I'm trying to be civil Mike; but the histrionic melodrama that's in a few of the posts here are tiresome and I'm calling them out.
I'm no longer arguing with Stupids. Over the last six years I'm drained of patience and I'm going to let my Jimmy Dore nature come out for a walk (like him I'm working class white Irish American who's not scared of a brawl)
They want to debate facts, and even the interpretation of those facts, I'm all in man. But if they want to go all Twitter-y and just moan...no. I'm done with that.
If you think I'm wrong or out of line, lemme know. After all this is your house, man; I'm just renting! LOL
We are also debating against literal Nazi supporters. Godwin’s law does not apply to actual self avowed Nazis. not quite sure how concerned to be about the tender feelings of the genocidal, who control all forms of media and whose wildest fantasies are coming true.
Also people who post things like “if it’s true there was a coup” are, as Justin Trudeau would say, wastes of space.
The key lessons I learned after 9/11 and the run-up to military actions in Iraq & Afghanistan:
1. The "news" media & politicians will use all methods at their disposal to emotionally traumatize the public and keep them fearful and angry in order to garner their support for actions that make no sense in regards to actually protecting the US border or the US public. You literally cannot trust anything they say or show you in these situations.
2. The real agendas behind US military interventions is so crass and pathetic that it can't possibly be made public or no sensible person would support them. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. And we were only told Afghanistan played a role. Notice that once the wars started in earnest, getting Bin Laden was placed on the back burner for over a decade. So, "Justice" for 9/11 clearly wasn't the real agenda behind the Iraq/Afghanistan wars.
3. A lot of people are gullible morons. I include myself in that group. My only saving grace is that age has taught me that I can be manipulated if the right buttons are pushed; so I am always on the lookout for situations where the "news" media is trying to push my buttons. At that point, I take everything with a grain of salt and wait for the stories to play out. Because the first thing you hear or see is virtually always a big fat lie.
A perfect example happened just a few days back. A photo circulated in Western "news" sources of "Russian soldiers" aggressively holding "Ukrainian villagers" at gun point. A video showed "Russian missiles" bombing a "Ukrainian city." Turns out, after 24 hours, a retraction was made on both. The photo was actually of Israeli soldiers holding some Palestinian women at gun point and the video was of Israeli artillery shelling Gaza City.
The bizarre thing is that the same "news" personalities who expressed outrage when it was thought the photo & video were about Russian actions couldn't care less when it was revealed that the photo & video were about Israeli actions. It seems if there was something of any real significance actually going on in Ukraine that in this age of smart phones and global internet that it wouldn't be too hard to get real photos and real video out about it, don't you think? That fact there makes me doubt every single thing I hear (and see) on the "news" in regards to Ukraine.
One very good indication of the media's total corruption is that Israel always gets the benefit of the doubt. Bombing apartment buildings on purpose, for example. Whereas Russia and other enemies of the Empire (China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.) are constantly cast in the worst possible light.
I would agree, except they have made Russia into an odd sort of boogeyman completely outsized as to their actual "crimes," which, as you pointed out, are no worse than many those of many other countries, including this one.
There is always a boogeyman the "news" tries to ram into our psyche... The Ayatollah... Saddamn... Assad... Trump... Putin... The psychological manipulation never ends.
I've taken the same journey, and I generally find that I assume the opposite is true until proven otherwise by a source I trust (like Michael Tracey and a few others here on Substack), especially when Fox and all the left wing MSM are saying the same thing.
I appreciate your reporting, Mr. Tracey! Sort of like the reasonable position of questioning vaccine efficacy and safety, I now take the equally unpopular view of questioning the efficacy and safety of going all-out to defend Ukraine. That doesn't mean I want to kill Grandma. The censorship parallels are somewhat astounding. You'd think we'd all be like - we've seen this circus before.
We literally haven’t left the other tent yet! Maybe that’s part of it. People who are starting just now to suspect they’ve been fooled want a quick distraction from self reflection.
I think you're right. It's at least a three ring circus, and they're just deflecting from the clown show of COVID in ring one and the clown show of our morally bankrupt government in ring two.
"World War III has already started" is the new NPC pavlovian response. It has replaced "Don't you know there is a Pandemic going on???!" when you brought up the horrible effects of lockdowns and masking on children.
It is so easy for them to manage the vast unthinking Herd.
"the stated policy of the “West” is to engineer a sudden economic collapse in Russia"
There are those that believe that Russia was prepared for this and will not have an economic collapse. If that happens to be true, it might be the only thing that saves us from WW3. Crazy to think of the possibility that Putin is the individual responsible for preventing the world war.
