Are “We” The Baddies? Corruption Of The Western Governments…

It has slowly been dawning on me that “We”, the self congratulating “Democratic” West, are the source of the Evil we are seeing in the world today.

For far too long, I just assumed that most folks were moral and honest, for the simple reason that most folks were. But not anymore. Aside from just the self selection of Sociopaths & Psychopaths into positions of power in an excess percentage; there are now organizations that they have grown who’s purpose is to subvert the historic morality of the people, and their governments. See the WEF, Soros and his NGOs & GEBs (Greedy Evil Bastards) Globally.

It seems to me that a lot of this has a root back in the time of the assassination of JFK. There’s a lot of pretty good evidence that this was done to “Save The World” via the C.I.A. working with the Mafia (with whom they had worked closely since Lucky Luciano and the W.W.II protection of the US Ports and provision of maps & guides to help the Allied Powers in their invasion and liberation of Sicily…) See, the Bay Of Pigs fiasco along with the Cuban Missile Crisis had brought us to within minutes of nuclear destruction of the Western World. Something had to be done! So, it looks to me a lot like what they did was “get rid of the proximate problem” and then appoint themselves “Guardians Of The World”.

After all, they were assigned the job of overturning hostile and risky governments, so why not “fix” this one while they were at it?

That all went “sort of OK”, up until the Soviet Union disbanded. Yeah, they had a few F-ups; like that whole “supporting Evil Dictators like the Shaw leading to Iranian fanatics in charge…” But commerce went on, and the world was mostly shaped in the way best suited to United States Uni-polar Dominance, with a little bit of UK & EU doing well on the side.

But, over time, various other countries didn’t particularly like being bossed around by the USA. At the same time, feeling their power, the various apparatchiks in the Agencies, got fairly good at flipping governments they didn’t like. Again, there were some failures here, too. But mostly successes.

Then the various Color Revolutions started having a harder time of it. Where it went most wrong, I think, was in the flipping of Ukraine from an elected Russia friendly leader to a USA installed puppet; who then set about attacking his own citizens who were of Russian ethnicity and culture. This was the fuse being lit for the conflict today.

Then doubling down on that with the fraud of the Minsk Agreements that are now admitted to have been for the express purpose of hoodwinking Putin & Russia and allowing time to prepare to induct Ukraine into NATO and use Ukraine to start a war with Russia (for the purpose of “Color Revolution” and “Regime Change” in Russia including dismemberment, per the admissions of highly placed western “leaders” in the know.)

But first, a brief walk down Memory Lane as we look at the list of Color Revolutions. At the time of most of these, I naively thought them just a native event of the people. In retrospect, now, they look a lot more like a Put Up Job by agitators recruited by, most likely, the C.I.A. and their Five Eyes Alliance friends. UK, USA, Canada, Australia & New Zealand. (I’m still a little unsure who is at the helm, the US via the C.I.A.; or if the UK agencies are the stronger influencers, what with having had more centuries of intrigue under their belt… But I think it is most likely the USA.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution

1986 Yellow. Philippines dumped Marcos

This one, I think, was not driven by the USA. We liked Marcos and had him well bought. But it set the pattern and was likely seen as a useful model to expand.

1988 (to 98) Coconut.

Bougainville Island leaves Papua New Guinea.

This one looks like a retro-naming event to me. It was a 10 year push for independence. I doubt anyone in The West really cared about either the Island or Papua. Maybe Australia did…

1989 Velvet Revolution. Czechoslovakia exits communism.

Though it took a while. Pretty sure the USA / CIA were helping this one along.

2000 Bulldozer Revolution. Yugoslavia.

Likely another example of successful “Help” from the USA / CIA. The wiki notes:

The demonstrations were supported by the youth movement Otpor!, some of whose members were involved in the later revolutions in other countries.

So here we start to see the “rinse and repeat” kicking in. Never mind the wars, death and dying in The Former Yugoslavia that would come later along with Clinton bombing in 1999 as NATO got to go on the offensive against a non-NATO member and without being attacked.

I think it was at this moment that the die was cast for making this a formal tool and process “going forward”.

Then they decided to move it closer to Russia (as the USSR had collapsed in 1991, Russia was the surviving major player). This, IMHO, was the start of the attack on Russia to try to keep it suppressed.

