Neoliberalism as Trotskyism for the rich

Socialism for corporations and financial oligarchy (The New Nomenklatura) with the "Promotion of democracy" as the modification of Trotskyite "Permanent War" doctrine

Version 2.1, Jan 2, 2018

• Introduction
• The ideas that neoliberalism borrowed from Trotskyism
• The "capitalists counteroffensive" or "revolt of the elite"
• Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth destruction of liberal democracy
• The state religion of the USA which displaced Christianity

Introduction

“What does Christianity mean today? National Socialism is a religion. All we lack is a religious genius capable of uprooting outmoded religious practices and putting new ones in their place. We lack traditions and ritual. One day soon National Socialism will be the religion of all Germans. My Party is my church, and I believe I serve the Lord best if I do his will, and liberate my oppressed people from the fetters of slavery. That is my gospel.”
― Joseph Goebbels

There were two major favors of Bolshevism -- Trotskyism and Stalinism. Them main different is in the attitude to exporting revolution to other countries. Trotsky preached so called permanent revolution -- forceful regime changes in other countries, while Stalin adhered to more isolationist worldview ("Socialism in a single country").  In a way the whole Mont Pelerin Society can be renamed into "The Committee for the adaptation of Trotskyism for the needs of financial oligarchy"

Neoliberalism is essentially Trotskyism refashioned for the needs of the global financial elite.   Like Trotskyism this is hegemonic ideology which want to conquer the whole global: instead of "Permanent war" doctrine neoliberals use color revolutions and the "Promotion of democracy." with essentially the same goal -- global dominance. That's probably why the first substantial support Mont Perelin Society got in England -- global dominance is the tradition of Brish Empire.

This "socialism for corporations, feudalism for everybody" adapted a large part of Trotskyism ideology and, especially, political instruments, carefully hiding the origins.   Instead of "proletarians of all countries unite" we have the slogan "neoliberal elites of all countries unite". Like Communism is supposed to be the result of revolt of proletariat against its oppressions, Neoliberalism can be considered to be the revolt of the elite (and first of all financial elite) against excessive level of equality that characterized the world after WWII.  They key goal of neoliberalism is redistribution of wealth up at the expense of working class and lower middle class.  Like Trotskyism in the past, it is a militant and dogmatic faith that ostracizes heretics and utilizes the full power of propaganda to brainwash the population. Like Bolsheviks' Communist International this virtual "Union of Neoliberal States" have zero  tolerance for other social system or deviations from so called Washington consensus -- the dogmatic statement of main goal of neoliberalism in weaker countries. Like was the case with Bolshevism media dogs and intelligence  agencies are unleashed on dissenters.  Universities were refashioned into neoliberalism indoctrination camp by making neoclassical economics the obligatory discipline, without taking a course in neo-classical economy the student can't graduate.  Much like Marxism-Leninism philosophy course and Marxist political economy course were obligatory in the USSR universities.

Permanent revolution was refashioned into regime change efforts with "color revolution" as the major instrument of such a change. If color revolution mechanisms fail, the direct military invasion is always an option ("export of neoliberal democracy of the tips of bayonets", so to speak).  Subversive methods like color revolutions are polished to perfection. Recently they were used inside the USA as Clinton  wing of Democratic Party (aka "soft neoliberalism")  against Trump, who was elected on the platform of "anti-globalization", anti-outsourcing/offshoring", and ending foreign wars.  See NeoMcCartyism

The key idea here is that "free market" in neoliberalism replaces the notion of "dictatorship of proletariat".  The notion of the "world revolution" is preserved. Neoliberals  do not want to wait until "free market" wins in the society on its own merits. They do not believe in Laissez-faire. Like Leninists they want to use state to build the society in which "dictatorship of market" happens.  To enforce this society on people. This is not about libertarian dream of the state as "night watchman", on the contrary state in neoliberal doctrine state of "neoliberal dictatorship" which is active in enforcing "free market" mechanisms, despite possible resistance of the society.

Neoliberals like Trotskyites are globalists par excellence and dream about world neoliberal revolution. Like Bolsheviks with communism, they reject any other forms of social organization other then neoliberalism. And want to export neoliberalism to all countries of the world. If necessary using US bombers and tanks.

In other words while idea of the state under neoliberalism is identical to Bolsheviks view of state (and is very similar to the views of the Islamic state, if you wish ;-), the foreign policy under neoliberalism is the neoliberal empire expansion policy similar to idea of "World Revolution" which is the central postulate of Trotskyism.  In other words neoliberals strongly believe in "Export of revolution", it is just disguised for unwashed masses as export of democracy.  Kind of neoliberal jihad (The Totalitarian Nature of Islam)

"Bolshevism combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of Islam." "Marx has taught that Communism is fatally predestined to come about; this produces a state of mind not unlike that of the early successors of Mahommet." Among religions, Bolshevism is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism rather than with Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are primarily personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of contemplation. Mohammedanism and Bolshevism are practical, social, unspiritual, concerned to win the empire of this world.
Russell [114]

Perhaps it was Charles Watson who first described Islam as totalitarian in 1937, and proceeded to show how: "By a million roots, penetrating every phase of life, all of them with religious significance, it is able to maintain its hold upon the life of Moslem peoples. "Bousquet, one of the foremost authorities on Islamic Law, distinguishes two aspects of Islam which he considers totalitarian: Islamic Law, and the Islamic notion of Jihad which has for its ultimate aim the conquest of the entire world, in order to submit it to one single authority. We shall consider jihad in the next chapter, here we shall confine ourselves to Islamic Law.

Mont Perelin society  which developed the neoliberal doctrine and served like Communist International for neoliberalism, was deliberately structured like a congress of pre-selected and pre-approved thinkers, allowing no dissent, and  working in secrecy. Much like the new incarnation of Bolsheviks party. They explicitly rework the key methods of social struggle invented by Bolsheviks and Trotskyites to the their own ends.  Many subversive method used by neoliberal state to enforce the rule of neoliberalism in other countries were first invented and tried by Communist International.  Marx is probably now spinning in his grave seeing how his teaching and methods adapted by social-democratic parties were subverted and bastardized to serve the rich.

According to neoliberal doctrine, free market like socialist social system just do not happen naturally: they should be built and enforced by the "Party" despite all the resistance. and the Party in this case was artificially constructed of bribed intellectuals and (what is even more important) of the network of  neoliberal think tanks. this idea to use "think tank" as the major weapon if the unleashing neoliberal revolution was also a direct (but creative)  borrowing from Bolsheviks practice.

And as we all know tanks is formidable weapon on a modern battlefields. The same is true with think tanks in social battlefields.  So like Trotskyites they are constructivists long before the term became popular (emergence of neoliberalism as a movement belong to early 30th). Nothing is left to the chance. 

In other words this like Trotskyism neoliberalism is practically undistinguished from a secular religion. That's why  some researchers call it  a market uber alles religion.  The key dogma is "There is no God other then the Market... " In other words, Market under neoliberal doctrine does not need any justification. It is the ultimate deity that judges the mere mortals, which needs to be imposed on the people by the power of the state,  and requires absolute compliance, achieved by spilling blood, if necessary.  Much like the idea of communism is a deity for Bolsheviks, which requires no justification and needs to be imposed on the people by whatever means necessary.

In both cases they are sold as kind of heaven on the earth. In this sense this is market fundamentalism which is a lot in common with Islamic Fundamentalism. Market is the heaven on earth for neoliberals and neoliberal priests (which are pretty well paid folk, look at Summers or Rubin ;-) have the same promise of twenty virgins to the followers. In they case virgins can be simply bought on money that the neoliberalism will bestow on the individual who will follow the teaching making him rich ;-).  The actual reality is somewhat different. It is impossible to make rich everybody; this is reserved to the top 1% or 0.01%, while "shmucks" standard  of living tend to deteriorate.  But this is a hidden "esoteric" truth the neoliberalism does not advertise. In any case you see the analogy. 

Like Trotskyites they were militant faction which wanted to seize the power but whatever means possible. And they want to forcefully destroy all alternatives including first of all socialism. Their attitude toward socialism is the exact morrow of Trotskyites view about capitalism -- they believe that socialism belong to the dustbin of history, and if it does not want to die "naturally" it is OK to help him to go to the grave. 1973 Chilean coup d'état against  President Salvador Allende,  is a perfect example of their ideology in action. color revolution are another. This is how Lenin would force the revolution. They just uses CIA instead of terrorist underground forces used by Bolsheviks (in case of Bolsheviks often cooperating with anarchist military faction -- so called 'boeviks").  There is even some uneasy alliance of islamist radicals Western intelligence agencies and neoliberal NGO  in which neoliberal try to use islamist to achieve their goals.  The same lack of principles and amorality was typical for Bolsheviks.  In is important to understand that  despite scholarly camouflage key neoliberal figures such as Milton Friedman were actually criminals. Minton Friedman hands were  up to the elbow in blood of innocent victims due to  killing many Chileans during Pinochet coup (objective view is our view of people which we do not like, so communists probably provided the most biting critique of neoliberalism and neoliberals ;-) :  

In 1975, the New York Times accurately labeled him “the guiding light of the junta’s economic policy” (21 September 1975). The CIA funded a 300-page Friedmanite blueprint given to the leaders of the junta in preparation for the coup. In March 1975 Friedman himself, accompanied by his U of C cohort Arnold Harberger, flew to Chile for high-level talks with the regime to outline the economic “shock treatment” that led to the mass starvation of those who had survived the initial phase of bloodletting.

So the world revolution in Trotskyite doctrine is simply replaced by "world neoliberal revolution by what ever means possible". Criminal actions are OK.  Like with Trotskyism "the goal justifies the means".

Another interesting question is why those people were help-bent of anti-communism, were so adamantly against socialism? One explanation is that most of them were from Austrian aristocracy circles. Another is that in their view (and first of all Hayek) market is a kind of natural "supercomputer" that can provide solutions to all world problems that no government can do. But, at the same time being closet  neo-Trotskyites they advocate military coups and killing of dissenters to achieve their goals.

Their "utilitarian view" of the legitimacy of government, also extents to science. Like for Trotskyites with their bogus concept of "proletarian science", the science in their worldview is useful only to the extent it help to built neoliberalism. So there is scientific theories and scientists which  needs to be financially supported and promoted and the scientific theories and scientists  that needs to be suppressed and ostracized.  Kind of new Lysenkoism.

That sound profoundly anti-democratic and that's completely true. Neoliberals do not care about democracy. They care only about "free market" -- their deity like communists cared only about Communism -- their deity. And both are ready to commit any crimes to achieve their goals.  In other words they are a new type of a dangerous totalitarian sect. and the brand of Totalitarism they promote was called by Wolin "Inverted Totalitarism". Their approach smells with Lysenkoism. And that' true -- neoliberal practice is very close to practice of Lysenkoism, especially in the field of economics: they occupied all commanding positions in economic departments of universities and forcefully suppress any dissent. The only difference is that they use the power of state just for ostracism and isolation. They do not send "non-conforming" scientists to GULAG like Bolsheviks did.  But they introduce a new interesting nuance: as the science became a "marketplace of ideas", under neoliberalism you can just buy the scientist you like on the market.  Education also needs to be restructured as market. Which already happened in the USA.

So we really are talking about neoliberal revolution in the USA, which destroyed the New Deal capitalism by mercilessly destroying all the relevant law. You are liming in new brave neoliberal world now.

We can think about neoliberalism employing typical Trotskyite methods of "gain power first" implement neoliberal policies later. In a way, neoliberalism is the second after Bolshevism social model that is totally artificially constructed and explicitly planned to be enforced on unsuspecting people via subversive actions of a totalitarian sect.   Like Bolshevism was dictatorship of the Communist Party nomenklatura, neoliberalism is dictatorship of financial oligarchy. Both neoliberalism and Bolshevism despise democracy and need a strong state which implements neoliberal policies "from above" -- reforming the society despite the wishes of population (exactly like bolshevism did it in the USSR space and later in Eastern Europe). 

This symbiosis of strong state (in a form of "national security state" and super powerful intelligence agencies -- often called "the deep state")  and corporation via the rule of financial oligarchy  makes neoliberalism a modern flavor of corporatism. Inverted totalitarism as Sheldon Wolin called it. Like bolshevism neoliberalism relies of power of propaganda (first of all via think tanks -- its ingenious invention) as well as classic methods used by Bolsheviks such as  indoctrination via economics courses at university economics departments and constant pro-neoliberal propaganda in major MSM owned and operated by large corporations.

Up to 2000 in the USA standard of living and employment level was maintained  (partially via computer revolution, partially  via "expropriation" of resources and capital at xUSSR space), although there are limits to that and at some point self-destruction process inevitably starts  and the neoliberal society gradually slips into secular stagnation, somewhat similar to Brezhnev's stagnation period in the USSR.  In the USA is characterized by the loss of jobs and manufacturing to outsourcing, as well as degeneration of neoliberal elite (matching if not exceeding the degeneration of neoliberal elite).   Which at the end created conditions for the rise to power of Trump and his team of "bastard neoliberals" (neoliberalism without neoliberal globalization, somewhat similar to Stalin's idea of 'socialism ins single country").

Like Trotskyism in the past (with their slogan of "World revolution" borrowed by neoliberalism) neoliberals in general and neocons in particular (as "neoliberals with the gun") are hell-bent of creating Global Neoliberal empire. Killing millions people in the process. And destroying the well-being of the majorly of people in their host country (the USA in case of neoliberals, the Russian empire -- USSR --  in case of Trotskyites  and later Bolsheviks ).

For them  ‘We Think the Price Is Worth It’"  as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright put it.  This Nietzschean-style complete disregard of common people is probably the most common feature between those two "man-eater" class ideologies. Those Nietzschean Ubermensch like classic psychopaths just do not have compassion for other people. They are objects, tools for them.   Actually you learn a lot about neoliberals by studying psychopath and sociopath behaviour, especially female sociopath.  The percent of sociopaths in the society is by various estimate is over 5% which considerably exceeds the number of people required for forming the elite or the top 1%  of neoliberal society.

Like Marxism before, neoliberalism provides its own ethics and its own rationality.   It enforces a new encompassing "economic rationalism" (aka economism) , which should displace old, "outdated" and more humane rationality of New Deal capitalism.

The ethics of neoliberalism, or "Neoliberal rationality",  is heavily tilted toward viewing people as "homo economicus".  Like Marxism (and, by extension, Trotskyism and Bolshevism/Stalinism ) it "articulates crucial elements of  the language, practice and subjectivity according to a specific image of the economics." Like Trotskyism before it directly assaults the idea of democratic governance and the rule of the law proving perverted rationality,  elements of which are erringly similar to the ideas of "vanguard",  "proletarian justice",  " journalists as solders of the Party"  and, especially, "Permanent Revolution". 

It rejects the idea of social solidarity (emphasizing it for Undermensch "individual responsibility" including "who does not work, should not eat")   replacing it, like Marxism before, with the idea of class solidarity (The members of transnational financial elite unite"). They also pervert the idea of the rule of the law, which animated so much of modernity, hollowing out democratic practices and institutions while at the same time catalyzing radical, brutal (as in neo-feudal) forms of the elite dominance, promoting Nietzsche separation of mankind into two caste: Undermensch ("despicables" in Hillary Clinton words) and Ubermensch  ("creative class").  In a way neoliberalism is socialism for rich and feudalism for poor.

Like Marxism before it, neoliberalism wear the mantle of inevitability. As Bruce Wilder noted in his post on Crooked Timber blog (11.16.16 at 10:07 pm 30): 

It was characteristic of neoliberalism that the policy, policy intention and policy consequences were hidden behind a rhetoric of markets and technological inevitability.

Matt Stoller has identified this as the statecraft of neoliberalism: the elimination of political agency and responsibility for economic performance and outcomes. Globalization and financialization were just "forces" that just happened, in a meteorological economics.

For example, instead of permanent revolution we have permanent democratization via color revolutions and military invasions for the expansion of neoliberal empire..  With the same fake idea of creating a global neoliberal empire which will make everybody happy and prosperous.

While this is never advertized (and actually the whole term "neoliberalism" is kind of  "hidden" from the population and its discussion is a taboo in neoliberal MSM), implicitly Neoliberalism adopted a considerable part of Trotskyism doctrine and even bigger part of its practice, especially foreign policy practice. Like KGB in the USSR, CIA became presidents praetorian guard (which occasionally revolts, see JFK assassination).  

Like Logos noted this is yet another stunning "economic-political" utopia with the level of economic determinism even more ambitious than that of Marx... But what is important to understand is that this doctrine incorporates significant parts of Trotskyism  in pretty innovating, unobvious way. Thus, Marx famous quote "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce" is fully applicable here: instead of revolt of proletariat which Marxists expected we got the revolt of financial oligarchy. And this revolt led to the formation of the powerful Transnational Elite International (with Congresses in Basel) instead of Communist International (with Congresses in Moscow). Both Trotsky and Marx are probably rolling in their graves seeing such a wicked mutation of their beloved political ideology.

Neoliberalism is also an example of emergence of ideologies, not from their persuasive power or inner logic, but from the private interests of the ruling elite.  Political pressure and money created the situation in which intellectually bankrupt ideas could prevail much like Catholicism prevailed during Dark Ages in Europe. In a way, this is return to Dark Ages on a new level. Hopefully this period will not last as long. But as there is no countervailing force on the horizon, only the major change in economic conditions, such as end of cheap oil can lead to demise of neoliberalism. 

 Neoliberalism consists of the same three components as in Marxism: philosophy, political economy and neoliberal ethics (aka neoliberal rationality).

 The ideas that neoliberalism borrowed from Trotskyism

Among the ideas that neoliberalism borrowed from Trotskyism via renegades Trotskyites turned neoconservatives (and for all practical purposes Neoconservatism is just neoliberalism with a gun) such as James Burnham we can mention the following:

1. The mantle of inevitability (famous TINA statement of Margaret Thatcher is an apt demonstration of this) Globalization and financialization were just "forces" that just happened, as weather "happens" in meteorology.  As Bruce Wilder noted in his post on Crooked Timber blog (11.16.16 at 10:07 pm 30): 

   It was characteristic of neoliberalism that the policy, policy intention and policy consequences were hidden behind a rhetoric of markets and technological inevitability. Matt Stoller has identified this as the statecraft of neoliberalism: the elimination of political agency and responsibility for economic performance and outcomes. 

2. The concept of the  "new class" which is destined to guide the humanity with the replacement of "proletariat" with the "creative class".  The latter is a rehash of the Nietzschean concept of Ubermensch. This creating/managerial/entrepreneur  class which is similar to Soviet nomenklatura.  Rejection of  Christianity and the idea of human solidarity. Like was the case in the USSR, it places the control of the society in comparatively few hands; in this sense Neoliberal nomenklatura is very similar to Soviet nomenklatura. In both cases their position in social hierarchy by-and-large is determined by the position the individual has in government, military, or private industry.  Loss of the position means substantial downgrade in neoliberal social hierarchy, much like in the USSR. In other words wealth is not enough for high social status.  This leads to the similar adverse effects (Ivy League universities as the membership card to the elite and corresponding  degradation of the level of education (Bush II managed to graduate as many other "not so talented" sons and daughters of the elite). Suppression of dissent created promotion of "yes-men" resulting in gradual degeneration of the elite, as happened with Soviet nomenklatura.  Huge discrepancy in the wealth of the top 1% and the rest of population might be neoliberalism's Achilles heel which we saw in action in 2016 elections and Brexit vote.
   1. Rejection of the normal interpretation of the rule of the law and the idea of "neoliberal justice" (tough justice for Untermensch only). See, for example a Crooked timber comment:

      Neoliberals destroy the notion of social justice and pervert the notion of the “rule of the law”. See, for example, The Neo-Liberal State by Raymond Plant

      …social justice is incompatible with the rule of law because its demands cannot be embodied in general and impartial rules; and rights have to be the rights to non-interference rather than understood in terms of claims to resources because rules against interference can be understood in general terms whereas rights to resources cannot. There is no such thing as a substantive common good for the state to pursue and for the law to embody and thus the political pursuit of something like social justice or a greater sense of solidarity and community lies outside the rule of law.

      … … …

      …But surely, it might be argued, a nomocratic state and its laws have to acknowledge some set of goals. It cannot be impartial or indifferent to all goals. Law cannot be pointless. It cannot be totally non-instrumental. It has to facilitate the achievement of some goals. If this is recognized, it might be argued, it will modify the sharpness of the distinction between a nomocratic and telocratic state, between a civil association and an enterprise association.

      The last paragraph essentially defines “neoliberal justice” which to me looks somewhat similar to the concept of “proletarian justice” (see Bukharin’s views https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1920/abc/09.htm; compare with Vyshinskii views http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1924-2/socialist-legality/socialist-legality-texts/vyshinskii-on-proletarian-justice/).

      ... ... ...

      IMHO for neoliberals social justice and the rule of law is applicable only to Untermensch. For Ubermensch (aka “creative class”) it undermines their individual freedom and thus they need to be above the law.

      To ensure their freedom and cut “unnecessary and undesirable interference” of the society in their creative activities the role of the state should be limited to safeguarding the free market as the playground for their “creativity” (note “free” as in “free ride”, not “fair”).

3. Neoliberalism like Stalinism is a "civil religion". The methods of enforcement of this region on the population  by neoliberalism are quite similar to Stalinism, with the only main difference --the rejection of violence against population as the main method of entrenching the ideology:
   • Messianic zeal and hate for the "old order" (The New Deal in case of the USA). Open desire to dismantle and privatize all the mechanisms of redistribution of income, including (in the USA) Social Security and Medicare.
   • Like Trotskyites, Neoliberals are inherently hostile to competing non-liberal societies - which they see not simply as different, but as wrong. That include nationalistic regimes (Hussein, Kaddafi), resource nationalists (Putin, Erdogan, Chavez)  as well as theocracies (Iran, North Korea), with the notable exception of Israelis and Saudis (as well as several other Gulf monarchies)
   • The ideas of truth as "a class truth"; neoliberals reject the idea that there are any religious (for example Christian) moral values and the concept of truth.  They feel that these should be result of  "market of opinions" and the truth is the one that market favors.
     • Implicit denial of the idea of "free press". The press is converted into neoliberal propaganda machine and journalists, writers, etc are viewed as "the solders of the ideology" who should advance neoliberalism.   That's what we saw during the recent Presidential elections. This is a direct copy of Bolsheviks playbook. It was aptly demonstrate during 2016 Presidential elections, where all MSM, especially CNN, ABC and MSNBC serves as attack dogs on Hillary Clinton campaign, not even pretending having an impartial position like Pravda used to pretend.   Compete, blatant disregard of truth if it does not fit neoliberal goals. Perversion of truth to the extent that Pravda journalists can be viewed as paragons of objectivity (recent Presidential campaign of 2016 provides plenty of examples)
   • Use of university education in indoctrination to the ideology:
     • The study of neoclassical economics as the key method of indoctrination of people with economists as a class of  well paid priests of neoliberal ideology, masking political essence of neoliberalism under special jargon and mathiness.  Like was the  case with Marxism in  the USSR, neoliberalism completely controls economic departments of most US universities and ensure that they are populated by adherents of this doctrine.  The control is more indirect via allocation of funds, but no less pervasive, then in USSR.

       "Economists are wheeled out to comment on all sorts of public policy issues: in the news, on the TV, online and so forth. The deference to economic expertise is something that permeates our politics and, through the use of jargon, maths and statistics, serves to exclude non-expert citizens from conversations about issues that often have a direct impact on their lives.

       As you imply, it is something like an ancient priesthood. In fact, in an earlier draft of the book we made a comparison to ancient medical texts, which were only written in Latin and so created a huge asymmetry between experts and non-experts, which could have awful consequences for the latter. In some senses economics in modern times goes even further than this, because it affects policy on everything from incomes and jobs to healthcare and the environment. " ...

       "I concur with in that I have concluded that maybe 60-80% of formal economic language is ideology – it pretty naturally follows that there will be some attempt to indoctrinate those who wish to speak the language. I guess the natural place to start is to ask you for a flavour of what this indoctrination looks like and then maybe we will move on to what its purposes are and what ends it serves. " The Econocracy An Interview with Cahal Mora naked capitalism

     • Implicit censure of dissent via ostracism and "inner circle" of "high priest" which particular in policy making; priests selected not so much due to their intellectual achievements as for unquestionable loyalty to the system.  To get in the inner circle and to be consider the "high priest" you need to adopt the rules of the game, much like in the USSR.  Otherwise your opinion will be simply ignored. Summers put it the best in one of his interviews.
   • Pervasive use of academic science and "think tanks" for brainwashing of the population. Neoliberals fully adopted the Bolsheviks practice of creating powerful intellectual centers for promoting the ideology. Pundits from those tanks dominate various political and economic talk shows and author articles in major newspapers.
   • Purges of dissent via neo-McCarthyism tactics. Ostracism (especially in academia) is used instead of physical repression. It relied of demobilization of masses and turning them atomized and obedient "consumers" instead of mobilization of masses under Trotskyism.  That's why it was called by Sheldon Wolin "inverted totalitarism".
   • Creation of neoliberal "newspeak" similar to Marxist newspeak. For example the word  ‘free" is redefined as unregulated. That helps to provides a pseudo-scientific justification for the redistribution of wealth up and increasing poverty of lower 80% or so of population endemic to the system. An elaborate set of myth, typical for religion is used to justify this social system. Among them "Invisible Hand Hypothesis", "Rational expectations"  "Shareholder value", and many others.  Which makes it similar to Lysenkoism. The fact that the main beneficiaries of the neoliberal globalization are the global mega-corporations and major western powers (G7) is carefully hidden behind fake rhetoric, which is not unlike the rhetoric of the Communist Party of the USSR.
   • The idea of the single party system, with the ruling party serves as the vanguard of the hegemonic neoliberal class (top 1%) and represents only its interests. Which was adapted to two Party system to preserve the illusion of democracy. Capture by neoliberals of Democratic Party under Clinton essentially created one-party system in the USA, as both parties from this point represent just different factions of the same neoliberal party. Unlike Bolsheviks one party system, this two party system creates an illusion of multi-party system and sometimes electorate manages to promote the candidate, which is not approved by establishment as happened with Sanders and Trump in recent 2016 Presidential election. While Democratic Party managed to suppress Sanders as was expected, Trump got the nomination and was elected the President, but was quickly co-opted after the elections. 
   • Economic fetishism. Neoliberals see the market as a sacred element of human civilization. They want to impose global market that favors transnational corporations in all countries of the globe, by force, if necessary. Most social activities should be run as a market. Including labor market. The idea of employability is characteristically neoliberal. It means that neoliberals see it as a moral duty of human beings, to arrange their lives to maximize their value on the labor market. Paying for plastic surgery to improve employability (almost entirely by women) is a typical neoliberal phenomenon -- one that would surprise Adam Smith.
   • Cult of GDP. Like Marxism, neoliberalism on the one hand this reduces individuals to statistics contained within aggregate economic performance. It professes that GDP growth is the ultimate goal of any society.  This is very similar to the USSR cult of gross national product. Another paradox of neoliberalism is it relies upon universal quantification and comparison which is completely perverted much like in the USSR central planning system. And it produces the same dismal results: workers, job-seekers and public services of every kind are subject to a pettifogging, stifling regime of assessment of non-relevant metrics. In the job periodic assessments  (performance reviews) are formally used to identify the winners and punish the losers, or, non-conformists. In reality, they dramatically increase the power of management, distort anything converting jobs into variant of the USSR "fake metrics, fake performance, fake promotions" troika. The doctrine that Von Mises proposed to free us from the bureaucratic nightmare of central planning has instead re-created a new nightmare just on a different level of sophistication and perversion of basic human rationality.
4. Use of violence for the spread of the ideology. The idea of Permanent revolution to bring to power the new hegemonic class in all countries of the globe and create a new global neoliberal empire is direct borrowing from Trotskyism and was promoted by Jewish neocons, who were former Trotskyites.  In neoliberalism this takes that form of "export of democracy" as the method of achieving and maintaining world dominance of globalist elite (which in its role of hegemonic class replaces "proletariat" used in Trotskyism):
   • The idea of Permanent Revolution formulated by Trotsky in 1905 is the defining feature of both Trotskyism and neoliberalism. Like Bolshevism/Trotskyism neoliberalism is militant ideology, especially in the flavour which in the USA is called Neoconservatism (neoliberals with the gun -- which advocate famous Al Capone motto - "You Can Get Much Further with a Kind Word and a Gun than with a Kind Word Alone")  Trotsky argued that in Russia only the working class could overthrow feudalism and win the support of the peasantry. Furthermore, he argued that the Russian working class would not stop there. They would win its own revolution against the weak capitalist class, establish a workers' state in Russia, and appeal to the working class in the advanced capitalist countries around the world. As a result, the global working class would come to Russia's aid, and socialism could develop worldwide. In neoliberalism the role of Russia is replaced by the USA. And it is the US elite which asks compradors elite in other countries to come to the US elite aid to establish global neoliberal regime.
   • Like Trotskyism, neoliberalism consider wars to impose a liberal-democratic society on weaker countries (which in modern times are countries without nuclear weapons) which cannot give a fight to Western armies are inherently just ("regime change" mentality). So both ideologies are ready to bring revolution to new countries on the tips of (USA in case of neoliberalism) bayonets.
   • A totalitarian vision for a world-encompassing monolithic global empire (in this case led by the USA, instead of the USSR) governed by an ideologically charged "vanguard". One single state ( the USA in case of neoliberalism)  is assigned the place of "holy country" and the leader of this country has special privileges not unlike Rome Pope in Catholicism
   • Creation and maintenance of  the illusion of "immanent threat" from powerful enemies for brainwashing the population (National Security State instead of "Dictatorship of proletariat"). The idea (and reality) of "dictatorship of the financial oligarchy" replaces the concept of "dictatorship of proletariat".
   • The idea of artificial creation of the "revolutionary situation" for overthrow of "unfriendly" regimes ( via color revolution methods); role of students in such a coup d'états. Neoliberal compradors (supported by State Department), selected western embassies and NGO instead of communist parties functionaries as the fifth column inside the societies. Like Marxism, neoliberalism tries to weaken, if not abolish, nation states replacing state sovereignty with international organizations and treaties dominance (for weaker countries typically using debt slavery to IMF and World bank). Neoliberalism reflect the nature of global capitalism as a hegemonic transnational phenomenon. By deemphasizing the role of the nation-state in the global economy and increasing the significance of transnational production and the rise of a transnational elite and the transnational corporations neoliberalism realizes dreams of Marx in a very perverted form.
   • Reliance on international organizations to bully countries into submission (remember Communist International  (aka Comintern) and its network of spies and Communist Parties all over the world). The global financial institutions are indeed the key bastion of neoliberal ideology, and they can bully most of poor countries into adopting neoliberal policies. Especially in time of crisis, which can be iether natural or artificially created.  The global financial institutions are the key instrument of US foreign policy - and an important element of the quasi-imperial power, it is the United States. At the same time international institutions that which does fully correspond to the idea of the USA as the global hegemonic power, such as UN, are denigrated and ignored if their option differs from the opinion of the State Department on particular matter. Neoliberalism advocates the globalized unity of elites ( hierarchy to be exact under benevolent guidance of the US elite). At the same time conditions of population of countries with "globalized" elite go downhill and internal social protection mechanisms are dismantled. That creates resistance to globalism and neoliberalism that recently were demonstrated in Greece and Britain (Brexit).
      
5. Social Darwinism
   • War on and brutal suppression of organized labor.  While in Soviet Russia organized labor was emasculated and trade unions became part of government apparatus, under neoliberalism they are simply decimated. It "atomize" individual workers presenting them as goods on the "labor market" controlled by large corporations ( via the myth of human capital )( the myth of human capital )
   • Scapegoating and victimization of poor . Scapegoating and victimization of poor as new Untermensch. This is a part of Randism and is closely related to glorification of the "creative class".  Treatment of working class as second rate citizens, not unlike Marxists treated peasantry in the past.  Only new "creative class" vanguard are first class citizens under the neoliberal, much like proletariat was in Marxism. In both cases this is just a smoke screen of the rule of oligarchy, in case on Marxism of Party oligarchy, in case of neoliberal -- financial oligarchy.  Neoliberalism rejects the idea of social solidarity and in this sense is distinctly anti-Christian ideology. Much like Marxism was. See Neoliberalism and Christianity
      
6. Finally, neoliberalism like Marxism in the past has become strongly associated with a specific culture (the US culture, or Anglo-Saxon culture in more general terms) and a specific language (English). Like Marxism, as an ideology, Neoliberalism  became tied to specific culture and language (both became  king of global standard de-facto). Theoretically any global language would suit, and it can be Esperanto.  But in reality the English language, Hollywood culture, neoliberal economic policies (aka  Washington consensus), and pro-American foreign policy is a "package deal" for fifth column supporters outside G7; this was especially true in Central and Eastern Europe. Kind of second class citizens of Neoliberal International (Skeptical Eastern Europeans, who still remember the days of USSR-led "Socialist Camp" now call it diktat of "Washington Obcom" ;-).  That does not exclude jingoism, chauvinism, flag-waving and foreigner-bashing in the USA (aka American exceptionalism) and other G7 countries. Tony Blair is probably the best example of this political mentality:

   Don't tell me that a country with our history and heritage, that today boasts six of the top ten businesses in the whole of Europe, with London the top business city in Europe, that is a world leader in technology and communication and the businesses of the future, that under us has overtaken France and Italy to become the fourth largest economy in the world, that has the language of the new economy, more brilliant artists, actors and directors than any comparable country in the world, some of the best scientists and inventors in the world, the best armed forces in the world, the best teachers and doctors and nurses, the best people any nation could wish for.

   Don't tell me with all that going for us that we do not have the spirit to meet all the challenges before us.

   Blair conference speech, 26 September 2000

The "capitalists counteroffensive" or "revolt of the elite"

This "capitalists counteroffensive" or "revolt of the elite" was pioneered in Britain, where Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Tory Party in 1975 and put into real shape by Ronald Reagan in 1981-1989 (Reaganomics). Margaret Thatcher victory was the first election of neoliberal ideologue (Pinochet came to power via supported by the USA military coupe de tat). Both Thatcher and Reagan mounted a full-scale counterattack against the (already weakened and fossilized) unions. In GB the miners were the most important target. In USA traffic controllers. In both cases they managed to broke the back of trade unions. Since 1985 union membership in the USA has halved.

Privatizing nationalized industries and public services fragments large bargaining units formed of well organized public-sector workers, creating conditions in which wages can be driven down in the competition for franchises and contracts. This most important side effect of privatization was dramatic redistribution of wealth to the top layer of financial and managerial elite (corporate rich).

Neoliberalism gradually gained strength since probably late 50th with free-market theorists like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman as influential ideologues. Ann Rand also made an important contribution with her "greed is good" philosophy of positivism. Still many economists and policy-makers favored a ‘mixed economy’ with high levels of state intervention and public spending. That changed in the 1970s when the state capitalism run into rocks. In a way rise of Neoliberalism was the elite response to the Long Recession of 1973-1992: they launched a class war of the global rich against the rest. Shrinking markets dictated the necessity of cutting costs by sacking workers and driving down wages. So the key program was to reverse the gains made by the US lower and middle class since 1945 and it needed an ideological justification. Neoliberalism neatly fitted the bill. With outsourcing, the global ‘race to the bottom’ became a permanent feature of a new economic order.

At 1980th it became clear that the age of national economies and ‘autarkic’ (self-contained) blocs like the USSR block ended as they will never be able to overcome the technological and standard of living gap with the major Western economies. This inability to match the level of standard of living of western countries doomed communist ideology, as it has in the center the thesis that as a superior economic system it should match and exceed the economic level achieved by capitalist countries. Collapse of the USSR in 1991 (in which KGB elite played the role of Trojan horse of the West) was a real triumph of neoliberalism and signified a beginning of a new age in which the global economy was dominated by international banks and multinational corporations operating with little or sometimes completely outside the control of nation-states.

The rise of neoliberalism can be measured by the rise of the financial and industrial mega-corporations. For example, US direct investment overseas rose from $11 billion in 1950 to $133 billion in 1976. The long-term borrowing of US corporations increased from 87% of their share value in 1955 to 181% in 1970. The foreign currency operations of West European banks, to take another example, increased from $25 billion in 1968 to $200 billion in 1974. The combined debt of the 74 less-developed countries jumped from $39 billion in 1965 to $119 billion in 1974. These quantitative changes during the "Great Boom" reached a tipping point in the 1970s. Global corporations by then had come to overshadow the nation-states. The effect was to impose a relentless pressure on national elites to increase the exploitation of ‘their own’ working class. High wages became a facto that deters new investment and labor arbitrage jumped in full swing. Taxes on business to pay for public services or welfare payments became undesirable. As well as laws designed to make workplaces safe, limit working hours, or guarantee maternity leave. While from purely theoretic perspective the ‘free-market’ theory espoused by neoliberal academics, journalists, politicians, bankers, and ‘entrepreneurs’ is compete pseudoscientific Lysenkoism-style doctrine, it became very popular, dominant ideology of the last decade of XX century. It provides a pseudo-scientific justification for the greed, poverty, as well as economic crisis endemic to the system. It also justified high level if inequality of the political and business elite an a normal state of human society. In this sense, neoliberalism became an official ideology of the modern ruling elite.

Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth destruction of liberal democracy

Like Marxism before neoliberalism provides its own ethics and its own rationality.   It enforces a new encompassing "economic rationalism", which should displace old, "outdated" and more humane rationality of liberal capitalism.

"Neoliberal rationality" is heavily tilted toward viewing the people as "homo economicus".  This new neoliberal rationality  " articulates crucial elements of  the language, practice and subjectivity ‘according to a specific image of the economic" In so doing neo-liberalism like Marxism before it directly assaults the democratic imaginary that animated so much of modernity, hollowing out liberal democratic practices and institutions while at the same time catalyzing radical, brutal forces of the political spectrum.

In the book Undoing the Demos Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution   Professor Wendy Brown described this  "neoliberal rationality" phenomenon and actually shows how close it is to the rationality which governed   communism parties of the USSR and Eastern Block.

Here are some quotes from Wendy Brown interview What Exactly Is Neoliberalism  to  Dissent Magazine (Nov 03, 2015):

"... I treat neoliberalism as a governing rationality through which everything is "economized" and in a very specific way: human beings become market actors and nothing but, every field of activity is seen as a market, and every entity (whether public or private, whether person, business, or state) is governed as a firm. Importantly, this is not simply a matter of extending commodification and monetization everywhere-that's the old Marxist depiction of capital's transformation of everyday life. Neoliberalism construes even non-wealth generating spheres-such as learning, dating, or exercising-in market terms, submits them to market metrics, and governs them with market techniques and practices. Above all, it casts people as human capital who must constantly tend to their own present and future value. ..."

"... The most common criticisms of neoliberalism, regarded solely as economic policy rather than as the broader phenomenon of a governing rationality, are that it generates and legitimates extreme inequalities of wealth and life conditions; that it leads to increasingly precarious and disposable populations; that it produces an unprecedented intimacy between capital (especially finance capital) and states, and thus permits domination of political life by capital; that it generates crass and even unethical commercialization of things rightly protected from markets, for example, babies, human organs, or endangered species or wilderness; that it privatizes public goods and thus eliminates shared and egalitarian access to them; and that it subjects states, societies, and individuals to the volatility and havoc of unregulated financial markets. ..."

"... with the neoliberal revolution that homo politicus is finally vanquished as a fundamental feature of being human and of democracy. Democracy requires that citizens be modestly oriented toward self-rule, not simply value enhancement, and that we understand our freedom as resting in such self-rule, not simply in market conduct. When this dimension of being human is extinguished, it takes with it the necessary energies, practices, and culture of democracy, as well as its very intelligibility. ..."

"... For most Marxists, neoliberalism emerges in the 1970s in response to capitalism's falling rate of profit; the shift of global economic gravity to OPEC, Asia, and other sites outside the West; and the dilution of class power generated by unions, redistributive welfare states, large and lazy corporations, and the expectations generated by educated democracies. From this perspective, neoliberalism is simply capitalism on steroids: a state and IMF-backed consolidation of class power aimed at releasing capital from regulatory and national constraints, and defanging all forms of popular solidarities, especially labor. ..."

"... The grains of truth in this analysis don't get at the fundamental transformation of social, cultural, and individual life brought about by neoliberal reason. They don't get at the ways that public institutions and services have not merely been outsourced but thoroughly recast as private goods for individual investment or consumption. And they don't get at the wholesale remaking of workplaces, schools, social life, and individuals. For that story, one has to track the dissemination of neoliberal economization through neoliberalism as a governing form of reason, not just a power grab by capital. There are many vehicles of this dissemination -- law, culture, and above all, the novel political-administrative form we have come to call governance. It is through governance practices that business models and metrics come to irrigate every crevice of society, circulating from investment banks to schools, from corporations to universities, from public agencies to the individual. It is through the replacement of democratic terms of law, participation, and justice with idioms of benchmarks, objectives, and buy-ins that governance dismantles democratic life while appearing only to instill it with "best practices." ..."

"... Progressives generally disparage Citizens United for having flooded the American electoral process with corporate money on the basis of tortured First Amendment reasoning that treats corporations as persons. However, a careful reading of the majority decision also reveals precisely the thoroughgoing economization of the terms and practices of democracy we have been talking about. In the majority opinion, electoral campaigns are cast as "political marketplaces," just as ideas are cast as freely circulating in a market where the only potential interference arises from restrictions on producers and consumers of ideas-who may speak and who may listen or judge. Thus, Justice Kennedy's insistence on the fundamental neoliberal principle that these marketplaces should be unregulated paves the way for overturning a century of campaign finance law aimed at modestly restricting the power of money in politics. Moreover, in the decision, political speech itself is rendered as a kind of capital right, functioning largely to advance the position of its bearer, whether that bearer is human capital, corporate capital, or finance capital. This understanding of political speech replaces the idea of democratic political speech as a vital (if potentially monopolizable and corruptible) medium for public deliberation and persuasion. ..."

"... My point was that democracy is really reduced to a whisper in the Euro-Atlantic nations today. Even Alan Greenspan says that elections don't much matter much because, "thanks to globalization . . . the world is governed by market forces," not elected representatives. ..."

Like Marxism in the USSR neoliberalism is state religion of the USA which displaced Christianity

Pope Francis aptly called neoliberalism as "idolatry of money".  In other words a cult. Here is a direct quote:

No to the new idolatry of money

55. One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

56. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule. 

Like any religion it has its set of myth:

• Idealization of Reagan
• Neoliberalism's Myth on Benefits of Free Trade
• Scapegoating and victimization of poor
• Small government smoke screen
• "Starving the beast" bait and switch
• Universal quantification