I've been reading his stuff for the last 6 months and he and Michael Hudson are making complete sense to me. Interviews with Moderate Rebels and other podcasts are full of details about how the "Empire" is desperately trying to hang on to its privilege. The repeated escalation of war and more war pretty much back up the points these guys make.
Consortium news and Scott Ritter also provide a clear picture of what is happening.
Especially important is Escobar talking about "the Global South" and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Look up the SCO on Wikipedia. Find a map. Plot out the members. They are putting together an economic system that will totally shut out the USA.
American citizens are going to be screwed. Millennials who aspire to "the good life" are advised to "Learn Mandarin".
When the Iron Curtain came down, Germany spent BILLIONS re-unifying East & West Germany.
There were calls in the USA to significantly invest in Russia to make sure Russia didn’t slip back into it’s old ways. Those calls went largely unheeded and here we are today…
Pushing Russia to China…and the US youth will pay a heavy, heavy price…
Considering how smugly they lecture us wHItE supreMAcists from the halls of Harvard, the very institution most responsible for losing Russia, not all eyes will weep for them.
That is the reason. Want to provide another other than the stupid refrain about how Putin is a madman. He has support of the entire Russian Government.
Americans are going to feel much, much more pain from these self-centered actions of the American Oligarchy than the Russians are. The collapse of the Ruble against the dollar means Russians can't buy American goods -- do you recall your US History from elementary school? The US put tariffs on imports which in turn caused manufacturing inside the USA to blossom.
If weak, incompetent, corrupt and ineffectual leadership caused it, I may agree with you, but it's still a stretch to say the USA started it. Russia started it.
Actually, in a way you are correct, because it was the corruption of the American Oligarchy that started this war. They used Ukraine to launder billions of dollars through military assistance programs. Hunter Biden was one of those who was paid off. Donald Trump was also being paid off. When Congress ships weapons to Ukraine rather than support Medicare for All, they are being paid off.
And we stand by and let them.
Here's some more history of the situation which details the Nazification of Ukraine.
The USA was sending aid to the Nazis. So, it is hard for me to blame Russia and anyone who solely declares "Russia started it" without some acknowledgement of the US and NATO's role in this crisis hasn't paid attention.
OTOH, declaring the USA started it is accurate because the destruction of Russia has been the USA's goal for decades.
This is going to backfire on the USA, but don't worry, the Oligarchy will still be in control. You will lose your house and your job and your medical insurance, but that's a small price to pay -- right?
Very clearly in two treaty proposals delivered to the USA which Blinken didn't bother to acknowledge. You have heard of these proposals right? Primarily, no NATO membership for Ukraine -- in writing.
Perhaps they shouldn't have listened to the American Oligarchs promises. The USA set them up. It would have been a simple matter to acknowledge Russia's concerns about Ukraine membership in NATO.
Of course Ukraine is fighting for its life. It is being attacked. Its infrastructure and buildings are being destroyed. Its people are being killed and displaced. That isn't fighting for its life? What planet do you live on?
Hysterical, emotional, illogical. Why reason why you can spray arcs of hormones like the Bethesda fountain on HRT?
Putin has defined terms for Ukraine Denazify. Get rid of all the shit NATO has sold it. Recognize the Donbass republics. He’s refusing to call it an invasion for a reason. Not to trigger westerners lining up to buy Zelenskyy dildos. But because his original intention was to accomplish a limited set of goals and then recede from western Ukraine.
“BUt hEks kiLLing peOple!” Yes, dear, it’s a war, not a school shooting. The killing will continue until one side wins. This is how it looks.
Do you know how many Yemenis and Somalis we killed since the start of this war? No? Do your hormones not respond to darker types?
It will if you click on it and refresh the page. I've contacted substack support, but they haven't done anything about it. I'm on Safari, perhaps the problem is just on Macs.
I don't get how someone who's paying $50 a year to read Alt news/commentary can be so shallow in your assessment of what's going on over there. Your histrionics would be more welcome (and less challenged) on Twitter.
Sevender's pretty much laid it out for you right the hell right here and yet you're still caterwauling.
Look, could you just try to listen to those who disagree with you? Could you please act a little more open minded and mature?
Ah, another stalwart guardian of mainstream war propaganda narrative. Such courage, to stand up with literally every media outlet, government official and wine mom against scattered voices already silenced by others. Give yourself a medal.
