Whats hard to swallow is that the criminals responsible for the agonising situation persist in brashly insisting on their obscenely comfortable selves as the saints of the saga, who by their false self definitions and infantile grandiose claims to abject deference, remain impervious to the horrific consequences of their vainglorious machinations, as they must, or be driven by overwhelming self loathing to slit their own throats with luxury hotel cutlery at one or other of their self-congratulatory banquets, where they higgle and haggle politely over the anticipated real estate returns to unbridled investment in predatory genocide.
May they look in the mirror one morning and see what is really there, those Nulands and Clintons and Bidens and Obamas clinking glasses of champagne over the mountains of corpses they have created, like any Nazi in a concentration camp. Did I forget that Graham character?
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll repeat a point I made recently, probably on Glenn's Substack, about the democratic deficit in US foreign policy. George Beebe is just the latest highly impressive former member of the upper echelons of US governmental architecture to allude to the possibility/probability that a sitting US president in Donald Trump could be thwarted from delivering a peace deal by, as he put it, "the Washington foreign policy establishment". So what's the purpose of the president then, if this shadowy junta are controlling the US military? Is he just there for show? To provide a mirage of democracy?
The relevant segment is about 50 minutes into the video, I think.
As for competing with China, I have a suggestion that might shock the Washington foreign policy establishment: study harder. Be cleverer than them. Be more innovative than them. Then create stuff that the rest of the world wants to buy. That is what genuine competition is, unlike Washington's eternal foreign policy of "Let's kill everyone and steal all their stuff".
Is that baked into US political structures? All former US presidents have really just been little more than figureheads? Mount Rushmore should really be four blank faces representing the shadowy junta?
Genuine question as I'm a European and have no great understanding of US politics.
Can the USA claim to be a democracy then, given that apparent democratic deficit?
All this 'Vote Trump' and 'Vote Biden' is pretty meaningless then? A charade?
Correct. It has always been this way. Or are we to believe that the lazy, uneducated masses are holding governments accountable by casting their votes every four years (a clown show, really), then doing absolutely nothing to check on their governments in the interim? The media is bought and the average person is glued to their phone, living paycheck to paycheck. Is that really so hard to believe that you and I have zero control over our governments, and that people with money and power do, the same way it’s been for centuries?
i'm a canuck, but it is how i see it... i think the usa presidency has become more of a figurehead thing - like the concept of monarchy which they were supposed to be evading.. this has become especially so the past 50 years... but perhaps an american with greater insight can comment on this..
Good discussion about how reasonable minds would approach a negotiation for lasting peace. “Architecture “ is the operative word to make this Grand Bargain possible. Mentioned is that the art of Diplomacy has atrophied and is now non-existent in the West. Taken together all these existing requirements make any such grandiose, overarching treaty impossible. That’s why I find Responsible State Craft so annoying. It deals in the impossible found in a Perfect World and there are no signs of that materializing anytime soon. The way of dealing with conflict in the West, that is now endemic, is to identify an enemy and kill it. Couple that with the complete lack of trust that any agreement they make will be honored and you have the makings of complete chaos overseen by very small minds in the West.
NATO is a Cabal of Overpaid Warlords who have plundered and abused Eastern European Territory with LIES about Russia contemplating invading them to re-establish the Old USSR / Soviet Union this Farcical LIE against the only Country who has stuck by the Agreement an agreement NATO has broken several times in trying to force Putin into retaliating but Putin is much much to CLEVER for this clapped out Sabre Rattling Private Club run by Senile Corrupt Generals and Billionaire Arms Dealers and Manufacturers for Profit from Death and Misery. I can think of only one way to Describe these Evil Insidious Depraved Cult and it is Corrupt Lying Bastards.
