The West's decade-long disinformation and hate campaign against Russia has poisoned the minds of many. Here's my private correspondence with a supporter of NATO policy toward Russia.
You deserve credit and appreciation for choosing principle over tribe -- i.e. willingness to part with friends when there is no other path. I do think people "stick to positions no matter what" more now than they used to. Information overload may be part of it, but what I see is that they just reflexively grab onto whatever their social circle is saying.
Thank you. And very true. Good point. In essence, people today face peer pressure, right? The desire to fit in with everyone else -- an inherent trait in all humans. Just like how it was in school. This is one of the most distinguishable features in most children. However, I never had such sentiments. As a child, I almost often kept to myself, for a number of reasons.
I agree with your thoughts andy, and the social circle aspect had crossed my mind when offering a comment, but I dismissed it for mention. Here's why.
A close friend(and like minded individual)and I had this conversation recently about social circles and how they seem to be collapsing. Both of us had a group/tribe that we interacted with on a regular bases and we have both noticed the departure of many if not most of
members. It was not formal, just stopped being around and available. Normally a result of
a recent conversation about(fill in the blank). It seems everything that gets discussed winds
up being relegated to absolutes; "I'm right, you're wrong", "my political party is the only
path forward", "my scientific information is the only one to be considered", etc.
As a society we are collapsing into smaller and smaller personal tribes and yet find so many
aligning with large groups centered on politics and religion. We are not far from the torches and pitchforks stage of this fourth turning.
What you say is important, but also pretty subtle. I think you are on to something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I wish we could discuss face-to-face.
I am a fan of Richard Feynman, a great scientist from a much better generation of them. One of the things he always said was: "The first rule is you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool."
Modern tech tools have left people addicted to data in a weird way. -- just raw, unprocessed data. They "know" so much more, but understand far, far less.
I moved to Oregon from California in 96 and at one point found myself making trips back every month. My listening pleasure was Six Easy Pieces. Just me and Richard for eight hour drives. Must have listened to those tapes a half a dozen times.
You're right, too much data to properly process for most people(make that the
vast majority). I've always been that guy that did deep dives into a subject to teach/train myself to be an informed lay person and used multiple sources to
better verify the veracity of a paper or statement.
Most of what passes for informed commentary today is opinion(sponsored by
one group or another or some three letter agency), not factual, unbiased statements. This has been going on for many years and they were very good at hiding the real source of this spittle being offered up through MSM.
But just recently, they seem to be outing themselves and don't care that we know
some new information was sourced and promoted by some think tank or agency
because they no longer fear us.
They have committed all manner of transgressions, both legal and moral, and no
repercussions. No rioting in the streets, no ballot box rebellions, no nothing. So they will only get bolder with their agenda.
And what is their agenda? Control, money and power(which is their Holy Trinity).
Many years ago my wife and I would watch the news together(PBS back in the days when they were still relatively independent)and she would comment on how awful a segment was(and you can literally name any bad news story they were broadcasting)and I would turn to her and say "somebody, somewhere is making money because of this". It took more than once of doing some deep dives on the
web to find the source of it and it always turned out to be some corporation doing something bad to increase profits. And when they got caught? A fine that always somehow was a slap on the wrist. Cost of doing business and oh, it's a tax write off.
Excellent point. I’d only qualify your thought by saying that social circles (in the USA) have already collapsed. And they’re not coming back. Sure, we might have temporary social circles for a year or two or three, but then we all go our separate ways once the common interest/cause that brought us together ends or dissipates.
Fifty two years ago my father was giving me some advice right before I boarded the bus for boot camp. One of those pearls of wisdom was" you will hang out with and interact with two kinds of people: friends and associates. You will have many associates in your life, some will be around for a bit and some for years, but they will always drift away. But the friends you find along the way will be with you always".
I've had so many "social circles" in my seventy years I've lost count. And that's OK, that is what was meant to be. At each time I joined a circle, it was a benefit to my growth and development as a person. As time passed, the groups contribution meant less and less and I moved on, as we all do.
Modern society and the wonders of industry have diminished the need for the support that social circles provided those many years ago. And that's a sad thing.
Anyone who uses the phrase "evil empire" in all seriousness is not a serious person but one who has a cartoon vision of reality. And the suggestion that Russians suffer from an inferiority complex made me laugh out loud. If anything, they have a superiority complex, which, admittedly, could be quite annoying but most commonly takes a charming "I'll protect you" form.
I am sorry you had to go through such an exchange.
Спасибо,Джон, что не устаешь нести правду заблудшим. Твой оппонент в данной переписке выглядит наивным и очень ангажированных западной пропагандой. Столько клише в нескольких письмах..
Thanks for this article and reproduction of personal correspondence. In this time of great uncertainty and disinformation I try to read every article with a jaundiced eye, and even so have been fooled many times into belief of personalities, opinions, and data that have later been shown to be false. In my opinion all that you wrote to your friend was correct, including the possibility that the future may include a Russian empire stretching to the English Channel. My knowledge is only from extensive reading of public sources. Yours, if it is to be believed (remember, I am thoroughly skeptical now of everything), includes insider information from your family ties as well as, presumably, from your professional past. To an outsider like me, the mistakes being made by the “West” seem so obvious that one must assume they are deliberate, perhaps to achieve a world of complete chaos and disintegration so that the remaining remnants of civilization will be bundled under an authoritarian one-world government? If that is the case, how do the Putin and Xi governments fit in, if at all?
Yes, I agree with your assessment -- these are not mere 'mistakes' by misguided western governments; they have a deliberate policy to increase global tension with a goal to establish a global liberal regime. Growing up in a U.S. govt family, I remembering discussions that one day we'd rule the world. Yes, that's always been the goal.
I've gone back and forth about Putin and Xi. During Covid, Putin and Xi closely cooperated with western globalists -- the lockdowns, masks and 'vaccine'. That's for certain. And that's one reason why for 6 weeks after the 'Russian invasion' I was shell-shocked. I just couldn't process what had happened. I thought all governments were marching together toward a global regime. But nearly 2 years into this war, it seems that the animosity between East and West is genuine. And I am increasingly open to the idea (seeing important information) that Covid 19 was a Pentagon bio-weapon and Russia was one of the main targets. Moscow's claims about U.S. bioweapons in Ukraine can't be easily dismissed as "Kremlin propaganda".
