Vilnius fallout continues as the clearly inebriated NATO crew having consumed far too much of its own Kool-Aid escaped in their diplomatically immune vehicles. Drunk? How else to explain that Ukraine will be welcomed into NATO when it defeats Russia as Stoltenberg announced:
We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met … [however] unless Ukraine wins this war, there’s no membership issue to be discussed at all.
while RT cites Outlaw US Empire National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan:
“Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We meant it. That’s not up for negotiation,” Sullivan said. “That’s something that now all 31 allies have committed to,” he added, referring to the final statement released at the end of the summit, in which all members of the alliance pledged to eventually accept Ukraine into the bloc, once a number of conditions are met.
I wonder what his tune will be when the artificial state of Ukraine vanishes, which appears to be the current consensus of Russia’s Security Council. But Sullivan didn’t just say the above; RT cited what he said in an interview with ABC:
“Having Ukraine come into NATO while the war is going on would mean that NATO was at war with Russia, it would mean the United States was at war with Russia. And neither NATO nor the United States were prepared to do that,” he said.
Here Sullivan’s being 100% disingenuous as the Outlaw US Empire is already at war with Russia as it directs strikes on Russia using Ukraine as its rifle and is well beyond war economically. What has yet to occur is Russia retuning fire, an event that comes ever closer, which will most likely occur in Syria as an Oops! “mistake.” Most readers will have now heard of the latest Ukie attack on the Krech bridge that killed the parents of a 12 year-old who was wounded and orphaned. The bridge is a 100% civilian target and thus Russia calls it an act of Terrorism—terrorism directed and facilitated by NATO and its Master the Outlaw US Empire.
Of course, Sullivan is performing his job to continue to breathe air into the Establishment Narrative about Ukraine and Russia. Meanwhile on the Sunday program on Russia’s Channel 1, Moscow. Kremlin. Putin, Putin:
ironically spoke about European politicians who are completely dependent on the instructions of the United States.
According to him, the leaders of European countries are ready to do whatever they are told from overseas.
"If tomorrow they say: "We decided to hang all of you," then they, dulling their eyes and wondering at their audacity, will ask only one question: is it possible to do this on ropes of national production," the president said.
But even in such a situation, he believes, the Europeans would have failed, because the Americans are unlikely to refuse such a large order for their textile industry.
Putin has repeatedly drawn attention to the lack of independence of European countries, noting that their political elites often serve not their national interests, but the interests of third countries.
The program is estimated to be viewed by over 50% of Russians, and Putin’s dark humor is likely to be well understood. And given what we’ve seen the EU/NATO nations do to themselves at the behest of their Master, there’s credibility within Putin’s joke. For example, there’s this report on the incredible monetary amount of gas used during the period the report calls the “energy crisis”—2021 to mid 2023, the 2,5 years referred to below:
During the energy crisis, Europe burned $1.12 trillion worth of gas. This amount is comparable to EU fuel costs for the entire previous decade. The victory over Russian gas turned out to be Pyrrhic.
“Last year, European consumers paid a hefty price for LNG, and the bill for gas import is washing away the wealth of the EU,” writes Energy Flux.
According to the publication, in two and a half years Europe spent $1.12 trillion on gas and by the middle of the decade the amount could increase by another $600 billion. While over the entire previous decade the EU paid $1.35 trillion for fuel.
Energy Flux mentions that $1.12 trillion exceeds Saudi Arabia’s GDP and is four times the combined market capitalization of global energy giants ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell ($260 billion).
“Gas costs eclipse the amount Europe has invested in green energy over two and a half years ($260 billion in 2021 and $154 billion in 2022, according to the IEA) and are more than double the $411 billion estimated cost of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction,” writes Energy Flux.
The publication continues: “One trillion dollars worth of gas burning sent the EU trade deficit to a record minus €432 billion in 2022.” [My Emphasis]
So, it appears I was not quite 100% accurate to say Ukraine stole all the EU’s reserves as hanging those Outlaw US Empire ropes around their necks on energy policy sure did suck and burn its portion of euros. Oh, and Ukraine blew-up the Nord Stream pipelines, or so the Establishment Narrative goes.
And now it’s time to introduce today's essay by Alastair Crooke, “A Bonfire of the Vanities", where it's best to let him introduce the subject:
Hubris consists in believing that a contrived narrative can, in and of itself, bring victory. It is a fantasy that has swept through the West – most emphatically since the 17th century. Recently, the Daily Telegraph published a ridiculous nine minute video purporting to show that ‘narratives win wars’, and that set-backs in the battlespace are incidentals: What matters is to have a thread of unitary narrative articulated, both vertically and horizontally, throughout the spectrum – from the special forces’ soldier in the field through to the pinnacle of the political apex.
