On 26 June 2024, I spoke with Danny Davis on his “Deep Dive” podcast about America[‘s prospects for shutting down the Ukraine war and the Gaza war, as well as preventing further escalation in both conflicts. I argued that the Biden administration is desperate to end the war in Gaza and prevent Israel from going to war with Hezbollah. But it can’t put meaningful pressure on Israel to achieve those goals, because of the power of the Israel lobby in the United States. Regarding Ukraine, I argued that the various steps the Biden administration has recently taken to help stabilize the situation on the front lines are likely to prolong the war and increase the chances of escalation. Thus, my bottom line: we’re screwed.
One other reason we’re screwed is that these interviews aren’t even tangentially mentioned in the corporate press. The level of outright ignorance among the public is both staggering and designed. Sixty years ago Tom Paxton wrote a song about The Daily News: “Seven little pennies in the newsboy’s hand, And you ride right along to never, never, land”. Today he could write that line about the NYTimes. I’m grateful for Substack, and I’m grateful for Professor Mearsheimer.
I like you used to read the NY Times with my favorite being The New Yorker until I started to critical think and started to understand the lies being spun which thanks to Alex Jones waking us all up is the reason today we seek out what the real truth is through our own research.
Hard to measure the degree of political desperation Biden feels, but I believe we can rely on the truth of the notion that desperate people take inordinate risks that would not usually take. This has been predictable ticking strategic time bomb of the Ukraine 🇺🇦 War since it began.
Deliberately opaque? So you think he's really calling the shots? I think he was a hawk, but now I'm not sure if he knows what a hawk is. Seems neocon Blinken and the neocon agenda they have been pushing for the last 20 years, or so is still in play in this administration, an administration that is also complicit in a genocide as well.
biden feels no desperation, unless he is out of ice cream or pre pubescent children to molest. You give him much too much credit assuming he is aware of things going on around him.
I doubt his handlers feel any desperation either - they installed him once, they can do it again.
The only folks feeling desperation are the White Christian people of this land with a brain; they know that they are in the crosshairs of TPTB with no 'legal' redress or nonviolent solutions.
Look: Joseph Biden is incapable of reigning in Israel. He will see us dragged into a broader regional conflict in the Middle East, with the consequence that Israel will emerge as the dominant power in the region. They will hold onto their increased size only with our continued military and financial support. Why we would choose to enhance a fascist state like Israel’s power and size in a troubled region of the world is folly and idiocy to an amazing degree. Israel is not our friend, has demonstrated numerous times it is not our friend, and will never be a good ally. We will be shown the door after much shedding of American blood and loss of treasure.
As for Ukraine: it too is a fascist state that can’t stop itself from flaunting its Nazi bona fides every chance it gets. Joe Biden sees this conflict as a way to keep the MIC happy, rolling in the dough, and therefore supporters if his administration. We’ll be dying and bleeding in that cause as well.
The regime or ideology of "unconditional surrender" began with the US Civil War and then was adopted by the Allies in WWII. Fortunately, in both cases they won so its geopolitical insanity never had to be exposed. Problem is, the us vs them, good vs pure evil dogma (whatever its theological source) and the corresponding "unconditional surrender" approach to conflict has been all the rage since 1945 and the nuremberg regime or call it "boomer truth" if you like. Unfortunately, this time they are losing and how do you de-escalate with a population brainwashed on "never negotiate with evil". My guess is, you push things to the brink of nuclear war and then use this as an excuse to negotiate the inevitable peace with Putin. As for Gaza, that will take stronger medicine since the US is a mere puppet.
Presidential administrations have seldom done anything to stabilize a situation at the front since JFK contacted Nikita Khrushchev about the missiles in Cuba.
Of course I knew about the missiles in Turkey. That's the whole point! Tensions were resolved through peaceful diplomacy and compromise. You and I are alive today because of it. Are you saying JFK's assassination by the CIA (actually arranged by Allen Dulles, whom JFK fired after the Bay of Pigs fiasco) was justified?
Not realizing you're screwed makes being screwed much worse. Thank you John Mearsheimer for the candor. Next step is sorting out who is screwing us. The heads of state quite often don't matter- the puppet masters do: corporate heads, the MIC being prominent, the banking authorities and the policies they wreak, and other corporations. Watch Douglas MacGregor on how the US has deteriorated - the entire idea of what an American is has dissolved into the ether.