There is not such a “thing” like NATO. There is no European Identity, no conformity how can there be a EU army or NATO Army, when all depends on US military? I can’t see a German or French or Italian or Swedish as one army like Russian Army, and talking about the US army there’s too much and expensive high tech and an AI that’s every time encountered on the battle field, victory today losing tomorrow. NATO and EU are impotent and the future is bleak.
Germany, France, the UK and the rest of western Europe have shot themselves in one foot by acquiescing to the destruction of Nordstream. Now they are taking aim at their other foot with their idiotic policies regarding Ukraine. Ukraine is not worth it. NATO is over.
- It was the US who destroyed Nordstream. But that decision was the MOST STUPID (LONG TERM) STRATEGIC decision the US EVER made, Especially for the health of the US AS WELL.
- As soon as the US goes "tits up" on day X, then NATO will go "tits up" as well, on day X+1.
The U.S. has to find an interest other than global hegemony, which has been its raison d'etre at least since 1944 (Bretton Woods). Otherwise, because the U.S. is categorically unable to perceive the sovereignty, independence, or economic success of any state besides itself as anything other than a threat, peace on this planet is impossible.
As for your guest's matter-of-fact statement that the USSR was the "threat" responsible for Cold War 1.0, here is a link to NSC-68, the textbook case of psychological projection of the U.S.'s aggressive intent after WWII onto the USSR by Paul Nitze used to justify what became by the U.S. for the next 40 years the murder of millions, worldwide assassinations and violent coups, replacement of popular leaders with vicious tyrants, and the destruction of entire countries: https://info.publicintelligence.net/US-NSC-68.pdf
The USSR, which was decimated by WWII, defended its western border from U.S.-NATO aggression by occupying states that became the Warsaw Pact. None of this would have happened if Truman, rather than to have been corrupted by his fanatically anticommunist Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, had kept FDR's promise to Stalin (yes, Stalin was a monster) of financial aid after WWII instead of elevating the USSR to the greatest "threat" the world had ever seen..
There is one and only one threat on this planet today, as there was throughout the entire Cold War, and that is U.S. The USSR supported anticolonial forces because colonialism is bad. The U.S. has no national project besides imperialism and is forever paranoid about losing its hegemony.
Here is a recording of Michael Parenti on the subject:
I perhaps should have prefaced my post by noting:- They don't want to stop Ukraine war at all they want to weaken Russia & trounce it (& plunder it like most everywhere else) ..control it Banking system (THAT is the big one)...they don't want to stop any wars or terrorism in Mid East et al they want to keep all going as it is highly profitable for SOME private interests ... & also expand control into Iran & Eurasia & so on & their Banking Systems....all their plans are obvious from watching what they have always done & are still doing.....Put simply, it is about short term war profits & expanding the footprint of central banking control of nations (that they don't yet control)....& shafting the locals ...I might add keeping them poor, weak & ignorant. PS They do not care how many millions the kill. They now have BRICS to grapple with .....let's see if they can corrupt that also?......the down side is that if they don't, they will prob get us all killed trying in the most monstrous war of all time!
Forty-eight thousand relatives of Russian troops have submitted DNA samples, a government minister was recorded as saying, in a sensitive discussion apparently referring to attempts to identify dead soldiers by their remains.
The figure was given by Deputy Defence Minister Anna Tsivilyova at a round-table discussion on Nov. 26, prompting a senior lawmaker to warn that such data should not be published anywhere.
We keep talking about how Trump wants to pull America out of NATO, or at least make the Europeans pay a lot more for American protection and take more responsibility - not just financially - for their own defence.
But how realistic is any of this? I can’t see NATO staying together if America pulled out, and I don’t think that’s desirable either. Europe is headless, the famous Franco-German couple is broken, and there would be endless squabbles between the members over how to run a European defence function. It needs American leadership for NATO to function.
As for Europe building its own arms industry to match American quality and price - that’s a fantasy, however desirable it might sound. But Europe could run a procurement program - Airbus runs a worldwide supplier network and very successfully manages time quality and price (ask Boeing!), through configuration management and quality control on the production lines. American arms industry as supplier, the customer is king!
