Listen to a reading of this article: Fox News's fabulously popular right wing pundit Tucker Carlson has ratcheted up his show's anti-China propaganda yet again, introducing his interview with Brazil's rightist president Jair Bolsonaro with a psychotic rant against Beijing that, were it about Moscow, would have looked perfectly at home among even the most demented mainstream liberal punditry at the height of Russiagate hysteria around 2018.
I'm going to admit it: I'm one of those who can see all the BS marketing propaganda about Russia & Ukraine - yet I remain deeply sceptical about China.
As an Australian, it is easy for me to understand that Russia is in no way a threat to us, and should not be considered an enemy. (Besides having looked at some of the historical background of the Ukraine invasion, Russia's position re NATO, the Ukraine attacks on the Donbas, and so on.)
It is also easy to see that Australia has been manipulated by the US, from "All the way with LBJ" for the war in Vietnam, to the sacking of the Whitlam (Labor) government in 1975, and most recently (FFS) with our newly minted PM Albanese attending the NATO summit in Madrid last week.
I'm willing to keep a more open mind about China, especially around the potential for propaganda (which operates in both directions, of course). But my direct experience here is that China has been taking over more and more of this country, and I don't like it. I don't like that the whole area in which I live (in south suburban Brisbane) has become a second Chinatown, with Chinese shops starting to dominate the local shopping centres. Not in an interesting way, either.
I don't like that a Chinese company has a 99 year lease on the Port of Darwin - and that similar Chinese companies now have controlling interests in our energy companies (& other infrastructure), agricultural production, and mining.
I lived and worked in Japan for 3 years, a few decades back, and I've travelled a lot in SE Asia. But I don't want my own country to be turned into a Chinese colony. I don't like the Chinese social credit system, and I don't want it here.
I'm willing to be open to the possibility that most of the protests in Hong Kong were caused by CIA agents, and similarly that most of the "human rights abuses" that we hear about, are simply anti-China propaganda.
However, I also don't want to blindly accept the other position, that China is acting from pure benevolence.
China is a huge country, with a huge need for natural resources, including food, water, and minerals. It makes sense for us to accept China as a valuable trading partner - but not to allow them to exploit us.
I think we should be looking after our own interests as a country, not just following the US in its military exploits, or allowing China to rape us.
Anyhow, I shall continue to try to keep a balanced view, so thank you Caitlin, for presenting this perspective.
The biggest and most persistent rapist is America. At the moment American oil and natural gas companies pay close to zero royalties on several of the major natural gas fields, while they pay highly discounted (by global standards) on others. Non-renewable resources being given away; not even Zimbabwe or Afghanistan does anything quite like that.
Australian did colonialism at home, and then abroad. They are not been shy about keeping neighborhood nations poor and under a debt/military thumb. I think Feud or Jung termed what we've seen in some comments "projection".
"I'm going to admit it: I'm one of those who can see all the BS marketing propaganda about Russia & Ukraine - yet I remain deeply sceptical about China."
You should be. China isn't led by paragons of ethical probity. But we should all be suspicious of media lynch mobs, which I'm sure you are. Also, I don't think that the Chinese leadership is outright insane. I do think the US leadership class is.
Each set of oligarchs are constrained by different forces. The US oligarchs are limited by the decline in American industrial capacity (which is needed to generate real military power) while the Chinese are limited by their dependency on foreign resources and markets. The 'dance of death' between the two is a threat to ordinary people everywhere. That is the issue. The survival of our masters is not our cause.
It's the ethics, morals, and social codes of the west that are capitalist and thus insane, the leadership just reflects it. North Asia for 2500 years has as it's bases for the same Confucian ethics firmly rooted in all it's cultural points. In times of crisis they often deviated from them, but at least have as firm anchors to return to. It's not just the leaders of western society, but the whole society that has a terminal sickness, with the most diseased specimens in North America, then Britain, and Western Europe. Chris Arnade catches the pathos in his latest posts on walkingtheworld.substack.com Vietnam, hardly a sycophant to China, shows it's Sinophile socialist roots in the social group activities (Chinese chess, communal dining, taichi) striving against the social ills of consumerism driven by western psychology driven advertisement mind polluting games(and winning so far). Meanwhile on George Galloways show a caller in explained how guns were necessary because one has to fear ones neighbors in "Mericuh".
The true Iron Curtain of today is between those societies that have substantially dissolved the bonds of trust, respect and cooperation between neighbours and strangers and those that have not.
I reckon Australians who see themselves as progressive & liberal minded, by & large are "concerned" about a commercial lease for Port Darwin by a Chinese company because it's a Chinese company. Yet seldom voice the same concern about US military installations on Australian soil E.g Pine Gap.
The Port Darwin thing secures bilateral trade & was a win win scenario; while Pine Gap secures an irradiated landscape ... but then it's protecting ya'll freedumbs so I guess there's that.
The acceptance of the US has a legacy in growing liberalization of the western world until about 40 years ago when it shifted away from liberty and towards wealth extraction. China has no such pretense.
There have been plenty of protests about Pine Gap, way back in cold war days when there was an active actual Peace Movement. Maybe we all just grew older and gave up, in the face of government indifference to people's opinions, together with the end of the cold war.
And as someone else pointed out in this thread, it is not a case of "either-or".
Personally, I would kick both of them out.
The bilateral trade advantage seems to go down the drain when it suits them (like now) so I would rather the CCP didn't have a controlling interest in access to our ports and air-space.
Hehe, if you think property is sacrosanct, good on you, that puts you squarely in the 99% cattle class with the rest of us. Tell that one to anyone from any people who's some how survived Eminent Domain, or perhaps go to chat with a Oz based diplomat from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezuela, or better yet a headman of the Wakkawakka about the value of a contract or common law rights. Frankly, considering the foundations of "white" Australia, I think the Chinese are idiots to trust their investments to the protection of the state, but what exactly did they buy them with, US Fed notes of deposit, which are also a fiction.
Can you explain where China is raping Oz? If you mean paying and playing capitalism just like every other nation that trades with Oz, then what you are really saying is rape known as capitalism only hurt when its not coming from other white people. In that case just change all of the remarks about China to Chinese and it will be a closer read to the intent.
If Oz wants to prostitute itself, that's their option.
If there are Aussies who aren't happy having been sold by their pimps to China, well, elect new pimps.
If, like in America, there's no difference between pimps, then exercise your (non-existent) second amendment rights. Do like the Black Panthers did in Sacramento and show up on "capital hill" (or what ever it is called in Oz) with your long guns.
Or "vote blue no matter who" and then wonder why your rear end hurts.
Blaming China for the corruption of your own government is just STUPID.
Prostitute is not the right word. No prostitute with any self-respect would behave the way Australian politicians did towards China from the early 90s until yesterday. And the politicians were not the worst, not by a long shot: higher education, big business, the media, they all abased themselves for financial advantage. And the corruption by China only became an issue when the USA started falling out with Beijing. Corruption is guaranteed because of our libel laws and the widespread belief, unsustained by any hard evidence, that as an Anglo country, we are, by definition, free from corruption.
Once the US gets their own affairs (government) in order then I will grant you the right to give advice to us in Australia. Even perhaps to sneer at us.
Meanwhile, your addiction to guns has done nothing except to escalate the level of violence in your country.
A "might is right" attitude works up to a point, both internationally and domestically. But I think we are fast getting to the point where some more sophisticated problem solving is called for.
That's true. I try to stay out of the gun debate in the US, because the Second Amendment was a hard-won right, and it is a particularly emotive issue for Americans. And yes, heavily manipulated on both sides.
However, I don't like the repeated comments from Americans about "Australia gave up their guns", as though we are living in some sort of inferior status because of not having easy gun ownership.
But I don't want to get into it here, or it will open a whole new can of worms. There are arguments on both sides, good arguments - but let's stick to one highly emotive topic at a time!
There is no way I meant to insinuate that the USA is in any way "better" WRT prostituting itself. If you want to take it as a "sneer" then talk to JuiceMedia.
As far as the adiction to guns is concerned, in theory I agree with you.
Now, give me an alternative that might actually make a difference.
I do not, and never have, own a gun. I was just pointing out that the Black Panthers made a point very effectively.
If you don't like "might makes right" give me the alternative. They seem to get assassinated.
Mind, I agree with most of what you say, but it's one thing to criticise your own country, and another to have someone else do it.
As for the "might is right" issue, there is no easy answer, and maybe there isn't one at all.
Ultimately, power is a universal principle, and if not physical power, than some other level of power: psychological, spiritual, whatever.
