Listen to a reading of this article: Comments from both Washington and Beijing have suddenly become much more pointed and aggressive in recent days, with talk about hot war now being discussed as not just a real possibility but in many cases as a probability
1. The only reason that the NYT is for a less confrontational stance with China is because Team R is goading Biden for a supposed lack of aggression.
2. The recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by Russia and China, shows that the claim that only American hegemony can keep the peace is a load of bull.
That Russia at the same time agreed to supply Iran Su35 jets and Saudi Arabia didn't freak out is especially telling, and will make it much harder for the US and Israel to make war on Iran.
Joe Biden perfectly represents the US empire: feeble, corrupt, demented, in rapid decline, with nothing left but vague and fleeting memories of his glory days, tottering at Death’s door.
Russia—that “gas station masquerading as a nation”—has just militarily spanked the entire western empire in the war in Ukraine. The so-called “greatest military in the history of the world” has proven to be “the most expensive paper tiger in the history of the world.” We have spent the treasury on hundred million dollar stealth fighters when we should have been manufacturing hundred dollar artillery shells. We have spent the treasury on aircraft carriers that have no defenses against Russian or Chinese hypersonic missiles. Our Marines will have their gender reassigned at taxpayer expense before we send them to die on Taiwanese beaches.
US banks are failing as we speak. Our public debt is now beyond repayment even by future generations—in other words, it is already technically in default. Our schools create gender dysphoria instead of critical thinking. Our elections are shams. Our journalists are imperial scribes. Our Congress is blatantly on the take. The US empire is already slinking toward the ash heap of history. It won’t be long now before the world moves on without the dead weight of the US empire around its neck.
A great deal of truth here. The irony is that a lot of these problems could be fixed, if the United States would stop focusing its attention on empire and other stupid stuff.
The United States has a uniquely advantageous geography and a huge amount of soft power that it could use, and far more effectively than continually resorting to Global Gorilla Bully Cop. The problem is that any attempt to do so by either Team R or Team D will be greeted with howls of "Chamberlain" from the other team. The Thucydides Trap proves to be quite accurate, as does The Iron Law Of Oligarchy and its corollary, The Iron Law Of Institutions.
In the context of military strength, gender reassignment is a huge issue. Not only logistically, but it weakens the overall posture and ability of the armed services. I'll give you an example: my brother just retired from the USCG after 20 years. One of the people one his boat was transitioning, from male to female. She was lower enlisted, and in order to accommodate her transition, they allowed her to break uniform regulations and wear a flight suit. Which would never be allowed. This seems like a small thing, but it weakens unit cohesion, exceptions being made for special cases breaks down unit cohesion. The military is not about expressing yourself as an individual, it's about working as a unit and a team. And when one part of that is out of sync, not held to the same standards as everyone else, things break down at the lowest level. I would also add, I am assuming there are mental stresses and health concerns when transitioning, that would be difficult to maintain in the field.
No matter what you think about trans rights, I believe the issue needs to be treated differently between the military and civilian sector.
For a good three years I have been writing to the Russian Embassy to ask them to consider forming a liaison, an agreement with Iran. Not surprisingly I did not receive a reply. This was just to put a brake on Netanyahu's nasties using a nuclear weapon or two on Iran, (who have no weapons at all), Iran being Israel's clearly identified #1 target (why, I do not know), to use just one or two weapons of the 400 Israel has tucked away at Dimona, thanks to the USA's assistance in their manufacture and supply of the nasty bits. Of course the USA denies this as will an estimated 80% of the Israeli subsidised representatives and Senators in the US administration, affectionately known as "the houses of little Israel".
None of these weapons of course having been disclosed to the The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the institution charged with verifying that states are not illicitly building nuclear weapons. All other countries have disclosed their status but not the so-called followers of Judaism, who seemingly don't have to conform because of their concept of the Jews as the 'chosen people'.
Perhaps the Saudi involvement and/or China's friendship may put paid to the Zionists campaign to bomb Iran and so force Netanyahu to discontinue with their real motivation in owning all the land rom the Euphrates to the Nile, their sole objective called "Eretz Israel.