I know. It's disheartening to see these blind fools come out of the woodwork and from under rocks. They want to pick a fight over semantics and definitions when real people are fleeing for their lives and a country is being decimated. Shows real understanding, knowledge, empathy and character, doesn't it?
It’s not a fight against semantics. It’s a fight against stupidity.
Yes, Zelenskyy is trying to goad the west and no, he’s not fighting for his country’s life as a matter of FACT, not grammar. You’re just clawing at anything that ruins your virtuegasm.
Sure that worked in HS, but most of the people here are grown-ups. For example, are you even aware that the so called 'safe corridor' that's been shut in the costal city was closed by the Ukrainians so their fighters would have human shields? And that it's the Greek media reporting this?
Please...go to brunch and stuff your mouth, OK? At least you wouldn't be yammering. JHC
OK since you put it like that I get your point. What you’re saying is a no-fly zone could lead to nuclear war therefore asking the Americans to impose a no-fly zone would only make things worse for Ukrainians. I think Naomi‘s point was much simpler than that: Ukrainians are desperate and simply trying to save themselves.
They are dragging it out unnecessarily while more destruction happens. Why is Zelensky not demanding Biden get involved in negotiations and return to Minsk -- would get ceasefire that way
OK, I got to admit that would be the best course of action: certainly a no-fly zone would potentially create World War III. I saw Marco Rubio on TV today and he made a interesting point. For America to enforce a no-fly zone they would first attack and eliminate the surface to air missile defence Russia has in place in the Ukraine and at the Russian border which he said is de facto World War III.
IMHO it is a CYA story. Or perhaps the Oligarchs who control NBC have suddenly woken up to the fact that Bugsy Siegal is screwing up operations in the Tropicana in Las Vegas and costing them an "arm and a leg". Bugsy will be eliminated.
Wow, don't tell me the Deep State decided Detente was the sensible route after all? After two impeachments, it takes the spectre of nuclear WW3 to make people rethink?
Somehow NATO countries like Finland, Poland and Romania have managed to get by for decades without attacking their non-NATO neighbors. Wondering why it should be different the other way round.
Poland and Romania are very recent additions to NATO and were never going to attack Ukraine because they would have had to take on the USSR, which was more closely aligned with Ukraine at that time. Other NATO countries' article 5 responsibilities are negated if the NATO country is the aggressor. Finland is not a NATO country for the simple fact that it has been a standing agreement that it would maintain neutrality between Russia and NATO. Beyond that this is a highly superficial understanding of the situation. If you want a correlation, go back and read about the 1960s and what nearly happened when the USSR tried to put missiles in Cuba. Let's just say the US didn't react all that well.
Yep, I meant Norway rather than Finland, sorry. Of course there are differences between these countries and Russia, but what I'm saying is that having a buffer country to the opposite block is not a necessity for a civilized country. If you think about it, the larger a country is, the less of a problem it should have with its neighbors being oppositely aligned. Putin seems to have a different idea, though.
"Hey, NBC News: you ever think that a tweet from Ukraine’s foreign minister might not be sufficient to run with the claim that “Russian shelling of a nuclear power plant” was on the verge of causing a nuclear catastrophe “10 times worse than Chernobyl”? How about you, Independent? Or you, Piers Morgan?"
Dare to dream fact checking or rational thinking would creep into legacy media fear porn.
I’m not suggesting that Russia’s actions are in any way justified, but the result of all western companies leaving Russia and throwing millions out of work will be far worse for the West….
This is an extremely imprudent action that generations of those in the West will come to severely regret.
THANK YOU Michael for adding some reality to this conversation our world are having about blowing it up.
With the obvious and true caveat that what is happening in Ukraine is an outrage, let's also acknowledge that Ukraine is also the media's new 'crisis toy', to create alarm and viewer dependency. And the playbook is really obvious and tiring frankly.
They leveraged partisan bureaucrats in the CDC to hype hysteria and Covid-19 ... in order to get clicks and enhance their self-importance.
They leveraged outright lies from the DNC and partisan hacks in the FBI to hype hysteria about 'Russian collusion' (whatever that is) ... in order to get clicks and enhance their self-importance.
Putin's been talking about his issues w/ NATO for years and years and his voice has fallen on deaf ears. I'll go out on a limb here and assume he's got a pretty good idea what he's all about in this.
Simply looking at the facts of his progress in 10 days shows me that he's made some impressive tactical strides (owns all the ports and a big-ass nuke plant).
