In 2019, Zelensky was elected on an overwhelming mandate to make peace with Russia. As Stephen F. Cohen warned that year, the US chose to side with Ukraine's far-right and fuel war.
"In 2019, Zelensky was elected on an overwhelming mandate to make peace with Russia. "
Not too different from Barack Obama who was elected to end foreign wars of aggression and instead rolled out the PNAC NeoCons dream plan on steroids. Thank goodness for corporate media with its endless propaganda or we might have a population that demands taxes go to benefit the American public rather than fund the perpetual death and destruction abroad.
great article. Poor Stephen Cohen, hounded by his fellow Dems for daring to disbelieve the anti-Russia fantasies that were proliferating in those last years. And all the predictions of all the great analysts, historians and diplomats who cut their teeth on Russia and its history and its politics, such as Cohen and Kennan and Mearsheimer and Matlock -- coming to pass.
No, Stephen Cohen was sometimes wrong. I remember he had a very conservative period in the 90's, and it was disturbing. I was so pleased to see him become more populist again in the last phase of his career.
Someone once said, “oligarchy has one goal: preserve oligarchy.”
So assuming we know most of the fakers being shuffled around and brought onto talking heads shows aren’t really deciding much, then it becomes clear that the Anglo-American establishment running the show is going for broke and Ukraine is their last ditch effort to preserve their “balance of power” and international “rules-based order”—short of nuclear war or new aggressive rounds of biological warfare (which is possible, hence China essentially remaining on Defcon 2).
Regardless, the Anglo-a American establishment was strategically routed by Russia in Syria, got their asses handed to them in Afghanistan, and now they will lose big time with this Ukraine debacle. We are consistently told Russia, China, and others are the enemies, but if we’re putting down the Koolaid for a moment, the common enemy for both Western populations and Russia, and China, and virtually all sovereign nation states is this small Anglo-American financial slime mold. That imperial slime mold in its most modern form is ultimately the Wall Street and City of London nexus, with its many intelligence tentacles and their metamorphosis over time.
Given the strategic paradigm-shifting moment, I think it’s always important to remind people of what this enemy really is, and their failures, because they really do miscalculate and a window of opportunity really has been opened up for Western populations to take back their institutions.
The constant MSM feedback loops have helped maintain the illusion of power, and the perception that people are powerless order to keep them demoralized and confused with no real hope of understanding how to ever change the big picture.
But in reality the degenerate managerial class is failing big time with their Ukraine Hail Mary, a new global operating system and financial architecture is emerging at lightning speed, without the “international community” ie Five Eyes countries, plus Europe and a few islands…
It’s up to people in the West, as the political and managerial class reels and makes mistake after mistake, to make strategic moves and reclaim their institutions from this decrepit dying (literally) political class and the oligarchy they serve. There is now a window of opportunity.
What’s lacking is a solid vision, an actual plan and policies that people can demand, so that people can show up to town halls, their representatives’ offices and say: “this is what we want; you must do this.” So the proverb goes, “where there is no vision, the people perish.”
If I had to give one concrete and strategic example of something that can mobilize and bring people together on all sides and represent a major STRATEGIC blow to the waning Wall Street/City of London octopus and their “Five Eyes” tentacles, it would be the recent unanimously adopted resolution in the Texas senate to abolish the Federal Reserve and essentially convert it into a National Bank, meaning the power of sovereign credit creation would be taken back from the private merchant banking system ie Wall Street:
“Third National Bank: We support the abolition of the Federal Reserve and the creation of a Constitutional Third National Bank of the United States, based on a gold reserve foundation, focused on investing in the industrial, agricultural, and infrastructural growth of our nation."
It seems like Americans on both sides would also agree to finally getting rid of the Fed and restoring economic sovereignty. This would effectively unite both sides against the common enemy.
You are speaking my language, David, although maybe I've said this to you before. My book is about how to leave the dollarized debt and private accumulation and derivatives bubble with the Fed, but take back the assets at a local level with public banks owned by local gov'ts that have the sole right to loan money they don't have, thereby creating it. Texas is heading in the right direction but nationalizing the Fed takes on the problems and leaves it too big, imo.