A great result if this is the case and a welcome result for Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and poor defenceless (thanks to the USA) Palestine, all lands or parts thereof under planned ownership by Israel.
There is a smell of confidence in the air. Yes, I know, don't count on it. It is the USA we are dating with.
What I see, Contrarian, is Saudi preparing to move south to take over Yemen to allow the expansion of israel to "greater" israel without suffering a loss of territorial area. https://img.jagranjosh.com/images/2021/May/2052021/greater%20Israel.jpg There are many things going on backstage. Beware of the extremely dangerous activities of very dark Khazarians playing the long game who require israel 2.0 to be installed in their past homelands that include Ukraine. Enough said.
I had not considered that Yemen might be even more of a target by Saudi who have continued their horrible inhumane war against this poor country with little help from the feeble UN or the US. In fact, NONE from the US.
I will follow up on your suggestion and the URL. It is a complicate area of of devious activities, not the least being the "greater Israel" never-ending ambitions.
"I had not considered that Yemen might be even more of a target by Saudi who have continued their horrible inhumane war against this poor country with little help from the feeble UN or the US. In fact, NONE from the US."
This is so not true. The United States *helps*, in that it actively helps the Saudis to commit genocide, and the US bullies the UN and EU into silence.
Now, the question remains whether the Saudi tyrants will use the rapprochement with Iran to exit from Yemen as they have long sought, or will Iran sell out the Yemenis.
Apparently some Saudi official commented today something to the effect that "not all issues with Iran are resolved", FWIW.
"Yemeni officials: The Saudi-led war against Yemen has ended and an agreement has been reached on humanitarian issues and delivery of rights, and the extension of the ceasefire will be announced soon."
Hallelujah & lots more [secular] words to that effect! Thanks for this! Hoping the people of Yemen can now be taken out of their present agony & be put on the path to a more permanent peace.
I may be slightly naive but I get the feeling that if we get any closer to a conflict, I mean within the two or three weeks, some of the media may recover their nerve and start issuing half-hearted warnings to the government.
There is a theory out there that Biden wants to run as a war president because his approval rating has been frozen between 39 and 44% for close to two years. And because Biden represents the sociopathic neo-con/neo-liberal Victoria Nuland/Lindsey Graham/Bill Kristol warmongering uni-party, the party, legacy media, Fox, and Big Tech psychopaths will support this.
My biggest problem with this theory is: no one has demonstrated that our elections are legitimate. Like Brazil in 2022, it is easy to cheat in America. So, even though Biden the puppet clearly doesn't lose sleep over provoking nuclear powers, why does he possibly need to do anything at all? He can get "81,000,000 votes" from his basement, even as he makes racist remarks on shows like "the Breakfast Club," and his Goebbels media and big tech supporters will act like, yes, he won, of course. "Elections are safe and secure!" Just like vaccines are "safe and effective."
Biden ALWAYS wanted to be a war president. One of his first announcements from the White House was a war cry - "America is back"
"As I said in my inaugural address, we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s. American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States and the determination of Russia to damage and disrupt our democracy.
Who voted for this is right! Just like the Nord Stream pipeline who voted for it but the fucking warmongering Republicans didn't say shit about that either! They are one War Party! Both parties are a Hostile Foreign Entity and not true Americans! They both have to go but have rigged the system to stop that from happening!
China has been a reasonable global citizen in stark contrast to the U.S., and it’s difficult to understand how China can deescalate this unilaterally. I really hope that the Taiwanese are paying attention to what is going on in Ukraine. The wanton contempt for Ukrainian lives and welfare is a picture of who the U.S. is, and that isn’t about to change. This liberation American style.
Americans itching for war with China are flat-out insane, particularly those in Congress. A war with China would be utterly devastating for both sides. On the other hand, who’s to say it wouldn’t turn nuclear?
I fear the only thing that will prevent major armed confrontation. since America is ruled by the mad dogs and mad hawks of war, is for Americans to rise up from within. But in a country which has honed denial to an art firm, I’m not confident of that.