Not only are his demands few, he actually has a concrete mission objectives (see Sevender and Zwiebel below) and an exit strategy. I for one, have great doubts that big-ass convoy MSM was harping on last week was 'bogged down'.
A superficial look at Uk's political history since before 2014 shows it to be a clown show.
Zelensky looks like he has been doing lines for days. Why doesn't he take a shower, shave and put a suit on. He represents 44 million Ukrainian citizens.
After he does that, he immediately needs to stop accepting phone calls from Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland before he starts making decisions that turn Kyiv into 1994 Grozny. All Ukraine needs to do (basically) is sign an agreement to remain a neutral non NATO member. That is all. But why would the war criminal architects of the Iraq war want Ukraine to remain neutral?
We are a nation/world full of NPC's. Astonishingly, it only took the establishments information apparatus what... 3-4 days? In 3-4 days the establishment turned millions and millions of people into anti Russian racists. These are regular people... Just like Germans were in 1930. 99% of these people can't even point to the Donbas on a map nor tell you any of the languages spoken there. Amazing stuff.
It feels like there is growing pushback but will it be enough? Isn't Zelensky about to make his plea at the UN? Zelensky is a career actor. I imagine he will be very comfortable on that stage at the UN and his act will be held up as the greatest speech in US history by the liberal media.
I hope folks will pay particular attention to this line from Moon of Alabama, maybe then we will begin to understand the corruption our own Government where just over 600 people define our policies and who is elected President. It is the American Oligarchy what has manipulated the money supply to make homes unaffordable for the Millennials.
"(Besides that oligarchs like Kolomoyskyy pay and use them for their own purposes.)"
Just like aluminum tubes and yellowcake, I'm afraid it's an inexorable progression. 20 years from now, we'll be able to point to the no-fly cheerleaders like we do the WMD in Iraq idiots but it will be too late.
Accurate. Normally I don't even bother engaging with the crazies and stupids, but in this case, they're holding my life and the lives of my family in their hands. Anyone who wants to lift a finger to help the Ukraine is _wrong_. There are two choices; let the Russians have their way, more or less, with Ukraine, or alternatively to destroy our way of life in short order through nuclear devastation. There are no other choices. If you think there are other choices, you're crazy or stupid. Thank you.
Please try to be civil in the comments.
I'm trying to be civil Mike; but the histrionic melodrama that's in a few of the posts here are tiresome and I'm calling them out.
I'm no longer arguing with Stupids. Over the last six years I'm drained of patience and I'm going to let my Jimmy Dore nature come out for a walk (like him I'm working class white Irish American who's not scared of a brawl)
They want to debate facts, and even the interpretation of those facts, I'm all in man. But if they want to go all Twitter-y and just moan...no. I'm done with that.
If you think I'm wrong or out of line, lemme know. After all this is your house, man; I'm just renting! LOL
We are also debating against literal Nazi supporters. Godwin’s law does not apply to actual self avowed Nazis. not quite sure how concerned to be about the tender feelings of the genocidal, who control all forms of media and whose wildest fantasies are coming true.
Also people who post things like “if it’s true there was a coup” are, as Justin Trudeau would say, wastes of space.
I just got here, who's the Nazi's?
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/06/robert-parry-when-western-media-saw-ukraines-neo-nazis/
There are neo-Nazis distrubted throughout the Ukrainian armed forces and government. See https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/
Keep up your great work. A great reminder showed up in my email today. I think I will delete my comments "arguing with strangers:.....
https://dailystoic.com/what-would-you-do-less-of/
The key lessons I learned after 9/11 and the run-up to military actions in Iraq & Afghanistan:
1. The "news" media & politicians will use all methods at their disposal to emotionally traumatize the public and keep them fearful and angry in order to garner their support for actions that make no sense in regards to actually protecting the US border or the US public. You literally cannot trust anything they say or show you in these situations.
2. The real agendas behind US military interventions is so crass and pathetic that it can't possibly be made public or no sensible person would support them. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. And we were only told Afghanistan played a role. Notice that once the wars started in earnest, getting Bin Laden was placed on the back burner for over a decade. So, "Justice" for 9/11 clearly wasn't the real agenda behind the Iraq/Afghanistan wars.
3. A lot of people are gullible morons. I include myself in that group. My only saving grace is that age has taught me that I can be manipulated if the right buttons are pushed; so I am always on the lookout for situations where the "news" media is trying to push my buttons. At that point, I take everything with a grain of salt and wait for the stories to play out. Because the first thing you hear or see is virtually always a big fat lie.