I can't agree that covid is a bioweapon to target Russians. Didn't RFK say he thought it was to target Jews and Chinese people?
There is no covid. There is no covid. There is no frickin covid! Only a weaponised set of common symptoms, a completely fantasised genome never shown to code for an entity nor to cause disease and a meaningless PCR 'test'. Gain of function is merely playing about with RNA sequences in bat poo, scaring people and banking lots of grant money. They can't find a virus let alone manipulate one.
Yes Xi seems to have been duped into going along with strict lockdown in Wuhan and other areas but i don't think it was China wide and Putin was one of the first to have had enough of it.
It would be interesting if the US pharma companies and Bill and Mel who run the WHO tried to make anther fake pandemic now. I don't think Xi nor Putin would fall for it again. The whole world is beginning to careless what the US tries to shame them into doing. Only the west is sanctioning Russia and everyone else apart from western mainstream media and politicians are opposing the genocide in Gaza.
The 'globalists' and neocons in the dying US empire are spitting out their dummies. Their day is over.
I have tracked dozens of cases by friends and colleagues in Russia. They certainly were very very ill with something that no one had seen before. And Russia experienced exceptionally high mortality rate in late 2020 and early 2021.
Meanwhile, yes, in the USA, hundreds of thousands were killed by the fact that they were denied basic treatment and medications (Ivermectin), and because hospitals were using deadly protocols that killed people (such as widespread use of the ventilators, which whistleblowers tell us killed many people)
Hiya, what were the symptoms never seen before please.?And what was the high death rate in Russia in 2020 2021? It usually hovers around 1% in most countries, in the UK in 2020 it was about 1.2% but this is before age adjustment. When adjusted for age the mortality rate in the UK in 2020 was lower than in every year from 1943 to 2008. 2009 to 2019 were extremely low years with longevity increasing.
Most dire symptoms that I heard from dozens of people who I know personally -- high temperature that lasted over a week; extreme difficulty breathing to the point that they felt like they were suffocating; total prostration in bed for weeks. I don't have their medical records; but only their words. Please take a look at Russian mortality in second half of 2020 and first half of 2021. Something truly was happening there.
The symptoms of prostration and organ failure as caused by antivirals such as remdesivir etc in the states may well have done the same in Russia. 'The list of possible medicines that can be used to treat COVID-19 in Russia includes: Favipiravir, Remdesivir, human immunoglobulin against COVID-19, Interferon alfa and Umifenovir.'
Re. Putin and Xi: You had direct experience, I did not, so I do not feel adamant here. But I hope you'll consider a modicum of forgiveness for them re. COVID policy mistakes.
Many of us were fooled. There was once at least some trust in the idea that science stood above money and politics. No political leader can be expected to be an expert in virology. They trusted the globalists because of the recent history of science. I doubt that they will ever again. In fact, is it possible that what happened with COVID contributed to the end of Putin's patience with NATO? If so, a sliver lining.
I had reason to be skeptical from the beginning. I hated mandates and ALWAYS supported friends who resisted them. But I've had a history of not always picking the right battles, and I was fighting several at the time, so just this once I decided to "go along" in spite of my doubts. Never again, I hope. Maybe that's why I feel compassion.
Excellent points and advice. You've convinced me. Your ideas about Putin and Xi sound highly plausible. For the record, I am absolutely no fan of highly centralized and regulated states. But after many years of reluctance, I can see that Putin and Xi truly feel a high duty and obligation to carry out what they think are the best policies for the largest number of their people. And yes, in part that means going after the uber wealthy and (in the case of Russia) going after the international financial/corporate conglomerates. As you know, in the USA, we have a system that is entirely at the mercy of those groups with the biggest war chest for lobbying, and the interests of the 'People' are only taken into account as a footnote, or if things truly become so bad that the ruling class decides to throw us some 'bone' to avoid massive social unrest. (Though, I prefer that our ruling class simply leave us alone; I don't want their 'help' at all).
Sachs was one of Time Magazine's 100 most important people for years in the 1990s, and even early 2000s. Columbia economics professor, expert on sustainable development. Now, in his own words, he can't get an op-ed published in any major news outlet. He was asked to chair the authoritative Lancet investigation into the origins of COVID-19. They wanted his cred, but didn't expect him to actually want to find out. My simplified synopsis: COVID-19 was the creation of a DARPA project - reasonably called a bioweapons project - and it was engineered at UNC Chapel Hill.
I know how the whole academic funding game works. As a result, I doubt that there was any specific plan to use the result of the research on a target population, they just needed something "sexy" for DARPA funding. (And if there was intent, the result was not terribly impressive if you ask me. It mostly killed old people and people with significant health problems -- not exactly an effective way to cripple an enemy population.)
Even leaving out COVID completely though, the interview lays bare the astounding degree of lying and conflict of interest that is now just shrugged off by people with power. The underlying fabric of civil society shredded in a generation or two.
I agree pretty pathetic bioweapon. What was developed at Chapel Hill was mRNA 'vaccine' 'bioweapons'.
Jeffey Sachs is an historian not a scientist. My point is there is no evidence for a virus real or engineered, and there doesn't need to be. The whole thing ripping the world apart was engineered via social media.
Ok. I see your point. We will have to disagree here. Yes, I agree that without the media hype, Covid would have gone unnoticed. But I still believe there's enough information to indicate that a pathogen was created and released, and that it was used against some regions in the U.S. and against countries such as Russia. BTW, friends in Texas reported extreme cases of Covid that I had only heard about in Russia. Research has shown that Fauci and friends were working on creating deadly pathogens. The fact that this bio-weapons project was discussed in the U.S. Congress (led by Senator Paul) indicates that this is true.