NEWS CONTENTS

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• 20210129 : Meet Antony 'Blinkered' Biden's Choice for America's Top Diplomat -- Strategic Culture ( Jan 29, 2021 , www.strategic-culture.org )
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• 20210127 : Blinken rose to become deputy Secretary of State in the final years of the second Obama administration. In those roles he was a key player in a series of foreign interventions including Libya and Syria which turned out to be utterly disastrous ( Jan 27, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
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• 20210125 : An American neoliberal ideological project ( Jan 25, 2021 , www.rt.com )
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• 20210113 : I believe due to strategic failure of maximum pressure to subdue Iran and more importantly due to US' own strategic necessity to keep China and Russia away from ME, US and EU will want to decouple or even prevent Iran from a mutual strategic necessity or alliance with China or and Russia it might be possible US will adopt a new posture toward Iran. ( Jan 13, 2021 , www.moonofalabama.org )
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• 20210106 : Biden Taps Victoria "F-ck The EU" Nuland For Key National Security Post ( Jan 06, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
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• 20210102 : To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it ( Jan 02, 2021 , www.zerohedge.com )
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• 20201201 : After Trump's Lies, the Establishment's Tripe and Self-Deception - ( Dec 01, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
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• 20201201 : psychohistorian ( Dec 01, 2020 , www.lettinggobreath.com )
• 20201201 : Biden pick for OMB director has a Steele dossier problem ( Dec 01, 2020 , www.washingtonexaminer.com )
• 20201201 : Biden's pick for budget director once championed funding social spending by MAKING LIBYA PAY for regime-change bombing campaign ( Dec 01, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201128 : During the campaign it was an unconvincing display of the leopard desperately trying to change its spots; now it is clearly business as usual by Binoy KAMPMARK ( Nov 28, 2020 , orientalreview.org )
• 20201126 : The doublethink phenomenon. ( Nov 26, 2020 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20201126 : Who's kidding who? ( Nov 26, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201126 : Trump vs Biden- Will the Future Belong to the Patriots or the Globalists ( Nov 26, 2020 , off-guardian.org )
• 20201125 : How Joe Biden Plans to Make The American Empire Great Again ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.mintpressnews.com )
• 20201125 : A military fiasco of the United States might be needed in order to bring "cruise missile liberals" to understand the need of of abandoning Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201125* A complete schism from reality by Caitlin Johnstone ( Nov 25, 2020 , caitlinjohnstone.com ) [Recommended]
• 20201125* Bidens's "Cruise missile liberals" will bring "democracy builking" back to the homeland. That should scare most of US people, if we judge by thier results in Ukrain, Syria and Libya ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
• 20201125 : America desperately needs its Two Minutes of Hate against other countries like a meth addict needs his next hit ( Nov 25, 2020 , caitlinjohnstone.com )
• 20201125 : Biden's foxes guard the henhouse ( Nov 25, 2020 , thegrayzone.com )
• 20201125 : Biden NSA Pick Called Steele Dossier 'Perfectly Appropriate' - Newsmax.com ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.newsmax.com )
• 20201125 : ELECTION 2020- What President Biden Won't Touch Consortiumnews ( Nov 25, 2020 , consortiumnews.com )
• 20201125 : Another Look At Joe Biden's Foreign Policy Team ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201125 : Biden might walk away from a confrontation with China ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201125 : Biden's getting the Obama band back together again for an encore performance celebrating nostalgia for a never-was golden age ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201125 : Trump Blasts World's Most Overrated General After Mattis Urges Biden To Eliminate America First Policy ( Nov 25, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20201124 : Will the Biden Team Be Warmongers or Peacemakers- - CounterPunch.org ( Nov 24, 2020 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20201124 : Grading candidates for Biden's foreign policy team- William Burns -- Nonzero ( Nov 24, 2020 , nonzero.org )
• 20201123 : Neocon chickenhawks are back in power ( Nov 23, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201123* Administrations change but Full Spectrum Dominance Doctine and the desire to portect and emand global neoliberal empire controlled from Washinton is intact. It will eventually banrupt the country much like was the case with the British Empire ( Nov 23, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
• 20201123 : Biden to Name Russia Hoaxer, CNN Analyst Tony Blinken Secretary of State ( Nov 23, 2020 , www.breitbart.com )
• 20201123 : The Trump trap: Biden's own rhetoric has cornered him into carrying on Trump's foreign policy ( Nov 23, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201122 : Biden's transition team is filled with war profiteers, Beltway chickenhawks, and corporate consultants by KEVIN GOSZTOLA ( Nov 14, 2020 , thegrayzone.com )
• 20201122 : Gates Stands By Statement That Biden Has Been Wrong On Nearly Every Major Foreign Policy Question - Video - RealClearPolitics ( Nov 22, 2020 , www.realclearpolitics.com )
• 20201122 : The truth about the Dem patchy honchos ( Nov 22, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201122 : Biden's Deep State - ( Nov 22, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20201120 : Why Biden Will Keep the US-Imposed Cold War Rolling ( Nov 20, 2020 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20201119 : Why the Military Establishment Backed Biden ( Nov 19, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20201119 : Biden's beholden to big money defense industries Sanders' brother ( Nov 19, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201118 : Turns out war-enablers and war-profiteers are kosher so long as they're "woke" warmongers! ( Nov 18, 2020 , original.antiwar.com )
• 20201118 : A small but important correction in terminology: when they say "Joe Biden's Foreign Policy Team" they actually means "Citibank's foreign policy Team" ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201118 : China will be a problem for Biden, as he can't pursue rapprochement without being labeled as China stooge and bought politician ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201118 : One thing permanent in Washington swamp is the continuity of the USA neocon foreign policy ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201118 : Biden Administration will no doubt suffer the same fate if it seeks to reject or challenge Israel's ability to manipulate and virtually control key aspects of U.S. foreign policy. by Philip Giraldi ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20201118* When any Washington Swamp creature talks about "threats to US national security" in reality they are talking about threats to the USA global hegemony ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
• 20201118* A short summary of Trump achivements: Good -- a cut of State department regime change budget; Bad -- extra 149 billion to MIC via Pentagon budget ( Nov 18, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
• 20201117 : 'Back at the head of the table'- A look at Biden's foreign policy agenda ( Nov 17, 2020 , www.france24.com )
• 20201117 : -Imperialism In Pumps-- Greenwald Johnstone Go Off As Media Gushes Over Presumed Biden Pick For SecDef - ( Nov 17, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20201117 : If Biden's Serious About Bringing Back Diplomacy, He Should Make These Appointments - FPIF ( Nov 17, 2020 , fpif.org )
• 20201116 : Regretfully, US liberals now out-hawk conservatives in eagerness for aggression war -- RT Op-ed ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201116 : Video- Joe Biden Was Firmly Behind The 2003 Iraq War. Extensive War Crimes - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20201116 : Joe Biden's Victory Is Still a Loss for Humanity- -Good News for Corporations, Cops, War Profiteers and Banks- - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20201116 : Elephants in the Room- Why Do America and Britain Commit War Crimes- Neoliberalism and Predatory Capitalism - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20201116 : Progressive House Democrats urge Biden against Defense chief with contractor ties - TheHill ( Nov 16, 2020 , thehill.com )
• 20201116 : From the Revolving Doors of the Pentagon to the Biden Administration - Antiwar.com Blog ( Nov 16, 2020 , www.antiwar.com )
• 20201115 : 'Forever war' returns- Biden's Pentagon team puts the military-industrial complex back in command - reports -- RT USA News ( Nov 15, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201115 : Meet the Filthy Rich War Hawks That Make up the Joe Biden Foreign Policy Team by Alan MacLeod ( Nov 15, 2020 , www.mintpressnews.com )
• 20201114 : The return of the Obama 'adults' in a Joe Biden administration is likely to spell ruin for America by Scott Ritter ( Nov 14, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201114 : 'Forever war' returns- Biden's Pentagon team puts the military-industrial complex back in command - reports -- RT USA News ( Nov 14, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201113 : Neocons Poised to Join New Government by Phil Geraldi ( Nov 13, 2020 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20201113 : Biden is ab old, semi-senile, but still very dangerous neoliberal political shark, who was instrumental in the creation of Russiagate hoax and prosecution of General Flynn ( Nov 13, 2020 , www.amazon.com )
• 20201113 : With Biden at the helm, both Democrats and those Republicans (like Mitt Romney) who do not support Trump can push for further neoliberal, military and other activity against Russia in eastern Europe and Transcaucasia (Abkhazia, South Ossetia). They might also try to resurrect their war in Syria and ensure Syria can never get the Golan Heights back. ( Nov 13, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201110 : Biden relies on foreign policy advisors from the Obama administration. Yhey are members of the "Washington blob" and will provide continuity with past policies rooted in militarism and other abuses of power ( Nov 10, 2020 , dissidentvoice.org )
• 20201110 : Biden has a long history of being deeply culpable in human rights abuses ( Nov 10, 2020 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20201110 : NATO Declares Biden White House Will Finally Confront -Assertive Russia- - ( Nov 10, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20201110 : Biden -- A War Cabinet ( Nov 10, 2020 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20201110 : The war is over Global Capitalism triumphs! -- RT Op-ed ( Nov 10, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201109 : Joe Biden is no empty sheet, may well return to warmongering polices waged by US before 2016 former OSCE vice-presiden ( Nov 09, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201108 : After Trump, Throw Out the Old Foreign Policy Establishment, Too - FPIF ( Nov 08, 2020 , fpif.org )
• 20201108 : How Foreign Nations View the 2020 Election - The National Interest ( Nov 08, 2020 , nationalinterest.org )
• 20201108 : Giuliani says Philadelphia Democrats voted from the grave, says he'll prove fraud in court -- RT USA News ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201108 : Biden has vowed to regain the world's respect for the Outlaw US Empire, which begs this question: When did the world actually respect it? ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201108 : Weak presidents serve a purpose, which is to allow their handlers in the CIA/deep state to work unimpeded ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201108 : There is stong continuity of EMPIRE policy. Biden, Harris, Trump, Hillary, Obama, GWBush, Clinton all did or will do what the Deep State EMPIRE managers want them to ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201108 : The logic of finance is impregnating in every facet of American life and politics. The USA is consolidating itself more and more as an exclusively financial superpower. ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201108 : The Challenge for Joe Biden Reese Erlich ( Nov 08, 2020 , original.antiwar.com )
• 20201108 : Biden administration will find it hard to integrate itself in a world changed by Trump ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201108 : Most Russians Are Anxious About Biden, but the Kremlin May Prefer Him ( Nov 08, 2020 , foreignpolicy.com )
• 20201108* Neoliberal globalism has retaken the presidency. ( Nov 08, 2020 , www.unz.com ) [Recommended]
• 20201107 : The Task before -Sleepy Joe- is to put Liberal America Right Back to Sleep - Dissident Voice ( Nov 07, 2020 , dissidentvoice.org )
• 20201107 : Alliance of Liberals, Neocons Set to Shape US Foreign Policy ( Nov 07, 2020 , ronpaulinstitute.org )
• 20201107 : Tucker Carlson- A Biden victory would usher in the Age of Oligarchy - Fox News ( Nov 07, 2020 , www.foxnews.com )
• 20201106 : Postmodernist, in this context, usually means something like 'based on self-confident assertions that have no connection with reality ( Nov 06, 2020 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20201104 : Neocons flock to Biden- It's All About Jewish Values by Kevin MacDonald ( Nov 04, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20201025 : The Bidens "Did" Ukraine, There Was also Iraq And Serbia. ( Oct 25, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20201025 : Putin on NGO, color revolutions and "export of democracy" ( Oct 25, 2020 , valdaiclub.com )
• 20201019 : Hunter Biden's Laptop -Is Not Some Russian Disinformation Campaign-; DNI Ratcliffe Slams Schiff ( Oct 19, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20201019* The neocon/NATO aggressive expansionism and anti-Russian hysteria has many purposes, but one is surely domestic repression: to gaslight and cause fear-the-foreign-bogeyman trauma among the American and British people ( Oct 19, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
• 20201006 : -Joe Biden's 'war economy' policies are a radical break with the status quo.- Telegraph - Sic Semper Tyrannis ( Oct 06, 2020 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20201006 : In backing Biden, the leftist 'resistance' to Trump is perpetuating illegal US invasions wars, handing victory to the neocons -- RT Op-ed ( Oct 06, 2020 , www.rt.com )
• 20201005 : Neoliberal Newspeak dictionary: "tensions rising", "without evidence" and "US intelligence sources" ( ( Oct 05, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20201001* Why say riot when you can be vague and sensitive instead, AP Stylebook urges in newest Orwellian guidelines by Nebojsa Malic ( Oct 01, 2020 , www.rt.com ) [Recommended]
• 20201001 : Is Hannah Arendt idea of totalitarism bunk and its in certain proportions is immanent in all modern societies, especially neoliberal like the USA ( Oct 01, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20200928 : From Conflict to Crisis- The Danger of U.S. Actions by Jeanne M. Haskin ( Sep 28, 2020 , www.amazon.com )
• 20200922 : The hypocrisy of Western democracy promotion ( Sep 22, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200916 : Concerns about viability of democracy ( Sep 16, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20200914 : While We're at It by R. R. Reno ( Sep 14, 2020 , www.firstthings.com )
• 20200911 : Evangelists of Democracy - The National Interest ( Sep 11, 2020 , nationalinterest.org )
• 20200819* Democrats are in bed with the deep state, take billions from the largest corporations, and conduct the most undemocratic nominating process ever seen in the US, but thank God they are not fascists! ( Aug 19, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200802 : I can't see much distinction between Neoliberalism in its purest form and authoritarian Communism ( Aug 02, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20200719 : This sacred cow of illusion of American democracy is being threatened from all directions it seems. Democracy is great for whoever owns it, and whoever owns the media owns democracy. A cow well worth milking ( Jul 19, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200624 : Orwell called this "newspeak". That's now the language of libtards. ( Jun 24, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20200623* Identity politics is, first and foremost, a dirty and shrewd political strategy developed by the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party ( soft neoliberals ) to counter the defection of trade union members from the party ( Dec 28, 2019 , crookedtimber.org ) [Recommended]
• 20200616* "That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." by George Carlin ( Jun 16, 2020 , www.youtube.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200616* Krystal Ball: The American dream is dead, good riddance ( Jun 12, 2020 , www.youtube.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200616 : Neoliberalism and the USA: Americans are no longer a moral and religious people even though they present the trappings of such ( Jun 16, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20200616 : Progressive pseudo-democracy vs liberal democracy ( Jun 16, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20200616 : No form of the word 'democracy' is found in the US Declaration of Independence or Constitution. To the contrary, democracy is forbidden by Constitution Article IV Section 4. ( Jun 16, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20200610 : The Left and Wall Street are not going to go after each because at the moment they are allies pursuing a common goal; the dismantling of the traditional nation-state and its replacement by a new transnational system ( Jun 10, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20200609 : How Interventionists Hijack the Rhetoric of Morality ( Jun 09, 2020 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20200523 : Neoliberal ideology is often presented as a natural state. This deception is a central feature of neoliberalism, acting as a way of abdicating responsibility for harmful and selfish actions of financial oligarchy, and to prevent challenges to the financial oligarchy rule and debt slavery ( May 23, 2020 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20200523* Neoliberalism promised freedom instead it delivers stifling control by George Monbiot ( Apr 10, 2019 , www.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200522 : It is easy for chickenhawks to scream war war war but when their lives or their kid's lives on the line of fire most will ran away to Canada or Mexico ( May 22, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200514 : Hollowing out the classic culture is what all Postmodernism is about ( May 14, 2020 , www.unz.com )
• 20200416 : Postmodernism is a philosophical perspective that developed in the late twentieth century, having its sources in earlier philosophers such as Nietzsche and Heidegger, both of whom cut away at the notion of a stable, "objective" truth, the kind we use in everyday life and in science. ( Apr 16, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200405 : Hegemonic ideologies tend to naturalize socioculturally-generated pathologies, often dismissing them as "human nature." ( Apr 05, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200328* Neoliberal priorities: plenty of USG resources for Pentagon and to run pandemic war games but no money to create the most basic stockpiles (thermometers, face masks, gloves) ( Mar 21, 2020 , caucus99percent.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200322* Mask piracy among neoliberal nations: Wonderful show of world-wide solidarity ( Mar 21, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org ) [Recommended]
• 20200313 : This virus is revealing just how ineffective the neoliberal social Darwinist "every man for himself" ethos is and how deeply in denial and out of touch with reality these societies are ( Mar 13, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200310* Neoliberalism the ideology at the root of all our problems by George Monbiot ( Apr 16, 2016 , www.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200309* The Politics of Privatization How Neoliberalism Took Over US Politics by Brett Heinz ( Sep 08, 2017 , www.faireconomy.org ) [Recommended]
• 20200303 : The neoliberals' cultural stock is in decline. caucus99percent ( Mar 03, 2020 , caucus99percent.com )
• 20200229 : Boris Johnson s Incredible Landslide by Catte Black ( Dec 13, 2019 , off-guardian.org )
• 20200227 : Who Cares About the Truth by MICHAEL P. LYNCH ( Sep 10, 2004 , Free Republic )
• 20200227 : The Incoherence of the Philosophers The Horror of Postmodernism by The Liberal Moonbat ( Apr 16, 2018 , caucus99percent.com )
• 20200225* The Democrats' Quandary In a Struggle Between Oligarchy and Democracy, Something Must Give by Michael Hudson ( Feb 25, 2020 , www.nakedcapitalism.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200222 : Jane Mayer, Dark Money ( Feb 16, 2016 , www.youtube.com )
• 20200222* The Red Thread A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy by Diana West ( Feb 22, 2020 , www.amazon.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200222 : Diana West on influence of Comminist ideology on the US neoliberal elite and on neoliberalism as being Trotskyism for the rich ( Jan 13, 2020 , www.youtube.com )
• 20200207 : The favored candidate of the DNC is clearly Trump ( Feb 07, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200207 : The democratic party must be thee only political party in all world history that actively suppresses people who want to vote for them. ( Feb 07, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200207 : Unless They Change The Democrats Deserve To Lose ( Feb 07, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200207 : It should be clear on what the fight is really about in the US. It's about stopping the rise of socialism. Regardless of party affiliation, the elites know what the populace wants and are desperately trying to stop it. I refuse to accept that the Democrats have no idea what they're doing. ( Feb 07, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200201 : Neoliberalism is another Trotskyist attempt at convincing people they don't need nations anymore ( Feb 01, 2020 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20200124 : German Language Police Group Decides To 'UnWord' The Term Climate Hysteria by Paul Joseph Watson ( Jan 24, 2020 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20200119 : The neoliberal hopes -- and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too ( Jan 19, 2020 , jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com )
• 20200111* Atomization of workforce as a part of atomization of society under neoliberalism ( Apr 18, 2017 , www.nakedcapitalism.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200109 : Schadenfreude combined with tunnel vision ( Oct 31, 2019 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20200104* Critical thinking is anathema to the neoliberal establishment. That s why they need to corrupt the language, to make the resistance more difficult and requiring higher level of IQ ( Jan 17, 2019 , discussion.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20200101 : Radical "essentialist identity" left is just tools of financial oligarchy and/or stooges of intelligence agencies and always has been ( Jan 01, 2020 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20191229 : The Latin America now has an extremelly reactionary and parasitic upper middle class intristically connected and dependent on the goverment. They act as legitimate shock troops of the neoliberalism in their countries ( Dec 29, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20191229 : Bolsonaro counter-revolution was spearheaded by the Brazilian middle class, and not the capitalist class. This resulted in a chaotic counter-revolution where short-term individual interests of the middle upper class members (mainly from the judiciary power) predominate. ( Dec 29, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20191222 : This Is Neoliberalism: An Introducing the Invisible Ideology (Part 1) ( Mar 01, 2018 , www.youtube.com )
• 20191220 : Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone ( Dec 20, 2019 , www.amazon.com )
• 20191217 : Corbyn's problem was that he didn't rid of his Rightwing faction, including "Friends of Israel" in Leadership positions. ( Dec 17, 2019 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20191215 : Resolution - Craig Murray ( Dec 15, 2019 , craigmurray.org.uk )
• 20191214 : Blairites backstab Corbin: 80% of the MPs, local councillors, Union Officers and party officials were put there by the Blairites and are almost impossible to remove from the offices in which they have enormous potential influence. ( Dec 14, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20191213 : Who Are The Globalists And What Do They Want ( Dec 13, 2019 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20191202 : A bunch of neocons in key positions in Trump administration really represents a huge threat to world peace ( Oct 28, 2016 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20191202 : The Vichy left – essentially people who are ready to sacrifice all principles to ensure their own prosperity ( Oct 24, 2016 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20191201* Neoliberalism Tells Us We're Selfish Souls How Can We Promote Other Identities by Christine Berry, ( Nov 01, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com ) [Recommended]
• 20191121* How Neoliberal Thinkers Spawned Monsters They Never Imagined ( Nov 21, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com ) [Recommended]
• 20191114* Neoliberalism Paved the Way for Authoritarian Right-Wing Populism by Henry A. Giroux ( Sep 26, 2019 , truthout.org ) [Recommended]
• 20191113 : Bolivia is the same scenario than in the Ukraine, where communists and other opposed factions in Rada were beaten, covered in paint and thrown in waste containers...until they left the country. Remaining to be elected only those puppets of oligarchs or the US... Bolivia coup was orchestrated with direct assist of OAS analysis/report which identified alleged voting fraud ( Nov 13, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20191113 : Ecuador The Restoration of Neoliberalism and the Monroe Doctrine by Dr. Birsen Filip ( Nov 10, 2019 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20191113 : HARPER NEOCONS STILL PROMOTE PERMANENT REVOLUTION ( Nov 11, 2019 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20191112 : Ecuador The Restoration of Neoliberalism and the Monroe Doctrine - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Glo ( Nov 12, 2019 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20191111 : Bolivia is the same scenario than in the Ukraine, where communists and other opposed factions in Rada were beaten, covered in paint and thrown in waste containers...until they left the country. Remaining to be elected only those puppets of oligarchs or the US... Bolivia coup was orchestrated with direct assist of OAS analysis/report which identified alleged voting fraud ( Nov 11, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20191109 : Another humiliating blow to Latin-American neoliberalism ( Nov 09, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20191106* Neoliberalism was not conceived as a self-serving racket [of the financial oligarchy], but it rapidly became one ( Nov 06, 2019 , crookedtimber.org ) [Recommended]
• 20191104* Postmodernism The Ideological Embellishment of Neoliberalism by Vaska ( OffGuardian ) [Recommended]
• 20191104 : Mont Pelerin Society can be renamed into "The Committee for the adaptation of Trotskyism for the needs of financial oligarchy" ( Nov 04, 2019 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20191103 : Argentine President Mauricio Macri is gone; Is Brasil Jair Bolsonaro next? ( Nov 03, 2019 , caucus99percent.com )
• 20191101 : Orwell on corruption of the language ( Nov 01, 2019 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20191028 : Lenin 'Judas' Moreno Ecuador's Story of Betrayal and Resistance -- Strategic Culture ( Oct 28, 2019 , www.strategic-culture.org )
• 20191024 : The argument the Bolivian right-wing is using is exactly the same the Brazilian one used after the 2014 results: election fraud. ( Oct 24, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190922 : Society has been corrupted by the promotion of cost-benefit moral thinking to a point where nobody can be trusted to do their job if they think it might be better overall to act corruptly. ( Sep 04, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190917 : Now and again, both in professional political writings and here as I read, the term Trotskyism is used but though I have looked up the term a few times I have no real idea what it is supposed to mean. ( Sep 17, 2019 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20190913 : Me First and the Loss of Compassion by Volker Franke ( Sep 13, 2019 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20190910* How Deep Is the Rot in America s Institutions by Charles Hugh Smith ( Sep 09, 2019 , www.oftwominds.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190909 : I think the Car Wash conspiracy against Lula is a bombshell, and Pepe Escobar's prison interviews with Lula provide insight to the larger global Borgist conspiracy ( Sep 09, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190904 : 737 MAX - Boeing Insults International Safety Regulators As New Problems Cause Longer Grounding ( Sep 04, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190904 : Starving Seniors How America Fails To Feed Its Aging naked capitalism ( Sep 04, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190903 : An interesting analysis of Brazil right wing coup that restored neoliberals in power. ( Sep 03, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190902* Where is Margaret Thatcher now? ( Sep 02, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190902 : A Question of [Neoliberal] Character ( Aug 31, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190902* Questions Nobody Is Asking About Jeffrey Epstein by Eric Rasmusen ( Sep 02, 2019 , www.unz.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190826 : Neoliberal stooge Macri is out in Argentina a but the damage is done ( Aug 26, 2019 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20190825 : Brazil: From Global Leader to US Lapdog ( Aug 25, 2019 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20190825 : Thatcher's mantra TINA (There Is No Alternative) ( Aug 25, 2019 , off-guardian.org )
• 20190824 : Elusive and allusive indeterminacy characterizes everything in the culture of postmodernity ( Aug 24, 2019 , off-guardian.org )
• 20190824 : Russian trolls exiled from Guardian find home for their hate ( Aug 24, 2019 , off-guardian.org )
• 20190824 : Hate crime, like thought crime, is double-plus ungood ( Aug 24, 2019 , off-guardian.org )
• 20190823 : The Bolsano led Brazilian government, a govt elected by a collective hallunation might soon be defeated like in Argentina due to collapsing economics ( Aug 23, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190820 : Marci government was a tool of global investment banks, global money and the supranationals. And sure rgt devoure Argentina and pushed it again into debt slavery ( Aug 13, 2019 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20190816* Ministry of truth materialized in XXI century in a neoliberal way by Kit Knightly ( Aug 16, 2019 , off-guardian.org ) [Recommended]
• 20190816 : An interesting take on American Society today by Chris Hedges . ( Aug 16, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190812 : Argentine president suffers crushing defeat in key primaries ahead of general election ( Aug 12, 2019 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20190805 : Something about Department of Homeland Security ( Aug 05, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190804* We see that the neoliberal utopia tends imposes itself even upon the rulers. ( Aug 04, 2019 , jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190730 : Bolsonaro has announced he essentially sold the Amazon rainforest to the Americans ( Jul 30, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190727 : The Greeks have just committed suicide by electing the most fanatically neoliberal government ever ( Jul 27, 2019 , failedevolution.blogspot.com )
• 20190726 : Is the Left now ready for a counterattack in order to exterminate the neoliberal-far-right authoritarian beast ( Jul 25, 2019 , failedevolution.blogspot.com )
• 20190717 : It is neoliberalism since the late 70s that led to the trebling of personal debts on stagnant wages, and finally the collapse of the banks ( Dec 17, 2018 , profile.theguardian.com )
• 20190706 : It always seems very odd to me that so many people who think like that profess to be Christian. 'Poverty equals moral failure' is the complete opposite of what Jesus Christ got into so much trouble for saying. ( Jul 06, 2019 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20190702* Yep! The neolibs hate poor people and have superiority complex ( Apr 10, 2018 , www.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190629 : The Forever War Is So Normalized That Opposing It Is Isolationism by Caitlin Johnstone ( Jun 29, 2019 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20190627 : 300,000 demonstrate in Prague against right-wing Czech government by Markus Salzmann ( Jun 26, 2019 , www.wsws.org )
• 20190626 : Book Review John Patrick Leary's Keywords The New Language of Capitalism ( Jun 26, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190623 : Theory and practice of neoliberalism ( Mar 06, 2012 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20190623 : Is Democratic system theoretically sustainable? ( Mar 06, 2012 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20190623 : Argentina s Economic Misery Could Bring Populism Back to the Country by Peter S. Goodman ( May 10, 2019 , www.nytimes.com )
• 20190623 : Communism and neoliberalism were never as far apart as people imagined. Two sides of a coin. A theological dispute. ( Apr 11, 2019 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20190623 : The Right have been absolutely brilliant at media control and obfuscation. ( Mar 06, 2012 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20190623* These submerged policies obscure the role of government and exaggerate that of the market. As a result, citizens are unaware not only of the benefits they receive, but of the massive advantages given to powerful interests, such as insurance companies and the financial industry. ( Jun 23, 2019 , discussion.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190623* The return of fundamentalist nationalism is arguably a radicalized form of neoliberalism ( Jun 23, 2019 , discussion.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190623 : "Escobar: Brazilgate Is Turning Into Russiagate 2.0" ( Jun 23, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190620 : Using Democratic Institutions to Smash Democratic Aspirations (the Brazil Model) by Vijay Prashad ( Jun 20, 2019 , consortiumnews.com )
• 20190620 : Brazil under Bolsonaro A Different Form of Hybrid War ( Jun 20, 2019 , www.globalresearch.ca )
• 20190616 : The Neoliberal Rearguard: The potshot intelligentsia take aim at the far left ( Jun 16, 2019 , dissidentvoice.org )
• 20190613 : Leaked Messages Confirm Imprisonment of Brazil's Lula da Silva was Politically Motivated naked capitalism ( Jun 13, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190605* Taking a long view it was very astute and cleverly conceived plan to to present counter-revolution as revolution; progress as regress; the new order 1980- (i.e., neoliberalism) was cool, and the old order 1945-1975 (welfare-capitalism) was fuddy-duddy. ( Jun 05, 2019 , off-guardian.org ) [Recommended]
• 20190527 : To deny debate.. they simply engineer language ( May 27, 2019 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20190518 : Americans are good at Doublethink. ( May 18, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190427 : Hate speach and neoliberal concept of utility ( Apr 27, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190427* Why despite widespread criticism, neoliberalism remains the dominant politico-economic theory amongst policy-makers both in the USA and internationally ( Apr 27, 2019 , angrybearblog.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190425 : Multipolarity has taken a back seat. Europe remains a vassal. There are no prospects for european independence from the looks of it. ( Apr 25, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190402 : There will be backlash against the fascists in Brazil, and the right wing leaderships in governments elsewhere in Latin America that the US has maneuvered into place as these leaders fail to deliver material gains to their populations. And fail they will considering we are in late-stage neoliberalism ( Apr 02, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190318* Journalists who are spies ( Mar 03, 2006 , www.nytimes.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190318* The Why are the media playing lapdog and not watchdog – again – on war in Iraq? ( Oct 10, 2014 , The Guardian ) [Recommended]
• 20190317 : Yes, Minister was a neoliberal attack on government as such. It set the entrepreneurial political hero/leader against the corrupt civil service ( Apr 27, 2017 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190307 : Op-Ed Chaos in the West shows that democracy comes in more than one flavor - People's Daily Online by Curtis Stone, Chengliang Wu ( Mar 01, 2019 , en.people.cn )
• 20190304 : Communitarianism or Populism: The Ethic of Compassion and the Ethic of Respect ( Jan 13, 2017 , www.theworkingcentre.org )
• 20190227 : UK's panicked neoliberal regime desperate to build a third loyal party to halt Corbyn's progressive counterattack ( Feb 27, 2019 , failedevolution.blogspot.com )
• 20190226 : It would seem that many of the Trotskyites of the past have now become neocons favouring capitalism and imperialist military intervention under guise of human rights promotion, as have some other communists ( Feb 26, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190226* Neoliberalism by Julie Wilson ( Oct 09, 2017 , www.amazon.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190226* THE CRISIS OF NEOLIBERALISM by Julie A. Wilson ( Oct 08, 2017 , www.amazon.com ) [Recommended]
• 20190213 : It is hard not to wonder just how neoliberal ideas and values, which uphold the rationality of the market and exclude notions of the common good, came to shape the conduct of individuals and institutions. ( Dec 24, 2018 , news.yahoo.com )
• 20190213 : A glossary of exploitive economics: 'Lean in' and 8 other bad business buzzwords that should be phased out written by Yes! Magazine and TruthDig A radical pessimist's glossary of exploitative economics. ( Jan 17, 2019 , www.alternet.org )
• 20190212 : How Neoliberalism Is Normalising Hostility ( Feb 12, 2019 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20190211 : Many meaning of the word "free" are different from the "free from coercion" adopted by the Neoliberal Newspeak ( Feb 11, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190209 : Neoliberalism's collapse is probably inevitable but what will come next is completely unclear ( Feb 09, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190204 : Orwell, in his book, 1984 wrote that the government had two terms: Oldspeak and Newspeak. One was not permitted to use old speak ( Feb 04, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190202 : In Fiery Speeches, Francis Excoriates Global Capitalism ( Jul 11, 2015 , msn.com )
• 20190202 : Brazil, Fascism and the Left Wing of Neoliberalism ( Feb 02, 2019 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20190129* The Language of Neoliberal Education by Henry Giroux ( Dec 25, 2018 , www.counterpunch.org ) [Recommended]
• 20190124 : Stockman about Vichy left ( Jan 24, 2019 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20190124 : Nancy Pelosi fits the classic Soviet politburo member with their private dachas on the Black Sea. Nancy believes she is now the opposition leader with the mandate from the Party of Davos to ensure the defeat of Trump ( Jan 24, 2019 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20190121 : Liberal Critics of neoliberalism by Gerald J. Russello ( Jan 21, 2019 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20190119 : Differences between the Chinese and the USA versions of neoliberalism ( Jan 19, 2019 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20190117 : Brasil neoliberal counterevolution by James Petras ( Jan 08, 2019 , www.unz.com )
• 20190104 : How neoliberalism is damaging your mental health ( Jan 04, 2019 , theconversation.com )
• 20181227 : The MSM are hardly going to publish this article, nor are they going to reference it, why should they? It goes against everything they have been fighting for and the tin ear of their readership are unwilling to change teir views. The only thing that they understand is money and they work for to further the concentration of wealth. ( Dec 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181227 : All talk about "small government" and "slashing red tape" it is NeeSpeak for small government and NO red tape for the rich ( Dec 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181223 : Generation Wealth documentarian Lauren Greenfield on how the rich are destroying civilization by Keith A. Spencer ( Dec 02, 2018 , www.salon.com )
• 20181222 : The Vocabulary of Economic Deception by Michael Hudson and Bonnie Faulkner ( Dec 22, 2018 , www.unz.com )
• 20181216 : Polarizing Development Alternatives to Neoliberalism and the Crisis by Lucia Pradella, Thomas Marois ( Dec 16, 2018 , www.amazon.com )
• 20181214 : Hidden neoliberal inner party : US chamber of commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and The Business Roundtable ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181214 : Why It's So Hard for Most Countries to be Economically Independent from the West by Justin Podur ( Dec 13, 2018 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20181205 : Travesty of neoliberalism by Frank Wilhoit ( Dec 05, 2018 , www.bradford-delong.com )
• 20181127 : Why social security became welfare under neoliberalism ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181127* terms that carry with them implicit moral connotations. Investment implies an action, even a sacrifice, undertaken for a better future. It evokes a future positive outcome. Another words that reinforces neoliberal rationality is "growth", Modernization and ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20181127 : Language is the first victim of any hegemonic project. This is true for communism, fascism and neoliberalism ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181127 : Why the fact the neoliberal MSM avoiv the work "neoliberalism" is important: the unwillingness to even call a spade a spade has political consequences ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181127* The Argentinian military coup, like those in Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Nicaragua, was sponsored by the US to protect and further its interests during the Cold War. By the 1970s neoliberalism was very much part of the menu; paramilitary governments were actively encouraged to practice neoliberal politics; neoliberalism was at this stage, what communism was to the Soviet Union ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20181127 : There is a neat cross-over here between neo-liberal discourses and the use of language by the military. Not only does this extend to the general diffusion of certain key phrases, but I think it also runs deeper. Just as the elision of meaning in the language of war facilitates the perpetuation of abuses and war crimes, so the neo-lib discourse permits the perpetuation of questionable economic activity, even as this presents itself in the unquestionable guise of "common sense" ( Nov 27, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20181126 : Language is a mental battlefield ( Nov 26, 2018 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20181126 : Neoliberalism has hijacked our vocabulary by Doreen Massey ( Jun 11, 2013 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20181125 : The Neoliberal World is a Vicious Place by Sandwichman ( Nov 23, 2018 , angrybearblog.com )
• 20181122 : Neoliberalism claw back Brazil ( Nov 22, 2018 , thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com )
• 20181108 : Imperialism and the State: Why McDonald s Needs McDonnell Douglas by Paul D'Amato ( Nov 08, 2018 , www.isreview.org )
• 20181025 : Has America Become A Dictatorship Disguised As A Democracy ( Oct 25, 2018 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20181022 : Neoliberal US has no concept of solidarity. ( Oct 22, 2018 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20180927 : Trump very clearly represents the folks behind the curtain of the Western private finance led "culture" ( Sep 27, 2018 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20180927* Hiding in Plain Sight Why We Cannot See the System Destroying Us ( Sep 27, 2018 , www.counterpunch.org ) [Recommended]
• 20180907 : Neoliberal Totalitarianism And The Social Contract Countercurrents ( Sep 07, 2018 , countercurrents.org )
• 20180907* Neomodernism - Wikipedia ( Sep 07, 2018 , en.wikipedia.org ) [Recommended]
• 20180828* A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes ( Mar 23, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com ) [Recommended]
• 20180817 : Neocons and [neo]Liberals Join Forces to Fight Populism by Paul Gottfried ( Aug 13, 2018 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20180813 : Corporate Capitalists Killed American Identity by David Masciotra ( Aug 10, 2018 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20180811 : Neoliberal language allows powerful groups to package their personal preferences as national interest ( Jun 06, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com )
• 20180803 : Latin America: Reforms Which Deform ( Aug 03, 2018 , www.unz.com )
• 20180729 : The Middle Precariat: The Downwardly Mobile Middle Class by Lynn Parramore ( Jul 26, 2018 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20180724 : Bernie Sanders embraces the anti-Russia campaign by Patrick Martin ( Jul 23, 2018 , www.wsws.org )
• 20180722 : Bureaucracies, Markets, and the Loss of Municipal Citizenship ( Jul 22, 2018 , new-compass.net )
• 20180621 : Mexican Business Elite, US Government, Brace for Likely Win by Leftist Obrador as Mexico's President by Yves Smith ( Jun 21, 2018 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20180609 : What Goes Around: "Trampling on the Helpless Abroad" Comes Home ( Jun 09, 2018 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20180606* Neoliberal language allows to cut wages by packaging neoliberal oligarchy preferences as national interests ( Jun 06, 2018 , discussion.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20180605 : Tim Winton on class and neoliberalism 'We're not citizens but economic players' Books The Guardian ( Jun 05, 2018 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20180603 : "Teen Culture" is the New Imperialism, and it is Destroying the World ( Jun 02, 2018 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20180528 : Whenever I read anything purporting to identify international bad guys and good guys, I always like to ask: Who has this purported bad guy invaded recently? How many bombs has this bad guy dropped on other people s countries? ( May 09, 2018 , www.unz.com )
• 20180520* Yes, Neoliberalism Is a Thing. Don't Let Economists Tell You Otherwise naked capitalism ( May 20, 2018 , www.nakedcapitalism.com ) [Recommended]
• 20180514 : In an ongoing operation, the US imperialist hawks seek to wipe out the last Leftist govements in LA ( May 14, 2018 , failedevolution.blogspot.gr )
• 20180513 : Neoliberal Defenestration and the Overton Window by Stephen Martin ( May 11, 2018 , www.counterpunch.org )
• 20180513 : Fighting unending wars across thousands of miles of the planet for almost 17 years without end, while making the president into a global assassin, is the necessary course of action under neoliberalism as the goal is to preserve and expande global, led by the USA neoliberal empire using power of bayonets ( May 13, 2018 , www.unz.com )
• 20180509* Trotskyist Delusions, by Diana Johnstone ( May 05, 2018 , www.unz.com ) [Recommended]
• 20180427 : Chomsky joined Vichy left on Syria ( Apr 27, 2018 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20180423* Neoliberals are statists, much like Trotskyites are ( Apr 23, 2018 , americanaffairsjournal.org ) [Recommended]
• 20180423 : Cutting Capitalism Out of Our Relationships by William C. Anderson ( Apr 23, 2018 , www.truth-out.org )
• 20180423* How Neoliberalism Worms Its Way Into Your Brain by Nathan J. Robinson ( Apr 23, 2018 , www.currentaffairs.org ) [Recommended]
• 20180423 : Neoliberalism is not just an economic policy, it is a project of "full spectrum dominance" of the human psyche. It is an indoctrination that tells people to be more efficient, to schedule and micromanage their lives as to increase productivity ( Apr 23, 2018 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20180416 : The Incoherence of the Philosophers The Horror of Postmodernism by The Liberal Moonbat ( Apr 15, 2018 , caucus99percent.com )
• 20180413 : Embodying the Sexual Limits of Neoliberalism by Sealing Cheng ( Apr 13, 2018 , sfonline.barnard.edu )
• 20180410 : The brand of [neoliberal] "rationality" when the market interest is the only rational motive that too many people in the West subscribe to is a brand of smug pseudoreligious fanaticism that is itself "irrational." ( Apr 10, 2018 , turcopolier.typepad.com )
• 20180409 : Former President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa shut down the US base at Manta. His successor, Lenin Moreno, has proven to be some kind of neoliberal mole ( Apr 09, 2018 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20180301 : The idea of success at any cost, trampling on other people, has always been popular in the United States ( Mar 01, 2018 , www.unz.com )
• 20180215 : The oligarchy's desire to turn the clock back to 'the good old days' knows no bounds -- they want it all and they want it know; they're absolute ideal state for all us ordinary types would be a return to feudalism, so I guess bringing back slavery, all be it with a shiny new coat of point, is pretty much to be expected... ( Feb 15, 2018 , www.moonofalabama.org )
• 20180210* More on neoliberal newspeak of US propaganda machine ( Feb 10, 2018 , consortiumnews.com ) [Recommended]
• 20180106 : Selling Out Argentina's Future -- Again naked capitalism ( Jan 06, 2018 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20171224* Laudato si by Pope Francis ( May 24, 2015 , 5w2.vatican.va ) [Recommended]
• 20171222 : Latin America The Pendulum Swings to the Right, by James Petras ( Dec 22, 2017 , www.unz.com )
• 20171216 : Brexit, Trump, and the Dangers of Global 'Jihad' HuffPost by Ben Railton ( Dec 11, 2017 , www.huffingtonpost.com )
• 20171212 : The neoliberal revolution by Sean Michael Butler ( Dec 12, 2017 , seanmichaelbutler.wordpress.com )
• 20171210 : Neoliberlaism is barbarism ( Dec 10, 2017 , www.defenddemocracy.press )
• 20171130 : The Dog that Didn't Bark, by Israel Shamir - The Unz Review ( Nov 30, 2017 , www.unz.com )
• 20171128 : The Stigmatization of the Unemployed ( Mar 20, 2011 , naked capitalism )
• 20171009 : Amazon.com Empire of Illusion The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges ( Oct 09, 2017 , www.amazon.com )
• 20171001* Bulletproof Neoliberalism by Paul Heideman ( Oct 01, 2017 , www.jacobinmag.com ) [Recommended]
• 20171001* Attempts to buy US elections using perverted notion of free speech were deliberate. This is an immanent feature of neoliberalism which being Trotskyism for the rich deny democracy for anybody outside the top one percent (or, may be, top 10-20 percent) ( www.jacobinmag.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170920 : The political history of the second half of the 20th century could be summarized as the conflict between its two ideologies -- Keynesian social democracy and neoliberalism, which managed to displace Keynesianism as a dominant ideology in 70th and in turn entered the crisis in 2008 ( Sep 20, 2017 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20170919 : Goodbye neoliberalism, hello common good by Robin Le Mare ( Sep 19, 2017 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20170919 : How neoliberalism left a toxic legacy ( Sep 19, 2017 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20170919 : The political project of neoliberalism, brought to ascendence by Thatcher and Reagan, has pursued two principal objectives. The first has been to dismantle any barriers to the exercise of unaccountable private power. The second had been to erect them to the exercise of any democratic public will ( Sep 19, 2017 , www.theguardian.com )
• 20170918 : End Democracy Promotion Balderdash by James Bovard ( Aug 13, 2017 , ronpaulinstitute.org )
• 20170918 : Americas Deadliest Export -- Democracy - The Truth about US Foreign Policy and Everything Else by Gary Corseri ( Amazon.com )
• 20170918 : Down With Western Democracy ! ( Aug 02, 2014 , CounterPunch )
• 20170918 : A Foreign Enemy is a Tyrants Best Friend ( Jul 28, 2015 , Antiwar.com )
• 20170916* The Transformation of the American Dream ( Sep 16, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170913* A despot in disguise: one mans mission to rip up democracy by George Monbiot ( Sep 13, 2017 , www.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170911* Neoliberalism is creating loneliness. That's what is wrenching society apart by George Monbiot ( Oct 12, 2016 , www.theguardian.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170905* Is the World Slouching Toward a Grave Systemic Crisis by Philip Zelikow ( Sep 05, 2017 , www.theatlantic.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170905* A State of Neoliberalism ( Nov 16, 2016 , rashidmod.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170819 : Vassal Aristocracies Increasingly Resist Control by US Aristocracy by Eric Zuesse ( Aug 14, 2017 , www.unz.com )
• 20170815 : The Neoconservative Movement is Trotskyism by Jonas E. Alexis ( Aug 15, 2017 , www.veteranstoday.com )
• 20170708 : How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown (w- Philip Mirowski) ( Mar 04, 2015 , www.youtube.com )
• 20170701 : The Corporate Contradictions of Neoliberalism by David Ciepley ( consortiumnews.com )
• 20170617 : In cyberpunk, there are no more grand narratives about progress and triumph. Humans have nowhere to go and decay is globalized by Robert Mariani ( Jun 01, 2017 , theamericanconservative.com )
• 20170617 : Trotskyism and cultural Marxism ( Jun 12, 2017 , en.wikipedia.org )
• 20170525 : Yes, Virginia (Dare) There is a Cultural Marxism–and Its Taking Over Conservatism Inc by Paul Gottfried ( May 25, 2017 , www.unz.com )
• 20170505 : How to Bring Down the Elephant in the Room by the Saker ( Apr 16, 2017 , www.unz.com )
• 20170325 : What is Economism and why it is so damaging ( Jan 20, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170323 : Neoliberalism as a flavor of economism ( Wikipedia )
• 20170311 : Apparently, most Democrats are now defending the CIA [and bashing the US constitution] and trashing WikiLeaks ( Mar 11, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170310 : As Joan Robinson said you should study economics to protect yourself from the lies of economists ( Mar 10, 2017 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20170226 : If one takes it as a matter of faith (religious or secular) that human activity inherently leads to good outcomes thatll be a huge influence on how you engage with the world. It blows away humility and restraint. It fosters a sense of entitlement ( Feb 26, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170220 : Social contract is the key. And it was abolished with the ascendance of neoliberalism with its wolf eats wolf philosophy of individual responsibility read the law of jungles instituted in the job market ( Feb 20, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170124 : One way to sum up neoliberalism is to say that everything-everything-is to be made over in the image of the market, including the state, civil society, and of course human beings ( Jan 24, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170123* One way to sum up neoliberalism is to say that everything-everything-is to be made over in the image of the market, including the state, civil society, and of course human beings ( Jan 23, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com ) [Recommended]
• 20170123 : This is our neoliberal nightmare Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and why the market and the wealthy win every time - Salon.com ( Jan 23, 2017 , www.salon.com )
• 20170122 : Neoliberalism may have been in part so successful because it appeals to (and tries to explain many things in terms of) a narrative of competition (and assignment of reward and acknowedlgement) by merit ( Jan 22, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170121 : Disillusioned in Davos ( Jan 21, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170116 : The Cost of Davos Man's Protectionism ( Jan 16, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170113 : Making America Great Again Isnt Just About Money and Power ( Jan 13, 2017 , www.nytimes.com )
• 20170113 : They pretend to make statements that corresponded to reality, and we pretend to believe them. ( Jan 08, 2017 , www.amazon.com )
• 20170113 : Hypernormalisation ( Jan 08, 2017 , www.zerohedge.com )
• 20170107 : The results of November 2016 Presidential elections are yet another sign of the crisis of neoliberal ideology and, especially, Trotskyism (usually presented as neoconservatism) part of it (neoliberalism can be viewed as Trotskyism for the rich). ( Aug 29, 2016 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170103 : Republicans in House Vote to Curtail Power of Ethics Office ( Jan 03, 2017 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20170102 : Neoliberals hate government policies, unless they increase thier ability to make profits ( economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20161221 : The widespread belief of neoliberals that they are entitled to a good hand in the market economy casino. This is reflected in the more or less universal belief of the affluent that ( Dec 21, 2016 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20161205 : The most powerful force in Presidential election 2016 is the sense of betrayal pervading our politics, especially among Democratic electorate ( Aug 12, 2016 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20161204 : The Neoliberal State by John Gray ( Jan 01, 2007 , www.newstatesman.com )
• 20161121 : Legutko On The Trump Moment by Rod Dreher ( Nov 21, 2016 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20161115 : Yevgeny Rublev: Ideological weapon of globalism. Feminism ( Nov 15, 2016 , eadaily.com )
• 20161115 : Yevgeny Rublev: Ideological weapon of globalism. Multiculturalism ( Nov 15, 2016 , eadaily.com )
• 20161103 : I doubt that "Neolib/Neocon orthodoxy" that is really completely dominant in the USA can be viewed as a flavor of conservatism. IMHO it's actually more resembles Trotskyism with its idea of "world revolution" and classic Marxist slogan "Working Men of All Countries, Unite!" ( Nov 03, 2016 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20161029 : A Trotskyist in his student days, Kristol has moved in stages to the right, first becoming a liberal anticommunist, then a conservative antiliberal. ( Oct 29, 2016 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20161029 : The level of militarism in the current US society and MSM is really staggering. anti-war forces are completely destroyed (with the abandonment of draft) and are limited for ( Oct 29, 2016 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20161028 : Americas Vichy Regime ( Apr 21, 2011 , www.americanthinker.com )
• 20161025 : Krugman - a Vichy Left coward? ( Jan 27, 2016 , larspsyll.wordpress.com )
• 20161015 : That the economic system is being cannibalized to generate the outsized economic claims on income for capital and their minions among the executive classes ( Oct 15, 2016 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20161005 : Diversity McCarthyism ( Oct 05, 2016 , www.theamericanconservative.com )
• 20161005 : Social Justice and Neoliberal Discourse ( Oct 05, 2016 , muse.jhu.edu )
• 20161005 : They forget that the final lines of Animal Farm arent just an indictment of the pigs (Communist nomenklatura) for being no better than the men (capitalists) but also of the men for being no better than the pigs ( Oct 05, 2016 , crookedtimber.org )
• 20160918 : Protesting Youth in the Age of Neoliberal Cruelty by Henry A. Giroux ( www.truth-out.org )
• 20160916 : Glamorisation of the rich as alpha males under neoliberalism and randism ( Dec 31, 2015 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20160915 : The utter disregard of the winners towards the losers under neoliberalims helps to bring about the popularity of people like Trump ( Aug 29, 2016 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20160915 : Satyajit Das The Business of Politics naked capitalism by Satyajit Das ( Sep 15, 2016 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20160915 : The Voluntarism Fantasy ( economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20160915 : Marxists and Conservatives Have More in Common than Either Side Would Like to Admit ( Aug 15, 2015 , Economist's View )
• 20160821 : Dystopia Regarding Neoconservative, Neoliberal Newspeak by Hamid Golpira ( Oct 03, 2006 , Big Medicine )
• 20160818 : Neoliberalism has a distorted or atrophied sense of the relationship between solidarity and the consent of the governed, between democracy and legitimacy, or more generally, between the individual and the collective. Neoliberals are happy to accept whatever loyalty up they are given by fools and suckers: they have no loyalty down at all and will never do the elementary political operations of repaying their base ( crookedtimber.org )
• 20150822 : Why Is Market Fundamentalism So Tenacious ( www.resilience.org )
• 20150628 : IMF and Germany Are Hell-Bent on Finishing Off Even a Moderate Left in Greece ( Jun 28, 2015 , Truthout )
• 20150627 : The Bankruptcy of Americas Elites naked capitalism ( June 26, 2015 , nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20150627 : Greece: Its the Politics, Stupid! ( Jun 27, 2015 , Economist's View )
• 20150627 : Breaking Greece ( Breaking Greece, Jun 27, 2015 )
• 20150627 : Tsipras Bailout Referendum Sham naked capitalism ( June 27, 2015 , economistsview.typepad.com )
• 20150623 : Bill Black: A Harvard Don is Enraged that Pope Francis is Opposed to the World Economic Order ( Jun 23, 2015 , www.nakedcapitalism.com )
• 20150619 : The Undiplomatic Diplomat ( Jun 19, 2015 , Foreign Policy )
• 20150612 : The West opens a second front against the Russian elite in Ukraine - Fort Russ ( June 12, 2015 , Pravoye Delo )
• 20150609 : People and Power – The Technology Threat ( Jun 09, 2015 , naked capitalism )
• 20150607 : CEO Pay Fueled Top 1% Income Growth ( CEO Pay Fueled Top 1% Income Growth, Jun 07, 2015 )
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Old News ;-)

[Jul 03, 2021] The Descent Into (Utter) Orwellian Madness

Jul 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Stephen Karganovic via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Little wonder that here and there sanity nostalgia is gripping the Western world, at least those isolated portions of it that are not internalising the sinister "new normal." But it is seemingly to no avail. All commanding positions are firmly in the hands of lunatics, who are determined to turn a once great and exemplary civilisation into an asylum.

As George Orwell has taught us, language manipulation is at the frontline (yes, I have just broken one of the cardinal rules of his " Politics and the English Language ," but not his final injunction to "break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous") of politicised mind-bending. The sort of language we are permitted to use circumscribes the thinking that we shall be allowed to engage in. The assault on language is, therefore, an integral component of the unrelenting warfare being waged for the conquest and control of the mind. Word elimination and reassignment of meaning, as Orwell also presciently noted, are essential elements of the campaign to reformat the mind and eventually to subjugate it.

A breath-taking example of how this process works was recently unveiled by the thoroughly brain-washed students of the once prestigious Brandeis University who, this time without prompting from their faculty elders and betters, voted to ban from their campus such odious words and phrases as "picnic" and "you guys," for being "oppressive". "Picnic" is prohibited because it allegedly evokes the lynching of Blacks.

The precocious young intellectuals took pains to produce an entire list of objectionable words and phrases, shocking award-winning novelist Joyce Carol Oates who tweeted in bewilderment: "What sort of punishment is doled out for a faculty member who utters the word 'picnic' at Brandeis? Or the phrase [also proscribed – S.K.] 'trigger warning'? Loss of tenure, public flogging, self-flagellation?"

All three punishments will probably be applied to reactionary professors who go afoul of the list's rigorous linguistic requirements.

Not to be outdone by the progressive kids on the East Coast, avant-garde California legislators have passed a law to remove the pronoun "he" from state legal texts. The momentous reform was initiated by California's new attorney general, Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who after looking up the job requirements made the shocking discovery that the law assumed that the attorney general would be a man.

Upon review, it turned out that the state code and other legal documents were enabling unacceptable concepts by using pronouns "he," "him" and "his" when referring to the attorney general and other state-wide elected officials. Appalled, Ms. Bauer-Kahan denounced these linguistic lapses for not representing "where California is and where California is going." She inarguably was right on that score at least, which has perhaps also something to do with the massive exodus of California residents to less complicated parts of the country.

When lawmakers of a state which is rapidly turning into a North American Calcutta have no concerns more pressing than to revise the use of pronouns in official documents, that sends a clear message where that state is going, exactly as the smart and thoroughly up-to-date woman said.

But as a Pakistani immigrant father in Seattle, state of Washington, discovered to his chagrin, the linguistic clowning can have very serious personal and political consequences. After checking in his 16-year-old autistic son for treatment in what he thought was a medical facility, Ahmed was shocked to receive a telephone call where a social worker explained to him that the child he had originally entrusted to the medical authorities as a son was actually transgender and must henceforth, under legal penalty of removal, be referred to and treated as a "daughter."

Coming from a traditional society still governed by tyrannical precepts of common sense and not accustomed to the ways of the asylum where in search of a better life he and his family inadvertently ended up, the father (a title that like mother, now officially "number one parent," is also on the way out ) was able to conceive his tragic predicament only by weaving a complex conspiracy theory:

"They were trying to create a customer for their gender clinic . . . and they seemed to absolutely want to push us in that direction. We had calls with counsellors and therapists in the establishment, telling us how important it is for him to change his gender, because that's the only way he's going to be better out of this suicidal depressive state."

Since in the equally looney state of Washington the age when minors can request a gender-change surgery without parental consent is 13, the Pakistani parents saw clearly the writing on the wall and, bless them, they came up with a clever stratagem to outwit their callous ideological tormentors. Ahmed "assured Seattle Children's Hospital that he would take his son to a gender clinic and commence his son's transition. Instead, he collected his son, quit his job, and moved his family of four out of Washington."

Perhaps feeling the heat from the linguistic Gestapo even in his celebrity kitchen, iconic chef Jamie Oliver has come on board. Absurdly, Jamie vowed fealty to the ascendant normal by dropping the term "Kaffir lime leaves" from his recipes , in fear that the alleged "historically racist slur" would offend South Africans. No evidence at all has been furnished or demanded of complaints from South Africa in that regard. But it speaks volumes that someone of Jamie's influence and visibility should nevertheless deem it prudent to anticipate such criticism even though, should it have materialised, it of course would not originate from South Africa but from white Western political correctness commissars.

Jamie is now busy, but not just cooking. He is going over his previously published recipes in order to expunge all offensive references to kefir leaves. Orwell aficionados will recall this precious passage from 1984 : "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered." And now every recipe as well. The dystopia fits, does it not, to a tee even something as seemingly trivial as a cooking show?

But it is not just recipes. Children's fairy tales are also fair game for 1984 revision. Hollywood actress Natalie Portman ( Star Wars , The Professional , Thor ), inspired apparently by the new cultural normal, has taken it upon herself not to write, but to re-write, several classic fairy tales to make them "gender-neutral," so "children can defy gender stereotypes." Predictably, pronouns were again a major target:

"I found myself changing the pronouns in many of their books because so many of them had overwhelmingly male characters, disproportionate to reality," quoth Natalie as she put her linguistic scalpel to such old favourites as The Tortoise and the Hare , Country Mouse and City Mouse and The Three Little Pigs .

Need we go on, or does the sharp reader already get the general drift? How about State University of New York student Owen Stevens , who was suspended and censured for pointing out on his Instagram the ascertainable biological fact that "A man is a man, a woman is a woman. A man is not a woman and a woman is not a man." (Owen was snitched on by fellow students, readers from the former Eastern bloc will be amused to learn.) Or the Nebraska university basketball coach who was suspended for using in a motivational speech the mysteriously offensive word "plantation"? Or the hip $57,000-a-year NYC school that banned students from saying "mom" and "dad" , from asking where classmates went on vacation or wishing anyone "Merry Christmas" or even "Happy Holidays"? Or female university student Lisa Keogh in Scotland who said in class "women have vaginas" (who would be better informed than she on that subject?) and are "not as strong as men", who is facing disciplinary action by the university after fellow classmates complained about her "offensive and discriminatory" comments? Or Spanish politician Francisco José Contreras whose Twitter account was blocked as a warning for 12 hours after he tweeted what some would regard as the self-evident truth that "men cannot get pregnant" because they have "no uterus or eggs"?

As Peter Hitchens noted recently "the most bitterly funny story of the week is that a defector from North Korea thinks that even her homeland is 'not as nuts' as the indoctrination now forced on Western students."

One of Yeonmi Park's initial shocks upon starting classes at Colombia University was to be met with a frown after revealing to a staff member that she enjoyed reading Jane Austen. "Did you know," Ms. Park was sternly admonished, "that those writers had a colonial mind-set? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you."

But after encountering the new requirement for the use of gender-neutral pronouns, Yeonmi concluded: "Even North Korea is not this nuts North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy." Devastatingly honest, but not exactly a compliment to what once might have been the land of her dreams.

Sadly, Hitchens reports that her previous experience served Yeonmi well to adapt to her new situation: "She came to fear that making a fuss would affect her grades and her degree. Eventually, she learned to keep quiet, as people do when they try to live under intolerant regimes, and let the drivel wash over her."

Eastern European readers will unfailingly understand what it is that Hitchens meant to say.

ay_arrow

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Plus Size Model 9 hours ago

No worries! We're talking about two different things. You explicitly mentioned meanings of words in your initial post. Now you're also alluding to what a psyop officer would describe as manipulating the cognitive environment of a target group. Cognitive manipulation is a much larger toolbox and involves things like perception management, information management, memory retrieval, what old timers refer to as symbol manipulation, etc.

In psychological warfare literature, symbols are somewhat of a mental bookmark. You can really mess people up by altering the bookmarks slightly or changing around the files they reference in a prolonged campaign.

The Nazi swastika is probably the most successful symbol manipulation campaign ever. It means different things to different people and these meanings have evolved substantially over time. Each new generation and is indoctrinated with different presentations of the swastika. The wide latitude of interpretation and extreme views associated with it have consistently created huge social flash points over the past 90 years.

Lorenz Feedback 9 hours ago

I think somethings are being overlooked on this point, Semantic prosody concerns itself with the way unusual combinations of words can create intertextual 'resonance' and can suggest speaker/writer attitude and opinion. Consider the difference with using very powerful versus utterly compelling when presenting an argument. Some words shape narratives better than others and trigger a response well known to advertisers and propagandists...and help shape public opinion.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55272357.pdf

Lordflin 9 hours ago

Yes... changing the context of words has a huge impact...

ie the word white is now seen in the context of numerous pejoratives...

Cautiously Pessimistic 10 hours ago

I fit in here in America less and less with each passing year. I feel like a stranger in my own country at times. I am sure that is by design.

Max Power 9 hours ago

On the other hand, as soon as people encounter real problems like hunger, bankruptcy, or homelessness, all this ivy league brainwashing evaporates in an instance. Just a stupid game played by wealthy white libtards believing in fairytales.

[Jun 22, 2021] The US was overtaken by ex-Trotskyites in the form of Neocons, eg. Irving Kristol. They redefined the US from a nation-state into an ideological state, as the Soviet Union had been.

Jun 22, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Weaver , Jun 22 2021 19:35 utc | 15

VK,

The US is not capitalist. There are no "capitalist powers." There are only managerial states. Read Orwell who, yes, was a socialist.

The US was overtaken by ex-Trotskyites in the form of Neocons, eg. Irving Kristol. They redefined the US from a nation-state into an ideological state, as the Soviet Union had been. But we do not have any particular ideology here; the ideology is always changing.

The US empire does not serve the interests of the American people, you'll agree. But it's not as simple as "capitalism." These ideological battles are theatre. They are not the real battles. They are pretend religions, like sports teams, which motivate and justify war for two different elites.

Read James Burnham, another ex-Trotskyite, on Machiavellians and, separately, on the managerial state. However, Burnham became something akin to a Neocon; so, certainly, don't come to the same conclusions as he did.

Piotr Berman , Jun 22 2021 20:19 utc | 22

The US is not capitalist. There are no "capitalist powers." There are only managerial states. Read Orwell who, yes, was a socialist.

Posted by: Weaver | Jun 22 2021 19:35 utc | 15

This is a rather strange interpretation. The power of the managers stems fro the power of large active shareholders, while the majority of shares may be passively owned by middle class in the form of retirement savings. As it was explained: "Contrary to popular beliefs, there are no bulls and bears on Wall Street, but sheep and wolves. And the money is not made by the bah bah crowd", followed by the distinction between "smart money" and the rest of investors. The financial games that we discussed in the case of Boeing may seem stupid in terms of "maximizing long term stock value", but excellent for providing gains for active investors who got artificial run-up in stock prices followed by selling to the "bah bah crowd".

[Jun 01, 2021] Shades of dementia: Bidden claims that human rights R us.

May 31, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon , May 31 2021 0:12 utc | 29

Believe it or not, the president says that human rights R us.

Hear that, BLM? Women? Asian Americans? Hispanics? homeless? heavily indebted students? . . the list goes on.

Biden said so, May 30, 2021

"I had a long conversation -- for two hours -- recently with President Xi, making it clear to him that we could do nothing but speak out for human rights around the world because that's who we are. I'll be meeting with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, making it clear that we will not -- we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights." . . here

..reminds me of Aeschylus: "In war, truth is the first casualty."

[May 30, 2021] Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism by Quinn Slobodian

The author is a very fuzzy way comes to the idea that neoliberalism is in essence a Trotskyism for the rich and that neoliberals want to use strong state to enforce the type of markets they want from above. That included free movement of capital goods and people across national borders. All this talk about "small government" is just a smoke screen for naive fools.

Similar to 1930th contemporary right-wing populism in Germany and Austria emerged from within neoliberalism, not in opposition to it. They essentially convert neoliberalism in "national liberalism": Yes to free trade by only on bilateral basis with a strict control of trade deficits. No to free migration, multilateralism

Notable quotes:

"... The second explanation was that neoliberal globalization made a small number of people very rich, and it was in the interest of those people to promote a self-serving ideology using their substantial means by funding think tanks and academic departments, lobbying congress, fighting what the Heritage Foundation calls "the war of ideas." Neoliberalism, then, was a restoration of class power after the odd, anomalous interval of the mid-century welfare state. ..."

"... Here one is free to choose but only within a limited range of options left after responding to the global forces of the market. ..."

"... Neoliberal globalism can be thought of in its own terms as a negative theology, contending that the world economy is sublime and ineffable with a small number of people having special insight and ability to craft institutions that will, as I put it, encase the sublime world economy. ..."

"... One of the big goals of my book is to show neoliberalism is one form of regulation among many rather than the big Other of regulation as such. ..."

"... I build here on the work of other historians and show how the demands in the United Nations by African, Asian, and Latin American nations for things like the Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, i.e. the right to nationalize foreign-owned companies, often dismissed as merely rhetorical, were actually existentially frightening to global businesspeople. ..."

"... They drafted neoliberal intellectuals to do things like craft agreements that gave foreign corporations more rights than domestic actors and tried to figure out how to lock in what I call the "human right of capital flight" into binding international codes. I show how we can see the development of the WTO as largely a response to the fear of a planned -- and equal -- planet that many saw in the aspirations of the decolonizing world. ..."

"... The neoliberal insight of the 1930s was that the market would not take care of itself: what Wilhelm Röpke called a market police was an ongoing need in a world where people, whether out of atavistic drives or admirable humanitarian motives, kept trying to make the earth a more equal and just place. ..."

"... The culmination of these processes by the 1990s is a world economy that is less like a laissez-faire marketplace and more like a fortress, as ever more of the world's resources and ideas are regulated through transnational legal instruments. ..."

Mar 16, 2018 | www.amazon.com

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 16, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0674979524
ISBN-13: 978-0674979529

From introduction

...The second explanation was that neoliberal globalization made a small number of people very rich, and it was in the interest of those people to promote a self-serving ideology using their substantial means by funding think tanks and academic departments, lobbying congress, fighting what the Heritage Foundation calls "the war of ideas." Neoliberalism, then, was a restoration of class power after the odd, anomalous interval of the mid-century welfare state.

There is truth to both of these explanations. Both presuppose a kind of materialist explanation of history with which I have no problem. In my book, though, I take another approach. What I found is that we could not understand the inner logic of something like the WTO without considering the whole history of the twentieth century. What I also discovered is that some of the members of the neoliberal movement from the 1930s onward, including Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, did not use either of the explanations I just mentioned. They actually didn't say that economic growth excuses everything. One of the peculiar things about Hayek, in particular, is that he didn't believe in using aggregates like GDP -- the very measurements that we need to even say what growth is.

What I found is that neoliberalism as a philosophy is less a doctrine of economics than a doctrine of ordering -- of creating the institutions that provide for the reproduction of the totality [of financial elite control of the state]. At the core of the strain I describe is not the idea that we can quantify, count, price, buy and sell every last aspect of human existence. Actually, here it gets quite mystical. The Austrian and German School of neoliberals in particular believe in a kind of invisible world economy that cannot be captured in numbers and figures but always escapes human comprehension.

After all, if you can see something, you can plan it. Because of the very limits to our knowledge, we have to default to ironclad rules and not try to pursue something as radical as social justice, redistribution, or collective transformation. In a globalized world, we must give ourselves over to the forces of the market, or the whole thing will stop working.

So this is quite a different version of neoliberal thought than the one we usually have, premised on the abstract of individual liberty or the freedom to choose. Here one is free to choose but only within a limited range of options left after responding to the global forces of the market.

One of the core arguments of my book is that we can only understand the internal coherence of neoliberalism if we see it as a doctrine as concerned with the whole as the individual. Neoliberal globalism can be thought of in its own terms as a negative theology, contending that the world economy is sublime and ineffable with a small number of people having special insight and ability to craft institutions that will, as I put it, encase the sublime world economy.

