Original article by Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/73443.htm
September 8, 2014
Translated by: Daniil Mihailovich
Edited by: S. Naylor
We loved America. I remember, we did. When we were teens, growing up in the early 90s; most of my friends the same age did not even question their attitude toward Western civilization. It was great, how could it be otherwise?
Unlike our grandfathers and even fathers, we did not think of the USSR falling apart – the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the XX century” – as a disaster. For us it was the beginning of a long journey. Finally, we would break out beyond the Soviet shell into the big world – limitless and cool. Finally, we would quench our sensory deprivation. We are born, maybe not in the right place, but certainly at the right time – or so we thought. It’s hard to believe now, but even the Orthodox Church coming out from under communist supervision was for us the same thing as the triumph of Western liberal values. The celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia and the first concert of the Scorpions in Moscow with their “Winds of Change” — was, for us, all part of the same thing.
The war in Iraq and even the breakup of Yugoslavia mostly escaped our attention, somehow. And it was not just that we were young and carefree. I, for one, was already trained in the “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, in the International Department. I was monitoring the English Reuters feed that was full of Izetbegovic, Karadzic and Mladic, but somehow did not take all these events seriously. It was somewhere far away, and not in our area. And, of course, the war in the Balkans did not fit within any kind of anti-Western storyline for me. Croats killed Serbs, Bosnians killed Serbs, the Serbs killed both of those – why blame America?
In 1990 we voted for “Yabloko” democrats, went to the White House barricades on the side of democratic forces, watched the newborn CHANNEL and listened to the echo of Moscow radio. Our first journalistic articles always mentioned the “civilized world” and we firmly believed that it was really civilized. By the mid-1990s, the first Euro-skeptics started to appear in our ranks, but they were more in the category of devil’s advocates. I myself shared a dorm room with Pete the communist and Arseniy the monarchist. My friends from other rooms would see me off each evening with words of regret: “Bye, go back to your madhouse.”
The first serious blow to our pro-Western orientation in life was Kosovo. It was a shock; our rose-colored glasses were shattered into pieces. The bombing of Belgrade was, for my generation, what the 9/11 attacks were for Americans. Worldviews turned 180 degrees together with the plane of the then Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who was over the Atlantic Ocean on the way from Ireland to the United States when he learned of the beginning of the American aggression – and gave the command to return to Russia.
In those days there was no mass state propaganda. The smart liberal hosts on NTV kept explaining that dropping bombs on a large European city is a bit much, of course, but Milosevic is the greatest bastard in recent history, so he deserves it, no big deal. Their “Dolls” satirical show portrayed the events as a good quarrel in a communal apartment, where a drunken neighbor torments “Miss Kosovo” and no one in the house can help, except for her lover with a powerful torso and the face of Bill Clinton. We looked, but no longer believed. It was no longer funny. We already understood that Yugoslavia was a demonstration of what could happen to us in the relatively near future.
Second Iraq, Afghanistan, the final separation of Kosovo, “Arab Spring”, Libya, Syria – all of this was surprising, but no longer earth-shattering. Illusions were lost: it was more or less clear to us what the West was about. But despite that, after all, we all live on the same planet… The myth of “evil America, kind Europe” was still around; fears induced by Kosovo gradually subsided. The compromise went something like this: yes, to be best friends with these guys is impossible, but we do have to work together. After all, who else is there to work with?
The parade of “color revolutions” seemed to be petty mischief until the last. But EvroMaidan and the subsequent fierce civil war made it clear: “the democratic process” – devoid of any rules and procedures and launched in enemy territory – is not a geopolitical toy, but a real weapon of mass destruction. It is the only type of weapon, which can be used against a nuclear-armed state. Everything is very simple: when you push the button and send a nuclear missile across the ocean, you’ll certainly get an identical one in return. But when you launch a chain reaction of chaos in enemy territory, you are not to blame. Aggression? What aggression?! This is a natural democratic process! The eternal desire of people for freedom!
We see the blood and war crimes, the bodies of women and children, an an entire country sliding back into the 1940s – and the Western world, which we loved so much, assures us that none of this is happening. The culture which brought us Jim Morrison, Mark Knopfler, and the Beatles, does not see it. The descendants of Woodstock, and the participants themselves; the aged hippies who sang, “All you need is love” so many times, do not see it. Even the thoughtful Germans of the post-war generation of baby boomers, who tried so hard to do penance for the sins of their fathers, do not see it.
It was a shock stronger than Kosovo. For me and for many thousands of middle-aged Russians, who came into the world with the American dream in our heads, the myth of the “civilized world” collapsed completely. The horror is deafening. There is no more “civilized world.” And it’s not just the shattering of youthful ideals, but a very serious danger. Mankind has lost its values, turned into a mob of predators, and a huge war is simply a question of time.
Twenty years ago, we were not defeated. We surrendered. We did not lose militarily, but culturally. We really just wanted to be like them. Rock-n-roll did more than all the nuclear warheads. Hollywood was stronger than the threats and ultimatums. The roar of Harley-Davidsons during the Cold War was louder than the roar of jet fighters and bombers.
America, you are such a fool! All you had to do was wait twenty years — and we would have been forever yours. Twenty years of vegetarianism — and our politicians themselves would have handed over our nuclear weapons; even shaking your hands in gratitude for taking them away. What a blessing that you turned out to be such a fool, America!
You do not even know us! We shouted these words, among others, toward the Kremlin just two years ago. Since then, thanks to you, America, the numbers of those who want to go out into squares have fallen dramatically. You talk nonsense about us, think nonsense about us; and as a result, make mistake after mistake. You were a cool country once, America. Your moral superiority rose over Europe after WWI and was reinforced after WWII. Yes, you had Hiroshima, Vietnam, KKK and a closet full of other skeletons, like any empire. But for a time all that crap did not reach the critical mass that turns wine into vinegar. You showed the world how to live for the sake of creativity and artistic freedom. You made places into economic wonders: Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. But you’ve changed a lot since then. It’s been a while since you wrote any songs sung round the world. You’re squandering your main asset – moral superiority. And that asset has one very nasty property: it can not be restored.
