Olaf Zwetsloot

We are the other | The means justify the end | Democracy dies in broad daylight

[Jan Keulen @jan_keulen]

Europese politiedienst Europol wil data delen met Israël. Het gaat om de uitwisseling van namen, ID-nummers, locaties, genetische en biometrische informatie en details over iemands politieke opvattingen en privéleven.
https://t.co/kVJpi3LA4H

[Jimmy Dore @jimmy_dore]

There will never be accountability for the Covid vaccines giving young people cancer, doesn’t matter that he owns the LA Times, it’s never happening.

Most people I know still have their head completely up their ass about all things Covid cuz admitting the truth about it would mean they’d have to admit they acted like monsters & Nazis & poisoned themselves & their own kids.

[MintPress News @MintPressNews]

Sacha Baron Cohen's close ties to the CIA & Mossad explained.

Video produced by Mnar Adley and supported by our members.

[Itay Epshtain @EpshtainItay]

Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz @Israel_katz, launches his Likud primary campaign with: “Israel boom boom boom.”

Not particularly high-minded. So let us translate.

This is political advertising built around the celebration of destructive force: attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, with civilians and civilian objects bearing the consequences.

Such attacks are indiscriminate, disproportionate or otherwise unlawful, and may constitute war crimes; where committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, crimes against humanity.

Katz believes that association with such wanton violence will win him votes.

What it should attract is scrutiny from the @IntlCrimCourt and an arrest warrant.

[Brownstone Institute @brownstoneinst]

Big Pharma’s total domination and subversion of our Republic is even worse than you think.

It’s not just the media.

They bought up “everything and everybody.”

Toby Rogers: “They bought up the political system, so politicians won’t ask questions.”

“They bought up the regulators, so regulators won’t ask questions.”

“They bought up continuing medical education, so doctors are just trained by the pharmaceutical industry in the latest products that they want to sell.”

“They’ve bought up universities, the curriculum for medical schools.”

“They’ve bought up every step in the knowledge production process in science and medicine.”

“The pharmaceutical industry has captured the knowledge production process.”

“People don’t realize that they’re in an entire system designed to enrich the pharmaceutical industry at our expense.”

@jeffreytucker @uTobian

[Nel B. @noirnen]

On NATO 3.0
I just published a long essay I've been working on for weeks. It's called NATO 3.0: The Transatlantic Cage and the Rise of the Bunkerstate, and honestly, it started as a much simpler piece and then kept growing as I dug into the documents.

What I found, in short: the NATO summit in Ankara was the formal ratification of a qualitative shift in how the alliance functions. Europe is being systematically restructured as an operational node, a self-funding, self-industrializing garrison that will absorb the conventional burden of attritional warfare on the continent, while the U.S. ruling strata retain the command layer, the nuclear umbrella, the digital brain, and the strategic direction.

I trace this shift through the NATO declarations, through the Army War College monograph that calls for Europe to abandon "fragmented industrial nationalism" and shift to a "positional-defense framework," through the financial mechanisms (the NATO Innovation Fund, the ESG rewrites, the long-term procurement guarantees) that are channeling private capital into the defense sector, and through the historical record, the 1959 memo that already described this division of labor, the 1995 Libicki text on "vertical coalitions" that reads like a blueprint for today.

I also try to connect this to the Bunkerstate framework I've been developing. NATO 3.0 is the Bunkerstate at the transnational level, the same logic of securitization, the same hollowing of the civilian sphere, the same reorientation of the state toward war preparation, now scaled across a continent.

It's a long read. I don't apologize for that since the topic demanded it. But I tried to make every section earn its place. If you're interested in the (NATO-)machinery behind the headlines, I think it's worth your time.

As always, I welcome comments and questions. These are just frameworks through which we can see the world, but let's think and build together. (Link below)

[Going Underground @GUnderground_TV]

Julian Assange’s 55th birthday, a reminder of why he was persecuted for over a decade:

Wikileaks under Assange released the Collateral Murder video shows Reuters journalists, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen being gunned down by a US Apache helicopter. Several others were killed while the US pilots laughed.

The US wants to extradite and imprison Julian Assange for 175 years.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

Palantir has been granted “unlimited access” to NHS patient data.

This is the same company that is involved in mass surveillance and genocide.