A perfect example happened just a few days back. A photo circulated in Western "news" sources of "Russian soldiers" aggressively holding "Ukrainian villagers" at gun point. A video showed "Russian missiles" bombing a "Ukrainian city." Turns out, after 24 hours, a retraction was made on both. The photo was actually of Israeli soldiers holding some Palestinian women at gun point and the video was of Israeli artillery shelling Gaza City.
The bizarre thing is that the same "news" personalities who expressed outrage when it was thought the photo & video were about Russian actions couldn't care less when it was revealed that the photo & video were about Israeli actions. It seems if there was something of any real significance actually going on in Ukraine that in this age of smart phones and global internet that it wouldn't be too hard to get real photos and real video out about it, don't you think? That fact there makes me doubt every single thing I hear (and see) on the "news" in regards to Ukraine.
One very good indication of the media's total corruption is that Israel always gets the benefit of the doubt. Bombing apartment buildings on purpose, for example. Whereas Russia and other enemies of the Empire (China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.) are constantly cast in the worst possible light.
I would agree, except they have made Russia into an odd sort of boogeyman completely outsized as to their actual "crimes," which, as you pointed out, are no worse than many those of many other countries, including this one.
There is always a boogeyman the "news" tries to ram into our psyche... The Ayatollah... Saddamn... Assad... Trump... Putin... The psychological manipulation never ends.
I've taken the same journey, and I generally find that I assume the opposite is true until proven otherwise by a source I trust (like Michael Tracey and a few others here on Substack), especially when Fox and all the left wing MSM are saying the same thing.
Them all saying the same thing is never a good sign
I appreciate your reporting, Mr. Tracey! Sort of like the reasonable position of questioning vaccine efficacy and safety, I now take the equally unpopular view of questioning the efficacy and safety of going all-out to defend Ukraine. That doesn't mean I want to kill Grandma. The censorship parallels are somewhat astounding. You'd think we'd all be like - we've seen this circus before.
We literally haven’t left the other tent yet! Maybe that’s part of it. People who are starting just now to suspect they’ve been fooled want a quick distraction from self reflection.
I think you're right. It's at least a three ring circus, and they're just deflecting from the clown show of COVID in ring one and the clown show of our morally bankrupt government in ring two.
"World War III has already started" is the new NPC pavlovian response. It has replaced "Don't you know there is a Pandemic going on???!" when you brought up the horrible effects of lockdowns and masking on children.
It is so easy for them to manage the vast unthinking Herd.
Sorry, but NPC? I know MPC, BIOPOC and others, but not this one. Seriously.
Non-player character
Thanks man. (Fuck I'm old! LOL TMI w/ too many TLA's is leaving me DUM)
LOL. Me too!
"the stated policy of the “West” is to engineer a sudden economic collapse in Russia"
There are those that believe that Russia was prepared for this and will not have an economic collapse. If that happens to be true, it might be the only thing that saves us from WW3. Crazy to think of the possibility that Putin is the individual responsible for preventing the world war.
Pepe Escobar is one of those who thinks this is going to backfire on the West.
https://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Russia-Will-Counterpun-by-Pepe-Escobar-Dollar_Ruble_Russia_Swift-Bank-220305-756.html
I've been reading his stuff for the last 6 months and he and Michael Hudson are making complete sense to me. Interviews with Moderate Rebels and other podcasts are full of details about how the "Empire" is desperately trying to hang on to its privilege. The repeated escalation of war and more war pretty much back up the points these guys make.
Consortium news and Scott Ritter also provide a clear picture of what is happening.
Especially important is Escobar talking about "the Global South" and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Look up the SCO on Wikipedia. Find a map. Plot out the members. They are putting together an economic system that will totally shut out the USA.
American citizens are going to be screwed. Millennials who aspire to "the good life" are advised to "Learn Mandarin".
They are right
When the Iron Curtain came down, Germany spent BILLIONS re-unifying East & West Germany.
There were calls in the USA to significantly invest in Russia to make sure Russia didn’t slip back into it’s old ways. Those calls went largely unheeded and here we are today…
Pushing Russia to China…and the US youth will pay a heavy, heavy price…
Considering how smugly they lecture us wHItE supreMAcists from the halls of Harvard, the very institution most responsible for losing Russia, not all eyes will weep for them.
My nephew did, and became a neurosurgeon, and the family wondered why? clear now
Russia is still a controlled society. The Russian people will have to endure the pain if that is what it takes for Putin to get what he wants.
