The Romans were hated by a lot of people in the ancient world. This bothered the Romans not a bit. Their attitude was spelled out in the post title, although the original latin has a certain je ne sais quois: Oderint, dum metuant.
The Powers That Be in these United States seem to have forgotten that this is a dynamic, and that things done to instill fear can lead to hate. Big Country hits this nail on the head looking at all the sanctions that the US PTB are piling on Russia:
Two is that #ourguys are purely fucking up by the numbers. Initially, the Russian Population was starting to protest against the war. Lots of Grannies, regular civvies, and yeah, Vlad had a crackdown on it, as he is wont to be. However, all this 'other stuff'... the cutting off of Paypal, Applepay, Goolagpay, services and well, just about any and all economic 'stuff' in Russia by OUR Oligarchs?
Yeah, that's not helping us... in fact it just goes to prove the point to the Russian People that Putin IS right and that they, the Russian People as a whole have been targeted by the dissolute and decadent west for elimination. Hell, it ain't a hard argument to make, and we're proving it by putting the hurt on the Russian People as a whole. The Russians as history has shown rally around The Rodina when shit like this happens. A nearly singlemindedness and even bloodthirsty willingness to protect The Motherland
No matter what the cost.
So this makes me nervous, 'cos instead of them blaming Putin, they're realizing, from their POV, he might be right and it's time to make US hurt as badly as we're making them hurt. And as far as I can tell, that'd be the Giant Flashbulb Option, as they really don't have a way of fucking up or fucking with the general Untied Staaz population.
So if our beef is with Vlad and the Oligarchs (their Oligarchs, not our Oligarchs) then why do the sanctions seem to be targeted at the Russian People? Oh, and I still don't have a good explanation as to why Ukraine absolutely positively has to be a member of NATO. Still waiting on that one.
Ya know, what comes to mind is the ancient Greek saying that those who the Gods would destroy first are turned mad. About sums up the US PTB, right there.
And an anonymous commenter leaves a really concerning comment over at Big Country's place:
More or less right on the money. Couple that with the administration coming up with shit like sanctions on India because they won't sanction Russia. Now India are looking at what they can trade without using the USD. Good work retards.
Lot of Arab countries now talking about investing more in/with China too. Worth watching what the BRICS countries do, once the move away from trade in USD kicks in...
"Good work, retards" looks like it's fixin' the be an excellent epitaph for the US PTB once they destroy the dollar as the world's reserve currency and the US standard of living drops by 70%.
Ah, brings to mind the old days, working at Three Letter Security Agency back in the '80s. We all agreed that if the balloon went up we'd just go out and sunbathe in the parking lot and wait for that last big flash bulb to go off. Been a long time since I thought of that. And so, a musical tribute to the last tanning session (stolen from Western Rifle Shooters):
Damn, I wish we had a smarter and less reckless Ruling Class.
9 comments:
"And as far as I can tell, that'd be the Giant Flashbulb Option, as they really don't have a way of fucking up or fucking with the general Untied Staaz population."
They can, and probably will, try cyberattacks first. And I think they'll be successful.
As I've noted over the years, sanctions tend not to affect the oppressors much (nor, on the flip side, does aid reach the oppressed).
As Walt Kelly put it: "When you starve with a tiger, the tiger starves last."
Kinda wonder if they aren't doing that now. Last night thousands of accounts in USAA simply dissappeared for a while. My SIL's accounts reappeared, fortunately.
TPTB have been creating diversions and distractions to serve as bogeymen to frighten the population into behaving certain ways for decades now. We saw it with the environment, we saw it with the Chinkypox, and we are seeing it here with the Russians.
The problems start when these bogeymen become real monsters as the environement did. No, the ice caps never melted, the polar bears are actually multiplying and breeding in the largest numbers in history, and Greta Thunberg turned out to be a stupid truant child, and Al Gore was a huckster... but, don't look at that! Here's Chinkypox! It's even scarier than the environMINT!!! The heroic General Aesop and Dr. Fauci were happy to scare the kids silly with visions of doom and death, and getting Karen back under control after after all that was proving impossible. Oh look - here come the Russians!!! And here come our favourite heroes to deal with it! General Aesop is crowing about all the fake photos of junked Russian hardware he sees in the mass media. Justin Turdo is a hero rolling out the red carpet for Ukranian refugees. Don't waste time thinking about how these guys behaved during the Covid hysteria! The Russians are coming!!!!
At some point the rubes will wake up and start wondering if they haven't seen all this before. The cries of "Pull my other finger, it has bells on it!" are resounding throughout the stubfart-O-sphere. They are starting to echo in other demographics.
This one will either blow up and turn into another uncontrollable monster... or TPTB will need another bogeyman to divert the attention away from themselves. As for me... I want my freedom back. I am not taking your vaccines, I am not afraid of your bogey men, and I will not attack others on your say-so ever again. Those of us that can think for ourselves had better start doing for ourselves if we haven't already.
BP - you are a computer geek. I am curious - how is it that info from the Russian side of this is so sparse? Technically we should be seeing everything in that chit show on every podcasts, recorded on every cell phone in the country. I am seeing levels of censorship here that I have never seen before. Have the censors really upped their game or am I missing things...? Do you you have any reliable feeds or sources in the area...?
Glen, I think there's propaganda from both sides right now, and you're right that the same censorship we see against Trump/DeSantis/Republicans is in play against Russia as well. I suspect that they are doing better militarily than we're hearing, but this is just a suspicion.
I don't have any reliable feeds, but Big Country just posted some info that sounds solid to me.
Natzsofast:
Putin hasn't exactly been sunbathing in the warmth of his people's support and admiration:
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2022/03/no-more-mr-nice-guy.html
Nothing says "Putin's our Guy" like threatening all contrary opinion with spending half a generation in Club Gulag.
He's even running the Stalin 101 Playbook, FFS.
The India sanctions have a rather disturbing precedent. Napoleon invaded Russia because his Continental System, designed to counterblockade Britain was leaky and the main leak was Russia.
When your enemy of the moment begins acting just as you said he would, you get ATF and an M88 poking CS grenades through walls and among women and children. And then your enemy proclaims, "We didn't think that would happen."
Borepatch and Glenn, Tom Kratman has been providing some useful corrective observations on his FB feed and probably elsewhere.
Much of what's going on in Ukraine right now is starting to sound like mid-September 1939: "Three weeks after the Germans crossed the frontier, Radio Warsaw still played the Polonnaise."
Yes, the vaunted blitzkrieg ended in an old-fashioned Napoleonic artillery bombardment of Warsaw, but end it did...and I increasingly see President Zelensky in the role (alas) of Mayor Starzynski of Warsaw.
Interesting point Richard makes about Napoleon and the Continental System. There's a fair amount of justice in it, though I personally think the Spanish ulcer was a bigger leak in the end.
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