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William Bowles's avatar

"Trump’s administration is acting in an adult manner making some good progress in ridding US society of the childishness allowed under Biden, the Democrats and others."

I don't get it, I really don't! Is it wishful thinking or self-delusion that prompts this response to Trump? And this author is not alone in such fantasies from a so-called progressive perspective. Firstly, it seems that Trump the man and Trump the figurehead have been conflated, as if what he says, let alone what he does, are somehow separate from US imperialism's objectives. It ignores all the built-in contradictions of Trump's policy on, for example, the Ukraine, so whilst he claims to want an end to the conflict, he continues to arm the Zelensky regime, hoping, I assume that Russia will go along with it. I hope Putin is not going to get taken in by it in the same way many in the West seem to be.

The author claims that Trump is putting an end to the US's 'childishness', yet what could be more childish that Trump's tantrums and wild claims over everything, from Palestine to abolishing the US's social programmes and all of it in the name of a spurious freedom?

Barely concealed in Trump's childish and totally unrealistic outbursts, is the obvious fact that they conceal the same imperialist objectives of US capitalism but minus the now totally discredited claims that the US operates to defend human rights and democratic values. Trump represents naked capitalism and he shouts it out from the rooftops! The advantage of this approach is that if, in the unlikely event that it succeeds, the US Empire will reap the benefits and if it fails, it will be Trump who gets blamed, not the US Empire!

More to the point, why is this not obvious to all and sundry? Trump is the same person claiming to want to end the slaughter in the Ukraine, who is advocating slaughter and ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine. How can these two contradictory positions co-exist, let alone his outrageous domestic policies? Yet, outlandish as these policies are, they are totally in line with the objectives of a bankrupt capitalism that seeks to pass the cost of its bankrupt policies on to working people.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

I can't disagree with much of that. I did try to distinguish between Trump the man, who is without doubt childish in many respects and the positive things his administration is doing. Yes, of course he is a capitalist and he has all sorts of faults and in my last Update I condemned him strongly on Gaza. I think I should remind everyone that I am not a supporter of capitalism being a libertarian socialist. I am also concerned about where Trump is going as I have said. I am not a Trump supporter and personally I dislike the man but in spite of this I think his administration is doing good things which I cannot and will not ignore. I am not looking at things from a progressive perspective and it is not yet clear whether much of what Trump and co are doing will be progressive. But getting rid of Woke is a good thing imv. I think you may be reading too much into my comments. Cheers.

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William Bowles's avatar

So what good things has Trump done exactly?

Reading to much into your comments? I don't have a response for that.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

If you read the Update I refer to several things that the Trump team has done which are good in my view. I'm not going to repeat them. You are not the first person who has pulled me up for saying positive things about Trump but I will continue to say them and give credit when I think it's due. I also criticise him when it is warranted. That's how I treat everyone really. I'm not going to change just because people such as your good self appear to have a problem with that. If it bothers you don't read the Update.

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Michael boyd's avatar

Trump is the scion of a German who watched as American's dug aimlessly for gold and made a profit on their aimlessness by providing beverages and light entertainment for them in the evening. He gets his questionable business ethics from his brothel owning Opa and his morals from his god fearing Free Presbyterian Scottish mother. You see his Opa's influence on how he deals with Gaza and his mother's in Ukraine. As we say in Scotland the games up in Ukraine. If he was a sophisticated diplomat one might call his policy re. Ukraine: Realpolitik.

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Joy R's avatar

Like him or loath him, Trump is wiser the second time around. He understands that the real enemy of himself, and people worldwide, is the Deep State. Destabilising governments and causing the deaths of millions, and it has conducted a ruthless MSMS campaign against him. He has a very smart, thick-skinned individual at his side, Musk, who is systematically Draining the Swamp. Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr look like good value, too. At his elbow is a very smart Trump - Barron. We will be hearing a lot more about Barron in the future. His social media campaign was the factor that ensured a decisive victory for his father.