To me, the metaphor of encasement makes much more sense than the usual idea of markets set free, liberated or unfettered. How can it be that in an era of proliferating third party arbitration courts, international investment law, trade treaties and regulation that we talk about "unfettered markets"? One of the big goals of my book is to show neoliberalism is one form of regulation among many rather than the big Other of regulation as such.

What I explore in Globalists is how we can think of the WTO as the latest in a long series of institutional fixes proposed for the problem of emergent nationalism and what neoliberals see as the confusion between sovereignty -- ruling a country -- and ownership -- owning the property within it.

I build here on the work of other historians and show how the demands in the United Nations by African, Asian, and Latin American nations for things like the Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, i.e. the right to nationalize foreign-owned companies, often dismissed as merely rhetorical, were actually existentially frightening to global businesspeople.

They drafted neoliberal intellectuals to do things like craft agreements that gave foreign corporations more rights than domestic actors and tried to figure out how to lock in what I call the "human right of capital flight" into binding international codes. I show how we can see the development of the WTO as largely a response to the fear of a planned -- and equal -- planet that many saw in the aspirations of the decolonizing world.

Perhaps the lasting image of globalization that the book leaves is that world capitalism has produced a doubled world -- a world of imperium (the world of states) and a world of dominium (the world of property). The best way to understand neoliberal globalism as a project is that it sees its task as the never-ending maintenance of this division. The neoliberal insight of the 1930s was that the market would not take care of itself: what Wilhelm Röpke called a market police was an ongoing need in a world where people, whether out of atavistic drives or admirable humanitarian motives, kept trying to make the earth a more equal and just place.

The culmination of these processes by the 1990s is a world economy that is less like a laissez-faire marketplace and more like a fortress, as ever more of the world's resources and ideas are regulated through transnational legal instruments. The book acts as a kind of field guide to these institutions and, in the process, hopefully recasts the 20th century that produced them.

---

Mark bennett 3.0 out of 5 stars One half of a decent book May 14, 2018 Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is a rather interesting look at the political and economic ideas of a circle of important economists, including Hayek and von Mises, over the course of the last century. He shows rather convincingly that conventional narratives concerning their idea are wrong. That they didn't believe in a weak state, didn't believe in the laissez-faire capitalism or believe in the power of the market. That they saw mass democracy as a threat to vested economic interests.

The core beliefs of these people was in a world where money, labor and products could flow across borders without any limit. Their vision was to remove these subjects (tariffs, immigration and controls on the movement of money) from the control of the democracy-based nation-state and instead vesting them in international organizations. International organizations which were by their nature undemocratic and beyond the influence of democracy. That rather than rejecting government power, what they rejected was national government power. They wanted weak national governments but at the same time strong undemocratic international organizations which would gain the powers taken from the state.

The other thing that characterized many of these people was a rather general rejection of economics. While some of them are (at least in theory) economists, they rejected the basic ideas of economic analysis and economic policy. The economy, to them, was a mystical thing beyond any human understanding or ability to influence in a positive way. Their only real belief was in "bigness". The larger the market for labor and goods, the more economically prosperous everyone would become. A unregulated "global" market with specialization across borders and free migration of labor being the ultimate system.

The author shows how, over a period extending from the 1920s to the 1990s, these ideas evolved from marginal academic ideas to being dominant ideas internationally. Ideas that are reflected today in the structure of the European Union, the WTO (World Trade Organization) and the policies of most national governments. These ideas, which the author calls "neoliberalism", have today become almost assumptions beyond challenge. And even more strangely, the dominating ideas of the political left in most of the west.

The author makes the point, though in a weak way, that the "fathers" of neoliberalism saw themselves as "restoring" a lost golden age. That golden age being (roughly) the age of the original industrial revolution (the second half of the 1800s). And to the extent that they have been successful they have done that. But at the same time, they have brought back all the political and economic questions of that era as well.

In reading it, I started to wonder about the differences between modern neoliberalism and the liberal political movement during the industrial revolution. I really began to wonder about the actual motives of "reform" liberals in that era. Were they genuinely interested in reforms during that era or were all the reforms just cynical politics designed to enhance business power at the expense of other vested interests. Was, in particular, the liberal interest in political reform and franchise expansion a genuine move toward political democracy or simply a temporary ploy to increase their political power. If one assumes that the true principles of classic liberalism were always free trade, free migration of labor and removing the power to governments to impact business, perhaps its collapse around the time of the first world war is easier to understand.

He also makes a good point about the EEC and the organizations that came before the EU. Those organizations were as much about protecting trade between Europe and former European colonial possessions as they were anything to do with trade within Europe.

To me at least, the analysis of the author was rather original. In particular, he did an excellent job of showing how the ideas of Hayek and von Mises have been distorted and misunderstood in the mainstream. He was able to show what their ideas were and how they relate to contemporary problems of government and democracy.

But there are some strong negatives in the book. The author offers up a complete virtue signaling chapter to prove how the neoliberals are racists. He brings up things, like the John Birch Society, that have nothing to do with the book. He unleashes a whole lot of venom directed at American conservatives and republicans mostly set against a 1960s backdrop. He does all this in a bad purpose: to claim that the Kennedy Administration was somehow a continuation of the new deal rather than a step toward neoliberalism. His blindness and modern political partisanship extended backward into history does substantial damage to his argument in the book. He also spends an inordinate amount of time on the political issues of South Africa which also adds nothing to the argument of the book. His whole chapter on racism is an elaborate strawman all held together by Ropke. He also spends a large amount of time grinding some sort of Ax with regard to the National Review and William F. Buckley.

He keeps resorting to the simple formula of finding something racist said or written by Ropke....and then inferring that anyone who quoted or had anything to do with Ropke shared his ideas and was also a racist. The whole point of the exercise seems to be to avoid any analysis of how the democratic party (and the political left) drifted over the decades from the politics of the New Deal to neoliberal Clintonism.

Then after that, he diverts further off the path by spending many pages on the greatness of the "global south", the G77 and the New International Economic Order (NIEO) promoted by the UN in the 1970s. And whatever many faults of neoliberalism, Quinn Slobodian ends up standing for a worse set of ideas: International Price controls, economic "reparations", nationalization, international trade subsidies and a five-year plan for the world (socialist style economic planning at a global level). In attaching himself to these particular ideas, he kills his own book. The premise of the book and his argument was very strong at first. But by around p. 220, its become a throwback political tract in favor of the garbage economic and political ideas of the so-called third world circa 1974 complete with 70's style extensive quotations from "Senegalese jurists"

Once the political agenda comes out, he just can't help himself. He opens the conclusion to the book taking another cheap shot for no clear reason at William F. Buckley. He spends alot of time on the Seattle anti-WTO protests from the 1990s. But he has NOTHING to say about BIll Clinton or Tony Blair or EU expansion or Obama or even the 2008 economic crisis for that matter. Inexplicably for a book written in 2018, the content of the book seems to end in the year 2000.

I'm giving it three stars for the first 150 pages which was decent work. The second half rates zero stars. Though it could have been far better if he had written his history of neoliberalism in the context of the counter-narrative of Keynesian economics and its decline. It would have been better yet if the author had the courage to talk about the transformation of the parties of the left and their complicity in the rise of neoliberalism. The author also tends to waste lots of pages repeating himself or worse telling you what he is going to say next. One would have expected a better standard of editing by the Harvard Press. Read less 69 people found this helpful Helpful Comment Report abuse

Jesper Doepping 5.0 out of 5 stars A concise definition of neoliberalism and its historical influence November 14, 2018

Anybody interested in global trade, business, human rights or democracy today should read this book.

The book follow the Austrians from the beginning in the Habsburgischer empire to the beginning rebellion against the WTO. However, most importantly it follows the thinking and the thoughts behind the building of a global empire of capitalism with free trade, capital and rights. All the way to the new "human right" to trade. It narrows down what neoliberal thought really consist of and indirectly make a differentiation to the neoclassical economic tradition.

What I found most interesting is the turn from economics to law - and the conceptual distinctions between the genes, tradition, reason, which are translated into a quest for a rational and reason based protection of dominium (the rule of property) against the overreach of imperium (the rule of states/people). This distinction speaks directly to the issues that EU is currently facing.

[May 30, 2021] How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr

Highly recommended!

Notable quotes:

"... No other book out there has the level of breadth on the history of US imperialism that this work provides. Even though it packs 400 pages of text (which might seem like a turnoff for non-academic readers), "How to Hide an Empire" is highly readable given Immerwhar's skills as a writer. Also, its length is part of what makes it awesome because it gives it the right amount of detail and scope. ..."

"... Alleging that US imperialism in its long evolution (which this book deciphers with poignancy) has had no bearing on the destinies of its once conquered populations is as fallacious as saying that the US is to blame for every single thing that happens in Native American communities, or in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, etc. Not everything that happens in these locations and among these populations is directly connected to US expansionism, but a great deal is. ..."

"... This is exactly the kind of book that drives the "My country, right or wrong" crowd crazy. Yes, slavery and genocide and ghastly scientific experiments existed before Europeans colonized the Americas, but it's also fair and accurate to say that Europeans made those forms of destruction into a bloody artform. Nobody did mass slaughter better. ..."

Feb 19, 2019 | www.amazon.com

4.6 out of 5 stars 50 customer reviews Reviews

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Jose I. Fuste, February 25, 2019

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive yet highly readable. A necessary and highly useful update.

I'm a professor at the University of California San Diego and I'm assigning this for a graduate class.

No other book out there has the level of breadth on the history of US imperialism that this work provides. Even though it packs 400 pages of text (which might seem like a turnoff for non-academic readers), "How to Hide an Empire" is highly readable given Immerwhar's skills as a writer. Also, its length is part of what makes it awesome because it gives it the right amount of detail and scope.

I could not disagree more with the person who gave this book one star. Take it from me: I've taught hundreds of college students who graduate among the best in their high school classes and they know close to nothing about the history of US settler colonialism, overseas imperialism, or US interventionism around the world. If you give University of California college students a quiz on where the US' overseas territories are, most who take it will fail (trust me, I've done it). And this is not their fault. Instead, it's a product of the US education system that fails to give students a nuanced and geographically comprehensive understanding of the oversized effect that their country has around our planet.

Alleging that US imperialism in its long evolution (which this book deciphers with poignancy) has had no bearing on the destinies of its once conquered populations is as fallacious as saying that the US is to blame for every single thing that happens in Native American communities, or in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, etc. Not everything that happens in these locations and among these populations is directly connected to US expansionism, but a great deal is.

A case in point is Puerto Rico's current fiscal and economic crisis. The island's political class share part of the blame for Puerto Rico's present rut. A lot of it is also due to unnatural (i.e. "natural" but human-exacerbated) disasters such as Hurricane María. However, there is no denying that the evolution of Puerto Rico's territorial status has generated a host of adverse economic conditions that US states (including an island state such as Hawaii) do not have to contend with. An association with the US has undoubtedly raised the floor of material conditions in these places, but it has also imposed an unjust glass ceiling that most people around the US either do not know about or continue to ignore.

To add to those unfair economic limitations, there are political injustices regarding the lack of representation in Congress, and in the case of Am. Samoa, their lack of US citizenship. The fact that the populations in the overseas territories can't make up their mind about what status they prefer is: a) understandable given the way they have been mistreated by the US government, and b) irrelevant because what really matters is what Congress decides to do with the US' far-flung colonies, and there is no indication that Congress wants to either fully annex them or let them go because neither would be convenient to the 50 states and the political parties that run them. Instead, the status quo of modern colonial indeterminacy is what works best for the most potent political and economic groups in the US mainland. Would

This book is about much more than that though. It's also a history of how and why the United States got to control so much of what happens around the world without creating additional formal colonies like the "territories" that exist in this legal limbo. Part of its goal is to show how precisely how US imperialism has been made to be more cost-effective and also more invisible.

Read Immerwhar's book, and don't listen to the apologists of US imperialism which is still an active force that contradicts the US' professed values and that needs to be actively dismantled. Their attempts at discrediting this important reflect a denialism of the US' imperial realities that has endured throughout the history that this book summarizes.

"How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States" is a great starting point for making the US public aware of the US' contradictions as an "empire of liberty" (a phrase once used by Thomas Jefferson to describe the US as it expanded westward beyond the original 13 colonies). It is also a necessary update to other books on this topic that are already out there, and it is likely to hold the reader's attention more given its crafty narrative prose and structure Read less 194 people found this helpful Helpful Comment Report abuse

David Robson, February 26, 2019

Why So Sensitive?

5.0 out of 5 stars Why So Sensitive?

This is exactly the kind of book that drives the "My country, right or wrong" crowd crazy. Yes, slavery and genocide and ghastly scientific experiments existed before Europeans colonized the Americas, but it's also fair and accurate to say that Europeans made those forms of destruction into a bloody artform. Nobody did mass slaughter better.

The author of this compelling book reveals a history unknown to many readers, and does so with first-hand accounts and deep historical analyses. You might ask why we can't put such things behind us. The simple answer: we've never fully grappled with these events before in an honest and open way. This book does the nation a service by peering behind the curtain and facing the sobering truth of how we came to be what we are.

Thomas W. Moloney, April 9, 2019

This is a stunning book, not to be missed.

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a stunning book, not to be missed.

This is a stunning book, not to be missed. If you finished Sapiens with the feeling your world view had greatly enlarged, you're likely to have the same experience of your view of the US from reading this engaging work. And like Sapiens, it's an entirely enjoyable read, full of delightful surprises, future dinner party gems.

The further you get into the book the more interesting and unexpected it becomes. You'll look at the US in ways you likely never considered before. This is not a 'political' book with an ax to grind or a single-party agenda. It's refreshingly insightful, beautifully written, fun to read.

This is a gift I'll give to many a good friend, I've just started with my wife. I rarely write reviews and have never met the author (now my only regret). 3 people found this helpful

P , May 17, 2019

Content is A+. Never gets boring/tedious; never lingers; well written. It is perfect. 10/10

4.0 out of 5 stars Content is A+. Never gets boring/tedious; never lingers; well written. It is perfect. 10/10

This book is an absolutely powerhouse, a must-read, and should be a part of every student's curriculum in this God forsaken country.

Strictly speaking, this brilliant read is focused on America's relationship with Empire. But like with nearly everything America, one cannot discuss it without discussing race and injustice.

If you read this book, you will learn a lot of new things about subjects that you thought you knew everything about. You will have your eyes opened. You will be exposed to the dark underbelly of racism, corruption, greed and exploitation that undergird American ambition.

I don't know exactly what else to say other than to say you MUST READ THIS BOOK. This isn't a partisan statement -- it's not like Democrats are any better than Republicans in this book.

This is one of the best books I've ever read, and I am a voracious reader. The content is A+. It never gets boring. It never gets tedious. It never lingers on narratives. It's extremely well written. It is, in short, perfect. And as such, 10/10.

Sunny May 11, 2019

Excellent and thoughtful discussion regarding the state of our union

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and thoughtful discussion regarding the state of our union

I heard an interview of Daniel Immerwahr on NPR news / WDET radio regarding this book.

I'm am quite conservative and only listen to NPR news when it doesn't lean too far to the left.

However, the interview piqued my interest. I am so glad I purchased this ebook. What a phenomenal and informative read!!! WOW!! It's a "I never knew that" kind of read. Certainly not anything I was taught in school. This is thoughtful, well written and an easy read. Highly recommend!!

[May 28, 2021] Biden aministsration is building a coalition to challenge China. It wants to neutralize Russia. Nord Stream 2 is an element of contention

May 20, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Max , May 19 2021 21:16 utc | 26

@ Old man of the sea | May 19 2021 20:46 utc | 22

One can't blame everything on Israel. Yes, it is part of five eyes, more like SIX eyes.

Biden (JB) is building a coalition to challenge China. JB's administration wants to neutralize Russia. Nord Stream 2 is an element of contention and by making a concession JB is making Germany and Russia happy. Agree, that its completion will be a "huge geopolitical win for Putin". Let's see when Nord Stream 2 becomes fully operational. Time will tell.

Russia's main focus is De-Dollarization, stability in Russia and in its neighborhood.

China's announcement about Bitcoin led to it dropping by 30%. What will China, Russia, Turkey and Iran announcement about the U$A dollar do to its value and the market? When will China become the #1 ECONOMY?

THE MOST DANGEROUS DECADE: 2018-2028

Stonebird , May 19 2021 21:42 utc | 29

Old man of the sea | May 19 2021 20:46 utc | 22

The US is now the largest provider of LNG, so there is relatively little more financial advantage to be gained from a direct confrontation with Germany or Russia. Political maybe, but the dedollarisation is starting to take hold. (Aside; even Israel depends on the strength of the dollar to continue, like musical chairs, when the music stops there will be precious few chairs left ). The Gas/Oil lobbies in the US who are behind the sanctions may have some other trick up their sleeve, but the deflation of Zelensky in Ukraine, and the opening up of a steal-fest of Ukrainian assets might compensate.

***
Note that the West has closed Syrian Embassies so as to stop Syrians voting for Assad. They steal it's oil, and Syria is still next to Israel and doing relatively well in spite of tanker bombings, and missiles. It is also possible that, as you say, there is a price for non-interference in Israel itself.

[May 06, 2021] Neoliberals do try and just fool the masses. If that doesn't work, they stick the boot in.

May 06, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

play_arrow 3

Sound of the Suburbs 12 hours ago (Edited) remove link

They do try and just fool the masses.

If that doesn't work, they stick the boot in.

In the beginning ........

Mankind first started to produce a surplus with early agriculture.

It wasn't long before the elites learnt how to read the skies, the sun and the stars, to predict the coming seasons to the amazed masses and collect tribute.

They soon made the most of the opportunity and removed themselves from any hard work to concentrate on "spiritual matters", i.e. any hocus-pocus they could come up with to elevate them from the masses, e.g. rituals, fertility rights, offering to the gods . etc and to turn the initially small tributes, into extracting all the surplus created by the hard work of the rest.

The elites became the representatives of the gods and they were responsible for the bounty of the earth and the harvests.

As long as all the surplus was handed over, all would be well.

The class structure emerges.

Upper class – Do as little as they can get away with and get most of the rewards

Middle class – Administrative/managerial class who have enough to live a comfortable life

Working class – Do the work, and live a basic subsistence existence where they get enough to stay alive and breed

Their techniques have got more sophisticated over time, but this is the underlying idea.

They have achieved an inversion, and got most of the rewards going to those that don't really do anything.

As soon as anyone started thinking about this seriously, the upper class would be in trouble.

The last thing they needed was "The Enlightenment" as people would start thinking about this seriously.

Any serious attempt to study the capitalist system always reveals the same inconvenient truth.

Many at the top don't create any wealth.

That's the problem.

Confusing making money and creating wealth is the solution.

The classical economists identified the constructive "earned" income and the parasitic "unearned" income .

Most of the people at the top lived off the parasitic "unearned" income and they now had a big problem. This problem was solved with neoclassical economics.

Neoclassical economics is a pseudo economics, which is more about hiding the inconvenient truths discovered by the classical economists than telling you how the economy works.

Things had already gone horribly wrong by the 1930s.

In the 1920s, the economy had been booming, the stock market had been soaring and nearly everyone had been making lots of money.

In the 1930s, they were wondering what the hell had just happened as everything had appeared to be going so well in the 1920s and then it all just fell apart.

They needed a better measure to see what was really going on in the economy and came up with GDP.

In the 1930s, they pondered over where all that wealth had gone to in 1929 and realised inflating asset prices doesn't create real wealth, they came up with the GDP measure to track real wealth creation in the economy.

The transfer of existing assets, like stocks and real estate, doesn't create real wealth and therefore does not add to GDP.

The real wealth creation in the economy is measured by GDP.

Real wealth creation involves real work, producing new goods and services in the economy.

The rentiers are exposed again.

What they need to do is get neoclassical economics back again.

They wrap it in a new ideology, neoliberalism, so no one will notice the return of their special economics.

[May 03, 2021] Some other countries of the world just aren't swallowing Bidan and his handlers worshipping of all things non-white..

May 03, 2021 | www.unz.com

Defender , says: April 30, 2021 at 8:51 am GMT • 18.6 hours ago

Some other countries of the world just aren't swallowing Bidan and his handlers worshipping of all things non-white..

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CBS8TYLO_A0?feature=oembed

BorisMay , says: April 30, 2021 at 1:38 pm GMT • 13.8 hours ago

@Chris Moore to eternal servitude as debt slaves.

*** Please Note: Russia is not weak considering that it has the ability to nuke America in to ashes within 30 minutes, or any other bunch of idiots that chooses to step over her red lines. Okay the US has 350 million people compared to 150 million Russians, but the US is irrevocably divided and Russia is fully united even the Muslim minority is united with the State in Russia. A divided house can not stand no man can serve two masters. On top of that the US has no moral values whereas Russia is a Christian country where marriage is between a man and a woman, by State law. Biden can fly all the queer flags he likes but he still leads a divided nation with a corrupt State comprised of dual passport holders, amoral materialists and deluded mentally challenged idiots like Waters and Pelosi.

[Apr 29, 2021] Crisis in American expertise- Washington has a dangerous destructive pattern of willful ignorance on Russia by Natylie Baldwin

Notable quotes:

"... Bernie Sanders in 2016, the self-described democratic socialist "showed little interest or knowledge about US-Russia relations and the attendant dangers of a new cold war." Instead, Sanders was ultimately content to mimic the juvenile and Manichean "democracies versus authoritarians" model of international relations. ..."

"... in the Obama era, as mediocre academics like Celeste Wallander were given positions on the National Security Council, and an ideologue like Michael McFaul was bizarrely appointed as ambassador. ..."

"... Under Biden – who caved to pressure from the foreign policy blob to not appoint Rojansky – the advisers who are in place or in line, including Jake Sullivan , Antony Blinken , Madeleine Albright/Hillary Clinton adviser Wendy Sherman, the German Marshall Fund's Karen Donfried , and State Department nominee Victoria Nuland represent more of the same dangerous ineptitude and strident thinking. Many of these advisers, like their predecessors, have little on-the-ground experience with contemporary Russia. ..."

"... Neoconservative ideologue Nuland, of course, is a slightly different case in that she has put her boots on the ground in the region. Unfortunately, that experience includes facilitating the dangerously divisive 2014 coup in Ukraine, without which Crimea would still be in Ukraine and the Donbass would be at peace. Competent officials would have warned Obama and Biden that the Maidan would lead to consequences like these. ..."

"... importantly, this 'perceived enemy' and its corresponding narrative sells... it enriches the military complexes, CIA etc. Even if it sounded unbelievable and outrageous, they will still be regurgitated and at best, given a new guised repackaging ..."

"... the author assumes that the mistakes made by advisors to Obama and others were because of incompetence, when in fact it should be seriously considered they were actually quite deliberate and planned ..."

"... the job was NOT to deliver facts to the public; the job was to tell the public how to think and what to believe; ie. anti-Russia propaganda. ..."

Apr 29, 2021 | www.rt.com

The rejection of Matthew Rojansky's candidacy as a Russia adviser to Joe Biden represents an escalation, and not a departure, from a pervasive bipartisan American pattern of dangerous ignorance about Russia in the post-Soviet era.

It was reported last week that Joe Biden's government would not be hiring Rojansky, of the Kennan Institute think tank, to help form policy towards Russia. Though the analyst is known as a moderate realist regarding Russia issues – in other words, he is not a virulent anti-Moscow ideologue – he was considered too controversial to be allowed a hearing during White House deliberations on policy regarding the world's largest country.

Rojansky's sin? Unlike many of the current crop of foreign policy officials, he actually has some expertise and experience on the subject.

While the scholar's fate may be a glaring and extreme example of an anti-Russia mindset in Washington that is counterproductive, it represents only a new low, and not a change from a pervasive bipartisan pattern in the post-Soviet era.

Those who aspire to, or attain, the most powerful executive position in the United States have shown a disturbingly willful ignorance of Russia. I learned from a former State Department official that, in response to a renowned Russia expert attempting to brief presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in 2016, the self-described democratic socialist "showed little interest or knowledge about US-Russia relations and the attendant dangers of a new cold war." Instead, Sanders was ultimately content to mimic the juvenile and Manichean "democracies versus authoritarians" model of international relations.

Similarly, an American business executive told me that, during a lunch with him and other leaders of commerce at the US Embassy in Moscow in 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden showed no interest in his interlocutors' suggestions that it was in the US' best interests to partner with Russia after they offered social, economic, and strategic justifications for their view.

Biden seemed to see the meeting as an opportunity to lecture on his position rather than to learn or seek insight on Russia.

Moreover, once a US president is in power, the advisers that are appointed to counsel the commander in chief about Russia have been less than impressive from the 1990s onward. Condoleezza Rice served as an expert in the George Bush Senior administration and was wrong about the impending collapse of the Soviet Union. During her stint as secretary of state in the second term of the junior Bush administration, her Russian counterparts who spent significant time with her made the observation that Rice was "a Soviet expert, and not a Russia expert."

There was little improvement in the Obama era, as mediocre academics like Celeste Wallander were given positions on the National Security Council, and an ideologue like Michael McFaul was bizarrely appointed as ambassador.

According to investigative journalist Gareth Porter, advisers to Obama were so utterly incompetent that those serving in the administration really didn't think Russia had the ability or inclination to counter Washington's provocative actions in Syria, and therefore they did not plan for that possibility. This incompetence was also highlighted by Obama's public comments to the Economist in 2014, in which he claimed that Russia didn't make anything, immigrants didn't go there, and male life expectancy was 60 years – three claims that anyone with actual expertise on Russia should have easily known were false.

In fact, at that point, Russia was the second most popular migration destination in the world, after America itself, while average lifespans have been converging with those of the US over the past decade. As for manufacturing, Obama said these words at a time when the US, for instance, was totally reliant on Russian rockets for access to space, having retired its own unreliable Space Shuttle fleet. If he had access to a competent adviser on the subject, would he have made these mistakes?

Under Biden – who caved to pressure from the foreign policy blob to not appoint Rojansky – the advisers who are in place or in line, including Jake Sullivan , Antony Blinken , Madeleine Albright/Hillary Clinton adviser Wendy Sherman, the German Marshall Fund's Karen Donfried , and State Department nominee Victoria Nuland represent more of the same dangerous ineptitude and strident thinking. Many of these advisers, like their predecessors, have little on-the-ground experience with contemporary Russia.

Neoconservative ideologue Nuland, of course, is a slightly different case in that she has put her boots on the ground in the region. Unfortunately, that experience includes facilitating the dangerously divisive 2014 coup in Ukraine, without which Crimea would still be in Ukraine and the Donbass would be at peace. Competent officials would have warned Obama and Biden that the Maidan would lead to consequences like these.

It takes a special kind of hubris for the US political class to keep thinking they can get away with this level of sloppiness in understanding the world's other nuclear superpower – a country so massive that it straddles two major continents and is the sixth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity – without serious consequences. At what point will God's providence run out?

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

Natylie Baldwin is author of "The View from Moscow: Understanding Russia and U.S.-Russia Relations," available at Amazon. She blogs at http://natyliesbaldwin.com/ .

See also

• US imposes new sanctions against Russia, expels ten diplomats & targets national debt in move Moscow may view as major escalation
• Russia is seeking 'pragmatic cooperation' with US, not outright conflict, America's own national intelligence director claims
• Putin WON'T meet Biden in near future, Kremlin says. Moscow not ruling out talks, but disappointed about new sanctions speculation
• Washington rejected Moscow's offer of complete reset in Russia-US relations shortly after inauguration of Biden, FM Lavrov reveals

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ewel Gyn 9 hours ago 9 hours ago

"Washington has a dangerous & destructive pattern of wilful ignorance on Russia in post-Soviet era" It is not just wilful ignorance per se. Without a 'perceived enemy', the narrative for Russia will fall apart. Ditto China, Iran, N Korea et al.

But importantly, this 'perceived enemy' and its corresponding narrative sells... it enriches the military complexes, CIA etc. Even if it sounded unbelievable and outrageous, they will still be regurgitated and at best, given a new guised repackaging, but with the antiquated contents remaining intact.

dotmafia 6 hours ago 6 hours ago

Good article, but, the author assumes that the mistakes made by advisors to Obama and others were because of incompetence, when in fact it should be seriously considered they were actually quite deliberate and planned. In the example of Obama's remarks to The Economist, the job was NOT to deliver facts to the public; the job was to tell the public how to think and what to believe; ie. anti-Russia propaganda.

Levin High 8 hours ago 8 hours ago

It used to be said that you couldn't be fired for buying IBM, now days in the US you seem to be hired for blaming Russia.

apothqowejh 9 hours ago 9 hours ago

The US State Department is packed with idiots, political appointees, ideologues and globalist nut jobs. Their lack of anything remotely like competence is as astonishing as the CIA's full on embrace of evil.

wowhead1977 4 hours ago 4 hours ago

The cabal in America always want to blame Russia. I'm a American citizen and have no problem with Russia. These so called sanctions on other countries is a control tactic that most Americans didn't vote for. This race baiting tactic is from The Fabian Society play book. Wolf in sheep's clothing is the Fabian Society logo.

We must realize that our Party's most powerful weapon is racial tension. By propounding into the consciousness of the dark races, that for centuries have been oppressed by the Whites, we can mold them to the program of the Communist Party ... In America, we will aim for subtle victory. While enflaming the color people minority against the Whites, we will instill in the Whites, a guilt complex for the exploitation of the color people.

We will aid the color people to rise to prominence in every walk of life, in the professions, and in the world of sports and entertainment. With this prestige, the color people will be able to intermarry with the Whites, and begin a process which will deliver America to our cause." ~ Israel Cohen - Fabian Society Founder

[Apr 27, 2021] Gauleiter: Swedish Filmmaker Exposes Biden Corruption In Eastern Europe And Ukraine

Apr 27, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Norwegian , Apr 25 2021 14:19 utc | 9

Must see video

Gauleiter: Swedish Filmmaker Exposes Biden Corruption In Eastern Europe And Ukraine

Norwegian , Apr 25 2021 14:34 utc | 11

@Norwegian | Apr 25 2021 14:19 utc | 9

Btw, I think the filmmaker is Finnish, not Swedish. This is judging from his dialect and the video contents.

@jared and @Lelush : Thank you

[Apr 24, 2021] Blinken's Winking and Nodding to the Neocons -- Strategic Culture

Apr 24, 2021 | www.strategic-culture.org

Biden's Western Hemisphere foreign policy is not much different from that of Obama's, Wayne Madsen writes.

Like proverbial bad pennies, the neocon imperialists who plagued the Barack Obama administration have turned up in force in Joe Biden's State Department. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has given more than winks and nods to the dastardly duo of Victoria Nuland, slated to become Blinken's Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the number three position at the State Department, and Samantha Power, nominated to become the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Nuland and Power both have problematic spouses who do not fail to offer their imperialistic opinions regardless of the appearance of conflicts-of-interest. Nuland's husband is the claptrappy neocon warmonger Robert Kagan, someone who has never failed to urge to prod the United States into wars that only benefit Israel. Power's husband is the totally creepy Cass Sunstein, who served as Obama's White House "information czar" and advocated government infiltration of non-governmental organizations and news media outlets to wage psychological warfare campaigns.

True to form, Blinken's State Department has already come to the aid of Venezuela's right-wing self-appointed "opposition leader" Juan Guaido, whose actual constituency is found in the wealthy gated communities of Venezuelan and Cuban expatriates in south Florida and not in the barrios of Caracas or Maracaibo.

Blinken and his team of old school yanqui imperialists have also criticized the constitutional and judicially-warranted detention of former interim president Jeanine Áñez, who became president in 2019 after the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) government of President Evo Morales was overthrown in a Central Intelligence Agency-inspired and -directed military coup. The far-right forces backing Áñez were roundly defeated in the October 2020 election that swept MAS and Morales's chosen presidential candidate, Luis Arce, back into power. It seems that for Blinken and his ilk, a decisive victory in an election only applies to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, not to Arce and MAS in Bolivia.

It should be recalled that while Blinken was national security adviser to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama administration, every sort of deception and trickery was used by the CIA to depose Morales in Bolivia and President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. In fact, the Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, claimed its first Latin American political victim when a CIA coup was launched against progressive President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras. Today, Honduras is ruled by a right-wing kleptocratic narco-president, Juan Orlando Hernández, whose brother, Tony Hernández, is currently serving life in federal prison in the United States for drug trafficking. For the likes of Blinken, Power, Nuland, and former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, who currently serves as "domestic policy adviser" to Biden, suppression of progressive governments and support for right-wing dictators and autocrats have always been the preferred foreign policy, particularly for the Western Hemisphere. For example, while the Biden administration remains quiet on right-wing regimes in Central America that are responsible for the outflow of thousands of beleaguered Mayan Indians to the southern U.S. border with Mexico, it has announced that Trump era sanctions on 24 Nicaraguan government officials, including President Daniel Ortega's wife and Nicaragua's vice president, Rosario Murillo, as well as three of their sons – Laureano, Rafael, and Juan Carlos – will continue.

Biden's Western Hemisphere foreign policy is not much different from that of Obama's. Biden and Brazilian far-right, Adolf Hitler-loving, and Covid pandemic-denying President Jair Bolsonaro are said to have struck a deal on environmental protection of the Amazon Basin ahead of an April 22 global climate change virtual summit called by the White House. A coalition of 198 Brazilian NGOs, representing environmental, indigenous rights, and other groups, has appealed to Biden not to engage in any rain forest protection agreement with the untrustworthy Bolsonaro. The Brazilian president has repeatedly advocated the wholesale deforestation of the Amazon region. Meanwhile, while Biden urges Americans to maintain Covid public health measures, Bolsonaro continues to downplay the virus threat as Brazil's overall death count approaches that of the United States.

Blinken's State Department has been relatively quiet on the Northern Triangle of Central America fascist troika of Presidents Orlando of Honduras, Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. Instead of pressuring these fascistas to democratize and stop their genocidal policies toward the indigenous peoples of their nations, Biden told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that he would pump $4 billion into supposed "assistance" to those countries to stop the flow of migrants. Biden is repeating the same old American gambits of the past. Any U.S. assistance to kleptocratic countries like those of the Northern Triangle has and will line the pockets of their corrupt leaders. Flush with U.S. aid cash, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador will be sure to grant contracts to greedy Israeli counter-insurgency contractors always at the ready to commit more human rights abuses against the workers, students, and indigenous peoples of Central America.

Biden is also in no hurry to reverse the freeze imposed by Donald Trump on U.S.-Cuban relations. Biden, whose policy toward Cuba represents a fossilized relic of the Cold War, intends to maintain Trump's freeze on U.S. commercial, trade, and tourism relations with Cuba. Biden's Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, a Jewish Cuban-American expatriate, is expected to reach out to right-wing Cuban-Americans in south Florida in order to ensure Democratic Party inroads in the 2022 and 2024 U.S. elections. Therefore, even restoring the status quo ante established by Barack Obama is off-the-table for Biden, Blinken, and Mayorkas. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Cuban-American and ethically-challenged Democrat Bob Menendez, has stated there will be no normalization of pre-Trump relations with Cuba until his "regime change" whims are satisfied. Regurgitating typical right-wing Cuban-American drivel, Mayorkas has proclaimed after he was announced as the new Homeland Security Secretary, "I have been nominated to be the DHS Secretary and oversee the protection of all Americans and those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones." The last part of that statement was directed toward the solidly Republican bloc of moneyed Cuban, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and Bolivian interests in south Florida.

While Blinken hurls his neocon invectives at Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Cuba, he remains silent on the repeated foot-dragging by embattled and highly unpopular right-wing Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on implementing a new Constitution to replace that put into place in 1973 by the fascist military dictator General Augusto Pinochet. The current Chilean Constitution is courtesy of Richard Nixon's foreign policy "Svengali," the duplicitous Henry Kissinger, an individual who obviously shares Blinken's taste for "realpolitik" adventurism on a global scale.

While Blinken has weighed in on the domestic politics of Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, he has had no comment on the anti-constitutional moves by Colombian far-right authoritarian President Ivan Duque, the front man for that nation's Medellin narcotics cartel. It would also come as no surprise if Blinken, Nuland, and Power have quietly buttressed the candidacy of right-wing banker, Guillermo Lasso, who is running against the progressive socialist candidate Andrés Arauz, the protegé of former president Rafael Correa. Blinken can be expected to question the results of the April 11 if Lasso cries fraud in the event of an Arauz victory. Conversely, Blinken will remain silent if Lasso wins and Arauz cries foul. That has always been the nature of U.S. Western Hemisphere policy, regardless of what party controls the White House.

[Apr 19, 2021] Why now -- Trey Gowdy on Biden's move to pull troops from Afghanistan

This was Bush racket. Invasion on false pretenses to establish a foothold and get to former USSR republic. This move was initially a big success (and Putin helped by using his influence on Northern Alliance) but later backfire. In other words this was typical imperial policy.

Apr 19, 2021 | www.youtube.com

---

Gary Buchanan , 3 days ago

This time, let's don't leave all our equipment and ammunition for them to use against us.

Julie Monarch , 3 days ago

Shut the door! That's how you stop them from coming.

R. Dillon , 3 days ago

I would guess 2 things, 1. He's hoping if he ends the war then none of the terrorists that just snuck in won't attack. 2. He plans on starting a war elsewhere.

Cris Renner , 3 days ago

Please, get them out of office, before they do anymore damage!!!

Clarence Spangle , 3 days ago

"Obama may have gotten (U.S. soldiers) out wrong, but going in is, to me, the biggest single mistake made in the history of our country." -- Donald J. Trump

Ratpatrol Renegade , 3 days ago

Afghanistan's a racket. We're rebuilding their country instead of America. Power plants hospitals and schools that they're never going to use

[Apr 19, 2021] Biden's Russia-China Tactic Is To Wage War AND To Ask For Cooperation. It Will Fail

Apr 19, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Clueless Joe , Apr 17 2021 19:04 utc | 12

The policies of the Biden administration towards Russia and China are delusional. It thinks that it can squeeze these countries but still successfully ask them for cooperation. It believes that the U.S. position is stronger than it really is and that China and Russia are much weaker than they are.

It is also full of projection. The U.S. accuses both countries of striving for empire, of wanting to annex more land and of human rights violations. But is only the U.S. that has expanding aspirations. Neither China nor Russia are interested in running an empire. They have no interest in planting military bases all over the world. Though both have marginal border conflicts they do not want to acquire more land. And while the U.S. bashes both countries for alleged human rights issues it is starving whole populations (Yemen, Syria, Venezuela) through violence and economic sanctions.

The U.S. power structures in the Pentagon and CIA use the false accusations against Russia and China as pretense for cold military and hot economic wars against both countries. They use color revolution schemes (Ukraine, Myanmar) to create U.S. controlled proxy forces near their borders.

At the same time as it tries to press these countries the U.S. is seeking their cooperation in selected fields. It falsely believes that it has some magical leverage.

Consider this exchange from yesterday's White House press briefing about Biden asking for a summit with Putin while, at the same time, implementing more sanctions against Russia:

Q What if [Putin] says "no," though? Wouldn't that indicate some weakness on the part of the American administration here?

MS. PSAKI: Well, I think the President's view is that Russia is on the outside of the global community in many respects, at this point in time. It's the G7, not the G8. They have -- obviously, we've put sanctions in place in order to send a clear message that there should be consequences for the actions; the Europeans have also done that.

What the President is offering is a bridge back. And so, certainly, he believes it's in their interests to take him up on that offer.

The G7 are not the 'global community'. They have altogether some 500 million inhabitants out of 7.9 billion strong global population. Neither China nor India are members of the G7 nor is any South American or African country. Moreover Russia has rejected a Russian return into the G7/8 format:

"Russia is focused on other formats, apart from the G7," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a brief statement ..

Russia has no interest in a summit which would only be used by the U.S. to further bash Russia. Why should it give Biden that pleasure when there is nothing that Russia would gain from it. Russia does not need a 'bridge back'. There will be no summit.

... ... ...

If Biden wants cooperation with Russia or China he needs to reign in the hawks and stop his attacks on those countries. As he is not willing or capable of doing that any further cooperation attempts will fall flat.

The U.S. has to learn that it is no longer the top dog. It can not work ceaselessly to impact Russia's and China's military and economic security and still expect them to cooperate. If it wants something it will first have to cease the attacks and to accept multilateral relationships.

Posted by b on April 17, 2021 at 17:53 UTC | Permalink

"It can not work ceaselessly to impact Russia's and China's military and economic security and still expect them to cooperate"
You have to understand the USA. They're doing it against Europe on a daily basis, and it actually works... Get them confused why it doesn't always work against others.

---

Mao Cheng Ji , Apr 17 2021 19:17 utc | 15

It's interesting what's happening right now (in the past hour or so).

First: Russian and Belorussian news about the arrest of leaders (or key participants) of an attempted military coup in Belarus, planned by the US security services.

Then, 30 minutes later: the Czechs expel 18 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying and of connection to some explosion back in 2014.

I could've been skeptical about the details of the first story, but the second one seems to confirm it. The second story appears to be an obvious attempt to squeeze the first one out of the news. And who else could order the Czech government to do this with a 30 minute notice?

oglalla , Apr 17 2021 19:27 utc | 18

Wouldn't Oceania rulers love to print more of their own currency to buy up all the paper rights to industrial output without having to invest in the factories or anything else! They love this kind of business model.

"The secret of success is to own nothing but control everything."

Because of what's at stake and how little I trust Oceania, I confess I no longer have an opinion about global warming. Even if many of its scientists are *earnest*, who obtained, processed, and stored the data before they started building models? Those institutions are capable of anything.

[Apr 14, 2021] Biden's Presidency Will Be Destroyed By His Foreign Policy

Apr 14, 2021 | turcopolier.com

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Larry Johnson

Dementia Joe and his coterie of enablers have embarked on a foreign policy that is likely to result in a new war that will endanger America and further a growing perception that the United States is weak and divided. There are three troublesome flashpoints (Ukraine, China and Iran) that could explode at any time and catapult our nation into a costly, deadly military confrontation. Topping the list is the Ukraine.

The corrupt dealings in Ukraine over the last four years by Joe and Hunter Biden leaves them completely compromised and subject to coercion, even blackmail. With this as a backdrop the decade long effort by the United States to weaken Russia's influence in eastern Ukraine has been revived with Biden's arrival in the White House.

Let me first introduce you to some essential facts:

30,442 total views, 9,078 views today

Pages: 1 2 This entry was posted in As The Borg Turns , Borg Wars , Larry Johnson , Russia . Bookmark the permalink . ← No platform for the Left here China Joe Biden is the enemy of the constitution → 32 Responses to Biden's Presidency Will Be Destroyed By His Foreign Policy

1. Pat Lang says: April 8, 2021 at 9:54 pm

   LJ

   Try to remember to turn the page counter on. Reply

2. Ishmael Zechariah says: April 8, 2021 at 10:50 pm

   Larry Johnson,
   If the Ukraine blows so will Syria! Then the situation might transition from nemesis to tisis in short order. Here is a strangely appropriate analysis with just one word blanked out.
   In the years ahead, _____________ will assuredly find itself in new international crises involving nations or groups that have powerful leaders. In some cases, these leaders may have a special, dangerous mindset that is the result of a "hubris-nemesis complex." This complex involves a combination of hubris (a pretension toward an arrogant form of godliness) and nemesis (a vengeful desire to confront, defeat, humiliate, and punish an adversary, especially one that can be accused of hubris). The combination has strange dynamics that may lead to destructive, high-risk behavior. Attempts to deter, compel, or negotiate with a leader who has a hubris-nemesis complex can be ineffectual or even disastrously counterproductive when those attempts are based on concepts better suited to dealing with more normal leaders.
   https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR461.pdf
   We, too, pray for sanity.
   Ishmael Zechariah Reply

3. Walrus says: April 8, 2021 at 11:22 pm

   Larry, I unfortunately agree with your observations and conclusion.

   I would add that in my opinion, the Russians are a lot more determined, as are the Chinese and Iranians, then the generally self absorbed younger generations in the West. "Woke" culture has no answer to sunken warships, downed aircraft and body bags. Do the SJWs want to die for LBGTIQ rights in Russia or another of their pet obsessions de jour? I don't think so.

   My concern for President Biden and America is that, if Ukraine attacks, unless President Putin succeeds in delivering a very short, sharp and successful lesson to Ukraine there is not going to be a clear path forward to a negotiated armistice. If that doesn't happen through bad luck, the fog of war, etc. Then I don't think Biden has the intelligence to get us out of the mess.

   If you add to that the possibility that Zelensky may demand American support "or else" when he starts to lose then we are in very very dangerous territory. If I were the Chinese, I would just stand back and watch. Taiwanese independence is a meaningless concept without American military backing and I'm sure the Taiwanese know it.

   The wild card to me is what is Israel's attitude? Is it possible that they might be a moderating influence for a change? Reply

   • Thomas says: April 9, 2021 at 8:08 pm

     Oh, yeah .!!!!!! The country that shoots women and children who get too close to the fence they have constructed in PALESTINE on other people"s land will be the moderating party. Or maybe Mad Dog Bolton.

     Try getting real, and come up with real world situations. Not some fantasy of killers acting like kittens. The Russians seem more balanced in responding to such provocations than the U.S. & it's gang of follower- puppets. How long would any of the these follower-puppets be able to go toe to toe with Russia in all-out-war situation. I'd bet less than 24 hours, probably far less. Or as a Chinese General once asked: would you want to give up Los Angeles to save Tiwan? The U.S. doesn't seem to have any sort of reliable anti-missile defence system. Would Ole Uncle Joe really like to get into such pissing contest so early on in his term of presidency? Maybe I am wrong, but from what I have seen so far, he just seems to be throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. In this game, if one blunders, the walls vanish, an the lights go out. Reply

4. Andrei Martyanov says: April 9, 2021 at 12:42 am

   Russia moves cannon boats and amphibious vessels from Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, but in reality these combatants are perfect for operations in shallow waters and that means Azov Sea and Ukraine's South-Western flank. These ships can form both a surface group capable of dispatching anything Ukraine may have on Azov Sea, plus form excellent tactical amphibious group which can land a battalion or two of marines and support them with fire from the sea, both artillery and MLRS. Of course, there are other forces Russia has there but it is a good way to give Caspian Flotilla a chance for yet another combat deployment, after its missile ships spearheaded first salvos of 3M14 cruise missiles at ISIS targets in Syria in 2015. Here are some of those ships:
   https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Caspian_Corvette_Astrakhan_2.jpg

   Russia has an overwhelming firepower in the Black Sea proper and whatever the US is sending there is primarily for ISR purposes in case Ukies go bananas and decide to attack Donbass in death by cop scenario. The US will not interfere in any meaningful way other than supplying Ukies with recon data. Reply

5. Peter Reichard says: April 9, 2021 at 6:28 am

   It is bigger than Biden or even the Military Industrial Complex. The establishment foreign policy apparatus transcends political parties and has a continuity that survives changes in administrations. It is obsessed with Russia. It opposed not just communism but Russia itself so when the Berlin wall fell for it the Cold War never ended and it successfully pursued the the break up and looting of the Russian Empire and the relentless eastward march of NATO. Putin pushed back on this resulting in him being demonized by the orchestrated Western media. Trump for all his faults had at least a halfway rational view of these matters but now the Borg is back and spoiling for a fight. I never cease to be amazed by the stupidity of these people, their apparent lack of understanding of the importance of Ukraine and Sevastopol in Russian history and their inability to read a map or know the basics of military operations to see the obvious indefensibility of Ukraine's eastern border. The danger now is that Ukraine's leaders will overestimate the support they think they have from the United States and start something they can't stop. This has the feel of 1914. Reply

   • Thomas says: April 9, 2021 at 9:00 pm

     Or the Georgian/Russian of 2008 when Georgia attacked on Russian territory. President Bush was talking tough, saying he would send aid to Georgia on warships. But the rules governing ships entering the Bosferus proscribed such stuff, aND Bush ended doing nothing. The Russians quickly neutralized the Georgian forces and pushed deeper into Georgia where they currently remain. The odiot who started the mess was forced out of Georgia & was afterwards appointed a governor or some such in Ukraine. But I think that too went bad. Such is the level of governance in Ukraine. Reply

6. john kliss says: April 9, 2021 at 6:35 am

   The last 5 Ukros killed were killed by mines. The contact line has many zones where minefields are employed by both sides. It appears some were killed in their own minefield according to local reports. Civilians in the LPR and DPR have been killed by incoming fire, most recently a 5 year old boy. Of course OSCE is worthless except as a "bean counter"; who fired what and where is too much to record.. Reply

7. JohninMK says: April 9, 2021 at 7:09 am

   Another good analysis there LJ.

   US defence attache with a group was up at the front yesterday as well as the comic.

   Ukraine really has its back up against the wall financially. This year with big interest payments due and no way to get the funds as the IMF seems to hit its limit on their 'we're never getting it back' budget. Their only steady source of funds is ironically Russia with the gas transit fees guaranteed at $7B total over the next four years, much of which will go to the EU and IMF as interest payments. After that the gas fees will drop to zero as the gas transits move to TurkStream and NS2. With nothing to pay Russia, apart from the little mentioned oil transit fees, Russia may stop shipping gas/coal/electricity for local consumption as well. At that point either Ukraine crashes or someone else has to pick up the bill.

   Although Kiev will lose dramatically there are very good reasons why Kiev would push the button. Will they ever again have this PR opportunity to play the innocent victim? Reply

8. BillWade says: April 9, 2021 at 7:51 am

   Earlier this morning I saw a pic of Zelenskiy visiting the front, behind him was a makeshift field tent with a sign on it, the sign is in Ukrainian but translates as "Vietnam". Is Biden serious about backing Zelenskiy, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Reply

9. jonst says: April 9, 2021 at 8:34 am

   wondering if anyone can point me to a fairly, anyway, reliable, (assuming one exists) 'war games scenario' document on an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China. Intuitively, it would seem a difficult challenge, especially given China's lack of any appreciable experience in seaborne invasion. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide, and my apologies upfront LJ if you deem this offtopic. Reply

   • Yeah, Right says: April 9, 2021 at 7:58 pm

     Not meaning to be a smart-alec about it, but why assume that an invasion has to be "seaborne"?

     In WW2 the Royal Navy had total control of the waters around Crete. So the Germans simply went over the top of them and invaded the island from the air.

     It was very definitely touch and go for a while until German paratroopers managed to capture an airfield, and from that point it was all over.

     No idea how well defended Taiwanese airfields are, but the PLA would only need to capture one and, again, the final result will not be in doubt. Reply

     • jon stanley says: April 10, 2021 at 9:49 am

       well, the quick answer to your question would be 'fine, alter my initial question to include war games scenarios on airborne attacks on Taiwan. The glib answer might be, Taiwan is not Crete. And the Chinese PLA are not the Wehrmacht. Who, by the time of the Crete attack had built up a record that included many successful airborne attacks. I see no such history with the PLA. That, by no means rules it out. But, in any event, I can't imagine the PLA would role the dice, SOLELY, on an airborne attack. They would have to have a seaborne plan of attack, in case Plan A failed. So, in any event, I would be still be in search of that war games scenario. Reply

10. Seamus Padraig says: April 9, 2021 at 8:38 am

    Absent any new evidence, I am going to continue to assume that this is really about Nordstream II. The Biden Junta are probably planning on having their Ukrainian cat's paw make a lunge at DNR/LNR, forcing the Russians to intervene directly. Ukraine, of course, is not actually a full NATO member, so no Article 5 will be triggered. Instead, Washington just self-righteously hollers 'Russian aggression!' and demands that Merkel immediately shut down Nordstream II -- the Russian pipeline into Germany -- just before it's ready to go online.

    And then, as a lush reward for their undying loyalty, the Germans get to import frack-gas and oil all the way from the US at four or five times the market rate. Problem solved! Reply

    • Terence Reeves-Smyth says: April 9, 2021 at 12:52 pm

      you are correct – the Ukraine state does not really want the return of the Donbass region let alone Crimea as it would result in a complete change in the balance of power in the Ukraine with the Russian-speaking population being able to form the government, as it had done pre 2014. They really want to push the Germans into stopping Nord Stream 2 by provoking Russia Reply

11. Some Dude says: April 9, 2021 at 9:11 am

    Struggling to understand how a Ukraine with such supposedly strong ties to National Socialists of a century ago managed to end up with a Jewish comedian as President. Reply

    • Per/Norway says: April 9, 2021 at 5:39 pm

      study history without using g00gle and most U.S sources Some Dude🤷‍♂️
      All the info is available @ the interwebz. Reply

    • phodges says: April 9, 2021 at 6:42 pm

      They both hate Russia Reply

12. J says: April 9, 2021 at 10:20 am

    Larry, Colonel,

    Here's a backgrounder from the Ukraine military veterans of the Ukraine's 93rd Brigade's point of view. This was the period of 2014-2015.

    93: the Battle for Ukraine – first days of the war
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cMBPN3rjXU

    93: the Battle for Ukraine – around Donetsk Airport
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AtszHyy8rY Reply

13. J says: April 9, 2021 at 11:28 am

    Here's the viewpoint of Ukraine Army's snipers who are primarily composed of volunteer housewives. While to D.C. and Moscow, it's part of their sphere of political chess, however to those on the front lines, it is survival and protection of their loved ones.

    The Female Fighters of Ukraine's Forgotten War
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGVc4HPhanc Reply

14. Ed Lindgren says: April 9, 2021 at 11:57 am

    Almost half a century ago, I took a course in the German language as a refresher during the summer session at my local junior college. The woman who taught the course was a native Ukrainian. She told the class a little about her background.

    When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, she was in her mid- to late-teens. She had an intense dislike (hatred) of the Russians and took a job working for the German military government of occupation as an interpreter. She said they had welcomed the Germans as liberators from the oppression of the Soviet Communists.

    Later, when the Red Army juggernaut was rolling west through Ukraine, she realized that it would not be good for her long-term prospects to remain at home. She chose to move west with the retreating German army. Subsequent to the end of the war in Europe, she rattled around for awhile in displaced person camps, and ultimately made her way to the United States.

    I have no reason to doubt the veracity of her story. This was my first introduction to the enmity between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Reply

    • Patrick Armstrong says: April 9, 2021 at 4:15 pm

      Galicians. Reply

15. Deap says: April 9, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    Biden is a tin-hat emperor moving tin soldiers in his bathtub at play time. Surrounded by self-selected idiots who make him dangerous as hell. This is what his "return to decency" looks like? May he be struck down deaf and dumb. Reply

16. Deap says: April 9, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    Two front war – Russia moving into Ukraine at the same time China moves on Taiwan. They put their wet fingers up to the wind to see which way the Biden operation blows.

    And they could not escape the conclusion this was the time to strike if there is any fortuitous time to strike. Biden and his new team muddle deeply into reckless ineptitude. And Kamala Harris doesn't have anything to wear. Reply

    • Yeah, Right says: April 10, 2021 at 3:22 am

      An odd thesis. The Russians are signally very, very strongly that they do not want the Ukraine to start a war by attacking the rebels in Donbass.

      They could not be more explicit if they sent a hypersonic cruise missile through Zelensky's office window with a sign on it that reads "Don't start something you won't even live to regret".

      They very clearly do not think that this is "the time to strike", nor even that they think there is a "fortuitous time" for them to go to war with Ukraine.

      If Ukraine strikes first then, sure, they'll strike back. But I fail to see how anyone can come to the conclusion that the Russians are provoking this when it is very clearly the Ukies and their promoters in the White House who are pushing these buttons.

      Similarly with Taiwan.

      The Chinese are not provoking this. They made their red lines clear to everyone as far back as Nixon's trip to China i.e. if the USA sticks to a one-China-policy then the mainland will refrain from using force against Taiwan.

      But the USA is not sticking to the one-China-policy. Recent US diplomatic moves look exactly like what it is: maneuverings to prepare for when the Taipei government declares independence.

      Which is crazy.

      But in both cases the USA may well provoke a conflict and then dump their patsies like a discarded toy.

