Matt Blackman, a financial writer on Substack, was recently quoted by
in discussing the mosh pit of our government’s “explanations” of our policies towards Russia and Ukraine. Blackman’s notes, in turn, are from a Tucker Carlson interview with , a close observer comfortable in the weeds of our government’s triple speak. Although you may not agree with Mr. Sachs’ observations, they all must be taken seriously as a longer-term explanation of how we came to be in an intractable international situation. The postscript is a summation of similar and completely factual observations about our Covid Commissariat.1. The assertion that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was not unprovoked is dangerous and misunderstands the situation.
2. The US government's decision to push Ukraine towards NATO and closer to Russia's border is seen as a significant factor in the conflict.
3. This strategy dates back to UK Lord Palmerston's idea in the 1853 Crimean War to surround Russia in the Black Sea region, rendering it a second or third-rate country.
4. Brzezinski's geostrategic plan in 1997 aimed to surround Russia in the Black Sea region and expand NATO, ultimately dominating Eurasia.
5. Russia warned against this strategy, but the US ignored their concerns and continued with NATO expansion.
6. Some diplomats and officials, such as George Kennan and Bill Perry, warned against this approach, considering it a significant mistake.
7. Clinton's administration and figures like Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrook pushed for NATO enlargement despite these warnings.
8. Brzezinski's article in Foreign Affairs in 1997 laid out a timeline for US power expansion, including inviting Ukraine to join NATO by 2005-2010.
9. Russia sought peace and cooperation after the Cold War, but the US's actions have escalated tensions and contributed to the current conflict.
10. The US ignored warnings from European leaders and pursued NATO enlargement.
11. This strategy led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine rooted in [US] historical geopolitical theories.
13. The US failed to create a peaceful and cooperative world after the Cold War.
14. The Neocons' strategy negatively impacted the US and the rest of the world.
15. The US engaged in destructive wars and failed to recognize the desires of other nations for peace and cooperation.
16. The 2014 coup in Ukraine was the beginning of the civil war and the US conspired with the Ukrainian right to overthrow Ukrainian President Yanukovych which led to a violent uprising in the eastern provinces.
19. Russia sought peace based on respect for ethnic Russians in the east and political autonomy.
20. The Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements aimed to establish peace based on autonomy of the Donbas region.
21. The US encouraged Ukrainians to disregard the Minsk agreements.
22. Angela Merkel admitted that Germany disregarded the Minsk agreements to give Ukraine time to build up its strength.
23. Putin met with Biden in 2021 and proposed a Russia-US security agreement but the US rejected the proposal, stating that issues about NATO are non-negotiable.
25. Europe's collective security was considered through the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).
26. Gorbachev disbanded the Warsaw Pact, but NATO which was created to counter Soviet threats, continued to exist after the Soviet Union ended.
27. The Neocons saw NATO as a means of maintaining hegemony in Europe and US military presence in European countries influences their political decisions.
29. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline harmed Europe's economy.
30. The war in Ukraine has caused significant loss of lives and resources.
31. The US has spent trillions on wars since 2001, increasing national debt and American interests are not being served by these wars.
33. Ukraine will never join NATO without risking nuclear war.
34. US leaders are not taking the risk of nuclear war seriously.
35. There are many intemperate people in the US government.
36. Biden has not called Putin once during the conflict.
37. Negotiations between the US and Russia are necessary to resolve the situation.
38. The US has been gambling with the lives of Ukrainians and Russians.
39. The US has underestimated Russia's determination.
40. Direct communication between Biden and Putin is crucial to avoid further escalation.
41. The US-imposed sanctions on Russia in 2022 have proven ineffective.
42. Many countries do not support the US's actions and do not want to be dragged into the conflict.
43. The US national security apparatus has been driving the country's foreign policy for decades.
44. The CIA has been a major force in promoting regime change as a key foreign policy instrument.
45. The reliance on regime change often leads to bloodshed and instability.
46. The US should focus on intelligence gathering rather than covert operations and regime change.
47. The US attempted regime change in Syria began in 2011 with the statement "Assad must go."
48. This led to over a decade of war, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the destruction of Syria.
49. The US armed jihadists in Syria to achieve its goals and a peace agreement was reached in Syria, but the US refused to sign it.
51. The rise of ISIS can be attributed to US actions in Syria.
52. The US also orchestrated regime change in Libya, leading to ongoing conflict in the region.
53. The motivations behind these regime changes remain unclear, suggesting a lack of sound reasoning.
54. Some speculate that the continuous wars serve as a business for the military-industrial complex.
55. The assassination of JFK was likely a government coup, with evidence pointing to a high-level conspiracy.
56. The US orchestrated a coup in Haiti, leading to the ousting of President Aristide.
57. The US was involved in the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline, as indicated by various statements and actions and is an act of war between the US and Russia, with significant economic implications.
59. The US has a longstanding policy of preventing close economic ties between Germany and Russia.
Covid – 19
1. The origin of COVID-19 is likely from a lab, not nature, and was a deliberate research project to make a virus more infectious.
2. The research proposal called DEFUSE, submitted to DARPA in 2018, provides a blueprint for creating the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2.
3. The furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 is a crucial factor in its high infectiousness, and no other known betacoronaviruses in nature have this site.
4. The furin cleavage site has been a subject of research since 2005, as it was understood to enhance viral entry into human cells, making the virus more infectious.
5. Gain of function experiments, where scientists deliberately manipulate viruses to make them more infectious, have been conducted on beta-corona-viruses since 2015.
6. The research on SARS-CoV-2 and its furin cleavage site was funded by NIH and led by Tony Fauci's unit.
7. The motivation for this research is called biodefense, but the true intentions, whether for biowarfare or genuine defense, remain uncertain.
8. The research on SARS-CoV-2 and its furin cleavage site was a dangerous program involving manipulation of dangerous pathogens.
9. Ralph Baric, a brilliant scientist, developed a reverse genetic system that allows for the creation of live viruses from DNA code.
10. The research continued despite concerns from American scientists due to its potential danger.
11. The DEFUSE proposal, which was a blueprint for creating the virus that causes COVID-19, was turned down by the Department of Defense.
12. There is evidence suggesting that some of the work in the DEFUSE proposal had already been carried out before the grant proposal was submitted.
13. Experiments involving Wuhan viruses were conducted in the Rocky Mountain labs with Egyptian fruit bats, indicating possible collaboration between US and Chinese labs.
14. One theory is that the virus was created in the US and sent to Wuhan for testing in Chinese bats.
15. 'All of this information [about the virus] became available through Freedom of Information requests or comes from whistleblowers because the US government has lied about every single moment of this from the start and hasn’t told us about any of this. It’s all from either whistleblowers or FOI requests.'
16. 'On February 1, 2020 top level scientists had a meeting to discuss the presence of furin cleavage sites in the C-19 virus which they all agreed never occurred in nature and looked like a lab creation. Four days later that group authors a paper called the Proximal Origins of SARS COV-2 that says it a natural virus, which ran in Nature magazine in March 2020 and has not been retracted. That paper is a fraud.' last 2 quotes from Jeffrey Sachs