Yes there is lots of evidence that millions are given to research pathogens and create gain of function in them to allegedly understand how to better deal with them. They're laughing. all the way to the bank. And are using the paper trail they created to keep the lab leak and virus theory going when it starts to flag. The only place viruses and their genomes exist is in computers. They can't escape into reality. 🙏🏽
Thank you for your kind and informative response to my simple assessment. I completely agree that Russian SMO Feb. 22 was a surprise. Even more surprising to me is that it appears to be a genuine defense of Russia against a planned NATO takeover of all the Ukraine and probable removal (one way or another) of the cultural Russians in eastern Ukraine. Quite amazing to me (I'm sure not to you) is that Medvedev appears to have faked being a West oriented liberal in order to obfuscate the fact that Russia was hurriedly revamping their industrial, especially armament, capabilities which I believe are located far from the borders with Europe and out in the Urals somewhere?). Is it really possible that Western intelligence did not recognize this and was caught flat-footed? In any event from what I can glean from multiple Russian Telegram accounts the Ukraine military is being crushed with perhaps 500,000 Ukraine casualties. A wild guess is maybe 50,000 max Russian casualties. It would appear that should the Kremlin decide to resist a global government that they could actually do so. China being the important wild card, of course. For a complete layman like myself these are impossible questions to answer. I can only guess. As an MD, I can make more educated guesses in regards to the Covid aspect of this entire operation. I don't believe Putin and Xi did fully cooperate with the Covid op. There may have been lockdowns and masks were worn/demanded, but mRNA and DNA injections were not forced, nor promoted so heavily, on their populations. To the best of my knowledge they were spared that most important factor in the op. We don't yet know what the full extent of the carnage of the injections will be in west Europe and the US with vaxx rates in the 70%'s. Excess mortality continues apace, but at least is not accelerating. I haven't seen any reliable data for China or Russia, but assuming their vaxx rates were much, much lower with mRNA injections, their populations should be spared to a much greater extent. Is this all part of the global Plan or is this a genuine disagreement in policy?
I agree that C19 was a bioweapon Russia was one of the main targets. Putin alluded to something along those lines in a rhetorical question he posed at one of his Valdai all day news conferences many years ago pre-Covid.
Once again, John, thanks for your informative articles. I'm completely amazed that you haven't a much greater readership on Substack since your knowledge is pretty unique and you are willing to share it!
And thank you for the support. Yes, my audience is now just shy of 1,000 followers, with articles maybe getting 2,000 clicks in the end. I believe it's a quality audience, and that's most important. Thank you.
Thanks for bringing up all those valid and interesting points. Yes, Russia has pulled the wool over NATO's eyes, building up its defenses over the past decade without anyone noticing. Think about it -- over the past 6 months, Russia has withstood and defeated the massive onslaught of 30 NATO countries! This is one of the great military victories in history. Despite all the difficulties of our current era, I find it an honor to be alive now at this most important turning point in history.
I've struggled myself to understand the motivations of Western decision makers for at least two decades because they seem so incoherent, AND antithetical to their own professed ideologies! Like you, I am willing to maintain some level of uncertainty about any simple answers -- including my own -- but the last few years have seemed to clarify things. My interpretation of "motivation" now goes something like this:
1. They don't seek chaos and disintegration in an intentional sense, but they understand that every time there is a crisis, they will benefit from its resolution. (I partly blame the population for this dynamic -- too many people hungry for a band-aid fix so they can get back to "normal.")
2. As a result, they cavalierly push irresponsible, "pie-in-the-sky" policies knowing these will generate a crisis -- some crisis.
3. I don't think there is an overt desire to take over the world in a James Bond villain sense, but they have created, and fully adapted to a system where their power is intrinsically linked to growth. End of growth means end of power. They've reached the limits of growth within their borders, so they must expand. And they've run out of reasonable rationalizations for expansion, so their excuses become more and more ridiculous. Putin must be evil because he resists them -- it's as simple as that.
Compared to John, I know nothing about Russia, but my father played a small role in the effort to "westernize" the Russian economy after the fall of the USSR. I felt this piece did a good job of outlining what happened, and explaining why the Russian leaders deserve admiration in the overall, even if they may have messed up some specific decisions: https://www.rt.com/news/587925-economic-policy-argentina-russia/
"Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true." - Richard Feynman
I've long resisted the "global domination" theory, but do you know why I now embrace it? Because I see how fanatical the globalists are about the 'climate crisis', which of course requires a concerted global effort (if you believe that the crisis is true, and I think they sincerely do). Hence, to push through their climate and energy transition policies, they will need to control the globe. (You can't have climate policies in only half the globe, right?) Now, this doesn't mean U.S. troops will be everywhere (though we already have 800 bases in 80 countries); but what it means is that the goal is for every regime on Earth to have a pro-globalist group in power. Think about it -- the USA has 95% control over all of Europe. That was unthinkable 2 decades ago. But our technology, media power, Hollywood/Netflix and our universities allows us to literally take over the minds of entire nations, and thereby control them and bring favorable regimes to power.
And I'm not saying that this will happen in the next 5 years, but I believe the goal is to have this global government in place by 2050. And technology now allows for this possibility -- to unite and control all countries and peoples.
I am more and more open to the "global domination" narrative myself these days, actually. If I understand you, the only real difference lies in question of intent. And it is possible that the intentional aspect may have been missing in the beginning, but then evolved as those in power became more desperate. And yes, if there is intent, then they will need to control the globe. (But then they'd need that eventually in the scenario I posited as well. In this case, I'm not sure how much the question of intent matters. Evil and self-defeating either way.)
The climate crisis is very useful to them for sure. And I am utterly disgusted by how they use it! That said, as a scientist who understands data and physics pretty well, I am convinced there is a serious problem. (BTW, the first publications were in the 1950s, long before money corrupted the sciences, and I suspect, long before any real thought of "global domination.")
Will the problem be serious enough to destroy civilization? I guess there is a little uncertainty there, but it saddens me that we are so eager to roll the dice with such a beautiful world. And honestly, climate is only number 3 or 4 now on the list of existential threats all rooted in the same: the fantasy of endless growth.