The shameless behaviour in Nam, Iraq , Afghanistan and elsewhere hasn’t been enough? Apparently not, with the infamous Senate Foreign Relations chairman and Iraq cheerleader made president and his Senate de facto whip for invasion made Sec of State.
Sure they’re sore about being whipped like a rented mule by China on most of what really matters.
Poverty is very illustrative. The Chinese have unprecedentedly lifted 900,000,000 million people out of UN-defined poverty in a few short years. Now 0.6% of Chinese fulfill that criterion. The US? you might ask. 18.6%! Especially child poverty.
So rather than trying to outcompete, working harder, or being more innovative, the US has clearly given up, reverting to what it knows best, viz. scurrilous bullying, saber rattling, threatening, invading, warring, etc. How breathtakingly cynical. Any talk of American values?🤮.
I think they were thinking the military would compensate for lack of principled parenting. It doesn’t. They come back with a huge burden psychologically and occupationally.
If they come back at all. I had both of my parents alive while I was in the Navy during the Vietnam War and both were worried sick! I remember the way my mother looked at times I was able to come home and I saw years of her life being wore away! This is not right! This is insanity!
To answer your question: bucking the consensus often leads to consequences, very real and very personal consequences (see: Assange, J.; Snowden, E.). If nothing else, once you admit the nature of the empire to yourself, you are left with a guilty conscience, unless you are a sociopath.
On the other hand, if you go along with the consensus, you tell yourselves that the leadership has to know what they're doing, repeat a few platitudes about how "freedom isn't free" or somesuch bromides, things aren't so bad. They're slowly getting worse, but most Americans are obese, the opposite of starving, and if worst comes to worst, you can tell yourself that you just did what everyone else did.
Agree. The MSM has a huge role in people saying and believing that black is white. Insert Orwell’s litany here. And whoever thought it was a great idea to have flyovers at football halftimes to honour “heroes.”
As you say it takes a lot of courage to be a Snowden or an Assange. No flyovers for them! That debt can never be repaid but both would be pleased to see the backs of the current power structure and ethos.
1. Under international law and the US' own agreements with the People's Republic, Taiwan is sovereign Chinese territory.
2. If the Chinese blockade Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet would have to attack Chinese ships in Chinese territorial waters to break it.
3. If the Chinese launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan, they could probably take it in a few days, before the American fleets could arrive. Then once again, the US would have to attack the Chinese on Chinese territory.
4. I'm an American, and it's none of our business who governs Taiwan. It's part of China, period, and most certainly not worth a war with China.
The West, especially the US, literally gets drunk on its own rhetoric - a kind of self-hypnosis. it's difficult to snap out of that. It has the effect of an addiction, and self-inflicted. It wants and needs to believe now, like clinging to a straw at the edge of a cliff: it's not much, but with blinkers on, t's all there is. Of course, pay-offs help to keep the delusion viable. How else to explain Scholz and Baerbok's strange, sell-defeating, reality-denying attitude? Macron? Blinken and Biden, and Pelosi? Apparently, their shrunken consciousness can't take in the enormity of the holocaust they are leading us into.
There is an excellent book by the Italian historian Emilio Gentile, "The Apocalypse of Modernity". In it, Gentile explains the logic of the march to war before 1914, that Europe was going into it with its eyes wide open, aware of the catastrophe it was going to be but making no effort to avoid it. At the time, it was the confrontation between 5 empires: British, French, Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian, with its game of alliances, for the domination in Europe - and therefore a large part of the world - in a cold war that did not say its name and that led to the explosion of 1914 thanks to the first pretext that came along (the Sarajevo bombing) Today, only one country with imperial pretensions remains, the USA, and it is the only one to provoke this march to war. It succeeded in Ukraine by leaving Russia no other choice. And it continues to do so by now claiming to confront China, even in a direct war. Have they gone mad? For the Americans, it's just that they've been doped up for 30 years on wars, which they don't even know they've lost, but have been able to fight with impunity. When Congressman Gonzales says, "I know what war is," he's in this crazy claim to be right. Because he served as a crypto in Afghanistan and Iraq, he knows what war is. He is an ass and a dangerous ass. American wars in the Middle East are wars of the weak against the strong, with each protagonist not having the same resources. Can this donkey Gonzales understand this? Can he also understand why, in the Cuban missile affair, Kennedy and Khrushchev reached a compromise? These two men had the war facing considerable forces and knew the devastation but also the disproportionate potential of the nuclear arsenal. They had the wisdom to swallow their testosterone and sheath the red buttons. Today, America is led by a senile and corrupt old man, and both his entourage and his opposition are composed of a bunch of hysterical people who think they are the sheriffs of the world and who, with beautiful "Colgate" smiles and the certainty of being the elite, are leading us to the apocalypse.