The many deceptions of the Western Establishments have been made far more clear. If we look hard into history we can see the truth revealed way before America was even dreamed of. The traditions of power, corporations, slavery, and colonialism were well entrenched and even at the heart of these systems. The experiment our founding fathers established was a good start but despite their best intentions did incorporate a bunch of perpetuating myths.
Also, it is difficult to look very deeply into any current national entity without seeing similar deceptions. This is all planetary and lays like a veil across the eons.
Not that we can’t penetrate this veil and know what to do but it takes a real and abiding understanding that our actual benefit lies there.
Yes, but first the people would have to recognize who/what that common enemy actually is; which, as you alluded, the MSM is preventing. Much of what you've stated here echoes another great investigative journalist I enjoy reading: Matthew Ehret. Wondering if you follow/know of him.
I'd never read Matthew Ehret before but I appreciate you sending me to him, TeeJae. I just read his essay on PNAC & the Age of Bioweapons: 20 yrs of Terror. He mentions many things I already knew (which lets me know we're on the same page) but then adds things I didn't. Following anthrax through to the 2004 Bioshield Act, the Continuity of Government setting up parallel unelected decision-makers, the attempts to allow Russia to present its evidence of US-funded bioweapons labs...
And I've been puzzled over the Shanghai lockdown but Matt's explanation makes sense that the successive Covid waves are different ethnically targeted strains. At the beginning of the pandemic, I read about Ft. Dedrick sending soldiers to Wuhan for the War Games who got sick just when the virus emerged. Later dismissed as Chinese propaganda, I'm still waiting for someone to follow this thread. Here's the link and thanks again:
You're very welcome. Glad you're able to glean more insight from him. And thank you for the link regarding PNAC. I'm well aware of their "work," but had not yet seen Ehret's take on them. I'll check it out.
Scott Ritter’s tweet – April 6, 2022 (he was immediately banned from Tweeter – soon reinstated without explanation). Remember, Scott also courageously fought US bipartisan War party’s WMD fraud in Iraq.
“The Ukrainian National Police committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha. Biden, in seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders to Russia, is guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes. Congratulations America…. We’ve created yet another Presidential war criminal !!”
-----------------------------------------------
@DefenceUkraine -- regarding the Tochka-U fired at the train station:
Get the serial number of the missile off the debris. Provide a list of all Tochka-U’s in your inventory by serial number. Prove that missile was never in your inventory.
But you can’t, because it was.. GUILTY !! --- Scott Ritter tweet – April 8, 2022
These "quasi-fascists" have the full backing of the security state propaganda apparatus, as clearly evident by people pretending to care about Ukraine and not Yemen. The issue is a narrative one. I don't see the US changing policy here- indeed, even the US president doesn't have the power to end this war. The natsec blob has overridden the war powers that would have enabled a diplomatic outcome.
I've posted my video + article ending with this: "the question I raised about [Zelensky's] power to negotiate peace was immediately answered by Aaron Mate, a shining light in the new constellation of real journalists, in a brilliant article called Siding with Ukraine’s far right, US sabotaged Zelensky’s historic mandate for peace." And then I quote from you and include your quotes from Stephen Cohen, Chas Freeman and Noam Chomsky. Here it is:
Ukraine in a nutshell: Wash sided w/the ultranationalists & neo-Nazis thereby checking Zelensky & his popular peace mandate in Ukraine. Why? All fingers point to using Ukraine as a proxy to entrap Russia w/the aim of toppling Putin & breaking up the Russian Federation. NeoCon 101
It is impossible to know with Cartesian certainty or to prove, but there is no doubt in my mind that the War Party in DC has wanted a war with Russia for probably a decade. All the tells are there, in a series of actions that point in only one direction. Maybe not everyone in Washington agrees, but the War Party seems to be powerful enough to tilt the key decisions. This war is not the result of incompetence but of malice aforethought--although the Incompetents in DC undoubtedly played their role too.
