Ukraine Crisis

[promethean75]

I'm sorry did you just say 'good' grief? You think that deep mental anguish as that arising from bereavement is a good thing?

Or is this a just a figure of speech the people of your culture use?

[Alexis Jacobi]

Putin is not bluffing, the United States should remember the debt it owes to Russia and its peoples for saving their asses during world war two. The Monster German/Nazi war machine was crushed by Russia and chased all the way back to Berlin. Do you really think they are going to bow down now to the Monster American war machine. Remember Vietnam, victory to Russia and its peoples!!! Down with the American Empire!!

Good grief.

I could suggest that we all *expand our horizons* of understanding. If we approach things through views & perspectives that have been cobbled together for us, when other people come along and assert different views & perspectives, yes, we will have no choice but to say *Good Grief!* as if what is being said makes no sense at all or is lunatic. But if we understand why people say the things they do, and why they have the ideas they do, our understanding broadens our comprehension.

But if I recommend greater understanding it does not mean, necessarily, that I am a proponent of any particular view (and not the Down with the American Empire!! view).

To understand the Russian perspective consider this.

I am not qualified to make ultimate assessments as to whether it is actually best or not for the US to destroy potential rising hegemons. Certainly the rise of China as a powerful rival, and a competing hegemon in Asia, is a major concern.

I am unsure if the provocation of Russia (and it certainly was such) was the wisest choice given the present result. Yet it seems to fit in with the strange (and not very good choices) made by the present régime.

[popeye1945]

Just don't listen to all the propaganda, research America's history of global imperialist aggression, and after that ask who is in who's backyard. Many people did not see the immorality of America's war on Vietnam but simply got tired of the body bags coming home. America is a mafia family. It has become the monster that much of the world has come to know as an unkind master, which is going to drag us all into an abyss.


Putin's speech to the Russian people.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563827-putin- ... nial-west/

[promethean75]

I have a question, Popeye. Why can't both Amnerika and Putin's Raasha be the bad guys?

I mean if one is the bad guy does it necessarily follow that the other one isn't a bad guy?

[Alexis Jacobi]

Just don't listen to all the propaganda, research America's history of global imperialist aggression, and after that ask who is in who's backyard. Many people did not see the immorality of America's war on Vietnam but simply got tired of the body bags coming home. America is a mafia family. It has become the monster that much of the world has come to know as an unkind master, which is going to drag us all into an abyss.

All empires and all power-systems are, as you say, mafia-families. And the larger hegemon is always advised to stop competing hegemons from gaining a foothold. These are the Machiavellian facts. And since this has been true through time immemorial, into a present, and will always and forever continue this way, it leaves us in an odd spot: we are complicit in the systems that provide us with the platform through which we live.

Curious how we *turn against ourselves*. It is an odd choice to make.

There is no doubt that the US power-system controlled, surveilled, and guided the Postwar world system as we know it. And to do this requires the use of power, and the application of it. Again, these are facts -- truths if you will about this terraqueous realm.

True, there are certainly 'propaganda narratives' but those who run empires, or neo-empires, are not taken in by their own rhetoric. The rhetoric is for internal consumption.

Chomsky always refers to: State Department Policy Study 23, issued in 1948, which was apparently written by George Kennan: "The U.S. has about 50 percent of the world’s wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security."

Chomsky elaborated: "That's a rather frank statement. It’s an interesting document, because that whole document, if you look at it, was from the State Department planning staff, which Kennan headed. And it kind of laid out plans, ideas, about how various parts of the world should fit into this general strategy. This particular comment happened to be specifically about Asia, but it’s general and it’s not unlike Schumpeter or British imperialism or anything else. That’s almost, well, to quote Nehru again, it’s just inherent in domination. Kennan was to be respected for having said it but it’s too bad that he kept it secret instead of telling people. Remember that he was at the soft humanist end of the planning sector. In fact, he was thrown out a couple of years later because he was considered not harsh enough, and replaced by Paul Nitze, who was much tougher."

[promethean75]

"These are the Machiavellian facts"

I'll see your Machiavelli and raise you two Stirners and a Marx.

Trasymachus, Machiavelli, Hobbes and Nietzsche were all wusses compared to the Max. All these guys tried to make the power of the ego and the might of the will into a noble thing so to justify the bourgeois state, the power stuctures that ruled through force at that time. Philosopher kings, emporers, masters of the erf, etc.

These guys are the pseudo-nihilistic romantics of political skepticism who couldn't grasp the gravity and the consequences of what nihilism really means. Max did tho. Novatore too. Everything else but your own creative nothingness, the unique one, the AJ, is a meaningless spook.

[Alexis Jacobi]

“The state calls its own violence slaw, but that of the individual, grime.”

Sounds reasonable I mean treasonable.

"These are the Machiavellian facts"

I'll see your Machiavelli and raise you two Stirners and a Marx.

Trasymachus, Machiavelli, Hobbes and Nietzsche were all wusses compared to the Max. All these guys tried to make the power of the ego and the might of the will into a noble thing so to justify the bourgeois state, the power stuctures that ruled through force at that time. Philosopher kings, emporers, masters of the erf, etc.