And this idea of Europe paying more for its defence - why should it? Paying more doesn’t necessarily mean better defence, currently it would just mean paying higher prices for the same provision. The real question is: why is there even a need for this level of defence in the first place?
This question uncovers the real problem, unresolved since the Cold War...since Mackinder indeed: the lack of a proper security architecture for Europe and its borderlands, the sea power - land power challenge. The former Soviet republics should be as they always were - a buffer space between Russia and Western Europe ( i'm not justifying Russophobia here at all or in any way, I think the fear of Russia is misplaced). But these short-term democratic leaders just keep dodging what is a very difficult and long-term project, maybe 10 to 20 years.
And let’s be honest: the first step to real European security would be for America to give up its underhand hegemonic plans to grab Russian resources. America should order a rewrite of RAND_RR3036 instead.
Oh boy,...sorry love Glenn but I don't buy any of this...Seems to me perhaps:- the American people are being swindled out of the land under their feet just like the Palestinians & others..and it is facilitated by & large by the swindlers that can "print as much money as they like and counterfeit money "legally""....& then, lend this money to their GLOBAL crime syndicate/s at zero or need zero interest rates...by this method they can buy everybody they want or get them sacked &/or de-funded,...don't listen to their fake "owned" media (which controls the minds of the people),...also don't listen to their politicians, public servants, academics & pundits just watch what they do....with this "unlimited free money" (stolen from the public by saddling them up with the public debt associated with these loans) they then BUY/finance (READ OWN) all the mainstream media Barons & debate, buy up all Wall St & London Stock EX et al, corrupt Govt's to outlaw & criminalise any real opposition or debate, infiltrate & corrupt academia, the Judiciary et al..& get folks everywhere who don't Know Tow to them & their "BS narrative" sacked/demonetized ....of they wish they just get folks assassinated most anywhere on earth......I hope I am mistaken...REBUTTALS WELCOME PLEASE, I am keen to learn how I am wrong.
The Ukrainians are ALREADY losing badly. The western mainstream propaganda is lying when it refuses to acknowledge this fact. Meanwhile, Ukraine is turned into rubble and a failed state. As with Israel, if the U.S. just cut them off and say "No more money/weapons/loans" Ukraine would fall immediately.
But (a) they haven't lost yet (wars end when someone stops fighting), and (b) their sponsors still think they can control the narrative so we think Ukraine are the plucky hero resisting the evil monster ... bla bla ... things will have to be a lot worse before they give up that retarded fantasy. That's why I said "one, possibly more".
- Agree. what's needed is a US economy that has shrunk by say 30, 50 or more percentage. Only then the "Imperial ambitions" of the US Empire will be curbed. and bring lasting peace in the Ukraine, Middle East and North Africa.
In my opinion, this discussion is somewhat disappointing, because it is focused on the interests of the elites and their puppets, and not of the people. When you talk about 'the Ukrainians', who do you mean? That Ukrainian people was and is being asked nothing. They are just the cannon fedder but they didn't want NATO in their country. Peace in Ukraine requires the respect of the well-being of the Ukrainian people. Common people just want to live in peace. Where is this urgent perspective in your talks?
Whats hard to swallow is that the criminals responsible for the agonising situation persist in brashly insisting on their obscenely comfortable selves as the saints of the saga, who by their false self definitions and infantile grandiose claims to abject deference, remain impervious to the horrific consequences of their vainglorious machinations, as they must, or be driven by overwhelming self loathing to slit their own throats with luxury hotel cutlery at one or other of their self-congratulatory banquets, where they higgle and haggle politely over the anticipated real estate returns to unbridled investment in predatory genocide.
May they look in the mirror one morning and see what is really there, those Nulands and Clintons and Bidens and Obamas clinking glasses of champagne over the mountains of corpses they have created, like any Nazi in a concentration camp. Did I forget that Graham character?
you forgot to mention antony blinken..