      Which would be beyond crazy. It would be an outcome so loopy that there isn't even a word to describe it. Reply

      • Eol says: April 10, 2021 at 3:20 pm

        Thank you for setting it straight.. it seems pretty evident Russia does not want a war but is sure as hell ready to finish this business if a war is pushed on to them and pushed on to them by the Americans. Ukraine has been armed by the U.S , funded by the IMF, and cheered by NATO. They will not do a single thing without their owners permission. Reply

17. BillWade says: April 10, 2021 at 11:06 am

    Hunter's dad and his administration is making Trump look like the greatest statesman that ever lived. Reply

18. J says: April 10, 2021 at 12:20 pm

    Back in December 2020 Putin had an expanded meeting with his Defense Ministry Board. In it he laid out several items and agendas to be carried out by the Military Staff.
    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/64684

    The recent reinforcements by the Russian MOD to counter NATO along the Ukraine border region, it appears that the MOD has deployed the incorporation of their (RChBD) capabilities into their Military Field Hospitals. And it appears that Putin has authorized deployment of their Iskander near the Ukraine border. The Iskander is multi-faceted, EMP, fuel air explosive, as well as thermonuclear. Back in 2015 Putin authorized nuclear employment should they be needed.
    https://coffeeordie.com/russian-field-camps/
    https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/russian-ground-troop-units-and-iskander-ballistic-missiles-identified-at-ukrainian-border-by-janes
    https://eng.mil.ru/en/structure/forces/ground/structure/rhbz.htm
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander

    March 24th saw Ukraine's Zelensky virtually declaring war against the Russian Federation. One can not rule out Zelensky using the trade deals with Doha and use the direct flights between Kiev and Doha to smuggle in Jihad's from Syria and Libya to fight in Donbas. Zelensky on March 3rd in a joint press conference with the European Council President in Kiev stated that the retaking of Crimea from Russia was now Ukraine Official Policy.
    https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/ukraine-redux-war-russophobia-and-pipelineistan/ Reply

19. J says: April 11, 2021 at 10:42 am

    Colonel,

    Speaking of 'foreign policy', question is who will win out -- D.C. or Tel Aviv?

    'The model' is headed to D.C. to try and convince our IC's head-cheeses that the Iran JCPOA isn't such a good deal, and Tel Aviv is trying to get him an audience with his high-arsed the 'King', China Joe. If D.C. swallows 'the model's' spiel, then they're bigger suckers than they already appear to be.

    Mossad chief said heading to Washington in bid to block US return to Iran deal
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/mossad-chief-said-heading-to-washington-in-bid-to-block-us-return-to-iran-deal/ Reply

    • Deap says: April 11, 2021 at 12:30 pm

      Assume this Mossad meeting will take place between Kackling Kamala who will be channeling Obama-Jarrett; or will it be Stinking Liar Susan Rose channeling Obama-Jarrett? But the Big Guy will be out to lunch. Reply

20. English Outsider says: April 12, 2021 at 10:08 am

    Mr Johnson – this was posted today by a commenter on Dr North's blog.

    https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2376246-audio-tapes-of-thousands-of-overheard-conversations-a-reconstruction-of-the-mh17-disaster.html Reply

    • English Outsider says: April 12, 2021 at 10:21 am

      Also, if it is still relevant today, a contemporary assessment of the shooting down of MH17 –

      http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=85089 Reply

[Apr 14, 2021] Yes, in fact USA has adjusted capitalism from elements of socialism (the New Deal welfare state") and than switching to neoliberalism (crony-capitalism)

Is neoliberalism the dead end for the USA or the USA elite will manage to do hat trick?

Apr 14, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Jackrabbit , Apr 11 2021 0:30 utc | 73

vk @Apr10 17:05 #22

Some observations:

We should stop seeing capitalism as this unmovable, eternal and indestructible system ...

Yes, in fact USA has adjusted capitalism as needed/wanted with socialism (the "welfare state") and neoliberalism (crony-capitalism).

=
... capitalism and the USA are historically specific phenomena, and they will - 100% certainty - collapse and disappear eventually.

Still, a collapse can take many forms and affect the world's people in different ways. We can't just expect that capitalism will die of natural causes and the world will inevitably be a better place for it. We are right to be wary of the worst outcomes.

=
... you just need to last longer than your political enemy. The fact that USA outlived the USSR gave it almost 17 years of incontestable supremacy ...

You make "outlasting" seem like a random thing. USSR didn't just lose the roll of the dice.

=
No one takes neoliberalism seriously anymore, even among the high echelons of the economics priesthood.

Examples?

=
It is in this world that the Ukraine chose to align with the American Empire. To put it simply, it chose the wrong side at the wrong time: it chose the West in an era that's shifting to the East.

But their "choice" wasn't a free and knowledgeable one, was it? The West was pushing for that change for 10 years and Nuland bragged of spending $5 billion to achieve it.

And the "choice" was for the entirety of Ukraine to move into the West. Ukraine suffers greatly from not having Crimea and Donbas. For example, the West had planned gas fracking in eastern Ukraine (by Burisma). That, of course, never happened.

=
The euphoria of the fall of socialism masked the degeneration of capitalism that was started at the same time and it particularly impacted the Warsaw Pact (Comecon) and the Western ex-USSR nations.

Ukraine was already an oligarchic nightmare when Maidan happened.

=
Nazism is not a system, it is just crazy liberalism, and I hope the white supremacists and traditionalists in the West take note of that - if they don't want to be crushed.

Nazism lives on in the form of the combination of: neoliberalism, neoconservativism, and neocolonialism (aka Zionism). And those who adhere to these ideologies don't seem to have any concern about being crushed. AFAICT the beatings will continue until morale improves .

!!

vk , Apr 11 2021 1:13 utc | 76

@ Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 11 2021 0:30 utc | 72

It's hard to track neoliberalism because the neoliberals don't consider themselves "neoliberal": they're just "normal" or simply "liberal". They are the Hadean ideology par excellence, the ideology that disguise itself as a-ideological, the invisible ideology.

But we can infer the death of neoliberalism as codified in the Washington Consensus list from 2008 onward by the set of policies enforced in the USA, the UK, Japan and other developed European countries (where neoliberalism are expected to be hegemonic), and here I'm specifically asking you to focus on the so-called "austerity" (which is a more regressive form of neoliberalism, but is not technically neoliberalism) and the rise of MMT through money printing or, in the case of Japan, more T-bond issuance, in a complete disregard to national (sovereign) debt after the pandemic (and, in the USA's case, even before that). Also pay attention to the list of Economy "Nobel" (Riksbank) Prize winners post-2008 - none of them being neoliberals in the academic sense of the word, nor having a neoliberal past (apparently).

The only place left where neoliberalism is still alive and well, albeit weakened, is in Latin America and the so-called "emerging economies" (Turkey, South Africa and Russia). But those are not the dominant part of the world in the capitalist sense, it would be akin to the Roman Empire surviving only as a remnant in pieces of Hispania or Gallia.

[Apr 02, 2021] America Is Back- Collides With A Multipolar Reality

Apr 02, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Patroklos , Apr 1 2021 20:35 utc | 26

The World Health Organization recently published its report on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which has caused the Covid-19 pandemic. Most scientist agree that the virus is of zoonotic origin and not a human construct or an accidental laboratory escape. But the U.S. wants to put pressure on China and advised the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, to keep the focus on China potential culpability. He acted accordingly when he remarked on his agency's report:

Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy.

The U.S. State Department fetched the pass and ran with it. It asked its allies to sign on to its Joint Statement on the WHO-Convened COVID-19 Origins Study which requests more unhindered access in China:

The Governments of Australia, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America remain steadfast in our commitment to working with the World Health Organization (WHO), international experts who have a vital mission, and the global community to understand the origins of this pandemic in order to improve our collective global health security and response. Together, we support a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation, free from interference and undue influence, of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, we join in expressing shared concerns regarding the recent WHO-convened study in China, while at the same time reinforcing the importance of working together toward the development and use of a swift, effective, transparent, science-based, and independent process for international evaluations of such outbreaks of unknown origin in the future.

The most interesting with the above statement is the list of U.S. allied countries which declined to support it,

Most core EU countries, especially France, Spain, Italy and Germany, are missing from it. As is the Five-Eyes member New Zealand. India, a U.S. ally in the anti-Chinese Quad initiative, also did not sign. This list of signatories of the Joint Statement is an astonishingly meager result for a U.S. 'joint' initiative. It is unprecedented. It is a sign that something has cracked and that the world will never be the same.

The first months of he Biden administration saw a rupture in the global system. First Russia admonished the EU for its hypocritical criticism of internal Russian issues. Biden followed up by calling Putin a 'killer'. Then the Chinese foreign minister told the Biden administration to shut the fuck up about internal Chinese issues. Soon thereafter Russia's and China's foreign ministers met and agreed to deepen their alliance and to shun the U.S. dollar. Then China's foreign minister went on a wider Middle East tour. There he reminded U.S. allies of their sovereignty :

Wang said that expected goals had been achieved with regard to a five-point initiative on achieving security and stability in the Middle East, which was proposed during the visit.

"China supports countries in the region to stay impervious to external pressure and interference, to independently explore development paths suited to its regional realities ," Wang said, adding that the countries should " break free from the shadows of big-power geopolitical rivalry and resolve regional conflicts and differences as masters of the region ."

Wang's tour was topped off with the signing of a game changing agreement with Iran:

Suffice to say, the China-Iran pact deeply is embedded within a new matrix Beijing hopes to create with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and Iran. The pact forms part of a new narrative on regional security and stability.

The "U.S. led rules based international order" is finally finished . Russia and China buried it :

Countries in Asia and further afield are closely watching the development of this alternative international order, led by Moscow and Beijing. And they can also recognise the signs of increasing US economic and political decline.

It is a new kind of Cold War, but not one based on ideology like the first incarnation. It is a war for international legitimacy, a struggle for hearts and minds and money in the very large part of the world not aligned to the US or NATO.

The US and its allies will continue to operate under their narrative, while Russia and China will push their competing narrative. This was made crystal clear over these past few dramatic days of major power diplomacy.

The global balance of power is shifting, and for many nations, the smart money might be on Russia and China now.

The obvious U.S. countermove to the Russian-Chinese initiative is to unite its allies in a new Cold War against Russia and China. But as the Joint Statement above shows most of those allies do not want to follow that path. China is a too good customer to be shunned. Talk of human rights in other countries might play well with the local electorate but what counts in the end is the business.

Even some U.S. companies can see that the hostile path the Biden administration has followed will only be to their detriment. Some are asking the Biden gang to tone it down :

[Boeing] Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told an online business forum he believed a major aircraft subsidy dispute with Europe could be resolved after 16 years of wrangling at the World Trade Organization, but contrasted this with the outlook on China.

"I think politically (China) is more difficult for this administration and it was for the last administration. But we still have to trade with our largest partner in the world: China," he told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit.

Noting multiple disputes, he added: " I am hoping we can sort of separate intellectual property, human rights and other things from trade and continue to encourage a free trade environment between these two economic juggernauts. ... We cannot afford to be locked out of that market. Our competitor will jump right in."

Before its 737 MAX debacle Boeing was the biggest U.S. exporter and China was its biggest customer. The MAX has yet to be re-certified in China. If Washington keeps the hostile tone against China Boeing will lose out and Europe's Airbus will make a killing.

Biden announced that "America is back" only to be told that it is no longer needed in the oversized role that it played before. Should Washington not be able to accept that it can no play 'unilateral' but will have to follow the real rules of international law we might be in for some interesting times :

Question: Finally, are you concerned that deteriorating international tensions could lead to war?

Glenn Diesen: Yes, we should all be concerned. Tensions keep escalating and there are increasing conflicts that could spark a major war. A war could break out over Syria, Ukraine, the Black Sea, the Arctic, the South China Sea and other regions.

What makes all of these conflicts dangerous is that they are informed by a winner-takes-all logic. Wishful thinking or active push towards a collapse of Russia, China, the EU or the U.S. is also an indication of the winner-takes-all mentality. Under these conditions, the large powers are more prepared to accept greater risks at a time when the international system is transforming . The rhetoric of upholding liberal democratic values also has clear zero-sum undertones as it implies that Russia and China must accept the moral authority of the West and commit to unilateral concessions.

The rapidly shifting international distribution of power creates problems that can only be resolved with real diplomacy. The great powers must recognize competing national interests, followed by efforts to reach compromises and find common solutions.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly asked for a summit of leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council:

Putin argued that the countries that created a new global order after World War II should cooperate to solve today's problems.

"The founder countries of the United Nations, the five states that hold special responsibility to save civilisation, can and must be an example," he said at the sombre memorial ceremony.

The meeting would "play a great role in searching for collective answers to modern challenges and threats," Putin said, adding that Russia was "ready for such a serious conversation."

Such a summit would be a chance to work on a new global system that avoids unilateralism and block mentality. As the U.S. is now learning that its allies are not willing to follow its anti-China and anti-Russia policies it might be willing to negotiate over a new international system.

But as long as Washington is unable to recognize its own decline a violent attempt to solve the issue once and for all will become more likely.

Posted by b on April 1, 2021 at 17:52 UTC | Permalink

Very thought provoking b, I wish time off brought me back firing on all cylinders like this!

No doubt vk will chime in here better than I but it surely cannot be a matter of "if America decides". There are historical forces at work in this financialized phase of late capitalism that are not grasped by the US leadership, let alone factored into intelligent policy debates. Biden is an arch-lobbyist for the vested interests which compel the US's unilateral and interventionist foreign policy. I'm quite sure he is incapable of 'deciding' anything (not just mentally but institutionally). But the underlying dynamic of world-historical change is beyond him and his whole country. The die was cast long ago when the Soviet Union fell and the US couldn't help themselves. Junkies for unilateralism since 1989, they will keep shooting up until they OD (Boeing notwithstanding...). I suspect they will end up like the schizoid UK, psychologically unable to accept increasing and humiliating losses of empire until it hits the bottom of the dustbin of History.

[Apr 01, 2021] Neoliberalism in the USA persists, althouth in zombie state:

Apr 01, 2021 | yro.slashdot.org

Supreme Court Lets FCC Relax Limits On Media Ownership

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times:The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to relax rules limiting the number of newspapers, radio stations and television stations that a single entity may own in a given market . The decision is likely to prompt further consolidation among broadcast outlets, some of which say they need more freedom to address competition from internet and cable companies. Critics fear that media consolidation will limit the perspectives available to viewers.

The rules at issue in the case, initially adopted between 1964 and 1975, had been meant "to promote competition, localism and viewpoint diversity by ensuring that a small number of entities do not dominate a particular media market," Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote for the court. But the rules, he added, were a relic of a different era -- "an early-cable and pre-internet age when media sources were more limited." "By the 1990s, however, the market for news and entertainment had changed dramatically," Justice Kavanaugh wrote. "Technological advances led to a massive increase in alternative media options, such as cable television and the internet. Those technological advances challenged the traditional dominance of daily print newspapers, local radio stations and local television stations."

The case, Federal Communications Commission v. Prometheus Radio Project, No. 19-1231, concerned three rules. One barred a single entity from owning a radio or television station and a daily print newspaper in the same market, the second limited the number of radio and television stations an entity can own in a single market, and the third restricted the number of local television stations an entity could own in the same market.

In 2017, the commission concluded that the three rules no longer served their original purposes of promoting competition and the like. The vote was 3 to 2 along party lines, with the commission's Republican members in the majority.

Clarification ( Score: 5 , Informative) by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday April 01, 2021 @06:09PM ( #61226092 )

They were not deciding if media consolidation was OK. They were deciding if the FCC had the regulatory authority to make such a change. The court decided, unanimously, that they did.

If they had decided otherwise, it would open up any such regulatory changes to lawsuits against the change. This includes further tightening media ownership rules, or changing rules on pollution, or regulations on corporate governance.

https://reason.com/volokh/2021... [reason.com] Reply to This Share What SCOTUS should have done ( Score: 5 , Insightful) by DeplorableCodeMonkey ( 4828467 ) on Thursday April 01, 2021 @06:24PM ( #61226140 )

Is they have should have gone for the throat and said FCC, SEC, FTC, FEC, etc. rule-making is unconstitutional per se because all legislative and pseudo-legislative activity must be enacted explicitly by only the Congress.

It would have utterly horrified and enraged progressives and big corporation-loving republicans, but it would have been considered a judicial Gettysburg for the forces of populism on both sides because it would have gutted the power of the administrative state to render the people's assembly a vestigial organ.

[Mar 31, 2021] The US-China meeting in Anchorage took place 75 years almost to the day of the Winston Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, Missouri

Blinken is no Churchill

Mar 31, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Baron , Mar 31 2021 21:40 utc | 27

The US-China meeting in Anchorage took place 75 years almost to the day of the Winston Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, Missouri. Just as the latter signalled a break point in the uneasy, war forced cohabit of the West with the communist Soviet Union, so too the Anchorage will enter the history as the break point in the US hegemony threatening collaboration of the West and China.

Since WW2, no other nation, not even Russia, has confronted the US so firmly and so publicly as did Yang Jiechi, one of the ruling member of the Chinese Politburo when he said that "the United States does not have the qualification to speak to China from a position of strength'.

That was a slap in the face the Americans will have to respond to, and it's in the nature of the response one will find whether the American Governing elite is prepared to share power or go for a confrontation.

[Mar 30, 2021] Blinken calls warmonger Madelaine Albright his "role model"

Mar 30, 2021 | odysee.com

@Dwaine.Castle852 2 hours ago

I hope that someone sends her a pair of the Nike Satan sneakers. Perhaps with the blood of a few children inside. @Tsigantes 2 hours ago

'role model' ?
We are warned....for what "it's worth" !

• @csigrissom 2 hours ago

  Why are we surprised that most of the Arab world hates the West?

[Mar 30, 2021] Delusions of neocon Blinken

The real question is not about his neocon delusions, which are pretty predictable, but about the ability for the USA project global dominance in the decade to come.

Blinken is a marionette. And pretty much second rate even in that.

Notable quotes:

"... Let's consider this headline for a moment: "Blinken Accuses China of Trying to Undermine US-Dominated World Order." Blinken provides us with a definition of that "world order" in his own words cited in the article: "'... preserve the rules-based international order, in which we have all invested so much over the past 75 years , and which has served our interests and values well'." [My Emphasis] ..."

Mar 30, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Mar 30 2021 17:08 utc | 28

Let's consider this headline for a moment: "Blinken Accuses China of Trying to Undermine US-Dominated World Order." Blinken provides us with a definition of that "world order" in his own words cited in the article: "'... preserve the rules-based international order, in which we have all invested so much over the past 75 years , and which has served our interests and values well'." [My Emphasis]

Clearly, he's referring to the rules put in place by the UN Charter. But as we at this bar all know, it's the Outlaw US Empire for whom Blinken works that's the #1 criminal when it comes to violating the UN Charter which is why it's "served our interests and values well."

Now when we turn to reality, it become very clear that China seeks to uphold the UN Charter--it's one of the foundational members of the newly established Friends of the UN Charter Group that the Outlaw US Empire will certainly snub because of the reality of its actual relations to that Act and Organization .

Indeed, what is being said by the very formation of that Group is a big NO!! to the Outlaw US Empire's attempt to say it abides by the system it's continuously violated for the past 75+ years. Yet, it's also clear that NO!! isn't being shouted out by global media enough, particularly when Outlaw US Empire officials give such an excellent opportunity to be rebuffed and ridiculed for their lies.

We have many good writers here who could take Blinken's words and turn them into an indictment of himself and the nation he represents. That implies that writers for global publications are just as good but need to examine the framing of their articles. Peace won't come to our planet unless the Outlaw Bully Nation is daily accused for what it is and does.

NATO is a distinct minority yet it holds the world captive in a terroristic manner. It's well past time to stop groveling and kow-towing and to stand-up and call out the bullshitters for what they are since being nice isn't getting us anywhere.

[Mar 28, 2021] Bidens missteps so early on are a very worrying indicator that his foreign policy team is worse than just being malign. They are incompetent. Thats a very dangerous combination.

Mar 28, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

---

PlutoniumKun , March 27, 2021 at 8:25 am

To go back to a previous BTL discussion on Patrick Cockburns recent article in Counterpunch, Bidens missteps so early on are a very worrying indicator that his foreign policy team is worse than just being malign. They are incompetent. Thats a very dangerous combination.

I don't think the Russians, Chinese, or most other major countries (apart from Europe) had a fundamental problem with Trumps approach. They understood him, and were quite happy to ignore his bombast and threats and focus instead on what was happening in the real world. But things are different for someone like Biden, and I'm very surprised nobody in his team seem to realise this. When he talks on the record, its assumed that it is a reflection of a real policy. At first, I thought maybe he was just doing the usual new guy in power thing of talking tough to set the ground for later compromises (the opposite of Obama, who appeared very weak to other leaders, and then just looked indecisive when his policies turned more hardline). But that does not seem to be the case so far.

I've no idea what the final outcome will be, but I do think that this is one of those points in history where things take a very sharp and irreparable change in direction. Obviously, things have been brewing for years, but the ineptness of US foreign policy seems to have created a strategic Russian/China alliance which will force many countries to make some very hard choices about which side of the fence they are on.

On a related note, I woke up this morning to find that a speech by Lawrence P. Wilkerson, who is associated with the conservative paleoconservatives is getting very wide circulation in China (you know this has to be officially approved otherwise it disappears very rapidly on WeChat. He makes a claim that the CIA back in the early '00's intended to use the Uigurs as a sort of proxy army to destabilise China. For all sorts of reasons, I would doubt that, but it is now widely believed among Chinese people, even those who have no liking for the CCP. The notion that the Uigurs are a sort of third force within China, and as such need to be destroyed now seems to be very deeply embedded in Chinese thinking, and the interference by 'official' western NGO's are undoubtedly making things much worse for them.

pjay , March 27, 2021 at 9:41 am

"[Wilkerson] makes a claim that the CIA back in the early '00's intended to use the Uigurs as a sort of proxy army to destabilise China. For all sorts of reasons, I would doubt that, but it is now widely believed among Chinese people, even those who have no liking for the CCP."

Just curious as to what your reasons would be for doubting this. The CIA has been doing precisely this all over the world for over 70 years. There is a clear pipeline between the Uighurs in China and the CIA-supported "rebels" in Syria. The expatriate Uighur organizations that are integral to the Western propaganda apparatus is supported and amplified by the NED and other CIA fronts, as your last sentence implies. This is not to deny the historical Uighur desire for autonomy in Western China, nor to defend Chinese policies toward them. Rather, it is to acknowledge the CIA's use of ethnic tensions to sow chaos and division in non-conforming nations *everywhere*.

PlutoniumKun , March 27, 2021 at 10:32 am

Its unlikely because:

1. The US has had little to no success in its many attempts to establish an intelligence foothold in China. There is zero evidence, direct or indirect, that it has had any successful contact with Uigur groups directly, although contacts via others, such as the Pakistani or Turkish intelligence agencies are possible. If there was even the tiniest amount of evidence of such a link, the Chinese would be broadcasting it from the skies, and not just re-messaging out tired CT stuff. Chinese intelligence is far ahead of the US in that region, so they would certainly know if something like that was happening.

2. Uigur groups in general such as we know about them tend to be as virulently anti Western as anti Han Chinese. All evidence suggests that the brand of Islam that has been belatedly introduced into those regions is essentially second hand Wahhabism (traditionally, they were never all that religious).

3. Any such attempt could be easily countered by China – simply by dumping Uigur radicals into Afghanistan to bolster the Taliban, or anywhere else that would create trouble. The fact that they haven't done this strongly suggests that the Chinese themselves see no link.

4. US military intelligence is often a misnomer, but even the CIA can't be stupid enough to think that fostering another islamic state on the borders of Afghanistan is anything but a terrible idea.

Of course, no doubt some mid ranking CIA officer may have circulated some report saying more or less 'hey, maybe we can use those Uighurs or whatever they are called'. But thats an entirely different thing from suggesting that there have been active links and a strategy for using them to destabilise the borders of China. The reality is that the US has been entirely unsuccessful in any attempts (when they've been made) to undermine China via internal Chinese ethnic or religious groups.

Incidentally, the reliability of Wilkerson (who I actually quite like and who says some interesting things), on that topic can be measured by his statement that the invasion of Afghanistan was motivated by an attempt to stop the Belt and Road Initiative. It's quite impressive intelligence if that was the case as the invasion predated the Belt and Road Initiative by more than a decade.

David , March 27, 2021 at 10:57 am

Yes, I think the important point is your last one. It's not out of the question that on a rainy afternoon in Virginia some junior CIA analyst amused himself by sketching out such an idea, and one day the product may leak and be presented as "proof." But for the reasons you give, the political leaders who would have to approve the scheme would turn it down, even if it were physically possible. I doubt it would be, actually: from what little information is publicly available, the US seems to be having little or no luck penetrating that area.

pjay , March 27, 2021 at 11:48 am

Thanks for the systematic reply. I appreciate each of your points, and pretty much agree with the first one – including your comment about Turkish intelligence. But regarding the others, the fact that we are talking about anti-Western Wahabist radicals does not mean the CIA (or elements of the CIA or other military/intelligence operations) would hesitate to weaponize them if possible. We did this in Afghanistan, Bosina, Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Chechnya etc. Indeed, we seemed to *welcome* the fostering of an Islamic State in Eastern Syria, because the various jihadists were a means to destroy the Syrian government. When the goal is to foster chaos and destruction in order to *undermine* an existing state, the calculus of unleashing the head-choppers is different than if we were actually interested in fostering stability in the region. I admit that such a strategy might sound insane to *us*, but Einstein's definition of insanity seems to rule our National Security Establishment.

David , March 27, 2021 at 1:28 pm

Not PK, but I would suggest these cases are not only different from each other, but also different from the Uigurs. Essentially, there was a war going on in all of these cases, and the US (and they were scarcely the only ones) decided to try to get a bit of influence by arming one or more of the factions. This is a tactic which is as old as arms themselves, and has a pretty spotty record of success, if that. Its advantage is that it is low-key and doesn't require a massive presence (the classic case is the Soviet Union and the Chinese flooding Africa with AK-47s and copies in the 1960s and 1970s). But the cases you mention are very disparate. In Bosnia there do seem to have been some (illegal) CIA deliveries to the Muslims in violation of the embargo, but these were very small scale and in any event the Muslims were one of the major parties to the conflict, as well as constituting the de facto government in Sarajevo, because the other ethnicities had withdrawn. Likewise, and in spite of preening memoirs and films, the US influence in Afghanistan was quite small : the mujahideen were already forming in the 1970s, and the only contribution the US really made was to supply anti-aircraft missiles, which complicated the Russians' existence quite a bit. But actually fomenting and arming an insurgency next to one of the three or four major powers on the planet, with highly skilled intelligence services? There is stupidity and there's downright insanity.

upstater , March 27, 2021 at 7:33 pm

I the 1950s, the CIA and MI6 trained and armed the "Forest Brothers" in the Baltics. Neutral Sweden and Finland were across hundreds of km of water. Land access was through Soviet territory or satellites. There was no significant international trade or commerce in the area at the time. Yet they had tens of thousands of well supplied (for that era) resistance fighters that took a decade for the USSR to stomp out.

To suggest that today's CIA is incapable of stirring things up in a well-connected Xinjiang when thousands of foreigners travel there, tons of business shipments and international flights and road transport is a mystifying statement. Particularly after CIA's decades of experience managing jihadis all across North Africa, Mideast and Central Asia, more than a few being Uigurs.

And suggesting that the only thing the US supplied the Afghan jihadis were Stinger missiles is far off the mark. It was a multi-billion dollar per year operation conducted by the US with collaboration of the ISI and Saudis. All those tens of thousands of jihadis didn't arrive by camels and make slingshots.

I agree "There is stupidity and there's downright insanity" in fomenting troubles in Xinjiang. The US has already passed that test. Many times.

Yves Smith , March 27, 2021 at 10:06 pm

*Sigh*

We are three generations past the 1950s. Not a relevant example.

The US is not even remotely as good as you'd have to believe to accept this theory. For starters, we don't begin to have enough people with native level language competence, much the less willing to live there long enough to be trusted. They'll take our arms, but our directives?

It is in the interest of the CIA to take credit for all sorts of things where their role was non-existent to marginal because funding.

PlutoniumKun , March 27, 2021 at 2:20 pm

David put it so much better than I could.

I can't claim any great knowledge or insight into the region, but the notion that the Uighurs were part of a grand CIA strategy, or that they have had sufficient influence in the region to manipulate them into opposing China, just doesn't pass the smell test. Unfortunately, like the notion that Covid is spread on frozen food, so far as I can tell it is now considered 'a fact' by most Chinese, inside and outside the country. As a result, even Chinese who strongly dislike their government are not at all bothered by reports coming out of the region.

For what its worth, I knew an English guy who lived for a few years in Urumqi with his Chinese wife about 15 years ago. He was virulently anti-muslim and didn't much like the non-Chinese locals he met, but I remember at the time that said that what he saw around him convinced him that things were going to end very badly for the Uighurs, the Chinese were just waiting for the opportunity to wipe them out. I was in Tibet at that period (I was fortunate to get a visa on the last year solo traveller were allowed in) and witnessed the way Tibetans were openly abused on the street by Chinese soldiers. Even Tibetans said that the Uighurs got it worse.

drumlin woodchuckles , March 27, 2021 at 5:53 pm

The US government and privately motivated US citizens have no credibility on this issue. That means if anyone is going to raise it, it will have to be someone other than America or Americans.

That doesn't change the fact of Great Han Lebensraum genocide-policy against the Uighurs on the part of the Chinese Communazi Party. And Chinese statements about their Lebensraum genocide against Uighuria are just as much hasbara as Israeli statements about antiPalestinianitic persecution in the Occupied West Bank.

And if that purely-private opinion of a mere U S citizen makes any Great Han hasbarists ( or might I say . . . Hansbarists) on this thread mad, then that makes me happy.

Fern , March 27, 2021 at 6:14 pm

Your friend was English; I have not seen this attitude on the part of Chinese friends or Chinese I've talked with. I was traveling on a domestic flight in China a number of years ago and found myself sitting on a plane next to a random Chinese soldier -- a memorably tall, handsome young man. He spoke English well enough to have a discussion (the relaxed atmosphere and the need to pass the time does wonders when it comes to breaking down language barriers). Major Uighur terror attacks and unrest had been in the news (around 2009), so I asked him what he thought about it. He said that he grew up in Xinjiang. His parents were Han Chinese who had first come to Xinjiang during the cultural revolution to build some local infrastructure/improvement project (he described it to me but I don't remember the details). They saw their goal as improving conditions in the region. Of course, the government wanted to solidify Chinese presence in that region of their country, but I heard no hint of anger or derision toward the Uighur. He said he was very concerned that the Uighur people were happy and he hoped China could find a way to mend the relationship. He said that growing up, there were many mixed Chinese/Han marriages and that "people say" that mixed Han/Uighur marriages produced the most physically beautiful children. I didn't see any evidence of the malignant racism you describe on the part of your English friend.

Strong central governments vs violent separatist movements tend to create lasting problems. Growing up in a border state over 100 years after our own civil war, I grew up with the fact that many people had still not let go of that resentment. Southerners still maintained a sense of grievance back then. The Maryland state song that I learned as a child is only now being decommissioned by the state legislature. One stanza refers to the "Northern scum".

This week's WaPo headline: "Maryland poised to say goodbye to state song that celebrates the Confederacy".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-state-song-repealed/2021/03/22/7a88fda4-89e8-11eb-bfdf-4d36dab83a6d_story.html

drumlin woodchuckles , March 27, 2021 at 10:40 pm

If your Han Chinese interlocutor's feelings are widely shared among the ruled-over rather than ruling-over ordinary majority of Han citizens, then it would appear that it is the MonoParty RegimeGovernment ruling over China which is Communazi, not the people as such.

Regardless, it will be up to countrygovs which have moral standing in this area to comment or not, not the US anymore. At least for now.

Probably the Uighurs have it even worse than Tibetans because Uighuria is very inhabitable by Han settlers whereas Tibet is high and dry enough that ( I have read), that lowland-adapted Hans have trouble physically coping over time with the lower oxygen levels at Tibet altitude.
If that is so, then the High Tibetan Plateau at least would not provide Lebensraum for millions of Han Settlers in any case, so why clear the Tibetans off the plateau and out of existence? Not so much need, in Tibet's case.

Keith Newman , March 27, 2021 at 2:43 pm

@PlutoniumKun
I have no knowledge about points 1 to 3, but totally disagree with point 4.
The hubris and desire of the US alphabet agencies to meddle is remarkable. A current example is the CIA support of jihadis in Syria that the US military itself is fighting against.
Interesting caution re Wilkerson – do you have a link?

The Rev Kev , March 27, 2021 at 10:03 am

Here is a link to an article talking about that talk PK. Having a coupla thousand Uygurs in Syria gaining combat experience for use later who knows where was probably proof enough for China of western intentions. Just think of the other Jihadists who have been used in places like Libya and the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the Chinese would be drawing their own conclusions-

https://archive.ph/lMHQy#selection-2325.214-2325.220

[Mar 26, 2021] Biden foreign policy is counterproductive and can only lead to more isolation.

Mar 26, 2021 | www.unz.com

bayviking , says:

The sooner America collapses, the safer the rest of the world will be, excluding the Ashkenazi

[Mar 22, 2021] Biden Picks a Pointless Fight with Russia - Eunomia

Mar 22, 2021 | daniellarison.substack.com

The Russian government is responding angrily to Biden's derisive comments about Putin:

The Kremlin has reacted angrily to US President Joe Biden's remarks that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is "a killer," calling the comment unprecedented and describing the relationship between the two countries as "very bad."

U.S.-Russian relations have been deteriorating steadily over the last ten years, and it always seemed unlikely that Biden would improve them. Now there will be even less of a chance that Biden can work constructively with his Russian counterpart. The president's blunt answer to a rather silly question from George Stephanopoulos has further damaged the relationship to neither country's benefit. Anatol Lieven observed recently that this is a "completely unnecessary confrontation with Russia" at a time when the U.S. needs Russian cooperation on some important issues. Lieven cites U.S. reentry into the JCPOA and extricating U.S. forces from Afghanistan as his examples of issues where Russian cooperation could be very valuable, but he could have added new negotiations on future arms control agreements as well. Making progress on any one of these becomes much more challenging when our president is gratuitously insulting theirs. For an administration that prides itself on practicing diplomacy, they have a funny way of showing it.

[Mar 22, 2021] Nephew has described the destruction of Iran's economy as "a tremendous success," and lamented during a visit to Russia that food was still plentiful in the country's capital despite mounting US sanctions.

Mar 22, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Mao , Mar 21 2021 16:06 utc | 14

The Joseph Biden administration has named Richard Nephew as its deputy Iran envoy. As the former principal deputy coordinator of sanctions policy for Barack Obama's State Department, Nephew took personal credit for depriving Iranians of food, sabotaging their automobile industry, and driving up unemployment rates.

Nephew has described the destruction of Iran's economy as "a tremendous success," and lamented during a visit to Russia that food was still plentiful in the country's capital despite mounting US sanctions.

Nephew's appointment to a senior diplomatic post suggests that rather than immediately returning to the JCPOA nuclear deal, the Biden administration will finesse sanctions illegally imposed by Trump to pressure Iran into an onerous, reworked agreement that Tehran is unlikely to join.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/08/biden-iran-envoy-starving-civilians-pain-sanctions/

---

jayc , Mar 21 2021 17:56 utc | 23

Mao #14

Grayzone's report is fascinating in a "banality of evil" kind of way.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/08/biden-iran-envoy-starving-civilians-pain-sanctions/

Nephew's "simple framework" for "sanctions to perform their expected function" reads like a torturer's manual (replace "target state" with "prisoner"):

- identify objectives for the imposition of pain and define the minimum necessary remedial steps that the target state must take for pain to be removed

- understand as much as possible the nature of the target, including its vulnerabilities, interests, commitment to whatever it did to prompt sanctions, and readiness to absorb pain

-develop a strategy to carefully, methodically, and efficiently increase pain on those areas that are vulnerabilities while avoiding those that are not

-monitor the execution of the strategy and continuously recalibrate its initial assumption of target state resolve, the efficacy of the pain applied in shattering that resolve, and how best to improve the strategy

etc

farm ecologist , Mar 21 2021 18:10 utc | 25

Kudos to Alan Macleod and MintPressNews (cited above by b) for providing further evidence of how the US and its allies don't care about human suffering and death as long as they are able to further their political goals. A previous article in this series uncovers this striking bit of disregard for human life in the 2020 Annual Report of the US Department of Health (sic) and Human Services:

Combatting malign influences in the Americas: OGA (Office of Global Affairs) used diplomatic relations in the Americas region to mitigate efforts by states, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia, who are working to increase their influence in the region to the detriment of US safety and security. OGA coordinated with other U.S. government agencies to strengthen diplomatic ties and offer technical and humanitarian assistance to dissuade countries in the region from accepting aid from these ill intentioned states. Examples include using OGA's Health Attaché office to persuade Brazil to reject the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, and offering CDC technical assistance in lieu of Panama accepting an offer of Cuban doctors.

Translation: Deaths in Brazil are skyrocketing, but at least we prevented them from using that damned Russian vaccine.

[Mar 21, 2021] Blinken, like his boss, is a complete moron.

Mar 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

uncle tungsten , Mar 21 2021 3:55 utc | 181

Blinken, like his boss, is a complete moron. He blew it with his patronising threatening 'rules based order' drivel because he has no expertise. Blinken has been doing this for a decade or two: Syria, Libya, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, and on and on. He has the form of a killer, the mind of a killer and the intentions of a mass murderer. He has proven the latter and is the type of global ambassadorial psychopath that one should meet with once and then never meet again.

The USA has lost its mind and every day that passes proves that point.

This bar deserves broader analysis of other quarters of the planet and no more references to the Guardian or NYT.

---

Mao , Mar 21 2021 5:58 utc | 186

Three Takeaways from China-U.S. Alaska Meeting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3isU3mpx8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCtMl_0h6P4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHAbhZovh2E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NszIE48KE_Y

Mao , Mar 21 2021 5:58 utc | 187

Posted by: willie | Mar 20 2021 15:31 utc | 116

A majority of american ambassadors are rich businessmen and women,who have not the slightest idea what diplomacy is about.

Stop Letting Rich People Buy Ambassadorships
President Biden could score a quick win by dismantling the donor-to-ambassador pipeline.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/opinion/biden-ambassadors-donors.html

Biden under pressure to tap fewer political ambassadors than Trump, Obama
Donors are growing impatient as Biden delays naming coveted ambassador posts.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/biden-political-ambassadors-476050

curmudgeon , Mar 21 2021 6:52 utc | 190

I know that the United States and its leaders are determined to maintain certain relations with us, but on matters that are of interest to the United States and on its terms. Even though they believe we are just like them, we are different. We have a different genetic, cultural and moral code. But we know how to uphold our interests. We will work with the United States, but in the areas that we are interested in and on terms that we believe are beneficial to us. They will have to reckon with it despite their attempts to stop our development, despite the sanctions and insults. They will have to reckon with this.

The author provides basic but essential definition of conflict resolution. The USians either don't understand or defy it.

oldhippie , Mar 21 2021 7:25 utc | 192

James @ 170

Your link to statement by Blinken & Sullivan is propaganda as you say. It is also an expression of how deeply limited and very stupid these two are. They have no idea what just hit them.

[Mar 06, 2021] Biden's -Nothing Will Fundamentally Change- Promise Extends To His Foreign Policy

Mar 06, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Laguerre , Mar 4 2021 18:27 utc | 1

"America is back" claimed Joe Biden to no ones amusement. But the world has changed after four years of Trump and after a pandemic upset the world. The U.S. position in this world and its role in it have thereby also changed. To just claim one is back without adopting to the new situation promises failure.

As candidate Joe Biden promised that there would be no changes.

Joe Biden to rich donors: "Nothing would fundamentally change" if he's elected

Former Vice President Joe Biden assured rich donors at a ritzy New York fundraiser that "nothing would fundamentally change" if he is elected.

Biden told donors at an event at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday evening that he would not "demonize" the rich and promised that " no one's standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change ," Bloomberg News reported.

That Biden statement destroyed the illusion of those who had hoped that he would lift the standard of living for the average Amercian.

Biden stayed true to his words at the fundraiser. There will be no rise in the minimum wage. The $2,000 checks he promised to all voters will now be only $1,400 checks. They will also be heavily means tested . Those who made more than $80,000 in 2019 but lost their income in 2020 will get no check at all.

Even as they hold the White House and the House and Senate majorities the Democrats are unable or unwilling to deliver basic progress. This will likely cost them their House majority in 2022 and the presidency in 2024.

Biden's "nothing will fundamentally change" attitude extends into foreign policy.

Secretary Pompeo @SecPompeo - 0:29 UTC · Dec 21, 2019
Today, the #ICC prosecutor raised serious questions about the ICC's jurisdiction to investigate #Israel. Israel is not a state party to the ICC. We firmly oppose this unjustified inquiry that unfairly targets Israel . The path to lasting peace is through direct negotiations.

---

Secretary Antony Blinken @SecBlinken - 1:34 UTC · Mar 4, 2021
The United States firmly opposes an @IntlCrimCourt investigation into the Palestinian Situation. We will continue to uphold our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including by opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly.

With that, and with its lack of punishment for the Saudi clown prince, the Biden administration has blinked on human rights which it had emphasized in earlier statements .

That nothing will change is also expressed in two policy papers the Biden administration released yesterday. The early emphasis on human rights, which distinguished it from the Trump administration, is already gone.

The common theme is now 'democracy' as if that were not just a form of government but a value in itself.

The White House published an Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (pdf). The paper is dripping with ideological LGBTQWERTY librulism. Its central claim is that 'democracy' is under threat:

At a time when the need for American engagement and international cooperation is greater than ever, however, democracies across the globe, including our own, are increasingly under siege . Free societies have been challenged from within by corruption, inequality, polarization, populism, and illiberal threats to the rule of law. Nationalist and nativist trends – accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis – produce an every-country-for-itself mentality that leaves us all more isolated, less prosperous, and less safe. Democratic nations are also increasingly challenged from outside by antagonistic authoritarian powers. Anti-democratic forces use misinformation, disinformation, and weaponized corruption to exploit perceived weaknesses and sow division within and among free nations, erode existing international rules, and promote alternative models of authoritarian governance. Reversing these trends is essential to our national security .

It then singles out China:

We must also contend with the reality that the distribution of power across the world is changing, creating new threats. China , in particular, has rapidly become more assertive. It is the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system. Russia remains determined to enhance its global influence and play a disruptive role on the world stage. Both Beijing and Moscow have invested heavily in efforts meant to check U.S. strengths and prevent us from defending our interests and allies around the world. Regional actors like Iran and North Korea continue to pursue game-changing capabilities and technologies, while threatening U.S. allies and partners and challenging regional stability. We also face challenges within countries whose governance is fragile, and from influential non-state actors that have the ability to disrupt American interests.

To fight China the U.S. will (ab)use its allies:

We can do none of this work alone. For that reason, we will reinvigorate and modernize our alliances and partnerships around the world. For decades, our allies have stood by our side against common threats and adversaries, and worked hand-in-hand to advance our shared interests and values. They are a tremendous source of strength and a unique American advantage, helping to shoulder the responsibilities required to keep our nation safe and our people prosperous. Our democratic alliances enable us to present a common front, produce a unified vision, and pool our strength to promote high standards, establish effective international rules, and hold countries like China to account.

Good luck with that. Neither the European U.S. allies, nor the Asian ones, have any interest in following the U.S. into a confrontation with China. It is their greatest trading partner and they do not perceive it as an ideological or security threat.

A speech Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave yesterday touches on the same points. It is headlined A Foreign Policy for the American People

The main theme is again 'democracy':

The more we and other democracies can show the world that we can deliver, not only for our people, but also for each other, the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries love to tell, that theirs is the better way to meet people's fundamental needs and hopes. It's on us to prove them wrong.

So the question isn't if we will support democracy around the world, but how.

We will use the power of our example. We will encourage others to make key reforms, overturn bad laws, fight corruption, and stop unjust practices. We will incentivize democratic behavior.

But we will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or by attempting to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force. We have tried these tactics in the past. However well intentioned, they haven't worked. They've given democracy promotion a bad name, and they've lost the confidence of the American people. We will do things differently.

The "lie that authoritarian countries love to tell, that their's is the better way to meet people's fundamental needs and hopes" is targeted at China. But that China did and does much better than the U.S. to meet its people's needs and hope is not a lie. The pandemic has again demonstrated that.

The last quoted paragraph has seen some positive attention on social media. But it is based on a falsehood. The U.S. has not once used military means to 'promote democracy'. Not ever. It has used war to gain markets and power, to destroy its competition. The neo-conservatives have claimed to be motivated by 'democracy promotion'. But that was always just a pretext to hide the real reasons for waging war. Iraq became democratic not because the U.S. wanted it to be that. In fact, after invading Iraq the the U.S. pro-consul Paul Bremer tried to prevent universal elections in Iraq. Only the insistence of Ayatollah Sistani on a universal vote led to a somewhat democratic system in Iraq.

Blinken is, just like Pompeo before him, focused on China:

And eighth, we will manage the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century: our relationship with China.

Several countries present us with serious challenges, including Russia, Iran, North Korea. And there are serious crises we have to deal with, including in Yemen, Ethiopia, and Burma.

But the challenge posed by China is different. China is the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system – all the rules, values, and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to , because it ultimately serves the interests and reflects the values of the American people.

That there is no change from the Trump to the Biden administration in hostility to China is disappointing only for those who had expected some:

Pang Zhongying, a specialist in international relations at Ocean University of China, said Beijing would be disappointed with the Biden administration's approach to "continue and even elevate" the tough policies of the Trump era and to strengthen alliances to deal with China.

"There does not seem to be any change yet in the serious tensions in China-US relations," he said. "I think there may be some frustration in Beijing that after more than 40 days [of the new administration] they have not seen any change but there is actually more pressure from the US."

Beijing will manage the conflict and it is likely to see it as a chance.

The U.S. failure to adopt to new circumstances will accelerate its demise. The U.S. empire was a historical abnormality and its twilight is near :

[The Realist professors of International Relations David Blagden and Patrick Porter] observe America's "position as 'global leader' is premised on a set of impermanent and atypical conditions from an earlier post-war era", but " the days of incontestable unipolarity are over, and cannot be wished back ". The result is that "overextension abroad, exhaustion and fiscal strain at home, and political disorder feed off one another in a downward spiral, cumulatively threatening the survival of the republic".

The US empire is, then, at an impasse. Its moral and political justification of overseeing a global order of universal liberal democracy -- the closest real-world equivalent to the Kantian perpetual peace that has both motivated and eluded liberal idealists for the past two centuries -- is now beyond its capabilities to maintain.
...
How does this end for America? Biden and the presidents after him will be forced to make a hard choice: whether to retrench to a smaller and more manageable empire, or to risk a far greater and more dramatic collapse in defence of global hegemony.

Biden has made his choice. Nothing will fundamentally change under him. He is thereby likely to repeat all of Trump's foreign policy failures. There will be no new JCPOA with Iran nor will there be any win for the U.S. in the Middle East. North Korea will continue to test bombs and missiles. The U.S. will continue to be stuck in Afghanistan. The Chinese-Russian alliance will strengthen. U.S. allies will further distance themselves from it.

We can not yet know what, at what point will cause the collapse of U.S. hegemony. But we are coming more near to it.

Posted by b on March 4, 2021 at 18:04 UTC | Permalink

Did anybody expect anything else?

---

Bemildred , Mar 4 2021 18:28 utc | 2

Frankly, Biden's speech to the grand poobahs sounded more like a plea for understanding than a promise, and if you take what the policy paper says at face value it suggests that "Biden" understands that we have to change to compete. It is also an admission that they have presided over a period of decline in Uncle Sugar land, so of course they don't want to dwell on that. I think Biden is worried the "owners" wom't let him do anything.

And it is totally appropriate that Biden is the guy up there trying to deal with this mess, because he as one of the prime intigators or the present situation, going back 40 years.

Prof K , Mar 4 2021 18:43 utc | 3

Patrick Porter's book, The False Promise of Liberal Order, is good.

But, his realist critique of vulgar liberal propaganda for US imperialism doesn't locate the source or material roots of US grand strategy.

Realist theory understands power, hegemony and balancing only in terms of military power. That is the only currency of power in realist thinking, because realism rests on a state centricity which insists on the autonomy of the state from any social or economic factors. Military power is thus all that remains.

This theory obviously fails to explain the real history of US foreign policy, which has used militarism and other tools in support of strategic economic interests on a global scale, primarily in the South. The military balance of power is by and large only an expression of the economic balance of power and the class interests of ruling classes derived from it.

Porter and other realists point out the contradictions of liberal theory and practice but fail to provide a scientific explanation for consistent US policies.

dsfco , Mar 4 2021 18:54 utc | 4

"The Chinese-Russian alliance will strengthen."

There is a partnership currently but it's not yet an alliance. The rationale for one is very strong. Russia needs China or it will be overwhelmed by a hostile US and fairly hostile Europe. China needs Russia to save it from a resource embargo by US and allies. Together they will form a huge power bloc in Eurasia combining their respective territories with joint influence over Central Asia. Other countries in Asia like South Korea, Vietnam and India will see bloc and decide to stay neutral or side with the China-Russia bloc.

As compelling as this vision is it hasn't happened yet. It takes time sure but there must be reluctance from within the countries and other challenges. Which side is dragging its feet more? It would be interesting to understand why things aren't moving faster.

Canadian Cents , Mar 4 2021 19:02 utc | 5

As Ron Paul observed in Biden's Syria Attack: An Actual Impeachable Offense :

When President Biden says "America is back," what he really means is "the war party is back." As if they ever left.

The neocons just shifted their attention to the other side of the same coin.

eps , Mar 4 2021 19:25 utc | 6

As compelling as this vision is it hasn't happened yet. It takes time sure but there must be reluctance from within the countries and other challenges. Which side is dragging its feet more? It would be interesting to understand why things aren't moving faster.
Posted by: dsfco | Mar 4 2021 18:54 utc | 4

A guess: PRC having vastly greater economic power thinks its share of influence should be greater. Russia having vastly superior military power & technology, disagrees. For example the Chinese government might like access to the most advanced Russian military technology; the Russians having been invaded many times from both East & West, probably take the long view.

[Mar 06, 2021] We've Gone To A Liberal Form Of John Bolton -- Rand Paul Blasts Biden's Foreign Policy

Mar 06, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

This week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for Wendy Sherman, nominated by the Biden White House to serve as deputy secretary of state.

The career diplomat answered the usual questions on how she views United States posture toward American rivals and official enemies like Russia, China, and Iran. Once again it was Sen. Rand Paul who had the most direct pushback and biting criticism against an administration that seems bent on returning to the foreign adventurism and unilateral military interventionism of the Obama and Bush years.

"We've gone to a liberal form of John Bolton," Paul said of President Biden during his turn to question Sherman. Paul is especially outraged over Biden's Syria strike without consulting Congress last week.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8HanUqh_-CE

During the above exchange with Wendy Sherman, Paul in his concluding remarks had blasted away at Biden's vision of the world, citing past failed Democratic-led military interventions in places like Libya, Yemen, and Syria.

"I think we've gone to a liberal form of John Bolton with your new boss and that's something I'm really concerned with," Paul said.

"All I will say is that we're bombing now again in Syria without Congressional approval and we're sending more convoys in there without Congressional approval . It's a messy war - it's been going on forever, there's nothing good that's going to come out of our involvement," Paul explained in his statement.

"People say 'well US lives are at risk' ... yeah because we put'em there . We put them in the middle of a civil war that's largely over but can continue if we keep putting troops into there... to put our troops as a 'trip wire' to get involved in a further escalation of this war."

And that's when the Republican Senator from Kentucky blasted President Biden on his Syria stance and general interventionist foreign policy:

"I hope that we'll be sane voices and I hope that you'll be one of those," he said addressing Sherman.

"But I don't have a great deal of confidence that we've actually gone away from John Bolton, I've think we've gone to a liberal form of John Bolton with your new boss, and that's something I'm very concerned with ."

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367631736591421442&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fweve-gone-liberal-form-john-bolton-rand-paul-blasts-bidens-foreign-policy&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px

Sherman in response had tried to claim that the Biden admin is not trying to get more deeply involved in the Syria conflict, but maintained the 'countering ISIS' stance that the Pentagon has used for years to argue it must continue the occupation of the northeast portion of the country.

[Feb 26, 2021] "Engagement with the world" and a "restoration of the pre-Trump era" was Biden's platform. Don't ask me why but this made him more popular. He was literally the VP in the most interventionist Presidency in US history.

Feb 26, 2021 | www.unz.com

---

Not Only Wrathful , says: February 26, 2021 at 11:13 am GMT • 15.4 hours ago

Biden has been a major disappointment for those who hoped that he'd change course regarding America's pathological involvement in overseas conflicts

Who hoped that? He didn't run on such a platform. "Engagement with the world" and a "restoration of the pre-Trump era" was his platform. Don't ask me why but this made him more popular. He was literally the VP in the most interventionist Presidency in US history.

... People like Giraldi sometimes seem like plants put in place to discredit anti-interventionism by trying to make it synonymous with anti-semitism.

Robjil , says: February 26, 2021 at 11:58 am GMT • 14.7 hours ago

Biden is a Israel firster like Pelosi. He has been one for a long time. He is an American laster like many presidents since 12.13.1913.

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/02/13/bought-and-paid-for-bidens-long-history-pandering-to-the-israeli-lobby/

In the late 1980s, Rannie Amiri, an independent commentator on political affairs, challenged then-Senator Joe Biden on his stance toward the Israel-Palestine conflict following a campus speech that Biden gave, asking him:

Rather than succumb to the influence of various lobbying groups in Washington, such as AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee -- which promotes the views of Israel's right-wing Likud Party], and the untold amount of money they use to dictate policy, wouldn't it be more prudent to examine the real effects that collective punishment, daily humiliation, and countless civilian casualties inflicted by the Israelis have on an occupied population, and use that understanding to formulate a more rational approach toward the Palestinians?

Here is Biden response to that:

At the end of the exchange, Biden turned, put his arm around Amiri's shoulder, and addressed the audience.

If this was not such a fine, articulate, and sincere young man, and he implied that my vote had been bought, I would give him a swift kick in the ass.

The audience roared in applause, and Amiri sat back down to his chair defeated. However, a friend rose up to defend him, telling Biden: "If my father heard you say such a thing, I believe he would have done the same to you first."

The tribal stupidity of the people who support Israel first is beyond words. Who would think in the 20th and the 21th century we would be led by primitive thinking of tribal fantasies from thousands of year ago?

Most of the us in the west did not know that this has been going on for so long since we have been deluded with the term "free press" to describe our press in the west. We are slowly waking up to reality with some "freedom" here and there on the internet like this site.

Sick of Orcs , says: February 26, 2021 at 12:39 pm GMT • 14.0 hours ago

So, Biden has been a major disappointment for those who expected that he might change course regarding America's pathological involvement in overseas conflicts while also having the good sense and courage to make relations with countries like Iran and Israel responsive to actual U.S. interests.

You're giving the morons way too much credit, Sir. It's doubtful even 5% of voters know or care about geopolitics, and probably less than 1% who voted based on fraudsident biden's foreign policies.

For 5 years it was nonstop Trump-hatred from the ((( lügenpresse ))) even as Trump did weasel jared's bidding. Stevie Fking Wonder could see the election was rigged.

The USA is kaput, the supreme joke spineless

The ((( Underminers ))) are a c ** t-hair away from total control.

The Free United States must part ways with the devils in DC. Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and Montana for starters.

