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I wish all Americans would read this insightful article.

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I wish all Americans could read.

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I have given up on broadcast news and cable news (rabbit ears on the TV helps). I just don't trust them anymore. I am a frequent reader of Zero Hedge and I subscribe to both Matt and Glenn. I believe I am well informed and don't miss the chattering classes at all. Thanks, Matt.

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Look up the Moon of Alabama as well.

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Thank you, Sasha. I will.

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You bet!

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Five years ago, the BBC had no problem documenting the neo-Nazis groups in Ukraine.

Why?

https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1501217774768635919?t=dpj9DlpOQ6Xr5RROuD6Dvw&s=09

I’m sorry to say, but I think trying to frame the Nazi problem in Ukraine as “Russian disinformation” is well, Anglo-American Western spook “disinformation.”

I feel people are being completely Psyoped here.

We don’t need a good guys vs. guys narrative.

The Ukrainian government was overthrown in a putsch in 2014. Ukraine was brought under the topdown control of the Anglo-American Intel establishment. There was even a leaked call between “Lady” Catherine Ashton and the Estonian foreign minister talking about how snipers were shooting on both sides of the protestors. This was pointed out by expert analysts as well. The presumed culprits were guess who? The very same non-existent or small “fringe” radical groups that have no power in Ukraine, apparently.

I don’t see how anyone can call Ukraine a sovereign democratic country at this point. It’s been through two color revolutions. One in 2004 and one in 2014. Two color revolutions on a country whose name literally means “border.” Hmmm, whose border?

Could two color revolutions in 10 years have anything to do with that?

Where’s the Realpolitik?

Why didn’t the Western leaders just agree to a summit over the last 8 years since the maiden, one that would declare Ukraine a neutral country, or that NATO would back up?

NATO did nothing but advance.

Why are we surprised that a country finally acted on its consistently stated red lines? Why violate all those common sense policies, and then call the response an invasion and say the Russians want to reconstitute their Soviet empire.

These are really D-grade narratives with no nuance and zero Realpolitik.

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When you describe the Yanukovych regime as legitimate and its removal as a putsch, you twist the facts of history. The fact is Ukraine had been edging westward economically, culturally and philosophically for a decade. Ukrainians wanted to put the lethargy and brutality of their history with the Soviet Union and Russia behind them. A majority of Ukrainians wanted to join the EU. It was a fact then, it is a fact now. Yanukovych - a thug from Donetsk, but I digress- opted, instead, to sign Ukraine into an economic confederation with Putin’s Russia. Students responded immediately by turning out to protest, peacefully, demanding the government to reverse its decision in favor of European integration. The regime responded with its dreaded Berkut militia. They went in and beat the students, mercilessly and brutally. The brutality against young defenseless students was so repulsive that masses of Ukrainians began flocking to the maidan. This is a fact. Artists, ex-soldiers, farmers, workers, intellectuals, old people, more students arrived by the day. Over the next one hundred days, their numbers grew as did their radicalism and their demands. Centrl Kyiv turned into a massive resistance encampment. All the while, Berkut militia, Russian FSB agents and various lowlifes were employed to break the back of the occupation. In addition to police assaults, there were disappearances and extra judicial killings of activists. After 100 days, the Yanukovych regime snipers began firing on protesters, over 100 were killed in a single day. On that day, Yanukovych lost his legitimacy. He asked for military assistance to quell the protests. The military, however, refused to fire in its own people. His options reduced to one, Yanukovych fled to his handlers in Moscow. Always the hero, he left his militiamen to fend for themselves. This is the revolt that you glibly defame by calling it a putsch. Everyday, more and more facts emerge about people like you who are simply mouthing a cynical narrative that has been honed and created by the the Kremlin and its web of propagandists. In fact, Putin created the Azov battalion by his actions against Ukraine, on the Maidan, in Luhansk, in Donetsk, Mariupol and Crimea. It is rich that people like you imagine yourselves as anti-fascists yet you so effortlessly and confidently mouth the same line as Moscow. Orwell would either vomit or spit in your face. I stand with Orwell.