I'm no snowflake pacifist - I've spent over 10 years (3 of them in Japan) training in Aikido, which embodies a philosophy of peacefulness in self-defence. I've not ever been in a real physical fight, but I did work for 5 years in the correctional system in this country, as a psychologist, and found that the principle of "extending ki" served me well, in de-escalating conflict situations.
Internationally, it used to be understood that diplomacy was an important part of resolving conflict. But unfortunately we have no statesmen in the West anymore, and the art of diplomacy and conflict resolution seem to be forgotten these days.
Ok, the rape is from huge transnational companies, the Chinese ones seemingly controlled by the CCP in the Chinese version of capitalism, and most of the others controlled by transnational private interests (the majority of which seem to come down to Blackrock, whose controlling owners are kept private). It's not really a matter of whether the rape is from black, white, yellow or brindle - if you are a country on the receiving end of it, it hurts. The only reason I would make a distinction between, for example, Landbridge (the company with the Port of Darwin contract) and Adani (a company that is mining for coal in north-west Queensland) is that Landbridge is a Chinese company that is reputed to be controlled (or working closely with) the CCP, while Adani, an Indian company, is privately owned and notorious for dodgy environmental practices, tax-avoidance, and fraudulent business dealings, and definitely not in cahoots with the Indian government. In one case (Adani) their motives can be ascribed purely to profit, whereas Landbridge & other companies buying controlling interests in our infrastructure may have more sinister motives. In any event, they are placing themselves strategically to be able to control our infrastructure, which is something that no country should allow.
Sorry Mara. I didn't read all of your comment and feel that I must disagree with your perception of the recent and now past increases by China in Australian companies and industries.
Yes. The best example is Darwin and the Port. Who allowed that to happen? A state government. We were not held at gunpoint or had our lives threatened to conclude such a ridiculous transaction as that has turned out to be. Someone approved it. An Australian or group of Australians.
Also, again with respect, shareholding in companies by foreign companies must go through a process which allows the government of the day to approve such transactions, or otherwise. All very straight forward. It is again an approval from Australia. Someone approved these transactions, An Australian.Yes, Electric power, gas, dairy farms, cattle stations and on. However, China's investment is paltry compared to the US ownership of our country.
Now if you want to pursue the stupidity of what has happened in this feckless country over time, just look at the ownership of our banks, Shareholders. Australians.? Hardly, the same greedy foreign financiers like who own half of America. They were allowed in en masse and we pay the price, ongoing for ever. HSBC, CitiGroup just to name two.
Don't even think on who owns the naturals gas in Australia, the Americans owners export overseas at a great profit while we pay for our own resources through the nose......and very soon get cold in winter unless we can reclaim some of this for our own use. Australia is the only country in the world allowing international oil companies to access and export natural gas without prioritising local supply.
We are totally naive.
It is all based on what Australia has allowed this country to become over time. Foreign investment and ownership at any price with foreign control over our external policies.
And now a country totally subservient to the USA and its military objectives. I would rather deal with China as a client in a proper business-like manner than be a servile bag carrier for a criminal country like America, a country that will demand to populate the north of Australia with bases and military weaponry to add to the 800+ bases in the world now.
Australia a target.... Indeed. Mainland USA a target. Not a chance
Already on the drawing board. Will we give them the OK? Of course. It’s what we do.
Contrarian, I couldn't agree more. To "deal with China as a client in a proper business-like manner" would be my ideal too.
But Australia has been a puppet of foreign powers from its inception, as a penal colony of England. Then back in the 1950s we allowed British nuclear testing at Maralinga, in our beautiful outback, followed by the US bases at Pine Gap, and they also have a (rotating) base at Darwin.
And when we do get a leader who shows a bit of leadership or independence, they get ousted, often by their own party machine.
But Australia is by no means alone in that - every Western country seems to be under the thumb of the Controllers (and it would be simplistic to say "the US" - the "military-industrial complex" might be closer to the truth).
Three cheers for all of that. Australia is an obese, supersized, version of Okinawa or Guam, a forward base for the US to project force across Asia. And forget about China, the local national security people will use every opportunity for institutional and personal self-aggrandisement and the diminution of our rights.
Frankly, I am not sure that Adani is any less sinister. The gov't gave them that mining lease because they were (still are) trying to buy influence in India. Giving Indian oligarchs a share in Australia was the unacknowledged part of the deal that went with the ludicrous Quad. Australian resources are just being used to restructure alliances and linkages to suit the grand agenda of Washington, London and Canberra.
Private equity is a great way for our masters to drain wealth. It is also a great way for them to enrich themselves or each other via a trade in favours. Rudd's wife made a bundle on a gov't contract in the UK. You can bet your life there were strings attached. Many of the companies which deal extensively with gov't employ the wives and children of politicians. Australian capitalism is just as corrupt as any Indian or Chinese company.
Phillip, don't get me wrong - I don't like Adani, and I have put a lot of time, energy and money too, donating to various legal cases, signing petitions, and writing letters. (Not that any of that does much good.) There are all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't let them mine here, from the stomping on the rights of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, to dredging the Reef, polluting the water table, and exporting our natural resources with a lucrative tax deal. But that cause has now been hijacked by the "Stop Climate Change" movement, and everything now is about carbon dioxide and "dirty coal".
It's just that Caitlin's original post is about China (the CCP) and how they are being maligned by the media.
That may be true, but I think we also have grounds to be wary.
Glad to hear that you are active on behalf of good causes. It makes a difference. Don't let anyone ever tell you that it doesn't. Even if you fail, you are still putting the powers that be on notice that someone wants to hold them accountable and believe me, they pay attention to that. They would be even worse if they thought that they could get away with it.
Personally, I'd say saving the lungfish habitat is the key one...fauna like that are invaluable...one cannot exaggerate the intrinsic value of something as rare as that.
China is complex. No one should have any illusions about the gov't there. Ditto the incitement on offer in our media. Awareness is resistance. Respect (for the Chinese people) is the only sane and decent way ahead.
Yes, Capitalist are going to do what Capitalism demands. I'm constantly amazed that anyone could see Madam Jabbaette-The-Hut Creosote, née Georgina Rinehart, as a better option than Chinese or Indians. It' amazing what institutional bigotry can do to twist a mind.
In one case (Adani) their motives can be ascribed purely to profit, whereas Landbridge & other companies buying controlling interests in our infrastructure may have more "sinister" motives.
I'd be interested to know what is more sinister (left handed?) than capitalism, is it "capitalism with Chinese characteristics"? "Your honour**, the person was seen using his left hand, he must have sinister motives." "Well, that's good enough for me, throw them in the jail, right next to Assange will do."
**When a speaker has to tell a person they have honour, it means the speaker is lying and the listener doesn't care.
JM, having another country controlling your ports (especially Darwin, where there is a key military installation), your airports (yes, there are Chinese companies getting similar control of these) and your energy infrastructure is more sinister than a company after profit alone.
In my opinion.
It is the difference between having someone burgle your house, and injecting you with nano-bots to potentially control your mind and behaviour.
You've obviously got your own pet peeves, which is fine by me.
I'm open to thoughtful discussion, though preferably not along mainstream party lines. Not everything is about racism - that is a reductionist argument in this instance.
Just don't inflict your one-dimensional thinking on me.
As a fellow Australian I can honestly say that what you wrote above reflects my view on the situation. I also can see where Caitlin's coming from and have noticed recently more and more opinions emphasising the benevolence of Chinese economical interference. But I understand that
every and each government is acting in its interest and can not be expected
to be acting out of some altruistic motives. The port of Darwin lease
was a despicable decision made by our government and an example of
stupidity and political myopia that can not be excused. Mara, I think we can agree that our beautiful country and its people deserve better governmence that we've been served with.
Pretty much if China is buying up your country, you can't blame China. It is your political leaders
yanis varoufakis from Greece talks about a one-sided deal that the previous government had made with China. He went to China and said so. They renegotiated the deal without any problems. (Now that's what Yanis said, you may not want to believe him) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGeevtdp1WQ&t=4406s
Thank you. I agree. I learned about the evils of the CCP mostly from dissenting Chinese people who have emigrated. China's a scary place to be a dissenter. I don't want to go to war with China either, but just because the U.S. military-industrial complex is currently causing more harm globally doesn't make the CCP desirable. I think the U.S. would dearly love to imiplement some of the same totalitarian policies, but they have to keep up some appearance of caring about democracy at home, unlike the CCP.
The willingness to kill billionaires accounts for the horror inspired by Red China. If they were only killing street people or the unemployed, they'd be used as a case study in best practice at the Harvard Business School.
The injustices of China are real, I have no doubt about that, but what is impressive is the resolve and human excellence (especially in education). China is very tough, but the people running things are seriously intelligent. I respect that. It is a contrast with the West.
