Date: Sunday, 21 June 2026
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/who-is-the-progressive-and-who-is
https://theduran.com/who-is-the-progressive-and-who-is-the-conservative/
Who is the progressive, and who is the conservative?
20 June 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
On June 19th, Trump blamed Obama for the war in Ukraine:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXTroQWOIvA
“Trump Shocks G7 Allies With Putin Bombshell: ‘Make It G8’”
Sun. 21 June 2026
Donald Trump reignited the debate over Russia's expulsion from the G8, claiming Moscow should never have been removed from the group. Trump argued that keeping Russia in the bloc could have prevented the Ukraine war and blamed former President Barack Obama for pushing Vladimir Putin out. His remarks have triggered fresh debate over the future of global diplomacy and the G7's role.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HaplG0FU7o
“Trump Blames Obama, Trudeau for Russia’s G-8 Exit and Ukraine War”
The Financial Express, 2,283 views Jun 16, 2025 #donaldtrump #russia #g8
During a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, U.S. President Donald Trump said that removing Russia from the G8 was a strategic blunder. He claimed that if Russia had remained in the group, the Ukraine war might have been prevented. Trump directly blamed Barack Obama and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau for excluding Moscow from the alliance. The comment has sparked fresh debate over Western diplomacy and the current geopolitical crisis.
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Finally, Trump was assigning blame to Obama not Putin for starting the Ukraine war, and this means he was saying that this war is aggression by Obama, NOT by Putin. Putin ultimately struck back in the essential self-defense of Russia, to prevent success of the U.S. regime’s plan to get U.S. nuclear missiles positioned a mere five-minute-flight-time away from hitting Russia’s central command in The Kremlin. This was aggression by Obama against Russia carried out by Obama’s coup turning Ukraine against Russia, but Trump says nothing about that, and might be ignorant about it. Trump is correct, however, when he says that Obama started the war. Obama actually started it by his Ukrainian coup in February 2014. But Trump was too gutless (or else ignorant and confused) to refer to, much less to describe, the evidences that I linked to, and so to actually make his case against Obama as having actually started the Ukraine war. Instead, on June 19th, he told Axios that “I've seen G7s, I've been to a lot of G7s and used to be G8s. They should have kept the G8. You probably wouldn't have the war with Russia and Ukraine if they did, but Obama didn't want Putin there. I guess one or two others also, but they wanted Putin out. It used to be the G8. Would have been much better if they kept that that way.” However, actually, on 24 March 2014, the G7 members suspended Russia's membership in the group, due to Russia's annexation of Crimea, which occurred on 16 March 2014, and the war in Ukraine had already existed ever since 20 February 2014, when Obama’s 7-day coup in Ukraine started. On that very same day, 8 busloads of residents of Crimea were fleeing back home from the bloody Obama coup in Kiev and then ambushed midway at Korsun where the U.S.-hired nazis blocked their busses and burned them and then beat the escaping passengers with bats and killed many. Perhaps Trump has never been informed about any of this. Many of his former cabinet members etc. have said that he reads no books and gets his news only from mainstream (i.e., billionaires-funded) ‘news’ sources. For example, the CIA-edited and written Wikipedia (which blacklists — blocks from linking to — sites that aren’t CIA-approved), in its lengthy article on the “Russo-Ukrainian war”, ignores all of it; and, so, even if Trump had read that Wikipedia artcle, he wouldn’t know the things that I have documented. He is too stupid to be able too ask the key questions, so believes whatever he wants to believe. However, finally, he is coming to question whether it’s true that Ukraine’s war started by aggression from Putin, or aggression from Obama. That’s progress, and it makes him more progressive than the people around him are — and more than most Democrats also are.