You are starting to slowly die, America. And if you think I’m gloating – you’re wrong. A great change of epochs is always accompanied by a lot of blood, and I do not like blood. We, the people who have been through the sunset of our empire, could even explain what you are doing wrong. But we will not. Guess for yourself.
SLAVYANGRAD.org 
As an American who has spent a lifetime studying his nation, I can tell you for a fact that America was never cool. At the end of WWI, American soldiers came home to lynch African-Americans in record numbers because they had gotten “uppity” in the soldiers’ absence. After WWII, America protected Nazi war criminals and immediately attacked the real saviour of mankind (the Soviet Union), actually attacking Soviet citizens and starving the Soviet state of reconstruction monies. In the 1950s, America took over the British and French empires and became a National Security State with the growth of the CIA. Sixty-five years later, it is estimated by scholarly demographic studies that The United States is directly responsible for 40 million deaths. Even Nazi Germany, had it been victorious in WWII, could have not outstripped that record of carnage. Think about that! The world was saved from the Nazi conquest only to suffer the US conquest. And the latter was worse — simply because the US was larger and richer and therefore more powerful and violent. You and your friends should never have been entranced. The Soviet Union provided its citizens with employment, housing, education, health-care, recreation, great art, science. The United States provided its citizens with job insecurity, homelessness, brainwashing, obesity, stress leading to mass killings, crap art, and laughable pseudo-science. I rather wonder what it might have been like for myself if I had been born on the USSR rather than the USA. I’d feel less rage and guilt, forty million fewer iota of rage and guilt; that is for certain. That would have been cooler.
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Posted by David Lemire | Sep 24, 2014, 03:10Moreover starry-eyed former citizens of the USSR (and others) could have asked the Native Americans for their opinion! As you rightly point out there has been a wonderful continuity in US policy, from the colonial days till now: genocide, slavery, negation of people’s rights, support to vicious dictators, bombing of civilians, burning of cities. In this respect the US is the wonder child of European imperialism.
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Posted by Sisyphus47 | Sep 24, 2014, 06:17I agree that America was never cool; one only has to read Chomsky to know that it was always bent on creating a ‘remote-control’ empire. However, I have to agree with the author that the events in Ukraine have shown the US reaching a new low that is impossible to ignore. Never have I felt so betrayed by a US president as by Obama; with Bush you at least knew he was a neocon. Obama Joining up with the neo-nazis who now control the security state in Ukraine has to be one of the most Orwellian twists of recent US foreign policy. The widespread western media non-coverage of the neo-nazi aspect of the Ukrainian maidan and its twisting of Russian motives and actions is also really over the top. That, and building up al-Qaida groups inside Syria shows that the US is getting very desperate about shoring up the petro-dollar. Before Ukraine and Syria, I used to think that while the US had created mayhem in Iraq and many other places, global politics might be worse if capitalist, but authoritarian China became the next hegemon. Now I wish that the reign of the ‘death dollar’ ends as soon as possible, and cheer on the BRICs at every advance they make. I can’t imagine anything would be worse than the ongoing death, destruction, and cruelty that we are now witnessing.
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Posted by Judy Whitehead (@jasonthespaniel) | Sep 24, 2014, 07:42exactly true… they had the future of mankind in their Hands and gave it away for Coca Cola and mc donald´s without a single shot….
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Posted by n | Sep 24, 2014, 13:17David Lemire, all of the great ills visited upon the American people are comparatively recent. It was still a comparatively moral country in the 50s. To be sure, the criminals were already taking control behind the scenes, but there was still so much that was good. My town library has an enormous collection of books from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. The main topic of all this fiction is morality: what one should do in particular circumstances; what kind of life one should aspire to. The examined life was still a part of ordinary peoples’ thoughts. The evil ones are few, and we are many.
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Posted by Penelope Powell | Sep 24, 2014, 21:18Fortunately for Russia, they rid themselves of Bolsheviks during the last 80 years. Unfortunately for America most of them ended up here. Their sons and daughters and progeny fill our ivy leagues and neo-con think tanks. They own every major media outlet, run Wall Street and are throughout government — including the military. They are the MIC Eisenhower warned us of… Russia knows its enemy well. American’s however — were clueless. BUT — we are waking-up to the evil. And the zio-trash worm is slowly turning.
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Posted by AGS | Sep 24, 2014, 22:55True, it was never cool – it was all just brilliant marketing and advertising – the great American sciences.
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Posted by Andreas Walsh | Sep 25, 2014, 01:37Yes, I’m am one of those aged hippies the author mentions, and David, you stated exactly how I feel today. Yet I felt likewise back in those good old days. Those of us with a love for humanity have known all along that America is and always was a mirage. A Disney like creation. A fraud from its inception. Founding fathers who were slave owners and believed that only the landed gentry mattered. Believed that the “public” were uncouth, illiterate rabble; incapable of reason, too savage to possess the where-with-all to govern themselves. America has been ruled by genocidal maniacs, always. Greedy, inhumane bastards. After all they are Europeans through and through. Mass murdering fanatics. Thanks, David, for your comments.
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Posted by Charles Fasola | Sep 25, 2014, 11:51What could be expected of a country that was consciously modeled on Rome?
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Posted by lazycat1984 | Nov 30, 2014, 02:22Those that control and govern the USA are totally insane.
I feel that President Putin has finally become conscious that he is up against a bunch or illogical madmen capable of bringing total destruction upon the World and instant death to all the living beings on our planet Earth.
So we must pray for him as he seems to be the only one able to avoid WWIII and the total destruction of humanity.
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Posted by BAB | Dec 2, 2014, 19:11David, such a great insight into your history. Great to see there are people with common sense in america
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Posted by Lana | Nov 26, 2015, 08:22The USA certainly has its sins, and the Soviet Union was not as bad as painted. But the picture you paint above is also one of emotional extreme that does not fit with the reality then or now.
Yes, America shall pay for her sins, as Russia was forced to pay for hers, Glorifying either in their pre-fall days is kind of to miss the point of repentance.