Everyone can be wrong in a situation. It's like that Hitler or Stalin argument. Which is a lesser evil depends very much on circumstance. The correct answer to that question is always 'neither is acceptable.' That's part of why the U.S. is so screwed up now, because both parties try to demonize the other because they think it makes them look like the good guy, but in reality they both just suck.
Executing people on an operating table for heart/lung transplantation gives me nightmares. I have no illusion how I would fare in a place like that.
The growing allergy towards dissent across the West is frightening. At a pinch, I could live without democracy, but the increasing hostility towards people who do not fit in ideologically exposes me to danger. I expect that you are the same. It is not about politics or ideology (ultimately Left and Right are all bullshit), for me its more basic than that. It is existential.
the Falun gong have been claiming for some time that their people have been used for organ harvesting... I have a friend who is addicted to infowars that claimed that during the Olympics there were fresh organs available to anyone who might need them... These rumours are still going on.
Falun Gong? The people on the street handing out fliers seem nice enough and I admire their dedication and idealism. Not certain what to believe about China beyond noting that Western governments care nothing about organ-harvesting in China or anywhere else if mention of the subject puts profits at risk. Infowars is entertaining, but a worry too. The psyops-industrial complex dominates a lot of the 'alternative' spectrum. At the very least, Alex Jones has protection from above, so disseminating a bit of propaganda every now and again is probably just his way of paying his dues.
It's not rape when it's consensual... and under capitalism anyone with the cash can buy what they like.. you don't like the system in Australia? Well that's something to complain about.
Like you, Mara, I do not see a lot of common ground between China and most western countries. It has always been that way. But there was no better trading partner for the range of products we sell than China. We should remember that and it was the dictates of Biden and Co on a weak Australian Prime Minister that made us a sacrificial lamb and ruined that export market, forever. It could have been managed, but wasn't.
Just for interest, some of these export products are now being supplied by the USA. Does that surprise anyone? Also applies in Europe with fuel, gas and grain products after the US and its stooges instituted all their sanctions against Russia. There has to be a winner in such matters and it is always the USA. In Europe right now, increasing its exports daily.
Another coincidence?
Historically we have a history of being a servile supporter of dictatorial powers having grovelled to the UK until 1945 and since them jumping at every command by the world's most villainous country, in any era. And so it will always be as indications of QUAD, AWKUS, ANZUS and now a new Pacific Forum set the tone for our future.
Please try and avoid being disappointed with the new government, Mara. Six weeks today has shown us that when beckoned, Australia comes running to US / NATO functions, everywhere we are required to show our allegiance to the big bully.
It will never be otherwise. Six weeks confirms that clearly.
To be honest, I never really expected otherwise. Both Scomo & Albo are puppets who have been put in those leadership positions purely because they do what they are told by the backroom boys. I'm disappointed that the Greens & Teals got so much support, and that the Freedom parties got so little (or not where it counts) - but not truly surprised, given the marketing around climate change & so on.
Until its borders do not extend to any known or accessible reserves of oil, gas or minerals and the inhabitants of all territories turned into livestock or feral fauna, depending on their degree of obedience. The value of the livestock will depend on wage levels set by global arbitrage, the value of all other fauna by the availability of organs for transplant or wombs for hire elsewhere on the planet. Governance will be negotiated between the relevant stakeholders in accordance with best practice as established by ESG and the global consensus on property law. Then, and only, then will Russia be ready for full acceptance into the rules based international order.
Thank you for revealing this. I've had the sense that Tucker is a double propaganda agent--mixing lies in with truth so you swallow the whole. And on Africa, don't forget the 14 countries forced to use the African franc. Currency colonization is why Quaddafi got a French bullet to the brain for intending to create the Pan-African dinar backed by Libyan gold.
Quadaffi was not lucky enough to get a bullet. He died from internal bleeding after a metal pipe was forced into his backside. The barbarism was filmed and broadcast. Hilary famously joked when she discussed his death.
I have to laugh at the fruitcakes here and elsewhere who lament Kadaffy Duck's death and manner of death. They won't bother to shed a tear for Sophie Scholl, but Kadaffy Duck, well, he's a hero and a martyr. That's honey trap bullshit for sure. Nobody forced Kadaffy to swim in the waters he swam in. He was a brutal military dictator and certainly not the answer to empire or imperialism. That's not apologia for the West's machinations regarding Libya by the way. I never condoned any of it. A bullet to Kadaffy Duck's head would have been more acceptable and that bullet should have been delivered and could have been forty years prior at least. It wasn't because Kadaffy was useful in some way.
They did decide. They decided to end Kadaffy Duck's life brutally. Next you'll tell me I should shed a tear for what the Italians did to Mussolini and his mistress.
It was a Hillary operation. "We came, we saw, he died <cackle, cackle, cackle>"
Tereza is right -- Kaddafi was negotiating with the rest of Africa to set up a pan-African currency that would have challenged the dollar's dominance.
"The people" didn't "decide" anything. There were NGOs financed by NED that organized terrorist mobs to take down the Libyan government. Look at the mess it is in now.
Libya is just another victim of the US quest for hegemony. It is disturbing that you maintain a "Tucker Carlson" perspective on what is happening in the world.
Now I know you're an imposter. Ukraine has never had a legitimate government since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Corruption is all Ukraine has ever known.
👍💯🎯 it was a Killary Operation. They wanted his gold. Quadaffi also kept terrorists in check. He was no saint BUT facts are facts. Amazing how sheeple quick to battle for CIA asset "Phucker Carlson". Focus on what he's NOT reporting. Same with Elon Musk. Focus on what he's NOT releasing.
HIGHLY SUGGEST follow Tore Says for insider very painful truth
Libya was more a France operation than it was an American operation. Sark led the charge of the Light Brigade. Obama had to be pushed kicking and screaming into it. It was not his choice, but of course, he ultimately did acquiesce.
It's tragic what has become of Libya and it was foreseeable and maybe even intended by those who stoked the civil war. That's independent of the fact that Libyans decided to brutally execute him.
I have a chapter in my book on Qaddafi called Swept Away by the Currency, mostly informed by Vijay Prashad's Arab Spring, Libyan Winter. After he nationalized the 3M barrels of oil per day exported by the 7 Sisters, Prashad writes: "The money was then diverted towards social welfare, mainly an increase in housing and healthcare ... fixing a minimum wage and slashing the obscene rents being charged by property owners ... When Qaddafi took power, the literacy rate in Libya was a miserable 20%. The consequences of the transfer payments lifted the rate to 90% by 1980." He allowed people to settle on confiscated Italian land with interest free loans and low interest to buy farm equipment and a gov't salary until they became self-sufficient. He built the Man-Made River that brought water to 70% of the population. Workers took control of about 200 companies and bank holdings had an upper limit. He donated $300M to help Africa set up their own satellite phone system instead of paying Europe $500M a year. All possible because Libya isn't part of the BIS and owns its banks and currency--something it was about to bring to all of Africa along with Laurent Gbagbo of the Cote d'Ivoire.
Instead, Qaddafi ends up brutally murdered, as Phillip points out, and the new BIS Bank of Benghazi is formed and an oil deal with Qatar is signed before his body is cold in the freezer where it's thrown. Gbagbo was kidnapped in a French coup and taken to the Hague.
I don't really care about analyzing personalities, Qaddafi's or Putin's or Trump's. I analyze policies and their actual results. That Carlson is making a hero of Bolsonaro tells me he's either complicit or deluded. It matters which, but the result is the same.
The Sisters....remember Enrico Mattei? Enough said. I believe that the first official act of the anti-Gaddaffi forces was to establish a central bank. The first rebels in history to do anything like that. It gives it all away. The BIS is surely one of the great fountains of evil and cruelty. We all need to do as much as possible to direct attention towards it.
Your disinclination to analyze personalities is wise. Keeping the focus on the tangible, pragmatic, facts is the key. A focus on personalities leads us astray.
And Sunni Arabs at that! The only people on earth to retain a cultural/religious abhorrence of finance. And the rebels were supported by Qatar (which is Wahabi). The official narrative does not add up.
That's a great question and google, from a quick search, is not going to give us that answer! I think that Russia has been able to decouple thanks to the sanctions. I talk about Putin's brilliant economic policies, which I suspect are due to Sergei Glazyev, in Russia: A Wrench in the Reset Gears? Iran is certainly not a part. Venezuela? And the elephant, China? China definitely creates its own currency and has been able to fund projects without borrowing, which caching all the export wealth. What three are you thinking of?
I thought probably North Korea, Iran and China but truth be told I don't know for sure, this is all way too complex for me. Just trying to understand what's going on in general. Thanks for the link Tereza.