If the choice was only between "endless" growth and living in caves, then of course, I'd be fine with the idea of a party at the end of the world. But at least technologically, if not politically, that's a false dichotomy. Just roughly, our existential problems would not exist now if we had leveled off at 1980s energy consumption. I'm old enough to remember those days, and I'd gladly trade conditions today for the space, freedom, purpose and rationality I remember.
If we are in a party at the end of the world, it will be essentially because the globalists don't want to give up their private jets. One set of rules for the peasants, a completely different set for themselves. I practice what I preach, but I will not "eat bugs" so that Gates, Bezos and their ilk can live ever more consumptive lifestyles. Their vision is that they will kill us all off to solve "their" energy problem (ultimately a non-solution). I'd like to believe there is a better alternative. Douglas Rushkoff at least sees the problem:
Very interesting; thanks for sharing your thoughts. As a lifelong Space enthusiast I see most of our climatic issues as solar-based. Yes, the human population has grown a whopping eightfold in the past 200 years, and with the rise of industrial consumer societies that means we are exploiting and reworking the Earth in ways that have never before been seen in the history of the planet, and we are damaging habitats and causing mass extinction.
Ideally, I wish we could all live more modestly and consumer less, recycle more, cut down on pollution and switch to clean energy.
If the climate was truly a pressing issue, then our glorious ruling class would find a solution to all the wars and end all militaries, because they are by far the worse polluters on earth. The fact that western globalists are launching a new phase of militarism speaks volume -- that there is no climate crisis, except the one caused by cyclical solar phenomenon.
Can you share research that backs up the thesis that global temperature changes are exclusively, or even primarily driven by solar effects? NASA data over a long period shows essentially constant solar energy output over many decades.
CO2 levels have gone up many times faster than any time prior to industrialization. I haven't seen serious dispute about that. And the increase matches up well with fossil fuel consumption. Also, there is isotope evidence showing that the increase in CO2 over the last several decades is all human related. Multiple independent indicators.
Then, the connection between greenhouse gasses and temperature is an experiment one can do in a high school lab. Predictions based on the model have tracked data quite well over 30-40 years; for last ten, they've been on the conservative side.
You give our ruling class far too much credit for intelligence. I see no reason to believe they actually know how to respond to ANY "pressing issue" other than by use of military, police and propaganda. People may be pacified, but Nature is unmoved by such things. Actually, maybe the new wave of militarism you describe IS their plan -- not a green plan, a population reduction plan. Wars are not a problem to them, rather precisely the SOLUTION they've found.
Global oil supplies on track to be depleted by 2050: https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/fossil-fuels-run/ . We depend on oil for much more than just energy. So there will be a "transition," like it or not. I'd like it to be peaceful, not the plan of the globalists.
I do not want to believe in greenhouse gas warming, I really don't. I'm forced to it by weight of evidence. If we act according to the belief that it is not important, and you turn out to be wrong, there will be crisis. And we know crisis always works in favor of the globalists. So take care you don't believe the sun is responsible for recent global temperature rise in the same way that your ex-friend believes Russia is evil.
"The extinction of the human race will come from its inability to EMOTIONALLY comprehend the exponential function." - Edward Teller
Thanks. Good points. War as part of the solution -- yes, I can see that. Certainly.
As far as the solar origins of climate change -- it's a conclusion I've reached by 1) years of reading; 2) distrusting every narrative put forth by major media; and 3) looking at NASA's solar activity data for 2022-23, which explains why we "had the hottest year on record". More solar radiation means a hotter planet. Less solar radiation, a cooler planet. We will have to disagree about the CO2 levels; it exists in trace amounts in the atmosphere. Anyway, there's so much we still don't understand about Earth and the factors that influence climate. Again, going back to the Sun -- it's the only source of energy in our corner of the galaxy. Even if I know little about climate science, I know that statistically speaking, any climatic change is almost certainly must be the result of some change in the Sun's energy output. Then there's the issue of cosmic rays from Deep Space -- might they be able to impact climate? Perhaps, they penetrate Earth and heat up our nickel/iron core causing it to spin faster and give off more heat, as well as cause earthquakes.
As far as oil depletion -- reserves are nearly endless. We are discovering oil almost everywhere. Look at Guyana, Israel, Lebanon, Namibia and expectations to find it in Uruguay. Russian geologists told me that their country is awash in oil, especially in the Arctic; the only issue is the cost to extract it.
Yes, I probably give our ruling class too much credit! I will work on that -- and give them less!
I don't have quite the stomach to descend fully into the above conversation; I have read enough of your pieces and enough of this above piece to confirm that it is entirely in synch with my own Russia experience (I was first in the Soviet Union in pre-Gorby 1985, then through in Yeltsin-era 1990s, then in early Putin period -- holding my firstborn son I could hear the 21-gun salute of Putin's inaugural out my window. I left in late 2003 & have followed it from afar ever since only back once, briefly). I am so very grateful for voices like yours that won't be barged off the truth, no matter how painfully at odds with friends and loved-ones it puts you (and for years).
I face also the same spill-over from the Orwellian hate-campaign against Russia-Putin. I re-read "1984" in 2019, for the first time since high-school, and was surprised at how early in the novel the Hate Campaign makes its appearance (only a couple of pages in) -- orchestrated hatred is a staple of the New Normal.
It is amazing how quickly that conversation deteriorated.
"S" showed his true colors and that's a shame. Shame that he didn't realize
that he could be wrong in his opinions and a shame that he didn't take advantage
of your insight to better inform his thoughts.
I've run into this brick wall mind set with several old friends(now past tense)over the
last couple of years and it doesn't seem to matter what facts or information you offer,
their mind is set and that's all there is to it.
It seems to me that the last several years have produced so much information about
what ever new crises pops up that people default to one position or opinion and stick
to it no matter what new information comes forward. An inability to process more data.
Information overload might be the new mental illness that big pharma can help with a
new pill.
You deserve credit and appreciation for choosing principle over tribe -- i.e. willingness to part with friends when there is no other path. I do think people "stick to positions no matter what" more now than they used to. Information overload may be part of it, but what I see is that they just reflexively grab onto whatever their social circle is saying.