And here is another progressive statement by an at least supposed conservative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vseM6MMk9qo
“Eva Vlaardingerbroek’s Viral Speech Against Ursula von der Leyen”
1,312,540 views Jul 9, 2025 #EvaVlaardingerbroek #UrsulaVonDerLeyen
THROWBACK | Eva Vlaardingerbroek’s Most Powerful Speech Against Ursula von der Leyen
As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen faces a crucial trust vote, Eva Vlaardingerbroek’s explosive speech has resurfaced — and it hits harder than ever.
In this unforgettable address, Eva exposes what she calls the “illusion of democracy” in the EU, calls out von der Leyen’s unelected power, and accuses her of pushing destructive policies — from the Green Deal to mass migration and secret pharma deals.
00:00
However, the illusion of democracy is
00:03
very much kept alive. We are being ruled
00:06
by leaders who claim that they are
00:08
democratic leaders and they force us to
00:11
play along with their games. In fact,
00:13
many people do so happily. And that is
00:16
what makes modern-day tyranny arguably
00:19
worse than what we see in the history
00:21
books. In the DDR [East Germany], you at least knew
00:25
that the government was listening in on
00:27
you. In the USSR, you at least knew that
00:30
going against the government could end
00:32
you in the gulags. In Mao Tsetung's China,
00:36
going against the government was
00:38
something that surely would have you met
00:41
with violence.
00:43
But make no mistake, being a dissident
00:46
now is just as dangerous as it was back
00:49
then.
00:50
[Applause]
01:00
Our regime uses pretty words to hide their
01:02
intentions, but they pervert and invert
01:05
our definitions all the time. They say
01:09
that to maintain peace in Europe, we
01:11
need to go to war with Russia. They say
01:13
that to protect democracy, we have to
01:16
ban right-wing parties. And they say
01:18
that to safeguard freedom of speech,
01:20
they need to censor this information.
01:23
Just like in Orwell's 1984, war is
01:27
peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is
01:30
strength.
01:40
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we can
01:42
find the embodiment of that regime in
01:45
one person in particular.
01:47
The worst leader of them all, the
01:49
president of the European Commission,
01:52
Ursula von der Leyen.
02:00
America got four more years of Trump. We
02:03
here in Europe got five more years of
02:06
Ursula von der Leyen.
02:08
The thing is though that no one ever
02:10
voted for Ursula von der Leyen. No one ever
02:14
voted for her. Yet she is one of the
02:16
most powerful people in Europe and she's
02:18
implementing one of the — some of the most
02:21
destructive policies that our continent
02:23
has ever seen.
02:26
Just to give you a few examples, she's
02:28
the one who introduced the Green Deal,
02:31
crippling our economy. She's the one who
02:33
introduced the remigration — or the
02:35
migration pact, excuse me — replacing our
02:38
native population. And now she's
02:41
attacking our national sovereignty even
02:43
further by introducing the Rearm Europe
02:46
program, an 800 billion euro
02:50
defense fund mostly used for Ukraine, a
02:53
country that isn't and should never be
02:56
part of the European Union.
03:07
And last but not least, when are we ever
03:11
going to see those text messages in
03:13
which she closed a 35 billion euro deal
03:17
with Albert Beulah, the CEO of Pfizer,
03:22
as I told you earlier,
03:24
Ursula von der Leyen and the bureaucrats are
03:26
most likely the ones reading my private
03:29
messages, those of a private citizen.
03:32
When are we going to see hers, those of a
03:35
per public servant spending billions and
03:38
billions of our taxpayers money
03:41
[Applause]
03:52
Ursula von der Leyen thinks she's untouchable. She
03:55
thinks she's above the law. But we are
03:57
here today to remind her that she is
04:00
not. So allow me to take this moment,
04:04
look straight into the camera and speak
04:06
truth to power for a moment.
04:11
Mrs. von der Leyen
04:13
do you think about what you have done?
04:16
Do you think about the people who suffer
04:19
because of your policies? Do you think
04:23
about the people who have died because
04:24
of the vaccine that you pushed on them,
04:27
that you bought behind closed doors?