We did not consent to this. Get Palantir out of our NHS, now.

[Disclose.tv @disclosetv]

NOW - King Charles: "My ministers will also proceed with the introduction of Digital ID."

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

His dog "took care of some Nukhbas in Sde Teiman, did a lot."

He's saying that his dog "took care" of some Palestinian detainees in the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp.

What did he mean?

[Mees Wijnants @MeesWijnants]

Politici doen geen echt werk. Het zijn acteurs.

Wat heeft het voor voordelen om naar Sint Eustatius te vliegen en te kijken naar een olieterminal? Wat doe je daar? Heeft totaal geen nut.

Als je een actieve, nuttige, landsdienende politicus was zou je wetsvoorstellen opstellen om de inkomstenbelasting te verlagen en de asielinstroom volledig te stoppen. Je zou de marechaussee en het leger uitbreiden, beter laten trainen, en meer apparatuur bestellen voor onze grensbewaking. Je zou met de minister van Financïen samen wekenlang je hoofd breken over hoe we de staatsschuld af kunnen betalen, en hoe we het gas in Groningen kunnen gebruiken om een Sovereign Wealth Fund op te zetten. Je zou de handelsdeals met Amerika aanscherpen zodat onze export competitiever wordt. Je zou ervoor zorgen dat de overheid permanent krimpt door automatisering te overzien.

Wat voor nut heeft het bezoeken van een gezagvoerder op Sint Eustatius en praten over het SLAVERNIJVERLEDEN EN EEN OLIETERMINAL. Politici zijn enkel acteurs. Niet eens middelmanagers. Acteurs.

[Olaf Zwetsloot @Hipcescu]

Django

[Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws1]

“Blood libel”

They are literally boasting about what their dogs do to Palestinians on live TV in Israel!

[David Bell @bell00david]

The Hantavirus outbreak is an excellent illustration of @WHO 's drift from a joint organization supporting sovereign states to a marketing agency of those willing to pay.

The outcome, of course, is more poverty and dead children. https://t.co/ggUQkKIeDB

[Olaf Zwetsloot @Hipcescu]

"A century ago, the Anglo-American establishment played a pivotal role in enabling the Nazi military build-up as an anti-Soviet bulwark — only for the German monster to eventually slip its leash."

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

The French historian Emmanuel Todd has argued that much of what passes for nationalism in the West today — from Germany to Japan — is in fact a form of “imaginary” nationalism: vassalage towards the US dressed up as sovereignty. He contrasts this with “real” nationalism, a genuine sovereignty-oriented politics that is today largely absent. German rearmament falls squarely into the former category. It is not nationalism, military or otherwise, but its opposite: the undermining of German and European core interests at the hands of a transnationalised globalist elite — Merz is, after all, a former BlackRock executive — that views permanent war and militarisation as a way to entrench its wealth and power at the expense of European prosperity and security.

But this does not mean that a “true” German nationalism — with its attendant aspirations towards continental hegemony — could not resurface. The militarisation of German society and the hardening of anti-Russian sentiment are real and deepening phenomena.

There is a historical precedent, after all. A century ago, the Anglo-American establishment played a pivotal role in enabling the Nazi military build-up as an anti-Soviet bulwark — only for the German monster to eventually slip its leash. The domestic German context today is obviously very different — and of course one may argue, and hope, that a “true” German nationalism would recognise that Germany’s genuine interests lie in peace rather than war — yet the parallels are impossible to ignore.

Read my latest article here: https://t.co/xTaagcjlvl

[Concerned Citizen @BGatesIsaPyscho]

🚨🌍 Politicians in Suits Stand next to a Bus full of people in Hazmat Suits (who are allegedly being quarantined for exposure to Hantavirus) so Legacy Media can take Photographs in order to promote their new Scamdemic.

They’re already discussing Vaccines & think you’re stupid.

[Olaf Zwetsloot @Hipcescu]

"Increasingly, modern public health relies on a permanent atmosphere of alarm." @carlheneghan on the politics of perpetual emergency and the bureaucratic ecosystem behind it. https://t.co/yY8pwZAfhb

[Jody McIntyre @jodymcintyre_]

With Keir Starmer in meltdown mode, this man is being presented as the saviour of the Labour Party.