2003 Rose. Georgia
2004 2nd Rose. Georgia (Adjara)

These replaced a former Soviet leader with one more “western friendly”. Oddly, the replacement had been Governor of Odessa for a while… Eventually the oppression of Ethnic Russians in Georgia prompted Russia to enter Georgia and protect them. Shades of things to come in Ukraine…

2004-5 Orange. Ukraine. Here’s the root of the problems today. The West didn’t like that the Ukrainians elected a Russia Friendly leader in Viktor Yanukovych and so installed Viktor Yushchenko. This set the stage for the various abuses of Ethnic Russians to follow and leads directly to what is happening today. I suspect it also lead to various Agencies being more involved in “controlling election results” better… The wiki list describes it as:

The Orange Revolution in Ukraine followed the disputed second round of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, leading to the annulment of the result and the repeat of the round—Leader of the Opposition Viktor Yushchenko was declared President, defeating Viktor Yanukovych. PORA supported the Orange Revolution.

2005 Purple. Iraq.

Remember that the USA had a little war with Iraq in 2003 and on to 2011. This was all a Bush Affair and remember that Daddy Bush was a former head of the C.I.A.; so pretty much you have the C.I.A. running the USA at that point. Anyone really think the 2005 election wasn’t managed by them too? It is interesting to note that Bush even rubbed Putin’s nose in it:

The term received its widest usage during a visit by President Bush on 24 February 2005 to Bratislava, Slovak Republic, for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush stated: “In recent times, we have witnessed landmark events in the history of liberty: A Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and now, a Purple Revolution in Iraq.”

Nothing like the C.I.A. head guy who’s now running the USA telling Putin that we’re on a roll with turning countries against him…

2005 Pink (“Tulip Revolution”). Kyrgyzstan.

Remember that Kyrgyzstan was important to surrounding Afghanistan and keeping our troops supplied. It also was a former part of the Russian Empire and has a significant Russian minority population.

The Tulip Revolution (sometimes called the “Pink Revolution”) in Kyrgyzstan was more violent than its predecessors and followed the disputed 2005 Kyrgyz parliamentary election. At the same time, it was more fragmented than previous “colour revolutions”. The protesters in different areas adopted the colours pink and yellow for their protests. This revolution was supported by the youth resistance movement KelKel.

Again a “youth organization” was a big player in the ruckus. (Shades of Antifa and BLM in the coup attempt against Trump… and our “color revolution” via the vote counters… maybe we ought to call it the Golden Hair Revolution ;-) By this time we’re starting to see a consistent pattern.

2005. Cedar. Lebanon.

This one is interesting as it hives off Lebanon from Syria (a friend of Russia…). Though it didn’t do much to help the Lebanese Christians survive.

The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon between February and April 2005 followed not a disputed election, but rather the assassination of opposition leader Rafic Hariri in 2005. Also, instead of the annulment of an election, the people demanded an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Nonetheless, some of its elements and some of the methods used in the protests have been similar enough that it is often considered and treated by the press and commentators as one of the series of “colour revolutions.”

One might also note that it continues the pattern of reducing Russian and Friends Of Russia influence and increasing USA involvement (or at least destabilizing anyone not under our control…)

2005 Blue. Kuwait.

This one is curious. Brings women the right to vote, but no government change. Is it a retro-naming? A “dirty the pattern” cover? Or a failure? Hard to say. I’d just class it as a likely mis-categorization.

“Blue Revolution” was a term used by some Kuwaitis to refer to demonstrations in Kuwait in support of women’s suffrage beginning in March 2005; it was named after the colour of the signs that the protesters used. In May of that year, the Kuwaiti government acceded to their demands, granting women the right to vote beginning in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Since there was no call for regime change, the so-called “blue revolution” cannot be categorized as a true colour revolution.

Here’s where, I think, folks in The East started to notice the pattern and took steps to thwart it. Including, BTW, tossing out Soros and his NGOs. (I’d often wondered if Soros was a C.I.A. asset or not. At this point since he is still allowed to play here, I’m pretty sure he’s either directly supported or at a minimum a “Fellow Traveler” that they like / help.)

2006 Belarus. Jeans.

There was both an attempted Color Revolution as well as an assassination attempt.