These guys are the pseudo-nihilistic romantics of political skepticism who couldn't grasp the gravity and the consequences of what nihilism really means. Max did tho. Novatore too. Everything else but your own creative nothingness, the unique one, the AJ, is a meaningless spook.

After considerable thought, my retort:

Twenty dollar bill, I can set you straight
Meet me on the corner boy'n don't be late ...

[popeye1945]

One might see America in a positive light if one agrees with the continuation of colonialism, colonial power started to shift after the first world war. The British realized it could no longer get its own way in the world anymore, it needed the United States. America colonialism doesn't look like the British brand, but it is just as brutal and violent as the British ever were. Many countries in Europe are America's bum boys, they have sold their sovereignty under great pressure no doubt, but the minute they agreed to allow American nuclear weapons installed on their soil they no longer had sovereignty over their own country. America seeks global domination by any means necessary, and that necessity is the world in turmoil that you see today. As I've said before America has not been a kind master, but there are forming new power structures arising to challenge American domination. America found world war I and two profitable, and has had a war economy since the end of world war two. They need war, they need colonialism to feed the industrial military complex/the empire, they are a greater monster than the Third Reich. What was it Nietzsche said, "Those who fight monsters, must beware of becoming one." America is that monster today!

[promethean75]

an excellent choice old boy. Hot Rats was the first 'recording project' (but second album) Frank produced after disbanding the original MOI. Except for Captain Beefheart's vocals in that song, the whole album is instrumental. Willie The Pimp has some of Frank's most wicked soloing in many opinions.

[reasonvemotion]

Popeye wrote:

America seeks global domination by any means necessary, and that necessity is the world in turmoil that you see today.

The US spent $754 billion on national defense during 2021, that is obscene, which amounts to 11 percent of federal spending, which indicates that lawmakers have prioritized national defense as a key part of the budget.

Many of the problems that led to Rome's decline were due to government and economic corruption, crime was out of control in Rome and people feared for their safety.

America has lost it's moral compass, mass shootings, in malls and schools, car jacking, store looting, lax gun control, general apathy, violence on the streets.   

It will fall like Rome but internally, nevertheless it will remain the superior country in terms of weaponry.

God Bless America.

[Age]

Popeye wrote:

America seeks global domination by any means necessary, and that necessity is the world in turmoil that you see today.

The US spent $754 billion on national defense during 2021, that is obscene, which amounts to 11 percent of federal spending, which indicates that lawmakers have prioritized national defense as a key part of the budget.

Many of the problems that led to Rome's decline were due to government and economic corruption, crime was out of control in Rome and people feared for their safety.

America has lost it's moral compass, mass shootings, in malls and schools, car jacking, store looting, lax gun control, general apathy, violence on the streets.   

It will fall like Rome but internally, nevertheless it will remain the superior country in terms of weaponry.

What does, "fall internally, but still remain the superior country in terms of weaponry", even mean or refer to exactly?

God Bless America.

[popeye1945]

Popeye wrote:

America seeks global domination by any means necessary, and that necessity is the world in turmoil that you see today.

The US spent $754 billion on national defense during 2021, that is obscene, which amounts to 11 percent of federal spending, which indicates that lawmakers have prioritized national defense as a key part of the budget.

Many of the problems that led to Rome's decline were due to government and economic corruption, crime was out of control in Rome and people feared for their safety.

America has lost it's moral compass, mass shootings, in malls and schools, car jacking, store looting, lax gun control, general apathy, violence on the streets.   

It will fall like Rome but internally, nevertheless it will remain the superior country in terms of weaponry.

God Bless America.

Old Abe's statement comes to mind, "A house divided cannot stand."

[Gary Childress]

I'm sorry did you just say 'good' grief? You think that deep mental anguish as that arising from bereavement is a good thing?

Or is this a just a figure of speech the people of your culture use?

It's a popular American expression of frustration.

[Immanuel Can]

Putin is not bluffing, the United States should remember the debt it owes to Russia and its peoples for saving their asses during world war two. The Monster German/Nazi war machine was crushed by Russia and chased all the way back to Berlin. Do you really think they are going to bow down now to the Monster American war machine. Remember Vietnam, victory to Russia and its peoples!!! Down with the American Empire!!

Well, that's really not what happened. Hitler nearly destroyed the Russians, who were ill-equipped, poorly trained and disorganized at the start of the war, essentially only being arrested by the Russian winter, at Stalingrad, at immense cost to the Russians. Still, had Hitler only had a one-front war, he might well have been able to dispatch the USSR outright. On two fronts, however, it was only a matter of time until he lost.

The Berlin wall wasn't put up to keep free people from escaping into the Iron Curtain. It was made to turn the East into world's largest gulag. Then Stalin killed at least 24 million of his own people, just in order to secure his own power and to eliminate anybody he saw as a political threat. Then a series of Communist governments brought the USSR into complete economic ruin, the wall fell, Russia turned into "The Wild East," run by gangs and oligarchs, and presided over by a dictator.

Is there any of that you're recommending?

[promethean75]

"It's a popular American expression of frustration."

I see. Tell me more about these.... American expression. I am fascinate by your culture.