The US Government's Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) holds a briefing on the "moral and strategic" necessity of partitioning Russia
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Jun 22, 2022·edited Jun 22, 2022Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Great piece. Spending time in DC a few years before Trump ran for president made me realize how far removed from reality the "thinkers" there were from the "flyover" parts of the country, let alone the rest of the world.
Great article as always. Thanks for providing an insightful counterpoint to the mainstream media's pro-American Empire agitprop.
Our leaders in the USA are quite the combination of nakedly corrupt, boundlessly arrogant, and hopelessly incompetent. They're behaving like caricatures of cartoon villains, as in, the one-dimensional "bad guys" in children's cartoons tend to be better developed and to be more sympathetic character-wise than the clowns governing America's empire, who are like an absurd caricature of an absurd caricature. One wonders how such people can even exist; yet they do, and they hold the reigns of institutional power in the USA.
What you describe in this article would be like if the crew of the Titanic had been focussed on making plans for breaking apart the iceberg with a hammer and chisel, after the ship had already started sinking and the passengers were desperately trying to board the lifeboats. This clownshow is not going to end well. I just hope when the SHTF, people remember who was at the helm when they rammed our civilization directly into the iceberg.
Jun 22, 2022·edited Jun 22, 2022Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Not just a great piece...an important one. This is truly shocking. Presidents from Eisenhower through to Reagan, possibly Bush 1, would have hit the roof over anything like this. Deliberate provocations against a nuclear armed power, during a war in which the US is a de facto co-belligerent should be inconceivable to any sane person. And make no mistake, China would be taking very careful note at any sign of official or semi-official US enthusiasm for separatism anywhere in the world. The same would be true for any number of countries, including allies, some of whom are super-sensitive about separatism (India, Indonesia, Turkey).
The Beltway has clearly learned nothing from the tragedy of Clinton era policy in Yugoslavia. Whatever one thinks of present-day Croatia or Serbia, the role of Washington (and London, Berlin etc) or the war there, the policies of the West at that time were ugly, unedifying and reckless. It seems particularly insane, given the increasing frequency and urgency with which people now talk of separatism within the USA itself.
Still, if there is a dollar in it, the think-tank, NGO and Beltway crowds will make themselves available. for anything.
“The selective advantage of dominant ideas” is Curtis Yarvin’s explanation for the seemingly endless litany of stupidity emanating from the empire.
Professor Deneen, post liberal order substack calls it the “political Gnosticism of the liberal imperium “ .
Either way the clerical elite that runs this world are pushing us towards hell. But that is human history, peace is an interruption of our natural state: war.
What is amazing is the reserve of the Russians. Imagine the reaction if the Kremlin sponsored events to discuss supporting white nationalists in Idaho or Black Panthers in Chicago? Or if China did the same for events to discuss the possibility of offering Chinese recognition to an independent Hawaii?
Does anyone in the Beltway realise that Russia may very well be propping up the US financial market? By continuing to make payments to overseas bond-holders Russia is frustrating or postponing the constructed default of the bond market that the Biden Administration has tried to effect. No one knows (or is acknowledging) the exposure of Western banks and hedge funds to counter party risk on Russian bonds and the implications of all this for the stability of the system. You get the impression that the best and brightest really are as dumb as rocks.
Agreed this is idiocy. But don't overestimate the influence of these talking shops. The USA has scrupulously kept its own personnel and NATO personnel out of the fighting. I yield to no one in my loathing of Biden, but his administration and the US Military have been consistently cautious in this current mess, so one cheer for that. Uniformed US Military is fully aware of Russian nuclear arsenal. Criticism of the USA is legitimate, but we should not imagine that it is an all-seeing monster, and that these various talking shops full of academics in bow ties are really secret messaging channels reflecting deep policy, sending out cryptic signals. The USGov is far from coherent, and its hangers-on and wannabes have all kinds of opinions that will never be actionable. Watch what it does, not what paper-pushers and scribblers wish it would do. I hope they have a nice conference, and everyone gets to schmooze afterward, and maybe enjoy some cheese and crackers.
Whatever this statement reflects, i doubt it's incompetence and may not be delusion either. Instead it seems to fit nicely into the pattern of repetitive provocations that some of the ruling factions in the DC Regime hope will result in a Russian attack that can be manipulated into a wider war. These people on the CSCE say and do nothing without their master's orders, so it reflects the desire to provoke Russia. Why do they want war?
One, they don't believe that Russia will go nuclear, so they are banking on a conventional war. To what end? The Western financial system is collapsing. War has been the favored tool of tottering empires and sick regimes, both to rally unhappy populations for easier control and to implement radical societal changes otherwise intolerable to the people. War also makes the MIC filthy rich and the Regime is certain to cash in.