In Belarus, there have been a number of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, with participation from student group Zubr. One round of protests culminated on 25 March 2005; it was a self-declared attempt to emulate the Kyrgyzstan revolution and involved over a thousand citizens. However, police severely suppressed it, arresting over 30 people and imprisoning opposition leader Mikhail Marinich.
A second, much larger round of protests began almost a year later, on 19 March 2006, soon after the presidential election. Official results had Lukashenko winning with 83% of the vote; protesters claimed the results were achieved through fraud and voter intimidation, a charge echoed by many foreign governments. Protesters camped out in October Square in Minsk over the next week, calling variously for the resignation of Lukashenko, the installation of rival candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič, and new, fair elections.

The opposition originally used as a symbol the white-red-white former flag of Belarus; the movement has had significant connections with that in neighbouring Ukraine. During the Orange Revolution, some white-red-white flags were seen being waved in Kyiv. During the 2006 protests, some called it the “Jeans Revolution” or “Denim Revolution,” blue jeans being considered a symbol for freedom. Some protesters cut up jeans into ribbons and hung them in public places. It is claimed that Zubr was responsible for coining the phrase.

Lukashenko has said in the past: “In our country, there will be no pink or orange, or even banana revolution.” More recently, he’s said, “They [the West] think that Belarus is ready for some ‘orange’ or, what is a rather frightening option, ‘blue’ or ‘cornflower blue’ revolution. Such ‘blue’ revolutions are the last thing we need”. On 19 April 2005, he further commented: “All these coloured revolutions are pure and simple banditry.”

Since then, further attempts at Color Revolutions have had a more checkered result. Having firmly aligned Belarus with Russia, one could say this was an Own Goal by the C.I.A. & Friends…

Honorable mention, here, goes to Syria where we’ve been trying to oust Assad for a good long while, but have only succeeded in stealing their limited oil reserves. For that one, Russia stepped in and confronted The West directly.

Honorable mention also likely ought to go to the event in Turkey where a failed “coup” took place.

2007 Saffron. Myanmar (Burma).

This one is another Socialist to Democracy transition attempt, IMHO. I don’t see any connection to Russia per se, but I can see it as generally being in the C.I.A. wheelhouse to destabilize them.

2007-2016 Yellow rally. Malaysia.

I’m not sure what to say about this one. It looks like they were using the DNC Democrat’s Voting Platform and some folks didn’t like it:

A series of demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur. The rally, organised by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), was supported by Pakatan Rakyat, the coalition of the three largest opposition parties in Malaysia, but was deemed illegal by the government. Bersih, chaired by former president of the Bar Council Ambiga Sreenevasan, were pushing the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC) to ensure free and fair elections in Malaysia. It demanded that the EC clean up the electoral roll, reform postal voting, use indelible ink, introduce a minimum 21-day campaign period, allow all parties free access to the media, and put an end to electoral fraud.

Probably a decent Dig Here! in there somewhere…

Meanwhile, back at the Former Soviet Union and getting closer to Russia for NATO:

2009 Grape. Moldova.

Guess they were running out of colors and decided to use fruit instead.

The opposition is reported to have hoped for and urged some kind of Orange revolution, similar to that in Ukraine, in the follow-up of the 2005 Moldovan parliamentary elections, while the Christian Democratic People’s Party adopted orange for its colour in a clear reference to the events of Ukraine.

A name hypothesized for such an event was the “Grape Revolution” because of the abundance of vineyards in the country; however, such a revolution failed to materialize after the governmental victory in the elections. Many reasons have been given for this, including a fractured opposition and the fact that the government had already co-opted many of the political positions that might have united the opposition (such as a perceived pro-European and anti-Russian stance). Also, the elections themselves were declared fairer in the OSCE election monitoring reports than had been the case in other countries where similar revolutions occurred, even though the CIS monitoring mission strongly condemned them.

There was civil unrest all over Moldova following the 2009 Parliamentary election, owing to the opposition’s assertion that the communists had fixed the election. Eventually, the Alliance for European Integration created a governing coalition that pushed the Communist party into opposition.

So a not-quite-a-revolution. But interesting in that Moldova is now being put back in play via a proposed “reunification” with Romania making it an instant NATO border with Ukraine (and soon to be Russia…?)