Seems a little harsh on Heather Graham.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll repeat a point I made recently, probably on Glenn's Substack, about the democratic deficit in US foreign policy. George Beebe is just the latest highly impressive former member of the upper echelons of US governmental architecture to allude to the possibility/probability that a sitting US president in Donald Trump could be thwarted from delivering a peace deal by, as he put it, "the Washington foreign policy establishment". So what's the purpose of the president then, if this shadowy junta are controlling the US military? Is he just there for show? To provide a mirage of democracy?
The relevant segment is about 50 minutes into the video, I think.
As for competing with China, I have a suggestion that might shock the Washington foreign policy establishment: study harder. Be cleverer than them. Be more innovative than them. Then create stuff that the rest of the world wants to buy. That is what genuine competition is, unlike Washington's eternal foreign policy of "Let's kill everyone and steal all their stuff".
the president is mostly just a figurehead...
Has that always been the case?
Is that baked into US political structures? All former US presidents have really just been little more than figureheads? Mount Rushmore should really be four blank faces representing the shadowy junta?
Genuine question as I'm a European and have no great understanding of US politics.
Can the USA claim to be a democracy then, given that apparent democratic deficit?
All this 'Vote Trump' and 'Vote Biden' is pretty meaningless then? A charade?
Correct. It has always been this way. Or are we to believe that the lazy, uneducated masses are holding governments accountable by casting their votes every four years (a clown show, really), then doing absolutely nothing to check on their governments in the interim? The media is bought and the average person is glued to their phone, living paycheck to paycheck. Is that really so hard to believe that you and I have zero control over our governments, and that people with money and power do, the same way it’s been for centuries?
i'm a canuck, but it is how i see it... i think the usa presidency has become more of a figurehead thing - like the concept of monarchy which they were supposed to be evading.. this has become especially so the past 50 years... but perhaps an american with greater insight can comment on this..
Good discussion about how reasonable minds would approach a negotiation for lasting peace. “Architecture “ is the operative word to make this Grand Bargain possible. Mentioned is that the art of Diplomacy has atrophied and is now non-existent in the West. Taken together all these existing requirements make any such grandiose, overarching treaty impossible. That’s why I find Responsible State Craft so annoying. It deals in the impossible found in a Perfect World and there are no signs of that materializing anytime soon. The way of dealing with conflict in the West, that is now endemic, is to identify an enemy and kill it. Couple that with the complete lack of trust that any agreement they make will be honored and you have the makings of complete chaos overseen by very small minds in the West.
NATO is a Cabal of Overpaid Warlords who have plundered and abused Eastern European Territory with LIES about Russia contemplating invading them to re-establish the Old USSR / Soviet Union this Farcical LIE against the only Country who has stuck by the Agreement an agreement NATO has broken several times in trying to force Putin into retaliating but Putin is much much to CLEVER for this clapped out Sabre Rattling Private Club run by Senile Corrupt Generals and Billionaire Arms Dealers and Manufacturers for Profit from Death and Misery. I can think of only one way to Describe these Evil Insidious Depraved Cult and it is Corrupt Lying Bastards.
There is not such a “thing” like NATO. There is no European Identity, no conformity how can there be a EU army or NATO Army, when all depends on US military? I can’t see a German or French or Italian or Swedish as one army like Russian Army, and talking about the US army there’s too much and expensive high tech and an AI that’s every time encountered on the battle field, victory today losing tomorrow. NATO and EU are impotent and the future is bleak.
- For a new "security arrangement" for Europe to be possible we need to REDUCE the overbaring influence of the US and its commercial interests.
Germany, France, the UK and the rest of western Europe have shot themselves in one foot by acquiescing to the destruction of Nordstream. Now they are taking aim at their other foot with their idiotic policies regarding Ukraine. Ukraine is not worth it. NATO is over.