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Posted by Ken | Dec 14, 2015, 00:19A settler state built upon the bones of 50 million genocided natives can never call it self “morally superior” or “exceptional”. When they ran out of enemies at “home” the genocide and Fort-building went global. They even created a Frankenstein monster, an offshoot built for the superior race in occupied Palestine that just keeps on bleeding and creating nightmares.
Whatever it touches may look like gold to some but it is blood, oceans of it.
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Posted by Mikhas | Sep 24, 2014, 05:23The shame of the human race | vgiannelakis
http://vgiannelakis.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/the-shame-of-the-human-race/
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Posted by rizes | Sep 24, 2014, 05:39All empires that refuse to give up their reign come crashing down harder. Britain was smart about it. China too.
But the US’s time is up…and it doesn’t want to let go. But they should have taken notes with what happened to Russia. But the beast is too big, too hungry, and can’t and won’t stop…and it will eventually eat itself. Humanity *needs* this victory.
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Posted by Ariel | Sep 24, 2014, 06:411-Twenty years ago, we were not defeated. We surrendered. We did not lose militarily, but culturally. We really just wanted to be like them. Rock-n-roll did more than all the nuclear warheads. Hollywood was stronger than the threats and ultimatums. The roar of Harley-Davidsons during the Cold War was louder than the roar of jet fighters and bombers.
2-America, you are such a fool! All you had to do was wait twenty years — and we would have been forever yours. Twenty years of vegetarianism — and our politicians themselves would have handed over our nuclear weapons; even shaking your hands in gratitude for taking them away. What a blessing that you turned out to be such a fool, America!
—
1-Many would argue that the USSR was defeated economically. That, and the fifth column. To young or idealistic folks, music and Hollywood might have been more important, but it is debatable if that was truly so dominant as a factor to people like Gorbachev or Yeltsin.
2-Yes, but you have to see the other side of the coin. The Anglo-American forces are trying to build a world dictatorship, and the geostrategic requirements are to take control of Russia’s resources and probably break up and depopulate Russia. So Yeltsin was a great leader. How long would the Russian people continue to see Yeltsin as great? Then Putin deceived the West and caused problems, but even then, it seemed that the West had enough control through the business and political elite to have Russia go along. Finally, time is causing problem for the Anglo-Americans. Technology is spreading quickly, and the rise of the developing countries is a possible problem.
In other words, waiting twenty years wasn’t possible, and they also thought they had sufficient control inside Russia. On the bright side, many folks, such as Brzezinski, are probably quite disappointed that they misplayed their cards.
To paraphrase, the Russia they lost is the Russia that vanished. Their strategic need is for Russia to not exist. It is nothing personal, it is just business and geopolitical business as usual. Building up Singapore or Germany was profitable and destroying Russia is, too. The US has always benefited tremendously from turmoil and war in Europe, and there is no way the US would ever have allowed Russia to break the EU away, no matter how many young people didn’t want to fight in Vietnam, and wrote good music about it.
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Posted by Paul | Sep 24, 2014, 07:08Reblogged this on EU: Ramshackle Empire and commented:
Overwhelmingly it is ordinary Americans who follow these blogs, and therein lies hope: they will be here long after the American Empire is gone.
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Posted by jimsresearchnotes | Sep 24, 2014, 08:03The soft power of the USA (Hollywood, TV-shows, Pop music, sophisticated advertising) was always the strongest weapon of the empire. US society is not only built on the genocide of the Native Americans and on the slave labor of Africans, but also on illusion, deception, lies.
Edward Bernays, hailing like Adolf Hitler from my home country Austria, became the father of public relations, combining Le Bon’s and Trotter’s “crowd psychology” with the psychoanalysis of his uncle Sigmund Freud. His countless disciples ameliorated and perfected his methods, which evolved over time into the art and science of public relations, advertising, propaganda, (re)education, indoctrination, mind control.
For thousands of years indoctrination and mind control was left to religious institutions, in the 20th century Hollywood, TV, and the pop music blaring from millions of loudspeaker replaced the preachers and prophets. The US-Americans became not only the Masters of War, they became also the Masters of Mind Control.
That our most beloved anti-war songs like Masters of War, Blowing in the Wind, A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall, With God on Our Side, were composed by Israel supporter Robert Zimmermann (Bob Dylan), doesn’t make them worthless, they are still inspiring and energizing.
These songs though are a vivid reminder about the brilliance and mastery of the Masters of Mind Control.
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Posted by mato48 | Sep 24, 2014, 08:40Blaming America because of 19th century slavery is like blaming the Soviet Union for 19th century serfdom. The USA rejected slavery and fought its most bloody war in part to get rid of it. Does this count for nothing?
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Posted by kendo451 | Dec 14, 2015, 00:22Reblogged this on Ace News Desk 2014 and commented:
#AND2014
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Posted by #AceNewsGroup | Sep 24, 2014, 09:21Reblogged this on Where do We go from Here? and commented:
Native Americans would like to know how cool America ever was…
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Posted by Sisyphus47 | Sep 24, 2014, 09:24I support New Russia, the Soviet people and Russia. Let’s work together towards a socialist, non-imperialist future.
Let’s build an American revolutionary underground together, to help defeat the Nazis in DC, NYC, Chicago and LA.
– from the USA
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Posted by rock musician | Sep 24, 2014, 09:53It seems to me that the peoples of Russia were operating under delusions, concerning America, which has never been cool. America’s ways and means are the ways and means of death and destruction. You should thank God that you never became like us to any great degree. Stop worshiping America’s unholy trinity of me, myself, and I and honoring her false gods of pride, vanity, hypocrisy, greed, materialism, hedonism, heedless progress, and hostile ambivalence toward nature….
Yes, America was foolish and will remain foolish–and thoroughly evil–until she tumbles into the Abyss and becomes an object lesson eclipsing that of Sodom and Gomorrah. God has already engaged the machinery of her destruction through Russia and China. She will take down various other nations with her. Prepare for that awesome day and the ravages of the aftermath. Do not even consider following America’s example of foolishness and insanity lest God destroy you, too….