No Russian wants Ukraine in NATO.
Supposedly that's why Putin chose to invade and take over Ukraine.
That is the reason. Want to provide another other than the stupid refrain about how Putin is a madman. He has support of the entire Russian Government.
Americans are going to feel much, much more pain from these self-centered actions of the American Oligarchy than the Russians are. The collapse of the Ruble against the dollar means Russians can't buy American goods -- do you recall your US History from elementary school? The US put tariffs on imports which in turn caused manufacturing inside the USA to blossom.
“Supposedly.”
And Xi.
The claim that Russia wants to do anything more than its stated goals are ridiculous.
But if this is WWIII, it is the USA that started it.
If weak, incompetent, corrupt and ineffectual leadership caused it, I may agree with you, but it's still a stretch to say the USA started it. Russia started it.
Actually, in a way you are correct, because it was the corruption of the American Oligarchy that started this war. They used Ukraine to launder billions of dollars through military assistance programs. Hunter Biden was one of those who was paid off. Donald Trump was also being paid off. When Congress ships weapons to Ukraine rather than support Medicare for All, they are being paid off.
And we stand by and let them.
Here's some more history of the situation which details the Nazification of Ukraine.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/zelensky-and-the-fascists-he-will-hang-on-some-tree-on-khreshchatyk.html
The USA was sending aid to the Nazis. So, it is hard for me to blame Russia and anyone who solely declares "Russia started it" without some acknowledgement of the US and NATO's role in this crisis hasn't paid attention.
OTOH, declaring the USA started it is accurate because the destruction of Russia has been the USA's goal for decades.
This is going to backfire on the USA, but don't worry, the Oligarchy will still be in control. You will lose your house and your job and your medical insurance, but that's a small price to pay -- right?
thanks for posting that link.
Yes I believe Russia has stated its goals
Very clearly in two treaty proposals delivered to the USA which Blinken didn't bother to acknowledge. You have heard of these proposals right? Primarily, no NATO membership for Ukraine -- in writing.
Yes in detail, Putin stated his position clearly
Ukraine is fighting for its life. "Goad" the US into WW3? They are seeking their own survival any way they can get it.
Perhaps they shouldn't have listened to the American Oligarchs promises. The USA set them up. It would have been a simple matter to acknowledge Russia's concerns about Ukraine membership in NATO.
The Ukraine Nazis are real: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/zelensky-and-the-fascists-he-will-hang-on-some-tree-on-khreshchatyk.html
It’s so funny watching news organizations dismiss Nazis as propaganda when it’s trivially easy to find their own previous coverage of them.
Well Zelensky is Jewish so it seems akin to calling America a racist country while we had a black president.
Max Blumenthal has nicely eviscersted that position.
Having a vocabulary malfunction?
It isn’t fighting for its life.
Of course Ukraine is fighting for its life. It is being attacked. Its infrastructure and buildings are being destroyed. Its people are being killed and displaced. That isn't fighting for its life? What planet do you live on?
Hysterical, emotional, illogical. Why reason why you can spray arcs of hormones like the Bethesda fountain on HRT?
Putin has defined terms for Ukraine Denazify. Get rid of all the shit NATO has sold it. Recognize the Donbass republics. He’s refusing to call it an invasion for a reason. Not to trigger westerners lining up to buy Zelenskyy dildos. But because his original intention was to accomplish a limited set of goals and then recede from western Ukraine.
“BUt hEks kiLLing peOple!” Yes, dear, it’s a war, not a school shooting. The killing will continue until one side wins. This is how it looks.
Do you know how many Yemenis and Somalis we killed since the start of this war? No? Do your hormones not respond to darker types?
Pretty much this. (Why isn't the 'like' button working on the above reply?)
It will if you click on it and refresh the page. I've contacted substack support, but they haven't done anything about it. I'm on Safari, perhaps the problem is just on Macs.
Same here.
Yup, that worked. Thanks! (You give great link, bud! LOL)
I don't get how someone who's paying $50 a year to read Alt news/commentary can be so shallow in your assessment of what's going on over there. Your histrionics would be more welcome (and less challenged) on Twitter.
Sevender's pretty much laid it out for you right the hell right here and yet you're still caterwauling.
Look, could you just try to listen to those who disagree with you? Could you please act a little more open minded and mature?