Thank you, Aaron, for another insightful article. We have totally lost the capacity for critical thinking in the US, particularly in regards to Russia. Part of this is due to the fact that the current state of affairs in the Russian Area Studies field is a complete failure, unlike in prior decades. In days gone by, the atmosphere of Russian/Soviet studies was less politicized and various points of view were entertained, from Professors Robert C. Tucker to Jerry Hough and the most prescient of them all (IMHO), Stephen F. Cohen, who bemoned this situation in his book "Rethinking the Soviet Experience."
With most or all of those in the US and across the world involved in overtly authoritarian behavior/ ideology identifying as left, liberal or progressive perhaps it’s time to reevaluate such terms as “far right”…..altho in an era when words are violence, equality is racist and men can menstruate perhaps it fits right in..
Right? Orwell tried to warn us in "1984." With labels being co-opted, re-defined and discombobulated, they've become meaningless, so I dispensed with them years ago.
In the interview with the professor, he wonders whether the rest of the transcript of the phone call that kick started Trumps first impeachment was encouraging Zelensky to pursue peace talks with Putin. Did this ever come to light? That may actually be the reason he was impeached, right?
I thank you for this gold star reporting, Aaron. It is so difficult to know what is true and what isn’t with the ubiquitous propaganda war machine at play. There are so few real journalists anymore.
Aaron! This was exactly my point in my new YT, What Zelensky Should Keep: his campaign promise and Ukraine's international agreements. It will be up on Substack soon, so I can refer back to your article in the text.
Unfortunately the United States is one of the worst warmongers in history and worse because it hides behind deception and pretends to be other than it is. Tyranny remains tyranny and an honest tyrant is always better than a devious one which is the US.
"In 2019, Zelensky was elected on an overwhelming mandate to make peace with Russia. "
Not too different from Barack Obama who was elected to end foreign wars of aggression and instead rolled out the PNAC NeoCons dream plan on steroids. Thank goodness for corporate media with its endless propaganda or we might have a population that demands taxes go to benefit the American public rather than fund the perpetual death and destruction abroad.
Aaron, just watched your interview with Cohen in 2019. I think that was historic.. I learned so much. You are doing amazing work.
great article. Poor Stephen Cohen, hounded by his fellow Dems for daring to disbelieve the anti-Russia fantasies that were proliferating in those last years. And all the predictions of all the great analysts, historians and diplomats who cut their teeth on Russia and its history and its politics, such as Cohen and Kennan and Mearsheimer and Matlock -- coming to pass.
No, Stephen Cohen was sometimes wrong. I remember he had a very conservative period in the 90's, and it was disturbing. I was so pleased to see him become more populist again in the last phase of his career.
Someone once said, “oligarchy has one goal: preserve oligarchy.”
So assuming we know most of the fakers being shuffled around and brought onto talking heads shows aren’t really deciding much, then it becomes clear that the Anglo-American establishment running the show is going for broke and Ukraine is their last ditch effort to preserve their “balance of power” and international “rules-based order”—short of nuclear war or new aggressive rounds of biological warfare (which is possible, hence China essentially remaining on Defcon 2).
Regardless, the Anglo-a American establishment was strategically routed by Russia in Syria, got their asses handed to them in Afghanistan, and now they will lose big time with this Ukraine debacle. We are consistently told Russia, China, and others are the enemies, but if we’re putting down the Koolaid for a moment, the common enemy for both Western populations and Russia, and China, and virtually all sovereign nation states is this small Anglo-American financial slime mold. That imperial slime mold in its most modern form is ultimately the Wall Street and City of London nexus, with its many intelligence tentacles and their metamorphosis over time.
Given the strategic paradigm-shifting moment, I think it’s always important to remind people of what this enemy really is, and their failures, because they really do miscalculate and a window of opportunity really has been opened up for Western populations to take back their institutions.
The constant MSM feedback loops have helped maintain the illusion of power, and the perception that people are powerless order to keep them demoralized and confused with no real hope of understanding how to ever change the big picture.