- It was the US who destroyed Nordstream. But that decision was the MOST STUPID (LONG TERM) STRATEGIC decision the US EVER made, Especially for the health of the US AS WELL.
- As soon as the US goes "tits up" on day X, then NATO will go "tits up" as well, on day X+1.
The U.S. has to find an interest other than global hegemony, which has been its raison d'etre at least since 1944 (Bretton Woods). Otherwise, because the U.S. is categorically unable to perceive the sovereignty, independence, or economic success of any state besides itself as anything other than a threat, peace on this planet is impossible.
As for your guest's matter-of-fact statement that the USSR was the "threat" responsible for Cold War 1.0, here is a link to NSC-68, the textbook case of psychological projection of the U.S.'s aggressive intent after WWII onto the USSR by Paul Nitze used to justify what became by the U.S. for the next 40 years the murder of millions, worldwide assassinations and violent coups, replacement of popular leaders with vicious tyrants, and the destruction of entire countries: https://info.publicintelligence.net/US-NSC-68.pdf
The USSR, which was decimated by WWII, defended its western border from U.S.-NATO aggression by occupying states that became the Warsaw Pact. None of this would have happened if Truman, rather than to have been corrupted by his fanatically anticommunist Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, had kept FDR's promise to Stalin (yes, Stalin was a monster) of financial aid after WWII instead of elevating the USSR to the greatest "threat" the world had ever seen..
There is one and only one threat on this planet today, as there was throughout the entire Cold War, and that is U.S. The USSR supported anticolonial forces because colonialism is bad. The U.S. has no national project besides imperialism and is forever paranoid about losing its hegemony.
Here is a recording of Michael Parenti on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As4YVKXoHzM&ab_channel=Carrow
I perhaps should have prefaced my post by noting:- They don't want to stop Ukraine war at all they want to weaken Russia & trounce it (& plunder it like most everywhere else) ..control it Banking system (THAT is the big one)...they don't want to stop any wars or terrorism in Mid East et al they want to keep all going as it is highly profitable for SOME private interests ... & also expand control into Iran & Eurasia & so on & their Banking Systems....all their plans are obvious from watching what they have always done & are still doing.....Put simply, it is about short term war profits & expanding the footprint of central banking control of nations (that they don't yet control)....& shafting the locals ...I might add keeping them poor, weak & ignorant. PS They do not care how many millions the kill. They now have BRICS to grapple with .....let's see if they can corrupt that also?......the down side is that if they don't, they will prob get us all killed trying in the most monstrous war of all time!
any potential peace treaty needs to acknowledge this is a war between NATO and Russia and have the two sides agree on a deal. Ukraine is incidental.
Glenn Diesen, why don’t you and Mercouris and your guests never discuss Russian casualties in the war?
You have the list of names here https://en.zona.media/article/2022/05/20/casualties_eng-trl and then you got Putin’s niece telling this.
Forty-eight thousand relatives of Russian troops have submitted DNA samples, a government minister was recorded as saying, in a sensitive discussion apparently referring to attempts to identify dead soldiers by their remains.
The figure was given by Deputy Defence Minister Anna Tsivilyova at a round-table discussion on Nov. 26, prompting a senior lawmaker to warn that such data should not be published anywhere.
Great show Glenn!
We keep talking about how Trump wants to pull America out of NATO, or at least make the Europeans pay a lot more for American protection and take more responsibility - not just financially - for their own defence.
But how realistic is any of this? I can’t see NATO staying together if America pulled out, and I don’t think that’s desirable either. Europe is headless, the famous Franco-German couple is broken, and there would be endless squabbles between the members over how to run a European defence function. It needs American leadership for NATO to function.
As for Europe building its own arms industry to match American quality and price - that’s a fantasy, however desirable it might sound. But Europe could run a procurement program - Airbus runs a worldwide supplier network and very successfully manages time quality and price (ask Boeing!), through configuration management and quality control on the production lines. American arms industry as supplier, the customer is king!