I believe a major cause of WWI was impending construction of the Berlin-Baghdad railway to bring oil to Germany. Oil played a bigger role than most people realize. Laurence of Arabia wrote that introduction of a a few (three?) airplanes and armored cars changed everything in his campaign.
Another Dog and Pony show in order to justify the huge paychecks, kickbacks etc. in Washington, Langley and the Pentagon. All while the US Banks and their Federal Reserve scams , slide closer to a Grand Finale. Of course, a huge WW III would wipe out the Quad Trillion Dollar dept that has accumulated over the past 75 years - but WTF - it's only money.
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Woody Allen's version of what chess players call zugzwang.
The US has left itself no good choices and is narrowing its remaining options.
The rush to war with China is both political security theatre AND driven by the real fear that war is literally the only way to protect the dollar's inordinate privilege – a privilege that extends to all Americans.
So there's majority sympathy for war, if not strong support. China does represent an existential threat to America's image of itself. But America has prepared for a re-run of WWII. Believe it or not, our brave boys are currently training in California to 'island hop across the South China Sea,' for God's sake.
In the 21st century, US carriers approaching closer than Darwin Harbor and no destroyers coming within 1000 km of China's coast are sunk sunk by hypersonic missiles the US does not possess.
Interesting, so we now place validity in MSM propaganda? What? We now put faith in it when it seems to agree with "our " version of the narrative? I'm afraid I don't understand.
"To close with some good news, the imperial media are apparently not fully aligned with the war-with-China agenda (at least not yet). All the insane hawkishness mentioned above appears to have scared some sense into some influential voices in the mainstream media, with surprisingly anti-war arguments emerging in the last few days."'
When did it become "fact" that this is not all part of the billionaire robber baron, deep state, WEF "great reset?
Is this blog denying that is possibility?
Why would so many people, good people, turn their backs everyday to this possibility?
Why would so many so many people turn their backs on values they once swore to?
Why would leaders, good people, across the planet, continue, time and time again, to turn their backs on the clear best interests of the people they claim to "love" and represent?
Why would they intentionally divide the people of our planet in the most insidious ways?
Is it possible they are being threatened?
Is it possible their families are being threatened?
Any anti war influence is better than none and if it comes from the MSM might be better yet since those watching that garbage are the very ones needed to get on the anti war band wagon!
1. The only reason that the NYT is for a less confrontational stance with China is because Team R is goading Biden for a supposed lack of aggression.
2. The recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by Russia and China, shows that the claim that only American hegemony can keep the peace is a load of bull.
That Russia at the same time agreed to supply Iran Su35 jets and Saudi Arabia didn't freak out is especially telling, and will make it much harder for the US and Israel to make war on Iran.
Joe Biden perfectly represents the US empire: feeble, corrupt, demented, in rapid decline, with nothing left but vague and fleeting memories of his glory days, tottering at Death’s door.
Russia—that “gas station masquerading as a nation”—has just militarily spanked the entire western empire in the war in Ukraine. The so-called “greatest military in the history of the world” has proven to be “the most expensive paper tiger in the history of the world.” We have spent the treasury on hundred million dollar stealth fighters when we should have been manufacturing hundred dollar artillery shells. We have spent the treasury on aircraft carriers that have no defenses against Russian or Chinese hypersonic missiles. Our Marines will have their gender reassigned at taxpayer expense before we send them to die on Taiwanese beaches.