Thank you. And very true. Good point. In essence, people today face peer pressure, right? The desire to fit in with everyone else -- an inherent trait in all humans. Just like how it was in school. This is one of the most distinguishable features in most children. However, I never had such sentiments. As a child, I almost often kept to myself, for a number of reasons.
I agree with your thoughts andy, and the social circle aspect had crossed my mind when offering a comment, but I dismissed it for mention. Here's why.
A close friend(and like minded individual)and I had this conversation recently about social circles and how they seem to be collapsing. Both of us had a group/tribe that we interacted with on a regular bases and we have both noticed the departure of many if not most of
members. It was not formal, just stopped being around and available. Normally a result of
a recent conversation about(fill in the blank). It seems everything that gets discussed winds
up being relegated to absolutes; "I'm right, you're wrong", "my political party is the only
path forward", "my scientific information is the only one to be considered", etc.
As a society we are collapsing into smaller and smaller personal tribes and yet find so many
aligning with large groups centered on politics and religion. We are not far from the torches and pitchforks stage of this fourth turning.
What you say is important, but also pretty subtle. I think you are on to something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I wish we could discuss face-to-face.
I am a fan of Richard Feynman, a great scientist from a much better generation of them. One of the things he always said was: "The first rule is you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool."
Modern tech tools have left people addicted to data in a weird way. -- just raw, unprocessed data. They "know" so much more, but understand far, far less.
I moved to Oregon from California in 96 and at one point found myself making trips back every month. My listening pleasure was Six Easy Pieces. Just me and Richard for eight hour drives. Must have listened to those tapes a half a dozen times.
You're right, too much data to properly process for most people(make that the
vast majority). I've always been that guy that did deep dives into a subject to teach/train myself to be an informed lay person and used multiple sources to
better verify the veracity of a paper or statement.
Most of what passes for informed commentary today is opinion(sponsored by
one group or another or some three letter agency), not factual, unbiased statements. This has been going on for many years and they were very good at hiding the real source of this spittle being offered up through MSM.
But just recently, they seem to be outing themselves and don't care that we know
some new information was sourced and promoted by some think tank or agency
because they no longer fear us.
They have committed all manner of transgressions, both legal and moral, and no
repercussions. No rioting in the streets, no ballot box rebellions, no nothing. So they will only get bolder with their agenda.
And what is their agenda? Control, money and power(which is their Holy Trinity).
Many years ago my wife and I would watch the news together(PBS back in the days when they were still relatively independent)and she would comment on how awful a segment was(and you can literally name any bad news story they were broadcasting)and I would turn to her and say "somebody, somewhere is making money because of this". It took more than once of doing some deep dives on the
web to find the source of it and it always turned out to be some corporation doing something bad to increase profits. And when they got caught? A fine that always somehow was a slap on the wrist. Cost of doing business and oh, it's a tax write off.
Excellent point. I’d only qualify your thought by saying that social circles (in the USA) have already collapsed. And they’re not coming back. Sure, we might have temporary social circles for a year or two or three, but then we all go our separate ways once the common interest/cause that brought us together ends or dissipates.
Fifty two years ago my father was giving me some advice right before I boarded the bus for boot camp. One of those pearls of wisdom was" you will hang out with and interact with two kinds of people: friends and associates. You will have many associates in your life, some will be around for a bit and some for years, but they will always drift away. But the friends you find along the way will be with you always".
I've had so many "social circles" in my seventy years I've lost count. And that's OK, that is what was meant to be. At each time I joined a circle, it was a benefit to my growth and development as a person. As time passed, the groups contribution meant less and less and I moved on, as we all do.
Modern society and the wonders of industry have diminished the need for the support that social circles provided those many years ago. And that's a sad thing.
Very good points and insights. Thanks.
Exactly. Well said. Thanks.
Anyone who uses the phrase "evil empire" in all seriousness is not a serious person but one who has a cartoon vision of reality. And the suggestion that Russians suffer from an inferiority complex made me laugh out loud. If anything, they have a superiority complex, which, admittedly, could be quite annoying but most commonly takes a charming "I'll protect you" form.
I am sorry you had to go through such an exchange.
Thanks for the comment and support.
Спасибо,Джон, что не устаешь нести правду заблудшим. Твой оппонент в данной переписке выглядит наивным и очень ангажированных западной пропагандой. Столько клише в нескольких письмах..
Thank you for the support and comment.
Thanks for this article and reproduction of personal correspondence. In this time of great uncertainty and disinformation I try to read every article with a jaundiced eye, and even so have been fooled many times into belief of personalities, opinions, and data that have later been shown to be false. In my opinion all that you wrote to your friend was correct, including the possibility that the future may include a Russian empire stretching to the English Channel. My knowledge is only from extensive reading of public sources. Yours, if it is to be believed (remember, I am thoroughly skeptical now of everything), includes insider information from your family ties as well as, presumably, from your professional past. To an outsider like me, the mistakes being made by the “West” seem so obvious that one must assume they are deliberate, perhaps to achieve a world of complete chaos and disintegration so that the remaining remnants of civilization will be bundled under an authoritarian one-world government? If that is the case, how do the Putin and Xi governments fit in, if at all?
Yes, I agree with your assessment -- these are not mere 'mistakes' by misguided western governments; they have a deliberate policy to increase global tension with a goal to establish a global liberal regime. Growing up in a U.S. govt family, I remembering discussions that one day we'd rule the world. Yes, that's always been the goal.
I've gone back and forth about Putin and Xi. During Covid, Putin and Xi closely cooperated with western globalists -- the lockdowns, masks and 'vaccine'. That's for certain. And that's one reason why for 6 weeks after the 'Russian invasion' I was shell-shocked. I just couldn't process what had happened. I thought all governments were marching together toward a global regime. But nearly 2 years into this war, it seems that the animosity between East and West is genuine. And I am increasingly open to the idea (seeing important information) that Covid 19 was a Pentagon bio-weapon and Russia was one of the main targets. Moscow's claims about U.S. bioweapons in Ukraine can't be easily dismissed as "Kremlin propaganda".
