I wonder about the national-security-state types who continue the dangerous proxy war against Russia. What part of don’t fuck with Russia do they not understand? Are are they simply historically illiterate? Or is it something larger–the loss of their proxy war signaling the end of Western hegemony?

The US empire has lost the proxy war it provoked in 2022, and is in a state of denial combined with a compulsion to prolong it well beyond the point of sanity. You can see the desperation with the latest PR stunt by the the Ukrainian SBU, crucially aided by the US/NATO intelligence and targeting data, attacking Russian airbases with drones and bombing railroad bridges, and now attacking the Kerch Bridge again. The Crimean bridge, is also a civilian target. Russia no longer needs this structure, which connects Russia with Crimea, for military purposes – military transports are routed to Crimea via the land bridge.

Much of the desperation is driven by the need to continue public support for the glorious proxy war. The corporate media is certainly all in, as are liberals. Russia-gate has succeeded in conflating Putin with Trump, so liberals are giddy with the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airbases while ignoring the potential for a nuclear war, so long as they own Trump. It seems that US foreign policy is driven almost exclusively by domestic considerations. (By the way, I hate to link to MSNBC, and Rachael Maddow, but the crazy is a sight to behold.)

The whole thing is so stupid that it makes my head hurt, but such is the level of political awareness and discourse in the US. Furthermore, the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has featured informational warfare on a new and frightening level, different from anything before, and public opinion is heavily influenced by mainstream media outlets that effectively operate as elements of the U.S. military-industrial-complex. This informational warfare, psy-op is aimed directly at American and European citizens, especially liberal members of the professional/managerial/class. The Western mass media continues to spin narratives favorable to Ukraine based on pyrrhic victories while ignoring or tardily reporting negative battlefield developments.

The lack of knowledge about Russian military history is a good example of the narrative fog. The historic pattern of Russia’s large wars has been that of a stumbling start, then a steady, grinding advance to victory. From Borodino in 1812, to Stalingrad in 1943, to Chechnya in 2000, to Georgia in 2008, whenever Russia has fully committed to a war, it has prevailed. This is especially so when Ukraine is utilized by enemies as an invasion route.

The shock, disbelief and denial caused by the pending defeat in Ukraine may explain the deep state retreating into unreality and propaganda. Yet, even as the battlefield situation deteriorates there is no sign that our elite are becoming more reality-based in their understanding. The poisonous combination of weakness, fear and aggressive rhetoric that a Russian victory will produce in the West is a more dangerous issue. Indeed, our putative leaders and their corporate media sock-puppets are ready to launch the bombers and ICBM’s. Maybe Saturday Night Live can do a skit where Rachael Maddow rides the thermonuclear bomb, like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove?

I’m not holding my breath.

And here’s where it gets murky. Who’s in charge of the American empire’s foreign policy? It’s almost certain that the US intelligence and targeting coordination was essential in the airbase drone strikes, which is further confirmation the US has no interest in peace. Worse, it confirms that we are dedicated to the neocon strategy of trying to bleed Russia and thus will never give up on fighting. The drone attacks, along with the attacks on railroads and bridges is also confirmation of the US and European determination to keep the war going no matter what, and that means among other things terrorism even after the Ukraine army and state collapse.

Ultimately, it appears that the Trump Administration is completely captured by the neocons, allied with Wall Street, and other deep state denizens. That’s who’s running it. It isn’t Donald Trump, who’s too busy feuding with Musk and living up to his TACO nickname.

What drives the American empires’s foreign policy is the craving to maintain global economic primacy. And terrorizing other states with US military might is seen as the only way to ensure such primacy. In that way, arming Israel is seen as no different from arming Ukraine to weaken Russian influence in eastern Europe. In the Middle East, it’s about containing Iran, who’s allied with Russia and China, who are all geo-strategic rivals, viewed exclusively through the prism of US/NATO “full-spectrum dominance”.

The ultimate aim of the proxy war against Russia, has been, paradoxically, choking off China’s rise by destroying their key ally. This aim effectively represents common ground amongst all factions of the American empire, by protecting the dollar system from collapse. The notion of the U.S. recovering its former position as a world-class manufacturing centre is largely a diversional narrative crafted for domestic purposes.

I think everything is getting crazy because the American empire, or the entire Western capitalist system, is a belief system and quasi-religion, maybe a cult, and the intellectual scaffolding that underlies the whole thing is collapsing.

We survived the first Cold War, where incidents and accidents brought us perilously close to Armageddon, and I’m not thrilled that the deep state is barreling towards planet destruction while well paid propagandists salivate over nuclear war. In the link to MSNBC, above, hosts Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace, gush over Ukraine’s “audacious” drone attacks. Maddow confided to Wallace how they really weren’t that different from Leni Riefenstahl. “I feel like you’re, you’re one of my friends who understands how my brain works on this sort of thing. Like, it is an incredible war story about Ukraine’s capability and their resilience and their creativity and the way they have just done this, you know, like David versus Goliath… But it also does have international strategic implications for every country in the world… In Russia’s position, in terms of thinking about its own defenses, thinking about its own nuclear deterrence…”

Nicolle Wallace. That name sounds familiar? In her former political career, Wallace served as the White House Communications Director during the second term of the presidency of George W. Bush and as the Communications Director for his 2004 re-election campaign. Wallace also served as a senior advisor for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

That Nicolle Wallace.

But, when you think about it, inciting conservatives to hate on Muslims with the war-on-terror gig, while whipping liberals into a Russia-phobic frenzy with Russia-gate is the reason why Nicolle Wallace and Rachael Maddow are paid millions of dollars. That the invasion of Iraq was a monstrous war crime and foreign policy debacle, and that Russia-gate turned out to be a big flop, with Maddow’s ratings taking a monumental hit, doesn’t matter because there will always be another war to promote.