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The Ukraine rejected the insane IMF style trade deal with the EU. There’s a lot of talk, but if you consider the IMF resource-looting program the EU wanted to offer them, and then the rejection, out of basic common sense, then the whole “Ukraine Westward” narrative sounds quite silly, more like a US State Department talking point.

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You are either and idiot or a troll. A reasonable person would simply compare what has happened to the standards of living, and the lives of people, in Lativia, Estonia and Lithuania in comparison to those in Russia and Belarus. Ukrainians understand, and understood in 2014, the stark choices between opting to integrate with the West versus the East. If you had travelled in the region you might understand this from experience. If the Ukrainians had "rejected the insane IMF-stlye trade deal with the EU", as you suggest, there would have been no Euromaidan in 2014. If you were right today, the Ukrainians would be welcoming their Russian liberators with bread and salt. Your lack of depth is shameful. You are shameful in your lack of depth. If you read from a broader spectrum of opinion you would understand that. . I imagine that if you walked on the streets of an unoccupied Ukrainian city today and argues these points, they would beat you to death. If you went to a Russian occupied city, however, the Russian forces might make you mayor. Apparently, they are having a hard time finding Ukrainians to be their stooges.

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Yes, the trolls are definitely not the ones that go around shaming anyone who dissents. The shamers are usually the good ones ;).

In reality, the whole EU economy has been on a downward trajectory for a long time, so I find the suggestion that Ukraine would somehow benefit from joining the EU strange.

Just a simple fact: Eurasian nations are on their way upwards. That’s just a fact and common sense is causing many to look eastward. These are just facts.

Yes, countries orientating towards Eurasia have all been growing in recent years. The Eurasian orientation is common sense. Remember, the West right now is dominated by a very strange WEF technocratic Borg Cube and financial slime mold. Western nations are hostage to that.

I’m not advocating for any Cold War style split between East West, a “great disjuncture”, or the idea that there needs to be some global hegemony or “Leviathan.” That’s what the imperialists argue, which they just usually frame it as “China and Russia threaten our way of life,” or my favourite, Obama’s “China needs to play by the rules.”

The game is rigged. The only person who believes nations should be “playing by the rules ie the IMF, EU, Wall Street/City of London game” are the tools.

Simple solution: the US, Russia, China, and other nations establish a new Bretton Woods system, end the floating exchange rates and speculation on currencies, collaborate on major and necessary infrastructure programs (including in Africa and the Middle East—instead of funding terrorists), nuclear power, irrigation, new connectivity zones, the Bering Strait Tunnel etc…

Point being, there are a lot of opportunities for real mutual cooperation. The whole Geopolitics game depends on making sure that never happens.

I’m a Canadian and Westerner, which is why I want us to free ourselves from the grip of the Anglo-American establishment and “Old Europe” oligarchs. The problem is not the US or Europe, it’s the private financial interests and intel agencies that have captured these institutions and are playing their own game. That’s what needs to stop, and that depends on Western populations becoming more aware, but also demanding concrete solutions and having a serious dialogue about what the vision is, rather than silly talks of trade deals where no one has any idea what’s actually going to happen, and which just results in more control by private finance.

One of the most important things Trump tried to do was have a direct and serious dialogue with the leaders of both Russia and China.

Everything was done to stop that because it would have meant an end to the beloved “New World Order.”

The next chapters are still unwritten.

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You are not a dissenter or a dissident. Dissidents make the people that hold power worry, you only make them smile. Dissenters risk prison, you risk nothing. Besides, you appear to write from a rather narrow perspective, the result, you appear to have a one dimensional view of the world. I’d take each of your points in order but you lost me at the Borg cube. I’d suggest you read from a wider spectrum of sources than from what you appear to be reading now. Or you might want to join a group like the Center for Political Innovation (CPI). They might to be your kind of people although I hope not. Orwell wasn’t writing for people like you. He was a brilliant man, well-educated, well-travelled, intelligent, open-minded as aware that nothing is as simple as you posit. Two final thoughts, 1) freedom is a real thing, people will fight for it, and 2), China and Russia do threaten our way of life.