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Posted by Senecharnix James Howard Trusty | Sep 24, 2014, 10:17When the Soviet people were deceived I was in my early twenties. I remember thinking ” they are in for an education”.
In Canada, at that time, we were in (another) recession and barrelling into” free trade” with the U.S. with the music was blaring, as usual. “Freedom” was in the air, those nasty commies were gone, “we” were victorious, and, yes, the Harleys were rumbling as they do today– though I detect fewer and fewer of them. The show continued with the noise ever present while five hundred thousand jobs were lost, factories closed, wages stagnated and bombs were dropped on those too “evil” to accept “the winds of change”. Unemployment, instability, increased policing, deindustrialization, attacks on workers’ rights/social programs—anything that stunk of socialism— ,stagnation and anxiety in Canada had (has) it corrallary in aggression abroad in the form of the bombings, invasions, structural adjustment, color revolutions which made up force fed capitalist ” democracy”.
Suddenly people, especially men (Canadian society, unlike Soviet society, has always been heavily influenced by backward anti intellectucal patriarch bigots as beacons of “common sense”) who could not even spell communism or bolshevism, were experts running around pontificating (and bullying others into accepting) that ” socialism doesn’t work” and “there is no alternative”. Meanwhile, all around us, our communities crumbled and began to reflect the shabbiness of the ideology of capitalist cave men dreaming of their own private plantations— listening to them I believe there is something to be said for the curtailmemt of so called free speech that existed in the USSR—Of course, to them, there never was a legitimate alternative to their way of doing things and every rotten, stupid, retrograde alliance or policy from NATO, NORAD, NAFTA and beyond was their monstrous brain child or something to be defended loudly in all forums with the implied threat of violence always present.
The same implied threat used against Russia and her people today.
I do not mean to sound condescending but I always knew the Russian/Soviet people were being duped. They were so sick of being lied to by the revisionists which had hijacked their socialist project that they began to believe the lies and the front put on by the parasites and their paid drones that control the west. The music, the clothes, the slick cars and Harleys etc were/are the kool aid that was so eagerly lapped up by a people tired of the contradictions of their own society. It was easier to buy the BS, because, let’s face it, building socialism, and maintaining a revolution in a capitalist world is hard work. Just look at the construction of modern Russia and compare it to what built N. America and Europe. On one hand revolution and labor of workers and peasants on the other, genocide, colonization and slavery.
I ask the Russian people reading here to get back to that tradition of being a beacon to the world through revolution and hard work. You’ve seen where buying into the big show of the west gets you. Instead of the warm padded coat you get the murse (man purse). Look today in your streets and see those posing in their western garb and ways as candidates for labour therapy. In the face of the fascists, bigots, oligarchs, wreckers and roaders holler “not one step back!!!”. You’ve too much to offer the world to trade it for a Harley, an IPod and some empty songs/slogans about ” freedom”.
If there is such a thing as a “birthright”, you’ve earned it through struggle and the example/support you’ve given to those seeking a higher plateau of humanity. I am a Canadian who was taught to look to the North Star for freedom. Even the dumbest of us knows Russia is to the north and her star burns Red hot still.
RRH
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Posted by RRH | Sep 24, 2014, 13:17There is America the nation. And there is America the government. Keep those two in mind when you critique the rights and wrongs, the good and bad, the crimes and charity, the evils and the ideals. And try hard to look past the ideologies. At base, there are overwhelmingly good people who have no power, no means to control their government. They can protest, but the machinery to vilify is powerful and merciless. The Hegemon is a Tyrant, first, at home.
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Posted by Bull Durham | Sep 24, 2014, 14:52We Americans refused to honor “nature’s God” and refused to control our public servants. We accepted Talmudic doctrines that adulterated our language, religion, culture and especially our minds and hearts.
We willingly and enthusiastically rushed off to every war proposed for over 200 years and we still worship war and all the suffering and death it causes.
We are guilty as hell. We pretend to be Christians, and we have NOT the Character of Christ. He warned us that when we lose the Character of Christ, we are fit for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. (Matthew 5:13)
Moses told us we’d have those who hate us to rule over us. (leviticus 26:17)
There is a way for Americans to stop what’s happening.
1. Confess our national and indivual sins in causing the the problem we are in now.
2. Change our reasoning minds to operate in harmony with the Word and Intent of nature’s God.
3. Humbly accept the punishments for our wickedness.
3. And do what He wants us to do. Then, He will do something.
Any other solution will be disastrous including ignoring the situation and doing nothing about it.
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Posted by meian888 | Sep 24, 2014, 17:20I agree with your contentions. But America and her leadership are far too arrogant and her peoples too lost in their sins to ever repent. So, America is doomed. She will not be ruled by her enemies. Rather, God is arranging for her enemies to demolish her. They will succeed spectacularly…..
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Posted by James Howard Trusty | Sep 25, 2014, 09:29I suspect you may be right. We may be unable to repent in which case, our Jonah will get to enjoy the show.
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Posted by meian888 | Jan 4, 2015, 19:40When you say we “refuse” to control our public servants, this isn’t really true. The US hasn’t had a legal presidential election since Clinton. Bush was twice unlawfully promoted to the presidency, Gore having possibly taken Florida, and Kerry, according to exit polls, having won by a margin of 5%, too big to be a likely error by international standards. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but there’s no proof our current “president” is even native to the US. We’re barely allowed to hold demonstrations, much less have meaningful or legal elections. Nay-sayers like Paul Craig Roberts are harrassed for their truthful views, while investigative journalists who reveal government crimes, such as the former New York Times columnist James Risen, are thrown in jail.
Nor have I met a single American who “enthusiastically rushed off” to war. And I certainly don’t know anyone who worships war. When you say say “we Americans”, on whom is your impression based? Your friends? Washington bigwigs? Military brass? Media firebrands? These are far from representative samples.
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Posted by karen | Sep 25, 2014, 20:43Most people I know, do everything they can to justify every war the US has had since 1776.
On top of that they do not want to know that the wars were all scams and legalized murder.
They get angry if I expose their cherished war fables.
Many thousands of so called Americans eagerly volunteer to go to just about every war.