I can't agree that covid is a bioweapon to target Russians. Didn't RFK say he thought it was to target Jews and Chinese people?
There is no covid. There is no covid. There is no frickin covid! Only a weaponised set of common symptoms, a completely fantasised genome never shown to code for an entity nor to cause disease and a meaningless PCR 'test'. Gain of function is merely playing about with RNA sequences in bat poo, scaring people and banking lots of grant money. They can't find a virus let alone manipulate one.
Yes Xi seems to have been duped into going along with strict lockdown in Wuhan and other areas but i don't think it was China wide and Putin was one of the first to have had enough of it.
It would be interesting if the US pharma companies and Bill and Mel who run the WHO tried to make anther fake pandemic now. I don't think Xi nor Putin would fall for it again. The whole world is beginning to careless what the US tries to shame them into doing. Only the west is sanctioning Russia and everyone else apart from western mainstream media and politicians are opposing the genocide in Gaza.
The 'globalists' and neocons in the dying US empire are spitting out their dummies. Their day is over.
I have tracked dozens of cases by friends and colleagues in Russia. They certainly were very very ill with something that no one had seen before. And Russia experienced exceptionally high mortality rate in late 2020 and early 2021.
Meanwhile, yes, in the USA, hundreds of thousands were killed by the fact that they were denied basic treatment and medications (Ivermectin), and because hospitals were using deadly protocols that killed people (such as widespread use of the ventilators, which whistleblowers tell us killed many people)
Hiya, what were the symptoms never seen before please.?And what was the high death rate in Russia in 2020 2021? It usually hovers around 1% in most countries, in the UK in 2020 it was about 1.2% but this is before age adjustment. When adjusted for age the mortality rate in the UK in 2020 was lower than in every year from 1943 to 2008. 2009 to 2019 were extremely low years with longevity increasing.
Most dire symptoms that I heard from dozens of people who I know personally -- high temperature that lasted over a week; extreme difficulty breathing to the point that they felt like they were suffocating; total prostration in bed for weeks. I don't have their medical records; but only their words. Please take a look at Russian mortality in second half of 2020 and first half of 2021. Something truly was happening there.
Yes we will agree to disagree.
The symptoms of prostration and organ failure as caused by antivirals such as remdesivir etc in the states may well have done the same in Russia. 'The list of possible medicines that can be used to treat COVID-19 in Russia includes: Favipiravir, Remdesivir, human immunoglobulin against COVID-19, Interferon alfa and Umifenovir.'
The death rate in 2021 was 1.67% so that is just 0.03% more than in 2003. 2003 to 2019 showed a decrease in death rate as did the UK. The impacts of lockdowns and medications certainly are seen with the sharp increase https://www.statista.com/statistics/1089615/russia-death-rate/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20mortality%20rate,(COVID%2D19)%20pandemic. but does't show that any were caused by a virus.
Re. Putin and Xi: You had direct experience, I did not, so I do not feel adamant here. But I hope you'll consider a modicum of forgiveness for them re. COVID policy mistakes.
Many of us were fooled. There was once at least some trust in the idea that science stood above money and politics. No political leader can be expected to be an expert in virology. They trusted the globalists because of the recent history of science. I doubt that they will ever again. In fact, is it possible that what happened with COVID contributed to the end of Putin's patience with NATO? If so, a sliver lining.
I had reason to be skeptical from the beginning. I hated mandates and ALWAYS supported friends who resisted them. But I've had a history of not always picking the right battles, and I was fighting several at the time, so just this once I decided to "go along" in spite of my doubts. Never again, I hope. Maybe that's why I feel compassion.
Excellent points and advice. You've convinced me. Your ideas about Putin and Xi sound highly plausible. For the record, I am absolutely no fan of highly centralized and regulated states. But after many years of reluctance, I can see that Putin and Xi truly feel a high duty and obligation to carry out what they think are the best policies for the largest number of their people. And yes, in part that means going after the uber wealthy and (in the case of Russia) going after the international financial/corporate conglomerates. As you know, in the USA, we have a system that is entirely at the mercy of those groups with the biggest war chest for lobbying, and the interests of the 'People' are only taken into account as a footnote, or if things truly become so bad that the ruling class decides to throw us some 'bone' to avoid massive social unrest. (Though, I prefer that our ruling class simply leave us alone; I don't want their 'help' at all).
Re. COVID origins: You should listen to this interview with Jeffery Sachs: https://rumble.com/v3jyjo8-september-22-2023.html
Sachs was one of Time Magazine's 100 most important people for years in the 1990s, and even early 2000s. Columbia economics professor, expert on sustainable development. Now, in his own words, he can't get an op-ed published in any major news outlet. He was asked to chair the authoritative Lancet investigation into the origins of COVID-19. They wanted his cred, but didn't expect him to actually want to find out. My simplified synopsis: COVID-19 was the creation of a DARPA project - reasonably called a bioweapons project - and it was engineered at UNC Chapel Hill.
I know how the whole academic funding game works. As a result, I doubt that there was any specific plan to use the result of the research on a target population, they just needed something "sexy" for DARPA funding. (And if there was intent, the result was not terribly impressive if you ask me. It mostly killed old people and people with significant health problems -- not exactly an effective way to cripple an enemy population.)
Even leaving out COVID completely though, the interview lays bare the astounding degree of lying and conflict of interest that is now just shrugged off by people with power. The underlying fabric of civil society shredded in a generation or two.
I agree pretty pathetic bioweapon. What was developed at Chapel Hill was mRNA 'vaccine' 'bioweapons'.
Jeffey Sachs is an historian not a scientist. My point is there is no evidence for a virus real or engineered, and there doesn't need to be. The whole thing ripping the world apart was engineered via social media.
Ok. I see your point. We will have to disagree here. Yes, I agree that without the media hype, Covid would have gone unnoticed. But I still believe there's enough information to indicate that a pathogen was created and released, and that it was used against some regions in the U.S. and against countries such as Russia. BTW, friends in Texas reported extreme cases of Covid that I had only heard about in Russia. Research has shown that Fauci and friends were working on creating deadly pathogens. The fact that this bio-weapons project was discussed in the U.S. Congress (led by Senator Paul) indicates that this is true.