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Mar 15, 2022·edited Mar 15, 2022

China? Oh, no! I’m so glad the US has had a nuclear plan to annihilate with nukes both Russia AND China, if Russia and the US engaged in warfare — regardless of whether China was involved or not — going back to at least 1961. We truly are on the side of the angels.

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I don't even want to address the other part of your shit post, but this

>>f you went to a Russian occupied city, however, the Russian forces might make you mayor.

In fact, it's Ukro-Nazis that kill mayors of cities. https://nypost.com/2022/03/03/pro-russian-mayor-of-ukrainian-city-kidnapped-killed/

You are a revolting, stupid, brainwashed stain of a human being.

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In Stalingrad, sasha, when the Red Army had cut off the Germans from the Volga, the Germans had no access to water. During the months of battle, the Germans has adopted Russian street children who were left in the rubble. They adopted them, fed them. Finally, when they were desperate for water, they sent the children with buckets down to the river thinking the Soviets side would let them proceed. Instead, Soviet snipers killed the children. It was brutal, but this is the nature of war. Deny the enemy even a drop of water, at any cost. Who can judge what was right in those circumstances? There source for this is Anthony Beevor's history of Stalingrad.

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Thanks for another tangent.

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Should anyone be shedding tears for a collaborator at a time of war. Collaboration with the enemy has always been a risky business. My condolences to you if you were related, otherwise, good riddance. Everyone kills collaborators in wartime.

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Great words. Now, apply them to your hero Stepan Bandera.

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>> The fact is Ukraine had been edging westward economically, culturally and philosophically for a decade.

Hmm, do the Ukro-Nazis approve of the gay policies of the West?

>> opted, instead, to sign Ukraine into an economic confederation with Putin’s Russia

Only after reading the small print of the IMF/EU loan agreements.

>> Students responded immediately by turning out to protest, peacefully,

Until the Ukro-Nazis stepped up. Shall I link you with the infamous speech the leader of the C14 gave in Kiev a few weeks ago?

>> The regime responded with its dreaded Berkut militia. They went in and beat the students, mercilessly and brutally.

Do tell, was it more brutal than what the police in the US, France, Netherlands do regularly?

>> masses of Ukrainians began flocking to the maidan.

Is that when George Soros started paying for them? Or did he start well before that?

>> After 100 days, the Yanukovych regime snipers began firing on protesters

Now that has been proven to be a lie. It is the Ukro-Nazis who used snipers. Telephone conversations between EU governments prove that.

>> Yanukovych lost his legitimacy.

He agreed to all the demands of the protesters, including early elections he knew he would lose. But as the negotiators returned with the news, the Ukro-Nazis flatly refused and escalated their violence. Yanikovich fled.

>> fled to his handlers in Moscow

Another lie. Yanukovich was leaning to the West. That's what Manafort was doing in Ukraine - guiding them on that path.

>> defame by calling it a putsch.

What started as a legitimate protests was quickly hijacked by the Ukro-Nazis. With the US help it indeed turned into a putsch.

>> Everyday, more and more facts emerge about people like you

Please, provide them.

>> In fact, Putin created the Azov battalion by his actions against Ukraine,

Now this is a really nice CIA talking point.

>> the same line as Moscow

What that's your proof that something isn't true?

>> I stand with Orwell.

In fact, you stand with the Ukro-Nazis. Your previous posts indicated as much.

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Orwell would spit in your face. You stand with the Yanukovychs, the Lukashenos the Putins or the world. Your Ultra-Nazis is standard KGB/FSB fair. Why bother with me is your truth is so obvious. Its the whole world against little sasha again, poor sasha. At least you have a dozen friends somewhere on this venue.

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How would you know who'd spit in my face? Speaking from experience?

I stand on the side of the truth. And you stand on the side of the Ukro-nazis.

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I have been fortunate to have read everything he wrote, novels, essays, correspondence. He did not share you facile view of the world. After what he saw in Spain, I can imagine him spitting in your face.

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Yeah, keep imagining.

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And nice to meet you too, my friend. My name is sasha

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You know yourself to well. What's your secret?

