The reason we know Ukrainian officials are trying to goad the US into war is because that’s exactly what they say they’re doing. There is no ambiguity here — at this very moment, a furious multi-front lobbying blitz is underway to solicit full-fledged US military intervention in Ukraine, and therefore open warfare against Russia. To put it bluntly, a foreign country’s representatives are doing all they possibly can to instigate the closest thing anyone on Earth has ever experienced to World War III.
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.
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.
"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.
"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.
Everybody is talking about war and nobody is talking about peace. Talk of a peaceful solution, negotiations and concessions has more or less been blacklisted from corporate media.
During the cold war, leaders on both sides always said that "war must be avoided at all costs", but now our new leaders appear to believe that "peace must be avoided at all costs".
Please try to be civil in the comments.
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.
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.
"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 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.
"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.
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.
Ukraine is fighting for its life. "Goad" the US into WW3? They are seeking their own survival any way they can get it.
"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
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.
Everybody is talking about war and nobody is talking about peace. Talk of a peaceful solution, negotiations and concessions has more or less been blacklisted from corporate media.
During the cold war, leaders on both sides always said that "war must be avoided at all costs", but now our new leaders appear to believe that "peace must be avoided at all costs".