I have to laugh at people who think fallen dictators like Qaddafi getting what they deserve was some kind of western delivered justice. They won't bother to shed a tear for the thousands of victims of Reagan's born again death squads in El Salvador in the 1980's (War on drugs? just say no! Iran-Contra scandal anyone?) They turn away from the 3 million starved to death by Churchill in Bengal in 1943. Only some dictators are worthy of their hate...you know, the uppity swarthy fellows like Sadaam (who the US continued to help, even when he was using chemical weapons on Kurdish civilians)...and now the mass slaughtering in Yemen by the head chop prince of the house of Saud...'please sir, can I have some more...oil'. All that sniveling western hand wringing...about dictators...really?
Exactly. Not to mention that no US president was a saint, does it justify a foreign power overthrowing him for alleged misdoings (and there are plenty)?
No doubt many feel that way, but not me. That's not even a good try. I'm not sure what persuasion you are if any, but you're a buffoon if you think Kadaffy Duck is someone or something to use as a retort to or resistance to empire or imperialism. How is blowing up nearly 300 noncombatants over Lockerbie "giving it to the man?"
There are three worlds.
1. The world we live in.
2. The world that could and should be.
3. The world we want to live in.
When discussing Kadaffy Duck and his demise, I prefer to analyze it according the the world in which we live. That's the context. In a world that could and should be, not only is what happened to Kadaffy anathema and nay impossible, but so too is the likes of Kadaffy anathema and nay impossible and that's the world I want to live in but unfortunately that isn't this world, is it?
I lament nothing but the manner that he was murdered was cruel and foul. Gaddaffi was no hero, but Libya did have the highest standard of living in Africa and the terrorist stuff he admitted to sponsoring (as a price for reconciling with the West) was in fact carried out by the Syrians. The religious nuts who hated Gaddaffi are stooges of the Western intelligence services.
You are dead right about Gaddaffi being useful. The anti-Western antics of Gaddaffi (like Mugabe etc) never got in the way of essential business. It is political theatre.
I agree the cheering on of his undignified execution by Hillary and Obama and their ilk was sick. So much for human rights. What disgusting hypocrites they are.
I am comfortable with their hypocrisy, it is their lack of empathy that is chilling. We are ruled by sociopaths. There is no limit to the cruelty that people like Hilary and Obama will tolerate and there is no point believing that they feel any differently towards any of us.
His actions assure he will. For someone who is so smart, he's not so smart. The American Christian Fascists he has helped enable will turn on him in a heart beat and ram a bayonet so far up his ass it exits his mouth. That, or they will nuke Russia MAD be damned.
Phillip, see my answer to SBN if you think that nationalizing the oil and demonstrating what can be done with a Central Bank not tied to the BIS and a currency not held in the French Treasury never got in the way of essential business. He almost torpedoed the petrodollar a decade earlier than Putin is. The "Axis of Evil" corresponds exactly to the small handful of countries whose central banks aren't tied to the BIS and IMF. Owning the oil is chump change. The big game hunters go for the currency in which oil can be bought.
Yeah, the NIH tracks the private communications of CIA double propaganda agents. The district of corruption has been trying to get tucker off the air for years because you know, double propaganda agent for the deep state.
There has been no serious effort by anyone who matters to take Tucker Carlson off the air, any more than there was any serious effort by anyone who matters to get rid of Trump. The TV man is not your friend.
The entire demonrat party and their communications division comprised of 98% corporate state media (CIA controlled) have been screaming bloody murder about tucker for years and they just rigged an election to get rid of trump and spent four years undermining his presidency with Russiagate lies. Must be all for show by nobody who matters lol. TV man friend is better suited for Twitter performances where you'll get the 'gotchya' cheers from followers.
You can count, can't you? Who owns Fox? Who owns Verizon? Who owns ClearChannel, and then there are the radio and newspaper conglomerates. You need to get help with that glue sniffing habit.
Exactly. So once again I will reiterate, if Trump remains free, and it appears despite all the faux media rage he will remain free, and he wins in 2024, all this investment in NATO expansion will come to a halt and that investment may be lost or squandered. These are some of the most powerful people on earth. Will they just sit by and let Trump do it again? If Biden and Garland arrest Trump and his henchmen, at least they — Trump and his henchmen — will live. If Biden and Garland don't, the only fate I see for Trump at least, is death. Is Biden setting that up by holding Garland back?
NATO means shit. The taxpayers will pick up the tab. Washington is always about Washington. The question of who controls Panem/Mordor takes priority over all else.
Obama will get Michelle to run in 2024 on the grounds that only she can save 'our democracy'. Biden's administration is essentially a covert Obamanian project. Domestic policy is run by Susan Rice, who despises and mocks Biden. Foreign policy is a self-managing clown-show, but there is evidence that things are breaking down at the top (when Burns was in Moscow he spoke to Putin by phone using a landline within the Kremlin; presumably he could not trust the phones in the embassy itself which tells you that something is up). Obama can count on support from the oligarchy and Deep State, unless the threat of unrest from the Red States becomes unmanageable and it is expedient for them to compromise and stick a Republican in.
Trump is not taking too many plane trips lately, so I guess he realises that he is safest in Florida. I bet he gets Melania to taste his food before he digs in.
The Deep State is vast and riddled with competing factions and mafias. One part of the US Deep State supports the agendas Carlson is pushing. Others do not.
Yes, I agree with this. After I finished reading the article I thought “she’s somewhat right, but not quite right”. What you said makes it more correct in my mind. I would add multiple factions of Shadow government… I think most of the agendas probably come from rich, unelected oligarchs, and the people who carry them out are the Deep State
There are about 17 US intelligence agencies. Some are enormous. The senior executive ranks are divided into a complex web of mafias competing for influence. Some sponsor Left causes, others Right, not from conviction, but convenience. The motivations of the mafias are constant: agrandisement, in both power and resources. Some of these mafias are loyal to the system, others purely mercenary. The political agendas at the top are concealed from politicians and subordinates and they have zero loyalty towards those they use. As a rule, the mafias undermine one another all the time, but they will unite to protect the intel community and they mostly keep each others secrets.
The real oligarchs are the 1,000 plus billionaires. The people at the top of the Deep State are desperate to join this strata. The agendas (foreign and domestic) are all about making that happen.
This is an accurate description of the national security state.
In "Harlot's Ghost" Norman Mailer wrote the first half of what was supposed to be the "War and Peace" of the Cold War. Even if you already knew about the evil shenanigans of the CIA etc. Mailer brings to life the insanity required at the individual level to be a part of it all.
Yes, there are definitely factions. How could there not be with $5 trillion sloshing around inside some of the worst accounting systems ever devised, with the most incurious workforce imaginable who choose to be oblivious to protect their sweet defined-benefit pensions, with information classified in perpetuity, with organizations siloed so the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, with most of the real secrets placed in special access programs run by corporate “partners”?
Add to that the secret competing agendas of your 1000 billionaires, the intra-imperial competitions between the five eyes intelligence agencies, the penetration of all US intelligence agencies by Israel (and others), and the absolute control of all politicos through blackmail programs (of which Jeffrey Epstein’s was just the tip of the iceberg). And add into that the power of the central banks, the World Bank, the IMF, the secret societies like the Bilderbergers, the WEF, all those webs of public-private NGOs that are de facto extensions of the deep state, and, yeah, factions.
But how is it that all those rabid cats get more or less herded together by a single dominant narrative? What or who manages that vast rabble into a kind of coherent totalitarian unified program of coordinated international actions? Is there an ultimate puppet master, or an eye in the Pyramid? If so, who (or what) the hell is it? Because if we really want to change things, we have to clearly identify the head of the snake. So, who is The Boss?
There is no boss of bosses, no capo di capi tutti. The Bond villains (Murdoch, Soros, Gates, Zuckerberg, Schwab, Musk) are flak catchers and fully expendable should the powers that be ever need any one of them gone. Coordination is instinctive and informal, like a flock of birds forming around whatever temporary leader sends the right signals. There is no narrative beyond power and money. The agenda re global integration is negotiable. So long as things between Washington and Moscow do not get out of hand (always a possibility) arrangements can be made.
I’m a regular TC viewer, but after this piece, I’ll be paying closer attention. However, to think that our uni-party rule is not influenced by the CCP is naïve . . . at best. Hell, Mitch Turtleface is married to a CCP operative. Also, that you continue to use PayPal via your support system is as equally problematic as Tucker’s past. They are full-tilt narrative control.