Yes there is lots of evidence that millions are given to research pathogens and create gain of function in them to allegedly understand how to better deal with them. They're laughing. all the way to the bank. And are using the paper trail they created to keep the lab leak and virus theory going when it starts to flag. The only place viruses and their genomes exist is in computers. They can't escape into reality. 🙏🏽
Thanks. Sachs is great and playing a very important role in the fight against globalist tyranny and militarism.
Thank you for your kind and informative response to my simple assessment. I completely agree that Russian SMO Feb. 22 was a surprise. Even more surprising to me is that it appears to be a genuine defense of Russia against a planned NATO takeover of all the Ukraine and probable removal (one way or another) of the cultural Russians in eastern Ukraine. Quite amazing to me (I'm sure not to you) is that Medvedev appears to have faked being a West oriented liberal in order to obfuscate the fact that Russia was hurriedly revamping their industrial, especially armament, capabilities which I believe are located far from the borders with Europe and out in the Urals somewhere?). Is it really possible that Western intelligence did not recognize this and was caught flat-footed? In any event from what I can glean from multiple Russian Telegram accounts the Ukraine military is being crushed with perhaps 500,000 Ukraine casualties. A wild guess is maybe 50,000 max Russian casualties. It would appear that should the Kremlin decide to resist a global government that they could actually do so. China being the important wild card, of course. For a complete layman like myself these are impossible questions to answer. I can only guess. As an MD, I can make more educated guesses in regards to the Covid aspect of this entire operation. I don't believe Putin and Xi did fully cooperate with the Covid op. There may have been lockdowns and masks were worn/demanded, but mRNA and DNA injections were not forced, nor promoted so heavily, on their populations. To the best of my knowledge they were spared that most important factor in the op. We don't yet know what the full extent of the carnage of the injections will be in west Europe and the US with vaxx rates in the 70%'s. Excess mortality continues apace, but at least is not accelerating. I haven't seen any reliable data for China or Russia, but assuming their vaxx rates were much, much lower with mRNA injections, their populations should be spared to a much greater extent. Is this all part of the global Plan or is this a genuine disagreement in policy?
I agree that C19 was a bioweapon Russia was one of the main targets. Putin alluded to something along those lines in a rhetorical question he posed at one of his Valdai all day news conferences many years ago pre-Covid.
Once again, John, thanks for your informative articles. I'm completely amazed that you haven't a much greater readership on Substack since your knowledge is pretty unique and you are willing to share it!
And thank you for the support. Yes, my audience is now just shy of 1,000 followers, with articles maybe getting 2,000 clicks in the end. I believe it's a quality audience, and that's most important. Thank you.
Thanks for bringing up all those valid and interesting points. Yes, Russia has pulled the wool over NATO's eyes, building up its defenses over the past decade without anyone noticing. Think about it -- over the past 6 months, Russia has withstood and defeated the massive onslaught of 30 NATO countries! This is one of the great military victories in history. Despite all the difficulties of our current era, I find it an honor to be alive now at this most important turning point in history.
I've struggled myself to understand the motivations of Western decision makers for at least two decades because they seem so incoherent, AND antithetical to their own professed ideologies! Like you, I am willing to maintain some level of uncertainty about any simple answers -- including my own -- but the last few years have seemed to clarify things. My interpretation of "motivation" now goes something like this:
1. They don't seek chaos and disintegration in an intentional sense, but they understand that every time there is a crisis, they will benefit from its resolution. (I partly blame the population for this dynamic -- too many people hungry for a band-aid fix so they can get back to "normal.")
2. As a result, they cavalierly push irresponsible, "pie-in-the-sky" policies knowing these will generate a crisis -- some crisis.
3. I don't think there is an overt desire to take over the world in a James Bond villain sense, but they have created, and fully adapted to a system where their power is intrinsically linked to growth. End of growth means end of power. They've reached the limits of growth within their borders, so they must expand. And they've run out of reasonable rationalizations for expansion, so their excuses become more and more ridiculous. Putin must be evil because he resists them -- it's as simple as that.
Compared to John, I know nothing about Russia, but my father played a small role in the effort to "westernize" the Russian economy after the fall of the USSR. I felt this piece did a good job of outlining what happened, and explaining why the Russian leaders deserve admiration in the overall, even if they may have messed up some specific decisions: https://www.rt.com/news/587925-economic-policy-argentina-russia/
"Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true." - Richard Feynman
Very good points. Thank you.
I've long resisted the "global domination" theory, but do you know why I now embrace it? Because I see how fanatical the globalists are about the 'climate crisis', which of course requires a concerted global effort (if you believe that the crisis is true, and I think they sincerely do). Hence, to push through their climate and energy transition policies, they will need to control the globe. (You can't have climate policies in only half the globe, right?) Now, this doesn't mean U.S. troops will be everywhere (though we already have 800 bases in 80 countries); but what it means is that the goal is for every regime on Earth to have a pro-globalist group in power. Think about it -- the USA has 95% control over all of Europe. That was unthinkable 2 decades ago. But our technology, media power, Hollywood/Netflix and our universities allows us to literally take over the minds of entire nations, and thereby control them and bring favorable regimes to power.
And I'm not saying that this will happen in the next 5 years, but I believe the goal is to have this global government in place by 2050. And technology now allows for this possibility -- to unite and control all countries and peoples.
I am more and more open to the "global domination" narrative myself these days, actually. If I understand you, the only real difference lies in question of intent. And it is possible that the intentional aspect may have been missing in the beginning, but then evolved as those in power became more desperate. And yes, if there is intent, then they will need to control the globe. (But then they'd need that eventually in the scenario I posited as well. In this case, I'm not sure how much the question of intent matters. Evil and self-defeating either way.)
The climate crisis is very useful to them for sure. And I am utterly disgusted by how they use it! That said, as a scientist who understands data and physics pretty well, I am convinced there is a serious problem. (BTW, the first publications were in the 1950s, long before money corrupted the sciences, and I suspect, long before any real thought of "global domination.")