It is not for nothing that there were two attempts at Trump's life before the election.

Re Russia: the Blinken approach was to wield the Big Stick. It accomplished nothing, because winners don't have to negotiate. Trump is broadening the talks beyond Ukraine, in the hope that a total package can be agreed upon that will enable the US to exit without egg on its face. That seems pretty smart to me.

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Joy R's avatar

Re the Lebanese border. Vanessa Beeley reported that Hezbola was not involved in the fight against HTS at the border. In fact it was local Lebanese tribes that forced them to retreat, so that the flow or arms to Hezbola could continue. Clearly HTS is a tool of !srael.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Thanks for that Joy.

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Chris Keating's avatar

Thanks for the great update Rob. Excellent as usual. I have had to laugh about the usual suspects trying to put Ukraine in a position of strength for any upcoming negotiations. They have been trying to do this for three years now and Ukraine's position has steadily worsened over this period. You'd think it was high time for a reassessment. Trump has and brains are melting.

Regarding "The Mighty Wurlitzer" it is the title of a book written by Hugh Wilford about how the CIA spread their propaganda through secret relationships and front organisations, and the phrase is how one of the CIA officials described his operation. I would dare say that it was largely funded by USAID or its equivalent, although there would have been quite a few funding sources I would think. Like you say it is amazing how the Western media in its entirety all sing from the same songbook, USAID and The Mighty Wurlitzer explain it all.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Thanks for that Chris. When I googled it I got nothing but organs.

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Steve O's avatar

Europe needs to stop listening to these shrill war monger women who seem the want a future of death and destruction. Something of course they wont have to experience in their ivory towers far from the carnage.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

I think they are on their way out - only a matter of time. Thanks

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Michael boyd's avatar

Great piece.

BBC Scotland were hinting that the Russians attacked Chernobyl this

afternoon on the radio. Another false flag must be on the way. Its crass stupidity. Its a strange situation but i think the majority of the people who are wary of poking the Russians without just cause and have a more grounded understanding of the Russian psyche are those who have read the German biographies and military histories of the Eastern Front. I just wonder, if one of the issues confronting the West and Nato in particular, is that their intrepretation of Russia is based on the military studies of the Wehrmacht senior officers in 1950s and they fall foul of the officers vilification of the Russian fighting ability as they attribute their failings not to the calibre of their opponents, but the restrictions placed on them by Hitler. Both the conflict in Gaza and Ukraine raise serious questions over post war Germany and whether she has truly confronted her genocidal past.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

The report I saw on Chernobyl didn't mention Russian involvement but it doesn't surprise me that the BBC has said this. I also get the impression that the Germans never accepted that the Russian army was actually better than the Wehrmacht long before the war ended. However, from what I have read I think there was a lot of German respect for the individual Russian soldier who would endure massive privations and die quietly. Thanks.

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Anthony's avatar

You are right Michael. I never thought about this whilst reading Eastern front history but a lot of blame was placed on Hitlers decisions for handicapping his armies.

This was true to an extent but also gave historians an easy scapegoat for when things had often gone wrong.

Just how many of the strategic and tactical mistakes were of Hitler's making and how far was this distorted in post war history.

But from what I have read in history the German army was very respectful of the opposition. Perhaps more on an individual basis than collective but who knows?

I often read multiple German accounts that mentioned how fast the Red army was to move in and fortify and create logistic chain after taking ground for example.

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Don Midwest's avatar

Timothy Snyder is a history professor at Yale University. I can't believe that he would write this. I added blank lines from the following paragraph.

"Given the nature of Russian occupation, Ukrainians are fighting not only for their lives, but for a certain idea of life in freedom.

In the parts of Ukraine controlled by Russia, anyone who showed any initiative or was elected to any position is killed or subjected to torture.

Any expression of a political opinion or any gathering or anything that seems like opposition to Russian authorities will lead to a long prison sentence in awful conditions. Just having Ukrainian material on your phone is enough to be sent to prison.