All I ask. All anybody with a conscience asks, is that Grandpa Groper pick up the phone and tell Netanyahu to stop killing people in Gaza. He can do it, and he won’t. He can stop it right now - and he won’t. The MIC will still sell weapons to Israel. No one’s bottom line is going to suffer if he reins in Netanyahu and says the United States will no longer be a party to this madness. He has that power, yet he won’t exercise it. And so day after day the darkness that surrounds us becomes thicker and more ominous. The United States drifts closer to the abyss. We are a nation without conscience. Without a shared morality. Without principles in a time of crisis.
It is depressing. No one agrees with Israeli policy - it's inhuman. But the heads of states still find it useful. Israel would be disabled completely without the almost $4billion per year from the US. The US is the chief ghoul in the cast that makes the horror show work.And apparently, it cares nothing about what ordinary people think.
Yes - We’re screwed…. The trouble is that even someone who is a s smart as you are, who has figured out to a “T” how the international system works and how we should be conducting ourselves in order to be able to give both ourselves and the rest of the world the best chance at survival, we have a whole host of other problems which are occurring simultaneously which are also presenting us with what amounts to an overwhelming cascade of existential threats and problems. Trying to make sense of them all, and trying to solve all of them is like playing 360 degree whack-a-mole. But it’s even worse than that, it’s like playing 360 degree whack-a-mole in three dimensions. So even if you were able to start to try to solve one of the problems, the others rise up and present problems. You’ve repeatedly pointed how to solve the US foreign policy problems. It’s not all that complicated. In a similar fashion, all of the other problems we’re faced with aren’t that complicated either. Together, this entire constellation of problems is called the metacrisis. That’s where my “course” comes in. My course is to the metacrisis and humanity as your theory of offensive realism is to International relations and the US. As I just posted on a substack article about artificial intelligence “ Without getting into details, I’ve developed a “course” which would make for a very good basis for both a US and worldwide political platform. Since it has spiritual elements embedded in it, it would make for a good basis for a worldwide non-religious religion. This course also makes for a very good basis for an operating system for artificial intelligence so that AI’s objectives are aligned with the best long-term beneficial interest of the human race as a species”.
I have a clear idea as to what needs to be done I just need to present it in an organized fashion. Starting tomorrow I’m going to try to get a friend of mine to work with me to put this course together on Thinkific or Teachable. So hopefully I’ll have something that is presentable to offer in the near future. If I had been able to get someone to help me with the presentation earlier I would have been able to get this accomplished quite awhile ago. Late is better than never - as long as it isn’t too late.
All actions to help waking up the ordinary folks, especially those young folks who are likely to be drafted or who will lose the most when their lives are wiped out by a nuclear war. A youtube channel, a web post, a quick talk in your local communities, etc. are all good.
Kevin. Reading this I think we may have many shared interests although not a precise match. Do you mind if I message you on this platform? Here are 3 examples of my thinking. If you are interested in some co-operation maybe.
I quickly read your substack article about the fact The Surveillance Industrial Complex and I share your concerns. George Orwell warned us about in his book 1984 “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever”. And as H.G. Wells warned “More and more history will become a race between education and catastrophe”. Your article addresses the surveillance system. John Mearsheimer addresses (mostly) the structure of the international power dynamic system via his extraordinarily excellent predictive tool known as the theory of offensive realism. What I’ve come up with takes into account both of those phenomena, along with the rest of the problems associated with the “metacrisis”, and attempts to provide an “education” to try to avoid the “catastrophe” we’re headed for. However it does more than just provide an “education”. It helps to determine the best destination, provides a roadmap and it itself is the vehicle to try to get that destination.
If you stop and consider the fact that we in the United States are party to the blowing up (murder) and brutalization of children in Gaza. it doesn’t take much imagination to come to the realization that there are those among us in the human races a species who are willing to rationalize and justify almost anything. To tell you the truth, this is the reason that I’m a big fan of John Mearsheimer (and people like him - my parents - George Kennan) because he knows that what’s happening is wrong. He knows that what’s happening is on the wrong side of history. What he doesn’t know is that he should be having some of his best and brightest grad students work with me to hone and polish my message because what I’ve come up with is a comprehensive, wholistic answer to try to right the ship, start to stop the madness and lead us in a good direction.