Perhaps it is delusional for the Regime to believe they can win a conventional war against Russia, but who will bear the brunt of the destruction? Likely Europe. Too bad for them, DC reasons. We will be left to reassemble the pieces, they think.
What the Regime cannot have is this slow, steady grinding victory by Russia that doesn't allow for escalation or worldwide condemnation. The Regime must get Russia off its game. This statement fits into all the other provocations we've seen these past months.
How far do you see the relationship between Russia and China going in the next 5 to 10 years? Is there possibility of an outright alliance?
Same question extends to Iran/Syria/Myanmar/African states - on Wikipedia it quotes the then CSTO secretary-general in 2007 saying that Iran could join if it wanted.
Taking guidance from clowns with personal animus toward Russians (what, a Circassian, a Kyrgyz, an Uzbek, a Ukrainian, and some Peace Corps dope). The entire Western response to Russia is all about personal beefs and vendettas...
Jun 22, 2022·edited Jun 22, 2022Liked by Niccolo Soldo
LOL
As possible and real as the partition/deindustrialization of Germany according to Morgenthau's crazy fantasies towards the end of WW2
But the real issue here is...
These people will continue to exist as long as there are NGOs and commitees paid for by Soros and the UN and the uber dangerous "National Endowment for Democracy" ( NED, to its friends) and the rest of usual suspects.
Surplus bureaucrats working for solutions to imaginary problems.
Like having plenty of doctors but no sick patients...
However, I can foresee a future where Russia plays a diminished role ( if they dont do it by now.. the Cold war and Soviet Union have been dead over for 31 years !! ), and their not-too-stellar military performance in Ukraine has just confirmed that NATO is quite overstretched and overblown.
About "Hubris", its paywalled but I guess that unlike Russia, China is totally OK with the current status quo --- western countries doing economic seppukku by sending their manufacturing there , hey but the shareholder value has increased !!!, so who cares about blue collar workers? --- so they wont be willing that much to rock the boat, so to speak.
And they'd do whetever serves their interests best, and if that requires aligning with the West vs Russia..... they'll do just that.
These “experts” can’t even see past their own nose’s(no reference intended). A broken up Russia would lead to complete Chinese domination of most of Asia! Everything east of the Urals would be there for the taking.
Hit the like button and use the share button to share this across social media. Leave a comment if the mood strikes you, and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.
Also: please check your spam box or promotions tab to see posts that you may have recently missed. It seems that emails sent from this Substack aren't landing in your inboxes all the time.
Here's a larger view of the map for those interested - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Dissolution_of_Russia.png
Great piece. Spending time in DC a few years before Trump ran for president made me realize how far removed from reality the "thinkers" there were from the "flyover" parts of the country, let alone the rest of the world.
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West is morally and fiscally bankrupt. All we export is usury.
Inbox
Great article as always. Thanks for providing an insightful counterpoint to the mainstream media's pro-American Empire agitprop.
Our leaders in the USA are quite the combination of nakedly corrupt, boundlessly arrogant, and hopelessly incompetent. They're behaving like caricatures of cartoon villains, as in, the one-dimensional "bad guys" in children's cartoons tend to be better developed and to be more sympathetic character-wise than the clowns governing America's empire, who are like an absurd caricature of an absurd caricature. One wonders how such people can even exist; yet they do, and they hold the reigns of institutional power in the USA.
What you describe in this article would be like if the crew of the Titanic had been focussed on making plans for breaking apart the iceberg with a hammer and chisel, after the ship had already started sinking and the passengers were desperately trying to board the lifeboats. This clownshow is not going to end well. I just hope when the SHTF, people remember who was at the helm when they rammed our civilization directly into the iceberg.
Not just a great piece...an important one. This is truly shocking. Presidents from Eisenhower through to Reagan, possibly Bush 1, would have hit the roof over anything like this. Deliberate provocations against a nuclear armed power, during a war in which the US is a de facto co-belligerent should be inconceivable to any sane person. And make no mistake, China would be taking very careful note at any sign of official or semi-official US enthusiasm for separatism anywhere in the world. The same would be true for any number of countries, including allies, some of whom are super-sensitive about separatism (India, Indonesia, Turkey).
The Beltway has clearly learned nothing from the tragedy of Clinton era policy in Yugoslavia. Whatever one thinks of present-day Croatia or Serbia, the role of Washington (and London, Berlin etc) or the war there, the policies of the West at that time were ugly, unedifying and reckless. It seems particularly insane, given the increasing frequency and urgency with which people now talk of separatism within the USA itself.
Still, if there is a dollar in it, the think-tank, NGO and Beltway crowds will make themselves available. for anything.
“The selective advantage of dominant ideas” is Curtis Yarvin’s explanation for the seemingly endless litany of stupidity emanating from the empire.
