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Stephen Mack <stephenkmack@gmail.com>
5:09 PM (4 minutes ago)
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I don’t need your convenient “bad actor” waiting in the wings!!! Your cover story looks as wan as the very notion of the charges you fabricated against me. A public apology and meia suipa……. Stephen K Mack
A revelatory sample of Applebaum Cold Warrior chatter. Ukraine the test case of a faltering Western Hegemony!
ANNE APPLEBAUM:
I think the surprise is the openness and the harshness of Trump’s turn against Ukraine. We know he didn’t like President Zelenskyy. We know he’s inclined towards Russia. He favors Russia. He has done so for 40 years. He said it many times. His relationships with the Russians have been investigated over and over again, so it’s not really a mystery. The surprise is why he suddenly decided in the last couple of weeks to take what was actually a fairly good moment for Ukraine. Ukrainians have been either holding territory or even taking territory on the front line. They were striking very effectively against Russian targets deep inside the country, against refineries, but not only. And suddenly Trump decided to take Putin’s side and to put pressure on Zelenskyy without putting any pressure on Putin as well. And the timing is strange. It was a couple of weeks before the midterms.
Putin is a very unpopular figure in the United States. His support is in single digits. Zelenskyy, on the contrary, actually is popular. He’s more popular than Trump himself. And so why he suddenly chose this moment to make this hard switch is, I mean, I think it’s actually still mysterious. And what he did was is he put pressure on Zelenskyy to stop hitting Russian refineries and said that he would be importing diesel from Russia. It’s not enough diesel to make a difference to prices in the US. It’s not enough diesel, I wouldn’t think, to affect the US election. I mean, maybe it’s something Trump could say on the campaign trail, although I see he’s kind of dropped it. But what it did do is it suddenly gave a psychological boost to the Russians. Instead of putting pressure on them to end the war, he’s putting pressure on Ukraine essentially to capitulate and to stop fighting. And it’s disturbing for the Ukrainians.
It’s very disturbing for Europeans who are now the sole supporters of the Ukraine. US does not give any money to Ukraine anymore. And of course, this was accompanied with this decision, unclear who made it, probably Elon Musk, to turn down or to control the use of Starlink and Starshield. These are the internet electronics services that the Ukrainians use mostly to defend themselves actually because they have other things that they use for offense and certainly for attacking Russia. But the decision suddenly disrupted the Ukrainian frontline. It made it hard for the Ukrainians to anticipate incoming missiles and to warn people. And it looks like some people died for exactly that reason. So you had a very strange few days where suddenly Trump turned on Ukraine, Musk accompanied him, the Russian press went mad with joy, and a lot of Ukrainians died. And we’ve hit some kind of, I don’t know, some new balance now.
I think neither Trump nor Musk wanted to take responsibility for the fact that people died because they weren’t able to defend themselves. So now it’s equal again, but the damage has been done. It’s been done, I would say, especially in Europe. The last remaining sense that the United States could be a reliable partner and that the United States was on the same side more or less as the democratic world I think is beginning to fade.
Is the fact that Ms. Applebaum/Mrs. Sikorsky should issue such a ringing endorsement of the demonstrably failed successor to the Free Market Delusion, Austerity, be anything like a surprise? A number of dissenting opinions on the notion of Austerity’s putative success: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/06/11/economic_austerity_how_it_failed_in_one_chart.html http://www.salon.com/2015/02/06/joseph_stiglitz_austerity_failed_greece_partner/ http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greece-eurozone-austerity-reform-by-joseph-e–stiglitz-2015-02 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/06/how-case-austerity-has-crumbled/ The alliance between the Neo-Cons and the Neo-Liberals is of long standing: Ms. Applebaum is a Neo-Con in all but name. But the fact that her badly cobbled together propaganda realizes itself in this argument : the social/political potency of the idea/practice of ‘national renewal’ as a particular historical/political aspiration across Europe ending in the alliance of Right and Left, as she narrates the story. Need we, as readers, look any further that the Coup Government of Ukraine as an object lesson of this narrative? Right Sector and Svoboda are active participants in that Coup Government. In view of this, should the Greek’s be offered the same tolerance/acceptance that Ms. Applebaum not only accepts but celebrates as worthy of our approbation and material aid in Ukraine? Please don’t mention the collusion between the banks/investment houses and Greek Oligarchs to hide the reality of the actual condition of Greek indebtedness, it is antithetical to this writer’s ideologically charged essay. The Putin hysteria mongering, Russophobia is a function of The New Cold War rhetoric that the Neo-Cons/R2P zealots have adopted in anticipation of WWIII, and her marriage to Radosław Sikorski Polish politician and journalist.