That's not a particularly good example of my writing and thinking. I am mostly philosophy based and all my work is on Wordpress and not Substack. The only articles I put there were just me finding out how substack worked and I prefer Wordpress in all respects. My current project is an analysis of any Machiavellian reading of Plato's Republic and the philosopher king as the modern technocrat. I focus on the influence of Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophy as they have led to a strong current of elitism and anti-populism which has developed in the West since the 1930s. I also believe that Alexandre Kojeve, James Burnham, Edward Bernays, Leo Strauss, B.F. Skinner and Francis Fukuyama hold the majority of the blame for the situation the self-destructive West finds itself in. I am currently using Derridean techniques to deconstruct the utility of the exercise of hard & soft power and also Baudrillard's critique of post-industrial narrative hyper-reality which has left the political and media classes completely disconnected from the people and social and political realities to the extent that all those normal people actually paying attention are in a permanent state of cognitive dissonance in that we cannot reconcile the narratives of the 'objective reality' broadcast by the government and MSM with our own personal subjective experiences out in the real world.
You will be really screwed, when you will find out how screwed your economy really is. The additional arms sales they are fighting for will not save the US. US is marching Dodo way.
Continually poking the bear, while also provoking the wrath of the Arab world, makes it appear as though the US is not trying to de-escalate things, rather that it trying to fuel conflicts all around the world in order to maintain it's relevance.
Situation normal then.
Maybe not sabotaging any peace talks, would be a good place to start.
I think it’s the people in Gaza who are screwed. Night after night we see helpless people in tents being burned and bombed. History will, and should, take care of Israel and the US, but nothing seems to be being done which is able to change this disgusting situation.
The proper title in this case isn't "we're screwed". It's "we screwed ourselves" which is different... And if one screws oneself, it can reverse the process, especially one that claim superpower status. "There are no invincible citadels, only bad generals". Both conflicts, Ukraine and Palestine can be totally reversed with the right teams, on both sides of the aisle. This is not a matter of corrupt reds versus blues, or this or that more or less reckless admin. It's about deep rooted American sense of justice, pragmatism, and pioneer spirit. If the powers that be want to. Do they is the question. Not can they. Humble opinion.
One other reason we’re screwed is that these interviews aren’t even tangentially mentioned in the corporate press. The level of outright ignorance among the public is both staggering and designed. Sixty years ago Tom Paxton wrote a song about The Daily News: “Seven little pennies in the newsboy’s hand, And you ride right along to never, never, land”. Today he could write that line about the NYTimes. I’m grateful for Substack, and I’m grateful for Professor Mearsheimer.
Well said.
I like you used to read the NY Times with my favorite being The New Yorker until I started to critical think and started to understand the lies being spun which thanks to Alex Jones waking us all up is the reason today we seek out what the real truth is through our own research.
Hard to measure the degree of political desperation Biden feels, but I believe we can rely on the truth of the notion that desperate people take inordinate risks that would not usually take. This has been predictable ticking strategic time bomb of the Ukraine 🇺🇦 War since it began.
Both sides have misread their opponent's actions in the Ukraine poorly because Biden has been deliberately opaque.
Deliberately opaque? So you think he's really calling the shots? I think he was a hawk, but now I'm not sure if he knows what a hawk is. Seems neocon Blinken and the neocon agenda they have been pushing for the last 20 years, or so is still in play in this administration, an administration that is also complicit in a genocide as well.
What does the Commander in Chief have to do with the American military that has boots on the ground in the Ukraine?
Your question is rather obtuse. If you expect an answer you will have to clarify your question.
I can't clarify your ignorance.
You mean you can't explain your own ignorance. No going back and forth with your insults since that comment defines who you are.
Wow, was I right!
biden feels no desperation, unless he is out of ice cream or pre pubescent children to molest. You give him much too much credit assuming he is aware of things going on around him.
I doubt his handlers feel any desperation either - they installed him once, they can do it again.
The only folks feeling desperation are the White Christian people of this land with a brain; they know that they are in the crosshairs of TPTB with no 'legal' redress or nonviolent solutions.
Look: Joseph Biden is incapable of reigning in Israel. He will see us dragged into a broader regional conflict in the Middle East, with the consequence that Israel will emerge as the dominant power in the region. They will hold onto their increased size only with our continued military and financial support. Why we would choose to enhance a fascist state like Israel’s power and size in a troubled region of the world is folly and idiocy to an amazing degree. Israel is not our friend, has demonstrated numerous times it is not our friend, and will never be a good ally. We will be shown the door after much shedding of American blood and loss of treasure.
As for Ukraine: it too is a fascist state that can’t stop itself from flaunting its Nazi bona fides every chance it gets. Joe Biden sees this conflict as a way to keep the MIC happy, rolling in the dough, and therefore supporters if his administration. We’ll be dying and bleeding in that cause as well.