It is ridiculous more effort was not put into ceasefire and return to Minsk
metaphor
It isn’t fighting for its life. Period.
ahhh... another hapless internet troll
Ah, another stalwart guardian of mainstream war propaganda narrative. Such courage, to stand up with literally every media outlet, government official and wine mom against scattered voices already silenced by others. Give yourself a medal.
I know. It's disheartening to see these blind fools come out of the woodwork and from under rocks. They want to pick a fight over semantics and definitions when real people are fleeing for their lives and a country is being decimated. Shows real understanding, knowledge, empathy and character, doesn't it?
It’s not a fight against semantics. It’s a fight against stupidity.
Yes, Zelenskyy is trying to goad the west and no, he’s not fighting for his country’s life as a matter of FACT, not grammar. You’re just clawing at anything that ruins your virtuegasm.
Is this all you got, kid? Histrionic moralizing?
BORRRING
Sure that worked in HS, but most of the people here are grown-ups. For example, are you even aware that the so called 'safe corridor' that's been shut in the costal city was closed by the Ukrainians so their fighters would have human shields? And that it's the Greek media reporting this?
Please...go to brunch and stuff your mouth, OK? At least you wouldn't be yammering. JHC
Anthropomorphism
Really? Then why doesn't Zelensky push Biden to negotiate for ceasefire and go back to agreements already made in Minsk?
But...but... the babies in incubators Janine! (I hope you get my point- I'm agreeing w/ you LOL)
I think Naomi has the simple and practical explanation of the Ukrainian motivation: they are about to die, that focuses one’s mind.
Better explanation: Naomi is as much an idiot as Zelenskyy.
Starting a nuclear war on your soil makes it more likely you’ll get killed. Not less.
OK since you put it like that I get your point. What you’re saying is a no-fly zone could lead to nuclear war therefore asking the Americans to impose a no-fly zone would only make things worse for Ukrainians. I think Naomi‘s point was much simpler than that: Ukrainians are desperate and simply trying to save themselves.
Then suing for peace is the one and only correct response.
Gotcha, you are right
They are dragging it out unnecessarily while more destruction happens. Why is Zelensky not demanding Biden get involved in negotiations and return to Minsk -- would get ceasefire that way
OK, I got to admit that would be the best course of action: certainly a no-fly zone would potentially create World War III. I saw Marco Rubio on TV today and he made a interesting point. For America to enforce a no-fly zone they would first attack and eliminate the surface to air missile defence Russia has in place in the Ukraine and at the Russian border which he said is de facto World War III.
And Rubio is no dove, so I'm glad the pro-military types are seeming to be hands on and factual right now. It's the histrionics that are the problem
Thank you.
Simple right! Anyone would do that, yes!
Anyone sub 60 IQ, yes.
Yup fair enough. What do you think Naomi?
And in other news, I saw on MSNBC this morning the following article: "Russia's Ukraine Invasion May Have Been Preventable." The article admits that the sticking point was Ukraine's entry into NATO and that the US and Ukraine only had to agree it wouldn't happen and we wouldn't be here. (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/russia-s-ukraine-invasion-may-have-been-preventable-n1290831?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma) It gives me hope that not everyone has gone around the bend.
IMHO it is a CYA story. Or perhaps the Oligarchs who control NBC have suddenly woken up to the fact that Bugsy Siegal is screwing up operations in the Tropicana in Las Vegas and costing them an "arm and a leg". Bugsy will be eliminated.
I try to be optimistic, but you make a good point.
Wow, don't tell me the Deep State decided Detente was the sensible route after all? After two impeachments, it takes the spectre of nuclear WW3 to make people rethink?
Somehow NATO countries like Finland, Poland and Romania have managed to get by for decades without attacking their non-NATO neighbors. Wondering why it should be different the other way round.
Finland is not in NATO
Poland and Romania are very recent additions to NATO and were never going to attack Ukraine because they would have had to take on the USSR, which was more closely aligned with Ukraine at that time. Other NATO countries' article 5 responsibilities are negated if the NATO country is the aggressor. Finland is not a NATO country for the simple fact that it has been a standing agreement that it would maintain neutrality between Russia and NATO. Beyond that this is a highly superficial understanding of the situation. If you want a correlation, go back and read about the 1960s and what nearly happened when the USSR tried to put missiles in Cuba. Let's just say the US didn't react all that well.
Yep, I meant Norway rather than Finland, sorry. Of course there are differences between these countries and Russia, but what I'm saying is that having a buffer country to the opposite block is not a necessity for a civilized country. If you think about it, the larger a country is, the less of a problem it should have with its neighbors being oppositely aligned. Putin seems to have a different idea, though.
