19 Comments
author

I'll reply for Ms. Johnstone: No. Tks for reading Diana's piece.

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Thanx. Great piece that covers the main points very well. As I said someplace else, what Russia is doing in the Ukraine, NATO did in Kosovo. The US committed aggressive war on Iraq, Syria, and Libya and, really, Afghanistan should be included since it was OBL and not the government of Afghanistan that perpetrated 9/11. Where are the calls for sanctions, disconnection from SWIFT, blocking of banking transactions, denial of overflight privileges, etc. directed at the US? Until all nations are treated equally, no nation can be treated fairly.

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Great comment, Jeff!

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Also remember JFK 60 years ago and how he dealt with Soviet missiles in Cuba. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

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founding

You are first to comment on this situation. My other 10 substack subscriptions are dead silent, I suppose they don’t know what to think.

Combined with Patrick Lawrence’s peace on “primacy or world order”, The scrum is giving us something to think about. Main stream media has fully abdicated their role of holding power to account they are stenographer‘s. Putin is evil plus pictures of stuff blown up, that’s about it.

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author

Thanks on Diana's behalf, RJ. Generous encouragement, rec'd w/ appreciation.

Among the remarkable developments of the past few days is the number of people who have done good work in the past now flipping to apologize for their sound analyses of Russia and the Ukraine question. No grasp of history, inadequate intellectual framework through which to judge events, a failure to self-educate. It's wheat-from-chaff time. & so be it.

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founding

Don’t forget career considerations, people know how easily they can replaced: go alone to get along. It is the same phenomenon as Harvey Weinstein‘s predations in the movie industry.

It is remarkable how propagandized we are in the west, how compliant the media are and the level of enforcement of the official narrative. Your two articles strike me as simple arguments - primacy and arrogance- that should be broadly discussed but MSM are silent. We are lost.

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author

Yes, RJ, of course. The Brass Check. SInclair's book is well worth reading, its purple excesses notwithstanding, 102 years after he (self-) published it.

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Thank you - we agree.

Glenn Greenwald also made a fabulous overview on Rumble:

Glenn Greenwald: Video and its transcript -- The War in Ukraine

https://systemupdate.substack.com/p/rumble-live-transcript-the-war-in?utm_source=url

Rumble Live Transcript: The War in Ukraine (substack.com)

OUTSTANDING – GG discusses the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the debate over what role the U.S. Government should play, if any, in its outcome.

There is perhaps another angle on all this.

- It is one thing when thousand people are killed in one day in "far away" places like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Somalia

- It may be completely different thing when "whites are killing whites"....

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Thank you very much.

It ALL starts with modern “original sin” and the Big Lie. Key players in the Russia-gate hoax and impeachment “entertainments” are now celebrating about “all but certain major war in Europe a la WW2” which they eagerly stoked.

Repulsive ghouls Adam Schiff, colonel Alexander Windman (an extremist Ukrainian Russia-gater), Jake Sullivan, advisor to Hillary who played key role in the Russia-gate hoax and now national security advisor to Biden ("replaced" Michael Flynn), and Fiona Hill (a rabid Cold War warrior on National Security Council).

SAME lying bastards who led the scam of the century concocted by the SAME lying team -- Obama-Biden-Hillary-Pelosi-Schumer-Schiff and the rest of DNC-CIA/FBI cabal.

Adam Schiff has been, for years, a leading recipient of huge “donations” by arm industry – his main source of funds. Remember when Raytheon in 2013 put on a Beyonce concert to promote Adam Schiff? This despicable -- that human excrement and serial liar is among leading Congress war-mongers and recipient of arm industry donations.

http://politicalpartytime.org/party/36073/

Schiff is now driving government’s domestic terrorism legislation !! In his free time this loathsome grifter wants to write a novel – of all things about Holocaust.

The entire Russia-gate lying team is back in FULL power -- we are now paying the price for not fully unmasking the brazen scam of the century. Of course, Trump and GOP lunatics were and remain VERY bad – however, DNC lying and warmongering team is INFINITELY more dangerous.

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Delighted to have Diana Johnstone join The Scrum. Excellent piece. It’s good to be in the minority of Americans who see through the propaganda and know the real history as well as the playbook of the expansionist US empire.

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A most excellent analogy and essay in general. Thanks.

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I wrote about it the war here in some depth:

https://amade.substack.com/p/bidens-gambit?s=w

We think alike . . . even called one of the sections "laying the bait" . . . .

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Ukraine was a lever to Nord Stream 2, Nord Stream 2 was a lever to the halt the combination of Germany and Russia (See infamous (Peter) Durnovo Memo and substitute USA for UK). China - Russia combined is MIC-IMATT wet dream, but China - Germany (and thus EU) - Russia combine is their nightmare.

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It's interesting, in a somewhat disturbing way, the only big name public figure in the US calling this bullshit is Donald Trump.

It doesn't say much for the rest.

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Here is an interesting article;

https://pamho.medium.com/war-plans-were-leaked-on-purpose-by-russia-4-months-ago-and-that-is-why-dems-kept-predicting-war-edaedd6b4bc5

One observation it makes is that Brzezinski, arguably the architect of this plan, had started to realize its flaws and weak points, but was being pushed aside by the more mindless neocons, who can only understand Checkers, where all pieces can only move forward until they reach the other side. While Chess is exponentially more complex, given different pieces move differently.

It goes to the fact we are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, circular, feedback generated reality.

This situation has certainly coalesced the simple minded and the power of the crowd is hard to counter directly, so the issue is whether this dynamic can be sustained, or will some of the other issues start to distract from it.

Here is one possible distraction; https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/bankruptcy-for-moderna-definitely-pfizer.html

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Not a comment-Are you related to Caitlin Johnstone?

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author

Natalie. My comment just posted was meant for you and got misplaced in the thread. Patrick.

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