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Gotta check out Orwell’s essay “politics and the english language” where he says “ Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Spot on 100 years later.

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/

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This is the real reason behind the big push by politicians for Marijuana. You see it really does affect your ability to remember things and if you can't remember you can be manipulated. Silly as it might seem we might just try going back to yesteryear and another Nancy (the Reagan) and just say no to drugs of all sorts and maintain our ability to remember otherwise we are lost. Why not try to really commune with nature on the real plane of sober thought and reflection rather than drug induced fantasies where electric cars run on Unicorn urine as Senator Kennedy so aptly put it. They run on coal nitwits, and electricity comes from power plants not your wall. Lets try telling the truth instead of what comes out of the Ministries of Truth and Love. Time to grow up kiddies.

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Matt is obviously wired similar to me. It's a go-to book for me when I get depressed at the state of the world. Along with other dystopian novels and films!

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Mar 15, 2022·edited Mar 15, 2022

1984, and I think even more so Brave New World, pretty much predicted our future — this is a great, insightful, necessary article. I really wish people would better remember that Orwell and Huxley were among the greatest political philosophers of the 20th century … not just “dystopian sci-fi” authors. We were warned. We didn’t listen, or didn’t care enough.

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You could read Through the Looking-Glass and have more conceptual purchase of contemporary political economy than if you read the last 20 years of wsj or nyt.

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Great article. Love the narration too!

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what will we do without Chris Cuomo?

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Where are all the views?? Great article!

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Bless you, Matt Taibbi. Your sanity keeps me on the brink of mine.

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The last time Russia stood alone against Europe the Romanovs ruled Russia and Victoria sat on the throne and Alfred Lord Tennyson was the poet laureate of Britain.

Tennyson was the poet of the Victorian era and he was lower middle class and his most famous poem was written in 1855. It was about a battle in Crimea and The Charge of the Light Brigade.

When the TV was turned on this morning there was high Supreme Ignorance Joe Scarborough talking about Ukraine and the American left and right and their lack of fealty to America.

In 1854 the light Brigade were Britain's Elite soldiers, they owned the horses they sat on and they were of Britain's middle class.

The oligarch's media will control the US narrative and this isn't 1984, 1948 or 1939 it is 1854 and it is the Charge of the Light Brigade written LARGE.

Ours is not to reason why,

Ours is but to do and die.

This is about Democracy and the right of the people.

This isn't about the USA or Russia.

This is about Ukraine and the people of a liberal democracy right to determine REASON before they die.

Russia and the USA are on the same side and they will decide whether we all die.

I don't know how those who know war, and know war knows no winners; combat those doing God's will.

Maybe God just wants to start over. Maybe next time She will use natural selection instead of intelligent design.

Instead of a call-in how about teaching the Charge of the Light Brigade . Maybe it is time to send the Generals off to Florida and listen to the poets. Britain had Tennyson, Ukraine had Yevtushenko, Canada had Cohen, Scotland had Burns.

Today all of Canada will stand united behind its President Volodomyr Zelensky. We can't afford another USA victory. It is time to stop the shooting and sing in harmony.

The Star Spangled Banner was about ours not to reason why. It was about a victory to continue human bondage.

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What is his "third degree" event reference?

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Orwell was 1948 The Charge of the Light Brigade was 1854. It sure sounds like 2022 except America was the Empire and the Russians had a Czar and the Patriarchy or should I say Putin and the Patriarchy. Meanwhile back in Crimea.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=charge+of+the+light+brigade+analysis&type=E210US91166G91269#id=1&vid=b81dc26f175454affe1ba66622908af8&action=click

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Regardless of causes, Russia must be destroyed any way possible. I am embarrassed by my American Culture that says I am a kook for saying so. Yes America is guilty of evil, especially towards nonwhites, but this Ukrainian invasion is as bad as things can get. Even nuclear war makes more sense than this.

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You clearly don’t understand nuclear war if that’s what you think.

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Jesus, you've already reproduced? No wonder we are so fucked.

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Seriously?

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Another MSM patient. Do take the meds.

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