Your ignorance of the situation imposes no duties on others.
"Hey, NBC News: you ever think that a tweet from Ukraine’s foreign minister might not be sufficient to run with the claim that “Russian shelling of a nuclear power plant” was on the verge of causing a nuclear catastrophe “10 times worse than Chernobyl”? How about you, Independent? Or you, Piers Morgan?"
Dare to dream fact checking or rational thinking would creep into legacy media fear porn.
I’m not suggesting that Russia’s actions are in any way justified, but the result of all western companies leaving Russia and throwing millions out of work will be far worse for the West….
This is an extremely imprudent action that generations of those in the West will come to severely regret.
The day the West lost Russia to China..
THANK YOU Michael for adding some reality to this conversation our world are having about blowing it up.
With the obvious and true caveat that what is happening in Ukraine is an outrage, let's also acknowledge that Ukraine is also the media's new 'crisis toy', to create alarm and viewer dependency. And the playbook is really obvious and tiring frankly.
They leveraged partisan bureaucrats in the CDC to hype hysteria and Covid-19 ... in order to get clicks and enhance their self-importance.
They leveraged outright lies from the DNC and partisan hacks in the FBI to hype hysteria about 'Russian collusion' (whatever that is) ... in order to get clicks and enhance their self-importance.
And on and on and on...
"Beware the fury of the patient man."
Putin's been talking about his issues w/ NATO for years and years and his voice has fallen on deaf ears. I'll go out on a limb here and assume he's got a pretty good idea what he's all about in this.
Simply looking at the facts of his progress in 10 days shows me that he's made some impressive tactical strides (owns all the ports and a big-ass nuke plant).
Not only are his demands few, he actually has a concrete mission objectives (see Sevender and Zwiebel below) and an exit strategy. I for one, have great doubts that big-ass convoy MSM was harping on last week was 'bogged down'.
A superficial look at Uk's political history since before 2014 shows it to be a clown show.
Zelensky looks like he has been doing lines for days. Why doesn't he take a shower, shave and put a suit on. He represents 44 million Ukrainian citizens.
After he does that, he immediately needs to stop accepting phone calls from Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland before he starts making decisions that turn Kyiv into 1994 Grozny. All Ukraine needs to do (basically) is sign an agreement to remain a neutral non NATO member. That is all. But why would the war criminal architects of the Iraq war want Ukraine to remain neutral?
We are a nation/world full of NPC's. Astonishingly, it only took the establishments information apparatus what... 3-4 days? In 3-4 days the establishment turned millions and millions of people into anti Russian racists. These are regular people... Just like Germans were in 1930. 99% of these people can't even point to the Donbas on a map nor tell you any of the languages spoken there. Amazing stuff.
It feels like there is growing pushback but will it be enough? Isn't Zelensky about to make his plea at the UN? Zelensky is a career actor. I imagine he will be very comfortable on that stage at the UN and his act will be held up as the greatest speech in US history by the liberal media.
Disgusting times.
I hope folks will pay particular attention to this line from Moon of Alabama, maybe then we will begin to understand the corruption our own Government where just over 600 people define our policies and who is elected President. It is the American Oligarchy what has manipulated the money supply to make homes unaffordable for the Millennials.
"(Besides that oligarchs like Kolomoyskyy pay and use them for their own purposes.)"
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/zelensky-and-the-fascists-he-will-hang-on-some-tree-on-khreshchatyk.html
If there’s only 600 there’s a simple solution.
One would think so. But first ... I dunno... people gotta realize it?
No need to call for a mass uprising for ten little Indians.
Just like aluminum tubes and yellowcake, I'm afraid it's an inexorable progression. 20 years from now, we'll be able to point to the no-fly cheerleaders like we do the WMD in Iraq idiots but it will be too late.
Oh if this goes all the way, 20 years from now no one will have fingers.
I'm still hoping for a more limited destruction, maybe a couple of big cities....
Washington? Silicon Valley? Pleeeease?
I hope NONE! But the drumbeat has started.
Accurate. Normally I don't even bother engaging with the crazies and stupids, but in this case, they're holding my life and the lives of my family in their hands. Anyone who wants to lift a finger to help the Ukraine is _wrong_. There are two choices; let the Russians have their way, more or less, with Ukraine, or alternatively to destroy our way of life in short order through nuclear devastation. There are no other choices. If you think there are other choices, you're crazy or stupid. Thank you.