Ukrainian citizens in the occupied zones have to accept Russian citizenship in order to have access to basic services, such as schools.

Children are kidnapped and sent to Russian families for adoption. They will be raised to hate the land of their birth. Perhaps still worse, they will be raised in a country where the government lies about everything all the time, where the media lies about everything all the time, and this is thought to be normal"

***

A historian friend thinks he is a great historian. He posted this in his substack a couple of days ago.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/crossing-a-line

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Snyder is certainly popular but he is simply wrong. Maybe Zelensky, Budanov and co are among his primary sources. The evidence I have seen over the past three years, though admittedly anecdotal, contradicts what he is saying. People in the liberated areas see themselves as Russian.

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Richard Whitney's avatar

He is "popular" because he is pushed by the Mighty Wurlitzer.

I'd like to know how much he has received from USAID.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Who or what is the Mighty Wurlitzer?

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Joy R's avatar

Some interesting additions Rob, to your fulsome report:

• Musk-bashing has become an international sport. You can't attack a major CIA workhorse (USAID) without screams from its USAID-sponsored workhorse, the MSM. Here is an arrogant response, at a Congressional hearing, about the value, to the US, of USAID:

https://www.facebook.com/607775228/videos/pcb.10163265856600229/682554830960899

Standby for many more revelations about USAID's nefarious activities.

• Musk's next target is the Department of Defence. If the DOD's books are finally examined a lot of folks in Washington will be running for cover.

• J.D. Vance has just addressed the EU castigating EU leaders for acting against the interests, and wishes of the people in their nations. He supports the German AfD's stances of being anti-open borders, and against the war in Ukraine. We live in interesting times.

• "Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan have had their security clearances cancelled" I'm lovin' it!

• Trump's crazy real estate dreams about ethnic cleansing of Gaza have had the opposite effect: Egypt and Jordan have announced that they will be clearing Gaza of rubble and re-building there, while retaining all of the Gazan population in situ. Trump has managed to unite the Arab nations in support of the Palestinian cause. Hence he has pleased his Zionist sponsors, while forcing support for the Palestinians. Crazy like a fox??

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Interesting stuff for interesting times. I did report on Sullivan and Blinken in my opening rant. Watched a bit of that arrogant response. I haven't seen Vance's reprimand but will look forward to it. My wife's just seen some amazing stuff on Alex's Jones's show which you may know about. Trump wants a trilateral agreement with Russia and China to reduce arms expenditure by 50% - also - the Tariff wars are apparently designed to bring down the WTO and the globalists with it. There are some people who simply can't accept that Trump and his team are doing some good stuff. My wife works in a school and has to keep her mouth shut about Trump who he is hated by teachers and kids alike. Thee kids are into Trans and are horrified about what Trump is doing. Thanks Joy.

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kam's avatar

I don't know why there would be any confusion in the quagmire of DC power. The infallible rule is, if you can't figure out what is going on, on top of the table, then all the action is under the table. 'Twas ever so.

The American Mob are nothing but school kids relative to the Theft, by all participants inside DC.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

I liked the phrase about the table - cheers.

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Don Midwest's avatar

I didn't realize that AfD is a neo liberal party with some ties to Nazi

Substack by a Canadian Political Geographer

https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/alice-weidel-oligarch-tool

Interesting to understand the ties of the elites as the many changes are happening now

From the substack

"From the very start Hitler was financially supported and groomed by elements of the German establishment. As that establishment’s hold on the German people was challenged by the Great Depression they decided to move from liberalism (control the population through a hegemonic culture and false consciousness) to fascism. Hitler’s Nazi Party was very fully funded by German big business, but its vote share fell in the November 1932 election (from 37.3% in the July 1932 election to 33.1%). So the German establishment quickly installed him as the Chancellor of Germany (January 30th 1933). With this new power he utilized the state and the SA to fix the 1933 elections in his favour. Hitler was always a creation of the German oligarchs for the benefit of the German oligarchs.

