The Valdai Speech and Its Significance: a Rant

[Image: Topographic world map, projected to Patterson Cylindrical Projection, by Tobias Jung CC BY-SA 4.0, via map-projections.net]WARNING: this is not “child friendly”. Course language is used.Download2nd Warning: I think I’m coming down with a cold. There’s a lot of sniffing as I breathe through my nose. What can ya do? Lastly, there are corrections, an omission and a resources section below. Finally, I’ve added an “Earlier Articles by YesXorNo which relate to this Rant” with links to those earlier articles.This rant is far too long. Sorry about that. Secondly, this is not professional in sound editing. That’s what rant means.There is no article. There will not be an article. This is for the audio listeners :)Enjoy.Corrections* The war in 2008 was is with Georgia. Abkazia and South Ossetia are the new nations/regions which joined Russia after the war. Chechnya is a neighbouring territory which is a part of Russia, and has been since the USSR.* Russia first recognizes Donetsk and Lugansk as independent nations (i.e recognizes their referenda) before the “Special Military Operation”. Once this is done, Russia can come to their aid. Joining Russia is the recently held referenda.* The break is not at 23:30 but »25:30 «* The general’s name was Wesley Clark and he was just as horrified as I was when I heard about it. See below for a link.* The journalist’s name was Eva, Eva Bartlett. Links to her and Beeley’s websites, and a link to the Seymour Hersh article in the London Review of books are in one of my earlier articles. See below for a link.[Image: A map of the North Caucasus. Note the scale and the Black Sea on one side and the Caspian Sea on the other.]]A Significant OmissionThere is one additional component of US neo-colonialism which I neglected to mention, and that is the replacement of native staple crops with “value added” crops. Thus, don’t grow rice, grow fruits. This serves two purposes, the USA gets the nice value added crop at a reasonable price and the country then needs to buy USA produced grains. Thus, the country loses food sovereignty. These days its even worse. Some grain crops are allowed, but they need to use GMO seeds which then need insecticides all of which are supplied by transnational agro businesses (hi Monsanto/Bayer). Oh, and next year, you buy it all again. So, food soveriegnity is replaced by seed and insecticide dependency. This is happening right now in Ukraine.References (See below for YesXorNo references)The article “Drums of War” has a Syrian Sources section near the end in which you will find links to the Seymour Hersh article and links to the blogs for both Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett.Gen. Wesley Clark Weighs Presidential Bid: “I Think About It Every Day”, Democracy Now!, 2007-03-02Skip to 12:22 to hear the full context of the ‘7 countries in 5 years’ story. BTW, I hate linking to people’s little edits on youtube. The link is to DemocracyNow! as it should be.Episode 123 - Meet Smedley Butler, James Corbett, CorbettReport, 2010-03-28Confessions of an Economic Hit ManTalkingStickTV - John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - Part I, TalkingStickTV, 2007-06-21TalkingStickTV - John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - Part II, TalkingStickTV, 2007-06-21Earlier Articles by YesXorNo which relate to this Rant* Joint Command in Combined Arms Drill [Updated], 2021-08-06* 9/11 : A Limited Theory, 2021-08-31* The Mechanics of Politics by Other Means, From the 50's to the 20's : A study in USA foreign political mechanics [updated], 2021-09-07* SCO + 1 (+ 3) : Welcome Iran, and Hi Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia [updated], 2021-09-22* US/NATO/Ukraine/Russia: Musical Chairs in Galicia, 2022-01-20* Ongoing Report: Escalation of Conflict on the Line of Contact in Eastern Ukraine, 2022-02-20* Ukraine/DPR+LPR: Death of the Minsk Agreements and the Onset of Many a Speech, 2022-02-22 Get full access to YesXorNo at yesxorno.substack.com/subscribe