There’s a lot more after that. Some of them are, I think, back formations on the part of the list maker after the fact. Others start to be repeats in some countries. I’m going to mostly just list them and not comment unless they have a significant importance:

2009-10 Green Movement. Iran. (Good luck with dumping their leader…)
2010 Melon Movement. Kyrgyzstan again.
2010-11 Jasmine. Tunisia.

The start of the Arab Spring where a bunch of Muslim countries had “change”. This while the USA was still hot and bothered about 9/11 and was busy with Iraq et. al.

2011 Lotus. Egypt.
2011-14 Pearl. Bahrain. (Yet Another Arab Spring turnover).
2011 Yemeni Revolution. Yemen.
2011 Chinese Jasmine. China. (Failed)
2011-13 Snow. Russia. (Failed)
2016 “Colorful Revolution”. Macedonia. (Looks like back formation to me, just protests).

At this point, it looks like it has become a bit of a fad to name any big protest movement a “Color Revolution” and that tends to hide the ones that were put-ups.

2018 Velvet. Armenia.
2018 Yellow Vest. France.
2019 October. Lebanon.
2019 Pitita. Bolivia.
2020-21 Slipper. Belarus.

This one is interesting in that it is protesting the re-election of Lukashenko.

After the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, where incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected, protests started claiming fraud. The main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya declared herself the winner, saying that she won by a large margin. She then set up the “Coordination Council,” which was recognized as the legitimate interim government by the European Parliament. As of December 2020, some of the media states that the revolution failed and that Lukashenko managed to prevent a repeat of the Euromaidan.

So we have Yet Another attempt to flip Belarus via questionable voting practices. And folks wonder why he’s friends with Putin? Eh?

Then back to Russia’s underbelly FSU nations:

2022 Steppe Revolution. Kazakhstan. Mostly, IMHO, an internal squabble over bad economics.

Ponder it

Now what’s the odds that all those “revolutions” would only happen around the FSU / near Russia and in Arab / Muslim States when the USA was preoccupied with Muslim Terrorism? Sure, there’s the odd one or two where a Socialist Government gets a bit of destabilizing (like Bolivia). But not one looks like it is happening in a USA loved and supported nation. None in Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Chile, etc. Similarly in sub-Saharan Africa.

One could question the election we just had in Brazil, kicking out Bolsonaro. Mexico could stand a bit of watching as some Congress Critter has said maybe we ought to take military action to clean out the drug cartels. Causing Mexico to piss in our coffee and ask to join the BRICS+ group:

He cites Sputnik News but others have the story too:

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-09/03/c_136578802.htmhttp://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-09/03/c_136578802.htm

Mexican president says BRICS key in bringing greater balance to global governance
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 11:16:10|Editor: Mengjie

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — The BRICS countries as a group are playing “a key role” in bringing greater balance to global governance in an increasingly more plural and diverse world, said Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Since BRICS members began to meet annually eight years ago, “we have seen important progress in the goals it set, particularly in the area of cooperation and coordination in multilateral forums on economic and political governance,” he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The Mexican leader is going to China to attend a Dialogue of Emerging Economies on the sidelines of the upcoming ninth summit of the BRICS bloc of emerging nations that include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be presiding over both the BRICS summit in the southeastern city of Xiamen from Sept. 3 to 5, and the Dialogue of Emerging Economies and Developing Countries to be held on the final day with the leaders from BRICS and five other emerging nations: Egypt, Tajikistan, Guinea, Thailand and Mexico.

So it looks to me like someone at the C.I.A. has really stepped in it this time.

You can only run around the world swinging a big dick and screwing people over so long. As soon as ANY reasonable alternative comes along, they will swap clubs so fast the chill wind will just shrink things right up…

IMHO, the BIG mistake was the attempt to steal too many Government Cash Assets. Even the House Of Saud didn’t like that, driving Saudi Arabia to join the BRICS+ (NEVER EVER break trust about money, and especially not with any Muslim… it will mark you as a dishonest bastard forever. Oh, wait… /snark;)

Reflecting a bit

It sure looks to me like the Five Eyes + EU consortium: “The West”, has been busy pushing everyone around for way too long, and really liked it when they could just topple governments and change the rules of the game at will.