04:42
Mrs. von der Leyen, do you ever think about the
04:44
mothers who cry at night
04:47
because their children were raped or
04:49
murdered by immigrants that you let in? [And the same is true in the UK.]
05:01
Do you ever think about the farmers
05:03
whose entire life's work were destroyed
05:05
because you pushed the communist agenda? [That’s false: communism had nothing to do with it.]
05:08
Do you ever think about the people who
05:10
cannot afford food for their children
05:13
because you implemented policies that
05:16
are crippling our economy while you were
05:19
able to send your seven children off to
05:22
the most expensive schools in Europe? Do
05:24
you ever think about that?
05:27
[Applause]
05:34
I bet you don't.
05:38
I bet you don't because none of this is
05:40
happening in your backyard. But ladies
05:44
and gentlemen, I do. I think about those
05:47
people. I think about them. I will not
05:49
forget them. So, let me promise you
05:52
right here, right now, I will not stop
05:54
fighting for them. I will not stop
05:56
fighting for the truth. And I will not
05:58
stop fighting for my people. The time of
06:01
zero accountability will come to an end.
06:05
And I will promise you, we will make
06:08
Europe great again.
06:18
[Applause]
06:55
As you know, since February, the
06:59
United States has imposed tariffs on 70%
07:03
of total EU trade with the United
07:05
States.
07:07
The scale and the scope of these
07:09
measures is unprecedented.
07:11
So our line has to be very clear. We
07:14
will be firm. We do prefer a negotiated
07:17
solution.
07:19
This is why we're working closely with
07:21
the US administration to get an
07:23
agreement and I had a good exchange with
07:25
President Trump earlier this week to
07:27
help move things forward.
07:30
We're looking for a reliable framework
07:32
from which we can keep building our
07:35
common trade. So the message is clear.
07:39
We stick to our principles. We defend
07:42
our interests. We continue to the work
07:45
in good faith and we get ready for all
07:48
scenarios. We will of course keep this
07:51
house informed. Honorable members, the
07:54
reason why we're working day and night
07:56
to find a solution is because we believe
07:59
tariffs are bad for business. Long live
08:01
Europe. Thank you.
08:07
Thank you very much.
She is called “far right” by the CIA-edited and written Wikipedia (which blacklists — blocks from linking to — sites that aren’t CIA-approved), but in many respects is instead far left:
1. She is against the big-corporate agenda, the billionaires’ agenda (“she closed a 35 billion euro deal 03:17 with Albert Beulah, the CEO of Pfizer”).
2. She is against “the Rearm Europe 02:46 program, an 800 billion euro 02:50 defense fund mostly used for Ukraine, a 02:53 country that isn't and should never be 02:56 part of the European Union.” Ukraine ever since Obama grabbed control over it in February 2014 and installed a nazi regime there to use as a battering-ram against Russia, has been the EU’s and NATO’s biggest project. It is a nazi (fascist-imperialist American) project. She is against it.
3. She a progressive in that she supports a Netherlands Government for the people of Netherlands, not for the billionaires who control international corporations. She is against imperialism.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek is to the left of both neoliberalism (in domestic matters) and neoconservatism (in international matters). She is to the left of the Establishment.
However, she is a conservative in that she favors an equality of opportunities, not an equality of outcomes. She says: “The fact that men and women in the Netherlands are equal before the law is not enough. They [feminists] want not only equality of opportunity, but also of outcomes, and even equality of nature: there should no longer be any differences between men and women.” That criticism from her, however, is a progressive position, too; the only people who oppose equality of opportunity are stupid ‘leftists’, stupider even than Karl Marx, who advocated “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” which viewpoint — along wth his anti-imperialism — was one of his most progressive positions. By contrast, Vlaardingerbroek ignores both clauses of that policy. On the other hand, even that Marxian formulation ignores that social goods should not go toward evil people and their evil ends; thus, even Marx’s formulation must be modified, and “to each according to his needs” must not apply to a convict’s need to escape from prison. Ultimately, the Government must be involved in the wealth-distribution; it’s not just a personal matter; it is a public, a social, matter, too. However, the worst of all would be “equality of outcomes.” For example: a perfectly flat wealth-distribution would be — even if it were possible — wrong.