Did I read this piece correctly? China literally owns the President of the United States and his son. $13 million? They have every American industry biting their tongues on criticizing china, including the pathetic media. It's as if China is making American foreign and domestic policies because ALL of it benefits China. Some "number one enemy". Tucker is spot on with all of it. China is not lending/investing billions in these countries via belt and road and not going to cash those checks later militarily. China is patient and playing a long game. And Tucker's point is not to challenge them militarily with war, nobody has been more anti-war on corporate media than he has. His point is the fact that the U.S. elites don't give a damn about China's geopolitical expansion because they're on the take. China owns them, just like they own Biden, Mitch, Pelosi etc. They own the U.S. via securities, exports, trade, politicians, entertainment, media, sports, electronics, pharmaceutical (82% sourced in China). Hell they even help produce the pathogens for global plandemics alongside the NIH. And it's not just the Paypal here that's problematic...facebook, youtube, and grotesque patreon with their orwellian blacklisting of creators through their made up b.s. term "Manifest Observable Behavior". Caitlin throwing stones at Tucker and his audience from a glass house.
I think you are close to correct… when you factor in that China got its Technocracy model from some of the oligarchs who really run America (who wanted a test case before they went global), China meddling in the US the way it has could be just another way the Shadow government asserts it’s influence on American politics. Plus China is a useful bogey man - the US blamed things (like the pandemic) on them, they blame it on the US, and everyone else is left confused (now it seems pretty clear it was both of them, working together).
We are on much the same plane. Rivals co-operate when it suits them. And let us not forget that subordinate levels of the Deep State may have an interest in weakening their masters, in order to discredit and ultimately displace them.
Re Covid, it is clear that the US outsourced retrovirus research to China, presumably to surveil their capacity for biowarfare. The Chinese welcomed the money, assumed that they were dealing with the usual corrupt and mercenary Americans and possibly monitored the Deep State side of things as well. How much Beijing was aware of anything is beyond me. I rather doubt that Xi would want a global pandemic.
Technology transfers are so murky it is ridiculous. There is a long history of technology transfer being used for all sorts of purposes. The oligarchs would assume that the technology will spread anyway, so prefer to manage the process themselves.
So we should be concerned that China is taking over the coveted spot of world dominatrix from the US? Well we'll see if they keep up the level of rape and pillage that is expected of one in such a position>
Thanks for clarifying that. I saw Tucker's rant at Bolsonaro's palace and thought to myself, i've not seen evidence yet of China taking over countries. Where's the evidence?? Tucker sure didn't supply any. He just made insinuations. The right is fixated on China like the libs are on Russia. Everyone gets someone to hate. How nice.
Anyways if there is some evidence that China is taking over countries in Latin America or Africa lets see it. As far as them taking over America, well, how paranoid do we want to be?
Exactly. What does taking over mean? A Chinese face on the street or a Chinese business opening up is not the same thing as taking over. There are problems with Chinese communities overseas....as there are with all human groups. The recently established Chinese communities in some South Pacific or African communities do not always work well with others (at least not at first) but the anti-Chinese narrative is suspiciously like anti-Semitism and as inexcusable. The exaggeration and suspicion, above all the lack of any sense of proportion, to the way the debate is developing is a scandal. Worse, it is a threat to us all. We are being manipulated.
China is by force taking international airports in several African countries and so many key installments... It's not an understatement and Tucker is absolutely right, especially on Africa.
It is my feeling that at present, China's "colonization" of Africa is much shrewder and less obviously intrusive than their predecessors that relied on brute force. My impression of BRICS is that it is philosophically opposed to the kind of CIA interventionist, Globohomo, policies of the west, that it seeks international cooperation without hegemony.
The debt trap issue is worth pursuing. The British used debt to establish their power over weaker governments. The best example was in the 19th c when Britain used debt to take control of Egypt. The US used debt throughout the 20th to control allies, clients and rivals, especially through inter-governmental debt. The best explanation of this is Michael Hudson's SUPER IMPERIALISM. If you only ever read one book on economics, make it this one.
If there was any evidence of the Chinese using force, or the threat of force, to compel another country to participate in the Belt and Road initiative it would have been reported in the Western media. China has its faults, there is no need to make up anything, let alone make insinuations. The whole point is that China is using alternatives to force. It is compelled to, since the Chinese lack the naval or air power to dominate Africa or Latin America. Voluntary exchange between China and third parties may undermine America, but America must expect to compete economically with China. The current arrangement, with the US extracting rent from the global economy via the petrodollar and the bond market, is unsustainable.
Please don't confuse military action as the only type of "force". Don't be disingenuous. You need to be better. Much like the "vaccine" mandates globally were never done by "force" right?
If you build infrastructure in a country knowing full well you will take it "by force" when the corrupt third world country you are building it in defaults.....that isn't competing...
You need to get out of your binary thinking pattern. Just because the global American empire is bad and their competitor for world domination is the CCP. That doesn't make the CCP good.
Both are totalitarian organizations. They are both equally bad.
Brilliant piece. Timely. Caitlin, you made plenty of essential points.
Further to your comments, I'd add that the US is not trying to halt China's rise per se. Washington wishes to control its second biggest creditor by using a raft of passive-aggressive policies.
Washington wants trade with China, but on US terms. Ideally, Washington wants China to further develop the cynical deal of yester-year: leverage the exploitation of Chinese labour for US manufacturing, use trade surpluses with the US to invest in US treasury bills (the geopolitical equivalent of protection money) and incentivise the allocation of favours and graft by Chinese firms to US politicians.
To maintain Chinese vulnerability to US pressure, the US needs China to remain reliant on maritime trade routes. The Belt and Road initiative establishes the physical and financial infrastructure for Eurasian integration. It has a maritime dimension, but will provide land based transportation capacity that would reduce China's exposure to the risk of a naval blockade by the US and its allies.
China is frustrated and unhappy with the US. They would vastly prefer to see the US look after the Rust Belt properly. Beijing is always frightened by protectionism within the US and they are disappointed/amazed at the way that Washington neglects its own people. The new Yellow Peril narrative on offer from sections of the US establishment is a threat to us all, as well as ethically and intellectually bankrupt.
The people who have not been and will not be duped by Carlson , or "Tucker," are those millions of Americans under the yoke of neoliberalism and in lifelong bondage to the banks: it takes more than propaganda to make you believe you're not half starved when you are, or that you are better off without that lifesaving operation you can't afford. Blaming China or Russia is a ruse with a short shelf life. The whole idea behind democracy is that it is virtually impossible to control indefinitely and subtly, people who are deeply dissatisfied.
Good point. The experience of everyday life (paying bills, insecure employment, social breakdown) is a force for reality all its own. No propaganda can match it. America is a low trust, low cohesion, society that prioritises the interests of the few over the many. The increasing use of scare tactics and scape-goats is proof that the system is under pressure.
Yes, such tactics have limited use, and they must know that. They've bet the rent that Russia will cave before they do, utterly. That of course is rank stupidity.
The decision-making elite have no personal experience of the kind of lives led by the Western masses, let alone the experience of ordinary Russians. Social and cultural distance disables them.
You had me till you mentioned democracy, even the founding fathers in their writings explain it's a con-job, and it's only gone downhill from there. Even Saint FDR was busy buying time till external threats were done away with. Worst thing to happen to American working class was the collapse of the Soviet Union, no threat means no hold bared on beating down the peonage. Now they need to get rid of China and Russia so they can finish the job.
The idea of socialist democracy is valid and has a very mainly unofficial historical record: no one wants to be enslaved. The democracy we have is not the one we deserve or are told exists, but it does impose expectations, and that is significant: you can't make something happen of you have no concept of it. So "western democracies" must put up some kind of show, keep the true power structure under wraps, or the game is up totally. The system needs the support of the populace in this regard and is inhibited in its methods. So power will try to avoid a showdown, and that will be difficult because the "lesser evil" tactic can't be flogged forever.
Could not agree more! Liberal capitalism was a response to the fear of revolution from below. Once d'etente was firmly entrenched and it was clear that the USSR was not a pressing threat, the push to weaken unions began. After the USSR fell, oligarchs became bolder and bolder. And there is no reason to believe that business would not push living standards down to Zimbabwean levels if they could.
True, and if anti-establishmentarians were truly anti-establishment, they would have no dog in this squabble between Russia and China and the West. All three comprise the establishment. Taking sides means you're not anti-establishment. It means instead you're a Dugin tool.
Perhaps you should take a small break. I've noticed your last few columns have been based more on emotion and less on reason. This is article is outrage porn, nothing more, nothing less. You could have just disagreed with Tucker, but the "Everything I Don't Like Is Propaganda" position, is low brow.
This is you not helping. I was a Bernie Bros, I voted for Jill Stein. So, we have now advanced to "Everything I don't Like Is A Right Winger". Me, a "right winger" lol. Ok, have a wonderful day.
You're here having a shit fit because I called Tucker Carlson what he is. I've encountered many Jill Stein voters who wound up Tucker Carlson stans. Some of them are still raging to this very day because I didn't make the jump with them.