US banks are failing as we speak. Our public debt is now beyond repayment even by future generations—in other words, it is already technically in default. Our schools create gender dysphoria instead of critical thinking. Our elections are shams. Our journalists are imperial scribes. Our Congress is blatantly on the take. The US empire is already slinking toward the ash heap of history. It won’t be long now before the world moves on without the dead weight of the US empire around its neck.
A great deal of truth here. The irony is that a lot of these problems could be fixed, if the United States would stop focusing its attention on empire and other stupid stuff.
The United States has a uniquely advantageous geography and a huge amount of soft power that it could use, and far more effectively than continually resorting to Global Gorilla Bully Cop. The problem is that any attempt to do so by either Team R or Team D will be greeted with howls of "Chamberlain" from the other team. The Thucydides Trap proves to be quite accurate, as does The Iron Law Of Oligarchy and its corollary, The Iron Law Of Institutions.
Hard to find anything to disagree with here. US empire sinking into dystopia.
An excellent summary, Jack. But Is the US listening?
But you had to throw in gender reassignment. You’re a puke no matter how much you spout common place criticisms of the failing but dangerous empire.
In the context of military strength, gender reassignment is a huge issue. Not only logistically, but it weakens the overall posture and ability of the armed services. I'll give you an example: my brother just retired from the USCG after 20 years. One of the people one his boat was transitioning, from male to female. She was lower enlisted, and in order to accommodate her transition, they allowed her to break uniform regulations and wear a flight suit. Which would never be allowed. This seems like a small thing, but it weakens unit cohesion, exceptions being made for special cases breaks down unit cohesion. The military is not about expressing yourself as an individual, it's about working as a unit and a team. And when one part of that is out of sync, not held to the same standards as everyone else, things break down at the lowest level. I would also add, I am assuming there are mental stresses and health concerns when transitioning, that would be difficult to maintain in the field.
No matter what you think about trans rights, I believe the issue needs to be treated differently between the military and civilian sector.
I don’t.
Feral Finster
For a good three years I have been writing to the Russian Embassy to ask them to consider forming a liaison, an agreement with Iran. Not surprisingly I did not receive a reply. This was just to put a brake on Netanyahu's nasties using a nuclear weapon or two on Iran, (who have no weapons at all), Iran being Israel's clearly identified #1 target (why, I do not know), to use just one or two weapons of the 400 Israel has tucked away at Dimona, thanks to the USA's assistance in their manufacture and supply of the nasty bits. Of course the USA denies this as will an estimated 80% of the Israeli subsidised representatives and Senators in the US administration, affectionately known as "the houses of little Israel".
None of these weapons of course having been disclosed to the The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the institution charged with verifying that states are not illicitly building nuclear weapons. All other countries have disclosed their status but not the so-called followers of Judaism, who seemingly don't have to conform because of their concept of the Jews as the 'chosen people'.
Perhaps the Saudi involvement and/or China's friendship may put paid to the Zionists campaign to bomb Iran and so force Netanyahu to discontinue with their real motivation in owning all the land rom the Euphrates to the Nile, their sole objective called "Eretz Israel.
A great result if this is the case and a welcome result for Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and poor defenceless (thanks to the USA) Palestine, all lands or parts thereof under planned ownership by Israel.
There is a smell of confidence in the air. Yes, I know, don't count on it. It is the USA we are dating with.
What I see, Contrarian, is Saudi preparing to move south to take over Yemen to allow the expansion of israel to "greater" israel without suffering a loss of territorial area. https://img.jagranjosh.com/images/2021/May/2052021/greater%20Israel.jpg There are many things going on backstage. Beware of the extremely dangerous activities of very dark Khazarians playing the long game who require israel 2.0 to be installed in their past homelands that include Ukraine. Enough said.
Thanks, DomeLOrd.
I had not considered that Yemen might be even more of a target by Saudi who have continued their horrible inhumane war against this poor country with little help from the feeble UN or the US. In fact, NONE from the US.
I will follow up on your suggestion and the URL. It is a complicate area of of devious activities, not the least being the "greater Israel" never-ending ambitions.