Realist , says: February 26, 2021 at 1:53 pm GMT • 12.8 hours ago

Biden's Journey: Change Is Imperceptible

That's how it is with the two sides of the Deep State coin, Republican/Democrat heads they win, tails you lose. It's been that way for decades.

[Feb 06, 2021] American Exceptionalism Is Back, except... by Michael Every

Feb 06, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

FEB 05, 2021

By Michael Every of Rabobank

"American Exceptionalism is Back", except...

"Oh say, can you see! By Dawn's early light; a pro-dollar trade; that puts the bears to flight?" Bloomberg Daybreak this morning boldly states "American exceptionalism is back" (baby). Apparently better-than-expected data and corporate earnings and the prospects of fiscal stimulus show the USA is still the global standout after all. As a result, bearish USD trades touted for the first month of the year need to suddenly be unwound: EUR is now back below 1.20, AUD is clinging to 0.76, and JPY is past 105.50, while as an EM proxy, MXN is back to 20.38 at time of writing vs. 19.55 on January 21.

... ... ...

President Biden has called on the military in Myanmar to relinquish power after their recent coup. What happens when they refuse? A signature criticism of the Obama foreign policy team was its refusal to match US rhetoric (e.g., "pivot to Asia") with any substantive action (e.g., in the South China Sea or Syria). The new team gave interviews before assuming office saying they had learned these lessons. So what options with teeth does the US have for the generals in Naypidaw to back their demand? Sanctions are meaningless for a group who rarely travel abroad and whom can look to China for support if needed, despite their coolness towards Beijing to date.

This underlines the need for any top dog (or cat) to build up a pack (or clowder). Here again we see problems. Many articles have been written about the new US administration's call for the EU to stand alongside it to create new global frameworks favourable to the West (and by extension for USD) and not China (and CNY); and about how the EU is not willing to step up to that plate because of French exceptionalism and German Merkel-cantilism. Macron now says the EU should not gang up on China with the US : " This kind of common front against China risks pushing Beijing to lower its cooperation on issues like combatting climate change, and exacerbating its aggressive behaviour in Asia, including in the South China Sea, " he says. So will the US response then have to be Trumpian and EUR negative, like last time? If not, then what exactly?

Of course, the previous administration had been building bridges to India, which has its own issues with China. However, this relationship is still in its early stages, and India has traditionally looked to Russia for muscle, a role Moscow would be happy to play again. In that regard, the White House backing large anti-government protests in New Delhi against an agricultural reform programme ostensibly to the US's liking, and criticizing the government for cutting off the internet to try to disrupt them, is unlikely to help build bridges: indeed, India has already drawn comparisons to the events of 6 January in the US Capitol, showing the US is not as exceptional as it likes to project it is. These kind of shifts can matter, even if this is just one small step on a much longer journey (and USD trend channel).

Meanwhile, the Aussie government (which has also never and will never target house prices, "just land, bricks, mortar, etc.") might be wondering what the US will help do about a report that a Chinese company is planning to build a new city on a Papua New Guinea island near Australia's northern border . 'New Daru City' allegedly includes an industrial zone, seaport, business and commercial zone, along with a resort and residential area. Will Canberra regard this as a market-driven response to the well-known Chinese demand for lifestyle residences in the vibrant cultural hub that is the PNG hinterland, or as a Bond-villain project to develop a port just 200km from their Northern Territory? The PNG Prime Minister himself says he is "unaware" of this proposal(!) Yes, this may well not come to pass; but one can again see the paving stones being prepared for alternative paths for currencies like AUD, USD, and CNY (to say nothing of PNG's Kina) to travel over the course of the 2020s.

Meanwhile, the US can at least rely on the UK, as usual, where yesterday saw regulators ban China's CGTN TV news service, and the Telegraph also reports that three Chinese spies posing as journalists have just been expelled from the country. Somehow, along with the whole BNO passports issue, this is not likely to help ensure the "golden era" of Sino-British relations promised under previous UK leadership.

But will it ensure a golden era of Bido-BoJo relations? That is another path as yet untrod.

Happy Friday! "We love it so much, I think you do too."

[Feb 05, 2021] Biden vows to defend neoliberalism globally and confront Russia

Feb 05, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

On Thursday afternoon President Biden gave a much anticipated and wide-ranging speech laying out his foreign policy agenda during a visit to the State Department. As expected much of it was a repudiation of Trump's "America First" vision - though without mentioning Donald Trump by name. His address to State Department diplomats and staff was centered around the theme of his words: "America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy."

Alarming for anyone who has called for an end to the vision which sees Washington as essentially acting the like to 'global police force' - which unfortunately became a (disastrous) reality starting in the Bush years and under the neocons, Biden vowed that as commander-in-chief he would "defend democracy globally" .

He urged for the US to rebuild "the muscles of democratic alliances that have atrophied from four years of neglect and abuse." He emphasized that "We can't do it alone."

Of course, the big question is what will that look like, with many expecting a return to the kind of 'humanitarian interventionism' abroad and liberal internationalism that defined the Obama years . This often took the form of covert wars (with the foremost example being Syria) and military interventions under the guise international coalitions (such as NATO's war on Libya) aimed at regime change.

"We must meet this new moment of accelerating global challenges – from a pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation – that will only be solved by nations working together in common cause," Biden said in the afternoon address. "That must start with diplomacy, rooted in America's most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, treating every person with dignity."

Here are some of the highlights and significant foreign policy changes in US posture...

Russia

Biden said that "we will not hesitate to raise the costs on Russia." At a moment Russian opposition leaders are lobbying Washington for the targeted use of Magnitsky sanctions on Putin's inner circle, Biden actually mentioned the imprisoned opposition activist Alexey Navalny by name.

He called on the Kremlin to release Navalny "immediately and without condition" while expressing that authorities had targeted him for "exposing corruption" of Putin and top Kremlin leadership. And further :

He said that he "made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days the United States rolling over in the face of Russia's aggressive action" – pointing to cyber attacks from the SolarWinds breach and the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny – "are over."

[Feb 03, 2021] Former Navy SEAL- The Miseducation Of Antony Blinken - ZeroHedge

Jan 29, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Kenny MacDonald via The Libertarian Institute,

On January 19th, the US Senate held confirmation hearings for Joe Biden's Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken. Blinken has a reputation on both sides of the aisle for being exceptionally qualified for the job of America's top diplomat, which is surprising considering he was on the wrong side of every major foreign policy blunder of the last 20 years ; Iraq, Libya, and Syria .

When Senator Rand Paul asked Antony Blinken what lessons he has learned from his disastrous foreign policy record in Libya and Syria, Blinken replied that after "some hard thinking" he's proud that he has done "everything we possibly can to make sure that diplomacy is the first answer, not the last answer, and that war and conflict is our last resort."

Of course war is the last resort. Even the most hawkish war criminals would agree that war is the last resort. But the question is, war is the last resort to accomplish what? If war is the last resort to get a country to fully capitulate to Washington's demands then eventually the US will be at war with everyone. To Blinken, war as the last resort can only be understood in the same way a mugger considers shooting his victim as a last resort to stealing their wallet.

Via the AP

Blinken displayed his hubris a few minutes later when he said, "The door should remain open" for Georgia to join NATO under the justification of curbing Russian aggression .

Rand Paul informed Blinken, "This would be adding Georgia, that's occupied [by Russia], to NATO. Under Article 5, then we would go to war ."

Senator Paul is right. According to Washington, Russia has been occupying 20 percent of Georgia since 2008. Under the principle of collective defense in Article 5 of NATO, the US would be obligated to treat Russia's occupation of the country of Georgia the same way the US would treat a Russian occupation of the US state of Georgia. That sounds like a recipe for war. But don't worry, peaceniks, Antony Blinken has assured us that war is the last resort!

Blinken's framing of the issue exposes his disingenuous approach. Russian aggression is a term used by Washington insiders to describe a Russian reaction to western aggression. Blinken knows that the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia was not Russian aggression, he calls it that because it suits his agenda and the American press is dependably ignorant enough to not ask questions.

In the 2008 war, Georgia was the aggressor against the South Ossetians, a people who are ethnically distinct from Georgians, and who have never -- not even for one day -- considered themselves a part of Georgia. The Ossetians have a history of Russian partiality ; they were among the first ethnic groups in the region to join the Russian Empire in the 19th century and the USSR in the 1920s. Today, ethnic Ossetians straddle both sides of the current Russian border, and they are more aligned with the Russian government than with the Georgian government.

When Georgia gained sovereignty from the former Soviet Union in 1991, South Ossetia declared its independence. In response, Georgian forces invaded South Ossetia, initiating an armed conflict that killed more than 2,000 people . In 1992, a ceasefire agreement was signed in Sochi between Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia, which created a tripartite peacekeeping force led by Russia. Although the international community never acknowledged South Ossetia's independence, they have enjoyed political autonomy since the 1992 Sochi agreement.

The Sochi agreement held up until Georgia's ultra-nationalist President Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in the 2003 western-backed bloodless " Rose Revolution " coup-d'etat. The pro-western President Saakashvili advocated joining the EU and NATO, and insisted on asserting Georgian rule over South Ossetia. U.S. President George Bush supported the new Georgian president's effort to bring Georgia into NATO, which for Russia would mean bringing a hostile military up to its border. In 2006, President Saakashvili offered South Ossetia autonomy in exchange for a political settlement with Georgia. A referendum was held, and the South Ossetian people overwhelmingly reaffirmed their desire for independence from Georgia.

In August, 2008, After exchanging artillery fire with South Ossetia, Georgia invaded South Ossetia's capital city of Tskhinvali, killing 1,400 civilians and 18 Russian peacekeepers . Georgia's attack triggered a Russian invasion into South Ossetia and Abkhazia (another breakaway region) to restore stability and protect peacekeeping forces.

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Russia is by no means innocent -- they used disproportionate force attacking targets inside Georgia -- but only a Russophobic shill would conclude that this war was somehow caused by Russian aggression. The idea that Russia had no business intervening is laughable. Under the 1992 Sochi agreement , Russia took charge of a peacekeeping coalition to help prevent exactly the scenario that happened in the summer of 2008.

If George Bush had succeeded in bringing Georgia into NATO, the United States may have been dragged into war with Russia in 2008. Antony Blinken claims that NATO membership deters Russian aggression, but does he really believe that Russia would have been deterred from intervening to protect its own peacekeeping force? Does Blinken believe that Georgia -- backed by the U.S. military -- would have acted more cautiously in South Ossetia, or is it more likely they would have been bolder?

It's undeniable that it is in Russia's best interest to have pro-Russian countries on its borders. But pretending as if Russia is going to march into Tbilisi and reabsorb the entire country of Georgia into Russia is a level of paranoia that should disqualify anyone from having an opinion on the subject. The military conflict in Georgia is about the two breakaway regions and their right to self determination. Russia's self interest happens to align with the wishes of the people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. By supporting Georgia, America -- the champion of democracy and self determination -- has adopted the position that South Ossetians didn't really mean to repeatedly choose independence when given the option. This is a situation where America's professed values are diametrically opposed to its policy of countering Russian influence everywhere on the map.

Antony Blinken should pause to consider if America's policy objectives are worth fighting a war for. Is it worth confronting Russia in South Ossetia? Was it worth confronting Russia over Crimea and the Donbas in Ukraine ? Is it a good idea to withdraw from the INF Nuclear Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty ? Should we have spent the last 30 years marching NATO -- a military alliance hostile to Russia -- right up to the doorsteps of Russia ? Is any of this really making us safer?

Blinken has bought into his own propaganda. To Blinken, regardless of the stubborn details of history, every conflict on Russia's border is simply Russian aggression. Washington's solution is the expansion of NATO, which Russia describes as " NATO encirclement. " This is an unacceptable military threat to Russia, who has a deep distrust of western intentions due to a long history of western invasions into Russia. Antony Blinken still lives in a bipolar world in which the United States and Russia are existential threats to each other's existence. Every conflict and every alliance is only viewed through the lens of the New Cold War crusade against Russia. This maniacal crusade could thrust America in the unthinkable abyss of nuclear war.

Rand Paul got his answer, Antony Blinken learned nothing from all his mistakes! The danger isn't merely resorting to war too early, the danger is in sticking our noses in conflicts that we have no business being in. War should be the last resort to defending America's people and it's homeland from foreign invasion; it should not be the last resort to enforcing America's utopian vision on the world, and it certainly shouldn't be the last resort to prevent an ethnic group in the South Caucasus -- that almost no American has ever heard of -- from the right to self-determination.

Kenny MacDonald is a former Navy SEAL and Afghanistan War veteran. He is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in history. Youtube Channel . Medium . Facebook .

[Jan 29, 2021] 6 Warning Signs from Biden's First Week in Office OffGuardian

Jan 29, 2021 | off-guardian.org

6 Warning Signs from Biden's First Week in Office The "progressive" candidate praised as a "woke bloke" seems to be carrying on where all his authoritarian Imperialist predecessors left off Kit Knightly

It's been a busy first week for the 46th President of the United States, there are the 20,000 troops occupying the capital city to organise, as well as the totally unprecedented show-trial of his immediate predecessor.

You know, usual democracy type stuff.

On top of that, Biden has now signed at least 37 executive orders in his first week . The record for any President, and more than the previous four presidents combined.

What do these orders, or any of his other moves, tell us about the future plans of the recently "elected" administration? Nothing good, unfortunately.

1. VACCINATION PASSPORTS

I still remember people claiming the introduction of vaccination passports (or immunity passes or the like) was just a "conspiracy theory", the paranoid fantasy of fringe "covidiots". All the way back in December, when they were getting fact-checked by tabloid journalists who can't do basic maths .

These days they are rebranded as "freedom certificates" which are "divisive, politically tricky and probably inevitable" .

Many countries are already preparing to roll it out, including Iceland the UK and South Africa . Biden's "Executive Order on Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel" adds the US to this list:

International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. Consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of HHS, and the Secretary of Homeland Security (including through the Administrator of the TSA), in coordination with any relevant international organizations, shall assess the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) and producing electronic versions of ICVPs.

2. CABINET APPOINTMENTS

Biden's cabinet is praised as the "most diverse" in history, but will hiring a few non-white people really change the decades-old policies of US Imperialism? It certainly doesn't look like it.

His pick for Under Secretary of State is Victoria Nuland , a neocon warmonger and one of the masterminds of the Maidan coup in Ukraine in 2014. She is married to Robert Kagan , another neocon warmonger, co-founder of the Project for a New American Century and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and one of the masterminds behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The incoming Secretary of State, Antony Blinken , is also an inveterate US Imperialist, arguing for every US military intervention since the 1990s, and criticised Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria.

Biden's pick for Defence Secretary is the first African-American ever appointed to this role, but former General Lloyd Austin is hardly going be some kind of "progressive" voice int his cabinet. He's a career soldier who retired from the military in 2016 to join the board of Raytheon Technologies , an arms manufacturer and military contractor.

As "diverse" as this cabinet may be in skin colour or gender there is most certainly no "diversity" of opinion or policy. There are very few new faces and no new thoughts.

So, it looks like we can expect more of the same in terms of foreign policy. A fact that's already been displayed in

3. IRAQ

Despite heavy resistance from the military and Deep State, Donald Trump wanted to end the war in Iraq and pledged to pull American troops out of the country. This was one of Trump's more popular policies, and during the campaign Biden made no mention of intending to reverse that decision.

Then, on the very day of Biden's inauguration, ISIS conducted their deadliest suicide bombing for over three years , and suddenly the situation was too unstable for the US to leave, and Biden is being forced to "review" Trump's planned withdrawal .

The Iraqi parliament has made it clear it wants the US to take its military off their soil , so any American forces on Iraqi land are technically there illegally in contravention of international law. But that never bothered them before.

4. AFGHANISTAN

Turns out the US can't withdraw from Afghanistan either. Last February Trump signed a deal with the Taliban that all US personnel would leave Afghanistan by May 2021.

Joe Biden has already committed to "reviewing" this deal . Sec. Blinken was quoted as saying that Biden's admin wanted:

to end this so-called forever war [but also] retain some capacity to deal with any resurgence of terrorism, which is what brought us there in the first place".

As a great man once said , nothing someone says before the word "but" really counts. The US will not be withdrawing from Afghanistan, and if there is any public pressure to do so, the government will simply claim the Taliban broke their side of the deal first, or stage a few terrorist attacks.

5. AND SYRIA

Far from simply continuing the on-going wars, there are already signs Biden's "diverse" team will look to escalate, or even start, other conflicts.

Syria was another theatre of war from which Donald Trump wanted to extricate the United States, unilaterally ordering all US troops from the country in late 2019.

We now know the Pentagon ignored those orders. They lied to the President , telling Trump they had followed his orders but not withdrawing a single man. This organized mutiny against the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces was played for a joke in the media when it was finally revealed.

There will be no need for any such duplicity now Biden is in the Oval Office, he was a vocal critic of the decision to withdraw , claiming it gave ISIS a "new lease of life". Indeed, within two days of his being sworn in a column of American military vehicles was seen entering Syria from Iraq .

6. DOMESTIC TERRORISM

We called this before the inauguration . They made it just too obvious. Before the dirty footprints had been cleaned from Nancy Pelosi's desk it was clear where it was all going.

Within 24 hours of being sworn in as president, Biden had ordered a "review of the threat posed by domestic terrorism" .

As usual, the press are laying down the covering fire for this. Talking heads have been busily comparing MAGA voters to al Qaida in television interviews. The Washington Post and New Yorker Journal have cut-and-paste pieces about this supposed threat. Politico published an article titled "Biden vowed to defeat domestic terrorism. The how is the hard part" , which outlines what Biden could do:

Direct the Justice Department, FBI and National Security Council to execute a top-down approach prioritizing domestic terrorism; pass new domestic terrorism legislation; or do a bit of both as Democrats propose a crack down on social media giants like Facebook for algorithms that promote conspiracy laden posts.

That last part is key. The "crack down on social media" part, because the anti-Domestic Terrorism legislation will likely be very focused on communication and so-called "misinformation".

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has publicly called for a congressional panel to "rein in" the media :

We're going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so you can't just spew disinformation and misinformation,"

And who will be the target of these crack downs and new legislations? Well, according John Brennan (ex-head of the CIA and accomplished war criminal), practically anybody:

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They're casting a wide net. Expect "extremist", "bigot" and "racist" to be just a few of the words which have their meanings totally revised in the next few months. "Conspiracy theorist" will be used a lot, too.

Further, they are moving closer and closer toward the "anyone who disagrees with us is literally insane" model. With many articles actually talking about "de-programming" Trump voters. The Atlantic suggests "mental hygiene" would cure the MAGA problem.

Again AOC is on point here, clearly auditioning for the role of High Inquisitor, claiming that the new Biden government needs to fund programs that "de-radicalise" "conspiracy theorists" who are on the "spectrum of radicalisation" .

*

As I said at the beginning, it's been a busy week for Joe Biden, but you can sum up his biggest policy plans in one short sentence: More violence overseas, less tolerance of dissent and strict clampdowns on "misinformation".

How progressive.

[Jan 29, 2021] Meet Antony 'Blinkered' Biden's Choice for America's Top Diplomat -- Strategic Culture

Jan 29, 2021 | www.strategic-culture.org

Blinken does not seem to have repented from his fundamentalist belief in American imperial goodness, notwithstanding his appeal for "humility".

Barring an earthquake in Washington, Antony Blinken is set to become the new U.S. Secretary of State and America's top diplomat. The youthful and telegenic Blinken (58) takes over from Mike Pompeo who was America's representative to the world under the last Trump administration.

The contrast could not be more stark. In place of Pompeo's thuggish, rough-edged style, Blinken has the appearance of consummate diplomat. He's fluent in French owing to a European education, he's urbane and sophisticated and comes from a family which has diplomacy in its genes. His father was an ambassador to Hungary and an advisor to President John F Kennedy. An uncle was ambassador to Belgium.

Blinken has Hungarian and Russian Jewish ancestry. His mother remarried a Polish-American Jewish survivor of the Nazi holocaust. During his confirmation hearing in the Senate this week, Blinken told the story of how his stepfather escaped from a Nazi death march in Bavaria and was eventually rescued by an American tank driven by an African-American officer.

That story has shaped Blinken's worldview of America's prestige and international role. He's a proponent of U.S. military interventionism with a presumption of moral duty. He's an advocate of America working with European allies and upholding the transatlantic alliance – in contrast to Trump's boorish America First sloganeering. Understandably, Blinken is imbued with an unshakable belief in "American exceptionalism" and "manifest destiny" as a world leader.

The Senators at his confirmation hearing this week swooned as Blinken spoke. He's certain to be confirmed as the new Secretary of State in the coming days. That's because he is seen to be perfect for the task of restoring America's international image which has been so badly tarnished under Trump and his grumpy gofer Pompeo. The Europeans will lap up Blinken and his transatlantic romanticism.

Blinken has said that America's foreign policy must be conducted with "humility and confidence", which may sound refreshingly modest. But it's not. Underlying this "quiet American" is the same old arrogance about U.S. imperial might-is-right and Washington's presumed privilege of appointing itself as the "world's policeman".

If Blinken's record is anything to go on, his future role as America's top diplomat is foreboding.

Previously, he was a senior member in the Obama administrations serving as national security advisor to both the president and Joe Biden who was then vice-president. Blinken rose to become deputy Secretary of State in the final years of the second Obama administration. In those roles he was a key player in a series of foreign interventions which turned out to be utterly disastrous.

He was a big proponent of U.S. military intervention in Libya in 2011 which led to the toppling and murder of Muammar Gaddafi. That intervention along with other NATO powers has left a ruinous legacy not only for Libya but for North Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe.

Blinken was also a point-man in Obama's intervention in Syria where the U.S. (and other NATO powers) supplied weapons to anti-government militants. The so-called "rebels" were in fact myriad terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and other extremist Islamists. Up to half a million people have been killed in the decade-long Syrian war and much of that blood is on America's hands from its de facto support for terror gangs. Maybe Blinken genuinely thought he was supporting "pro-democracy rebels". But even if we give him the benefit of doubt, the upshot is still a disaster of American interventionism.

Another catastrophic consequence of Blinken's policymaking is Yemen. Under his direction, the Obama administration backed the Saudi war on its southern neighbor beginning in March 2015 and continuing to this day. Yemen has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with millions facing starvation amid Saudi aerial bombardment carried out with U.S. warplanes and logistics.

The new Biden administration has indicated it will withdraw military support for Saudi Arabia in its war on Yemen. But that doesn't absolve the U.S., and Blinken in particular, for having created the horrendous quagmire from which it is belatedly trying to extricate itself from.

What's rather perplexing, however, is that Blinken does not seem to have repented from his fundamentalist belief in American imperial goodness, notwithstanding his appeal for "humility". During his Senate hearings, he showed little regret about America's illegal bombing of Libya and its arming of jihadists in Syria.

He described the world with the conventional brainwashed American ideology as being a place where China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are enemies that must be confronted. He also told Senators he was in favor of increasing supplies of lethal weaponry to the Ukraine and its rabidly anti-Russian regime in Kiev. Recall that it was the Obama administration which instigated a coup d'état in Kiev against an elected president in February 2014. The new regime was and is dominated by far-right nationalists who laud past links to Nazi Germany. If Blinken has his way the war against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine will escalate and could ignite a bigger confrontation between Russia and the U.S.

One of the hallmarks of the U.S.-backed regime in Kiev is its espousal of Neo-Nazi traditions and in particular antisemitic hatred.

Given Antony Blinken's own Jewish ancestry and his own intimate connection to the Nazi holocaust, you do have to question his competence if he becomes America's foreign policy leader. His boss President Joe Biden has fondly lionized Blinken as a "superstar" of diplomacy. Superficially perhaps, he has finesse and intelligence. But in much the same basic way of adhering to American imperialism, Blinken is as crude and thuggish as his predecessor Pompeo. He just projects a more plausible look and sound, which is most desirable as a moral cover for America's criminal imperialism.

Blinken is known to self-deprecate his "insatiable habit" for making up bad puns. For example, on one occasion when he was addressing an audience on policy regarding the Arctic, he began by joking he would be "breaking the ice". Given his ability to pursue destructive dead-end policies, he might therefore appreciate the moniker "Secretary of State Tony Blinkered".

[Jan 27, 2021] There will be adjustments at the margin, reconsiderations of method. There will be no consideration whatsoever of America's hegemonic objectives -- of the imperial project.

Jan 27, 2021 | consortiumnews.com

In a matter of hours, Biden's key national security people -- Antony Blinken as secretary of state, Avril Haines as director of national intelligence, and Lloyd Austin as defense secretary -- gave us a remarkably fulsome idea of what we are in for these next four years.

Haines and Austin, neither of whose records are to be admired, are at bottom functionaries who were nominated and swiftly confirmed because they do what they are told and do not think too much -- always a career-advancer in Washington.

It is instead Blinken, who is said to enjoy some kind of "mind-meld" with Biden, that we must consider carefully. (Such a meld must be odd terrain.)

Blinken's Senate testimony last Tuesday sprawled over four hours. It is best to scrutinize his remarks while seated in a chair with sturdy armrests, ideally to calm one's nerves with a pot of chamomile tea.

Seen or read as a whole, those four hours gave us an extraordinary display of how empire works and how it prolongs itself. One by one, Blinken's senatorial interlocutors told him in so many words, "Son, this is what you need to say if you want our confirmation. We want you to endorse our commitment to aggression, to unlawful interventions, to 'regime change' ops, to merciless sanctions, and altogether to the empire. But you must make it look nice. Make it look thoughtful and complicated and considered."

July 14, 2016: Vice President Joe Biden, right, and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Air Force, Christopher Hubenthal)

I am convinced, having endured the entire C–Span recording, that what I watched was sheer ritual. Blinken won the Senate's support and now succeeds the shockingly bovine Mike Pompeo at State. He will do so, however, with the élan and faux sophistication our nakedly bankrupt foreign policy now requires if the American pantomime is to be sustained another four years.

Among Blinken's many rather sad-to-witness "Yes sirs," two standout: his finely chiseled endorsement of Pompeo's reckless assassination a year ago of Qassem Soleimani, Iran's revered military commander ("Taking him out was the right thing to do"), and his approval of the Trump administration's decision to send lethal arms to the manically corrupt regime in Kiev ("Senator, I support providing that lethal defensive assistance to Ukraine," when the Obama administration, from which he comes, did not.)

Late last year, Blinken appeared on "Intelligence Matters," the podcast run by Michael Morrell, the coup-mongering former deputy director at the Central Intelligence Agency and now -- of course -- a regular commentator on the televisions news networks. In their exchange, the two took up the question of our "forever wars" and Biden's well-advertised commitment to ending them. Here is a snippet from Blinken's remarks:

"As for ending the forever wars, large-scale deployment of large, standing U.S. forces in conflict zones with no clear strategy should and will end under his [Biden's] watch. But we also need to distinguish between, for example, these endless wars with large-scale, open-ended deployment of U.S. forces with [sic], for example, discreet, small-scale sustainable operations, maybe led by special forces to support local actors. In ending the endless wars we have to be careful not to paint with too broad a brushstroke."

This is what we are in for these coming years, the hyper-rational irrationality of the middling technocrat. There will be adjustments at the margin, reconsiderations of method. There will be no consideration whatsoever of America's hegemonic objectives -- of the imperial project.

Blinken's testimony reflected these bitter truths start to finish.

Changes to the Iran Deal

July 14, 2015: President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, announcing the signing of the Iran-nuclear agreement. (White House)

Of the various questions the new secretary of state took up during his confirmation hearings, Iran is the most pressing. Senator Bob Menendez, Blinken's interlocutor in this case, insisted that yes, the U.S. wants to rejoin the 2015 accord governing Iran's nuclear programs, but only if this includes prohibitions against Tehran's "destabilizing activities" and a missile program that Iran justly considers essential to its security.

An honest, clear-eyed diplomat who wanted to get somewhere with Tehran would have rejected the very frame of Menendez's line of inquiry, with its references to "support for terrorism" and "funding and feeding its proxies." But Blinken read his cues and tucked right in:

"The president-elect believes that if Iran comes back into compliance we would, too, but we would use that as a platform to seek a longer, stronger agreement and also, as you have pointed out, to capture these other issues, particularly with regard to missiles and Iran's destabilizing activities. This would be the objective."

This is sheer charade. Blinken knows as well as anyone else that the added conditions the Biden regime will require before rejoining the agreement -- an end to Iran's ballistic missile programs and its support for the Syrian government against Islamists and the illegal U.S. incursion -- effectively cancel all chances that the U.S. will rejoin the accord.

I predicted in this space shortly after Biden was elected that he and his foreign policy people only pretended to be serious about reviving the nuclear agreement with Iran. Blinken's testimony confirms this.

Over the weekend The Times of Israel , citing Channel 12 television, reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending Yossi Cohen, chief of Mossad and a close confidant, to Washington to "set out terms" for any revival of the nuclear deal. Israel purports to "set out terms," and Biden will receive this spook? This is getting completely unserious. Completely.

On China, Russia, and Venezuela: Blinken was putty in the hands of the Foreign Relations Committee's across-the-board hawks. A two-fronted new Cold War across both oceans -- Sinophobia and Russophobia all at once -- is to be our reality these next four years.

Over the weekend, to be noted, the American Embassy in Moscow had the gall to broadcast routes protesters could take to demonstrations in various Russian cities to dispute Alexei Navlany's arrest . A good start.

Marco Rubio, the coup-loving senator from Florida, wanted to know if Blinken thought the U.S. should continue backing Juan Guaidó, the buffoon Rubio and Pompeo puffed up as Venezuela's "interim leader" as part of a failed coup operation a couple of years ago. Blinken:

"I very much agree with you, senator, first of all with regard to a number of the steps that were taken toward Venezuela in recent years, including recognizing Mr. Guaidó and seeking to increase pressure on the regime . We need an effective policy that can restore Venezuela to democracy, and how can we best advance that ball? Maybe we need to look at how we more effectively target the sanctions that we have ."

Grim, grim times lie ahead if Blinken runs State as he promised the Senate he would.

There are those among us who look for shafts of light. People I greatly respect (some, anyway) thought it was good news when Biden named William Burns, a career foreign service officer, to head the CIA. At last diplomacy, not unlawful interventions!

Over the weekend, there were reports that Biden will review -- not more at this point -- the designation of Yemen's Houthis as terrorists, a label Pompeo affixed as he emptied his desk last week. Finally, we will stop supporting the Saudis' savagery!

People believe what they need to believe these days, I find, and belief overrides cognition in many such cases. I caution these people. At bottom Blinken demonstrated for us that no one who purports to alter our imperial course will ever be allowed to hold high office. For people such as Blinken, it is merely a question of wielding influence without having any.

This is where Americans live -- in a crumbled republic no longer capable of changing.

Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune , is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century . Follow him on Twitter @thefloutist . His web site is Patrick Lawrence . Support his work via his Patreon site .

John Allen aka Ol' Hippy , January 26, 2021 at 12:16

I'm 66, almost 67, and will, most likely, never see any real peace from the US government. A big portion of the economy is based on imperialist actions and the manufacture of conflicts around the globe mainly to keeps the arms makers in business. Or simply, war. And no, there is no nation willing to risk the wrath of the US government by trying to halt this insane posture of aggression, it's just too big and has a momentum all its own. Biden will continue unabated this absurd, insanely expensive machine to its eventual implosion in the near future. All the parts of the fall of the economy are in place, all that's needed is some ill defined tipping point to be crossed. Perhaps, a war with Iran?

[Jan 27, 2021] Blinken rose to become deputy Secretary of State in the final years of the second Obama administration. In those roles he was a key player in a series of foreign interventions including Libya and Syria which turned out to be utterly disastrous

Jan 27, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Jan 26 2021 18:47 utc | 17

Looks like continuity will be the rule with Blinken now confirmed as Sec of State if Finian Cunningham's assessment is correct :

"Blinken has said that America's foreign policy must be conducted with 'humility and confidence', which may sound refreshingly modest. But it's not. Underlying this 'quiet American' is the same old arrogance about U.S. imperial might-is-right and Washington's presumed privilege of appointing itself as the 'world's policeman'.

"If Blinken's record is anything to go on, his future role as America's top diplomat is foreboding.

"Previously, he was a senior member in the Obama administrations serving as national security advisor to both the president and Joe Biden who was then vice-president. Blinken rose to become deputy Secretary of State in the final years of the second Obama administration. In those roles he was a key player in a series of foreign interventions which turned out to be utterly disastrous."

The once upon a time manufactured aura of Virtue projected by the Outlaw US Empire that was swallowed by so many naïve nations has vanished with nothing other than its stark ugliness as a replacement. Refusal to see that reality is what Xi just referred to again as "arrogance" which puts Blinken into the same ideological camp as Pompeo. As Global Times notes , if the Outlaw US Empire's attitude's not going to change, than why should China's as Pompeo's constant lying is replaced by Psaki's:

"When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to a question Monday about US-China relations, she said that 'China is growing more authoritarian at home and more assertive abroad,' adding that China 'is engaged in conduct that hurts American workers, blunts [US] technological edge, and threatens [US] alliances and [US] influence in international organizations.' She also noted that Washington is 'starting from an approach of patience as it relates to [its] relationship with China.'"

The editor's response to such inanity:

"Psaki's statement shows that the Biden administration's view and characterization of China is virtually identical to those of the Trump administration. Psaki stressed that 'We're in a serious competition with China. Strategic competition with China is a defining feature of the 21st century,' reflecting that the Biden administration only cares about a "new approach" to holding China accountable."

And Psaki's words are the same as Blinken's, which were the same as Pompeo's and Trump's. In other words, the hole digging by the Outlaw US Empire in its relations with the rest of the world will continue, which will cause further deterioration of its domestic Great Depression 2.0. Yesterday I posted a comment that highlighted Putin's expounding on the further enhancement of the educational component of Russia's Social Contract that is impossible for Navalny's backers to match. On the previous thread, a good comparison was made between the Yeltsin years and the ongoing drowning of the Outlaw US Empire. The Reset that's in the works isn't the one envisioned by Global Neoliberals like Klaus Schwab of the WEF/Davos crew. It's what Xi spoke of yesterday that I commented upon and Escobar reported on today. The Winds of Change are blowing again, but there's a gaping hole in the USA's wind sock so it can't see in which direction it's blowing.

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james , Jan 26 2021 18:52 utc | 18

blinken is bad news.. i think that is very obvious from a superficial read on him.. the usa can't get out of the ditch it has made for itself.. nothing is gonna change...

michaelj72 , Jan 27 2021 0:51 utc | 89

'liberal interventionism' has always been the hallmark of the US Liberal Class and its foreign policy Establishment, especially since at least Wilson's jumping into WWI.

Has the US ever not intervened in Latin America whenever it felt like it or thought its "interests" were at stake?

I think Caitlan J. has a good grasp on what to expect from the Biden war mongering crowd that has recently moved into DC once again:

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/24/what-bidens-warmongering-will-actually-look-like/

"....Trump's base has been forcefully pushing the narrative that the previous president didn't start any new wars, which while technically true ignores his murderous actions like vetoing the bill to save Yemen from U.S.-backed genocide and actively blocking aid to its people, murdering untold tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions, rolling out many world-threatening Cold War escalations against Russia, engaging in insane brinkmanship with Iran, greatly increasing the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians, and reducing military accountability for those airstrikes....

....Rather than a throwback to "new wars" and the old-school ground invasions of the Bush era, the warmongering we'll be seeing from the Biden administration is more likely to look like this. More starvation sanctions. More proxy conflicts. More cold war. More coups. More special ops. More drone strikes. More slow motion strangulation, less ham-fisted overt warfare...."

---

Simply put, more small scale wars/ops mostly by proxy, more support for local wankers (like Guaido in Venezuela, who has incredibly little popular support), and more of these killing sanctions, which are especially pernicious to the civilian populations in vulnerable countries like Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Venezuela, etc.

[Jan 25, 2021] Neoliberal world order is morping into neo-feudalism

The process started with Patriot Act which actually was written by Biden around much earlier then 9/11

Jan 25, 2021 | www.unz.com

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Mr. Anon , says: January 25, 2021 at 7:42 am GMT • 19.2 hours ago

@Levtraro to travel. It will be a perk for them – a reward for being good servants. I can even forsee that airlines will refit their fleets, stripping out coach class altogether, as the people who buy the cheap seats won't be flying anymore anyway. A lot of industries will down-size so as to only serve the quality customers.

And rich people are buying up land – lots of it. They are becoming what they already deem themselves to be: an aristocracy, and a hereditary one at that.

Neo-liberal GloboCap is morping into neo-feudalism. They'll own everthing, and they'll be happy. You'll own nothing and you'll be happy (or else).

cronkitsche , says: January 25, 2021 at 3:17 pm GMT • 11.6 hours ago

@Mr. Anon

Cheap drugs? Free sterilization? No jobs? That's halfway to Marcusian utopia. What's not to love?

Levtraro , says: January 25, 2021 at 6:10 pm GMT • 8.7 hours ago

@Mr. Anon

I disagree. Current GloboCap elites and elites thoughout history have needed large populations to look down to and to harvest for all they can yield. It is not good enough to have all that you want when all others also have all that they want.

It is not nice enough to travel in your own or rented Gulf Stream or First Class or Business Class when economy seats are non-existent. It is not good enough that a machine calls you Sir instead of a real lowly human.

Real respect, admiration and adulation, could never be replaced by programmed respect, admiration and adulation.

[Jan 25, 2021] An American neoliberal ideological project

Jan 25, 2021 | www.rt.com

McFaul cautions against what he refers to as "Putin's ideological project" as a threat to the neoliberal international order. Yet he is reluctant to recognize that the neoliberal international order is an American ideological project for the post-Cold War era.

READ MORE: With no sign of US returning to fold, Russia is preparing to withdraw from 'Open Skies' treaty - Foreign Ministry

After the Cold War, neoliberal ideologues advanced what was seemingly a benign proposition – suggesting that neoliberal democracy should be at the center of security strategies. However, by linking neoliberal norms to US leadership, neoliberalism became both a constitutional principle and an international hegemonic norm.

NATO is presented as a community of neoliberal values – without mentioning that its second largest member, Turkey, is more conservative and authoritarian than Russia – and Moscow does not, therefore, have any legitimate reasons to oppose expansionism unless it fears democracy. If Russia reacts negatively to military encirclement, it is condemned as an enemy of democracy, and NATO has a moral responsibility to revert to its original mission as a military bloc containing Russia.

Case in point: there was nobody in Moscow advocating for the reunification with Crimea until the West supported the coup in Ukraine. Yet, as Western "fact checkers" and McFaul inform us, there was a "democratic revolution" and not a coup. Committed to his ideological prism, McFaul suggests that Russia acted out of a fear of having a democracy on its borders, as it would give hope to Russians and thus threaten the Kremlin. McFaul's ideological lens masks conflicting national security interests, and it fails to explain why Russia does not mind democratic neighbors in the east, such as South Korea and Japan, with whom it enjoys good relations.

Defending the peoples

States aspiring for global hegemony have systemic incentives to embrace ideologies that endow them with the right to defend other peoples. The French National Convention declared in 1792 that France would "come to the aid of all peoples who are seeking to recover their liberty," and the Bolsheviks proclaimed in 1917 "the duty to render assistance, armed, if necessary, to the fighting proletariat of the other countries."

The American neoliberal international order similarly aims to liberate the people of the world with "democracy promotion" and "humanitarian interventionism" when it conveniently advances US primacy. The American ideological project infers that democracy is advanced by US interference in the domestic affairs of Russia, while democracy is under attack if Russia interferes in the domestic affairs of US. The neoliberal international system is one of sovereign inequality to advance global primacy.

READ MORE Putin says American presence in Afghanistan is beneficial to Moscow's interests, rubbishes claims of 'Russian bounties to Taliban'

McFaul does not consider himself a Russophobe, as believes his attacks against Russia are merely motivated by the objective of liberating Russians from their government, which is why he advocates that Biden "distinguish between Russia and Russians – between Putin and the Russian people." This has been the modus operandi for regime change since the end of the Cold War – the US supposedly does not attack countries to advance its interests, it only altruistically assists foreign peoples in rival states against their leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin etc.

McFaul and other neoliberal ideologues still refer to NATO as a "defensive alliance," which does not make much sense after the attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 or Libya in 2011. However, under the auspices of neoliberal internationalism, NATO is defensive, as it defends the people of the world. Russia, therefore, doesn't have rational reasons for opposing the neoliberal international order.

McFaul condemns alleged efforts by Russia to interfere in the domestic affairs of the US, before outlining his strategies for interfering in the domestic affairs of Russia. McFaul blames Russian paranoia for shutting down American "non-governmental organizations" that are funded by the US government and staffed by people linked to the US security apparatus. He goes on to explain that the US government must counter this by establishing new "non-government organizations" to educate the Russian public about the evils of their government.

The dangerous appeal of ideologues

Ideologues have always been dangerous to international security. Ideologies of human freedom tend to promise perpetual peace. Yet, instead of transcending power politics, the ideals of human freedom are linked directly to hegemonic power by the self-proclaimed defender of the ideology. When ideologues firmly believe that the difference between the current volatile world and utopia can be bridged by defeating its opponents, it legitimizes radical power politics.

Consequently, there is no sense of irony among the McFauls of the world as US security strategy is committed to global dominance, while berating Russia for "revisionism." Raymond Aaron once wrote: "Idealistic diplomacy slips too often into fanaticism; it divides states into good and evil, into peace-loving and bellicose. It envisions a permanent peace by the punishment of the latter and the triumph of the former. The idealist, believing he has broken with power politics, exaggerates its crimes."

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Ghanima223 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:36 AM

In short, the tables have turned since the end of the Cold War. It is no longer communist ideologues that try to export revolution and chaos while the western world would promote stability and free markets. Now it's western ideologues that are trying to export revolutions and chaos while clamping down on free markets with Russia, as ironically as it sounds, being a force for stability and a strong proponent for the free exchange of goods and services around the world. The west will lose just as the USSR has lost.

US_did_911 Ghanima223 1 day ago 23 Jan, 2021 01:01 AM

The Dollar is the only fake reason that still keeps US afloat. The moment that goes, it loss will be a lot worse then of USSR.

US_did_911 Ghanima223 1 day ago 23 Jan, 2021 12:58 AM

That happened not exactly after the end of the cold war. It was about even for a decade after that. The real u-turn happened after the 9/11 false flag disaster.

Amvet 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 10:00 AM

Foreign dangers are necessary to keep the attention of the American people away from the 20 ton elephant in the room--the fact that 9/11 was not a foreign attack. Should any of the main stream media suddenly turn honest and report this in detail, things will get interesting.

King_Penda 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:11 AM

I wouldn't worry too much. At the same time Biden will be purging the US military of any men of capability and replacing them trans and political appointments. The traditional areas where the military recruited it's grunts are falling as they are waking up to the hostility of the state to their culture and way of life. The US military will end up a rump of queerss, off work due to stress or perceived persecution and fat doughballs sat in warehouses performing drone strikes on goats.

Fjack1415 King_Penda 1 day ago 23 Jan, 2021 01:20 PM

Yes, you point to a paradox. While the globalists are using the US as their military arm for global domination, they are at the same time destroying the country that supports that military. Perhaps the US military will be maintained by dint of its being the only employer for millions of unemployed young men in the American heartland, doughballs or not.

Ghanima223 King_Penda 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:39 AM

Ideologues will always be more concerned with having political reliable military leadership as opposed to actually qualified leaders. It took the Russians 2 decades to purge their own military of this filth of incompetent 'yes' men within their military.

UKCitizen 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:09 AM

'The Liberal International Order' - yes, that seems a fair description. Led by what might be termed 'liberal fundamentalists'.

far_cough 1 day ago 23 Jan, 2021 07:01 AM

the military industrial complex and the various deep state agencies along with the major corporations need russia as an adversary so that they can milk the american people and the people of the western world of their money, rights, freedoms, etc etc...

roby007 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:54 AM

I'm sure Biden will pursue "peaceful, productive coexistence" just as his friend Obama did, with drones and bombs.

Paul Citro 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:16 AM

I hope that Russian leaders fully realize that they are dealing with a country that is the equivalent of psychotic.

Fjack1415 Paul Citro 1 day ago 23 Jan, 2021 01:26 PM

True, the ruling party and MSM mouthpieces and their readers and followers are now truly INSANE. Beyond redemption. Staggering in the depth and power of the subversion of so many people, including many with high IQs (like my ex girlfriend and housemate in the US).

Anastasia Deko 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 10:57 AM

US security strategy is committed to global dominance

Absolutely. Biden has filled up his admin with "progressive realists," which when it comes to foreign policy, is just a euphuism for neocons and their lust for world empire. So expect an unleashing of forces in the coming two years that will finally humble America's war machine.

tyke2939 Anastasia Deko 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 01:07 PM

They are desperate for a war with someone but it must be someone they can beat convincingly. It certainly will not be Russia or China and I suspect Iran will be a huge battle even with Israel s backing. More than likely they will invade some country like Venezuela as Syria has Russia covering its back. What a dilemma who to fight.

9/11 Truther Anastasia Deko 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 11:24 AM

The "American war machine" has been humbled from Saigon, Vietnam 1975 to Kabul, Afghanistan.

Salmigoni 2 days ago 22 Jan, 2021 09:25 AM

They are not really liberals. They are blood thirsty parasitic neoconservative fascist war mongers working for the Pentagon contractors. General Eisenhower warned us about these evil people. A lot of Americans still do not get it.

[Jan 24, 2021] Towards US -Hyper-interventionism- in the Middle East- Biden's Secretary of State Nominee Anthony Blinken by Daniel McAdams

Notable quotes:

"... Not surprisingly, Blinken is a favorite of the AIPAC-bankrolled Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which, as Phil Giraldi reported , Tweeted that Blinken would be part of a " superb national security team. The country will be very fortunate to have them in public service." ..."

"... We have Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to thank for at least bringing up the fact that Blinken has blundered from foreign policy disaster to foreign policy disaster – which only gets you promoted in Washington DC. In Blinken's confirmation hearing, Paul reminded Blinken of his addiction to intervention in the Middle East and how that has worked out for everyone. ..."

"... Yes, Senator Paul is right. "Regime change" doesn't work. It kills or destroys the lives of the most vulnerable. The poor and the innocent. The US enemies may occasionally find themselves on the wrong end of a noose or a knife rape , but it is the civilians who always suffer when they are "liberated" by Washington. ..."

"... Buckle up, as incoming Senate Majority Leader Schumer advised, there's a whole lot of interventionism in the queue. There's a whole lot of death and destruction to be unleashed by Biden, Blinken, and their gang of " humanitarians ." ..."

Jan 23, 2021 | www.globalresearch.ca

By Daniel McAdams Global Research, January 23, 2021 Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity 21 January 2021

While the saccharine continues to ooze from the mainstream media for the incoming Biden Administration, the real iron fist of what will be the Biden foreign policy is starting to materialize. As if on cue, major bombings in Baghdad – by ISIS remember them? – have opened the door for the Biden Administration to not only cancel President Trump's troop drawdown from Iraq but to actually begin sending troops back into Iraq.

Is this to be Iraq War 4.0? 3.7? 5.0? Anybody's guess.

If Biden uses this sudden – and convenient – unrest in Iraq as a trigger to return US troops (and bombs), it should not surprise anyone. As Professor Barbara Ransby points out in this video , Biden did much more to make the disastrous 2003 attack on Iraq happen than just vote "yes" on the authorization to use force. As Professor Ransby reminds us, Biden used the full power of his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to ensure the Senate approved George W. Bush's lie-based war on Iraq. Biden prevented any experts who challenged the "Saddam has WMDs and he's about to use them" narrative from being heard by Members of Congress, guaranteeing that only the pro-war narrative was heard.

As much as Bush or Cheney, Biden owns the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, which killed a million Iraqi civilians. And he may well be taking us back.

One figure in the Biden Administration who will play a pivotal role in returning the US to its hyper-interventionism in the Middle East is Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken . As a Biden Senate staffer in 2003, he helped the then-Foreign Relations Committee Chairman put together a pro-war coalition in the Democratic Party to support President Bush's Republican push for invasion.

Later on Blinken was Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, where he successfully made the case that destroying both Libya and Syria were fantastic ideas. Both countries drowned in the Obama Administration's "liberation" bloodbath and neither country has recovered from the "democracy" brought by Washington, but being a neocon foreign policy ideologue means never having to say you're sorry.

And Blinken isn't.

Not surprisingly, Blinken is a favorite of the AIPAC-bankrolled Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which, as Phil Giraldi reported , Tweeted that Blinken would be part of a " superb national security team. The country will be very fortunate to have them in public service."

We have Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to thank for at least bringing up the fact that Blinken has blundered from foreign policy disaster to foreign policy disaster – which only gets you promoted in Washington DC. In Blinken's confirmation hearing, Paul reminded Blinken of his addiction to intervention in the Middle East and how that has worked out for everyone.

Paul reminded the Secretary of State nominee that his only criticism of the Syria "regime change" plan was that the US did not successfully overthrow Assad. But the US was using jihadist proxies to overthrow the secular Assad , so what does this say about Blinken's judgement?

"The lesson of these wars," said Paul , is that 'regime change' doesn't work!"

Paul added:

Even after Libya you guys went on to Syria wanting to do the same thing again it's a disaster.

You got rid of one 'bad guy' and another 'bad guy' got stronger.

Yes, Senator Paul is right. "Regime change" doesn't work. It kills or destroys the lives of the most vulnerable. The poor and the innocent. The US enemies may occasionally find themselves on the wrong end of a noose or a knife rape , but it is the civilians who always suffer when they are "liberated" by Washington.

Buckle up, as incoming Senate Majority Leader Schumer advised, there's a whole lot of interventionism in the queue. There's a whole lot of death and destruction to be unleashed by Biden, Blinken, and their gang of " humanitarians ."

*

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[Jan 24, 2021] The Disuniting of America to save neoliberalism

May be getting PATRIT 2.0 act was the goal, not the side effect.

Jan 24, 2021 | www.strategic-culture.org

Joe Biden will ram through warped liberal social experiments masquerading as credible, time-tested programs designed to stabilize the nation.

It was a stark image never before seen in Washington, DC, and one that bodes ill for the future prospects of the country. A locked down capital ringed in barbed wire, with 25,000 troops encompassing the Capitol building, provided a surreal backdrop to Joe Biden's inauguration as the 46 ^th POTUS.

The excuse Democrats have provided for turning the 'citadel of democracy' into a maximum security prison is not due to a growing distrust with the electoral process. Nor was it blamed on the spectacle of the mainstream media and Big Tech silencing the voices of exactly one half of the U.S. electorate – up to and including that of the now former president, Donald J. Trump. No, to suggest such irrational things would attract howls of 'conspiracy theory' from the liberal gallery.

Thankfully, we have Silicon Valley fact checkers and corporate media commentators to lead us to the valley of truth, which informs us that all those Trump "insurgents" who invaded the Capitol building on January 6 ^th were motivated by pure evil intentions rooted in racism, sedition and white supremacist ideology. And as Hillary Clinton suggested during an off-the-rails interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Trump and his motley crew of deplorables may have taken their marching orders from none other than Vladimir Putin himself. Who needs fiction writers these days when we have the Democratic Party?

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Conservatives need to come to grips with the realization that they are not dealing with rational people who will be willing to engage in cool-headed discussion and debate. Despite a full sweep of the political landscape, the left remains consumed by a collective fit of rage, hysteria and raw emotion that shows no sign of abating. Why? Partly due to political immaturity in the ranks, and partly because 'victory' for the left no longer means victory at the polls; these fanatics, for that is really what they are, will not rest easy until the political opposition is shorn of its voice and representation. In other words, when it is completely and unequivocally obliterated. And given the political proclivities of Big Tech and Big Media, those dreams are dangerously within reach. Unless the right is able to essentially build its own internet architecture to bypass the left's censorship machine, they will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs as a political force.

In the meantime, Joe Biden, or whoever will be pulling his strings, will ram through warped liberal social experiments masquerading as credible, time-tested programs designed to stabilize the nation. Of course they are nothing of the sort. These are globalist-backed policies – such as defunding the police, opening the border, vilifying the right as 'racist,' and sexualizing the minds of elementary-age children – designed to utterly destabilize the nation and all of its core institutions, including not least of all the nuclear family. Anyone who speaks out against these reckless initiatives will be struck down by the harshest cancel culture cult ever known to man. In fact, 'domestic terrorism' legislation is already drafted that, if passed by Congress, will go far at stifling any dissenting voices from the right.

The very first line of the proposed legislation , entitled 'Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2020,' which was conveniently prepared just weeks before the Capitol riots erupted, states that "White supremacists and other far-right-wing extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States " Buried deep in the text is a single line devoted to Antifa, and nothing whatsoever about Black Lives Matter, yet these groups were responsible for torching and looting a swath of destruction across the United States following the death of George Floyd during an arrest by a while police officer.

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Days before Biden's ironclad inauguration, the media was out in full force propagating the notion of a connection between right-wing Trump supporters and – wait for it – terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.

"I did see a similar dynamic in the evolution of al-Qaida in Iraq, where a whole generation of angry Arab youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back in time to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence," Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former head of Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and the commander of all U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan, said in an interview. "This is now happening in America." So there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth: the 'deplorable' right in the United States is almost on par with the same guys who carried out the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Needless to say, with such outrageous comments making the rounds, there was little chance of a balanced message from Joe Biden's inaugural speech with regards to the myriad problems now stalking America. Indeed, the address was top heavy with warmed-over clichés about "unity," as well as references to racism and inequality.

After four years of groundless rhetoric about "racist Trump supporters" (yet no other conservative president has been so successful at attracting members of the Black and Latino community to the Republican standard than Donald Trump), it was only natural that Biden would allude to "a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat." Coming just days after the riots at the Capitol building by Trump supporters, which the hapless mainstream media has been at great pains to label a "racist" event, the message made it amply clear for whom the bell tolls.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=Strateg_Culture&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1293603172842221570&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.strategic-culture.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F01%2F23%2Fdisuniting-of-america-now-inevitable-under-joe-biden-and-radical-left%2F&siteScreenName=Strateg_Culture&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

Once again, at this dangerous crossroads in American history, any hope for a true bipartisan breakthrough is doomed to failure, and more so now as the radical neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party is demanding the most outrageous social, cultural and political overhaul the nation has ever witnessed. No true conservative will ever abide by these changes.

At the same time, the voice and demonstrations of the right is not only being brutally vanquished, it is actually being assimilated under the banner of "domestic terrorism." This marks the widest chasm between the two primary political parties in the United States, which, unless quickly bridged, will end in imminent disaster for the American experiment in democracy.

[Jan 22, 2021] Neoliberal international order needs Russia as enemy to galvanize West

Notable quotes:

"... Consequently, there is no sense of irony among the McFauls of the world as US security strategy is committed to global dominance, while berating Russia for "revisionism." ..."

Jan 22, 2021 | www.rt.com

By Glenn Diesen , Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, and an editor at the Russia in Global Affairs journal. Follow him on Twitter @glenndiesen

Donald Trump's efforts to reduce the ideologically driven base of US foreign policy fuelled great resentment among those who believed it betrayed Washington's leadership position in the so-called "liberal international order."

Now that power has changed, will the pendulum swing in the opposite direction, with Joe Biden's administration applying a radical ideological foreign policy?

A recent article by Michael McFaul, once Barack Obama's ambassador to Russia and a noted 'Russiagate' conspiracy theorist, indicates what such an ideological foreign policy would look like. McFaul's article, 'How to Contain Putin's Russia', makes a case for a containment policy.

Containment: learning from the past or living in the past?

To advance his argument, McFaul quotes George Kennan, the author of the Long Telegram and architect of erstwhile US containment policy against the Soviet Union. McFaul suggests that Kennan's advocacy for a "patient but firm and vigilant containment" against the revolutionary Bolshevik regime 75 years ago remains as valid as ever.