The regime or ideology of "unconditional surrender" began with the US Civil War and then was adopted by the Allies in WWII. Fortunately, in both cases they won so its geopolitical insanity never had to be exposed. Problem is, the us vs them, good vs pure evil dogma (whatever its theological source) and the corresponding "unconditional surrender" approach to conflict has been all the rage since 1945 and the nuremberg regime or call it "boomer truth" if you like. Unfortunately, this time they are losing and how do you de-escalate with a population brainwashed on "never negotiate with evil". My guess is, you push things to the brink of nuclear war and then use this as an excuse to negotiate the inevitable peace with Putin. As for Gaza, that will take stronger medicine since the US is a mere puppet.
Presidential administrations have seldom done anything to stabilize a situation at the front since JFK contacted Nikita Khrushchev about the missiles in Cuba.
For which he got his comeuppance, eh?
I guess you are ignorant about the Jupiter missiles that the US had installed in Turkey that Russia responded to with those in Cuba.
Of course I knew about the missiles in Turkey. That's the whole point! Tensions were resolved through peaceful diplomacy and compromise. You and I are alive today because of it. Are you saying JFK's assassination by the CIA (actually arranged by Allen Dulles, whom JFK fired after the Bay of Pigs fiasco) was justified?
Assassinations are never justified in constitutional republics.
JFK had to go around the CIA to contact Khrushchev.
JFK's murder was ordered by LBJ and carried out by the CIA.
Not realizing you're screwed makes being screwed much worse. Thank you John Mearsheimer for the candor. Next step is sorting out who is screwing us. The heads of state quite often don't matter- the puppet masters do: corporate heads, the MIC being prominent, the banking authorities and the policies they wreak, and other corporations. Watch Douglas MacGregor on how the US has deteriorated - the entire idea of what an American is has dissolved into the ether.
All I ask. All anybody with a conscience asks, is that Grandpa Groper pick up the phone and tell Netanyahu to stop killing people in Gaza. He can do it, and he won’t. He can stop it right now - and he won’t. The MIC will still sell weapons to Israel. No one’s bottom line is going to suffer if he reins in Netanyahu and says the United States will no longer be a party to this madness. He has that power, yet he won’t exercise it. And so day after day the darkness that surrounds us becomes thicker and more ominous. The United States drifts closer to the abyss. We are a nation without conscience. Without a shared morality. Without principles in a time of crisis.
It is depressing. No one agrees with Israeli policy - it's inhuman. But the heads of states still find it useful. Israel would be disabled completely without the almost $4billion per year from the US. The US is the chief ghoul in the cast that makes the horror show work.And apparently, it cares nothing about what ordinary people think.
Yes - We’re screwed…. The trouble is that even someone who is a s smart as you are, who has figured out to a “T” how the international system works and how we should be conducting ourselves in order to be able to give both ourselves and the rest of the world the best chance at survival, we have a whole host of other problems which are occurring simultaneously which are also presenting us with what amounts to an overwhelming cascade of existential threats and problems. Trying to make sense of them all, and trying to solve all of them is like playing 360 degree whack-a-mole. But it’s even worse than that, it’s like playing 360 degree whack-a-mole in three dimensions. So even if you were able to start to try to solve one of the problems, the others rise up and present problems. You’ve repeatedly pointed how to solve the US foreign policy problems. It’s not all that complicated. In a similar fashion, all of the other problems we’re faced with aren’t that complicated either. Together, this entire constellation of problems is called the metacrisis. That’s where my “course” comes in. My course is to the metacrisis and humanity as your theory of offensive realism is to International relations and the US. As I just posted on a substack article about artificial intelligence “ Without getting into details, I’ve developed a “course” which would make for a very good basis for both a US and worldwide political platform. Since it has spiritual elements embedded in it, it would make for a good basis for a worldwide non-religious religion. This course also makes for a very good basis for an operating system for artificial intelligence so that AI’s objectives are aligned with the best long-term beneficial interest of the human race as a species”.
I have a clear idea as to what needs to be done I just need to present it in an organized fashion. Starting tomorrow I’m going to try to get a friend of mine to work with me to put this course together on Thinkific or Teachable. So hopefully I’ll have something that is presentable to offer in the near future. If I had been able to get someone to help me with the presentation earlier I would have been able to get this accomplished quite awhile ago. Late is better than never - as long as it isn’t too late.