"I had not considered that Yemen might be even more of a target by Saudi who have continued their horrible inhumane war against this poor country with little help from the feeble UN or the US. In fact, NONE from the US."
This is so not true. The United States *helps*, in that it actively helps the Saudis to commit genocide, and the US bullies the UN and EU into silence.
Now, the question remains whether the Saudi tyrants will use the rapprochement with Iran to exit from Yemen as they have long sought, or will Iran sell out the Yemenis.
Apparently some Saudi official commented today something to the effect that "not all issues with Iran are resolved", FWIW.
To answer your quesion:
"Yemeni officials: The Saudi-led war against Yemen has ended and an agreement has been reached on humanitarian issues and delivery of rights, and the extension of the ceasefire will be announced soon."
https://twitter.com/Iranobserver01/status/1635336881637584896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1635336881637584896%7Ctwgr%5E4c7774cca468c208e58f8db4b0ae42e4144aab2b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nakedcapitalism.com%2F2023%2F03%2Flinks-3-14-2023.html
Let's see what shakes out, but this is looking worse and worse for Global Gorilla Bully Cop.
Hallelujah & lots more [secular] words to that effect! Thanks for this! Hoping the people of Yemen can now be taken out of their present agony & be put on the path to a more permanent peace.
Let's wait and see, but this no doubt has Blinken spitting mad in a Donald Duck meltdown.
China's welcome peacemongering is behind this. The Blinken bully can stamp his feet and scream & shout til he's blue in the face for all I care.
A narcissist psychopath always throw a tantrum to divert attention from his defeatism. America know its days of bullying is numbered.
I may be slightly naive but I get the feeling that if we get any closer to a conflict, I mean within the two or three weeks, some of the media may recover their nerve and start issuing half-hearted warnings to the government.
Let's see.
There is a theory out there that Biden wants to run as a war president because his approval rating has been frozen between 39 and 44% for close to two years. And because Biden represents the sociopathic neo-con/neo-liberal Victoria Nuland/Lindsey Graham/Bill Kristol warmongering uni-party, the party, legacy media, Fox, and Big Tech psychopaths will support this.
My biggest problem with this theory is: no one has demonstrated that our elections are legitimate. Like Brazil in 2022, it is easy to cheat in America. So, even though Biden the puppet clearly doesn't lose sleep over provoking nuclear powers, why does he possibly need to do anything at all? He can get "81,000,000 votes" from his basement, even as he makes racist remarks on shows like "the Breakfast Club," and his Goebbels media and big tech supporters will act like, yes, he won, of course. "Elections are safe and secure!" Just like vaccines are "safe and effective."
It's all about the propaganda.
Biden ALWAYS wanted to be a war president. One of his first announcements from the White House was a war cry - "America is back"
"As I said in my inaugural address, we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s. American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States and the determination of Russia to damage and disrupt our democracy.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/04/remarks-by-president-biden-on-americas-place-in-the-world/
And here's just one of many signals from Biden's Inaugural Address: "beacon to the world":
"That our America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world."
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/04/remarks-by-president-biden-on-americas-place-in-the-world/
Who voted for this is right! Just like the Nord Stream pipeline who voted for it but the fucking warmongering Republicans didn't say shit about that either! They are one War Party! Both parties are a Hostile Foreign Entity and not true Americans! They both have to go but have rigged the system to stop that from happening!
China has been a reasonable global citizen in stark contrast to the U.S., and it’s difficult to understand how China can deescalate this unilaterally. I really hope that the Taiwanese are paying attention to what is going on in Ukraine. The wanton contempt for Ukrainian lives and welfare is a picture of who the U.S. is, and that isn’t about to change. This liberation American style.
Americans itching for war with China are flat-out insane, particularly those in Congress. A war with China would be utterly devastating for both sides. On the other hand, who’s to say it wouldn’t turn nuclear?
well, thats it then.
The Cold War of 21st Century is now officially begun.
How it ends?
And Australia is caught up in this BS, with an alliance with the US, but a reliance on China.