But did you know that last time Andy Burnham stood for leader, he pledged that his FIRST foreign trip would be to Israel?

Here’s what else I’ve discovered:🧵

[Children’s Health Defense @ChildrensHD]

🚨 Jeffrey Tucker exposes the dark truth behind Covid policies: It was all conditioning.

“The whole point of the lockdowns was to prepare the population for the shots.”

“To keep people apart so they wouldn't acquire natural immunity.”

“To preserve immunological variety as long as possible.”

“That's the reason for the masks.”

“For the distancing.”

“For the closures.”

“That was the reason for the banning of therapeutics.”

“Why you couldn't get Ivermectin… or Hydroxychloroquine.”

“They were taken off the market.”

“The reason?”

“They wanted one solution.”

“One solution only, which was a shot that had been indemnified against all harms.”

“So it didn't need to be safety tested because even if it wasn't a safe shot, it wouldn't matter.”

“The companies were not held liable for it.”

“If you got sick and died, survivors couldn’t sue Pfizer or Moderna.”

“There's a liability shield for them.”

“They had a lot of money to be made.”

“A lot of shots to be distributed.”

@jeffreytucker

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

There’s no overstating how extraordinary this Atlantic article is, given the author and the outlet.

As a reminder Bob Kagan is:

- The co-founder of Project for the New American Century, probably the single most imperialist Think Tank in Washington (which is quite a feat)

- A man who spent his entire life advocating for American military interventions, especially in the Middle East, and a vocal advocate of the Iraq war. He started advocating for intervention in Iraq before 9/11, which speaks for itself...

- The husband of Victoria Nuland, an extremely hawkish former senior U.S. official (a key architect of U.S. policy in Ukraine, with the consequences we all witness today)

- The brother of Frederick Kagan, one of the key architects of the Iraq surge

In other words, we ain’t exactly looking at some sort of anti-imperialist peacenik. This is quite literally the guy Dick Cheney called when he needed a pep talk.

And the man is writing in The Atlantic, the most reliably pro-war mainstream media outlet in the U.S. (also quite a feat).

So when HE writes that the U.S. “suffered a total defeat” in Iran that has no precedent in U.S. history and can “neither be repaired nor ignored,” it’s the functional equivalent of Ronald McDonald telling you the burgers aren’t great: it means the burgers really, really aren't great.

Extraordinarily (and somewhat worryingly, for me), his arguments for why this is such a defeat are virtually the same as those I laid out in my article “The First Multipolar War” last month (https://t.co/tbnOpdYqux).

Here they are 👇

1) Vietnam/Afghanistan were survivable, this isn't

He agrees that this war - and the U.S. defeat - is fundamentally different in nature from previous U.S. interventions.

Where I wrote that the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan didn’t change the equation much in terms of power dynamics (“in the grand scheme of things, the giant walked away with little more than a bruised ego”), Kagan writes that “the defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan were costly but did not do lasting damage to America's overall position in the world.”

And when I wrote that “it’s painfully obvious that the Iran war is of a qualitatively different nature” from these, he writes that “defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character.”

Same point.

2) Iran will never relinquish Hormuz and uses it as selective leverage

When I wrote that Iran has turned “freedom of navigation” on its head by establishing “a permission-based regime” through the Strait of Hormuz, Kagan arrives at the same conclusion: “Iran will be able not only to demand tolls for passage, but to limit transit to those nations with which it has good relations.”

He also agrees that “Iran has no interest in returning to the status quo ante,” when I myself cited Iran’s parliament speaker Ghalibaf in my article, saying: “The Strait of Hormuz situation won’t return to its pre-war status.” Same point and virtually the same words.

3) Gulf states will have to accommodate Iran

He agrees that most Gulf states will have no choice but to accommodate Iran, effectively making Iran into a, if not THE, dominant regional power.

Kagan writes “the United States will have proved itself a paper tiger, forcing the Gulf and other Arab states to accommodate Iran.”

On my end, I wrote that “the Gulf monarchies will eventually have to choose between two security propositions. One where they stay aligned with a distant superpower that [can’t protect them]. The other proposition being: make peace with the regional power that just proved it can hit [them] whenever it wants.” Which is not much of a choice…

4) Military impossibility to reopen Hormuz

Kagan writes that “if the United States with its mighty Navy can't or won't open the strait, no coalition of forces with just a fraction of the Americans' capability will be able to, either.”