But in reality the degenerate managerial class is failing big time with their Ukraine Hail Mary, a new global operating system and financial architecture is emerging at lightning speed, without the “international community” ie Five Eyes countries, plus Europe and a few islands…
It’s up to people in the West, as the political and managerial class reels and makes mistake after mistake, to make strategic moves and reclaim their institutions from this decrepit dying (literally) political class and the oligarchy they serve. There is now a window of opportunity.
What’s lacking is a solid vision, an actual plan and policies that people can demand, so that people can show up to town halls, their representatives’ offices and say: “this is what we want; you must do this.” So the proverb goes, “where there is no vision, the people perish.”
If I had to give one concrete and strategic example of something that can mobilize and bring people together on all sides and represent a major STRATEGIC blow to the waning Wall Street/City of London octopus and their “Five Eyes” tentacles, it would be the recent unanimously adopted resolution in the Texas senate to abolish the Federal Reserve and essentially convert it into a National Bank, meaning the power of sovereign credit creation would be taken back from the private merchant banking system ie Wall Street:
“Third National Bank: We support the abolition of the Federal Reserve and the creation of a Constitutional Third National Bank of the United States, based on a gold reserve foundation, focused on investing in the industrial, agricultural, and infrastructural growth of our nation."
It seems like Americans on both sides would also agree to finally getting rid of the Fed and restoring economic sovereignty. This would effectively unite both sides against the common enemy.
You are speaking my language, David, although maybe I've said this to you before. My book is about how to leave the dollarized debt and private accumulation and derivatives bubble with the Fed, but take back the assets at a local level with public banks owned by local gov'ts that have the sole right to loan money they don't have, thereby creating it. Texas is heading in the right direction but nationalizing the Fed takes on the problems and leaves it too big, imo.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Dismantle-Empire-2020-Vision/dp/1733347607
Divesting from investment in arms stocks as well. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon feed on war.
The many deceptions of the Western Establishments have been made far more clear. If we look hard into history we can see the truth revealed way before America was even dreamed of. The traditions of power, corporations, slavery, and colonialism were well entrenched and even at the heart of these systems. The experiment our founding fathers established was a good start but despite their best intentions did incorporate a bunch of perpetuating myths.
Also, it is difficult to look very deeply into any current national entity without seeing similar deceptions. This is all planetary and lays like a veil across the eons.
Not that we can’t penetrate this veil and know what to do but it takes a real and abiding understanding that our actual benefit lies there.
Yes, but first the people would have to recognize who/what that common enemy actually is; which, as you alluded, the MSM is preventing. Much of what you've stated here echoes another great investigative journalist I enjoy reading: Matthew Ehret. Wondering if you follow/know of him.
I'd never read Matthew Ehret before but I appreciate you sending me to him, TeeJae. I just read his essay on PNAC & the Age of Bioweapons: 20 yrs of Terror. He mentions many things I already knew (which lets me know we're on the same page) but then adds things I didn't. Following anthrax through to the 2004 Bioshield Act, the Continuity of Government setting up parallel unelected decision-makers, the attempts to allow Russia to present its evidence of US-funded bioweapons labs...
And I've been puzzled over the Shanghai lockdown but Matt's explanation makes sense that the successive Covid waves are different ethnically targeted strains. At the beginning of the pandemic, I read about Ft. Dedrick sending soldiers to Wuhan for the War Games who got sick just when the virus emerged. Later dismissed as Chinese propaganda, I'm still waiting for someone to follow this thread. Here's the link and thanks again:
https://matthewehret.substack.com/p/the-project-for-a-new-american-century
You're very welcome. Glad you're able to glean more insight from him. And thank you for the link regarding PNAC. I'm well aware of their "work," but had not yet seen Ehret's take on them. I'll check it out.
Interview with Scott Ritter, April 6, 2022, By Don DeBar -- Bucha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfHohl6gCJY
------------------------------------------------
Scott Ritter’s tweet – April 6, 2022 (he was immediately banned from Tweeter – soon reinstated without explanation). Remember, Scott also courageously fought US bipartisan War party’s WMD fraud in Iraq.
“The Ukrainian National Police committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha. Biden, in seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders to Russia, is guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes. Congratulations America…. We’ve created yet another Presidential war criminal !!”