Professor Deneen, post liberal order substack calls it the “political Gnosticism of the liberal imperium “ .
Either way the clerical elite that runs this world are pushing us towards hell. But that is human history, peace is an interruption of our natural state: war.
Nickie five cents is spot on as usual.
What is amazing is the reserve of the Russians. Imagine the reaction if the Kremlin sponsored events to discuss supporting white nationalists in Idaho or Black Panthers in Chicago? Or if China did the same for events to discuss the possibility of offering Chinese recognition to an independent Hawaii?
Does anyone in the Beltway realise that Russia may very well be propping up the US financial market? By continuing to make payments to overseas bond-holders Russia is frustrating or postponing the constructed default of the bond market that the Biden Administration has tried to effect. No one knows (or is acknowledging) the exposure of Western banks and hedge funds to counter party risk on Russian bonds and the implications of all this for the stability of the system. You get the impression that the best and brightest really are as dumb as rocks.
- suppress their national self-expression and self-determination.
The map has a partition for Tyva, the supposed successor to Tannu Tuva, which was somewhat enthusiastic about joining the Soviet Union to begin with.
Agreed this is idiocy. But don't overestimate the influence of these talking shops. The USA has scrupulously kept its own personnel and NATO personnel out of the fighting. I yield to no one in my loathing of Biden, but his administration and the US Military have been consistently cautious in this current mess, so one cheer for that. Uniformed US Military is fully aware of Russian nuclear arsenal. Criticism of the USA is legitimate, but we should not imagine that it is an all-seeing monster, and that these various talking shops full of academics in bow ties are really secret messaging channels reflecting deep policy, sending out cryptic signals. The USGov is far from coherent, and its hangers-on and wannabes have all kinds of opinions that will never be actionable. Watch what it does, not what paper-pushers and scribblers wish it would do. I hope they have a nice conference, and everyone gets to schmooze afterward, and maybe enjoy some cheese and crackers.
Whatever this statement reflects, i doubt it's incompetence and may not be delusion either. Instead it seems to fit nicely into the pattern of repetitive provocations that some of the ruling factions in the DC Regime hope will result in a Russian attack that can be manipulated into a wider war. These people on the CSCE say and do nothing without their master's orders, so it reflects the desire to provoke Russia. Why do they want war?
One, they don't believe that Russia will go nuclear, so they are banking on a conventional war. To what end? The Western financial system is collapsing. War has been the favored tool of tottering empires and sick regimes, both to rally unhappy populations for easier control and to implement radical societal changes otherwise intolerable to the people. War also makes the MIC filthy rich and the Regime is certain to cash in.
Perhaps it is delusional for the Regime to believe they can win a conventional war against Russia, but who will bear the brunt of the destruction? Likely Europe. Too bad for them, DC reasons. We will be left to reassemble the pieces, they think.
What the Regime cannot have is this slow, steady grinding victory by Russia that doesn't allow for escalation or worldwide condemnation. The Regime must get Russia off its game. This statement fits into all the other provocations we've seen these past months.
How far do you see the relationship between Russia and China going in the next 5 to 10 years? Is there possibility of an outright alliance?
Same question extends to Iran/Syria/Myanmar/African states - on Wikipedia it quotes the then CSTO secretary-general in 2007 saying that Iran could join if it wanted.
Taking guidance from clowns with personal animus toward Russians (what, a Circassian, a Kyrgyz, an Uzbek, a Ukrainian, and some Peace Corps dope). The entire Western response to Russia is all about personal beefs and vendettas...
Hvala brate
LOL
As possible and real as the partition/deindustrialization of Germany according to Morgenthau's crazy fantasies towards the end of WW2
But the real issue here is...
These people will continue to exist as long as there are NGOs and commitees paid for by Soros and the UN and the uber dangerous "National Endowment for Democracy" ( NED, to its friends) and the rest of usual suspects.
Surplus bureaucrats working for solutions to imaginary problems.
Like having plenty of doctors but no sick patients...
However, I can foresee a future where Russia plays a diminished role ( if they dont do it by now.. the Cold war and Soviet Union have been dead over for 31 years !! ), and their not-too-stellar military performance in Ukraine has just confirmed that NATO is quite overstretched and overblown.
About "Hubris", its paywalled but I guess that unlike Russia, China is totally OK with the current status quo --- western countries doing economic seppukku by sending their manufacturing there , hey but the shareholder value has increased !!!, so who cares about blue collar workers? --- so they wont be willing that much to rock the boat, so to speak.
And they'd do whetever serves their interests best, and if that requires aligning with the West vs Russia..... they'll do just that.
These “experts” can’t even see past their own nose’s(no reference intended). A broken up Russia would lead to complete Chinese domination of most of Asia! Everything east of the Urals would be there for the taking.