"Astray"

Johnstone: "….. But they weren’t “heroes”, and they did not make any “sacrifice”. A hero is someone who risks danger taking noble action for the benefit of others. A sacrifice is when you give up your life for a higher cause. This was neither of those things. Those soldiers were killed in response to US airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in a stupid, evil war of aggression waged by a Zionist president to please his billionaire Israeli megadonor. Those US attacks destroyed a desalination plant, cutting off an essential water supply for thousands of Iranian civilians. They did not die defending the United States. They did not die protecting the American people. They did not die for freedom, for democracy, or for any of the other bogus reasons you’ll see imperial spinmeisters saying they died for. They died for Israel, for the military-industrial complex, and for US imperial agendas of global domination. And for nothing else. I said this online and someone tried telling me “They died for their country and Fuck You for pissing on that.” I told him no, they did not die for their country. The Iranians are dying for their country. The Americans are dying for Israel, for money, and for geostrategic control. Not a single American life in the United States is being protected by the actions of US service members in the middle east. They’re not defending their homeland, they’re attacking people who are defending theirs. This isn’t worthy of praise, it’s worthy of anger and outrage. …."

More on US treachery and evil ....

On US treachery ….

Didn't know it was this bad ….. (?) Ruggeri: "….. Luxembourg’s enthusiastic embrace of war rhetoric is rooted in its outsized role in global finance. Despite its tiny size, the Grand Duchy is among the world’s leading financial centres. The numbers are obscene. By the end of 2025, assets under management in Luxembourg-domiciled funds reached €8.2 trillion. The Grand Duchy manages 58 percent of all global cross-border funds. It is the world’s second-largest fund domicile, trailing only the United States, and Europe’s largest fund hub. Its external financial assets stand at €13 trillion. This is not a country. It is a machine for the extraction of value, a vast financial pump that siphons the world’s wealth into the coffers of the global elite. …." -- "…. Luxembourg’s hawkishness is a business model. And like all business models built on the suffering of others, it will eventually consume its creators. But in the meantime, the profits will flow, the dividends will be paid, and the bankers will count their money while Europeans say goodbye to welfare and are told to prepare for war."

Berletic: "US government-funded media NPR as part of a multi-year campaign to portray Uyghur terrorists as “freedom fighters” has whitewashed their prominent role among the ranks of Al Qaeda in Syria throughout the US-backed proxy war spanning 2011-2024; The article seeks to prepare public perception for the use of US-sponsored terrorists to be deployed from Syria across Eurasia to attack Chinese investments, citizens, and perhaps even China itself; This is only the most recent chapter in the US’ use of terrorist organizations (designated as such by the US itself until delisting them to provide more direct support) to advance US geopolitical objectives worldwide and more specifically vis-a-vis China; The US is already amid a long-standing dirty war wages against China along its borders following several years in the early 2000s where US-backed extremism was targeting and killing people inside China itself; …."

Johnstone: ".... The west in general and the US in particular have spent generations stomping out communism, and, at least within the confines of the western world, they have been remarkably successful at it. In 2026 the United States is so very, very, very, very, VERY far from communism that viewing it as a threat is just a sign of weak-minded cowardice and jumping-at-shadows paranoia. It’s kind of like reading about a brush fire in Nigeria and worrying that it’s going to burn its way across the world to show up on your doorstep. ...."

Porath: "To fund perpetual war, Israel has grown ever more reliant on issuing bonds. Relinquishing these holdings, often invested passively, disrupts that equation. ….." "…. As long as government bonds are viewed as a standard investment product, included in international indexes, purchased through broad-based ETFs, and savers remain unaware that their money is invested in Israeli government debt, the financing mechanism will continue to operate almost autonomously. As such, protest groups around the world are now seeking to transform this system from a technical matter to a political and moral issue. When savers in northern England discover that their pension funds are invested in Israeli government bonds; when members of parliament in Ireland ask why their country’s central bank provides a regulatory framework for Israeli bond issuances; and when investors in New York or Wales demand an end to channeling their money to finance a state committing war crimes in Gaza and deepening its control over the West Bank, the very raising of these questions already undermines Israel’s convenient separation between the capital market and government policy. These moves disregard the distinction that figures such as the EU ambassador insist on drawing between the Israeli state and the settlements. In this sense, divesting from Israeli debt strips away the ostensibly professional veneer from one of the state’s central financing mechanisms. It forces entities that prefer to speak the language of returns, risk, credit ratings, and liquidity to grapple with questions of morality and human rights: Is purchasing Israeli government debt still a neutral investment, or does it constitute complicity in financing a state that is gradually losing its international legitimacy?"

"International relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda joins the show to break down Putin's latest speech, Russia's deterrence strategy, and the evolving Ukraine conflict. We unpack what "instilling deterrence" actually means, why Russia dismisses calls to strike European cities, the deliberately vague concept of "Novorossiya," and whether regime change in Kyiv is an unstated war aim. Sleboda also lays out Russia's asymmetric response options — from cyber to covert warfare — and explains the careful escalation management on both sides to avoid a direct NATO-Russia confrontation."

"Jeff Rich, historian and author, warns of the "Coming Storm" of a worsening war in Greater Europe after 18 months of failed peace negotiations in the war in Ukraine. Drawing on the works of leading scholars Odd Arne Westad, Richard Sakwa, and Michael Jabara Carley, the Burning Archive expresses dismay about the crescendo of drums of war coming from Greater Europe. Because the storm could devastate the whole world. …."

While depressing, this insight at least gives me some intellectual closure as it makes it a little bit easier to understand why so many people would believe the self-contradicting stories we are told in mass media about the Ukraine Proxy War. The propaganda about the underlying nature of the imbecile savage is so much older than the war and so deeply learned that whoever is not aware will fall right into the trap. Westerners simply connect current affairs with the racist stereotype—et voilà, you’ve got yourself a functioning and deeply rooted narrative about “the other” that can and will be repeated in society ad nauseam since it confirms what is believed to be well known anyhow. That also finally gives me a clue as to why in the Global South the ratcheting up of war fever against Russia did not work. While India, China, and many others opposed and criticized Russia for the invasion of Ukraine back in 2022, they refrained from going into an anti-Russian frenzy. Rather, they looked at the situation objectively, trying to understand Russia’s motivations—something you can only do if you are not poisoned with a hollow stereotype about it. Many in the Global South also seem to intuitively understand the racist nature of the West’s portrayal of Russia since they themselves have been on the receiving end of such colonial European mechanisms. …."