These volunteers killed a million Philippinos in our war for democracy there.
In the 1940’s 50,000 American males died in suicide attacks to firebomb their relatives in Germany
From my viewpoint, Americans love comfortable lies.
And, justify all wars as “necessary and desirable” to help Jesus come and to help the Israelis no matter the cost, even if it’s Armageddon.
Pseudo Americans love war. That is why they been involved in continuous warfare for over 200 years.
And our motto in war since Lincoln has been:
“extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least of the trouble, but the people” …. “We are not fighting against enemy armies, but against an enemy people, both young and old, rich and poor, and they must feel the iron hand of war in the same way as organized armies.” US General Sherman
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Posted by meian888 | Jan 4, 2015, 19:28Reblogged this on Spread An Idea and commented:
A quick peek under the lid of the pot now on the back burner…
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Posted by peteybee | Sep 24, 2014, 15:48As an American, believing in the bill of rights, I’m highly offended at the direction the country has gone. I just hope others in other countries see that plenty of us hate this POS government also. But sadly far too many are still brainwashed and refuse to believe things like who was responsible for 9-11 or Boston.
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Posted by joe | Sep 24, 2014, 17:01absolutely amazing composition. so strange, the Beatle’s “All You Need is Love” was written by John Lennon, a Marxist, who also wrote “Imagine” showing that the existence of the Soviet Union gave hope to all, and created the great art of that period, because art relies on hope which relies on struggle which relies on a dialectic, which was lost…
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Posted by Justus Allofus | Sep 24, 2014, 17:54When I came to Europe some 25 years ago from the USA, the people here felt the same as the writer of this post. As an American you were the epitome of European dreams. Everything was possible in the USA. The American dream was being dreamed in Europe, big time. It was literally an embarrassment because having lived in the belly of the beast you knew these folks were living on stardust. The turning point was the election of G.W. Bush. Many Europeans began questioning their ideas regarding American ideas/ideals. Even so, the American got the benefit of the doubt. Everyone is entitled to a mistake was a common refrain. The Americans will realize that GWB is not an American and they will dump him in the next election was the way the thinking went. That, of course, didn’t happen. It has been downhill ever since. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen etc have turned the common man against the USA. Very few people I talk to these days dreams of visiting the USA. It wasn’t like that 20 years ago. It will never be that way again.
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Posted by basho | Sep 24, 2014, 18:12One of the most intelligent articles ever written about the political, cultural and democratic illusions that the naive young people go through. Material like this opens the minds of people. The author forgot to mention about Edward Snowden and his tremendous influence on everyone’s thinking. Due to the events in Ukraine America lost Russia, however because of E.Snowden America lost the world.
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Posted by bob1237 | Sep 24, 2014, 19:39This paper is really really great. It makes me wanna immigrate in Russia. I’m exhausted and in anger against my government, the rich, all the degenerate celebs and assholes in realty shows, same liers and Western fanatics in all médias, this emptyness and hypocrisy, this vaccum and mediocrity, always in sort of a state of paranoia because you feel that all of this is wrong and that their so-called freedom, their individualistic values are just an economic mechanism that make you all always more alone, frustrated and jealous (but they still have superiority on entertainment – including Rock, which has living monuments, and cinema and TV-series.)
Maybe in your country it’s still possible to feel what mankind means? Someday maybe, I’ll check.
But I do not understand the meaning of this sentence quite well:
«America, you are such a fool! All you had to do was wait twenty years — and we would have been forever yours. Twenty years of vegetarianism — and our politicians themselves would have handed over our nuclear weapons; even shaking your hands in gratitude for taking them away. What a blessing that you turned out to be such a fool, America!»
Does-it mean: if America had not made so much provocations against Russia and waited 20 years, things would be different in Russian’s public opinion?
But the wars led during 20 years (Irak / Somalia / Yugoslavia / Afghanistan / Irak / Libya / (Syria) / (Ukrainia) / Irak) were part of the usual US Empire Business (therefore, almost “compulsery”) and were not (until recently) aimed directly against Russia.
And what is it the meaning of « vegetarianism » ? Kind a swedish social-democratelike behavior?
Anyway, if you could explain me, I would be glad.
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Posted by Igor | Sep 24, 2014, 20:03It opposed vegetarianism and meat-eating, figuratively speaking.
America needed to behave more carefully, not to tear teeth a flesh of the countries, but to gather from them trade fruits, to act soft power etc.
But… too late!
Forgive it Google the translation
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Posted by andrewgoor | Sep 24, 2014, 23:09Do not despair completely! There are many in the West who see ‘it’ all very clearly. Things can change for the better…
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Posted by Steve Brown | Sep 24, 2014, 20:05Please don’t call it America. I am an American, but now only a remnant of a country which continues only in our hearts. It is only the US now– ruled by satanic criminals united in a single power structure with the rulers of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UK. The rulers of Europe still pretend not to be part of it– they pretend they are ‘reluctant’. You are wrong in thinking goodness has vanished from the human race; we are guilty only of bafflement and lethargy, and many are merely credulous. I can no longer imagine believing the evening news– but many still do, and so remain asleep.
You say that the US no longer writes songs sung round the world, and this is true. Now the song is Dvaid Rovics ‘We Are Everywhere’, and it is the only answer, the only remedy I know.
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Posted by Penelope Powell | Sep 24, 2014, 21:06America never had any “moral superiority”. Ask the victims of the US-sponsored Pinochet coup in Chile about American “moral superiority”! Ask the peoples of Vietnam, East Timor, Cuba, Grenada, Angola, etc. about American “moral superiority”! Ask the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Malcom X or the leaders of the native American peoples about the “moral superiority” of their oppressors!The author of this article is mistaking his own youthful naïveté, his awakening from the slumber of sheer ignorance, for a “change” in US policy. The USA has always been led by rapacious and deceitful governments.If anybody had “moral superiority”, it was the Soviet Union in its early years, until Stalin took over and established a degenerate and oppressive regime. The western culture which the author so much misses and extolls (including rock, pop and Hollywood films), is – for the most part – crap. Good that you finally woke up, but don’t try to turn your awakening process into some sort of deep reflection or analysis of historical developments. You were duped along with many millions of people – that’s about the size of it. Go read some Trotsky – it will do you good.