All actions to help waking up the ordinary folks, especially those young folks who are likely to be drafted or who will lose the most when their lives are wiped out by a nuclear war. A youtube channel, a web post, a quick talk in your local communities, etc. are all good.
Kevin. Reading this I think we may have many shared interests although not a precise match. Do you mind if I message you on this platform? Here are 3 examples of my thinking. If you are interested in some co-operation maybe.
https://communityoperatingsystem.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/whither-morality/
https://communityoperatingsystem.wordpress.com/2019/06/06/why-the-global-wordpress-community-needs-to-collectively-design-a-community-operating-system/
https://communityoperatingsystem.wordpress.com/2022/09/18/why-we-need-a-web-filing-meta-tag/
I quickly read your substack article about the fact The Surveillance Industrial Complex and I share your concerns. George Orwell warned us about in his book 1984 “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever”. And as H.G. Wells warned “More and more history will become a race between education and catastrophe”. Your article addresses the surveillance system. John Mearsheimer addresses (mostly) the structure of the international power dynamic system via his extraordinarily excellent predictive tool known as the theory of offensive realism. What I’ve come up with takes into account both of those phenomena, along with the rest of the problems associated with the “metacrisis”, and attempts to provide an “education” to try to avoid the “catastrophe” we’re headed for. However it does more than just provide an “education”. It helps to determine the best destination, provides a roadmap and it itself is the vehicle to try to get that destination.
If you stop and consider the fact that we in the United States are party to the blowing up (murder) and brutalization of children in Gaza. it doesn’t take much imagination to come to the realization that there are those among us in the human races a species who are willing to rationalize and justify almost anything. To tell you the truth, this is the reason that I’m a big fan of John Mearsheimer (and people like him - my parents - George Kennan) because he knows that what’s happening is wrong. He knows that what’s happening is on the wrong side of history. What he doesn’t know is that he should be having some of his best and brightest grad students work with me to hone and polish my message because what I’ve come up with is a comprehensive, wholistic answer to try to right the ship, start to stop the madness and lead us in a good direction.
That's not a particularly good example of my writing and thinking. I am mostly philosophy based and all my work is on Wordpress and not Substack. The only articles I put there were just me finding out how substack worked and I prefer Wordpress in all respects. My current project is an analysis of any Machiavellian reading of Plato's Republic and the philosopher king as the modern technocrat. I focus on the influence of Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophy as they have led to a strong current of elitism and anti-populism which has developed in the West since the 1930s. I also believe that Alexandre Kojeve, James Burnham, Edward Bernays, Leo Strauss, B.F. Skinner and Francis Fukuyama hold the majority of the blame for the situation the self-destructive West finds itself in. I am currently using Derridean techniques to deconstruct the utility of the exercise of hard & soft power and also Baudrillard's critique of post-industrial narrative hyper-reality which has left the political and media classes completely disconnected from the people and social and political realities to the extent that all those normal people actually paying attention are in a permanent state of cognitive dissonance in that we cannot reconcile the narratives of the 'objective reality' broadcast by the government and MSM with our own personal subjective experiences out in the real world.
You will be really screwed, when you will find out how screwed your economy really is. The additional arms sales they are fighting for will not save the US. US is marching Dodo way.
Continually poking the bear, while also provoking the wrath of the Arab world, makes it appear as though the US is not trying to de-escalate things, rather that it trying to fuel conflicts all around the world in order to maintain it's relevance.
Situation normal then.
Maybe not sabotaging any peace talks, would be a good place to start.
Blinken is Israel's Secretary of State and arms supplier. The United States has become a de facto colony of Zionism.
More like, We're dead.
I very much enjoyed this discussion.
Biden suffers from Ruth Bader Ginsburg Syndrome.
I think it’s the people in Gaza who are screwed. Night after night we see helpless people in tents being burned and bombed. History will, and should, take care of Israel and the US, but nothing seems to be being done which is able to change this disgusting situation.
The proper title in this case isn't "we're screwed". It's "we screwed ourselves" which is different... And if one screws oneself, it can reverse the process, especially one that claim superpower status. "There are no invincible citadels, only bad generals". Both conflicts, Ukraine and Palestine can be totally reversed with the right teams, on both sides of the aisle. This is not a matter of corrupt reds versus blues, or this or that more or less reckless admin. It's about deep rooted American sense of justice, pragmatism, and pioneer spirit. If the powers that be want to. Do they is the question. Not can they. Humble opinion.
Thanks for your work John!
We've shared the link on our latest report.
A Skeptic War Reports
https://askeptic.substack.com/