western powers seem less and less concerned about escalation as the US and Germany have now pledged to send their main battle tanks.”

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Mission Creep? How the US role in Ukraine has slowly escalated, by Branko Marcetic

Posted on January 26, 2023 | 1 comment

The Ukraine mission may creep right up to nuclear war. From Branko Marcetic at responsiblestatecraft.org:

The Biden team has quietly blown past red lines of involvement. The question now, is how far is it willing to go.

When the United States involves itself militarily in a conflict, it often finds it hard to get itself out, let alone avoid deep entanglements that blow well past lines it had drawn at the start of the intervention.

It happened in Vietnam, when U.S. military advisers helping the South Vietnamese fight Viet Cong eventually became U.S. soldiers fighting an American war. It happened in Afghanistan, when an initial invasion to capture al-Qaida and overthrow the Taliban morphed into a nearly two-decade-long nation-building project. And it could be happening right now in Ukraine.

Little by little, NATO and the United States are creeping closer to the catastrophic scenario President Joe Biden said “we must strive to prevent” — direct conflict between the United States and Russia. Despite stressing at the start of the war that “our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict,” current and former intelligence officials told the Intercept back in October that “there is a much larger presence of both CIA and US special operations personnel” in Ukraine than there was when Russia invaded, conducting “clandestine American operations” in the country that “are now far more extensive.”

Among those clandestine operations, investigative journalist and former Green Beret Jack Murphy reported on Dec. 24 to little mainstream attention, is the CIA’s work with an unnamed NATO ally’s spy agency to carry out sabotage operations within Russia, reportedly the cause of the unexplained explosions that have rocked Russian infrastructure throughout the war. This is the kind of activity that skirts dangerously close to direct NATO-Russia confrontation.

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Leopards vs. the Russian Bear, by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

Posted on January 26, 2023 | 1 comment

The new tanks aren’t going to stop Russia from winning. From the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity at antiwar.com:

ALERT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Leopards vs. the Russian Bear

Decisions in an Intelligence Vacuum

Dear President Biden:

We are aware that the just-reported decision to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine responds to Berlin’s coy insistence that “you go first.” Now Leopard tanks from Germany and other allies will also be sent. Trouble is that those few that make it into Ukraine will be late to the party.

What your advisers should have told you is that none of the newly promised weaponry will stop Russia from defeating what’s left of the Ukrainian army. If you have been told otherwise, replace your intelligence and military advisers with competent professionals – the sooner the better.

Poorly Served

It has long been clear that you have not been adequately briefed on two issues of major importance: (1) the war in Ukraine, and (2) the strategic partnership between Russia and China. We chose this genre of “ALERT MEMORANDUM” because we want to prepare you for a major shock. Russia’s winter offensive is about to roll over the Ukrainian army. At that point, unwelcome choices will have to be made. Off-ramps must be sought – again, the sooner the better.

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