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Posted by Nick Gallaway | Sep 24, 2014, 21:33The author Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich seems incredibly young and naive. I am American, and was a teenager in the 1960’s. We feared Russia, but we loved Russians. I studied the Russian language at Berkeley, and felt deeply honored when a group of Russian students from Moscow came to visit our class. We were thrilled. Anything about Russia fascinated us, such as Sputnik, or the moonbase scene of the Russians in the movie 2001. Of America though, we were suspicious. In 1968, I watched US army tanks roll down the streets of Berkeley, quelling demonstrations against the Vietman war. What nation could be more evil than our own, we thought? A nation that massacres Vietnamese families simply defending their homes? We tried to change this country and failed. The powers that be were too entrenched.
Nor was life in California USA all that good. Many people I knew were in dire financial circumstances. Our governor Ronald Reagan had gutted the state’s higher education system. You had to be rich to attend a private college, the only decent education to be had. The police were brutal. We couldn’t afford houses. I don’t know where the author got such a rosy picture of this country, unless from the movies.
Then it got worse. Richard Holbrooke, author of the Dayton accords and promoter of the bombing of Kosovo, really believed, according to his excellent memoirs, that the 70-odd-day bombardment was a humanitarian mission, preventing more deaths in the long run. Then 911 was the death knell for freedom and decency in this country, what with the war in Afghanistan, the murder of Saddam Hussein, who for all his personal flaws and unspeakable brutality, had created a modern secular state largely at peace with itself inside the artificial British-imposed boundaries of Iraq And the US government’s action in Ukraine is unthinkably cruel and inhumane.
But to wish for the destruction of America is not a good idea. People live here. What we must wish for is the destruction of the power of the elite that controls both the US and Europe.
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Posted by Karen | Sep 24, 2014, 21:53As an American, I met exactly these same people this author, his generation, describes, at exactly that time, as J1 students visiting for summers working here. They came to America completely enthralled with all it represented to them, and amazingly, as so many of their own countrymen were descending into utter despair during the Yeltsin death & disintegration years, and all that was once good became bad, what was once bad, became good, the people he described had nothing but love & admiration for the empire of lies that had convinced them otherwise. He is absolutely right, that America had & lost them – they were a generation of young people completely for sale. I tried my best to tell them they were all wrong, and exactly as this author says, the bombing of Serbia was the turning point in their still young lives.
I knew my country had become ignorant under Reagan, but never in my wildest imagination would I have imagined Iraq II, Libya, now Iraq III and Syria I. Like I told someone during the lead up to Iraq II, I knew the powers that be were wicked, but I used to think they were at least smart. Hubris and the loss of the dialectic, and the numbing effect of very advanced capitalism made and created its own monster & is simultaneously defeating itself, while we all watch wondering if the world will somehow emerge from this nightmare still livable.
I am rooting so much for Russia, the birthplace of such enormous optimism less than one century ago, and China, the most populous nation which emerged a half century later, the world, our mother, needs you.
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Posted by Justus Allofus | Sep 24, 2014, 22:55This is from a lifelong U.S. citizen and resident (of Vietnam War era age): I recall a comment on alt.politics.soviet in August of 1991, during that ill-fated and much maligined last-ditch attempt by U.S.S.R. party loyalists against Gorbachev (If that was what it was). Someone from Moscow posted “There are tanks outside my window” and other comments on the same usenet news discussion list that were all totally, myopically pro-Western “save us from the bad old party” stuff like that. And an American posted “Don’t you understand that the United States is slipping into fascism!” The meaning was like why are you supporting this end of your nation. Don’t you understand what you are throwing away. And there were few replies, only a couple that were something like “huh? what are you talking about.” There was no comprehension of what the U.S. was and is really like.
I sometimes wonder if any of those reading alt.politics.soviet back in 1991, if they remember that post.
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Posted by Karl Bergstrom | Sep 24, 2014, 23:29I fear that most Russians have no idea how completely evil the US gangster government has become.
It’s very sad because they may have to pay a very heavy price for their ignorance, illusions and dreaming.
The US gangster government doesn’t care for its sheeple nor for peace but only for World Conquest.
It is very dangerous to underestimate one’s enemy.
The US government isn’t foolish but intelligent, deceitful, dishonest, ruthless and wicked.
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Posted by BAB | Sep 24, 2014, 23:43I agree. My persistent unanswered question is: Who in the US Government are responsible for this trend? The Israel lobby? The Rothschilds? Other oligarchs? The CIA? All of the above? To fix the problem we need to get to the cause.
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Posted by konar | Sep 25, 2014, 20:53Dear Konar
The warmongers which have real power are all those you have mentioned, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz and Henry Kissinger and NATO.
These are not at all interested in peace nor do they care for their own people, only World conquest for their own profit matters.
Their sole goal is to grab all the World resources and wealth.
Indeed World War III has already started with Kosovo but it isn’t a conventional war. Their strategy is to use the lying press and TV to stir up trouble in the nations they target and then to support and arm the opposition so as to replace the legitimate governments with their own paid for puppet politicians.
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Posted by BAB | Sep 27, 2014, 19:22The only one responsible for all the war crimes and atrocities of Usa is good old enlgsnd the real evil plottercof all wars including world warc1and world war 2 and Iraq war 1 ans 2and syrian war still going under supervision of the parasite English nation.
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Posted by harayanvi mard (@lal_of_kharanti) | Oct 8, 2014, 16:44Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich to you could be applied what the mother of the last caliph of Cordoba said to him after he lost his city “Do not cry like a woman for that which you could not defend like a man.”
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Posted by Obi-Juan | Sep 25, 2014, 00:56Ouch, that hurts.