This war is not cold it's very warm at least if not hot. Lot of deaths in Ukr.
I fear the only thing that will prevent major armed confrontation. since America is ruled by the mad dogs and mad hawks of war, is for Americans to rise up from within. But in a country which has honed denial to an art firm, I’m not confident of that.
The shameless behaviour in Nam, Iraq , Afghanistan and elsewhere hasn’t been enough? Apparently not, with the infamous Senate Foreign Relations chairman and Iraq cheerleader made president and his Senate de facto whip for invasion made Sec of State.
Sure they’re sore about being whipped like a rented mule by China on most of what really matters.
Poverty is very illustrative. The Chinese have unprecedentedly lifted 900,000,000 million people out of UN-defined poverty in a few short years. Now 0.6% of Chinese fulfill that criterion. The US? you might ask. 18.6%! Especially child poverty.
So rather than trying to outcompete, working harder, or being more innovative, the US has clearly given up, reverting to what it knows best, viz. scurrilous bullying, saber rattling, threatening, invading, warring, etc. How breathtakingly cynical. Any talk of American values?🤮.
Exactly! I still can't figure how American mothers can hate their children to the point of giving them over to psychopaths!
I think they were thinking the military would compensate for lack of principled parenting. It doesn’t. They come back with a huge burden psychologically and occupationally.
If they come back at all. I had both of my parents alive while I was in the Navy during the Vietnam War and both were worried sick! I remember the way my mother looked at times I was able to come home and I saw years of her life being wore away! This is not right! This is insanity!
The military eats the children of the world. How is that OK with anyone who has an ounce of sanity?
To answer your question: bucking the consensus often leads to consequences, very real and very personal consequences (see: Assange, J.; Snowden, E.). If nothing else, once you admit the nature of the empire to yourself, you are left with a guilty conscience, unless you are a sociopath.
On the other hand, if you go along with the consensus, you tell yourselves that the leadership has to know what they're doing, repeat a few platitudes about how "freedom isn't free" or somesuch bromides, things aren't so bad. They're slowly getting worse, but most Americans are obese, the opposite of starving, and if worst comes to worst, you can tell yourself that you just did what everyone else did.
Agree. The MSM has a huge role in people saying and believing that black is white. Insert Orwell’s litany here. And whoever thought it was a great idea to have flyovers at football halftimes to honour “heroes.”
As you say it takes a lot of courage to be a Snowden or an Assange. No flyovers for them! That debt can never be repaid but both would be pleased to see the backs of the current power structure and ethos.
The debt will be inflated away. It's a question not of "if" but "when".
I meant the debt to Snowden and Assange. It is one that is inflation-proof?
Sorry about that. Got economics on the brain this AM.
A few things to keep in mind:
1. Under international law and the US' own agreements with the People's Republic, Taiwan is sovereign Chinese territory.
2. If the Chinese blockade Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet would have to attack Chinese ships in Chinese territorial waters to break it.
3. If the Chinese launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan, they could probably take it in a few days, before the American fleets could arrive. Then once again, the US would have to attack the Chinese on Chinese territory.
4. I'm an American, and it's none of our business who governs Taiwan. It's part of China, period, and most certainly not worth a war with China.
5. They are already there! I think it's the "Seventh Fleet"? in that area. But the whole fleet is there.
6. For this filth any excuse will do! And it's always the other guys fault!
They will all be destroyed in the first hours of battle by missiles.
The West, especially the US, literally gets drunk on its own rhetoric - a kind of self-hypnosis. it's difficult to snap out of that. It has the effect of an addiction, and self-inflicted. It wants and needs to believe now, like clinging to a straw at the edge of a cliff: it's not much, but with blinkers on, t's all there is. Of course, pay-offs help to keep the delusion viable. How else to explain Scholz and Baerbok's strange, sell-defeating, reality-denying attitude? Macron? Blinken and Biden, and Pelosi? Apparently, their shrunken consciousness can't take in the enormity of the holocaust they are leading us into.