This made them arrogant and rude to their “friends” and “enemies” alike. Stealing money here, oil there (Syria…), embargoing trade from anyone they didn’t like today. Then, who knows how many countries have been bullied in private. ~”Support us in our overthrow of THEM, or we do you next” or ~”Nice crop you have there IF you can sell it” or maybe ~”How about we send those Epstein photos to your opponent? Or wife?”.

So they finally went too far with someone who could tell them to Piss Off. Like Cancel Culture has lead to the Parallel Economy and Youtube Censorship has launched Bitchute, Rumble, and a half dozen others. Trying to kick Russia out of Global Money Settlements and steal their money in Western Banks has just resulted in an alternate settlements system, and alternate trading locations. Russia and China are now partners in setting up parallel economy systems for anyone the USA / EU do not like OR MAY NOT LIKE IN THE FUTURE… which is anyone at all who says “No” to them. On anything.

So our Warmonger In Chief, Lindsey Graham, who loves the idea of military intervention for just about anything has put Mexico into BRICS for us:

https://thehill.com/policy/international/3887479-graham-says-he-will-introduce-bill-to-set-the-stage-for-us-to-use-military-force-in-mexico/

Graham says he will introduce bill to ‘set the stage’ for US to use military force in Mexico
BY BRAD DRESS – 03/07/23 10:36 AM ET

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday said he was prepared to introduce legislation to “set the stage” for U.S. military force in Mexico, saying it was time to “get tough” on the neighboring country after four Americans were kidnapped by armed men this week.

Graham told Fox News host Jesse Watters that he would follow the advice of former President Trump on Mexico policy.

“I would put Mexico on notice,” Graham said. “If you continue to give safe haven to drug dealers, then you are an enemy of the United States.”

Graham added he would “introduce legislation to make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law and set the stage to use military force if necessary.”

“I would tell the Mexican government if you don’t clean up your act, we’re going to clean it up for you,” the senator said.

So… you think that goes down well in Mexico? Hmmm?

ALL of Latin America watched as the USA destroyed the Venezuelan Economy via various sanctions and trade barriers. Put up a Regime In Exile. Stole their oil processing facilities (but did it all legal like via the courts…) and generally likes “Regime Change” (such as in Panama and Grenada and others over the years).

Guess who all is going to be lining up to join BRICS+ and give a fat middle finger to the USA? Russia is a bigger supplier of materials and energy. China is a vastly larger market for their goods. BOTH of them don’t piss on other governments.

Oh, and for good measure: The also see that via blowing up Nordstream I & II, they have made the EU (and Europe writ large) an energy Satrap of the USA. Since the EU is now going into energy poverty (possibly to be followed by economic collapse), and since the UK has been maneuvered back into EU Handcuffs, though for now without membership, by the UK Elite: The EU is not going to be an interesting market nor supply much of interest either.

So what to do, what to do… I know, hitch your wagon to the new Economic Engine in town: BRICS+. You know, the one with the motto “We don’t screw you like they do!”.

Such stupidity by our “Leaders”… it is of epic proportions and all that it would have taken to avoid it is simply “Treat others with the respect due to a Sovereign Nation” and don’t screw them.

Oh Well. Whoever thought Globalist Evil Bastard Psychopaths could behave nicely and not try to do psychopathic things…

I think I need a long think about where to put my money. Just like all those blossoming BRICS+ countries. Out of the USA / EU Banking system is looking better… But just where?

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About E.M.Smith

A technical managerial sort interested in things from Stonehenge to computer science. My present "hot buttons' are the mythology of Climate Change and ancient metrology; but things change...
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24 Responses to Are “We” The Baddies? Corruption Of The Western Governments…

  1. YMMV says:

    The list hardly mentions this hemisphere. It would be a lot longer if it did.
    You might say it all started with the Monroe Doctrine (1823)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine

    “I would tell the Mexican government if you don’t clean up your act, we’re going to clean it up for you,” the senator said.

    That’s the funniest thing I have heard all year.

  2. andysaurus says:

    I think a lot of this is explained in this video. Notably that Henry Kissinger is still pulling strings! (Sorry, I’ve forgotten the html for making a pretty link) https://youtu.be/5mK-FMY1374

  3. another ian says:

    I’ve recently read the book that parallels this.