One gets tired of asking America’s new victims why they didn’t be more careful after America raped and plundered dozens of other countries, including nearby or allied countries of the new victim. America’s economic model is based on rape and plunder, for the costs of a military strong enough to force the world to take pieces of paper called dollars in exchange for their goods, lands, and assets is high. So, if the US manages to come to some deal with Russia over the Ukraine and then does something similar to Russia, one can imagine more articles like this. “I loved you. I loved blue jeans and rock. I loved visiting San Francisco. You had the prettiest women and strongest men in your movies. What went wrong?”
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Posted by Paul | Sep 25, 2014, 07:55Paul,
I didn’t mean to insult anyone, but what can you say of a person that said:
1. “We did not think of the USSR falling apart as a disaster”
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, millions of people lost their jobs, were death by starvation-illness and leave to another countries.
Thousands of factories were closed and was the beginning of street violence, civil wars, drug addiction and prostitution.
How can somebody be so egoist, short minded and selfish?
Or
2. “The war in Iraq and even the breakup of Yugoslavia mostly escaped our attention”
Again millions of people were killed and he didn’t put any attention to this facts?
The worst thing is that he doesn’t shows any true regret or pain for the people killed or for the great opportunity lost with the Soviet Union,
Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich wants to be treaty fairly by the oligarchs that rule the world.
With peoples like this you don’t need Obama’s evil empire as enemies!
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Posted by Obi-Juan | Sep 25, 2014, 12:43In the USA there are 9,000 radio stations, 1,500 TV stations, 1,500 newspapers, 1,100 magazines and 2,400 publishers owned by only 6 Globalist/Zionist controlled corporations.
Extracts from Paul Craig Robert’s ” Washington’s Secret Agendas”
The US government’s secret agendas have cost Americans and many peoples in the world tremendously.
One might think that by now even Americans would have caught on to the constant stream of false alarms that Washington sounds in order to deceive the people into supporting its hidden agendas.
The public fell for the lie that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” that were a threat to America and that if the US did not invade Iraq Americans risked a “mushroom cloud going up over an American city.”
With the rise of ISIS, this long war apparently is far from over.
Billions of dollars more in profits will pour into the coffers of the US military security complex as Washington fights those who are redrawing the false Middle East boundaries created by the British and French after WW I when the British and French seized territories of the former Ottoman Empire.
The American public fell for the lies told about Gaddafi in Libya. The formerly stable and prosperous country is now in chaos.
The American public fell for the lie that Iran has, or is building, nuclear weapons. Sanctioned and reviled by the West, Iran has shifted toward an Eastern orientation, thereby removing a principal oil producer from Western influence.
The public fell for the lie that Assad of Syria used “chemical weapons against his own people.” The jihadists that Washington sent to overthrow Assad have turned out to be, according to Washington’s propaganda, a threat to America.
The greatest threat to the world is Washington’s insistence on its hegemony.
Many still believe Washington’s lies, but increasingly the world sees Washington as the greatest threat to peace and life on earth.
The claim that America is “exceptional and indispensable” is used to justify Washington’s right to dictate to other countries.
The casualties of Washington’s bombings are invariably civilians.
The newly created propaganda of a “Russian threat” requires more NATO spending and more military bases on Russia’s borders.
A “quick reaction force” is being created to respond to a nonexistent threat of a Russian brothers and invasion of the Baltics, Poland, and Europe.
Usually it takes the American public a year, or two, three, or four to realize that it has been deceived by lies and propaganda, but by that time the public has swallowed a new set of lies and propaganda and is all concerned about the latest “threat.” The American public seems incapable of understanding that just as the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth, threat was a hoax, so is the sixth threat, and so will be the seventh, eighth, and ninth.
Moreover, none of these American military attacks on other countries has resulted in a better situation, as Vladimir Putin honestly states. Yet, the public and its representatives in Congress support each new military adventure despite the record of deception and failure. Perhaps if Americans were taught their true history in place of idealistic fairy tales, they would be less gullible and less susceptible to government propaganda.
Hidden agendas,such as those of the Bush and Obama regimes, must rely on secrecy and manipulation and, thereby, arouse the distrust of the people.
If Many are too brainwashed to notice more and more are waking up .
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Posted by BAB | Sep 28, 2014, 20:56Under guidance of ‘the great democracy’.con, we have watched USAID Nuland CIA and PNAC murder their way to coup in Ukraine, covering their miserable arses to the shoot down of MH17 by just ‘not talking about the evidence’ Russian Federation presented of aircraft movements. There is no moral ground left, the 911 conspiracy sorted that out for all time.
The writer writes of the perception management that has allowed this transformation from ‘WWII victory’ to WWIII aggressor, go hidden among the flicker of Hollywood, and “It’s been a while since you wrote any songs sung round the world” is testament to a global realization that NATO backing PravySector/Svoboda in Ukraine, and ISIL in Syria, actually means NATO are backing the NAZI .
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Posted by fremo | Sep 25, 2014, 01:23Have you guys read this yet?
Жидкий стул фашизма (Liquid stool fascism)
http://amfora.livejournal.com/126944.html (trans) http://translate.yandex.net/tr-url/ru-en.ru/amfora.livejournal.com/126944.html
Really a witty piece of writing, from what I’ve been able understand with a Yandex translation. It deserves a real translation (hint-hint). 😉
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Posted by вот так | Sep 25, 2014, 01:30This is a well-written, well-argued article that should be published in the op-ed column of, for example, the New York Times. (And assigned in all English college classes in the US.) Perhaps it resonates with me in a specially emotional way because as an English college instructor, I used to assign The Scorpions’ masterpiece “Winds of Change” in my classes. I think my American students were under the spell of the power of a good song, better than even the best written editorials, better even than this article. Yes, there was a small window of genuine opportunity for the world in general and the US in particular to re-route our suicidal civilization to a new planetary responsibility. It is now obvious that the United States is mostly to blame for the current unfolding horrors of never-ending wars and environmental catastrophes. Like many Russians, many other Europeans were deluded to think that the US was really about democracy and freedom. It never was, and never will be. Facts speak louder than the most effective political propaganda.
