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Dave's avatar

Great if depressing article

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Grub Street In Exile's avatar

“ a host of base and despicable truths” Trump and the war in Ukraine Some thoughts. #Hyperland

https://youtu.be/B1bKpiEEqxM

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Grub Street In Exile's avatar

Hi David,

Who blew up Nordstream 2 and why?

I am reminded of an old blog you did about British interests in Ukraine on Golem.

I recommend reading The control of oil by Malcolm Blair and this series of articles by

Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan

https://wp.me/pGd5z-aTP

Obviously, the flow of arms to the region [and its associated conflicts] is anchored not in one particular cause but in the convergence of many: internal tensions [such as those leading to the Arab Spring], inter‑state confrontations [for example, the 1980‑88 Iraq‑Iran War], conflicts between coalitions of countries [the first, second and third Gulf Wars], superpower intervention [a permanent feature], radical and anti‑radical ideologies [the 1979 Iranian revolution, ISIS, etc.], nationalism [the Palestinian intifadas], clericalism [Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan, etc.], economic turbulence and business cycles [the unsatiated capitalist thirst for ‘cheap energy’]. . . . Yet, one way or another, these processes can be seen as already engulfed by and absorbed into the massive flow of the biggest prize of all: oil profits (Nitzan and Bichler 2007: 376, translated from the Hebrew).

Our analysis of this process has focused on what we called the ‘Weapondollar‑Petrodollar Coalition’ – a formidable albeit tenuous alliance between the largest armament contractors, the integrated oil companies, OPEC and various branches of western governments:

Dallas the old TV show was about "the Cartel" the Hydro Carbon Dollar cartel.

16:1

https://wp.me/pahPgT-7hV

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David Malone's avatar

When Nordstream was blown up it was, for me, the perfect exemplar of economic warfare. And the way our progressive press made no attempt whatsoever to investigate it but were perfectly delighted to peddle the 'treat us like idiots' narrative that the Russians did it to themselves, only made it more obvious. Our press is utterly complicit. They have by and large with a few notable exceptions betrayed the entire notion of speaking truth to power and holding those powers accountable. Our press has become a propaganda arm whose purpose is to present and protect a narrative. So when Seymour Hirsch published his piece followed up by - was it a dutch investigation? - both showing that it was an allied act of war our press tried their best to bury the whole thing.

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Steve Finney.'s avatar

Germany it appears to me have totally lost the plot in relation to Russia & Israel. while recently a certain ex politician going by the name of Merz decided to return to politics after a long holiday spending time being on the boards of various corporations notably Blackrock. He immediately ordered that Putin should be given 24 hrs to surrender else long range missiles would be fired deep into Russia. It didn't happen of course but I guess that he signalled to the Neocons that he was their kind of guy.

As it appears that Scholz & his traffic light coalition are facing a snap election. perhaps Merz who is CDU/CSU are looking to take up the reins which considering his rhetoric & corporate connections that are likely tied to all those goodies in Ukraine, it probably does not bode well for a peace loving Germany. The other insanity it appears to me is the plan approved with the Biden admin to place long range missiles on the German border. I forget the name but they can either use nuclear or conventional warheads, something that the Russians would not be able identify which could as some experts have noted, result in a hair trigger scenario.

After leaving the army in 69 my Dad became a military history buff & as part of that he gradually built up quite a large pen pal network. One of the members was an RSM who at the end of WW2 was part of the effort to deal with the problem of the Hitler Youth. In his opinion many were fully indoctrinated Nazi's & he worried that their influence, as only a few of the leader were held accountable could result in the future of some members from future generations adopting a variation on that theme, resulting in it once again raising it's giant ugly head - rather like I guess the Bandera tribute band in Ukraine.

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