    It starts the US Empire back about the Spanish-American war and has a large bibliography.

    Pretty well in line with E.M.’s picture with “Not-So-Mr-Nice-Guy” IMO.

    Their crystal ball was pretty fogged with the 2013 predictions of where things might go though.

  4. another ian says:

    Link to the book mentioned above

    https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Untold-History-of-the-United-States/Oliver-Stone/9781982102531

    I notice that the book seems to be ignored in search links

  5. John Robertson says:

    On that note.
    If Mr Biden is not a Chinese agent,what would he have done differently?
    American Influence is being destroyed,almost deliberately,by American representatives.
    Watching China behave as the senior statesmen and Russian acting as the adults in the room..it struck me that the suggestions of Joe Biden and a good chunk of the Congress having sold out to China,seem very logical..
    The behaviour of NATO and especially American Envoys has been appalling..deliberately so?
    The US currency as the Reserve Dollar,has been undermined and crippled by massive Federal debt and deficits,Again by planning not stupidity.
    The necessary human values and rule of law that make civilized society have been under blatant and open attack,by these same “leaders”..
    And history shows,the best way to destroy a strong independent country,has been to subvert its leaders..
    So are they really stupid and lazy?
    Or are they traitors?

    They lie constantly,so only the result of their actions can be used to judge them.
    For as they lie,their stated intent means nothing,only the results of their actions hold any truth.The only measurement we have.

    And we are poorer,less strong,less united,and less able to protect the things that matter to most of us..
    These are the “Results of our politicians actions”.

    So are they fools?
    Or are they paid destroyers,working on the behalf of their paymasters?
    And as we can only measure them by what has come to pass,do we care?

    Stupid or Evil,the results are the same.

  6. another ian says:

    Seem to have missed that bit of history which says the useful idiots go in the first clean out round

  7. E.M.Smith says:

    FWIW, I expand on the present activities in Ukraine in a reply to Lars, here:
    Link; https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2023/03/11/russians-more-rational-than-the-west/#comment-163334

    It includes some discussion of Moldova and Georgia being pot stirred against Russia along with a bit of what I think is likely to happen now.

  8. H.R. says:

    @another ian re useful idiots – ALL of the useful idiots are unaware that they will be the first to go after the revolution because, well… they are IDIOTS!

  9. another ian says:

    I put this on “Wood” but fits better here IMO

    “The 10 Rules Of Propaganda”

    “Lord Arthur Ponsonby was a British diplomat and politician, dates 1871–1946.

    This keen and cagey fellow pinpointed 10 rules of propaganda.”

    “They are these:

    1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves.

    2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war.

    3. Our adversary’s leader is evil and looks evil.

    4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interest.

    5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes.

    6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons.

    7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big.

    8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause.

    9. Our cause is sacred.

    10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/10-rules-propaganda

    And well worth reading IMO

    He’s probably not the Ponsonby of the Prendegast and Ponsonby joke series

  10. David A says:

    It is certainly a very long list of not heeding George Washington’s warning to avoid foreign wars. I do think the motivations have varied over the decades, to the point where now they are almost purely evil and self destructive. I may have a bone to pick with this one however, which also illustrates my point that the “goals” behind the acts changed over the decades. “supporting Evil Dictators like the Shaw leading to Iranian fanatics in charge…”

    My recall is that the transition to fanatics took decades. My understanding is that at the time the US was dealing with Korea flaring, and the “Cold War”. We saw Britain taking huge advantage of Iran, and, as a result, the radical Islamist were a growing force, threatening to add a much greater complexity to a tense Cold War world, in a geographic area the US did not want to see flare up. So the US did orchestrate the Shaw and they effectively muted the fanatics by clawing back much of the profit from Iranian oil to the people of Iran. The result was that for two decades Iran was the fastest growing economy in the ME, and the culture did open up with popular internal suppression of the fanatics, and women also avoided intense discrimination, went to higher education, did not wear masks, and things went quite well until the Carter era.

    At any rate that is my recall of that revolution, and there were other net decnt or even good results, and other evil parties striving for dominance, with the native populations often simply victims of power struggles. (The citizens of Ukraine now for instance) However most certainly the last 20 years have been a rapid decline of virtue within the US.