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Posted by Canassatego | Sep 25, 2014, 02:58Thank you for an excellent and heartfelt essay. As a 67-year-old American veteran of the U.S. War on Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), I feel deeply ashamed of what my country did to so many millions of innocent persons. As well, I apologize to the Russian people for the gratuitous slurs and insults regularly hurled at you and your country’s President, Vladimir Putin, by the current President of my country, Barak Obama. Please do not give up on all of us Americans. Many of us fear and loathe our own oligarchic, corporate/military government and would welcome its imperial dissolution. America could really use a Mikhail Gorbachev. But time will tell …
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Posted by Michael Murry | Sep 25, 2014, 04:51I agree 100% with the article. I am from Germany and I am ashamed of my government and most of the media. Every monday we publicly meet in many cities to spread the truth, it is called “Mahnwache”. Most people I talk to are aware they are being lied to by the government and the MSM. These times are like a bad dream and it is totally frightening that this is reality. I read Zerohedge every day and a reader posted the link to this site.
Sorry to OT but the writer seems to be into motorbikes. It was a mistake to stop production of the URALs. They could easily have been made reliable, torquey and very powerful. Maybe not as fast on the racetrack as a modern Superbike but at least one model as powerful (technically very easy). That would have drawn the interest of enthusiasts worldwide. Who wants that Harley image any longer? I know because I am in the trade. What happened to the URAL factory?
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Posted by wvobiker | Sep 25, 2014, 04:53The “America” that Russians and peoples around the world loved is a Hollywood fictional movie as truthful and real as the book “Schindler’s List” is a Non-Fiction book (it won the Fiction of the Year book award by the Los Angeles Times in 1983).
The term “America” or “Americans” was stolen from the peoples of North, Central and South America! We, the peoples of North, Central and South America, are ALL AMERICANS! Just like how the Israelis stole the word “Semitic” from the Palestinians who are a Semitic people, more so than the 90% of the so-called Jews today who are descendants of the Khazars that lived near Russia and Georgia: a totally non-Semitic people! So, those who are truly “anti-Semitic” are the Jews themselves, especially given their recent killings of the Palestinians. Over 90% of Israelis support the latest Palestinian Genocide.
The definitive turning point for the peoples of the West including Russians was the USNATO Genocide War against Yugloslavia in the 1990s. Not 9/11. What happened to Iraq, Syria, Libya ~ the total destruction of nations and their citizens ~ is based on what happened to Yugoslavia. The best talk ever given by anyone on this Genocidal War was given by Michael Parenti in 1999:
bit.ly/1pQWjX2
bit.ly/1qUZgb4 (The Weight of Chains)
People: Listen watch and learn before it’s too late. It already is.
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Posted by David Chu | Sep 25, 2014, 10:50I think one must be careful here not to confuse the simple folks with their ruling oligarchy.
In the USA as in Russia as in any nation you have many good and wonderful people amongst the simple folk fooled and betrayed by their corrupt politicians.olks with their ruling oligarchy.
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Posted by BAB | Sep 25, 2014, 12:25What you thought that USA was? Always bothered me that the Russians were so naive about the intentions of USA. The USSR was the greatest country and the greatest opportunity for the emancipation of the working class. You left the USSR lose. And now you have deserved what America is doing with you. USA is fascism. USA has purchased the Russian oligarchy. The following will in Russia Maidan. They divided the country to rob resources.
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Posted by Walter | Sep 25, 2014, 18:55I totally agree!
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Posted by Obi-Juan | Sep 27, 2014, 11:39Thank you for your heart-felt thoughts on your journey to the truth of the US. It is the evil heart of darkness in our world today. Many people around the world know the undeserved insults and slander that Russia has endured from the West. Here is a small restitution for it:
http://dearputin.com
This letter from the people of the world has already been signed by over 44,000 and has been translated into nineteen languages. I hope you will share it too.
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Posted by SariadeG | Sep 26, 2014, 02:48Hello Sariadeg. I feel a lot of sympathy for your viewpoint. The US may be figuratively “the evil heart of darkness” in the sense that it is the main staging ground for the offensives of the global oligarchs, many of whom are European, such as the Rothschilds. But it would not not the evil MIND of darkness, which is reserverd for the oligarchs themselves.
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Posted by kennedy applebaum | Sep 29, 2014, 01:41The fact that you and many others in Russia including putin are stll delusional about the nature of so called west is all your fault and of no one else.
West is a misnomer -it has nothing to do with Europe or European civilisation. In fact west is exact opposite of Europe.
West is a code word fir England and its 5 evil satellite of 5 evil eyes.
Napoleaon tried to free Europe from the clutches of english parasite pirate nation but alas in Rusdian invasion of naploeaon there was involved an English spy hiding in the boat where nsploean and czar met on the barge.
Anyway resutl is for all to see.
Meddling English now use American arms and Nato to keep Germany down and Russia out of Europe while ant europezn englisgh have infiltrated the European commission Nd undermined the very raison De etre of E U.
But look how putin stupidly did not do anything within 1st month of Ukraine crisis and allow the eound to fester.
In fact putin is not even pursuing vigorously the case of drwning of malaysian airkines the recordibng o f which was allowed to be taken by pirate English nation and result was delayed for 6 weeks. Putin does not find thin a major issue to embarrass west znd mainly englnad which wNted swift stopped for Russia and which used polon poisoining for how long -5months?
Putin allows the west to bury all the crimes and accusatiobs agsint Rusdia!
It is Russian falt o bevfooled again and again if you show weakness to anglosaxon pirates then they will tear you apart. Only language the coward anglos know is obe of big stick and power. What is there not to lije looting Rusdia? Big land mass, lot of mibes and miberals and beautuful women to imrove the gene of ugly grtoesque looking anglosaxon race?
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Posted by harayanvi mard (@lal_of_kharanti) | Oct 8, 2014, 15:50I agree that Putin needs to let Britain–and especially America–know they are dealing with someone who is exceedingly tough and get very nasty. But I understand why he is playing the nice-guy routine. In my way of thinking, that is a losing strategy. He should go out of his way to embarrass the “pirates.” But Britain is not the big dog that you believe. America is the big dog…..
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Posted by James Howard Trusty | Oct 8, 2014, 21:37Shillsville.
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Posted by Anonymous | Nov 6, 2015, 18:03