"Tucker Carlson stans" Did I read that right? Really, you said Tucker Carlson stans? Alright then, so we are at the level of discourse where "Trumpkin, or Libtard, are appropriate. Well, I don't have a Twitter account because this is a sewer I refuse to play in. I've enjoyed many of your articles, but It's time to move on. Good bye.
Not sure what kind of life you've lived to give you the expectation that "take a break from your job because you've been getting emotional" would receive a warm response, but best of luck with whatever's going on there.
If you want to piss someone off, or if you want to make a pissed off person angrier, or if you just want to troll...for all three, a very reliable way to do it is to tell them they're being emotional and not focusing on reason. (I.e., "unreasonable.")
If you genuinely think someone's not focusing on the facts as much as they ought to, then give examples. Personally, I don't think Caitlin was overly emotional at all recently. Let's briefly go over recent posts:
-The abortion one was full of good points, IMO.
-The one about NATO expanding being a problem was correct. It IS a problem if you think that the US should be doing diplomacy rather than trying to destroy its competitors.
-Pompeo deserves all the criticism he got in the piece about him.
-Paid operatives on social media swarming anybody who criticizes US foreign policy is also a problem.
I was surprised that Tucker Carlson visited Brazil to boost Bozo's popularity (that's how we call this clown named Bolsonaro). Won't really matter though, he is in desperate mode. All polls in the last 30 months show him losing the election. He and his minions in Congress even changed the constitution to allow for a boost of 10 BILLION dollars to be spent, in election period, as a free handoff to poor people. He's literally trying to buy the election results, and will fail, nonetheless.
China doesn't need to nor should it suck America's ass but it does owe a debt of gratitude in the least. China is not China without America handing over its industrial base to China despite the motivation for doing that. Yes, it was for labor arbitrage purposes which gave the shaft to America's industrial workers and middle class, but Wall Street knew China would reverse engineer and still went ahead anyway. Had Wall Street not done that, China would not be the China we see today. It would still be largely feudal and agrarian and who knows, maybe that would have been better for the world and better for China and actually probably so.
Tucker's brand of conservativism and civic nationalism makes sense when you realise that sections of the elite are now concerned about their own future in an impoverished, Third World, America with a deeply fragmented population. Tucker is laying the groundwork for an ethnically inclusive brand of American nationalism to integrate Asian and Hispanic voters into a new electoral base for the centre Right. The Democrats are in trouble for the immediate future because the electoral politics of the New Deal simply no longer work now that social peace is breaking down. The old remedies (welfare and secure employment) are not available and the more recent ones (cheap consumer credit and the prospect of college as a route to upward mobility) is failing.
The Establishment is split: some oligarchs want a trade war and nationalism, others prefer to crush the middle and working classes under the pretence of repressing white supremacy and saving 'our democracy'. Tucker supports the former.
WOW - Brilliant, I sometimes think I am alone in my views - then along comes Ms. Johnstone to re-assure me I am not alone. I have always disliked Tucker - but when he reported correctly about Julian Assange or the Syrian War Crime - I thought maybe he was becoming a better Journalist. This is most likely allowed so Tucker can gather some credibility and continue with his Establishment Propaganda appearing to be anti-establishment. I always remember that Tucker got his start in broadcasting on CNN and even had that horrible show "Crossfire" that epitomizes the "inside baseball" of American Journalism. I knew Anderson Cooper was former CIA - had no idea Tucker had applied - I always thought he was the heir to the Swanson frozen dinner fortune - can anyone shed any light onto what Tuckers' family is involved in?
he's controlled opposition. CIA asset. nothing more. (no sarcasm) You don't have to take anyone's word. research any of the points above for yourself & you'll discover it's 💯🎯. I'm just a "little" sahm, voracious bookworm , with hundreds of research hours under my belt. 😉. IF you knew everything I do, you would be sick to your stomach🤢
p.s. Obama chief orchestrator of Seth Rich murder. Also " 10% to the big guy" IS Obama NOT Biden. Too many have this wrong
It's "spoogeneck," not "spongeneck" and I know you know that, "Kim."
There was a "Kim" who lived in our neighborhood when I was young. He raped his sister. No lie. I'm guessing he's "pro-life" just like Tucker and Buckley. We know he's all about, like Tucker and Buckley, "spoogeneck."
The POS you're trying to reason with is known to look up people's profiles and go after them based on that. Substack by default makes it easy for readers to expose themselves to the scumbags like that one.
In your profile you can disable displaying your subscriptions. Also, take care whom you subscribe to - that jerk also has a blog. The "authors" can learn somewhat more about their subscribers.
I see you subscribe to Chris Hedges per your profile. If you are emblematic of his audience, he is clearly casting his pearls before swine. Whatever pays the bills, I guess.
His father was CIA and he worked (works) for NED, but just like the CIA is full of drug dealers who get their own in at the same time as doing the bidding of the state oligarchy. Tucker is mostly working for himself, his audience a bunch of tools, or is it trolls, he rents out.
I'm going to admit it: I'm one of those who can see all the BS marketing propaganda about Russia & Ukraine - yet I remain deeply sceptical about China.
As an Australian, it is easy for me to understand that Russia is in no way a threat to us, and should not be considered an enemy. (Besides having looked at some of the historical background of the Ukraine invasion, Russia's position re NATO, the Ukraine attacks on the Donbas, and so on.)
It is also easy to see that Australia has been manipulated by the US, from "All the way with LBJ" for the war in Vietnam, to the sacking of the Whitlam (Labor) government in 1975, and most recently (FFS) with our newly minted PM Albanese attending the NATO summit in Madrid last week.
I'm willing to keep a more open mind about China, especially around the potential for propaganda (which operates in both directions, of course). But my direct experience here is that China has been taking over more and more of this country, and I don't like it. I don't like that the whole area in which I live (in south suburban Brisbane) has become a second Chinatown, with Chinese shops starting to dominate the local shopping centres. Not in an interesting way, either.
I don't like that a Chinese company has a 99 year lease on the Port of Darwin - and that similar Chinese companies now have controlling interests in our energy companies (& other infrastructure), agricultural production, and mining.
I lived and worked in Japan for 3 years, a few decades back, and I've travelled a lot in SE Asia. But I don't want my own country to be turned into a Chinese colony. I don't like the Chinese social credit system, and I don't want it here.
I'm willing to be open to the possibility that most of the protests in Hong Kong were caused by CIA agents, and similarly that most of the "human rights abuses" that we hear about, are simply anti-China propaganda.
However, I also don't want to blindly accept the other position, that China is acting from pure benevolence.
China is a huge country, with a huge need for natural resources, including food, water, and minerals. It makes sense for us to accept China as a valuable trading partner - but not to allow them to exploit us.
I think we should be looking after our own interests as a country, not just following the US in its military exploits, or allowing China to rape us.
Anyhow, I shall continue to try to keep a balanced view, so thank you Caitlin, for presenting this perspective.
The biggest and most persistent rapist is America. At the moment American oil and natural gas companies pay close to zero royalties on several of the major natural gas fields, while they pay highly discounted (by global standards) on others. Non-renewable resources being given away; not even Zimbabwe or Afghanistan does anything quite like that.
Australian did colonialism at home, and then abroad. They are not been shy about keeping neighborhood nations poor and under a debt/military thumb. I think Feud or Jung termed what we've seen in some comments "projection".
https://redflag.org.au/article/neo-colonialism-png
"I'm going to admit it: I'm one of those who can see all the BS marketing propaganda about Russia & Ukraine - yet I remain deeply sceptical about China."
You should be. China isn't led by paragons of ethical probity. But we should all be suspicious of media lynch mobs, which I'm sure you are. Also, I don't think that the Chinese leadership is outright insane. I do think the US leadership class is.
Each set of oligarchs are constrained by different forces. The US oligarchs are limited by the decline in American industrial capacity (which is needed to generate real military power) while the Chinese are limited by their dependency on foreign resources and markets. The 'dance of death' between the two is a threat to ordinary people everywhere. That is the issue. The survival of our masters is not our cause.
It's the ethics, morals, and social codes of the west that are capitalist and thus insane, the leadership just reflects it. North Asia for 2500 years has as it's bases for the same Confucian ethics firmly rooted in all it's cultural points. In times of crisis they often deviated from them, but at least have as firm anchors to return to. It's not just the leaders of western society, but the whole society that has a terminal sickness, with the most diseased specimens in North America, then Britain, and Western Europe. Chris Arnade catches the pathos in his latest posts on walkingtheworld.substack.com Vietnam, hardly a sycophant to China, shows it's Sinophile socialist roots in the social group activities (Chinese chess, communal dining, taichi) striving against the social ills of consumerism driven by western psychology driven advertisement mind polluting games(and winning so far). Meanwhile on George Galloways show a caller in explained how guns were necessary because one has to fear ones neighbors in "Mericuh".