It would have made more sense to quote Kennan when he condemned NATO expansionism and predicted it would trigger another Cold War. As Kennan noted: "there was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves."

Kennan continued to express disbelief over the rhetoric by the misinformed US leadership, presenting "Russia as a country dying to attack Western Europe. Don't people understand? Our differences in the Cold War were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime." Kennan then went on to correctly predict that, when Russia would eventually react to US provocations, the NATO expanders would wrongfully blame Russia.

ALSO ON RT.COM Biden hopes for 5-year extension of New START nuclear treaty while seeking to demonize Russia for 'hacking, meddling & bounties'

Ideologues often have nostalgia for the Cold War, when the bipolar power distribution was supported by a clear and comfortable ideological divide. The Western bloc represented capitalism, Christianity, and democracy, while the Eastern bloc represented communism, atheism, and authoritarianism. This ideological divide supported internal cohesion within the Western bloc and drew clear borders with the adversary.

The liberal international order has attempted to recast the former capitalist-communist divide with a liberal-authoritarian divide. However, the ideological incompatibility between American liberalism and Russian conservatism is less convincing. For example, McFaul cautions against Putin's nefarious conservative ideology committed to "Christian, traditional family values" that threatens the liberal international order.

The new ideological divide nonetheless advances neo-McCarthyism in the West. McFaul presents a list of European conservatives and populists that should be treated as American conservatives, purged from political life as enemies of the liberal international order and thus possible agents of Russia. Hillary Clinton even suggested that the Capitol Hill riots were possibly coordinated by Trump and Putin – yes, Russiagate is here to stay. The solution, for McFaul, is for American tech oligarchs to manipulate algorithms to protect populations from Russian-friendly media.

An American ideological project

McFaul cautions against what he refers to as "Putin's ideological project" as a threat to the liberal international order. Yet he is reluctant to recognize that the liberal international order is an American ideological project for the post-Cold War era.

READ MORE: With no sign of US returning to fold, Russia is preparing to withdraw from 'Open Skies' treaty - Foreign Ministry

After the Cold War, liberal ideologues advanced what was seemingly a benign proposition – suggesting that liberal democracy should be at the center of security strategies. However, by linking liberal norms to US leadership, liberalism became both a constitutional principle and an international hegemonic norm.

NATO is presented as a community of liberal values – without mentioning that its second largest member, Turkey, is more conservative and authoritarian than Russia – and Moscow does not, therefore, have any legitimate reasons to oppose expansionism unless it fears democracy. If Russia reacts negatively to military encirclement, it is condemned as an enemy of democracy, and NATO has a moral responsibility to revert to its original mission as a military bloc containing Russia.

Case in point: there was nobody in Moscow advocating for the reunification with Crimea until the West supported the coup in Ukraine. Yet, as Western "fact checkers" and McFaul inform us, there was a "democratic revolution" and not a coup. Committed to his ideological prism, McFaul suggests that Russia acted out of a fear of having a democracy on its borders, as it would give hope to Russians and thus threaten the Kremlin. McFaul's ideological lens masks conflicting national security interests, and it fails to explain why Russia does not mind democratic neighbors in the east, such as South Korea and Japan, with whom it enjoys good relations.

Defending the peoples

States aspiring for global hegemony have systemic incentives to embrace ideologies that endow them with the right to defend other peoples. The French National Convention declared in 1792 that France would "come to the aid of all peoples who are seeking to recover their liberty," and the Bolsheviks proclaimed in 1917 "the duty to render assistance, armed, if necessary, to the fighting proletariat of the other countries."

The American liberal international order similarly aims to liberate the people of the world with "democracy promotion" and "humanitarian interventionism" when it conveniently advances US primacy. The American ideological project infers that democracy is advanced by US interference in the domestic affairs of Russia, while democracy is under attack if Russia interferes in the domestic affairs of US. The liberal international system is one of sovereign inequality to advance global primacy.

READ MORE Putin says American presence in Afghanistan is beneficial to Moscow's interests, rubbishes claims of 'Russian bounties to Taliban'

McFaul does not consider himself a Russophobe, as believes his attacks against Russia are merely motivated by the objective of liberating Russians from their government, which is why he advocates that Biden "distinguish between Russia and Russians – between Putin and the Russian people." This has been the modus operandi for regime change since the end of the Cold War – the US supposedly does not attack countries to advance its interests, it only altruistically assists foreign peoples in rival states against their leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin etc.

McFaul and other liberal ideologues still refer to NATO as a "defensive alliance," which does not make much sense after the attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 or Libya in 2011. However, under the auspices of liberal internationalism, NATO is defensive, as it defends the people of the world. Russia, therefore, doesn't have rational reasons for opposing the liberal international order.

McFaul condemns alleged efforts by Russia to interfere in the domestic affairs of the US, before outlining his strategies for interfering in the domestic affairs of Russia. McFaul blames Russian paranoia for shutting down American "non-governmental organizations" that are funded by the US government and staffed by people linked to the US security apparatus. He goes on to explain that the US government must counter this by establishing new "non-government organizations" to educate the Russian public about the evils of their government.

The dangerous appeal of ideologues

Ideologues have always been dangerous to international security. Ideologies of human freedom tend to promise perpetual peace. Yet, instead of transcending power politics, the ideals of human freedom are linked directly to hegemonic power by the self-proclaimed defender of the ideology. When ideologues firmly believe that the difference between the current volatile world and utopia can be bridged by defeating its opponents, it legitimizes radical power politics.

Consequently, there is no sense of irony among the McFauls of the world as US security strategy is committed to global dominance, while berating Russia for "revisionism."

Raymond Aaron once wrote: "Idealistic diplomacy slips too often into fanaticism; it divides states into good and evil, into peace-loving and bellicose. It envisions a permanent peace by the punishment of the latter and the triumph of the former. The idealist, believing he has broken with power politics, exaggerates its crimes."

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

[Jan 22, 2021] Blinken who looks like more dangerous variant of Pompeo

Notable quotes:

"... "Blinken acknowledged that the US must set an example at home on what it preaches abroad. He also stressed the need for "humility". But he insisted nonetheless that the US' global leadership "still matters" since the world is incapable of organising itself "when we're not leading," as some other country may usurp America's lead role impacting "our interests and values", or, simply, chaos may follow! ..."

"... At any rate, Blinken has pledged to "revitalise American diplomacy" and address the challenges of "rising nationalism, reseeding democracy, growing rivalry from China, and Russia and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our lives, especially in cyberspace." ..."

Jan 22, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Jen , Jan 21 2021 0:50 utc | 114

James @ 36 and onwards:

I would not set too much store by Plato's political philosophy. For Plato, the political ideal was a society of three layers: philosopher kings who rule, guardians (the military), producers / workers.

Ideally philosopher kings would be trained from childhood, adolescence or young adulthood onwards to be rational and to think in terms of what is best for society as a whole. They would be trained to be selfless and to shun the pursuit of material wealth.

There are many criticisms that can be made of Plato's ideal society. One such criticism among others is that philosopher kings / rulers may have a very narrow idea of what is best for society as a whole and may lead their people into trouble with, erm, "noble lies" (in whatever form the propaganda and the cultural conditioning take - and when does a "noble" lie cease to be "noble" and become just plain outright manipulation and falsehood?) if they confuse their own interests with the interests of society, when the reality is that their interests as philosopher kings and the interests of the rest of society are far apart.

The irony I've just uncovered is that the present system of government that exists in the US looks a little too much like Plato's ideal.

james , Jan 21 2021 3:42 utc | 134

@ Jen | Jan 21 2021 0:50 utc | 114... thanks jen... i was waiting to find out from juliania, but i appreciate your take on this which seems fairly informed... i know nothing about all of it, but it was an interesting idea cross purposing bidens inaugurations speech with platos idea of a or the noble lie... the problem with ideals, is they are hard to live in reality, thus they remain ideals only.. it sems philosopher kings and political leaders rely heavily on ideals to make a pitch to the public.. not everyone is receptive to them though... thanks for your input!

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Blinken's diplomatic cart will have a bumpy ride

"Blinken acknowledged that the US must set an example at home on what it preaches abroad. He also stressed the need for "humility". But he insisted nonetheless that the US' global leadership "still matters" since the world is incapable of organising itself "when we're not leading," as some other country may usurp America's lead role impacting "our interests and values", or, simply, chaos may follow!

Now, that's an extraordinary boast so soon after the Capitol Riots whose leitmotif was Chaos in capital "C". Blinken made a laughable claim. But it also betrays delusional thinking.

At any rate, Blinken has pledged to "revitalise American diplomacy" and address the challenges of "rising nationalism, reseeding democracy, growing rivalry from China, and Russia and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our lives, especially in cyberspace."

[Jan 22, 2021] Blinken is an unrepentant, unapologetic openly zionist

Jan 22, 2021 | www.unz.com

Mustapha Mond , says: January 22, 2021 at 12:52 am GMT • 1.2 hours ago

@follyofwar hat Trump did not, and for which Trump deserves credit: NOT attacking Iran; NOT starting a war in the Donbass region of Ukraine; and NOT escalating the attack on Syria to the point where Syria collapses and Al-Nusra and ISIS terrorists take over (which is what Israel has openly said they would prefer to Assad!) And I am NOT a 'Trumper', think he was a disgusting zionist boot-licker, and that he didn't do diddly squat of what he promised to do for the average American, but sure kissed Wall Street's bottom. The problem is, Bidet may be worse, if his past is any indication.

Regardless, the next four years are gonna be ugly, really ugly, foreign policy-wise, I'm afraid ..

[Jan 22, 2021] Blinken who looks like more dangerious variant of Pompeo has pledged to "revitalise American diplomacy" and address the challenges of "rising nationalism, reseeding democracy, growing rivalry from China, and Russia and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our lives, especially in cyberspace."

Jan 22, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Jen , Jan 21 2021 0:50 utc | 114

James @ 36 and onwards:

I would not set too much store by Plato's political philosophy. For Plato, the political ideal was a society of three layers: philosopher kings who rule, guardians (the military), producers / workers.

Ideally philosopher kings would be trained from childhood, adolescence or young adulthood onwards to be rational and to think in terms of what is best for society as a whole. They would be trained to be selfless and to shun the pursuit of material wealth.

There are many criticisms that can be made of Plato's ideal society. One such criticism among others is that philosopher kings / rulers may have a very narrow idea of what is best for society as a whole and may lead their people into trouble with, erm, "noble lies" (in whatever form the propaganda and the cultural conditioning take - and when does a "noble" lie cease to be "noble" and become just plain outright manipulation and falsehood?) if they confuse their own interests with the interests of society, when the reality is that their interests as philosopher kings and the interests of the rest of society are far apart.

The irony I've just uncovered is that the present system of government that exists in the US looks a little too much like Plato's ideal.

james , Jan 21 2021 3:42 utc | 134

@ Jen | Jan 21 2021 0:50 utc | 114... thanks jen... i was waiting to find out from juliania, but i appreciate your take on this which seems fairly informed... i know nothing about all of it, but it was an interesting idea cross purposing bidens inaugurations speech with platos idea of a or the noble lie... the problem with ideals, is they are hard to live in reality, thus they remain ideals only.. it sems philosopher kings and political leaders rely heavily on ideals to make a pitch to the public.. not everyone is receptive to them though... thanks for your input!

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Blinken's diplomatic cart will have a bumpy ride

"Blinken acknowledged that the US must set an example at home on what it preaches abroad. He also stressed the need for "humility". But he insisted nonetheless that the US' global leadership "still matters" since the world is incapable of organising itself "when we're not leading," as some other country may usurp America's lead role impacting "our interests and values", or, simply, chaos may follow!

Now, that's an extraordinary boast so soon after the Capitol Riots whose leitmotif was Chaos in capital "C". Blinken made a laughable claim. But it also betrays delusional thinking. At any rate, Blinken has pledged to "revitalise American diplomacy" and address the challenges of "rising nationalism, reseeding democracy, growing rivalry from China, and Russia and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our lives, especially in cyberspace."

[Jan 21, 2021] Watch- Rand Paul Challenges New Secretary Of State Over Regime-Change In Syria - ZeroHedge

Jan 21, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Watch: Rand Paul Challenges New Secretary Of State Over Regime-Change In Syria BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, JAN 21, 2021 - 10:19

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

Senator Rand Paul recently challenged the new Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken on his history of pushing regime change in the Middle East and North Africa:

"Regime change in the Middle East has led to chaos, instability and more terrorism," Sen. Paul argued.

"Like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton you've been a supporter of military intervention in the Middle East from the Iraq war to the Libyan war to the Syrian civil war..." he introduced in his Tuesday questoning of Blinken.

Sen. Paul began his argument by questioning Blinken's role in the NATO intervention of Libya in 2001 and his support for the US military invasion of Iraq in 2003, which the Kentucky congressman said was a major disaster that paved the way for a stronger Iran.

The congressman argued that Blinken continued to push regime change in Syria, which he said was a significant blunder, especially with the amount of money spent training "moderate rebel forces" .

Sen. Paul said the administration of former President Barack Obama spent $250 million (USD) on training 60 rebels [as part of the DoD side; the CIA program was much more expansive], which he said was a waste of money.

He would go on to question why Blinken would support the Syrian opposition groups on the ground, as he pointed out the most powerful fighters are those from the jihadist groups like the Al-Nusra Front .

"Even after Libya you guys went on to Syria wanting to do the same thing again... it's a disaster. The lesson of these wars is that regime change doesn't work!" Paul said.

"You got rid of one 'bad guy' and another 'bad guy' got stronger," Paul added while lambasting the US strategy of going after Iran while Iraq is still weakened by Bush's regime change war there.

"Maybe we shouldn't be 'choosing' governments in the Middle East," Paul continued.

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Watch the full exchange here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_i5ynePhmnk

Blinken claimed in response that he wasn't supportive of a full-scale 'Iraq-style' regime change war in Syria while vaguely claiming that he's done "deep thinking" and reflection on the issue . Blinken never repudiated the policy of regime change in the Middle East, however.

Sen. Paul then shifted his attention to NATO, which he said Blinken was trying to strengthen for the purpose of combatting Russia. The senator said Blinken's policy on NATO would lead to war with Russia, which the latter responded would have the opposite effect.

Antony Blinken upon his nomination for Secretary of State in the new administration, via Reuters

Paul concluded by saying that regime change needs to end because it is involving the US in long wars that are costly to the military.

The Luftwaffe 8 hours ago

We will see a new major war started by this administration within two years

We have to do something to reduce the population.

You mean in addition to the 103.5% effective covid vaccine?

On duckduckgo.com search > "Med Cram".
On You Tube: Dr. Seheult's med school video lecture "Vitamin D and Covid 19: The Evidence for Prevention and " (5.3m views)
Vitamin D3 is sold over the counter.
Karma is coming for Covid.

Hopefully it's also coming for the thieving liars who pushed this cheap PsyOp (Pompeo is one, Fauci is another).

I guess Bibi mis-spelled Rand's email address on the memo.

103.5%... that sounds like the voter turnout in all the blue cities.

If one could take all the people in the world and cram them into a city as dense as Tokyo, it would cover the area of Rhode Island.

BS
Tokyo pop density=16121.8 /sq.mi.
Rhode Island = 1045 sq.mi.

At that density RI would hold 16.8 million people.

At the average annual population growth rate of the last century there will be 1 sq.m. of land per person in only 750 years. That includes all mountains, frozen tundra, jungles and deserts... now "get off my lawn".

Sure, that's why Xiden is allowing millions of immigrants to invade our borders.

I thought it might be like today...

Anyone crazy enough to join ,or be in the military , is out of his friggin mind.

Or likes killing civilians. Don't overlook the psychopaths.

and that will be the end of the US.

How about the Regime Change just effected right HERE in the good old USA?

Exactly - "Maybe we shouldn't be 'choosing' governments in the Middle East," Paul continued

That's what they do - they just did it here

(((Anthony Blinken)))

I'd take Assad over Biden.

Assad has more integrity in his shoe than Biden has accumulated in the past 50 years.

If the deep state hates Assad, then I know he must be legitimately a good guy deep down.

BINGO!

It seems that after each election, the USA becomes more of a contrarian indicator

I agree. At least Assad puts his country first and gives the finger to the Deep State.

Plus a secular government that respects the rights of all religious minorites. Sets a bad example for all the intolerant apartheid states in the region.

Hopefully the "Assad Must Go" curse gets the entire Biden Administration sooner rather than later.

Who cares...Uncle Scam lost the tiny bit of credibility he had on 01/20/2021. RIP America....

I care. Here's yet another Israel-first douchenozzle getting put in a very, very high position. And acting like it'd be any different with Trump at the helm is severe folly. (Pompeo)

Sorry bro but anyone with eyes hasn't thought the US credible for more than a century.

Paul concluded by saying that regime change needs to end because it is involving the US in long wars that are costly to the military.

Pardon , but the " cost " to the military shouldn't be the top/only argument. What happened to morally/ ethically wrong ?

"All wars are Bankers' wars." -Smedley Butler

Moral is dead long ago, replaced by new fake moral called humanitarianism.

You're an astute observer - few detect such "tells"

Consider the audience

Fair point.

He mentioned that it creates more terrorism, and that the incoming regime may be even worse than the previous.

Biden will start a war, or two, or three...

Maybe the best thing that could happen to free us all finally is an all out war with Russia, we aren't going to see a revolution to get rid of the corruption the population is lazy and scared of doing without.

Maybe forced into mutual assured destruction is truly the only way to get rid of the deep state...

Russia lost approx 250 million via communism over decades, maybe we need to just swallow the poison pill and get it over with.

Not all of us will die, and definately no one is going to listen to the deep state leaders after the dust clears...

Cho Bai Den fol peace!

It's amazing how Democrats flipped overnight to being pro war once Obama started new wars. They were mad when Trump was signing peace deals. Lol.

He's right. One disaster after another. Who has Assad attacked? If small countries want the US to back off then they must develop nuclear weapons. When was the last time the US attacked a country with nuclear capabilities?

Bust Blinken's balls until he quits like a little rat trying to naw through steel cables

The only way to stop these wars is to send the people (and their kids) who are pushing for it in the first place to the front lines.

Or make the state obsolete by transitioning to a private law society.

Remember how Gaddafi surrendered his nukeprogram to Bush, a few years later Obama/HRC invaded...resulting in Gaddafi being lynched?

Iran and NK and Syria remember, for sure. Wish we all remembered the USS Liberty when shaping foreign policy.

Remember Libya has no central bank?

you really believe that bs ... it is much more than that ... at the end is about the land and the people ... money can be printed out of thin air and there is nothing libya (or iraq, iran etc.) central bank can do about it ...

bring on dr. fraucistein to explain it all to us ... maga!!

Assad placed his country too close to Is ra hell

Sorry guys but we have been played like a second hand fiddle.

It is ALL BS.

THEY don't give a **** about US

I assume Paul has figured out by now that being a murderous psychopath is a job requirement in DC. It's the first question in the job interview. "Do you enjoy death and destruction for profit and personal power?"

Remember when Trump bombed Syria and all of a sudden everyone in DC loved him for 15 minutes.

Talk about the big reveal.

The same Rand Paul who was criticizing Trump in the eleventh hour? That one?? They are all swamp creatures and seriously make me want to vomit...

The apple rolled away from the tree.

Paul, I like you, you seem to care a little bit. However, if they haven't cared in the last forever, they are definitely not going to start now. They just regime changed ourselves with almost no substantial resistance, you think they will care about Syria?

He puts on a show to care once in a while.

He didn't stand for the truth when it counted.

GREAT RAND, BUT WHERE WERE YOU ON BIG TECH CENSORSHIP AND ELECTION FRAUD?

He's cucked.

What is this obsession with Russia? Russia is a peaceful country who defends its people. How difficult is that to understand?

Russia isn't down with the NWO.

(((Blinkin))) is all you need to know.

Does anyone honestly believe that if Biden was honest and had any degree if integrity that he would be president at this moment in U.S. history? That boy is a 50 year swamp critter A thoroughly reliable member of the compromised fraternity. Same for Nancy.

Remember the video of younger Biden telling some voter that he graduated top of his class, with honors????

None of which were true.

His degree is from University of Phoenix.

Now all colleges are that. haha

Ironically, he wants to set up a comity for Integrity In Government.

Yeah. Thats hysterical!!

Saturday Night Live material - if they had any spine.

Which they don't. Come on, man!

Yep. They needed someone with zero integrity.

You know who's been right all along?

Tulsi Gabbard.

Right on big tech

Right on Kamala

Right on pardoning Assange and Snowden

Right on the uniparty and false flags in Syria

Right on Queen of Warmongers Hillary and DNC

Right on the MSM

Right on securing the elections/ballot harvesting

She's the real deal and would have delivered on these things but never had a shot.

She was wrong on gun control. Very wrong! And that's a non-negotiable.

Don't worry real gun control is coming and so much more you didn't ask for...

She should have been Trump's vp choice.

You know....I think you're right. I hadn't thought of that.

I like Tulsi. She seems like a genuine person with integrity that really cares about the country. BUT I disagree with her on quite a few issues. Maybe she'll come around.

The steal was sealed when the Supreme Court refused to hear the Texas case.

Greasy John Roberts wrecked America.

The steal was sealed when the Supreme Court refused to hear the Texas case.

True.

Vichy John Roberts went full Quisling and brought back Jim Crow laws. The Supreme Court endorsed election fraud, supported the coup d'etat, forced Trump from power, helped usher in a new era for the banana republic of Jim Crow laws...

John Roberts is compromised 8 ways to Sunday. Trump should have had him impeached and removed from the bench

If you thought Trump was surrounded by Red Sea Pedestrians with an agenda, research the ethno-religious background of Biden's cabinet picks.

Shalom!

Every administration is. Trumps son in law and advisor is as well. Please see the entire picture for a change.

How about closing all military bases overseas and dismantling the MIC and oh **** it an old demented neocon is playing president for a few months, scratch that.

The crack up boom of the FRNs may force that one day

I think it'll happen sooner rather than later, the chances are good based on the demented old pedophile being selected president and his retards at the fed.

In the long run, that might be a good thing if we return to honest money but you can be sure they'll try to kick the can for another 50 years with some form of new fiat or erasing a couple of zeroes of our current notes.

Hopefully the masses will just say know but I wouldn't put much faith in that.

Parents, do not let your smart, winning kids into the armed services. The MIC will grind them out with PTSD, brain injuries, and lost limbs. There is no 'patriotism' or allegience to the Deep State.

Maybe the best thing that could happen to free us all finally is an all out war with Russia, we aren't going to see a revolution to get rid of the corruption the population is lazy and scared of doing without.

Maybe forced into mutual assured destruction is truly the only way to get rid of the deep state...

Russia lost approx 250 million via communism over decades, maybe we need to just swallow the poison pill and get it over with.

Not all of us will die, and definately no one is going to listen to the deep state leaders after the dust clears...

Maybe the best thing that could happen to free us all finally is an all out war with Russia..

Maybe we should instead just launch a sneak attack on Alpha Centauri instead. Skip the small fry like Russia and China. In a few generations we shall know whether our Earthling space torpedoes hit Alpha Centauri. This of course should be debated by the people and approved by a plebiscite per ballot referendums. Then the space war bill sent to the Earthlings Politburo for their approval. It'll take around a decade or more to design and build the space torpedoes... then 100 years plus for travel time and the same to get the data back from the mothership...

Plus we can have both a Cold War and a Hot War with Alpha Centauri... under the leadership of an Earthling appointed or elected by the Earthlings Council and elevated to the rank of Don Quixote with the accompany title of Primal inter Pares

We just need more right thinking smart people to join the cult and become enlightened to the prospects of a new 100 years war with other planets...and maybe some small wars with planetoids...asteroids and comets...

We can establish of house of OverLords composed of only the best Astrologers to help pick out which planets to attack & destroy...based upon whether they have offended our star charts or the zodiac calls for war... In addition we can establish a lower house of UnderLords composed of mad scientists and Generalissimos and crazy Spy Chiefs... and maybe some nutty press types from the official media and puppet press to lead us in the Two Minutes Hate against the Alpha Centauri folks, the space peoples, and the flying saucer people...

CIA already had plans for all this under the Stargate Program. After Ike's treaty with various alien species the MIC began its descent into madness and universal conquest.

A war like that might "free" you, because the Russians will kick your ***.

Each time I see this "Office of the President Elect" picture thing, I get nauseous.

Fake office for a fake president who wasn't elected in the first place.

Like nothing happened back here at home.

Blinken may prove out to be more slick and savy than Dumbo Pompeo the flying cartoon elephant but he's still a fawking neanderthal and a ******. Maybe an elite ****** but he's still a ******. Blind, deaf, and dumb is still blind, deaf, and dumb even with all the powers of the secret police at their disposal.

Rand is sick too. He goes on about how these things are bad specifically because they strengthened Iran? How about liberty crushing mass murder?

"Sen. Paul said the administration of former President Barack Obama spent $250 million (USD) on training 60 rebels [as part of the DoD side; the CIA program was much more expansive], which he said was a waste of money."

So your mad they steal money while creating terrorists? Or are you mad that they don't tell you what they do with the rest? They abduct children from war zones to make them. Maybe the indoctrination and rape children's homes are expensive. They have screwed the entire planet.

There is something wrong with him too. He is another limited hangout

He's all bark no bite like Elizabeth Warren. Trotted out to show a feigning resistance.

Poor Rand is going to have a tough and lonely battle over the next few years. Let's wish him well, he'll be going it alone for sure.

It seems odd that no one has allied themselves with him in the same manner as McCain & Graham.

Another life long bureaucrat talking about his resume. And fails to answer a simple question. Woop there it is. That's why they hated Trump. Because somebody off the street had better answers than 25 years of experience.

Every single time!! --

Blinken was born on April 16, 1962, in Yonkers, New York , to Jewish parents, Judith (Frehm) and Donald M. Blinken , the former United States Ambassador to Hungary . ^{[1] [2] [3]} His maternal grandparents were Hungarian ****. ^[4] Blinken's uncle, Alan Blinken , served as the American ambassador to Belgium

Rand Paul, one of the few good ones left. Good Luck with Biden and his war hawks!

These same people are attempting a regime change in the United States too. From Freedom to Fascism.

The Americans lost perspectives and actually real freedom when Woodrow Wilson sold US to international banksters in 1913, now this scam just ends and a new scam begins. You haven't figured it out yet. By the way, fascism is Italian National Socialism. No offense.

Then what was German National Socialism, if not fascism?

/

/

They are not attempting. They have done it. They have perfected their craft over the last 70 years in other countries and they brought it home to keep their criminal organization going.

They didn't attempt, they did it! Took a little over 4 years but had to stoop to massive election fraud and changing state laws on the fly. It was coordinated throughout all levels of government down to states and courts and SCOTUS.

Communism

Maybe not.

Russia Russia Russia! They never stop! BTW, wheres scumbag Hunter?

(((Anthony Blinken)))

Yea we know the cabinet is full of heeb's.

Is he in the boat with Winken and Nod?

Good one.

There is a reason Russia has spent the last 2 months ramping up testing of its mil hardware including hyper-vel ICBM's and SLBM's. - Xiden

Rand will be the only Senator to give the Dems a hard time. Sad since it should be payback for EVERY Republican Senator.

Cruz will be fun to watch too. They excel being outnumbered.

If they wanted Rand out of that spot he would have been gone a long time ago.

Does anyone think the US policy in the middle east will change with 10 of biden's

appointees being jewish .......??

The "greater israel" will continue no matter the cost to the American tax cattle.......

((((blinken))) ..........

The neocons are back!

The neocons are back!

Does not matter. They could not win before and they shall not win now. They're ineffective, inept, and incompetent. They won't be able to fix the messes and disasters they've created for themselves. At best they might be able to sick the secret police on a few people at home and drop some bombs or missiles abroad. But for the most part it's some more of the same. Evil is as evil does. They're not going to be able to work themselves out of the fix they've got themselves into or figure it out. They're toast. They're bad people and they're toast. Washingtonians may have absolute power but they've had absolute power all along...and they still can't fix the disasters they've caused.

Oh thank God!

If we're not looking for a new pointless war to start or jumping into an existing one then this isn't the America that I know and love!

</sarc>

Where is the BUFFALOBILL dude storming the Senate to drag this blinken criminal scum out and do justice for his wanton murder of thousands?

Shut down this freak show.

I would rather have BUFFALOBILL and his idiots running the place than these feckless people's representatives.

Tony , have you learned your lesson?

Senator - screw you and your people I will think it over.

Silence republicans! Yes we stole the election using widespread mail in ballots, yes your state governments changed the rules to allow us to count these mail in ballots more quickly, yes there were far more votes in this election than any other ever. ANDDDD... NO we will not look into the validity of this election becuase muh capital rioting grandma threatened sweet little socialist AOC.

Now give us your children to fight a war in syria.

Barack Obama. Neocon to the core. Biden is no different. Gonna do us some "liberating" again. And from the left there will be silence as thousands of poor, short brown people are killed as "collateral damage".

Welcome back America to what you do the best. Destroy lives. Any over/under on how many days it takes Biden to start killing folks and hence become a war criminal like pretty much all his predecessors? I might like a piece of that action.

Republicans are neocons, democrats are neoliberal. You're basically right, just left out half the problem.

Can't bitch about foreign actions in our elections when we pick other governments.

Pick ???? Surely you jest !

We choose sides right?

We picked the CIA stooge in Venezuela.

Not sure about your question.

Maybe "kinetically pick" would be better?

Sorry, I didn't read your post properly. I didn't see "other" governments.

you either forgot the sarc tag

or failed to notice such as V. Nuland hand-picking leadership in Ukraine,

or the Trump picking of Guiado for Venezuela.

Poor eye sight is my best and only excuse.

Where is Hunter?

The Big Guy made him the Advance Minister of Foreign Extortion.

The faces change but the song remains the same. What a waste of energy this government is. Resources thrown down the toilet to make the Ruling class more wealthy. Why do we even pay attention. We all need to have a look in the mirror. Myself included of course.

So now that you've looked in the mirror, what are you going to do about it? Send a strongly-worded letter? Or are you ready to actually step up. As morally wrong and demented as the radical left is, at least you have to admire them in the sense they actually step up to the plate to get sh!t done. It's immoral, but effective.

Lest we forget the same bearded butchers that Chris Stevens flew into ben gazi with (al Quaeda inter alia aligned ) who were funded and trained by the West were the same ones who flew from ben gazi to the incirlik nato base to try to do the same thing in syria.

The only reason it didn't work was because of the SAA, Hezbollah and of course the ultimate backstop Russia. I'm thankful for this.

Imagine Russian or Chinese parliament publicly debating regime change in USA.

Debating? China has ALREADY done it here.

Rand will continue to fight the good fight, when you live a life based on principal, that's what you do. We will always need more people like him. That's what built this country, not the parasites at the helm now.

Paul voted to confirm the electors. His challenge to the new Sec. of State means nothing.

his argument was based on State's right issue, in case you care

It doesn't matter WHY, he voted with traitors, only, that he did.

This is literally the only guy we have in the senate who even remotely gives a ****. Yet the amount of **** that is going to happen to us when biden heats up the war in Syria is immeasurable. F*ck me

Rand Paul is wasting his time.

If he wants to make a difference he should be lobbying Russia to send more troops into Syria.

And arranging imports of the Russian vaccine. Less likely to kill you and more effective than the only 45% effective Pfizer ****.

This guys eyes look exactly like the vampires in the movie 30 days of night. Am I in a simulation? Why do these people actually look like fictional villains? I mean Whitmer, Newsom, this new fat, unhealthy, mentally ill assistant "health secretary"? Did I do something really wrong? Am I in hell and don't know it? No. I am here on earth and psychopaths are real and evil is real.

they're just a little scared and overwhelmed. You might be too

Look at this Blinken twit! F you pal! And....wheres HUnter??? Diddling his brothers minor niece? Again? Still?

2021-01-21 If you go here https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ you can send an email. I just sent: "Joe, you know he won."

I know you are an idiot.

First Ron and now Rand. I think the club just lets them in as the token Don Quixote. They have been the only voices of reason for the last 25 years or so, but they are only tilting at windmills. Nothing is going to change until something forces them to change. The war mongering and corruption will just roll right along while the MIC and congress get richer by the minute.

The unrelenting droning of brown people in foreign lands that are ill-equipped to fight back will commence in 3,2,1...

Leaving the Republican Party would be the first best step.

We put too much on one man and one man alone to change things.

Faced with judges and a House and A Senate against him the task before Trump was Herculean.

Add to that 2/5ths of the states with governors also against Trump and it's even worse.

What you need to do is get involved in your local politics and take control back of your Cities and County Commissions, as well as your state governments.

Had Trump held control of the House and the Senate and we had sitting on Courts people who put the Constitution first FOR the people rather than using it against them, things would be a lot different today.

The choice is yours.

It's good to see that Rand, is starting to think more like his father!

So he's controlled opposition, too?

Pretty early to be smoking crack isn't it?

With Cookies Nuland as Blinken's deputy, you've got the neocon family business installed at Foggy Bottom. Robert (Victoria's huband), Fredrick, and Kim each with their own pro-war think tank, and a list of supporters which constitute the "A-list" of the USSA's merchants of death. Northrup-Grumman, UTX, Raytheon, Lockheed....

Winken, Blinken and Nod.

That's the administration we got now.

Careful Rand, we wouldn't want you to get another "visit" from a neighbor while you're mowing the lawn.

Biden's biggest Cabinet mistake will ultimately be Blinken.

Like Obama picked H Clinton with disasterous consequences Biden picks Blinken.

Rand Paul says " Assad is a terrible person " !!!

Dr Assad is a HERO !!

Rand Paul is either completely misinformed or just another useless politician afraid to speak the TRUTH !

A COWARD !

Assad may be a good person at heart but he is not qualified to run a state. He should be a doctor or something.

And Joe Biden is ??

OR Boris Johnstone ??

It is up to the Syrians to decide, not you. You already paid for the genocide of the Syrian Christians in the "fight against the tyrant Assad." I've seen all kinds of idiots and hypocrites, but you are their king.

Why did not Assad anticipated the Zionist invasion even though the Snowden document reveled the CIA/Mossad works in the making in 2006 ??

If he did anticipated an invasion why he did not do anything to safeguard his nation and it's people ?

Why every men, women and child capable to lift and shoot was not given and an ordinance and proper training ?? Israel has that. Why can't Syria ?

Syria is a part of Greater Israel. They have been marked for genocide the day Israel was created, what haste did Mr. Assad showed to safeguard his country against their genocidal maniacs psychopaths ??

I will never forgive those who inflicted the terrible atrocities on the children and women and Mr. Assad has a blame to share.

Assad risked his life and continues to do so every day, trump recently bragged he thought about "taking him out". he's a true hero more than you or I will ever be

Rand Paul doesn't understand. Blinken follows the path that Israel tells him to. Middle East instability benefits Israel. The fomenting of Sunni-Shia conflict kills Israels' enemies, the muslims, without Israel having to lift a finger. Syria is no longer a threat to Israel. Mission accomplished.

You're wrong on two accounts. First, there's no ****te/Sunni conflict. What goes in Miiddle East is entire different than what is portrayed here. The locals know but how many of them get interviewed on live TV or get a airtime on a prime time desk ? Those are reserved for the chosenites who spew BS about Arabs and Muslims 24/7.

****te/Sunni fiction as broadcasts in the west is nothing but a ploy to wash the hands of the responsibility and pin the blame on the victims.

Second, Syria is now a bigger threat to Israel than it was in Pre War era. Battle Hardened troops, better organization, training with Russian/Iranian Military, better equipment, talented strategists and when you fight a war like that for that long you tend to grow a bigger set of balls.

Syria wants the GOLAN back - I would say they are a threat to ISRAEL !!

Speaking of war didn't Rand Paul vote to accept the illegitimate electors. I like Paul he seems to have a level head but you voted to put the commies in power. Like you said in your speech "there are repercussions". Those who took a stand against this coup must be kept in power as they put skin in the game. That's a rare and precious gift to us the people. In the year 2021 it's as good as gold.

Exactly, hence my previous comment below.

trump lost the election because he allowed million of fraud votes to be counted and never said or did anything about it in the year leading up to it. he 's the one that lost it. no one else

"War Pigs"----Black Sabbath

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor
Yeah!

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'til their judgement day comes
Yeah!

Now in darkness world stops turning
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pig's crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing spreads his wings
oh lord yeah!

Circuses. Theatre for the plebes. Not one bit of foreign policy is decided or affected by debates or hearings in the Legislative branch. They're all following a script, some of them act like they aren't in on the joke.

Psychosis the denial of reality. The military industrial complex is make believe. It's military industrial congress, Congress is in charge they alone are to blame know one else. The sooner everyone starts living in reality the better off will be. You want to win the war of words better start with reality. Or your going to get a another kind of war one where only the strong survive.

Watch: Rand Paul Challenges New Secretary Of State Over Regime-Change In Syria

Meaningless inside the beltway for the record drool-n-dribble... Rand Paul just wants to pad his resume, bio, and gain some street cred claims...

When do the new wars start? Dems can't wait. Blame them on Covid or something, they will buy it.

Biden will go to war with Iran and turned thr ME into a fireball. The mainstream media will cheer him on under the banner of peace and unity

Diablo Corona

Washingtonians are for the most part the spawn of Satan.

DC= the Devil's City... they are evil... Washingtonians are just pure rotten evil...

Washington DC ... Devil's City

Washington DC .... Devil's Crown

The evil ones cannot change their evil ways... they're too far gone... the evil ones cannot be redeemed...

Paul concluded by saying that regime change needs to end because it is involving the US in long wars that are costly to the military.

Too late. Washington is toast. It's just a question of when Washingtonians lose in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, et cetera. They already made a mess of things and they do not have the brains to fix it. Same with their inabilities as regards nonproliferation, North Korea, et cetera. They don't have what it takes to figure it out and work it out and nobody is going to fix it for them because they're assholes regardless of which cabal of Ivy League assholes or ******* elites are in power.

Paul isn't supposed to question a Zionist's motives..

if the youth said no to war and moms said not my child and burned down the recruitment/death centers then war would end...

Thank goodness that Paul told the idiot Blicken to lay off regime change. Obama-Biden made a mess of the middle east and caused a refugee crises which is still with us. Instead of being named secretary of state, me thinks Blicken should be put in jail for acts in the Middle East which killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The EU has become a mess because of regime change.

Of course he should. But that would require sanity.

Simple way to stop all this insane venturism and nation building it to MANDATE that every aysshole like Blinken have a spouse or child or sibling or relative ON THE GROUND fighting in one of these shyyytholes. These elites love this crap because THEY never pay a personal price, no they have farmed that out to the "commoners" who supply the bodies. The filthy elites are good at leveraging everyone else to fulfill their fantasies while paying no price.

You've seen the videos of Chelsea and Malia on tour in Kabul? Yeah?

More like Eeyore pontificating from her 20 million dollar penthouse about how she is so not into money, or Maglia dancing around stoned like a "social justice warrior".

The senate needs more Rand Paul types - and they dont have to be in the Republican party...This would force actual accountability of uniparty folks and these appointees. We need less murkowski and collins

I am going to harp on this

in 2014 Matt Bevin challenged McConnell in a Senate Primary

He was gaining momentum

Then Rand endorsed McConnell

Bevin lost McConnell got re-elected

Bevin was later elected Governor of KY so he had the votes

Rand Paul Broke my heart

We need use the Progressive's signage: He is not my President.

You can't necessarily call it an "American" policy.

America lost control of it's policy long ago.....

Here comes another war, and this time, it will spiral out of control. In two years or less, I expect the US to be in a major conflict and/or hit at home. Sigh....Leftist

Pelosi just took Rand aside and said, wait and see what your neighbor on the other side of you has to say about this.

Rand is in the senate. nancy runs the house. That would be Schumer's job.

Pelosi seems to be running the show and is the face of the party

Rand Paul, the lone voice of sanity in a rubber-stamp corrupt government.

If you or someone you care about is either in or thinking about joining this nation's military...please don't. Let these antiwhites fight their own wars. They hate you and don't trust you because you're White and they hate you owning guns, but they'll put a gun in your hand and point you at their and Isn'treal's enemies without hesitation.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

"Regime change in the Middle East has led to chaos, instability and more terrorism,"

Uhhh, yea...

... Thats what they WANTED!

Duh!

Thank you Senator Paul..

For your candor..

The challenge of US Foreign Policy, is akin to a heroin addiction. It's bad for the country, but all attempts to cure the country of addiction to imperialism has failed, including our energetic efforts over the years..

Too many people benefit from the ruination of the country as it engages in squandering lives, honor, power, reputation, and treasure, in maintaining a facade of illusory power, at the expense of the true power of the country..

Put simply Senator, at this point, we don't believe any entity on earth can cure the US of the addiction to depravity save nature, which cure is more preferable to that of the Entity whose decision is not subject to appeal..

Now Senator, you may not believe in God Almighty and thus, swat away the simple insight but God does not require your belief to act..

Over His creation..

The only cure, if sense and rationality don't prevail, is exactly what we don't desire to know and why?

Because we've seen it before, applied to different societies with similar mentality over the course of human history and Senator, it's never palatable..

Anyhow, probation is till summer, to allow folks do intensive introspective contemplation, enough to acquire prudent humility and if they don't, well..

Cheers...

I believe the Senator is a Christian.

Blinken is a bald faced liar and is already working with Ms Nuland on more regime changes.

Venezuela and Syria need to get ready for more robust attacks.

Control the oil, you control the world.

Oil was the cause of every war for the past century.

A ridiculous exchange. Sen Paul seems to take at face value the Liberal-NeoCon claim that Regime Change is good-intentioned attempt to democratize the Middle East.

Hardly. Regime Change was always designed to a) install Israeli supremacy in the region ("Operation Clean Break"); and b) secure US Global Uni-polar dominance (the Wolfowitz Doctrine) as part of the Brezezinski "Grand Chessboard". That's the intention... this exchange demonstrates how out of it Rand Paul is; and what a nasty weasel Blinken is.

That's not what Sen. Paul said. He doesn't agree with regime change. That's what he said.

To which the Biden appointee replied, "You know, the thing!"

cmon man!

do your job!

Rand Paul's opinion and $6 will get him a latte at Starbucks.

Foreign policy is never gonna change no matter who's in change because the way system is setup.

The lifestyle (our way of life) pertaining to the western model of civilization (our values) needs unlimited supply of money to be supported. The money that can't be made by legal means, hence the continues war that needs to be maintained overseas while also starting new ones as requirement arise.

And since this is a continues state, so accompanies it continues propaganda, lies, false flags, deception and manipulation of facts and truth. LYING IS IN VERY GENES OF THE WHITE CHRISTIAN WEST. They have been doing it for so long that they have almost mastered the "the art of lying" the zenith of which is to project your own flaws and crimes on to the subjects you carried it out on. One thing you can always be sure of, they will never admit their crimes unless there's no other way. And that they will be accusing their opponents of the same things they would be doing.

War underpins their society, nation and civilization.

The problem is that the U.S. is abusing its position as printer-in-chief of the Reserve Currency of the world. With that fake money, it can intervene in the affairs of nations throughout the world - a capability that no other country enjoys. Take away its reserve currency and watch how quickly middle eastern strife ends - and the nation of Israel, too.

will the left and their mindless supporters be comforted to know that their guy promotes these "endless wars"? will they be happy to sacrifice their sons and daughters for desert real-estate whose oil we don't want?

Paul was being way too polite. He should simply say: "I'm not voting to confirm this war monger" then get up and leave the room.

If you think it's about the oil, you really don't understand the world you inhabit.

I don't think it's about oil but I'm struggling to name a single US interest in sand-wars. maybe you can? yes, yes, military/industrial complex, blah, blah, but why the middle east? please enlighten us.

It's to rebuild the world in the image of the west and Islam is the biggest hampering in the way. Like other religions, it can't be altered or dominated so the only way is to completely destroy it. This is why Israel was setup by the Anglos at a strategic location in the heart of the Arab world to engage them into perpetual war and destroy them.

That's about it.

And whenever a war on a civilization is waged, there are always monetary benefits. Oil, MIC, Political donations come into play here. But that's just a sideshow. And with a civilization as big as Islamic, benefits also tend to be massive.

no evidence that the arab spring was against islam. why aren't we doing regime change in indonesia? why did joe just reverse the Muslim travel ban?

do you understand anything about the world you live in?

A lot actually. We are concentrating on the core of the Islamic civilization for when the core collapses, the outer layers collapses with it. It's the core that holds the entire thing together, hence we concentrate on Middle East and not on Indonesia.

Arab spring was to sow chaos and turmoil. By the way of deception.....Jewish moto

It is not that Israel establishes America's foreign policy. It is that the basic world view produced by WASP culture is naturally aligned with Jewish thought in most ways, especially in terms of Empire: ruling the world.

it was not a muslim travel ban. it was a ban on places that didn't have adequate infrastructure to verify who was travling.

where is the last place, core or not core, that Islam religion and Muslim culture has been eradicated by any means? Yugoslavia? India? Not seeing it. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Your argument does not hold.

(((THEM)))

No of course not. Nothing to do with what George Kennan called "the greatest strategic material prize in world history".

And whenever a war on a civilization is waged, there are always monetary benefits. Oil, MIC, Political donations come into play here. But that's just a sideshow. And with a civilization as big as Islamic, benefits also tend to be massive.

by now, we should be weary (and wary) of "it's all a sideshow" arguments.

it simply asserts greater knowledge (never disclosed) and terminates the thread.

as for the grand anti-islam plan... how's that going in western europe?

No of course not. Nothing to do with what George Kennan called "the greatest strategic material prize in world history".

It is ALWAYS about the OIL - thats why IRAN and VENEZUELA are being weakened by crippling sanctions !!

THAT"S how the ZIO/US does it - SANCTIONS first - WAR 2nd !

Doesn't work anymore since RUSSIA stepped in !

Just ask if this 100 year plus war is to create "greater Israel" . It all documented. Enough already with the lies. Just admit it.

WWE- fake fights have begun again in earnest .....................

Paul Ryan could fake a punch as good as John Boehner ............

"Maybe we shouldn't be 'choosing' governments in the Middle East," Paul continued.

The Washington establishment imposed their chosen ruler Joe Schmo Biden to rule over America.

H a n g t h e m a l l

Should we have a contest to see who can pick the first country Biden will send troops to?

DC !

You win!

Blinken Heck , don't worry ya'll, Nuland (Nudelman's) back to steady the ship with a fab new chocolate chip cookie recipe that the terrorists will adore.

And they aren't even trying to hide it.

Rand can say whatever he wants and it changes NOTHING

Who is still planning on filing taxes? At the very least, turn your back on the system-right? Upvote for not filing, downvote for I just want to avoid conflict-I'm filing.

But, we are getting a return.

No paying next year though.

Doesn't matter if it is a disaster for the peoples invaded and for domestic liberty in the USA.

It's considered "worth it" by those in power

to protect the financial supremacy of the dollar,

promote the regional military supremacy of Israel,

and continue the war profiteering of the MIC.

So what? Your cushy lifestyle and mine is a direct result of hegemony. Get over it.

Celebration of a "cushy lifestyle" gained by plunder and murder is not for everyone.

To revel in it, one requires a special insensibility.

This fence-sitter did virtually NOTHING to stop the steal.
Now he's whining about having to lie in bed his cowardice helped make.
Many MORE thousands will soon be massacred by these war-mad psychopaths.
This POS is DEAD TO ME.

Rand is smart, he knew no matter what Xiden was going to be installed.

He's smart. A bunch of idiots, after a good breakfast at IHOP, were herded into the capital by govt informants to break stuff for the cameras, and then herded right back out in time for a hearty dinner at Golden Corral. They did sacrifice their lunch for exactly nothing, though. Congrats. He stayed away from all that nonsense.

That's about the size of it, in retrospect.

regime change needs to end because it is involving the US in long wars that are costly to the military.

Wrong! "regime change needs to continue because it is involving the US in wars that are profitable to the military.

Part of the problems is that neither the democrats or republicans are primarily in favor of DEMOCRATIC governments in the middle east. When Egypt FREELY ELECTED the Muslin Brotherhood to power in Egypt the US fell all over itself to help unseat them, using every technique we can.....currency debasement, food aid manipulation, tacit encouragement to strongment (military) that we feel are controllable, etc. etc.

The US was never in favor of one man one vote in South Africa during apartheid and explained this convenient hypocrisy as an unfortunate necessity.

Supporting regime change is entirely, ENTIRELY, different than supporting democracy. The US has a very very very long history of supporting the former and claiming it was the latter when in fact it wasn't. Democracy means letting the chips fall where they may. In countries whose ruling leadership is oppressive to its people and for which we have a long history of support its very unlikely that any democratic election would bring us new friends. It would, in every case, bring to power people who opposed the old government and by association US.

People playing to the stands here in the US are smart enough to know this. But maintaining the correct political position for domestic consumption also trumps doing the right thing in anywhere else.

International politics is a pure expression of national interest. Our national interest is economic outside the US. That part of socialist or marxist theory is spot on.

Insightful, thanks!

'Disaster' is the MO, Rand. Please, get real or get lost.

Senator Rand Paul recently challenged the new Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken on his history of pushing regime change in the Middle East and North Africa

Pointless and hopeless. The only way to end America's endless wars is to deal with the guys in small hats.

Small hats were employed by the English speaking protestants for their ulterior motives, world view, global ambitions which were in alignment with the chosenites.

You can't solve the Jewish problem without solving the problem of western civilization.

The real problems are the 3 letter intelligence agencies, not religion.

Are you naive or misdirecting? Offices are occupied by people.

Deep thinking and reflection...what about our military personnel and contractors...why are we putting them in danger with these interventionist kockamamie screw balls coming up with these strategies...meanwhile innocent civilians keep getting maimed and killed.

We have no business over there, let the countries decide for themselves what they want etc. we need energy idependence...greta can go fly a kite...keep reducing emissions with tech we have.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan

It is very sad that paul's neighbor does not have a more lethal right hook.

Sen. Paul began his argument by questioning Blinken's role in the NATO intervention of Libya in 2001

So...only off by a decade. I think ZeroHedge drops these snafus into the copy just to see if anyone actually reads the stuff.

Its skimming material at best. Reading all the way through went out the window when ZH become a CNN sponsor.

:)

When Ron Paul was calling out Bernanke you would see they were alone in the room.

There is no debate, its all a fraud. Saw the vote on election theft and it was their aides voting for them.

Give me a break, Rand Paul. YOU KNOWINGLY voted for this by not standing for our elected President.

You're a traitor. Shut up and sit down.

PRESIDENT PAUL!

PRESIDENT PAUL!

PRESIDENT PAUL!

War is a business, and "we" are big business. Matter no how many completely innocent people get blown away. What matters are the spoils. We were warned over and over again about the MIC yet here we are.

Profit always wins over peace, no money in it.

Today, wars aren't meant to be won

they're meant to bring chaos

Chaos

Calling Maxwell Smart and agent 99

Where's that shoe phone ?

I guess, good for Rand? Thats about all he can do.

Oh, that Rand Paul. I wondered where he was hiding this whole time peels back Trump's saggy *** cheeks to find the good doctor

Achoo: Hey, Blinkin

Blinkin: Did you say Abe Lincoln?

Achoo: No! I said, HEY, BLINKIN!

If we can't have Giant Meteor maybe a global helter skelter of 'regime change' will be a good consolation prize.

I voted for Giant Meteor, but the Dominion voting machines switched my vote to turd sandwich.

A big upvote for sarcasm (or is it utter stupidity?)

Uh oh!

https://www.livescience.com/13738-trouble-detecting-sarcasm-dementia-sign.html

The Military/Industrial Complex needs endless foreign wars and imaginary enemies so that the money won't be spent at home helping Americans. Such as infrastructure projects. The goal from within is to destroy the American middle class and turn the United States into a third world country. Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump all served the crooks.

Uh then why didn't Trump start wars?

Like father like son ... insight and wisdom

China Joe and the mentally ill Marxist that run his crap show already started a multi Trillion dollar endless war. The War on the weather they call Climate Crisis. It's the one where we loose and wind up praying to find the small potato to make it through the day, and then hope to find a few dry sticks for the fire to cook it. Where you will have to make the small fire at night so that mentally ill #AOC carbon police can't easily see the smoke.

It's taken less than 24 hours, after Biden's inauguration, for ISIS to magically make an appearance again. They're not even pretending anymore.

I think I had heard all I want to hear from Rand Paul after.

Gawdamit Rand, we like you and everything, but the Coup you should be focused on is HERE, even if it means you should spit in your hands, hoist the black flag and start slittin throats.

Sincerely,

The American People

If the US can steal Syria, it means it will be able to build a pipeline, steal Iranian gas and sell it to Europe.
The US needs something to give its financiers and controlling energy supplies to Europe would go a long way to paying off the debt.

vatican's wars

Puritans burred the Vatican so deep underground that if even the nuke detonates there, if won't make a shockwave on the ground

Perfectly fine for anybody in the executive to lie through their teeth.

Say one thing in the hearing and do what they always do once confirmed. Our post Constitutional government needs to fail.

Ran Paul's ability to talk as if they are not simply being outright bribed for their positions is impressive. I suppose the new CCP SoS will take the positions of the CCP, which is the one paying him the most money for those positions.

Just read confessions of an economic hit man, by john perkins, all you need to know. The playbook sounds like what china is doing in the us now, distract the masses with the middle east ****show.

We have had just one president so far this century that has not used American blood and treasure to destroy a nation. He was a rogue billionaire that got taken out by every other billionaire that wanted to stay in the club. The American people are going to have to figure out that they will have better results solving this nations problems at the Bezos, Walton, Zuckerberg and Dorsey homes than they will going to the Capitol in Washington DC.

The Child sacrifice murders committed by these people don't occur in some hidden room at a pizza parlor. They occur on public roads under semitrailers marked Amazon Prime and Walmart that wouldn't be allowed on the roads of nations that we used to call the third world.

I suppose the only big question is, who's child dies tomorrow?

You could look it at that way. I'd say he was a hairs breadth from starting world war III with Iran and China and was removed by a stroke of bad luck from Wuhan and the old establishment asserting their authority through corruption.

Trump might be remembered fondly for actually lowering the number of small conflicts but the U.S war machine is bigger than any one president and his closeness to Israel show what camp he was in. Only God or a few insiders can really judge what his ultimate aim was but he wasn't the man who pulled the first shot of the first world war. Damn well loaded the gun and gave it to the Israelis in my opinion.

During Obama's time in office we had a year in which the United States dropped bombs in more nations than they did in any single year during WW2.

Bezos, Walton's and others spill our blood domestically. Biden will spill our blood overseas to keep some other billionaires happy.

I'll play devils advocate even though I like the guy. His father thought things like that were a good idea as an alternative to imperial invasion.

Based on your comment, I take it you REALLY like Blinken! Yes?

The same thing happened in Egypt when Obama pushed for and got quick elections when the only organization that could field candidates was the Muslim Brotherhood. The result was very predictable.

The Brotherhood took over and the result was so bad that the people finally rebelled against Morsi's government. This lead to Al Sisi who was better than Morsi. I question whether the situation improved by letting the Muslim Brotherhood take control.

People? Thought that was the military?

"regime change doesn't work" "Maybe we shouldn't be 'choosing' governments in the Middle East,".... nor in the USA. Time will tell.

Don't worry Mr. Paul, these white men in the suits are the leaders of the terrorists groups. It's hardcoded in their genes, they don't know any other way of earning a living.

Lessons? I don't need your stinking lessons. I've got friends to pay off.

I like the US policy of Perma War and Regime change. The more troops over there , the less troops over here.

I dont understand the complaints.

You voted for this.

By 'you', do you mean Dominion?

District of Criminals

that's all they are.

I am bailing out forever now.