American Reader. stephenkmacksd.com/ Jun 28, 2026 Reader compare mendacious political fabulist Jonathan Freedland, with John Crace of ‘The politics sketch’! Posted on May 16, 2025 by stephenkmacksd American Reader comments ! stephenkmacksd.com/ May 10, 2025 Editor: Reader begin here : Jonathan Freedland: Headline: … Continue reading →
Fri 18 Mar 2016 16.09 EDT stephenkmacksd.com/ Feb 13, 2026 As the Conservative party divides its time between running the country and tearing itself apart over Europe, Labour has been consumed with a rather different problem. In the past two … Continue reading →
Old Socialist wonders at political opportunism, in its various and toxic itertions? stephenkmacksd.com/ Dec 07, 2025 Headline: The Trump administration sinks to a new low – opening fire on drowning men Sub-headline: These deadly US boat strikes are the latest … Continue reading →
Newspaper Reader on ‘The Traitors Circle: The True Story of a Secret Resistance Network in Nazi Germany—and the Spy Who Betrayed them.’ stephenkmacksd.com/ Oct 15, 2025 Editor: Jonathan Freedland joins the other Zionists regulars at the Times: Thomas L. Friedman, … Continue reading →
American Observer comments. stephenkmacksd.com/ Aug 31, 2025 Mr. Freedland is a notorious political opportunist, so the predations of Trump and his political minions, are the perfect opportunity to draw attention away form the Gaza Genocide, and the arrest of British … Continue reading →
Old Socialist on the very elastic political standards of Jonathan Freedland & Fellow Travelers! stephenkmacksd.com/ Jul 13, 2025 Headline: We’re becoming inured to Trump’s outbursts – but when he goes quiet, we need to be worried Sub-headline: Across the US, … Continue reading →
Political Observer. stephenkmacksd.com/ May 04, 2025 Jonathan Freedland never disappoints, except in the matter truth, facts or valid argument! It’s his habit of being! Political Observer engages in some Political Archaeology. Headline: It’s risky, but Joe Biden needs to give … Continue reading →
Newspaper Reader. stephenkmacksd.com/ Feb 14, 2025 Editor: For those of ‘us’ with a long memory, who can forget Jonathan Freedland’s act of Defamation against Jeremy Corbyn. Headline:Jeremy Corbyn is either blind to antisemitism – or he just doesn’t care Sub-headline … Continue reading →
Netanyahu has edged out his rivals in the Israeli elections. This comes as a huge disappointment to those who wanted to rehabilitate Israel by pinning the country’s crimes on one man. Everyone else knew it would make no difference whoever ends up in charge.
The elections had a record 77.7% turnout. Exit polls had predicted a bad night for Netanyahu to the delight of liberals who pretend they were never on his side. An excited Emily Thornberry jumped the gun, posting that Israel has rejected Netanyahu’s dark vision, forever war and cruel, dystopic, authoritarian policies.
Years ago, I called Antifa the Keyser Söze of the left, after the character in “The Usual Suspects.” In the film, the character Virgil explains how Söze stayed in the shadows: he became “a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night.” The strategy was too simple: “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.”
Democratic leaders have long fostered the myth around Antifa, the largest and most violent group on the political left. For years, they have denied the existence of the group even as members were charged with crimes (including terrorism). Now, the French authorities have found that the nonexistent group is the largest of three “ideologically distinct groups” responsible for the violence in France. It appears that either the entire French security system is delusional or the trick is up for the American left.