Once in power Hitler rapidly moved to crush the SA, which was the arm of the Nazi Party most committed to real social change to benefit the working people. He then also rounded up the communists (hence the first line of the famous Niemoller poem “first they came for the communists”), banned independent trades unions, privatized state enterprizes, and removed many labour regulations - all to serve the German oligarchy. The latter lost control a little as Hitler went to war but were more than happy to make endless profits off the dispossession of Jewish properties, the looting of the occupied territories, the mass use of slave labour, and the colossally profitable armaments spending. After WW2 most of these war criminals got off scot free and in many cases prospered in post-WW2 Germany, like the Nazi family that now controls BMW.

The AfD was founded by a group of neoliberal professors (Lucke, Ederer, Homburg,......"

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Michael boyd's avatar

I read that earlier this week. I would hardly call the SA committed to social change for the working class. The SA under Rohm had become unruly but again the SA typified some of the strange contradictions within Nazi society. Rohm, the leader of the SA at the time of the Night of the Long Knives, was openly homosexual and Emil Maurice, the first SA leader and good friend of Hitler was the great grandson of the Cheri Maurice who founded the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. Its still there. Cheri was Jewish.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

I fancy I have read that passage about the AfD somewhere - recently. The re-emergence of fascism in a financially depressed and divided Germany can't be ruled out. Thanks.

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Bill's avatar

Thank you.

I wonder if the USA can gain Russia's confidence by publicly saying what and who did things like destroying Nordstream and the 2014 coup that overthrew the elected Ukrainian government as it would show Europeans and the world that it is not the Russians they should fear.

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

I'm not really sure Bill. If the USA admits to Nordstream then it would be obliged to provide compensation so I can't see that happening but the coup is a different kettle of fish. Didn't RFK Jnr talk about it? I imagine it will take time for the Russians to start trusting anyone from the West.

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Anthony's avatar

Thanks for the update Rob.

Another whirlwind week with so much happening.

Like you say the adults seem to be entering the room now.

I sometimes like Trumps direct approach but as you have said in previous updates/ and in which I agree on his zionist appeasement policy is wrong.

I am quite sure it was the ukronazis that hit the Chernobyl shield just as the Munich conference was starting.

An opportunity not to be missed to involve people in the banderist scheme.

It looks like decisive actions are coming soon to end the shitshow in Ukraine.

ZeroHedge has an article on the plans for the replacement of the Ukrainian population afterwards

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-faces-population-replacement-third-world-migrants-after-war

By my guess there are around 2-2.5 million KIA and seriously injured that will not play a full part in the future Ukrainian economy.

Another 2-4 million that are overseas and will never return to Ukraine. and another 7-10 million in the areas that will no longer be Ukraine one way or another.

Out of a pre war population of 45-50 million I can see them being flooded by about 5 million immigrants pushed in by the old world order to compensate.

Another article, again on ZeroHedge points out the mess that will be left in Europe by these troops and nationalists once they are demobilised.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraines-traumatized-troops-could-pose-security-threat-all-europe

Legitimny, I think, also did a breakdown on the military contracts for the cocaine kings hitler youth brigades.

$24,000 is available abroad, Ukraine universities are actively recruiting anyway and with the population shredded there will be lots of property about anyway.

Plus, as alluded to by Topwar the contracts will be with the battered 'meat' brigades and offer little chance of survival.

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Don Midwest's avatar

Rob - did you get the email that I tried to send through substack?

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Sorry Don, I haven't seen anything yet.

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Don Midwest's avatar

I would like to exchange emails with you. I am going out of town on Tuesday. Today is Sunday in the US. I tried the substack feature to send an email and I failed. Any suggestions?

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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

I've sent you a private message with my email.

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Feb 14
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Dr. Rob Campbell's avatar

Altered - many thanks.

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lsgv's avatar

You’re welcome. Deleted the comment so as not to distract.

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