Just looking at them and their actions is self harm.

District of Criminals

Diablo Corona

Washingtonians are for the most part the spawn of Satan.

DC= the Devil's City... they are evil... Washingtonians are just pure rotten evil...

Washington DC ... Devil's City

Washington DC .... Devil's Crown

The evil ones cannot change their evil ways... they're too far gone... the evil ones cannot be redeemed...

Keep sending your donations to Stop the Steal, Trump has a plan and will be sworn in by April when it warms up. Free Chumptard hat with every $100 donation.

I'd donate a hunny for you to flush your head in a toilet ...............

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Republicans are great actors

This guy speaks truth, but, no one gives a flying fu<k.

Attention Secret Police: We've got one for you!

Whatever these folks say is irrelevant. They are all sitting on foreign soil. The UNITED STATES CORPORATION is a foreign Municipal entity owned by China claimed in the recent bankruptcy settlement. POTUS said when he was leaving. Go ahead, take it. The buildings, the chairs, statues, it's all yours . Anyone who steps outside of that foreign jurisdiction will be entering American soil and subject to the Laws of the United States Constitutional Republic and prosecuted for treason and sedition.

DC is now a Chinese embassy.

I wonder how much food they have stocked up in there? I would presume the military would uphold a blockade and prevent the exchange of trade from occurring into a surrounded hostile territory of the enemy.

YOU WANT IT

YOU GOT IT

HAVE A NICE DAY

Where was Rand in calling out the election fraud?

Now he is acting all tough again on the deep state creatures.

He wants to stay in office. No way is going to touch the third rail. None of them will.

This is part of a Punch and Judy show put on for retards.

And yet not one peep of this Quislings tie's to the Chinese Communist party of Evil !

I'm sure it will be blamed on an action taken by Trump and the only cure will be intervention. Maybe Joetard can set up a new cabinet level position to seek out opportunities for new wars.

The show must go on. As if these asz clowns ( all of them ) matter.

Whatever. Your cushy lifestyle, and mine, exists because we're the dominant imperial power on the planet. Might makes right. Paul knows it too; this is just virtue signaling.

And in your statement lies the real problem with the vast majority of people in this country.

Yeah I edited the lame ad hom line after I read a few comments. But perhaps it is long due that rather than simply accept things as the way they are and calling any opposition to it the thoughts of a ten year old, it might be high time to actually try to make a change in how people think and ultimately behave.

Said like a card-carrying Zio.

[Jan 20, 2021] Biden is an attempt to put the mask back on the monster so that the woke, "resistance" crowd will continue to not care about the unabated slaughter abroad

Jan 20, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

William Gruff , Jan 20 2021 21:14 utc | 77

Too many people letting their wishful thinking override their wisdom, just like when Obama was enthroned. I will admit that I was fooled back in 2008 as well, thinking "This time things are finally different!" , though in my defense I will say that the "Reality Distortion Field" built around BHO by the mass media was far more believable than the one they have scraped together for Biden.

Biden being installed will thus buy the empire a "grace period" in which other countries (EU mostly) will happily buy into America's next war effort. As with the post-Bushlette era decorated with the Obama figurehead, the empire will take advantage of this "grace period" to escalate its violence.

After all, that is why they want someone like Biden in the White House in the first place. If the imperial establishment were at all interested in global de-escalation then they would have gone forward with it when Trump demanded troops out instead of playing shell games to keep the empire's wars on a low boil. Trump's belligerent noise-making made it impossible for the empire to escalate its wars. The empire needs someone who is willing to put a nice "progressive" spin on mass murder in order to get buy-in for a renewed round of slaughter.

The empire will not waste this opportunity. They have been waiting four years for it. There will be more war.

_K_C_ , Jan 20 2021 21:26 utc | 84

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 20 2021 21:14 utc | 77

Agree with most of this as well as your other post earlier in the thread.

Biden is an attempt to put the mask back on the monster so that the woke, "resistance" crowd will continue to not care about the unabated slaughter abroad. I mean, when you really look at it, they (and the corporate mainstream "liberal" media) rarely criticized Trump's foreign policy and often cheered it, albeit without ever openly praising him, per se. We saw the occasional article about the ethnic cleansing in Yemen that Trump greatly aided and abetted, but everyone including the NYT was completely behind his war on Venezuela and attempt to create war with Iran. The media got a bit up in arms when Kashoggi was murdered - because of course he was then a journalist - but even that died down quite quickly while Trump continued feting the Israelis and Saudis.

The coming hot wars will be fought with all of the record breaking arms that Trump sold in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

All of that having been said, I'll repeat a point I've made since we started talking about the election: Trump didn't "start any new wars" because there wasn't much left to do after Obama and Bush set the world on fire and the Iranians (and Venezuelans) showed restraint when attacked - both physically and economically. Trump and his Zionist handlers would have loved it if the USA had ended up in a war with either of those countries and I have no doubt that if he was elected to a 2nd term, we'd have seen one or both transpire. With Biden, same thing as the first thing about Trump - There isn't much left to destroy that the USA could actually get away with and I suspect he will continue the existing wars for however long he (or Kopmala) is in office.

[Jan 20, 2021] The differences between the two monopoly parties in the USA are entirely domestic and are nothing but the size of the crumbs given to the people who think they are free

Jan 20, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

gottlieb , Jan 20 2021 20:09 utc | 59

It's an Empire with a revolving-door Emperor called a President or Prime Minister. The facts are fixed around the policy. We're obviously headed back toward a more 'can't we all get along' empire, after four years of a guy who thought he was an actual emperor, instead of a bobble-head. The differences between the two monopoly parties in the USA are entirely domestic and are nothing but the size of the crumbs given to the people who think they are free.

[Jan 20, 2021] IMO Biden will do as he is told. His white house chief of staff is a powerful and skilled player and is quite experienced in working with Biden. Joe could well be diverted to give solid focus on the home front while the rats he has appointed continue their global piracy and belligerence. I figure that is why they ran the old fool.

Jan 20, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

uncle tungsten , Jan 20 2021 21:39 utc | 93

james #64

bottom line kadath.. the usa will be an ongoing slavish servant to israel.. that much is clear as day... which way it goes - syria or iran - none of the saber rattling will stop.. israel doesn't want it to stop! neither does the american duopoly! the people might, but they don't get a say and generally are not interested in foreign policy..

IMO Biden will do as he is told. His white house chief of staff is a powerful and skilled player and is quite experienced in working with Biden. Joe could well be diverted to give solid focus on the home front while the rats he has appointed continue their global piracy and belligerence. I figure that is why they ran the old fool.

Four days ago Ron Klain released his memo explaining immediate actions.

On January 21, the president-elect will sign a number of executive actions to move aggressively to change the course of the COVID-19 crisis and safely re-open schools and businesses, including by taking action to mitigate spread through expanding testing, protecting workers, and establishing clear public health standards.

On January 22, the president-elect will direct his Cabinet agencies to take immediate action to deliver economic relief to working families bearing the brunt of this crisis.

Between January 25 and February 1, the president-elect will sign additional executive actions, memoranda and Cabinet directives. The president-elect will fulfill his promises to strengthen Buy American provisions so the future of America is made in America. He will take significant early actions to advance equity and support communities of color and other underserved communities. He will take action to begin fulfilling campaign promises related to reforming our criminal justice system. The president-elect will sign additional executive actions to address the climate crisis with the urgency the science demands and ensure that science guides the administration's decision making. President-elect Biden will take first steps to expand access to health care – including for low-income women and women of color. He will fulfill his promises to restore dignity to our immigration system and our border policies, and start the difficult but critical work of reuniting families separated at the border. And, President-elect Biden will demonstrate that America is back and take action to restore America's place in the world.

As noted above, this list is not comprehensive. More items and more details will be forthcoming in the days ahead.

Time will tell how the other appointees in the administration align with Klain and the extent of the savage power struggle that is soon to manifest.

[Jan 20, 2021] Biden Administration's 'New' Foreign Policy Is The 'More Of The Same' Old One

Jan 20, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

vk , Jan 20 2021 14:03 utc | 10

The USA is now the proverbial Whale in a Swimming Pool: it is big, powerful and impressive - but can't hide its moves anymore and has little to none margin for any maneuver.

The American Center-wing is ossifying, or, in Cold Warrior terminology (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.), is losing its "vitality". It is entering a stage where it must "burn the village in order to save it".

---

mrm , Jan 20 2021 14:11 utc | 11

... it seems the answer is that Germany plays the role in Europe that the US plays in the world and both are satisfied with that role even though neo-liberalism, austerity and war-mongering are leading us to inhumanity and disaster.

Lucci , Jan 20 2021 14:18 utc | 13

Like i said before elsewhere Biden would capitalize on what Trump has put forth and take the infamy and blame for instead of moving in the opposite directions of whatever Trump criticized for in foreign policy. That means be it trade war with China, renege on climate deals, strong arming NATO and EU countries, or giving everything Israel wants nothing stop Biden from maintaining what has been put in place.
At most they'll just make excuse on why they had to maintain the policies they themselves criticized Trump for without changing direction.

Norwegian , Jan 20 2021 14:43 utc | 15

There will be absolutely no change in policy towards Israel

That is obviously correct: Joe Biden: "I Am A Zionist. You Don't Have To A Jew To Be A Zionist" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-UXZ-1ups

Zanon , Jan 20 2021 14:44 utc | 16

Extreme leftist madness goes on: Washington Post : Blacklist Fox News 'as We Do with Foreign Terrorist Groups' https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/01/18/wapo-pushes-to-bar-fox-news-as-we-do-with-foreign-terrorist-groups/

Norwegian , Jan 20 2021 14:45 utc | 17

He said Joe Biden's strong conviction was that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a "bad idea" and that the administration would use "every persuasive tool" to convince partners, including Germany, to discard the project.

That is pretty much a declaration of war against countries in Europe. Stay away,

vk , Jan 20 2021 14:50 utc | 18

America's disarray is its own woes, not other countries' opportunity The Financial Times lives in a world where the USA doesn't have more than 2,000 operational nukes, doesn't control the financial system (SWIFT), doesn't issue the universal fiat currency (Dollar Standard), doesn't have a big fucking navy, doesn't enjoy absolute ideological hegemony etc. etc.

Trump's 4-year effort to contain China was unwise, unrealistic: Global Times editorial Well, that's what happens when you hire a right-wing ideologue as your main advisor (Steve Bannon): you do policy based on a delirious utopia and get smacked by reality.

pnyx , Jan 20 2021 15:07 utc | 19

...Tronald's foreign policy has been a disaster, even if he has supposedly not sparked a new war. Let's not talk about all the secret operations, multiplied drone attacks, state terrorist assassinations, etc. And the new administration is now continuing this...

bevin , Jan 20 2021 15:07 utc | 20

"How exactly are they "ossifying"?" [email protected]

They've stopped thinking, become utterly predictable.

They just go through the motions. They know that they can't win-achieve their long held objectives-but they can't stop repeating themselves, including their past errors. They are not allowed to. The US ruling caste-servants of the ruling class- are only allowed to operate within very narrow boundaries. They aren't allowed to take radical measures when faced with new crises- they are confined within ever diminishing political circles. The duopoly has become an obvious One Party system. And its politics are those of the Gilded Age-150 years old and still going strong.

The only solution to America's problems is defeat so complete that it cannot be denied even by the least perceptive. Anyone with money to spare should be buying popcorn futures.

Eighthman , Jan 20 2021 15:08 utc | 21

...Biden is an elderly figurehead. Trump's mistake was being openly bullying and vulgar instead of underhanded. Already, the EU ( as cowardly vassals ) are falling into line on Iran and Russia.

Larry Paul Johnson , Jan 20 2021 15:11 utc | 22

...Paul Craig Roberts is correct. There has not been a regime change, there has been a revolution and treating policies of this "president" as if he is more than a figurehead being run by oligarchs is foolish in the extreme.

Jackrabbit , Jan 20 2021 15:39 utc | 24

bevin @Jan20 15:07 #20

They've stopped thinking, become utterly predictable.

One could say this about the American people who have been herded into two camps so that the Center can rule. Here's an example: One of Biden's first executive actions is to include undocumented residents in the Census. This will please the Left immensely and outrage the Right. But the Census is conducted every 10 years and it was completed in 2020. So Biden's action is actually meaningless. How many people will actual notice this? Very few.

dh , Jan 20 2021 16:04 utc | 25

@24 Some people in Central America have noticed.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/honduran-migrants-us-guatemala-crackdown-1.5877244

William Gruff , Jan 20 2021 16:16 utc | 26

It is funny/sad to see the Post Trump Stress Disorder victims are already rationalizing and making excuses for the war that the establishment drones they voted for will be starting, and those drones are not even sworn in to office yet. They know that they voted for war yet their plastic, Hollywood "identities" are so intertwined with their assumed self-evident moral superiority that they are compelled to defend the evil they are responsible for even before it is committed. For them, doing nothing crudely is far worse than murdering millions accompanied by lofty and emotive platitudes.

AntiSpin , Jan 20 2021 16:49 utc | 27

Joe Biden's Cabinet Is on Loan From Corporate America An interview with David Dayen 12/8/20 https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/david-dayen-american-prospect-joe-biden-cabinet

Beware of the Hawk: What to Expect from the Biden Administration on Foreign Policy
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2020/11/08/beware-of-the-hawk-what-to-expect-from-the-biden-administration-on-foreign-policy/

Biden Administration Betrayals of Working Americans
By Leonard C. Goodman
https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/democrats-and-ruling-by-fear/Content?oid=85065430 -

Why They're Denying You Healthcare And Financial Support During A Pandemic
by Caitlin Johnstone
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/12/20/why-theyre-denying-you-healthcare-and-financial-support-during-a-pandemic/

Biden Goes To Bat For BlackRock, Stays Vague On Direct Aid To Struggling Americans
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/biden-goes-to-bat-for-blackrock-stays

Biden and the Democrats Could Change Everything. But They Won't Try
by Ted Rall | January 7, 2021
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ted-rall/94642/biden-and-the-democrats-could-change-everything-but-they-won-t-try

The Biden Democrats Already Show They Learned Little from Trump's Loss
by Richard Wolff | December 24, 2020
https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/biden-democrats/

Biden's Foreign Policy History and What it Portends for his Presidency
By Jeremy Kuzmarov January 11, 2021
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/01/11/exclusive-series-bidens-foreign-policy-history-and-what-it-portends-for-his-presidency/

Biden's Transition Team is Filled With War Profiteers, Beltway Chickenhawks, and Corporate Consultants
by Kevin Gosztola 11/14/20
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/11/14/bidens-transition-team-war-profiteers-chickenhawks-corporate-consultants/

Biden's Pentagon Transition Team Members Funded by the Arms Industry
by Dave DeCamp – 11/11/2020
https://news.antiwar.com/2020/11/11/bidens-pentagon-transition-team-members-funded-by-the-arms-industry/

Biden's Victory Does Not Guarantee a Progressive Agenda. We Must Fight for It.
by Marjorie Cohn 11-23-20
https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-victory-does-not-guarantee-a-progressive-agenda-we-must-fight-for-it/

Meet the Filthy Rich War Hawks That Make up Biden's New Foreign Policy Team
"I expect the prevailing direction of U.S. foreign policy over these last decades to continue: more lawless bombing and killing multiple countries under the cover of "limited engagement," – Biden Biographer Branko Marcetic
by Alan Macleod November 13th, 2020
https://www.mintpressnews.com/filthy-rich-war-hawks-make-joe-biden-foreign-policy-team/273039/

More Humane Cages? Prospects for Immigration Justice Under Biden Appear Dim
by Adrienne Pine | November 18, 2020
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/adrienne-pine/93930/more-humane-cages-prospects-for-immigration-justice-under-biden-appear-dim

Neera Tanden – Reduce US Deficits by Raiding the Economies of Countries We Have Destroyed:
Neera Tanden, Biden's Pick for Budget Office: Now Is Not the Time To 'Worry About Raising Deficits and Debt'
by Robby Soave
https://reason.com/2020/11/30/neera-tanden-biden-omb-debt-deficit/
She once suggested that if Americans care about the deficit so much, maybe we should make Libya pay for it.
| 11/30/2020
( Ariana Ruiz/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom )

Neera Tanden and Antony Blinken Personify the 'Moderate' Rot at the Top of the Democratic Party
by Norman Solomon 12/29/20
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/norman-solomon/94514/neera-tanden-and-antony-blinken-personify-the-moderate-rot-at-the-top-of-the-democratic-party

Obama & the Democrats Sending Mixed Messages about the Catfood Commission
By Carl Bloice 10-14-12
https://www.laprogressive.com/catfood-commission/

Progressives Made Trump's Defeat Possible -- Now It's Time to Challenge Biden and Other Corporate Democrats
by Norman Soloman 11/7/20
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/norman-solomon/93753/progressives-made-trumps-defeat-possible-now-its-time-to-challenge-biden-and-other-corporate-democra

Someone Should Ask Ursula Burns If She Supports Child Labor in Africa
by Thomas Neuburger | 12/30/20
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/thomas-neuburger/94527/someone-should-ask-ursula-burns-if-she-supports-child-labor-in-africa

The Dark Past of Biden's Nominee for National Intelligence Director
by John Kiriakou 12/31/20
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/12/29/john-kiriakou-the-dark-past-of-bidens-nominee-for-national-intelligence-director/

The REAL Joe Biden
"The Chinese Uyghur Dark Legend and Washington's Campaign to Counter Chinese Economic Rivalry"
by Stephen Gowans 10/25/20
https://gowans.blog/2020/10/25/the-chinese-uyghur-dark-legend-and-washingtons-campaign-to-counter-chinese-economic-rivalry/

Top 10 Reasons to Reject Blinken
by David Swanson
https://davidswanson.org/top-10-reasons-to-reject-blinken/

Who Is Michèle Flournoy, Biden's Rumored Pick for Pentagon Chief
by Thomas Neuberger 11/11/20
https://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2020/11/who-is-michele-flournoy-bidens-rumored.html

Why Biden Will Keep the U.S.-Imposed Cold War Rolling
by Vijay Prashad| 11/19/20
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/vijay-prashad/93949/why-biden-will-keep-the-u-s-imposed-cold-war-rolling

Why Progressives Should Care About Biden's Pick for Commerce Secretary
by Zena Wolf 1/7/21
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/zena-wolf/94644/why-progressives-should-care-about-bidens-pick-for-commerce-secretary

Why Senators Must Reject Avril Haines for Intelligence
by Medea Benjamin | 12/30/20
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/medea-benjamin/94528/why-senators-must-reject-avril-haines-for-intelligence

Will the Senate Confirm Coup Plotter Victoria Nuland?
by Medea Benjamin 1/15/21
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/medea-benjamin/94817/will-the-senate-confirm-coup-plotter-victoria-nuland

No, Joe, Don't Roll out the Red Carpet for Torture Enablers
by Medea Benjamin and Marcy Winograd 12/22/20
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/medea-benjamin/94425/no-joe-don-t-roll-out-the-red-carpet-for-torture-enablers#comment

Norwegian , Jan 20 2021 16:55 utc | 28

'This Is What 80 Million Votes Looks Like': Biden Inauguration EMPTY (PICS)

Down South , Jan 20 2021 17:05 utc | 29

Zanon @ 16

I'm not surprised. You only have to watch this segment from Tucker Carlson to understand why. https://youtu.be/M0l7xH5zbIg

Paul , Jan 20 2021 17:06 utc | 30

Trump ripped the mask off US foreign policy and exposed it for what it is - ugly Zionism and outrageous Jewish supremacy. Trump did many foreign policy changes previous incumbents and their handlers wanted to do but were constrained by the optics and international opinion.

I agree the Biden administration will continue the same tired old foreign policy, only with the mask back on. Of course the media won't notice the similarities, but the public will. No matter how fervently the managers tinker with the edges it is events that drive changes and change people.

lex talionis , Jan 20 2021 17:08 utc | 31

Blue is the new red! All hail the Bidet administration! Dermocracy (депмократия) dies in the dark!

juliania , Jan 20 2021 17:32 utc | 32

I just listened to President Biden's speech. It was a good one, even a great one. Thinking about what Plato means by the 'noble lie' it was a noble speech, and there wasn't much of a lie about it.

I just wish he were a younger man.

psychohistorian , Jan 20 2021 17:33 utc | 33

b finished the posting with
"
While Trump had continued the wars the U.S. waged when he came into office he did not start any new ones. Since Joe Biden first entered the Senate 47 years ago he has cheered on every war the U.S. has since waged. It would be astonishing to find four years from now that he did not start any new ones.
"

Prepare to be astonished. Biden isn't going to start any new wars for the same reason that Trump didn't......MAD

Humanity has been in the MAD phase of the civilization war we are in since the Obama era push back in Syria.

Biden's chest beating will not be as "impressive" as Trump's but the trajectory is the same.

karlof1 , Jan 20 2021 17:34 utc | 34

The new chief says to tighten the circle of wagons, but those accused of besieging the Outlaw US Empire's wagon train stopped attacking and moved on long ago. Meanwhile, supplying the wagon train continues to take resources away from dealing with very real domestic problems. The upshot is China will continue to pull away and increase its lead geoeconomically, and together with Russia will continue to solidify and strengthen the Eurasian Bloc. Very soon, the EU is going to be faced with a very stark choice--to join the Eurasian Bloc and thus stave-off economic atrophy or continue to allow its brand of Neoliberal Parasites to eat and risk rupture, perhaps not in 2021 but before 2030.

The key is that the false narrative that was initiated in 1945 and bolstered in 1979 continues to be treated as gospel despite its path to certain ruin. I noted there were no questions asked about the international call for a Bretton Woods 2.0 that would end dollar hegemony and Petrodollar recycling, while removing the one source of coercion behind its illegal sanctions.

The only possible target of opportunity I see is Venezuela as the frack-patch is about to fold-up shop and fuel prices cause domestic inflation to soar -- Here in Oregon, gas prices have gone up 50cents/gal since the first of the year--25%. The oil being the obvious target now the the lower-48 has definitely peaked.

Lucci , Jan 20 2021 17:38 utc | 35

@Jackrabit 24

|One could say this about the American people who have been herded into two camps so that the Center can rule.|

There's no center or centrist in USA there's only elite capitalist oligarchs who is neocons through and through at the core.

james , Jan 20 2021 17:40 utc | 36

@ 32 juliania... you are the eternal optimist! there is something admirable about that!.. however you have to contend with a lot of cynical people who think like it's business as well, as b's post notes..... you might not like to hear this, but nothing is going to change under biden... big wheels set in motion and biden is not interested in the least in changing any of it... neither was trump as some of his fanbots are coming to see too... political speeches are just so much b.s... juliania - as the saying goes, talk is cheap, it is actions that count.... watch peoples actions, not their talk... biden can talk a good line, but that has nothing to do with his actions... top of the day to you!

dh , Jan 20 2021 17:42 utc | 37

@34 Invading Venezuela and 'taking the oil' won't be easy though there is a possibility Colombia will help out. Which means the total disruption of South America. More economical to just buy the stuff.

Per/Norway , Jan 20 2021 18:00 utc | 38

"It is funny/sad to see the Post Trump Stress Disorder victims are already rationalizing and making excuses for the war that the establishment drones they voted for will be starting, and those drones are not even sworn in to office yet. They know that they voted for war yet their plastic, Hollywood "identities" are so intertwined with their assumed self-evident moral superiority that they are compelled to defend the evil they are responsible for even before it is committed. For them, doing nothing crudely is far worse than murdering millions accompanied by lofty and emotive platitudes."

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 20 2021 16:16 utc | 26

Tnx for expressing this in a much nicer and polite way then i would have written. And yes, yes it is sad/amusing to watch NPC`s turn into pretzels to explain away their cognitive dissonans ,utter foolishness and stupidity.

dh , Jan 20 2021 18:03 utc | 39

@37 On the subject of gas prices perhaps it might be a bad time to cut off Canadian supply?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/keystone-xl-may-sold-scrap-203840567.html

[Jan 20, 2021] Biden will technically be President , so it's time to ask ourselves what kind of world are we in for?

Highly recommended!

Notable quotes:

"... If not for the "new normal" we 100% would guarantee a new war – or a restarted old war – within a year. As it stands, we're only 60% sure they'll be some kind of military intervention sometime soon (Venezuela wouldn't be a surprise). ..."

"... The real crackdowns are going to be domestic. There is a huge push to take "domestic terrorism" seriously , and that will go hand-in-hand with increased purges of social media (again with "Russian disinformation" playing a major role). ..."

"... I wonder if the military occupation was designed to disguise the total lack of support, given the evidence of election fraud. You couldn't get more emptiness and virtual absence of reality if the military conducted the installation in a bunker in the dying days of the Reich. ..."

"... Another poster said it looked like a junta in a minor banana dictatorship. Spot on. It was a military installation visually and in a political sense for there were no people. ..."

Jan 20, 2021 | off-guardian.org

This particular inauguration is going to look a lot different from all the others – the twin bogus narratives of coronavirus and the "attempted coup" on January 6th have forced, FORCED, capitol city into an almost Martial Law-like standing.

A heavy troop presence as your leader is sworn in is one of the hallmarks of legitimacy, you understand. And not even slightly a sign of power being seized illegitimately.

That said, Biden will technically be "President", so it's time to ask ourselves – what kind of world are we in for?

For one thing, it's possible they are preparing to sideline the covid "pandemic" narrative , as the mayor of Chicago and governor of New York have both said that lockdowns need to end, and a report has been published saying lockdowns don't work.

Internationally it's likely to be business as usual. If you look at his cabinet choices, from Victoria Nuland to Samantha power , we have a LOT of warmongers who bleat about America's "responsibility to protect". While politicians and pundits are already rebuking Trump & Johnson for failing in US/UK's "moral leadership" of the world, or praising Biden for his plans to "counter Russian disinformation".

If not for the "new normal" we 100% would guarantee a new war – or a restarted old war – within a year. As it stands, we're only 60% sure they'll be some kind of military intervention sometime soon (Venezuela wouldn't be a surprise).

The real crackdowns are going to be domestic. There is a huge push to take "domestic terrorism" seriously , and that will go hand-in-hand with increased purges of social media (again with "Russian disinformation" playing a major role).

The big question is whether the inauguration will go off smoothly, or they'll try another manufactured incident to sell that agenda.

How do you think President Creepy Uncle Joe is going to shape our world? How long before, for whatever reason, Kamala Harris replaces him? Will the pandemic be "solved"? Will we have a new war? Discuss below.

Jan 21, 2021 2:24 AM

Washington DC was empty except for the troops. Windblown streets. Jason Goodman did his walkabout could not even get a distant view of the Capitol. It's as if no one voted for Biden: no supporters even tried to attend the inauguration. You would have expected someone a few diehards who hadn't heard about the military occupation.

I wonder if the military occupation was designed to disguise the total lack of support, given the evidence of election fraud. You couldn't get more emptiness and virtual absence of reality if the military conducted the installation in a bunker in the dying days of the Reich.

Another poster said it looked like a junta in a minor banana dictatorship. Spot on. It was a military installation visually and in a political sense for there were no people.

An inauguration of the leader of a nation cannot be legitimate if the people play no part .

Celebrities cheered with exaggerated leering grins and lockjaw, tongues lolling in a vain caricature of support from the class of paid actors.

The term 'State Actor' has a new meaning today. The Corporatist Media could not recognise its own banality. This was like the USSR Actors' Union huddling and fawning around Secretary General Brezhnev as the Soviet Union teetered to collapse.

Social cretinism is the best one can say about this sorry debacle but I fear it is something much, much worse.

Crowdsource the Truth 2

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jowNNrASaFQ?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent 1 0

Disillusioned Peasant , Jan 21, 2021 2:38 AM Reply to theobalt

Agreed, Trump was used as a puppet to shame anybody who questions the narrative or resists the deep state. He was asked to be a cartoon, a ridiculous exaggeration of a "traditionalist" or "nationalist" to forever tarnish that stance. He was basically the Alex Jones president .the ultimate controlled opposition. A clown.

I'm so embarrassed I fell for it in 2016. Of COURSE he was phony. Jan 21, 2021 1:39 AM

The snake as a new head. It's still the same snake. It still crawls on it's belly and it still spits the same lies on behalf of the masters who stand behind the curtain. We could still hear Bush Sr when Clinton spoke ; We could still hear Bush Jr when Obama spoke. Red and Blue are the same colour.

It was refreshing in parts to have an American president who didn't try to contrive a narrative that would justify invading another country or contrive yet another cell of 'radicalised' terrorists. No explosions on home soil intended to be taken as an attack from foreign soil. Nothing in four years.

It was all the more surprising as many believed that Trump was and is a great real estate dealer and TV celebrity who has manufactured his charisma from arrogance and ignorance. He has never been celebrated for much beyond his business acumen in the real estate area and TV. This wasn't exactly an erudite man. Former presidents of different ages were and were capable of putting it on paper in their memoirs. Trump was the sign of the times ; a Twitter president. His reign was punctuated by the occasional flexing of Uncle Sam's muscles with threats and a go -ahead-punk-make-our-day approach to public speaking. Yet still no threats of war. This was an odd four years. That odd = peace says more about the US than Trump though. So, what was his role ?

In 2001 we had the Twin Towers. The most dramatic mass murder and the destruction of the laws of Physics and Logic all in one day. Soon after we had the destruction of personal freedom and the creation of domestic terror. It had been suggested by Philip Zelikow three years earlier that a 'searing event such as a terror attack' would be a useful and effective tool in transforming the future by breaking away from the past in no uncertain terms. It would be the event that nobody dare question, and that would be perfect for creating a real fear within the people of the west that such a disaster could occur any time without warning. All they needed was the right salesman to address us.

And so the Patriot Act was born. The surveillance of everyone in their streets, in other towns and their homes was pushed through as a public health measure and a matter of national security. If you protested you were a ' 9 /11 denier' and 'unpatriotic'. If we went too long without evidence of this terror then somewhere would be bombed and the bomber would be 'neutralised' before we would ever learn who was behind it. It took time to become a 'new normal' but it became the 'new normal'. Complain- you were a 'dangerous' conspiracy theorist; in some states it was considered grounds to label you under the mental health act. Just for asking questions. This was how to protect democracy- by tyranny.

So, two decades on we were ready and primed.

Gates and his cohort billionaire 'philanderers' had been beavering away for decades creating more subtle forms of terror. No bangs; no smoke; no mess. These 'missiles' were microbes and the control groups had been observed closely. From mice, to bats to black people to gay people. Once the results /data became big enough numbers, the bomb factory went to work behind the closed doors of 'Cancer Research ' facilities.

We all know now about the hypothetical exercises 'imagined' by the Gates 'Good Club' ; nightmares of being unprepared etc. They penned in 2030 as target date for the endgame. . A date that will have seen the human race enslaved or culled by their terrorism.

Liability would have been taken off the table, giving them free reign. All involved sank their pennies into the manufacturing of these little bombs. And all Academic Institutions, MSM platforms, and pharmaceutical industries were funded by Gates and Co. Then Monsanto and it's subsidiaries were purchased the same way, and the same immunity from prosecution granted from the damaging synthetic /poison crops and food.

So, 2020, was Trump's last stand. He had his '9 /11'. He had domestic bio terrorists. Then the rest of the world had it. We had the same threats to national security and the same 'need' for a new version of a Dystopian Patriot Act.

This wasn't about ISIS or Al -Qaeda and their radicalised lunatics. Trump had found a new group of Bogeymen. China. He would have sounded a bit paranoid if Russia was blamed for something again. Besides, everyone knows that all SARS- type or flu-like viruses are made in China quicker and cheaper. And the US should know that by looking in their many, many stockpiles in their own Biological War labs they pretend are trying to cure cancer.

Trump decided to refer to the Covid 19 virus as 'The Chinese disease '. Fang Ling Fauci had told him to on behalf of Wong Sing Gates.

He went on to call himself a 'war time president' ( there you go- he got one).

He invoked the Defence Production Act, an old Cold War law which allows the Executive Branch to control and redirect the production and distribution of scarce materials deemed "essential to the national defense. " In an executive order dated March 18th, 2020.

To add another layer to the movie the troops were brought in and all medics were now 'heroes on the front line'.

The script went global. It began in the country that Gates had composed such a hypothetical scenario- America. Hence the 'Chinese Disease'. It was the new war on terror minus the James Bond bad guy Bin Laden.

So Trump ushered it in right on time. It didn't win the election( we were told). Instead, it won it for Obama's man, Biden.

Biden and Obama were the most vehement advocates of Monsanto, Sterilisation, and Social Technology ( eugenics ; social cleansing). Obama was made a very wealthy man for his services to the Gates agenda, pharma and GM / Frankenfood. He was surprisingly racist as well as elitist. Tom Vilsack was their frontman. Biden has already called him out of retirement.

So, given the 'war-on-(bio)-terror ' that was born in the USA and sold worldwide, there was no place for Trump. His job was to let the the 'enemy' in, warn us of the possible 'war ahead' and leave it to Gates. But Trump seemed to have spotted that and didn't seem too keen on the narrative. So, come on down Barack O Biden. The timing's right.. Jan 20, 2021 11:40 PM Reply to Ben

Do not be bamboozled, in SHAM DEMOCRACY USA there is only one party, THE REPUBLICRATS (the WAR RACKETEER CORPORATE FASCIST political racket so corrupt it needs two aliases).

"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

~ Frederick Douglas, 1857

Schmitz Katze , Jan 20, 2021 10:44 PM

„That said, Biden will technically be "President", so it's time to ask ourselves – what kind of world are we in for? –
The real crackdowns are going to be domestic.-
Will the pandemic be "solved"? „

It will only be solved when people have had enough of it. The deep state got rid of Trump (for the timebeing-) under the guise of a pandemic. For them and their minions in MSM, government and academia it´s a gift that keeps on giving, with never ending corona mutation fearporn.
It´s totalitarianism, it´s dystopia under under the guise of – domestic-safety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4hBCBdutUE

[Jan 20, 2021] Why Doesn't the Republican Establishment Understand the Meaning of Betrayal by Larry Johnson

Jan 20, 2021 | turcopolier.typepad.com

The plan now, on the part of the Swamp, is to declare every Trump supporter a terrorist and an insurrectionist.

But we did not tear down statues of American heroes.

Antifa and BLM did that. We did not attack the police and call for them to be defunded or fried like bacon. Antifa and BLM did that.

We did not burn and loot the business centers of dozens of America's major cities. Antifa and BLM did that.

And what have Republican leaders done? They condemn you, anyone who dares to continue to express support for Donald Trump, as a domestic terrorist. And when there was ample cause to call out the real terrorists–Antifa and BLM–many of the Republican leaders cowered and kept silent.

[Jan 20, 2021] :ole Trotskyites and Bolsheviks neoliberals care only about one thing: disempowering and crushing anyone who dissents from and threatens their hegemony

Jan 20, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

James Cook , Jan 20 2021 1:21 utc | 71

"Neoliberalism and imperialism do not care about the pseudo-fights between the two parties or the cable TV bickering of the day. They do not like the far left or the far right. They do not like extremism of any kind. They do not support Communism and they do not support neo-Nazism or some fascist revolution. They care only about one thing: disempowering and crushing anyone who dissents from and threatens their hegemony. They care about stopping dissidents. All the weapons they build and institutions they assemble -- the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, the NSA, oligarchical power -- exist for that sole and exclusive purpose, to fortify their power by rewarding those who accede to their pieties and crushing those who do not."

YUP Glenn Greenwald explains and sums up the future - it is really pretty simple.
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56212.htm

michaelj72 , Jan 20 2021 0:42 utc | 60

the democrats are led by a bunch of international sociopaths, pariahs, billionaire psychopaths, paranoid schizos, think tank imbeciles, and endless-war mongers - all of this fully enabled by a sycophantic a**-kissing and biased press which also has lost its common sense and collective mind. very sad!!!

I particularly like glenn Greenwald's take on some of this insanity...

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1351337763463958536

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
Remember when Mueller spent 18 months and millions of dollars armed with a team of prosecutors and subpoena power, then closed his investigation after arresting *zero* Americans for conspiring with Russia?

Let's do it again! Anything to distract from how rotted neoliberalism is:

LOL. In that above clip, Hillary Clinton explicitly suggests that Trump was plotting with Putin on the day of the Capitol Riots, as if Putin directed it.

These people are the *last* ones with any moral standing to rant about conspiracy theories & disinformation.

[Jan 19, 2021] The Two Faces of Empire Consortiumnews

Notable quotes:

"... CaitlinJohnstone.com ..."

"... The New York Times ..."

"... This article was re-published with permission. ..."

"... The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News. ..."

Jan 19, 2021 | consortiumnews.com

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

T he Biden/Harris inauguration event is going to be a star-studded celebration spanning an unprecedented five days, a giddy orgy of excitement at a murderous oligarchic empire having a new face behind the front desk after promising wealthy donors that nothing will fundamentally change .

This comes at a time when Americans are now reporting that they trust corporations more than they trust their own government or media, when pundits are gleefully proclaiming in The New York Times that "CEOs have become the fourth branch of government" as they pressure the entire political system to smoothly install Biden, when the leading contender for the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division is an Obama holdover who went from the administration to working for both Amazon and Google, and when Americans are being paced into accepting an increasing amount of authoritarian changes for their own good.

And this manic celebration and increasing brazenness of corporate power are of course overlaid atop an unceasing river of human blood as the globe-spanning empire continues to smash any nation which disobeys it into compliance so as to ensure lasting uncontested planetary hegemony.

But hey, at least they voted out fascism.

... ... ...

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium . Her work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook , following her antics on Twitter , checking out her podcast on either Youtube , soundcloud , Apple podcasts or Spotify , following her on Steemit , throwing some money into her tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of her sweet merchandise , buying her books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers .

This article was re-published with permission.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

DH Fabian , January 18, 2021 at 12:03

Yes, nervous middle classers pray Joe Biden will be their salvation. The rest of us know why "business as usual" will continue. The only real difference between Biden and Trump is that Biden is more likely to start a catastrophic war (as his record clearly indicates).

Jeff Harrison , January 17, 2021 at 23:17

Good points. Since Americans don't see any consequence to their government's outrageous behavior, everything's outstanding (there are real benefits to those two oceans)! And it will remain outstanding until someone shoves our bad behavior in our faces (which could really happen. The Russians and Chinese are arming themselves to defend themselves from the US. That's a lot cheaper than having to support a major offensive capability) or our brokeness blows our economy to hell. You might want to read up on what happened to Sparta ..

[Jan 19, 2021] Neoliberal Democrats are part of the problem not the part of the solution

Jan 19, 2021 | twitter.com

No, I am not excited for the inauguration of a man who: Wrote the crime and bankruptcy bills, voted for the Iraq War, took more money from Wall Street than Trump, and told a room of rich donors that "nothing will fundamentally change." Democrats are part of the problem too.

[Jan 19, 2021] Biden's Nominee for CIA Director by John Kiriakou

Jan 19, 2021 | consortiumnews.com

January 11, 2021 Save

If there must be a CIA, I feel better with Bill Burns being in charge of it.

William Burns in 2014 as U.S. deputy secretary of state. (State Department)

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

P resident-elect Joe Biden has finally named a new CIA director, one of the final senior-level appointees for his new administration. Much to the surprise of many of us who follow these things, he named senior diplomat Williams Burns to the position. Burns is one of the most highly-respected senior U.S. diplomats of the past three decades. He has ably served presidents of both parties and is known as both a reformer and as a supporter of human rights.

Burns is currently the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an important Washington-based international affairs think tank. He served as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama and was ambassador to Russia under President George W. Bush and ambassador to Jordan under President Bill Clinton. He was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the Iran Nuclear Deal and spent much of his career focused on the Middle East Peace Process. Burns joined the Foreign Service in 1982.

Please Contribute to Consortium
News ' Winter Fund Drive

When he made the announcement of Burns' appointment, Biden said,

"Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the word stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure. He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect. The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA Director."

The message from Biden is clear: The CIA will not be led by a political hack like Mike Pompeo, a CIA insider like John Brennan, or someone associated with the CIA's crimes of torture, secret prisons, or international renditions like Gina Haspel. Instead, the organization will be led by someone with experience engaging across a negotiating table with America's enemies, someone experienced in solving problems, rather than creating new ones, someone who has dedicated much of his career to promoting peace, rather than to creating war.

Rank & File Response

The question, though, is what will be the response from the CIA's rank-and-file to Burns' appointment? I can tell you from my 15 years of experience at the CIA that there will be two reactions. At the working level, analysts, operators, and others will continue their same level of work no matter who the director is. Most working level officers don't even care who the director is. It doesn't matter to them. They never encounter the director and policies made at that top level generally don't impact them on a day-to-day basis.

At the senior levels, the leadership levels, CIA officers will be of two minds. Some will welcome Burns and his professionalism. They'll welcome a director who doesn't attract adverse press because of a past history of committing war crimes or crimes against humanity. (Even if they supported those crimes when they were being committed, press attention is always unwelcome.) They'll welcome a director who didn't head secret prisons overseas. They'll welcome a director who wasn't in charge of Guantanamo. They'll welcome a director who wasn't in charge of maintaining a secret "kill list."

Others will resent Burns, though, as they resented an earlier outsider, Admiral Stansfield Turner. Turner had been appointed by President Jimmy Carter to "clean up" the CIA. Turner then fired fully a third of the CIA's operations officers, some just months away from qualifying for retirement. He was universally reviled after that, and he never regained the trust of agency personnel.

That's not Burns' style. He's not a military officer who demands fealty. He's a diplomat, a negotiator. The CIA has to be cleaned up. Its policies have to be reformed. If there must be a CIA, I feel better with Bill Burns being in charge of it. At the very least, we should give him enough time to at least get started.

John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act -- a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.

---

bobLich , January 12, 2021 at 09:29

Some paragraphs found in this article.

hXXps://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/12/brns-j12.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws

As a top-level State Department official through the administrations of Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama, Burns is implicated in virtually every crime of US imperialism over the past three decades, including the war in Iraq, the US-NATO attack on Libya, the military coup that drowned the Egyptian Revolution in blood, and the US intervention in Syria.

After such a career, as the saying goes, Burns knows where all the bodies are buried. Now he is assigned to head an agency that is probably responsible for more killing, torture and mass suffering than any other on the planet: the CIA.

A preview of what to expect from a Burns-led CIA was given during an interview with National Public Radio's Mary Louise Kelly on "US Global Leadership" held June 19, 2019 at the Truman Center for National Policy in Washington, DC. In the extended conversation, Burns defended the US and NATO-led coup in Libya which ended with the grisly murder of Muammar Gaddafi, followed by an ongoing civil war, the torture and killing of refugees and the return of slave-markets.

"It was right to act in Libya in the way that we did," Burns said. While the US government might have "got some assumptions wrong," he expressed no regrets, saying that he still thought Obama's "decision to act was unavoidable."

Anne , January 12, 2021 at 14:15

I would agree with your estimation some one, anyone who can think, believe, say etc that what we did in Iraq, Libya (I don't doubt Serbia), Syria is "rightful" has a heinously distorted mind (pretty much everyone in DC, in the MICIMATT) And Biden has revealed himself – again – as a subject of the corporate-capitalist-imperialist plutocratic ruling elites (and one with his hand forever stuck out)

Mikhail , January 12, 2021 at 22:31

In addition:

see: rt.com/usa/512136-biden-cia-director-william-burns-russia/

Scott Ritter and Melvin Goodman seem to agree with John:

See: rt.com/op-ed/512276-biden-burns-cia-chief/

See: counterpunch.org/2021/01/12/burns-at-the-cia/

[Jan 19, 2021] Galloway- Looking forward to Joe Biden's first 100 days, it's impossible to believe he'll actually be in charge by George Galloway

Jan 19, 2021 | www.rt.com

George Galloway

was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows (including on RT). He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator. Follow him on Twitter @georgegalloway

19 Jan, 2021 18:23 It's hard not to wonder if Joe Biden will even last his first 100 days in office... but those arguing his mind isn't sound enough shouldn't expect a swift exit, because since when was that a disqualifier?

... ... ...

The madness of Donald Trump had nothing on his Republican predecessor and fellow-impeachee Richard Nixon. So disturbing were the last days of Tricky Dicky, it came as a relief to America and the world when he resigned – even though it was famously said his successor Gerald Ford couldn't chew gum and walk in a straight line at the same time. Bovine he may have been, but a mad-cow he wasn't.

The Raging Bull Donald J Trump – grotesque, bizarre, unbelievable – had the misfortune to go quite mad in the age of cable news and social media. His narcissistic predilections always bordered on personality disorder. But his natural braggadocio stormed him to victory in 2016 in a backlash against the super-smooth professorial presidency of Barack Obama, with Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton riding shotgun.

Under Obama, the Clintonite deindustrialisation of America became almost complete . China was presented with America's lunch. And in no less than nine conflicts across the globe Obama was 'nation-building' in other people's countries while his own country was falling apart. But a dark storm was gathering

If only the Democrats had not started out by trying to steal Trump's election in a flurry of pussy-hats and fake Russiagate hoaxes. If only they hadn't striven might and main to railroad the Electoral College into betraying their mandate and – in the case of Nancy Pelosi – make a thinly disguised call for "uprisings throughout the country." If only they hadn't spent countless millions and two whole years of a four year-term with the Mueller Inquiry and the cockamaney theorem that the man who confronted Russia from Ukraine and the Baltics through the wrecked INF and Open Skies treaties to the killing fields of the Levant was, in fact, an agent of Vladimir Putin. If only, if only

ALSO ON RT.COM President Biden now you've got rid of that ghastly Mr Trump, it's time the US and UK rekindled our 'special relationship'

As it happened, the descent into madness of Trump was complete by the end. The coronavirus he derided at first, before predicting it would disappear in the warm weather of spring, before pondering whether bleach up the bahookie might not be an option as a cure. The Tammany Hall skullduggery of election day, practiced over a century in places like New York, rolled out across the country. The political suicide of only half-making a revolution on January 6 dug his own grave. Nobody ever beat a candidate who polled over 75 million votes before. But Sleepy Joe Biden did.

And he did it hardly ever leaving his basement home studio, where he painfully struggled to read an autocue even with an earpiece shrieking the words to him. When he did speak, it was often gibberish that would have made Ronald Reagan blush. He oftentimes plainly didn't know where he was, what office he was running for, which woman was his sister and which was his wife.

When Boris Yeltsin was rattling down, the world endlessly amused itself at the sight of Russia on its back, legs akimbo with thieves picking its pocket. With Joe Biden, though, the political class and its media echo-chamber merely look the other way.

Despite Democratic Party control of all levels of Federal power, it seems unlikely we are about to witness an FDR or a JFK barnstorming 100 days. It seems fair to wonder if Sleepy Joe will even see out a hundred days in office. It is, however, certain that if he is in office he will not be in power. Because power has already passed to the cavernous uncertainty of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

---

Mark Conley 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:44 PM

Thanks for reminding the world that the president of the USA including his puppet elected office bearers has absolutely no power whatsoever. Well said. Thus you have answered your own observation at the end. The future is indeed dark and uncertain with the only certainty that nothing good can be expected from any USA government. Thus the onus is on the peaceful majority to do what is necessary.

Atilla863 42 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:15 PM

One thing is certain in the new leadership - the debt will go on growing, perhaps reaching 40+ T dollars before the next elections. While this trend continues - the Chinese will be laughing all the way running to their banks as their economy records fortune after fortune proportional only inversely to the rate at which America recedes into superpower sunset.

JJ_Rousseau 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:18 PM

I'm surprised at George Galloway's comments, as he is a former MP in British politics. Kamala in charge? Don't make me laugh. The cabal is in charge, as they have been since Woodrow Wilson. Before actually, as Garfield was assassinated for shedding light on the banker machinations. Garfield knew that control of the nation's money was control of the nation. The coup of America is complete. The POTUS is only the spokesman for the cabal, nothing else

5th Eye 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:08 PM

An election stolen is a stolen election.

KarlthePoet 5th Eye 13 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:43 PM

Biden will be much easier to control and manipulate by the Jewish Banking Cartel, which ultimately controls the US government and Wall Street. Trump was too unpredictable and would have made it difficult for them to achieve their historical hope. "The Jews energetically reject the idea of fusion with other nationalities and cling firmly to their historical hope of World Empire." - Dr. Max Mandelstamm ***We should always listen to the doctors.

Skeptic076 5th Eye 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:13 PM

Not stolen.....50 states certified, 60 plus courts found nothing fraudulent, and the electoral votes were confirmed by the House and Senate, with the Senate led by Pence. So, as the world knows and anyone who knows election laws, the election was one of the most legitimate ever held in the US.

KarlthePoet 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:10 PM

The Jewish Banking Cartel is ultimately in control of the US government and Wall Street. They've been in control for decades. Now they've obviously teamed up with the Jewish Big Tech companies like Facebook and Google in order to gain even more control. Controlling the money, money system, and the minds of the masses has been their goal. Two Jewish controlled companies control over $9Trillion of American's wealth. (BlackRock Inc. & Goldman Sachs) They've finally achieved their goal. The cartel is now in control of a country that is completely out of control. Karma!

Daffyduck011 KarlthePoet 38 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:18 PM

Ashkenasty banking cartel.

JJ_Rousseau KarlthePoet 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:29 PM

It's not only the banking cabal, it's the media (which the same gang own, of course). This cannot happen without a complicit media. This is a very old strategy

Blackace180 7 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:49 PM

He'll be impeached multiple times, along with his family. Removed and jailed. People need a reminder of just how messed up Obama/Biden was and it is coming. The caravans are already on the way and gas has jumped 55 cents a gallon since the election, for no reason other than it is Biden. People will run the nutcracker right out of office, hopefully before the country collapses from his nutcracker policies.

White Elk 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:45 PM

The press-elected.

Xilla White Elk 33 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:23 PM

How did the press elect him?

Franc 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:28 PM

Xilla/Herrbifi, you're not welcome here. We all know what your goals are, and we all know you're just here to make a pointless mess.

5th Eye 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:18 PM

An Italian bureaucrat once said, "Everything is changed, so that it remains the same." It will be exactly like that under Biden to legitimate his regime.

The_Chosenites 51 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:06 PM

Since both Trump and Biden are proud zionists, the only thing I am certain of is Israel and the Jewish community have won another election and we'll see many jewish politicians elevated to positions of power in the Biden administration. Biden best do what's best for Israel if he knows whats good for him and his health.

KarlthePoet The_Chosenites 16 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:40 PM

Maybe when Kamala becomes President she can get advice from her Jewish husband, who is a lawyer. What a coincidence.

Enki14 9 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:48 PM

That Henry Kissinger, long time shadow government puppet endorsed demented biden is a clue as to what might happen as they know in 2 years the masses will reinstate conservatives and in 4 years another trumpster. We may see sweeping changes, with some huge blowback.

The_Chosenites Enki14 4 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:53 PM

Kissinger has had a bed in the oval office for many a President, he must have been installed by the Chosennites to stay in office forever. Presidents come and go, but Kissinger remains to pull the strings. Goldman Sach's et al rule the roost.

Daniel Fernald 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:42 PM

Biden's 100 days are interesting. It's exactly 100 days from January 20 to May 1, which is the communist May Day.

Skeptic076 Daniel Fernald 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:44 PM

Used to be the American May Day as well, you know? Interesting if you research why it is not anymore.

Michael Knight 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:46 PM

Impossible to believe he'll be in charge????? That's probably because he won't be!

RCBreakenridge Mike Freeman 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:28 PM

Mike, seriously? What echo chamber are you living in? How can you look at Biden and not understand that he's little more than a life-size cardboard cutout of the man that used to be Obama's puppet? He'll be in office as long as they can continue to stand him up for photo ops and he continues to do exactly what he is told. As soon as either of those conditions falter, Nancy and friends will roll out the 25th amendment, show him the door and lead KH to the presidents chair. But make no mistake, the only choices Sleepy Joe will be making are to do as he is told.

[Jan 19, 2021] President Biden's Corruption Already Pervades His Administration -- Strategic Culture

Notable quotes:

"... "A month after the election, Biden's nominations make clear that the president-elect is most focused on trying to fulfill his ..."

"... to donors that nothing fundamentally changes. And yet, that tacit admission may have stunned those who keep hearing from liberal and progressive groups in Washington that, in fact, the left has been notching monumental victories in Biden's cabinet appointments ..."

"... What little organized left political infrastructure exists in Washington is largely valorizing or publicly defending swamp creatures who at minimum deserve a loyal opposition. The ..."

"... being done by a small handful of under-resourced groups to mount a real opposition is getting trampled by a culture of obsequiousness. This culture of acquiescence gives swamp creatures a free pass ..."

"... Despite Tanden's ..."

"... push for Social Security cuts ..."

"... , Beltway liberal groups whose mission is to defend Social Security ..."

"... . Despite Tanden having her organization ..."

"... rake in cash ..."

"... from Wall Street, Amazon, billionaires and ( ..."

"... ) foreign governments, a Ralph Nader-founded, all-purpose consumer advocacy group ..."

"... CAP as "one of our key partners in the fight to tax corporations and the rich, rein in monopoly power, tackle government corruption, and much more." Despite Tanden ..."

"... a union at CAP, ..."

"... union leaders ..."

"... in Washington lauded her. ..."

"... American Prospect ..."

"... "a President Biden would be in the business of confronting Mr. Putin for his aggressions, not embracing him. Not trashing NATO, but strengthening its deterrence, investing in new capabilities to deal with challenges in cyberspace, in outer space, under the sea, A.I., electronic warfare, and give robust security assistance to countries like Ukraine, Georgia, the Western Balkans ..."

"... "a President Putin would be in the business of confronting Mr. Biden for his aggressions (in Syria, or elsewhere), not embracing them. Not trashing the Warsaw Pact, but strengthening its deterrence, investing in new capabilities to deal with challenges in cyberspace, in outer space, under the sea, A.I., electronic warfare, and give robust security assistance to countries like Canada, Mexico, and other nations that are near the U.S. ..."

"... Washington Post ..."

"... Bernard Schwartz, ..."

"... a former Vice Chairman and top investor in Lockheed Martin ..."

"... (which is by far the largest seller to the U.S. Government, and also the largest seller to most of America's allied Governments), is one of Joe Biden's top donors. CNN headlined, on October 24th, ..."

"... "Biden allies intensify push for super PAC after lackluster fundraising quarter" ..."

"... , and reported that, "Bernard Schwartz, a private investor and donor to the former vice president's campaign, said he spoke with Biden within the last two weeks and encouraged him to do just that." It's not for nothing that throughout Biden's long Senate career, he has voted in favor of every U.S. invasion that has been placed before the U.S. Senate. ..."

Jan 19, 2021 | www.strategic-culture.org

President Biden's Corruption Already Pervades His Administration Eric Zuesse December 8, 2020 © Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

That didn't take long. He's not even in office, and he has already surrounded himself, as the incoming President, with individuals who derive their wealth from (and will be serving) America's top defense contractors and Wall Street. The likelihood that these Government officials will be biting the hands that feed them is approximately zero. Great investigative journalists have already exposed how corrupt they are. For that to be the case so early (even before taking office) is remarkable, and only a summary of those reports will be provided here, with links to them, all of which reports are themselves linking to the incriminating evidence, so that everything can easily be tracked back to the documentation by the reader here, even before there are any 'Special Prosecutors' (as if those were serving anyone other than the opposite Party's political campaigns, and, ultimately, the opposite Party's billionaires).

First up, is the independent investigative team of David Sirota and Andrew Perez. On December 4th, they bannered "The Beltway Left Is Normalizing Corruption And Corporatism" , and reported that "A month after the election, Biden's nominations make clear that the president-elect is most focused on trying to fulfill his promise to donors that nothing fundamentally changes. And yet, that tacit admission may have stunned those who keep hearing from liberal and progressive groups in Washington that, in fact, the left has been notching monumental victories in Biden's cabinet appointments ."