The gist of it is that ‘we’ (the West) have [a] compelling narrative, whilst Russia’s is ‘clunky’ – ‘Us winning therefore, is inevitable’.
It is easy to scoff, but nonetheless we can recognise in it a certain substance (even if that substance is an invention). Narrative is now how western élites imagine the world. Whether it is the pandemic emergency, the climate or Ukraine ‘emergencies’ – all are re-defined as ‘wars’. All are ‘wars’ that are to be fought with a unitary imposed narrative of ‘winning’, against which all contrarian opinion is forbidden.
The obvious flaw to this hubris is that it requires you to be at war with reality. At first, the public are confused, but as the lies proliferate, and lie is layered upon lie, the narrative separates further and further from touched reality, even as mists of dishonesty continue to swathe themselves loosely around it. Public scepticism sets in. Narratives about the ‘why’ of inflation; whether the economy be healthy or not; or why we must go to war with Russia, begin to fray.
Western élites have ‘bet their shirts’ on maximum control of ‘media platforms’, absolute messaging conformity and ruthless repression of protest as their blueprint for a continued hold in power.
The revelation articulated by Crooke isn't revolutionary as it's been written about by many for decades and is known as the Establishment Narrative whose destruction is imperative if the people of the West held captive by its thrall are ever to become free. I didn't speak directly to this in my "Sunday Sermon" and only touched on it tangentially. And as for how long the Narrative has existed, it goes back to when the Roman church completely altered the story of Jesus of Nazareth to neuter the radicalism of his message so Roman creditors could keep their hold on power--and that alteration began over 200 years prior to Constantine making Christianity the Roman State Religion--the Narrative told by indoctrinated priests and via colored window panes and other art while commoners were kept illiterate.
The one failing of Crooke's fine essay is that he doesn't mention the specific Class that has benefited from the myth of Western Civilization. Yes, he generically mentions western political leaders and does single out the Wannabe Genocidalist Francis Bacon (Bacon wrote a book, An Advertisement Touching on Holy War, that was published in 1622 advocating genocide of the masses under Christian pretenses, a tract that completely discredits him as anyone to be respected) but omits the predatory Creditor Financial Class, the history of which Hudson's been revealing over the course of his decades of research and writings.
Yes, the current Ukraine Narrative is failing but other aspects of the Narrative remain strong. Musk's move at Twitter to cut off access to the unsubscribed seems clearly aimed at silencing Tucker Carlson as Crooke notes:
"Yet, against the odds, the MSM is losing its hold over the U.S. audience. Polls show growing distrust of the U.S. MSM. When Tucker Carlson’s first ‘anti-message’ Twitter show appeared, the noise of tectonic plates grinding against each other was unmissable, as more than 100 million (one in three) Americans listened to iconoclasm."
And such an effect the Neoliberal Parasites couldn't abide whatsoever. It’s a good bet that all those whose access was cut know why it was cut, and it wasn't due to any of Musk's feeble excuses. Yes, the Revolution won't be televised or Tweeted, but it will be shown on Telegram and all other non-Western social media platforms.
NATO’s the armed fist of Neoliberalism, the coercive portion of the Creditor Class along with their semi-secret services and terrorist foreign legions. Russia, China, Iran, RoW are very aware that for the Outlaw US Empire’s global hegemony to be broken NATO must be broken first. That is a reality that must be considered when understanding not just the fate of Ukraine but that of Europe’s vassals, which shouldn’t be conflated with Europe’s masses. Scholtz in many ways is acting like Hitler; but instead of ordering the deployment of fictional armies to defend Berlin, Scholtz orders the allocation of fictional euros to his deindustrialized rapidly fictionalized armaments industry to produce weapons they can’t. When the grand carafe of Kool-Aid became empty at Vilnius, what remained was the dregs of the reality that NATO cannot defeat Russia, and that Ukraine will never become a NATO member.
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I keep hoping that Putin keeps hoping that the West will come to their senses and simply reclaim their sovereignty and join in with the Eurasian thrust. The EU organization is probably a major obstacle, though EU afficionados will refuse to admit this, but even so the States themselves can gradually awaken and then move the EU organization to Re-Orient. And if they do, I hope Putin is still around and still willing and able to effect a truly epoch-making geopolitical sea-change.
A hope.
If money is the root of all evil then what is the class of people that use it as a weapon to enrich themselves beyond any reasonable avarice whilst impoverishing so many? When Smedley Butler said all wars are banker wars he was correct, but still we seem oblivious to the obvious, no war starts without a profit motive.
Michael Hudson is correct, however what he proposes as a better system would never be countenanced short of piking heads on the city gates. We are currently transitioning from the old system of greed and corruption to satiate the few to the new system of greed and corruption that goes beyond satiating to unrestrained gluttony, let's all prey it gets somehow derailed.