France is burning. On the anniversary of the firing of the summer palace in Beijing. Europe is smouldering. General Roly Poly tells us we must be ready to sacrifice to keep him in corsets and vintage wine, or whine
France is burning. On the anniversary of the firing of the summer palace in Beijing. Europe is smouldering. General Roly Poly tells us we must be ready to sacrifice to keep him in corsets and vintage wine, or whine
Almost Marx views the unfolding ‘French Political Melodrama’, through the Matthieu Goar lens… Headline: The pension crisis signals the end of ‘original Macronism’ Sub-headline: Some of the French president’s voters are beginning to doubt his ability to emerge from the … Continue reading →
The Neo-Liberalizer of France is too cozy with Putin ? Before I begin with the essay of Kaufmann, let me quote from Wolfgang Streeck’s essay on Europe of January 7, 2022: … In fact, the French political class seems increasingly … Continue reading →
Headline:Emmanuel Macron vows to press ahead with France economic reforms Sub-headline: President acknowledges ‘rising anger’ but calls for patience in his new year’s address David Keohane closely follows the Party Line on Macon, call it the ‘articles of faith’ of this … Continue reading →
The Jupiterian Revolution of M. 37% seems to stumble from crisis to crisis, all of his own making! Most of these go un-reported in one of his staunchest propaganda ‘newspapers’ The Financial Times. Mr. Bremner’s enlightening essay offers something that … Continue reading →
Political Observer offers more that just this front page. I offer selections from Claire Gatinois and Solenn de Royer, of Le Mond’s, postmortem of Macron’s ‘twilight’? stephenkmacksd.com/ Dec 05, 2024 Le Monde offers this on Macron : …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Editor: The … Continue reading →
Headline: Violence against France’s institutions – how far is too far? Sub-headline: An arson attempt on Saturday at the residence of France’s Speaker of the Assembly has put the spotlight on similar acts of vandalism aimed at France’s public institutions. … Continue reading →
This screen capture of a tweet puts the Financial Times propaganda in a necessary perspective:
Another perspective, this from Press TV:
Ramin Mazaheri Press TV, Paris
Yellow Vest protests continue for the 21st consecutive week against French government policies. Turnout was lower than previous weeks but as our correspondent Ramin Mazaheri reports from Paris demonstrators have made it clear they will keep marching until their demands are met.
Political Observer offers more that just this front page. I offer selections from Claire Gatinois and Solenn de Royer, of Le Mond’s, postmortem of Macron’s ‘twilight’?
Editor: The Reader has to congratulate Le Monde, and its reporters Claire Gatinois and Solenn de Royer, for their 3633 word exsumation of Macron and Macronism? The Reader might even choose her favorite selections, and totally ignore my own! One might read the reportage of Claire Gatinois and Solenn de Royer as contemporary riff onRise and Fall of Cesar Birotteauby Honoré de Balzac? That might also riff on the themes of Lucien de Rubempré of The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans? The Reader might become annarored, even seduced, by the style of these two reporters, and again ignore my own! This vast canvas invites dissent, as does the title of this essay, followed by Chapter Headings, in a nod to the novel as formative ?
Headline: Violence against France’s institutions – how far is too far?
Sub-headline: An arson attempt on Saturday at the residence of France’s Speaker of the Assembly has put the spotlight on similar acts of vandalism aimed at France’s public institutions.
Paragraph heading : No evidence of ‘Yellow Vest’ motive
The attempted arson, which took place on the same day as the 13th Yellow Vest protests, was initially suspected be linked to the movement’s hardline demonstrators.
But according to Jean-Philippe Recappé, public prosecutor of Brest (Brittany), no evidence of this has been found.
“There was no graffiti, demands or other signs that link the arson with the gilets jaunes”, said Recappé. “A window shutter and pane exploded, that was it.”
He also underlined the absence of danger for Mr Ferrand.
“This is not a main residence”, Recappé said. “No one was in the house”.
‘Destroying public property, attacking journalists and elected officials, violating the intimacy of their homes and urinating on France’s institutions.’
Austerity is Violence! Macron Jupertarian Politics, another name for Authoritarianism, must go!
As reported at RFI, the gilets jaunes as a political force does not seem to be ebbing : ‘More than 50,000 people turned out for Act VIII of the yellow vest protests on Saturday.Although peaceful overall, there were violent clashes … Continue reading →
Ukraine is providing an example of freedom. In Ukraine, even during conditions of war, civil society functions, and people speak their minds. Under Russian occupation, an entirely different mode of life prevails: women are raped; children are deported to Russia to be assimilated; local activists are murdered; young men are forced into the Russian army to die; total uniformity is imposed.
And so what Trump says is wrong in the very broadest of senses. Ukraine is doing work for our security and for our liberty. Ukrainians have held off the worse and bought the rest of us time.
And Trump’s claim is also wrong in the narrow sense. Ukraine has been providing battlefield intelligence to the United States from the beginning of the war. It has shared its experience of modern warfare with American institutions. It even sent — in these most trying of times inside Ukraine — hundreds of its own experienced air defense troops to the Near East to help protect Americans and their allies from Iranian drones. Imagine what those Ukrainian crews, separated from their embattled country to defend Americans, are thinking right now, as their contributions are denied, and as their own families are put in greater danger by US policy.