Liberal (that's to say Democratic Party) U.S. media hide the corruptness of Democratic politicians, and conservative (that's to say Republican Party) U.S. media hide the corruptness of Republican politicians; and, so, the public today are getting corrupt leaders whichever side they vote for. No mainstream 'news' media report what independent investigative journalists such as Sirota and Perez report. Authentically good journalists use as sources -- and link to in their articles -- neither Democratic nor Republican allegations, but instead are on the margins, outside of the major media, and so rely on whistleblowers and other trustworthy outsiders, not on people who are somebody's paid PR flacks, individuals who are being paid to deceive. As Sirota and Perez state: " What little organized left political infrastructure exists in Washington is largely valorizing or publicly defending swamp creatures who at minimum deserve a loyal opposition. The good work being done by a small handful of under-resourced groups to mount a real opposition is getting trampled by a culture of obsequiousness. This culture of acquiescence gives swamp creatures a free pass ." It's all some sort of mega-corporate propaganda -- 100% billionaire-supported on the conservative side, 100% billionaire-supported also on the liberal side, and 0% billionaire-supported for anything that is authentically progressive (not dependent, at all, upon the aristocracy).

That independent reporting team focused on Biden's having chosen an economic team which will start his Administration already offering to congressional Republicans an initial Democratic Party negotiating position that accepts Republicans' basic proposals to cut middle class Social Security and health care benefits in order for the Government to be able to continue expanding the military budgets and purchases from the billionaire-controlled firms, such as Northrop Grumman -- firms whose entire sales (or close to it) are to the U.S. Government and to the governments (U.S. 'allies') that constitute these firms' secondary markets. (In other words: those budget-cuts aren't going to be an issue between the two Parties and used by Biden's team as a bargaining chip to moderate the Republicans' position that favors more for 'defense' and less for the poor, but are actually accepted by both Parties, even before the new Administration will take office.) Obviously, anything that both sides to a negotiation accept at the very start of a negotiation will be included in the final product from that negotiation; and this means that during a Biden Presidency there will be reductions in middle-class Social security and health care benefits in order to continue, at the present level -- if not to increase yet further -- Government spending on the products and services of such firms as Lockheed Martin and the Rand Corporation (firms that control their market by controlling their Government, which is their main or entire market).

Sirota and Perez focus especially upon one example: Neera Tanden, whom Biden chose on November 30th to be the White House Budget Director, and who therefore will set the priorities which determine how much federal money the President will be trying to get the Congress to allocate to what recipients:

Despite Tanden's push for Social Security cuts , Beltway liberal groups whose mission is to defend Social Security lauded her think tank . Despite Tanden having her organization rake in cash from Wall Street, Amazon, billionaires and ( previously ) foreign governments, a Ralph Nader-founded, all-purpose consumer advocacy group praised CAP as "one of our key partners in the fight to tax corporations and the rich, rein in monopoly power, tackle government corruption, and much more." Despite Tanden busting a union at CAP, two national union leaders in Washington lauded her.

Next up: One of the rare honest non-profits in the field of journalism is the Project on Government Oversight, POGO, which refuses to accept donations from "anyone who stands to benefit financially from our work," and which states in its unique "Donation Acceptance Policy" that, "POGO reviews all contributions exceeding $100 in order to maintain this standard." In other words: they refuse to be corrupt. Virtually all public-policy or think-tank nonprofits are profoundly corrupt, but POGO is the most determined exception to that general rule.

On 20 November 2020, POGO headlined "Should Michèle Flournoy Be Secretary of Defense?" and their terrific investigative team of Winslow Wheeler and Pierre Sprey delivered a scorching portrayal of Flournoy as irredeemably corrupt -- it ought to be read by everybody. It's essential reading throughout, and its links to the evidence are to the very best sources. So, I won't summarize it, because all Americans need to know what it reports, and to be able to verify, on their own (by clicking onto any link in it that interests them), any allegation that the given reader has any question about. However, I shall point out here the sheer hypocrisy of the following which that article quotes Flournoy as asserting: "It will be imperative for the next secretary to appoint a team of senior officials who meet the following criteria: deep expertise and competence in their areas of responsibility; proven leadership in empowering teams, listening to diverse views, making tough decisions, and delivering results." (Of course, that assertion presumes the given 'expert' to be not only authentically expert but also honest and trustworthy, authentically representing the public's interest and no special interests whatsoever -- not at all corrupt -- which is certainly a false allegation in her own case.) She had urged the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and had participated in planning and overseeing both the war against Syria, and the coup that destroyed Ukraine (and none of those countries had ever invaded, or even threatened to invade, the United States); and, so, for her to brag about her "delivering results" is not merely hypocritical, it is downright evil, because she is obviously proud, there, of her vicious, outright voracious, record.

Her business-partner, Tony Blinken, has already received Biden's approval to become his Secretary of State, and the first really good investigative journalist that American Prospect magazine has had, Jonathan Guyer, headlined on November 23rd, "What You Need to Know About Tony Blinken" , and what Guyer reports is just what any well informed reader would expect to see for a business partner of Flournoy's.

Guyer's report closes by making passing reference to a CBS 'news' puff-piece for Blinken. In that CBS puff-piece , Blinken says, "a President Biden would be in the business of confronting Mr. Putin for his aggressions, not embracing him. Not trashing NATO, but strengthening its deterrence, investing in new capabilities to deal with challenges in cyberspace, in outer space, under the sea, A.I., electronic warfare, and give robust security assistance to countries like Ukraine, Georgia, the Western Balkans ." What would Americans think if Russia were to have retained its Warsaw Pact, and "a President Putin would be in the business of confronting Mr. Biden for his aggressions (in Syria, or elsewhere), not embracing them. Not trashing the Warsaw Pact, but strengthening its deterrence, investing in new capabilities to deal with challenges in cyberspace, in outer space, under the sea, A.I., electronic warfare, and give robust security assistance to countries like Canada, Mexico, and other nations that are near the U.S. "? Guyer pointedly noted that "The [CBS News] podcast was sponsored by a major weapons maker. 'At Lockheed Martin, your mission is ours,' read an announcer." Tony Blinken's mission is theirs. These people get the money both coming and going -- on both sides of the "revolving door." Today's American Government is for sale to the highest bidders, on any policy, domestic or foreign. 'Government service' is just a sabbatical to boost their value to the firms that will be paying them the vast majority of their lifetime 'earnings'. This is the reality that mainstream U.S.-and-allied 'news' media refuse to publish (or, especially , to make clear). Only an electorate which is ignorant of this reality can accept such a government.

Back on 26 January 2020, I had headlined "Joe Biden Is as Corrupt as They Come" and documented the reality of this, but America's mainstream media were hiding that fact so as to decrease the likelihood that the only Democratic Party Presidential candidate whom no billionaire supported , Bernie Sanders, might win the nomination. Perhaps now that it's too late, even those 'news' organizations (such as CNN, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, New York Times , Washington Post , PBS, and NPR) will start reporting the fact of Biden's corruptness. Where billionaires control all of the mainstream media, there is no democracy -- it's not even possible , in such a country

As far back as 25 October 2019, I had headlined "Biden Backer -- Former Lockheed Leader -- Convinces Joe Biden to Sell-Out" , and reported that

Bernard Schwartz, a former Vice Chairman and top investor in Lockheed Martin (which is by far the largest seller to the U.S. Government, and also the largest seller to most of America's allied Governments), is one of Joe Biden's top donors. CNN headlined, on October 24th, "Biden allies intensify push for super PAC after lackluster fundraising quarter" , and reported that, "Bernard Schwartz, a private investor and donor to the former vice president's campaign, said he spoke with Biden within the last two weeks and encouraged him to do just that." It's not for nothing that throughout Biden's long Senate career, he has voted in favor of every U.S. invasion that has been placed before the U.S. Senate.

Near the end of the Democratic Party's primaries, on 16 March 2020, CNBC headlined "Megadonors pull plug on plan for anti-Sanders super PAC as Biden racks up wins" , and reported that Bernard Schwartz had become persuaded by other billionaires that, by this time, "Biden could handle Sanders on his own." They had done their job; they would therefore control the U.S. Government regardless of which Party's nominee would head it.

Biden -- like Trump, and like Obama and Bush and Clinton before him -- doesn't represent the American people. He represents his mega-donors. And he is staffing his Administration accordingly. He repays favors: he delivers the services that they buy from him. This is today's America. And that is the way it functions.

[Jan 17, 2021] 'America is back'- Biden fills State Department slots with more Obama vets, including Ukraine 'coup plotter' Victoria Nuland

Jan 17, 2021 | www.rt.com

'America is back': Biden fills State Department slots with more Obama vets, including Ukraine 'coup plotter' Victoria Nuland 16 Jan, 2021 22:18 Get short URL Victoria Nuland is shown greeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2015. © Reuters / Mikhail Palinchak 9 Follow RT on President-elect Joe Biden is getting the old interventionist-foreign-policy team back together, including Ukraine coup engineer Victoria Nuland, signaling a hardline Russia stance as he fills out top posts in the State Department.

"These leaders are trusted at home and respected around the world, and their nominations signal that America is back and ready to lead the world, not retreat from it," Biden said on Saturday in a statement announcing his picks to fill top positions under his nominee for secretary of state, Anthony Blinken.

ALSO ON RT.COM Biden signals US return to full-on globalism and foreign meddling by picking interventionist Anthony Blinken as secretary of state

Like Blinken, the five latest State Department picks are veterans of the Obama-Biden administration. Nuland , a neoconservative who was named undersecretary for political affairs, goes all the way back to former President Ronald Reagan's administration and was a foreign policy adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Other new re-hires include: Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state, who led the Obama-Biden administration's negotiating team on peace talks with Iran; Brian McKeon, deputy secretary for management and resources, who was a national security adviser to then-Vice President Biden; Bonnie Jenkins, undersecretary for arms control and international security, who previously coordinated nonproliferation programs; and Uzra Zeha, undersecretary for civilian security, who formerly was charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Paris.

READ MORE US foreign aid agencies paid for Kiev street violence - ex-US agent Scott Rickard

After four years of President Donald Trump's 'America First' policy, including efforts to wind down foreign interventions and broker peace deals, Biden's declaration of "America is back" portends a sharp contrast in foreign policy. He said his latest nominees will "use their diplomatic experience and skill to restore America's global and moral leadership."

Nuland, who studied Russian literature at Brown University, wrote last summer in Foreign Affairs of how "a confident America should deal with Russia " with a more "activist" policy, including "speaking directly to the Russian people about the benefits of working together and the price they have paid for (President Vladimir) Putin's hard turn away from liberalism." She added, "Washington and its allies have forgotten the statecraft that won the Cold War and continued to yield results for many years after."

Nuland perhaps was using such "statecraft" when, as assistant secretary of state in December 2013, she handed out cookies to protesters at Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti square who were demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovich. An audiotape leaked in February 2014 showed that her involvement in the uprising went well beyond cookies, as she spoke with US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt about plotting to replace Yanukovich with Washington's chosen opposition leader, Arseny Yatseniuk, and about involving the UN to "f**k the EU" by pushing through a US-preferred Ukraine policy.

ALSO ON RT.COM Nuland's biscuits again: Maidan midwife's plan for US policy on Russia is dumb, delusional and dangerous

Ironically, Nuland's appointment comes just as politicians in Washington fret over this month's storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump protesters, which some called a coup attempt.

"I knew it wasn't a real coup because Victoria Nuland wasn't handing out cookies," Cato Institute senior fellow Doug Bandow said of the Capitol assault. "She'll be back overthrowing governments in the Biden administration, so it remains a valid standard."

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=RT_com&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1348047492227756034&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fusa%2F512763-biden-appoints-nuland-sherman%2F&siteScreenName=RT_com&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

In light of Nuland's hawkish history, 25 anti-war groups have jointly called for the Senate to reject confirmation of her nomination as undersecretary for political affairs.

"Victoria Nuland is returning to the State Department," one commenter wrote on Twitter. "The United States is returning to the former Soviet republics with great strides. A fierce struggle with Russia begins."

[Jan 15, 2021] Trump supporters are pushed into underground

I am strongly against balkanization of the country. The example of the USSR shows where it leads -- misery of common pople and dramatic drop of the standard of living, while new gand of ruthless oligarchs emerge from the ruins.

Jan 15, 2021 | www.rt.com

Pushing the Trump-inspired populist movement underground may only cause it to resort to more drastic measures. As the leftist libertarian reporter Glenn Greenwald observes ,

"these people know they are scorned and looked down upon... and the more you humiliate and make them feel powerless, the more you take away their ability to organize and express that rage, it's gonna find an outlet in more destructive ways."

As a former professor at a top-ranking university, I favored a Trump re-election, not because I support Trump so much as abhor what the opposition represents and is proving itself to be. In response to the social media threat to expression, I have inaugurated a new group on Telegram called 'Thought Criminals'. There, fellow 'thought deviationists' like me are able to express views that are effectively proscribed on mainstream social media platforms. No one among us advocates violence or the overthrow of the government. None of us is 'racist'. We advocate only the rights enshrined in the US Constitution.

But some groups, no doubt, are intent on violence. Yet the violent extremists consist mostly of Antifa and related 'activists', who will unfortunately trick Trump supporters into another error during the inauguration, like some appeared to do when involved in the Capitol siege. It's not as if violent extremists among the Trump base were always there, ready to pounce on any opportunity to express their "racist," "white nationalist" views.

Rather, as the rising party has already demonstrated, these people stand to lose the most under a Biden-Harris regime, whose Big Tech and mainstream media allies act as governmental enforcement apparatuses.

Trump supporters have been hated and demonized simply for wanting to live without being reprimanded and punished for their whiteness, their middle-Americanness, or their values. They face an anti-white, anti-native, anti-middle-America extremism that is set to silence and crush them into submission.

These and others will form a new underground under the prevailing ideological and political hegemony. This banishment of millions, and not Trump, is why the nation will fall apart, if indeed it does.

---

JJ_Rousseau 5 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:58 PM

The best thing that could happen is for USA to "balkanize". For the rest of the world, and for Americans too. The founding fathers intentionally put restraints on the federal government's power to prevent the situation we now face. Both parties (actually the duopoly) are guilty of breaching the constitution, on so many levels we have lost count

Ronj14848 JJ_Rousseau 1 hour ago 15 Jan, 2021 07:23 PM

The USA have more American in uniform outside America than civilian Americans inside America. You bleed yourself dry trying to be the boss of the world.

chert JJ_Rousseau 3 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 04:52 PM

Right, states should have more power than the federal government. Case in point: North Dakota is trying to pass a law to sue Facebook and Twitter for those who have been censored on those platforms. But federal law under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act will supersede because federal law wins.

apothqowejh 4 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 04:17 PM

As an American, I can't say a reckoning hasn't been overdue. The myopia in this country, and the tolerance for evil, was bound to rebound. From a refusal to honestly look at 9/11, a refusal to accept responsibility for Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and a host of other insanely brutal blunders, to an acceptance of such horrors as the USAPatriot Act and the COVID scam, everyday Americans have obliviously sleepwalked into a totalitarian dystopia. Tyranny abroad inevitably leads to tyranny at home, and we have well-earned it by refusing to vote for peace and non-interventionism; for limited government, for responsible spending. Now our votes no longer matter, and we are caught helpless in the whirlwind of our own destruction.

newagerage apothqowejh 4 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 04:33 PM

The CIA, NSA, Pentagon... all these corporations lead to disaster as the employees have to keep causing trouble to justify their jobs and spend, spend like crazy, the Army and intelligence agencies spending the hard worked money from Silicon Valley and other sectors. The country just doesn't make sense, first outsource jobs to China and then when they see that Chinese people are smarter than them outsource those to India? are Indians idiots? I don't think so... both countries will rule the World by the end of the century. And the most important of all... where is your public education system? you can live without a proper health system, China does, but without a decent public education system? most Americans don't know where Portugal or Belgium is placed, no matter black or white...

ceshawn 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:31 PM

Trump didn't do this. The irrational reaction to Trump did this. It started with the now-fully mythological Russia-gate nonsense (that started with an almost ridiculously made up FISA warrant application). Continued through constant over-the-top challenges by Democrats of Trump following Obama-era laws (separation of children and adults for illegal border crossings) and the clear obstruction used by opponents during his entire Presidency. Trump was a disaster, Biden will be a nightmare (or a complete liar), but the left shouldn't be complaining when the reaction to their candidate is equally as disturbing as their reaction to the right (and yes, the circus that was the "raid" at the Capitol is just as bad as the intel community doing shady things against a sitting President).

Ronj14848 ceshawn 1 hour ago 15 Jan, 2021 07:27 PM

Trump didnt start new wars......but he has created a situation that foriegn wars will spring from his actions. He has created hate for a country that during the second world war was a much loved country.

billy brown ceshawn 4 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 03:36 PM

What could the 'rioters' do? We aren't going to let them poison us anymore. This election will not be stolen and the new patriot act isn't going to get passed quietly. They are going to have to crush us or allow a partition of the country

ceshawn 5 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:36 PM

If I were Russia or China, I would be watching carefully. Biden almost HAS to go after Russia over the Crimean disaster of Obama and China will be his easy-out enemy if things are complicated otherwise. North Korea will somehow become a big deal again as well. Let those missiles fly, because the incoming administration has a proven track record of blowing up innocent women and children for "funsies" (drone strikes on "suspected" terrorists...oh and their families) without any form of due process or care for the safety of collateral damage.

Ronj14848 ceshawn 58 minutes ago 15 Jan, 2021 07:36 PM

True...the media support the military industrial complex. Their friends own the miltary industrial complex . See who they support politically and avoid them like the plague.

Ronnie Spelbos ceshawn 2 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 06:04 PM

if I was Russia or an Eastern European nation I would offer asylum to white heterosexual men and their families who want to leave the US. Take advantage of the brain capital and work ethic of this group. The US is no country for white men.

Ohhho 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 01:41 PM

The Evil empire felt vulnerable so it lashed out with vengeance! None if it helps to fix the issues behind the problem so I expect to see more of it in the near future!

TheFishh Ohhho 5 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 03:32 PM

There are literally just a few things the US can do to rebound as a decent country, but the establishment doesn't want to make those moves. They rather see everything collapse than see their wealth and power decreased by any amount.

OneHorseGuy 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:17 PM

"79% of Americans think the US is falling apart" those not accounted for are possibly homeless or illiterate and don't have the opportunity of putting their view forward.

Ronnie Spelbos OneHorseGuy 2 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 06:02 PM

102% think the US is falling apart - cites Dominion.

newswithoutbord OneHorseGuy 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:31 PM

Spot on, mate!

RTaccount 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:22 PM

There will be no peace, no unity, and no prosperity. And there shouldn't be.

TheFishh RTaccount 4 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 03:38 PM

The US regimes past and present have worn out their bag of tricks. A magician is a con-man. And the only way they can entertain and spellbind the crowd with their routines is if everyone just ignores the sleight of hand. But people are starting to call the US out for the tricks it is pulling, and that's where the magician's career ends.

omyomy RTaccount 5 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:54 PM

We the sane people know who is picking a fight. No matter what the propaganda outlets decree.

Tor Gjesdal 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:18 PM

79%,sure? OK. Very soon 85% of Westerners will understand their Countries are heading for failures. They have been deceived for way too long.

Twenty Tor Gjesdal 5 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 03:23 PM

The alternative to western governments is dictators, one party rule. Yes, most western governmental concepts are idealistic, but we wouldn't trade for anything else because we know better.

JIMI JAMES Tor Gjesdal 6 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 02:31 PM

0 covid cases,i dont think so.

soumalinna1 4 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 03:36 PM

Correct. America will never be the same again. Democrats and CNN destroyed a once great nation.

Ronnie Spelbos soumalinna1 2 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 06:06 PM

The 1965 Immigration Act destroyed the US. A country too diverse with little in common was always bound the fall apart.

Drayk soumalinna1 3 hours ago 15 Jan, 2021 04:42 PM

How did they do that?

[Jan 15, 2021] Replacement of the Bill of Rights, with the Bill of Don'ts

Jan 15, 2021 | www.rt.com

In their efforts to expunge the Trump movement from memory let alone existence, these neo-Stalinists are hellbent on nullifying constitutionally guaranteed rights – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to bear arms are under assault.

In place of the Bill of Rights, they would impose a Bill of Don'ts:

Don't say what we don't want to hear.

Don't gather where we don't allow, especially if you are a 'deplorable'.

Don't bother petitioning for grievances, because we don't care. Don't own weapons and don't defend yourself when you or your property are attacked, even as the police are defunded.

Don't tell us about your right to privacy because our right to surveil you supersedes it.

Don't tell us you have the right to confront the witnesses aligned against you, or see the evidence alleged against you, or to present evidence and witnesses in your own defense. That's your white privilege speaking, and we will not tolerate hate speech.

Don't expect us to be bound by due process or the rule of law. Feelings and desired outcomes trump facts and rules, both of which are tools of oppression, relics of the fascist patriarchy.

Don't object, or we will cancel you entirely from these Disunited States of Woketopia.

And first and foremost, don't dare have the temerity to question election results that have handed us uncontested power.

Only authoritarians sanction this state of affairs. The harm they will do, as they neglect and inflict further pain on the Republic, will be immeasurable. The nation is failing, not merely because it is divided, but because a contingent has rejected its foundational principles. That contingent is now in control.

[Jan 15, 2021] Will the Senate Confirm Coup Plotter Victoria Nuland- -

Notable quotes:

"... By Medea Benjamin. cofounder of ..."

"... CODEPINK for Peace ..."

"... , and author of several books, including ..."

"... Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran ..."

"... . @medeabenjamin; Nicolas J. S. Davies, an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the author of ..."

"... Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq ..."

"... . @NicolasJSDavies; and Marcy Winograd of Progressive Democrats of America served as a 2020 Democratic delegate for Bernie Sanders,and is Coordinator of ..."

"... CODEPINK CONGRESS ..."

"... . @MarcyWinograd ..."

"... Foreign Affairs ..."

Jan 15, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

Will the Senate Confirm Coup Plotter Victoria Nuland? Posted on January 15, 2021 by Yves Smith

Yves here. Biden's nominees have skewed towards the awful, particularly on the foreign policy front. But his plan to install Victoria "Fuck the EU" Nuland at State is a standout. For those of you new to this site and not familiar with Nuland's sorry history, this post gives an overview of her role in fomenting the coup in Ukraine and in putting relations with Russia on a Cold War footing. The authors encourage readers to call their Senators and urge them to vote against her nomination.

And before you get unduly excited by Biden nominating Gary Gensler to the SEC, I would much rather have seem Gensler at Treasury. Gensler demonstrated at the CFTC that he's effective and dedicated to combatting abuses by Big Finance. However, his best shot at making the SEC feared and respected again is to appoint a tough head of enforcement, so keep an eye out for that pick.

The problem that Gensler will have at the SEC is that it is the only Federal financial services industry regulator that is subject to Congressional appropriations, rather that living off its fees and fines (the SEC collects far more than Congress allows it). And Democrats, like Joe Lieberman, then the Senator from Hedgistan, have been if anything more aggressive than Republicans in threatening the SEC and in keeping it budget-starved.

I had said to Lambert that if Biden wanted to be Machiavellian, the way to pretend to reward Elizabeth Warren while actually sandbagging her would be to make her SEC chair. Let's hope that isn't his logic for appointing Gensler.

By Medea Benjamin. cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace , and author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran . @medeabenjamin; Nicolas J. S. Davies, an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK and the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq . @NicolasJSDavies; and Marcy Winograd of Progressive Democrats of America served as a 2020 Democratic delegate for Bernie Sanders,and is Coordinator of CODEPINK CONGRESS . @MarcyWinograd

Photo Credit: thetruthseeker.co.uk Nuland and Pyatt planning regime change in Kiev

Who is Victoria Nuland? Most Americans have never heard of her because the U.S. corporate media's foreign policy coverage is a wasteland. Most Americans have no idea that President-elect Biden's pick for Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs is stuck in the quicksand of 1950s U.S.-Russia Cold War politics and dreams of continued NATO expansion, an arms race on steroids and further encirclement of Russia.

Nor do they know that from 2003-2005, during the hostile U.S. military occupation of Iraq, Nuland was a foreign policy advisor to Dick Cheney, the Darth Vader of the Bush administration.

You can bet, however, that the people of Ukraine have heard of neocon Nuland. Many have even heard the leaked four-minute audio of her saying "Fuck the EU" during a 2014 phone call with the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.

During the infamous call on which Nuland and Pyatt plotted to replace the elected Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, Nuland expressed her not-so-diplomatic disgust with the European Union for grooming former heavyweight boxer and austerity champ Vitali Klitschko instead of U.S. puppet and NATO booklicker Artseniy Yatseniuk to replace Russia-friendly Yanukovych.

The "Fuck the EU" call went viral, as an embarrassed State Department, never denying the call's authenticity, blamed the Russians for tapping the phone, much as the NSA has tapped the phones of European allies.

Despite outrage from German Chancellor Angela Markel, no one fired Nuland, but her potty mouth upstaged the more serious story: the U.S. plot to overthrow Ukraine's elected government and America's responsibility for a civil war that has killed at least 13,000 people and left Ukraine the poorest country in Europe.

In the process, Nuland, her husband Robert Kagan, the co-founder of The Project for a New American Century , and their neocon cronies succeeded in sending U.S.-Russian relations into a dangerous downward spiral from which they have yet to recover.

Nuland accomplished this from a relatively junior position as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. How much more trouble could she stir up as the #3 official at Biden's State Department? We'll find out soon enough, if the Senate confirms her nomination.

Joe Biden should have learned from Obama's mistakes that appointments like this matter. In his first term , Obama allowed his hawkish Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Republican Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and military and CIA leaders held over from the Bush administration to ensure that endless war trumped his message of hope and change.

Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, ended up presiding over indefinite detentions without charges or trials at Guantanamo Bay; an escalation of drone strikes that killed innocent civilians; a deepening of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan; a self-reinforcing cycle of terrorism and counterterrorism; and disastrous new wars in Libya and Syria .

With Clinton out and new personnel in top spots in his second term, Obama began to take charge of his own foreign policy. He started working directly with Russia's President Putin to resolve crises in Syria and other hotspots. Putin helped avert an escalation of the war in Syria in September 2013 by negotiating the removal and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles, and helped Obama negotiate an interim agreement with Iran that led to the JCPOA nuclear deal.

But the neocons were apoplectic that they failed to convince Obama to order a massive bombing campaign and escalate his covert, proxy war in Syria and at the receding prospect of a war with Iran. Fearing their control of U.S. foreign policy was slipping, the neocons launched a campaign to brand Obama as "weak" on foreign policy and remind him of their power.

With editorial help from Nuland, her husband Robert Kagan penned a 2014 New Republic article entitled "Superpowers Don't Get To Retire," proclaiming that "there is no democratic superpower waiting in the wings to save the world if this democratic superpower falters." Kagan called for an even more aggressive foreign policy to exorcise American fears of a multipolar world it can no longer dominate.

Obama invited Kagan to a private lunch at the White House, and the neocons' muscle-flexing pressured him to scale back his diplomacy with Russia, even as he quietly pushed ahead on Iran.

The neocons' coup de grace against Obama's better angels was Nuland's 2014 coup in debt-ridden Ukraine, a valuable imperial possession for its wealth of natural gas and a strategic candidate for NATO membership right on Russia's border.

When Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych spurned a U.S.-backed trade agreement with the European Union in favor of a $15 billion bailout from Russia, the State Department threw a tantrum.

Hell hath no fury like a superpower scorned.

The EU trade agreement was to open Ukraine's economy to imports from the EU, but without a reciprocal opening of EU markets to Ukraine, it was a lopsided deal Yanukovich could not accept. The deal was approved by the post-coup government, and has only added to Ukraine's economic woes.

The muscle for Nuland's $5 billion coup was Oleh Tyahnybok's neo-Nazi Svoboda Party and the shadowy new Right Sector militia. During her leaked phone call, Nuland referred to Tyahnybok as one of the "big three" opposition leaders on the outside who could help the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Yatsenyuk on the inside. This is the same Tyanhnybok who once delivered a speec h applauding Ukrainians for fighting Jews and "other scum" during World War II.

After protests in Kiev's Euromaidan square turned into battles with police in February 2014, Yanukovych and the Western-backed opposition signed an agreement brokered by France, Germany and Poland to form a national unity government and hold new elections by the end of the year.

But that was not good enough for the neo-Nazis and extreme right-wing forces the U.S. had helped to unleash. A violent mob led by the Right Sector militia marched on and invaded the parliament building , a scene no longer difficult for Americans to imagine. Yanukovych and his members of parliament fled for their lives.

Facing the loss of its most vital strategic naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea, Russia accepted the overwhelming result (a 97% majority, with an 83% turnout) of a referendum in which Crimea voted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia, which it had been a part of from 1783 to 1954.

The majority Russian-speaking provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine, triggering a bloody civil war between U.S.- and Russian-backed forces that still rages in 2021.

U.S.-Russian relations have never recovered, even as U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals still pose the greatest single threat to our existence. Whatever Americans believe about the civil war in Ukraine and allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, we must not allow the neocons and the military-industrial complex they serve to deter Biden from conducting vital diplomacy with Russia to steer us off our suicidal path toward nuclear war.

Nuland and the neocons, however, remain committed to an ever-more debilitating and dangerous Cold War with Russia and China to justify a militarist foreign policy and record Pentagon budgets. In a July 2020 Foreign Affairs article entitled "Pinning Down Putin," Nuland absurdly claimed that Russia presents a greater threat to "the liberal world" than the U.S.S.R. posed during the old Cold War.

Nuland's narrative rests on an utterly mythical, ahistorical narrative of Russian aggression and U.S. good intentions. She pretends that Russia's military budget, which is one-tenth of America's, is evidence of "Russian confrontation and militarization" and calls on the U.S. and its allies to counter Russia by "maintaining robust defense budgets, continuing to modernize U.S. and allied nuclear weapons systems, and deploying new conventional missiles and missile defenses to protect against Russia's new weapons systems "

Nuland also wants to confront Russia with an aggressive NATO. Since her days as U.S. Ambassador to NATO during President George W. Bush's second term, she has been a supporter of NATO's expansion all the way up to Russia's border. She calls for "permanent bases along NATO's eastern border." We have pored over a map of Europe, but we can't find a country called NATO with any borders at all. Nuland sees Russia's commitment to defending itself after successive 20th century Western invasions as an intolerable obstacle to NATO's expansionist ambitions.

Nuland's militaristic worldview represents exactly the folly the U.S. has been pursuing since the 1990s under the influence of the neocons and "liberal interventionists," which has resulted in a systematic underinvestment in the American people while escalating tensions with Russia, China, Iran and other countries.

As Obama learned too late, the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time can, with a shove in the wrong direction, unleash years of intractable violence, chaos and international discord. Victoria Nuland would be a ticking time-bomb in Biden's State Department, waiting to sabotage his better angels much as she undermined Obama's second-term diplomacy.

So let's do Biden and the world a favor. Join World Beyond War , CODEPINK and dozens of other organizations opposing neocon Nuland's confirmation as a threat to peace and diplomacy. Call 202-224-3121 and tell your Senator to oppose Nuland's installation at the State Department.

---

John A , January 15, 2021 at 7:44 am

Nuland has also been declared persona non grata by Russia, so she would not be able to go with Biden, were he to visit Moscow. Russian foreign minister Lavrov, actually refused to shake her hand when she attended a US-Russia meeting with Kerry. She is poison to any attempt to peaceful relationships.

Susan the other , January 15, 2021 at 11:28 am

Yes, I remember that meeting clearly. Can't cite the network, but it covered her closely – body language only. I wonder where Biden stood on that act of diplomacy given his own corruption, and also what John Kerry's thinking is about now. John Kerry's stepson was in cahoots with Hunter Biden. It looked like Kerry brought her along for some rehabilitation and Lavrov was having none of it. Instead he went directly to the delegation from Ukraine and they stood in a circle all with their backs turned to Vicky who had no choice but to wander over to the coffee table and pretend she wasn't totally uncomfortable. Totally excluded. How can she recover from that?

The Rev Kev , January 15, 2021 at 9:10 am

If there is one thing that Russia hates it is fascists and that is because of the enormous damage caused by them in WW2. We call those invaders Nazis but the Russians seem to call them fascists. I sometimes wonder if it is part of their mother's milk this hatred. For people like Nuland to help topple the government of a large, bordering country like the Ukraine and install people that were literally fascists was too much for the Russians. These were fascist of a very low order that had the old 1930s routines down pat, including the torchlight parades. And there was Nuland, handing out cookies to the rioters, many of whom had been trained in rioting tactics in Poland and were being paid about $100 a day by the US if I recall correctly. Of course Nuland was not alone as there was also a Representative from the EU also handing out cookies. The only equivalent that comes to mind is a violent revolution in Canada using professional rioters and having diplomatic representatives from the Russian Federation and China handing out donuts to the rioter. I wonder what Washington would say about a stunt like that.

lyman alpha blob , January 15, 2021 at 9:32 am

Nuland is a disgusting human being. Since she is a right winger, regardless of what party may be listed on her voter ID, I don't think Bettridge's law applies here at all.

So glad all these 'woke' people put good old Uncle Joe back in office. Wonder how many realized they were supporting people being burned alive by actual Nazis in doing so?

From an actual journalist, Robert Parry – https://consortiumnews.com/2014/05/10/burning-ukraines-protesters-alive/

clarky90 , January 15, 2021 at 3:46 pm

So the USA now has literally placed, "literal fascists" in power?

Literally ..

Mark Gisleson , January 15, 2021 at 10:26 am

More war is not the answer to any of the problems facing us.

Carolinian , January 15, 2021 at 11:35 am

Thanks for this. Our "learned nothing/forgot nothing" Bourbon restoration will be led by one of the dimmer Bourbons who couldn't even set up a good grift in Ukraine without boasting about it and then angrily denying it. Should the press finally, improbably turn on him it should make for some fun news conferences. But perhaps he'll merely be moving to the White House basement from his Delaware basement.

Encephalitis Lethargica , January 15, 2021 at 12:47 pm

CFTC's budgets are also set through congressional authorization and appropriations. Yes, the CFPB is not subject to Congressional appropriations, but for good reasons. However, all financial regulation can be overturned by the Congressional Review Act.

As for the article, citation needed. Sort of a laundry heap of questionable material. Make no mistake, the Russo-Ukrainian War is a real war. Uniformed Russian armored infantry of 331st regiment of the 98th Svirsk airborne division dropped into Ukraine territory on 24 August 2014. From 25 to 27 August, Russian troops in civilian clothing, backed up by an armored column [not in disguise] took Novoazovsk. This is about Russia not being able to station 25,000 troops in Crimea as they had under Yanukovych. US troop levels in Europe have been at their lowest for the last 20 years. The US would like to [nay, needs to] keep it that way. However, the erosion of territorial integrity is a touchy subject in Europe given the lasting peace of the post-war period in a place where the wars have a pre-fix like "Hundred Years".

President Arseniy Yatsenyuk is of Jewish origin so the claims of coordination with Nazi sympathizers is dubious. Not even going to get the boycotted unconstitutional Crimean referendum.

As for WW III, Obama's defense department made it a priority to recover all the MANPADS, such as the Chinese-made FN-6 [via Qatar], Russian-made Strela-2's and Igla-S's [via Libya] from the FSA without so much as a thank you from the Russian Air Force. [Turkey, on the other hand, armed the FSA with Stinger's.] It should be noted that the Syrian conflict's death toll, in just four years, surpassed the 19-year death toll in all the Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq war theatres combined.

Think about this way: who needs NATO and the EU more to maintain his power structure, Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin. Isn't it clear Americans don't care, and American business does not look to compete in Russian anytime soon. The geography is wrong. But Putin must find a way to engender ethnicities who do not like the Russian Empire, who had been cleansed by Stalin. One way is to sell energy below cost to the republics and buy in back from political allies in the form of electricity. Something upon which the EU frowns. [Personally, I did not care for the way Putin early on systematically and indiscriminately starved Chechen civilians for years. It was cruel on a level unseen outside of the Rwandan genocide. More importantly, it was the Russian Federation abdicating its authority by not providing for its own citizens and not letting NGO's fill the calorie gap. I'd like to think had Putin's admin not been so wobbly the first few years, he might've let the Red Cross feed the children.]

John Steinbach , January 15, 2021 at 4:35 pm

There is overwhelming documentation of Yatsenuk's collaboration with Svboda & other fascist organizations in forming the coup government. For example: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/analysis-u-s-cozies-kiev-government-including-far-right-n66061

Russia was never going to permit a US orchestrated coup in Ukraine without resistance. The idea that Putin needs NATO more than Biden does seems unreasonable.

steelyman , January 15, 2021 at 11:02 pm

Talking about "citations", perhaps you could supply the readership of this site with some credible citations and links for a few of the far fetched claims you're making here. Most of this comment reads like pro-Ukrainian propaganda.

Matthew G. Saroff , January 15, 2021 at 1:30 pm

I heard about Gary Gensler, Samantha Power, and Victoria Nuland, and I immediately thought, "The good, the bad, and the ugly."

Gensler surprised everyone when he was at the CFTC by doing his job, and doing it well, and his running the SEC is a good thing.

Samantha Power is an aggressive war monger, and in her position at USAID, she will likely have her fingers in regime change pie, since USAID is part of the deep state regime change apparatus..

Nuland is just a pro-Nazi nut though.

Jack Parsons , January 15, 2021 at 9:39 pm

About NATO and the Ukraine war:

I've long suspected that NATO has existed since 1991 to allow the US/EU axis to control Middle-Eastern and African resources. For example, the Rammstein military hospital is where every Gulf War soldier was airlifted for major treatment and convalescence.

Also, there is a huge international trade in opium. It's grown in Afpak and shipped out in every direction. I suspect that a fair amount of that flows through Ukraine and Crimea. If you look at a topo map of Crimea, there's a lot of seashore that could be good "smuggler's coves". Following this line of argument, Russia grabbing it from Ukraine was a gimme to Russia's gangsters. This, as well as the "Pipeline Wars", gives Russia a strong reason to encircle Ukraine.

[Jan 14, 2021] After the illegitimate elections, the task is to consolidate power and suppress all those who reject what happened. This is what happened in Ukraine after the Maidan 2014

Highly recommended!

And that's what false flag with Capitol ransacking accomplished. It fives Clinton/Obama/Biden clique card blank for suppressing the dissent

This false flag operation like shooting protesters by snipers during Ukrainian Maydan is a logical end of American Maidan and pursued the same goals -- deposing the current president, hijacking political power and consolidating it via repressions.

Notable quotes:

"... That is why we are witnessing the fussy, aggressive actions of the Democrats - a ridiculous re-impeachment of the president, who will leave the White House in a week, the most severe censorship and suppression of dissent. There is no need for the real winners of fair elections to behave like that, as they are aware of their legitimacy and are confident in themselves (relying on the real, not imaginary, support of the majority of the population). ..."

Jan 14, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

alaff , Jan 13 2021 20:31 utc | 7

From the "Biden Exploits His Capitol Gains" article:

Joe Biden's own language certainly sounded less like a magnanimous winner uniting his people than like that used by autocrats and dictators to hold onto power, argues Diana Johnstone.

Diana Johnstone's opinion is quite reasonable. In fact, a "creeping"/"bureaucratic" coup d'etat took place in the United States. And it wasn't Trump at all, but Biden & Co. The fact that "Joe Biden's own language sounded like that used by autocrats and dictators to hold onto power" is further confirmation of this.

If you are in the majority and you win the election honestly, then there is no need to act the way the Democrats did. The current aggressive rhetoric of Biden (and other Democrats) is evidence that the elections were stolen/falsified. Biden knows this very well, and therefore his language is as cruel, irreconcilable and repressive as possible. After the illegitimate elections, the task is to consolidate own's power and suppress all those who reject what happened. In fact, this is what happened in Ukraine after the Maidan 2014.

That is why we are witnessing the fussy, aggressive actions of the Democrats - a ridiculous re-impeachment of the president, who will leave the White House in a week, the most severe censorship and suppression of dissent. There is no need for the real winners of fair elections to behave like that, as they are aware of their legitimacy and are confident in themselves (relying on the real, not imaginary, support of the majority of the population).

Wrote some thoughts on this issue.

Leftraru , Jan 13 2021 20:33 utc | 8

Globalization has made the United States a hollow giant. It has produced an enormous wealth gap, and this inequality is producing a breakdown in social cohesion. They have faced crisis before in the form of political polarization, economic hardship and racial tensions, but the situation now is a combination of every one of the mentioned before amplified by orders of magnitude by the pandemic.
The power of the MIC, Wall Street and Big Tech along with their MSM minions acting in a concerted way is the only thing preventing an implosion of the country. Either that or the notion of "American Exceptionalism" is truly implanted in the hearts and minds of the people, whether they realize it or not.

[Jan 13, 2021] Biden has surrounded himself with dual allegiance appointees in the critical security agencies so that he cannot achieve peace or make progress with any of his (foolishly) perceived enemy nations. He will find it almost impossible to negotiate in any meaningful way with Iran or China or Russia or Iraq

Jan 13, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

uncle tungsten , Jan 12 2021 20:43 utc | 20

The apartheid settler gang is beneath contempt. It blocks supply of vaccines for covid to the Palestinian people and blockades their trade and freedom of travel and navigation. Like the USA they have totally filled up with hubris and lost their way in the world.

Biden has surrounded himself with dual allegiance appointees in the critical security agencies so that he cannot achieve peace or make progress with any of his (foolishly) perceived enemy nations. He will find it almost impossible to negotiate in any meaningful way with Iran or China or Russia or Iraq or Syria or pretty much any other nation that is invaded by his armies or sanctioned by his idiot decisions or threatened by Israel's belligerence.

The tensions have been incredibly heightened in many nations due to the coronavirus transmission within their populations and the persistent suspicion that it has a USA origin. Any USAi pretense of negotiating in good faith in these circumstances is virtually impossible. All the more so when reactionaries lead both Israel and USA.

Biden is right when he says nothing will change. His ally in the middle east, Israel, has an arsenal of formidable power sufficient to command an uncomfortable peace in any circumstance. Yet it has no integrity to clinch a deal with anybody such is the universal distrust of their intentions. Time and again this illegal settler state has mauled every neighbor in a most grievous way. Every week they attack Syria with missiles! The aggrieved neighbors will not forget or forgive the treachery. That is just how it is.

There are no statesmen in the USA or Israel with the nous or capacity to find a way out.

---

fyi , Jan 12 2021 21:48 utc | 29

Mr. karlof1

US is still digging herself in the religious war against Islam.

She cannot offer anything to Iranians any longer - Mr. Trump's war against Iran had eviscerated whatever US or EU had to offer to Iran.

US cannot even end the war in Palestine; she does not have that power.

fyi , Jan 12 2021 21:49 utc | 30

Mr. steven t johnson

Israelis are not Western, they are Eastern European and Middle Easterners for the most part.

They lack the culture of Western Europe.

[Jan 13, 2021] I believe due to strategic failure of maximum pressure to subdue Iran and more importantly due to US' own strategic necessity to keep China and Russia away from ME, US and EU will want to decouple or even prevent Iran from a mutual strategic necessity or alliance with China or and Russia it might be possible US will adopt a new posture toward Iran.

Jan 13, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Kooshy , Jan 12 2021 20:23 utc | 18

Few observations on Biden, Iran and the nuclear deal.
I don't know if US will or will not return to implement it's obligations under the UNSC 2231, nor I know if US Jewish lobby will allow that. But for sure Iran will not renegotiate for new terms or a new deal on nuclear program secondly under no circumstances Iran will negotiate (with anyone) her conventional military capabilities or her policies and alliances toward her allies in the region since these are real matter of national security for Iran. But also there are signs from Biden that should be considered. Firstly almost all Biden's national security team are diplomats with experience negotiating with Iran that could be a signal on policy change, secondly I believe due to strategic failure of maximum pressure to subdue Iran and more importantly due to US' own strategic necessity to keep China and Russia away from ME, US and EU will want to decouple or even prevent Iran from a mutual strategic necessity or alliance with China or and Russia for that reason IMO it might be possible US will adopt a new posture toward Iran. I also believe Iran's foreign policy in ME is basically based on her long term interests and security with her regional alliances, multipolarity, and stability in her region, therefore any proposal by US or EU to agitate this policy will be rejected or not adopted by Iran.

---

uncle tungsten , Jan 12 2021 20:43 utc | 20

The apartheid settler gang is beneath contempt. It blocks supply of vaccines for covid to the Palestinian people and blockades their trade and freedom of travel and navigation. Like the USA they have totally filled up with hubris and lost their way in the world.

Biden has surrounded himself with dual allegiance appointees in the critical security agencies so that he cannot achieve peace or make progress with any of his (foolishly) perceived enemy nations. He will find it almost impossible to negotiate in any meaningful way with Iran or China or Russia or Iraq or Syria or pretty much any other nation that is invaded by his armies or sanctioned by his idiot decisions or threatened by Israel's belligerence.

The tensions have been incredibly heightened in many nations due to the coronavirus transmission within their populations and the persistent suspicion that it has a USA origin. Any USAi pretense of negotiating in good faith in these circumstances is virtually impossible. All the more so when reactionaries lead both Israel and USA.

Biden is right when he says nothing will change. His ally in the middle east, Israel, has an arsenal of formidable power sufficient to command an uncomfortable peace in any circumstance. Yet it has no integrity to clinch a deal with anybody such is the universal distrust of their intentions. Time and again this illegal settler state has mauled every neighbor in a most grievous way. Every week they attack Syria with missiles! The aggrieved neighbors will not forget or forgive the treachery. That is just how it is.

There are no statesmen in the USA or Israel with the nous or capacity to find a way out.

groucho , Jan 12 2021 20:45 utc | 21

Did I hear someone say something about "the tail wagging the dog" ?

Dr. George W Oprisko , Jan 13 2021 0:30 utc | 50

A new JCPOA will obviously have to eliminate all sanctions. But that might not be enough. Iran might want compensation for the economic damage done, compensation from the UK, France, and Germany as well as the US. Moreover, Iran will want to keep its now much larger stockpile of low-enriched uranium. It might want an even larger stockpile, and the right to enrich to 20%, which it is now doing. A breeder reactor and a plutonium stockpile would be nice, too.

But there are even other demands that might be made: reduction or removal of US/NATO/Israeli forces in the Gulf; reduction or elimination of Israeli nuclear weapons.

That train left the station.

In the past 5 years Iran re-configured it's economy into an autarcic fully industrialized, food secure, and diversified economy. It now earns more from the sale of manufactures and foods than from petroleum. It now manufactures AfraMax tankers, general cargo vessels, and naval vessels. It manufactures cars and trucks, and railroad rolling stock. It built hydro and irrigation schemes. It launches satellites into orbit.

Iran is now pressing ahead with the Arak heavy water reactor.

Khameni just banned import of NATO vaccines, and ordered the country to be vaccinated with Iran's own vaccine.

Khameni and the hard liners will not permit Iran to rejoin or to negotiate any agreements with the "Great Satan". Their line will be the US must show itself to be agreement capable by rejoining the JCPOA and removing any and all sanctions while paying damages too.

Iran will increase the amount of assistance given the Houthis. Trump's declaration of the Houthis as terrorists, benefits the resistance by solidifying their adherence to it. The Houthis must now "go for broke" or surrender. They will not surrender.

The harsh reality is Biden/Harris will be occupied at home suppressing the MAGA crowd. Since this group is 74 million strong, and mostly white, in a country trying to make them second class citizens, will be quite a challenge that. The jury is still out on that one.

Then there is the not so small matter of US oil production dropping like a stone from 12 mmBbl/day to 7 by July with further drops in the following 12 months. This coupled with and likely due to bankruptcies of a large number of producers going forward.

Will be an interesting year.

INDY

[Jan 11, 2021] William Burns is Biden's new CIA Director nomination with with State Dept career and DC Thinktank experience.

Jan 11, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

imo , Jan 11 2021 14:17 utc | 119

William Burns is Biden's new CIA Director nomination with with State Dept career and DC Thinktank experience.

Might have better constructive peer-peer dialogue potential with Russian Foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. Now whence little Gina 'Abu Ghraib stinker' Haspel?

But, what about global opium and heroine supplies? Gulp, ...!

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/11/politics/william-burns-cia-director-nomination/index.html

[Jan 11, 2021] "We are all Taiwanese now" stunt is Pompeo's act of petty spite for getting outfoxed in the Hong Kong colour revolution play.

Jan 11, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

LittleWhiteCabbage , Jan 11 2021 15:19 utc | 128

@84:
As sometimes said: don't sweat the small stuff.
This "We are all Taiwanese now" stunt is Pompeo's act of petty spite for getting outfoxed in the Hong Kong colour revolution play.
Empire's useful idiots were let loose to trash the hapless city, fired up by the Western propaganda machinery.
Now Beijing is putting the stock on those pompous minions with the National Security Law, and their foreign masters can't do nuffin' except squeal human rights and apply some nuisance sanctions.
The West fails because it looks at China through ideological lenses and sees Communists, who can fall back on 5000 years of statecraft to push back at interlopers.
Beijing's moves can be likened to two classic strategies.
1. Zhuge Liang fools the enemy to fire all their arrows at straw men, which become ammunition against them.
2. The Empty City strategy. Invaders take over an ostensibly abandoned city, only to be trapped inside.
Global Times is cantankerous and sometimes risible, but even a broken clock is right, twice a day.
So when it says that crossing Beijing's red line on the Taiwan issue is not in the island's best interests, the incoming BiMala administration should take note.

[Jan 10, 2021] Top adviser signals Biden would keep troops in Syria as leverage

Jan 10, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Passer by , Jan 10 2021 23:21 utc | 64

Posted by: Circe | Jan 10 2021 23:07 utc | 61

There you go

Top adviser signals Biden would keep troops in Syria as leverage

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/05/biden-blinken-syria-oil-obama-red-line-kurds-assad.html#ixzz6jBp9f4aY

Joe Biden hits the president over Syria troop withdrawal in Iowa speech

https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/10/16/joe-biden-donald-trump-syria-troop-withdrawal-turkey-kurds-foreign-policy-iowa-caucuses-2020/4002281002/

Biden Says Would Keep Small U.S. Troops Presence In Afghanistan, Iraq

https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/biden-says-would-keep-small-u-s-troops-presence-in-afghanistan-iraq-/30833114.html

[Jan 09, 2021] Democrats Use Capitol Incident To Suppress Political Dissent

Highly recommended!

Digital police state as a logical evolution of neoliberalism in the USA

Jan 09, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Humbert Humbert , Jan 9 2021 18:48 utc | 2

Definitely staged event, whether the protestors knew or didn't. Going forward, I'm switching to Signal from WhatsApp and viber, have to rethink my use of Gmail as well. Don't use faceborg or Jill Dorsey's twat. Enough is enough!

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Down South , Jan 9 2021 18:53 utc | 5

It's what I said would happen in the other thread:

Watching the spectacle from a far a couple of things stand out for me.

This event has really put the fear of God into the DC political class. When you see the photos of the politicians during this event you see real fear. I bet not one of them ever thought that the people would be so fed up with the DC political class that they would storm the Capitol to show their frustration. Such behaviour was simply un-American. It was things you saw on TV happening in far away places. Never would such scenes ever happen in the good ole' USA.

The second thing that stands out for me is that the American people have reached their wits end with the political class and are prepared to do what no-one ever thought they would do. Storm the Capitol! Disorganised as it was. What can they achieve with real organisation!

So now the people realise they have power in a collective and this power has put the fear of God in the people they despise. This has truly been a transformative event both for the political class and both for the people.

You can see this fear in the hysterical way the DC political class has reacted to this event. I don't think this hysteria is fake. I think it is quite real. They are so desperate to regain control of the "narrative" that they are flooding this forum (as pointed out eloquently by William Gruff, and no doubt many other forums) with sock puppets to denounce anyone who disagrees with the establishment view.

This hysteria is going to lead to an over reaction which will in turn spur these people not just to lob a Molotov cocktail (politically speaking) at the DC political class but to become one themselves.

There is nothing so dangerous as a person with nothing to lose and nothing so fearful as a man with everything to lose.

How it will play out I don't know, but the old normal has been shattered.

vk , Jan 9 2021 18:57 utc | 7

One thing is for sure: it has nothing to do with political party rivalry:

President-elect Joe Biden: "We need a Republican Party. We need an opposition that's principled and strong."

That the USA is a single-party with two branches that play "good cop, bad cop" already is consensus among serious historians, sociologists, political scientists etc. The news here is that this system won't change with Biden.

The Vandal sack of Rome of 455 CE was a completely different scenario. By that time, Rome had only symbolic importance to the Empire, and already was at an advanced stage of economic decay. Indeed, that's the main factor that differentiates the High from the Late Empire: the end of Italic hegemony, and the economic rise of the Eastern cities (Nicomedia, Antioch, Constantinople, Nicephorum etc.). Or, on a second thought, is it? Is the USA in really such advanced stage of economic decline? Only time will tell.

One last observation is that people usually confuse change with revolution. A given society doesn't need to go through any revolution in order to change itself. On the contrary: societal change is always happening, as we talk. What makes revolutions special is the fact that the previously exploited class becomes the dominant class; they turn the society upside down (hence the name).

But even a society that avoids any revolution will still change and eventually degenerate and die. Personally, I like prof. Moniz Bandeira's "Mutazione dello Stato", literally "mutation of the State", which describes a situation where the contradictions of society (development of the productive forces and the relations of production) continues to develop without a revolutionary situation or scenario. In this case, the USA is "mutating".

gottlieb , Jan 9 2021 18:58 utc | 8

We've been in this environment since 911. It's been one continual project, not something new being being imposed. It's a continual tightening of society, including the Pandemic.

It's all been allowed to happen for an obvious agenda of compliance and control. From 'riots' of BLM/Antifa to the 'insurrection' of Trumpeteers, the point is to narrow accepted thought - to manufacture consent, which is much easier with an un or misinformed populace. A social credit system is coming to the west - call it the Karen Revolution.

Democracy is not an option, and never has been. Time to network with slow-mail and smoke signals, because as an organizing principle beyond sales and marketing, the internet's days are numbered.

NemesisCalling , Jan 9 2021 19:05 utc | 10

@8 gottileb

Yes, the only difference is that one side, the deplorables, are speaking truth to power. The other side is conviently putting its head in the sand right now and begging for more federal overreach.

Couldn't be more obvious.

Blue Dotterel , Jan 9 2021 19:08 utc | 12

I have tried to explain over the past while, that what we are seeing in the US is an ongoing coup, This is a coup against the US people by the US corporate and financial oligarchs. Clearly, they are benefiting by not simply enriching themselves at taxpayers expense, but securing their own criminal amoral behaviour through the supression of human rights and what is left of the freedom of speech in the US. This is accelaerating exponentially and has been going on long before Trump came on the scene.

Avoid paying attention to the distractions, and keep your eye on the ball.

dh-mtl , Jan 9 2021 19:08 utc | 11

Stealing the election. Trying to remove Trump from office, with two weeks to go, and 'erase' him from the internet (and politics and whatelse?). Turning the U.S. into a de-facto police state. And the rush to do this all very quickly.

This smacks of desperation.

What are their Dems (rather their Deep State and 'Globalist' bosses) afraid of?

Blue Dotterel , Jan 9 2021 19:08 utc | 12

I have tried to explain over the past while, that what we are seeing in the US is an ongoing coup, This is a coup against the US people by the US corporate and financial oligarchs. Clearly, they are benefiting by not simply enriching themselves at taxpayers expense, but securing their own criminal amoral behaviour through the supression of human rights and what is left of the freedom of speech in the US. This is accelaerating exponentially and has been going on long before Trump came on the scene.

Avoid paying attention to the distractions, and keep your eye on the ball.