-----------------------------------------------
@DefenceUkraine -- regarding the Tochka-U fired at the train station:
Get the serial number of the missile off the debris. Provide a list of all Tochka-U’s in your inventory by serial number. Prove that missile was never in your inventory.
But you can’t, because it was.. GUILTY !! --- Scott Ritter tweet – April 8, 2022
Registered sex offender Scott Ritter is a liar.
Thanks for the authentic perspective Aaron.
These "quasi-fascists" have the full backing of the security state propaganda apparatus, as clearly evident by people pretending to care about Ukraine and not Yemen. The issue is a narrative one. I don't see the US changing policy here- indeed, even the US president doesn't have the power to end this war. The natsec blob has overridden the war powers that would have enabled a diplomatic outcome.
I've posted my video + article ending with this: "the question I raised about [Zelensky's] power to negotiate peace was immediately answered by Aaron Mate, a shining light in the new constellation of real journalists, in a brilliant article called Siding with Ukraine’s far right, US sabotaged Zelensky’s historic mandate for peace." And then I quote from you and include your quotes from Stephen Cohen, Chas Freeman and Noam Chomsky. Here it is:
https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/what-zelensky-should-keep
Very good background and overview. The aggressors in this war are the US, NATO and the Ukrainian nazis. Period.
Indeed. And I would specify the Ukrainian nazis and NATO at the BEHEST of the US (which is ultimately in control of all of this).
Ukraine in a nutshell: Wash sided w/the ultranationalists & neo-Nazis thereby checking Zelensky & his popular peace mandate in Ukraine. Why? All fingers point to using Ukraine as a proxy to entrap Russia w/the aim of toppling Putin & breaking up the Russian Federation. NeoCon 101
It is impossible to know with Cartesian certainty or to prove, but there is no doubt in my mind that the War Party in DC has wanted a war with Russia for probably a decade. All the tells are there, in a series of actions that point in only one direction. Maybe not everyone in Washington agrees, but the War Party seems to be powerful enough to tilt the key decisions. This war is not the result of incompetence but of malice aforethought--although the Incompetents in DC undoubtedly played their role too.
Incompetents, aka useful idiots.
Thank you, Aaron, for another insightful article. We have totally lost the capacity for critical thinking in the US, particularly in regards to Russia. Part of this is due to the fact that the current state of affairs in the Russian Area Studies field is a complete failure, unlike in prior decades. In days gone by, the atmosphere of Russian/Soviet studies was less politicized and various points of view were entertained, from Professors Robert C. Tucker to Jerry Hough and the most prescient of them all (IMHO), Stephen F. Cohen, who bemoned this situation in his book "Rethinking the Soviet Experience."
With most or all of those in the US and across the world involved in overtly authoritarian behavior/ ideology identifying as left, liberal or progressive perhaps it’s time to reevaluate such terms as “far right”…..altho in an era when words are violence, equality is racist and men can menstruate perhaps it fits right in..
Right? Orwell tried to warn us in "1984." With labels being co-opted, re-defined and discombobulated, they've become meaningless, so I dispensed with them years ago.
In the interview with the professor, he wonders whether the rest of the transcript of the phone call that kick started Trumps first impeachment was encouraging Zelensky to pursue peace talks with Putin. Did this ever come to light? That may actually be the reason he was impeached, right?
I thank you for this gold star reporting, Aaron. It is so difficult to know what is true and what isn’t with the ubiquitous propaganda war machine at play. There are so few real journalists anymore.
Scott Ritter and The Battle of the Donbas – April 11, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RKNoIhE40
Russian army is highly trained and professional. Mainstream media should stop repeating Nazi-Ukraine and US War party lies and propaganda.
Aaron! This was exactly my point in my new YT, What Zelensky Should Keep: his campaign promise and Ukraine's international agreements. It will be up on Substack soon, so I can refer back to your article in the text.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIa2UNk81dw
Unfortunately the United States is one of the worst warmongers in history and worse because it hides behind deception and pretends to be other than it is. Tyranny remains tyranny and an honest tyrant is always better than a devious one which is the US.