Wars started in the last 70 years: China 0; U.S. 200 (globalreasearch.ca)
See also helencaldicott.com (25 min. video on nuclear war)
There is an excellent book by the Italian historian Emilio Gentile, "The Apocalypse of Modernity". In it, Gentile explains the logic of the march to war before 1914, that Europe was going into it with its eyes wide open, aware of the catastrophe it was going to be but making no effort to avoid it. At the time, it was the confrontation between 5 empires: British, French, Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian, with its game of alliances, for the domination in Europe - and therefore a large part of the world - in a cold war that did not say its name and that led to the explosion of 1914 thanks to the first pretext that came along (the Sarajevo bombing) Today, only one country with imperial pretensions remains, the USA, and it is the only one to provoke this march to war. It succeeded in Ukraine by leaving Russia no other choice. And it continues to do so by now claiming to confront China, even in a direct war. Have they gone mad? For the Americans, it's just that they've been doped up for 30 years on wars, which they don't even know they've lost, but have been able to fight with impunity. When Congressman Gonzales says, "I know what war is," he's in this crazy claim to be right. Because he served as a crypto in Afghanistan and Iraq, he knows what war is. He is an ass and a dangerous ass. American wars in the Middle East are wars of the weak against the strong, with each protagonist not having the same resources. Can this donkey Gonzales understand this? Can he also understand why, in the Cuban missile affair, Kennedy and Khrushchev reached a compromise? These two men had the war facing considerable forces and knew the devastation but also the disproportionate potential of the nuclear arsenal. They had the wisdom to swallow their testosterone and sheath the red buttons. Today, America is led by a senile and corrupt old man, and both his entourage and his opposition are composed of a bunch of hysterical people who think they are the sheriffs of the world and who, with beautiful "Colgate" smiles and the certainty of being the elite, are leading us to the apocalypse.
I believe a major cause of WWI was impending construction of the Berlin-Baghdad railway to bring oil to Germany. Oil played a bigger role than most people realize. Laurence of Arabia wrote that introduction of a a few (three?) airplanes and armored cars changed everything in his campaign.
Another Dog and Pony show in order to justify the huge paychecks, kickbacks etc. in Washington, Langley and the Pentagon. All while the US Banks and their Federal Reserve scams , slide closer to a Grand Finale. Of course, a huge WW III would wipe out the Quad Trillion Dollar dept that has accumulated over the past 75 years - but WTF - it's only money.
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Woody Allen's version of what chess players call zugzwang.
The US has left itself no good choices and is narrowing its remaining options.
The rush to war with China is both political security theatre AND driven by the real fear that war is literally the only way to protect the dollar's inordinate privilege – a privilege that extends to all Americans.
So there's majority sympathy for war, if not strong support. China does represent an existential threat to America's image of itself. But America has prepared for a re-run of WWII. Believe it or not, our brave boys are currently training in California to 'island hop across the South China Sea,' for God's sake.
In the 21st century, US carriers approaching closer than Darwin Harbor and no destroyers coming within 1000 km of China's coast are sunk sunk by hypersonic missiles the US does not possess.
Interesting, so we now place validity in MSM propaganda? What? We now put faith in it when it seems to agree with "our " version of the narrative? I'm afraid I don't understand.
"To close with some good news, the imperial media are apparently not fully aligned with the war-with-China agenda (at least not yet). All the insane hawkishness mentioned above appears to have scared some sense into some influential voices in the mainstream media, with surprisingly anti-war arguments emerging in the last few days."'
When did it become "fact" that this is not all part of the billionaire robber baron, deep state, WEF "great reset?
Is this blog denying that is possibility?
Why would so many people, good people, turn their backs everyday to this possibility?
Why would so many so many people turn their backs on values they once swore to?
Why would leaders, good people, across the planet, continue, time and time again, to turn their backs on the clear best interests of the people they claim to "love" and represent?
Why would they intentionally divide the people of our planet in the most insidious ways?
Is it possible they are being threatened?
Is it possible their families are being threatened?
Any anti war influence is better than none and if it comes from the MSM might be better yet since those watching that garbage are the very ones needed to get on the anti war band wagon!