Will the problem be serious enough to destroy civilization? I guess there is a little uncertainty there, but it saddens me that we are so eager to roll the dice with such a beautiful world. And honestly, climate is only number 3 or 4 now on the list of existential threats all rooted in the same: the fantasy of endless growth.
If the choice was only between "endless" growth and living in caves, then of course, I'd be fine with the idea of a party at the end of the world. But at least technologically, if not politically, that's a false dichotomy. Just roughly, our existential problems would not exist now if we had leveled off at 1980s energy consumption. I'm old enough to remember those days, and I'd gladly trade conditions today for the space, freedom, purpose and rationality I remember.
If we are in a party at the end of the world, it will be essentially because the globalists don't want to give up their private jets. One set of rules for the peasants, a completely different set for themselves. I practice what I preach, but I will not "eat bugs" so that Gates, Bezos and their ilk can live ever more consumptive lifestyles. Their vision is that they will kill us all off to solve "their" energy problem (ultimately a non-solution). I'd like to believe there is a better alternative. Douglas Rushkoff at least sees the problem:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190821084611/https://onezero.medium.com/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2023/11/18/how-should-we-tax-wealth-multinationals-globally-speech-at-undp-new-york-14th-nov-2023/
Very interesting; thanks for sharing your thoughts. As a lifelong Space enthusiast I see most of our climatic issues as solar-based. Yes, the human population has grown a whopping eightfold in the past 200 years, and with the rise of industrial consumer societies that means we are exploiting and reworking the Earth in ways that have never before been seen in the history of the planet, and we are damaging habitats and causing mass extinction.
Ideally, I wish we could all live more modestly and consumer less, recycle more, cut down on pollution and switch to clean energy.
If the climate was truly a pressing issue, then our glorious ruling class would find a solution to all the wars and end all militaries, because they are by far the worse polluters on earth. The fact that western globalists are launching a new phase of militarism speaks volume -- that there is no climate crisis, except the one caused by cyclical solar phenomenon.
Can you share research that backs up the thesis that global temperature changes are exclusively, or even primarily driven by solar effects? NASA data over a long period shows essentially constant solar energy output over many decades.
CO2 levels have gone up many times faster than any time prior to industrialization. I haven't seen serious dispute about that. And the increase matches up well with fossil fuel consumption. Also, there is isotope evidence showing that the increase in CO2 over the last several decades is all human related. Multiple independent indicators.
Then, the connection between greenhouse gasses and temperature is an experiment one can do in a high school lab. Predictions based on the model have tracked data quite well over 30-40 years; for last ten, they've been on the conservative side.
You give our ruling class far too much credit for intelligence. I see no reason to believe they actually know how to respond to ANY "pressing issue" other than by use of military, police and propaganda. People may be pacified, but Nature is unmoved by such things. Actually, maybe the new wave of militarism you describe IS their plan -- not a green plan, a population reduction plan. Wars are not a problem to them, rather precisely the SOLUTION they've found.
Global oil supplies on track to be depleted by 2050: https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/fossil-fuels-run/ . We depend on oil for much more than just energy. So there will be a "transition," like it or not. I'd like it to be peaceful, not the plan of the globalists.
I do not want to believe in greenhouse gas warming, I really don't. I'm forced to it by weight of evidence. If we act according to the belief that it is not important, and you turn out to be wrong, there will be crisis. And we know crisis always works in favor of the globalists. So take care you don't believe the sun is responsible for recent global temperature rise in the same way that your ex-friend believes Russia is evil.
"The extinction of the human race will come from its inability to EMOTIONALLY comprehend the exponential function." - Edward Teller
Thanks. Good points. War as part of the solution -- yes, I can see that. Certainly.
As far as the solar origins of climate change -- it's a conclusion I've reached by 1) years of reading; 2) distrusting every narrative put forth by major media; and 3) looking at NASA's solar activity data for 2022-23, which explains why we "had the hottest year on record". More solar radiation means a hotter planet. Less solar radiation, a cooler planet. We will have to disagree about the CO2 levels; it exists in trace amounts in the atmosphere. Anyway, there's so much we still don't understand about Earth and the factors that influence climate. Again, going back to the Sun -- it's the only source of energy in our corner of the galaxy. Even if I know little about climate science, I know that statistically speaking, any climatic change is almost certainly must be the result of some change in the Sun's energy output. Then there's the issue of cosmic rays from Deep Space -- might they be able to impact climate? Perhaps, they penetrate Earth and heat up our nickel/iron core causing it to spin faster and give off more heat, as well as cause earthquakes.
As far as oil depletion -- reserves are nearly endless. We are discovering oil almost everywhere. Look at Guyana, Israel, Lebanon, Namibia and expectations to find it in Uruguay. Russian geologists told me that their country is awash in oil, especially in the Arctic; the only issue is the cost to extract it.
Yes, I probably give our ruling class too much credit! I will work on that -- and give them less!
Separately, but related... I think you partly misunderstand my position re. growth and who/what needs to change:
https://apnews.com/article/chatgpt-gpt4-iowa-ai-water-consumption-microsoft-f551fde98083d17a7e8d904f8be822c4
So much consumed; can anyone really justify the resource cost to humanity?
Very interesting. Thanks
you are most welcome
Dear Mr Varoli,
I don't have quite the stomach to descend fully into the above conversation; I have read enough of your pieces and enough of this above piece to confirm that it is entirely in synch with my own Russia experience (I was first in the Soviet Union in pre-Gorby 1985, then through in Yeltsin-era 1990s, then in early Putin period -- holding my firstborn son I could hear the 21-gun salute of Putin's inaugural out my window. I left in late 2003 & have followed it from afar ever since only back once, briefly). I am so very grateful for voices like yours that won't be barged off the truth, no matter how painfully at odds with friends and loved-ones it puts you (and for years).
I face also the same spill-over from the Orwellian hate-campaign against Russia-Putin. I re-read "1984" in 2019, for the first time since high-school, and was surprised at how early in the novel the Hate Campaign makes its appearance (only a couple of pages in) -- orchestrated hatred is a staple of the New Normal.