On my end, in my article I cited Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius: “What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do that the powerful US Navy cannot?”

The exact same argument.

5) Global chain reaction

Kagan agrees that this is a global strategic failure that fundamentally changes the U.S.’s position in the world. As he puts it: “America's once-dominant position in the Gulf is just the first of many casualties… America's allies in East Asia and Europe must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts.”

You’ll have guessed it, I wrote essentially the same thing: “Think about what it says if you’re Saudi Arabia, quietly watching your American-built defenses fail to protect your own refineries. Or any European country now facing the worst energy shock since 1973, caused not by your enemy but by your ally, and realizing that said ‘ally,’ supposedly in charge of ‘protecting’ you, couldn’t even protect Israel’s most strategic sites - when it’s the country with which it’s joined at the hip. I’m not even speaking about China or Russia who are seeing their worldview being validated on almost every axis simultaneously.”

6) Weapons stocks depleted, credibility shattered

Kagan: “just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power have reduced American weapons stocks to perilously low levels, with no quick remedy in sight.”

Me: “America’s most advanced weapons systems are much more vulnerable than previously thought - not theoretically, but in actual combat.”

Kagan: “America's allies… must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts.”

Me: “The U.S. security guarantee has been empirically falsified in real time.”

-----------
So, yup, Bob Kagan and I agree on nearly everything. I need a shower 🤢

Reassuringly though, we still differ on a few fundamental aspects.

First of all, arguably the most important one, the moral aspect. In typical neocon fashion, his article contains not a word about the human cost of this war - not the 165 schoolgirls, not the devastation inflicted on Iranians during 37 days of bombing, not the toll this war is taking on the entire world through its devastating economic consequences (the economic devastation on ordinary people worldwide is referenced only as a political problem for Trump). For him, this is purely a strategic chess problem, morality and people don’t figure in his mental map.

For me, the moral bankruptcy of this war isn't separate from the strategic failure - it is the strategic failure. Much like Gaza can only be a failure because of its sheer abjectness.

Secondly, there is not an instant of reflection in the article on how we got there. Which is unsurprising because he personally, alongside his wife, his brother, and every co-signatory of every PNAC letter, spent a generation pushing for exactly this kind of confrontation. The man spend 30 years advocating for military dominance in the Middle East and hostility towards Iran, thereby forging them as an adversary and facilitating this very war that he now says has “checkmated” America.

I know introspection has never been the neocon forte but at some point you have to stop setting houses on fire and then writing op-eds about how surprising the smoke is.

Last but not least, we differ on what should be done. This is the funniest part of Kagan’s article - showing that the man is decidedly beyond salvation. On one hand he calls this a “checkmate” by Iran, and a U.S. defeat that can “neither be repaired nor ignored,” yet an the other hand his solution for it is… surprise, surprise… a bigger war still!

He writes that what’s to be done is “engage in a full-scale ground and naval war to remove the current Iranian regime, and then to occupy Iran until a new government can take hold.”

The arsonist's solution to the fire is a bigger fire ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For my end, this was the conclusion of my previous article:

"There is almost a Greek tragedy quality to U.S. actions lately where every move taken to escape one’s fate becomes the mechanism that delivers it. The U.S. went to war to reassert dominance - and proved it could no longer dominate. It demanded allies send warships - and revealed it had no real allies. It waged forty years of maximum pressure to break Iran before this moment came - and instead forged the very adversary now capable of meeting it. It started the war in part to have additional leverage over China - and handed the world the spectacle of begging China for help. The prophecy was multipolarity. Every American action to prevent it reveals it instead."

I wouldn’t change a word. The only thing that's changed since I wrote it is that even the arsonists now smell the smoke.

Src for the Atlantic article: https://t.co/ItED9WS9Kn

[Olaf Zwetsloot @Hipcescu]

The fearmongering has become so blatant. Beyond ridiculous

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

The EU: a supranational, antidemocratic, militaristic quasi-empire that has hollowed out national democracies, made Europe economically and geopolitically more vassalised than ever, is pushing us towards all-out war with Russia, and today runs a massive propaganda/censorship/repression machinery of unparalleled scope and reach.

Also the EU: “But hey we’ve reduced queues at the borders!”.