The true Iron Curtain of today is between those societies that have substantially dissolved the bonds of trust, respect and cooperation between neighbours and strangers and those that have not.
I reckon Australians who see themselves as progressive & liberal minded, by & large are "concerned" about a commercial lease for Port Darwin by a Chinese company because it's a Chinese company. Yet seldom voice the same concern about US military installations on Australian soil E.g Pine Gap.
The Port Darwin thing secures bilateral trade & was a win win scenario; while Pine Gap secures an irradiated landscape ... but then it's protecting ya'll freedumbs so I guess there's that.
The acceptance of the US has a legacy in growing liberalization of the western world until about 40 years ago when it shifted away from liberty and towards wealth extraction. China has no such pretense.
There have been plenty of protests about Pine Gap, way back in cold war days when there was an active actual Peace Movement. Maybe we all just grew older and gave up, in the face of government indifference to people's opinions, together with the end of the cold war.
And as someone else pointed out in this thread, it is not a case of "either-or".
Personally, I would kick both of them out.
The bilateral trade advantage seems to go down the drain when it suits them (like now) so I would rather the CCP didn't have a controlling interest in access to our ports and air-space.
Hehe, if you think property is sacrosanct, good on you, that puts you squarely in the 99% cattle class with the rest of us. Tell that one to anyone from any people who's some how survived Eminent Domain, or perhaps go to chat with a Oz based diplomat from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezuela, or better yet a headman of the Wakkawakka about the value of a contract or common law rights. Frankly, considering the foundations of "white" Australia, I think the Chinese are idiots to trust their investments to the protection of the state, but what exactly did they buy them with, US Fed notes of deposit, which are also a fiction.
Point taken, but given its strategic position and that "Chinese company" means Chinese government ultimately it wasn't decision serving our interest.
Can you explain where China is raping Oz? If you mean paying and playing capitalism just like every other nation that trades with Oz, then what you are really saying is rape known as capitalism only hurt when its not coming from other white people. In that case just change all of the remarks about China to Chinese and it will be a closer read to the intent.
If Oz wants to prostitute itself, that's their option.
If there are Aussies who aren't happy having been sold by their pimps to China, well, elect new pimps.
If, like in America, there's no difference between pimps, then exercise your (non-existent) second amendment rights. Do like the Black Panthers did in Sacramento and show up on "capital hill" (or what ever it is called in Oz) with your long guns.
Or "vote blue no matter who" and then wonder why your rear end hurts.
Blaming China for the corruption of your own government is just STUPID.
Prostitute is not the right word. No prostitute with any self-respect would behave the way Australian politicians did towards China from the early 90s until yesterday. And the politicians were not the worst, not by a long shot: higher education, big business, the media, they all abased themselves for financial advantage. And the corruption by China only became an issue when the USA started falling out with Beijing. Corruption is guaranteed because of our libel laws and the widespread belief, unsustained by any hard evidence, that as an Anglo country, we are, by definition, free from corruption.
Once the US gets their own affairs (government) in order then I will grant you the right to give advice to us in Australia. Even perhaps to sneer at us.
Meanwhile, your addiction to guns has done nothing except to escalate the level of violence in your country.
A "might is right" attitude works up to a point, both internationally and domestically. But I think we are fast getting to the point where some more sophisticated problem solving is called for.
I feel "your addiction to guns has done nothing except to escalate the level of violence..." is below belt since the
the whole "gun issue" and violence has been, and for a very long time, heavily manipulated socially and politically.
That's true. I try to stay out of the gun debate in the US, because the Second Amendment was a hard-won right, and it is a particularly emotive issue for Americans. And yes, heavily manipulated on both sides.
However, I don't like the repeated comments from Americans about "Australia gave up their guns", as though we are living in some sort of inferior status because of not having easy gun ownership.
But I don't want to get into it here, or it will open a whole new can of worms. There are arguments on both sides, good arguments - but let's stick to one highly emotive topic at a time!
My apologies.
There is no way I meant to insinuate that the USA is in any way "better" WRT prostituting itself. If you want to take it as a "sneer" then talk to JuiceMedia.
As far as the adiction to guns is concerned, in theory I agree with you.
Now, give me an alternative that might actually make a difference.
I do not, and never have, own a gun. I was just pointing out that the Black Panthers made a point very effectively.
If you don't like "might makes right" give me the alternative. They seem to get assassinated.
Apology accepted!
Mind, I agree with most of what you say, but it's one thing to criticise your own country, and another to have someone else do it.
As for the "might is right" issue, there is no easy answer, and maybe there isn't one at all.
Ultimately, power is a universal principle, and if not physical power, than some other level of power: psychological, spiritual, whatever.
I'm no snowflake pacifist - I've spent over 10 years (3 of them in Japan) training in Aikido, which embodies a philosophy of peacefulness in self-defence. I've not ever been in a real physical fight, but I did work for 5 years in the correctional system in this country, as a psychologist, and found that the principle of "extending ki" served me well, in de-escalating conflict situations.
Internationally, it used to be understood that diplomacy was an important part of resolving conflict. But unfortunately we have no statesmen in the West anymore, and the art of diplomacy and conflict resolution seem to be forgotten these days.
Ok, the rape is from huge transnational companies, the Chinese ones seemingly controlled by the CCP in the Chinese version of capitalism, and most of the others controlled by transnational private interests (the majority of which seem to come down to Blackrock, whose controlling owners are kept private). It's not really a matter of whether the rape is from black, white, yellow or brindle - if you are a country on the receiving end of it, it hurts. The only reason I would make a distinction between, for example, Landbridge (the company with the Port of Darwin contract) and Adani (a company that is mining for coal in north-west Queensland) is that Landbridge is a Chinese company that is reputed to be controlled (or working closely with) the CCP, while Adani, an Indian company, is privately owned and notorious for dodgy environmental practices, tax-avoidance, and fraudulent business dealings, and definitely not in cahoots with the Indian government. In one case (Adani) their motives can be ascribed purely to profit, whereas Landbridge & other companies buying controlling interests in our infrastructure may have more sinister motives. In any event, they are placing themselves strategically to be able to control our infrastructure, which is something that no country should allow.
Sorry Mara. I didn't read all of your comment and feel that I must disagree with your perception of the recent and now past increases by China in Australian companies and industries.
Yes. The best example is Darwin and the Port. Who allowed that to happen? A state government. We were not held at gunpoint or had our lives threatened to conclude such a ridiculous transaction as that has turned out to be. Someone approved it. An Australian or group of Australians.
Also, again with respect, shareholding in companies by foreign companies must go through a process which allows the government of the day to approve such transactions, or otherwise. All very straight forward. It is again an approval from Australia. Someone approved these transactions, An Australian.Yes, Electric power, gas, dairy farms, cattle stations and on. However, China's investment is paltry compared to the US ownership of our country.
Now if you want to pursue the stupidity of what has happened in this feckless country over time, just look at the ownership of our banks, Shareholders. Australians.? Hardly, the same greedy foreign financiers like who own half of America. They were allowed in en masse and we pay the price, ongoing for ever. HSBC, CitiGroup just to name two.
Don't even think on who owns the naturals gas in Australia, the Americans owners export overseas at a great profit while we pay for our own resources through the nose......and very soon get cold in winter unless we can reclaim some of this for our own use. Australia is the only country in the world allowing international oil companies to access and export natural gas without prioritising local supply.
We are totally naive.
It is all based on what Australia has allowed this country to become over time. Foreign investment and ownership at any price with foreign control over our external policies.
And now a country totally subservient to the USA and its military objectives. I would rather deal with China as a client in a proper business-like manner than be a servile bag carrier for a criminal country like America, a country that will demand to populate the north of Australia with bases and military weaponry to add to the 800+ bases in the world now.
Australia a target.... Indeed. Mainland USA a target. Not a chance
Already on the drawing board. Will we give them the OK? Of course. It’s what we do.
Contrarian, I couldn't agree more. To "deal with China as a client in a proper business-like manner" would be my ideal too.
But Australia has been a puppet of foreign powers from its inception, as a penal colony of England. Then back in the 1950s we allowed British nuclear testing at Maralinga, in our beautiful outback, followed by the US bases at Pine Gap, and they also have a (rotating) base at Darwin.
And when we do get a leader who shows a bit of leadership or independence, they get ousted, often by their own party machine.
But Australia is by no means alone in that - every Western country seems to be under the thumb of the Controllers (and it would be simplistic to say "the US" - the "military-industrial complex" might be closer to the truth).