  11. Keith Macdonald says:

    @EM
    For far too long, I just assumed that most folks were moral and honest, for the simple reason that most folks were.

    Perhaps “moral and honest” has got too conflated with just “obeying the rules”? Most of us (in the west) grew up in a Judeo-Christian era when “the rules” were vaguely related to the Ten Commandments. Which gave us a code of ethics and a moral compass. With no disrespect to other cultures that also have a moral compass, like Bhuddism.

    The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi (‘meditative absorption or union’; alternatively, equanimous meditative awareness).
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path

    Some people also joined fraternal groups with tenents like Integrity, Friendship, Respect and Charity – which also encouraged personal growth and a righteous path through life. But being “in a group” also means “obeying the rules”.

    Whatever set of rules we were obeying, there was a fairly consistent thread of “do no harm”.

    Most folks are quite passive and uncurious (present company excepted). Covid being a great case study in “obeying the rules”. Ignoring the rules, and stepping outside their own group, is a fearful thing for a large proportion of ordinary people.

    Even after all that Covid crap, they find it hard to recognise or accept that we now have a generation of leaders who have no such respects for any moral compass or integrity. It’s one of the “rules of thumb” of interpersonal psychology that we assume other people are “the same as us” until proven otherwise. As most folks are quite nice and kind, and don’t go round lying and cheating on a daily basis, they really don’t understand how “our leaders” could be serial thieves, liars and cheats. It’s all a mystery to them.

    Most folks are just left with a nagging feeling that “something’s not right” and “someone must be to blame”. Then continually misdirected by MSM fearporn – “Orange Man Bad, Chinese Man Badder, and Russian Man Baddest”. That puts the blame “out there” and not in how we live our own lives.

    But there are still some people with a moral compass e.g. Larry Johnson – has he been mentioned?

    Larry C Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. … He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right.

    His latest article seems relevant to this thread:
    Rending America’s fabric of lies – is it possible?
    https://sonar21.com/rending-americas-fabric-of-lies-is-it-possible/

    Others are slowly returning to a righteous path. It’s one person and one step at a time.

    Dear Conservatives, I Apologize
    My “Team” was Taken in By Full-Spectrum Propaganda

    https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/dear-conservatives-i-am-sorry

    Meanwhile, how to live our own lives?
    Be brave, mon amis!
    I encourage all to take a Pelagian path. Each person is free to choose between good and evil. Our faith must be practical as well as spiritual. Gnosticism and gardening is the way forward.

  12. E.M.Smith says:

    @Another Ian:

    If you can avoid posting the same thing to multiple threads, that would be appreciated. (I’ll eventually run out of “free MB” and have to stop posting or pay…)

    @Per recent China mediated Iran Saudi peace deal AND the ever growing BRICS+:

    Seems China’s Belt & Roads is in competition with / synergy with, a Russian Iranian bypass of the EU as well. Interesting bit of history I didn’t know, (though part of The Great Game that I did know about…) is that the Allies via lend lease sent a LOT of military goods to Russia via Iran (Persia and the Persian gulf then overland via train).

    IMHO well worth watching as it gives a lot of clue about the present “issues” with Russia making friends in Syria, Iran, etc… and why the USA / UK / EU might be grumpy about having their Toll Roads bypassed. Also illustrates why India is interested in being in the mix with BRICS+ members.

    IMHO, there’s a new game in town, even as The Great Game players are fretting….

  13. YMMV says:

    Keith Macdonald: Most of us (in the west) grew up in a Judeo-Christian era when “the rules” were vaguely related to the Ten Commandments. Which gave us a code of ethics and a moral compass. With no disrespect to other cultures that also have a moral compass, like Bhuddism.

    Kids these days. They don’t believe in God. Not the God older generations grew up with, and not really any other either. The side effect of that is that they also threw away that code of ethics and moral compass. Civilization did not need God to thrive, but it did need that code of ethics and moral compass.

    They have replaced it with something else, new and “progressive”, but lacking the solid (but imperfect) foundation built (evolved) through the ages.