On the other hand, some of Vlaardingerbroek’s positions are plain stupid, such as her joining the leadership of Europe’s White-Supremacist movement. For example, the anti-Semitic Austrian Martin Sellner is the current White-Supremacist leader, and Vlaardingerbroek has recently joined her star to his as, on June 3rd, at “The Second Annual European Ethnic Cleansing Conference Looks to Trump for Inspiration”:
Martin Sellner and Dutch Identitarian Eva Vlaardingerbroek were at the forefront of new Identitarian initiatives presented at the conference. Sellner officially launched the Institute for Remigration (IFR), which he described as a pressure group inspired by the National Rifle Association (NRA), an American gun lobby group. According to Sellner, IFR will focus on three “strategic pillars,” consisting of “research on policy,” “networking,” and “campaigning and organizing.” The end goal of IFR is to translate metapolitical victories (such as making remigration a mainstream term) into political action, which Sellner describes as “gather[ing] the remigration vote.” The IFR will “reward” politicians who embrace remigration, and “punish” those who do not. The Institute for Remigration is clearly an Identitarian project, with Sellner as its CEO and former IB Vienna leader Philipp Huemer as its Managing Director.
Similarly, Vlaardingerbroek and Sellner launched the “Save Europe Act,” a European Citizens’ Initiative described as “a legislative framework restoring sovereign borders, lawful order, and the continuity of European civilization.” The Act, if it reaches one million EU-based signatures once formally submitted, will force the consideration of several articles in EU parliament, including measures to: “declare a formal moratorium on new non-Western/non-European immigration channels,” facilitate a “total reform of the current migration framework focusing on external border protection” and “immediate return mechanisms,” “ensure the systematic and accelerated return (remigration) of illegally staying migrants,” “establish a harmonized EU-wide framework for broader remigration,” and “remove social welfare incentives and benefits that function as pull factors for migration… and encourage remigration.” These articles bear a close resemblance to Sellner’s remigration policy proposal, which begins with expelling asylum seekers from Europe and finishes with eliminating “parallel societies” (i.e., non-white communities). Save Europe Act’s first signers include politicians and influencers from around Europe, with a few from the United States, such as MAGA influencers Joey Mannarino and Jack Posobiec. Other notable signatories are Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, Manuel Corchia of the Swiss neo-Nazi group Junge Tat, and leader of Identitäre Bewegung Deutschland (German Identitarian Movement, IBD) Maximilian Märkl. The website’s Imprint page shows the initiative is represented by Vincenzo Richter, the chairman of Identitäre Bewegung Saxony.
Also part of the White-Supremacist movement is the Reform UK Party, which now leads the polls in the UK, and which is overwhelmingly the most-backed by billionaires. “Founded by multimillionaire businessman and former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, the party enjoys the active support of far-right tech bro Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. … Its mission, it says, is to ‘reverse mass migration’. That means deporting not just undocumented migrants but ‘legally resident foreign nationals’ who live in social housing, claim benefits or supposedly ‘fail to integrate’ – a strikingly elastic category. Lowe himself declares that ‘millions and millions’ need to leave or be made to leave. Officials and politicians ‘who knowingly placed dangerous third world savages in our communities’ will be imprisoned.”
What none of the billionaire-backed politicians talk about is that Europe’s influx of immigrants resulted from the outflow of refugees from the countries that the U.S. regime bombed and couped and otherwise destroyed starting with Iraq in 2003-, Libya in 2011-, Syria in 2012-, Ukraine in 2014-, and others. Europe is the sump for America’s civilian war-victims. The White-Supremacists just deal with the outflows from U.S.-and-allied imperialism. Billionaires have been profiting from both sides of it. All of the
democratic’ Parties are their hired political fronts. Nobody really deals with that problem.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