And this idea of Europe paying more for its defence - why should it? Paying more doesn’t necessarily mean better defence, currently it would just mean paying higher prices for the same provision. The real question is: why is there even a need for this level of defence in the first place?
This question uncovers the real problem, unresolved since the Cold War...since Mackinder indeed: the lack of a proper security architecture for Europe and its borderlands, the sea power - land power challenge. The former Soviet republics should be as they always were - a buffer space between Russia and Western Europe ( i'm not justifying Russophobia here at all or in any way, I think the fear of Russia is misplaced). But these short-term democratic leaders just keep dodging what is a very difficult and long-term project, maybe 10 to 20 years.
And let’s be honest: the first step to real European security would be for America to give up its underhand hegemonic plans to grab Russian resources. America should order a rewrite of RAND_RR3036 instead.
Oh boy,...sorry love Glenn but I don't buy any of this...Seems to me perhaps:- the American people are being swindled out of the land under their feet just like the Palestinians & others..and it is facilitated by & large by the swindlers that can "print as much money as they like and counterfeit money "legally""....& then, lend this money to their GLOBAL crime syndicate/s at zero or need zero interest rates...by this method they can buy everybody they want or get them sacked &/or de-funded,...don't listen to their fake "owned" media (which controls the minds of the people),...also don't listen to their politicians, public servants, academics & pundits just watch what they do....with this "unlimited free money" (stolen from the public by saddling them up with the public debt associated with these loans) they then BUY/finance (READ OWN) all the mainstream media Barons & debate, buy up all Wall St & London Stock EX et al, corrupt Govt's to outlaw & criminalise any real opposition or debate, infiltrate & corrupt academia, the Judiciary et al..& get folks everywhere who don't Know Tow to them & their "BS narrative" sacked/demonetized ....of they wish they just get folks assassinated most anywhere on earth......I hope I am mistaken...REBUTTALS WELCOME PLEASE, I am keen to learn how I am wrong.
At least one, possibly more, of the parties to the conflict have to lose badly before they will concede.
The Ukrainians are ALREADY losing badly. The western mainstream propaganda is lying when it refuses to acknowledge this fact. Meanwhile, Ukraine is turned into rubble and a failed state. As with Israel, if the U.S. just cut them off and say "No more money/weapons/loans" Ukraine would fall immediately.
Yes, I know.
But (a) they haven't lost yet (wars end when someone stops fighting), and (b) their sponsors still think they can control the narrative so we think Ukraine are the plucky hero resisting the evil monster ... bla bla ... things will have to be a lot worse before they give up that retarded fantasy. That's why I said "one, possibly more".
- Agree. what's needed is a US economy that has shrunk by say 30, 50 or more percentage. Only then the "Imperial ambitions" of the US Empire will be curbed. and bring lasting peace in the Ukraine, Middle East and North Africa.
At the expense of the U.S. working class who, in a shrunken economy, will fall even farther into the pit of destitution and despair.
- The elites at the top of the US Empire don't care about the working class at all.
In my opinion, this discussion is somewhat disappointing, because it is focused on the interests of the elites and their puppets, and not of the people. When you talk about 'the Ukrainians', who do you mean? That Ukrainian people was and is being asked nothing. They are just the cannon fedder but they didn't want NATO in their country. Peace in Ukraine requires the respect of the well-being of the Ukrainian people. Common people just want to live in peace. Where is this urgent perspective in your talks?
Beyond disappointing. Disconnected from reality.
That's what happens when you have an American exceptionalist on as a guest who avoids honesty & reality.
This proxy war in Ukraine will end when America withdraws from Ukraine & central Europe or Russia reaches Ukraine's western border.
Anything else expressed by a western "expert" is just blah, blah, blah.
Tell this to Zelenskyy and the rest of the Nazi crooks mismanaging the country.