  14. another ian says:

    This also likely fits the thread –

    “The Parliamentary Motive Behind the J6 Fedsurrection
    March 12, 2023 | Sundance | 376 Comments”

    “Much has been made of the events of January 6, 2021, and with the latest broadcast of CCTV video from inside the Capitol Hill complex, more questions have been raised.

    Within the questions: the FBI and government apparatus had advanced knowledge of the scale of the J6 mall assembly yet doing nothing? Why were the Capitol Hill police never informed of the FBI concerns? Why didn’t House Speaker Nancy Pelosi secure the Capitol Hill complex, and why did she deny the request by President Trump to call up the national guard for security support? Why did the FBI have agent provocateurs in the crowd, seemingly stimulating rage within a peaceful crowd to enter the Capitol building? There have always been these nagging questions around ‘why’?”

    More at

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/03/12/the-parliamentary-motive-behind-the-j6-fedsurrection/

  15. E.M.Smith says:

    Related to that Great Game Redux Persian Corridor bypass, here’s another one I’d not realized was being built. It is the “Bi-Oceanic Corridor” that runs from Chile, via Argentina and Paraguay to Southern Brazil. A Panama bypass and also opens up a largely isolated part of South America.

    It looks like China is busy funding / building all the economic mega-projects that the USA ought to have been doing.

    Any bets on how much of this truck and rail traffic will be using fossil fuels and how much will be using batteries, fairy farts, and rainbows?…

  16. jim2 says:

    We could use some CIA operations in Argentina and some other countries in S.A.

  17. another ian says:

    Now here’s a vote of confidence –

    “Russian dementia care facilities apparently using Biden in their commercials.”

    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/03/russian-dementia-care-facilities-apparently-using-biden-in-their-commercials.html

  18. jim2 says:

    In a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Salazar told lawmakers that Argentina, along with nations like Venezuela and Bolivia, were allowing China to gain a military foothold in Latin America.

    “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping has been to Latin America more times than President Obama, Trump and Biden combined in the last 10 years,” Salazar told lawmakers. “The Chinese are not here for trade. They’re here for war.”

    The Florida congresswoman pointed to China’s sales of military equipment and arms to the region over the last decade and claimed that Argentina is now considering opening a Chinese fighter jet factory.

    https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-flexes-muscles-latin-america-latest-security-challenge-us

  19. jim2 says:

    The Oyu Tolgoi project is now producing ore from 1.3 kilometers below the surface of the Gobi Desert, Rio’s Chief Executive Officer Jakob Stausholm told reporters gathered at the site. The world’s No. 2 miner is spending $7 billion on the underground project that’s a cornerstone of the company’s growth plans.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-13/rio-tinto-digs-deep-as-7-billion-copper-mine-finally-delivers

  20. Billy Bob Smif says:

    RE: ” the Shaw”; it’s “Shah.”

    [Reply: It is actually something in the Persian variation of the Arabic alphabet that is commonly transliterated into “Shah”. I choose to do such transliterations phonetically and don’t care if someone else did it differently. I sometimes have the same “complaint” from the Spelling Police of the world with some Russian transliterations, that are really only properly in Cyrillic, so any Western Transliteration is by definition “wrong”. -E.M.Smith]

  21. The True Nolan says:

    80 year old wisdom from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, very relevant to the question “Are we the baddies?”
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/on-stupidity

  22. another ian says:

    Re that US drone that went down in “Deep water of the Black Sea” –

    Have a read here and maybe doubt

    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/breaking-russian-su-27s-finally-down

    “As can be seen here the continental shelf around that region is very shallow so this explains the speed with which they were able to raise the drone”

  23. YMMV says:

    Two brief video clips from the US drone here:
    https://www.rt.com/news/573068-reaper-incident-video-pentagon/

    Both have glitches or censoring or something at points.
    They show the “fuel dump” claimed by the US. I don’t know what it really is, but fuel dump seems unlikely. The other possibility mentioned is afterburners. That’s odd too, because the drone is very slow compared to a jet, so extra speed isn’t needed.

    The second one show a bent prop and a prop at an odd pitch (2 out of 3).
    But looking at other Reaper photos, there is no way the jets could hit the prop without also hitting the tail fins of the drone.

    There is also a video clip of the drone taken from the Russian jets. That is said to be on the russian Telegraph.

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