Well painted background of the whole sorry situation.
There is nothing you said that is not true. It's all of our own doing.
Three cheers for all of that. Australia is an obese, supersized, version of Okinawa or Guam, a forward base for the US to project force across Asia. And forget about China, the local national security people will use every opportunity for institutional and personal self-aggrandisement and the diminution of our rights.
Exactly. Mara didn't have a problem with Americans taking over Australia. But the Chinese?!
Frankly, I am not sure that Adani is any less sinister. The gov't gave them that mining lease because they were (still are) trying to buy influence in India. Giving Indian oligarchs a share in Australia was the unacknowledged part of the deal that went with the ludicrous Quad. Australian resources are just being used to restructure alliances and linkages to suit the grand agenda of Washington, London and Canberra.
Private equity is a great way for our masters to drain wealth. It is also a great way for them to enrich themselves or each other via a trade in favours. Rudd's wife made a bundle on a gov't contract in the UK. You can bet your life there were strings attached. Many of the companies which deal extensively with gov't employ the wives and children of politicians. Australian capitalism is just as corrupt as any Indian or Chinese company.
Phillip, don't get me wrong - I don't like Adani, and I have put a lot of time, energy and money too, donating to various legal cases, signing petitions, and writing letters. (Not that any of that does much good.) There are all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't let them mine here, from the stomping on the rights of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, to dredging the Reef, polluting the water table, and exporting our natural resources with a lucrative tax deal. But that cause has now been hijacked by the "Stop Climate Change" movement, and everything now is about carbon dioxide and "dirty coal".
It's just that Caitlin's original post is about China (the CCP) and how they are being maligned by the media.
That may be true, but I think we also have grounds to be wary.
Glad to hear that you are active on behalf of good causes. It makes a difference. Don't let anyone ever tell you that it doesn't. Even if you fail, you are still putting the powers that be on notice that someone wants to hold them accountable and believe me, they pay attention to that. They would be even worse if they thought that they could get away with it.
Personally, I'd say saving the lungfish habitat is the key one...fauna like that are invaluable...one cannot exaggerate the intrinsic value of something as rare as that.
China is complex. No one should have any illusions about the gov't there. Ditto the incitement on offer in our media. Awareness is resistance. Respect (for the Chinese people) is the only sane and decent way ahead.
Yes, Capitalist are going to do what Capitalism demands. I'm constantly amazed that anyone could see Madam Jabbaette-The-Hut Creosote, née Georgina Rinehart, as a better option than Chinese or Indians. It' amazing what institutional bigotry can do to twist a mind.
In one case (Adani) their motives can be ascribed purely to profit, whereas Landbridge & other companies buying controlling interests in our infrastructure may have more "sinister" motives.
I'd be interested to know what is more sinister (left handed?) than capitalism, is it "capitalism with Chinese characteristics"? "Your honour**, the person was seen using his left hand, he must have sinister motives." "Well, that's good enough for me, throw them in the jail, right next to Assange will do."
**When a speaker has to tell a person they have honour, it means the speaker is lying and the listener doesn't care.
JM, having another country controlling your ports (especially Darwin, where there is a key military installation), your airports (yes, there are Chinese companies getting similar control of these) and your energy infrastructure is more sinister than a company after profit alone.
In my opinion.
It is the difference between having someone burgle your house, and injecting you with nano-bots to potentially control your mind and behaviour.
You've obviously got your own pet peeves, which is fine by me.
I'm open to thoughtful discussion, though preferably not along mainstream party lines. Not everything is about racism - that is a reductionist argument in this instance.
Just don't inflict your one-dimensional thinking on me.
As a fellow Australian I can honestly say that what you wrote above reflects my view on the situation. I also can see where Caitlin's coming from and have noticed recently more and more opinions emphasising the benevolence of Chinese economical interference. But I understand that
every and each government is acting in its interest and can not be expected
to be acting out of some altruistic motives. The port of Darwin lease
was a despicable decision made by our government and an example of
stupidity and political myopia that can not be excused. Mara, I think we can agree that our beautiful country and its people deserve better governmence that we've been served with.
Pretty much if China is buying up your country, you can't blame China. It is your political leaders
yanis varoufakis from Greece talks about a one-sided deal that the previous government had made with China. He went to China and said so. They renegotiated the deal without any problems. (Now that's what Yanis said, you may not want to believe him) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGeevtdp1WQ&t=4406s
Thank you. I agree. I learned about the evils of the CCP mostly from dissenting Chinese people who have emigrated. China's a scary place to be a dissenter. I don't want to go to war with China either, but just because the U.S. military-industrial complex is currently causing more harm globally doesn't make the CCP desirable. I think the U.S. would dearly love to imiplement some of the same totalitarian policies, but they have to keep up some appearance of caring about democracy at home, unlike the CCP.
Yet China has eliminated "extreme poverty" (or so they claim, but it has been backed up by other sources.)
I certainly cannot suggest that the CCP is desirable, but at the same time, how is it any worse than the American duopoly?
In China, the Government controls the Billionaires.
Throughout the West, the Billionaires control the government.
It is a tough choice, but I like the fact that Xi is executing some billionaire crooks. Imagine that happening in the USA.
The willingness to kill billionaires accounts for the horror inspired by Red China. If they were only killing street people or the unemployed, they'd be used as a case study in best practice at the Harvard Business School.
The injustices of China are real, I have no doubt about that, but what is impressive is the resolve and human excellence (especially in education). China is very tough, but the people running things are seriously intelligent. I respect that. It is a contrast with the West.
Everyone can be wrong in a situation. It's like that Hitler or Stalin argument. Which is a lesser evil depends very much on circumstance. The correct answer to that question is always 'neither is acceptable.' That's part of why the U.S. is so screwed up now, because both parties try to demonize the other because they think it makes them look like the good guy, but in reality they both just suck.
Executing people on an operating table for heart/lung transplantation gives me nightmares. I have no illusion how I would fare in a place like that.
The growing allergy towards dissent across the West is frightening. At a pinch, I could live without democracy, but the increasing hostility towards people who do not fit in ideologically exposes me to danger. I expect that you are the same. It is not about politics or ideology (ultimately Left and Right are all bullshit), for me its more basic than that. It is existential.
Where did you get this interesting story of operating table execution? I'm interested in the quality of the source.
Years ago. The mainstream media. Now that you mention it, I'd have to admit that it may well be psyop/propaganda.
the Falun gong have been claiming for some time that their people have been used for organ harvesting... I have a friend who is addicted to infowars that claimed that during the Olympics there were fresh organs available to anyone who might need them... These rumours are still going on.
Falun Gong? The people on the street handing out fliers seem nice enough and I admire their dedication and idealism. Not certain what to believe about China beyond noting that Western governments care nothing about organ-harvesting in China or anywhere else if mention of the subject puts profits at risk. Infowars is entertaining, but a worry too. The psyops-industrial complex dominates a lot of the 'alternative' spectrum. At the very least, Alex Jones has protection from above, so disseminating a bit of propaganda every now and again is probably just his way of paying his dues.
It's not rape when it's consensual... and under capitalism anyone with the cash can buy what they like.. you don't like the system in Australia? Well that's something to complain about.
You sound just like a racist.
I am, of course. I expect you are too. What does that have to do with the topic?
That is the sort of comment I would expect on FB, but not on Substack. Name-calling instead of thoughtful discussion.
Like you, Mara, I do not see a lot of common ground between China and most western countries. It has always been that way. But there was no better trading partner for the range of products we sell than China. We should remember that and it was the dictates of Biden and Co on a weak Australian Prime Minister that made us a sacrificial lamb and ruined that export market, forever. It could have been managed, but wasn't.
Just for interest, some of these export products are now being supplied by the USA. Does that surprise anyone? Also applies in Europe with fuel, gas and grain products after the US and its stooges instituted all their sanctions against Russia. There has to be a winner in such matters and it is always the USA. In Europe right now, increasing its exports daily.
Another coincidence?
Historically we have a history of being a servile supporter of dictatorial powers having grovelled to the UK until 1945 and since them jumping at every command by the world's most villainous country, in any era. And so it will always be as indications of QUAD, AWKUS, ANZUS and now a new Pacific Forum set the tone for our future.
Please try and avoid being disappointed with the new government, Mara. Six weeks today has shown us that when beckoned, Australia comes running to US / NATO functions, everywhere we are required to show our allegiance to the big bully.
It will never be otherwise. Six weeks confirms that clearly.
To be honest, I never really expected otherwise. Both Scomo & Albo are puppets who have been put in those leadership positions purely because they do what they are told by the backroom boys. I'm disappointed that the Greens & Teals got so much support, and that the Freedom parties got so little (or not where it counts) - but not truly surprised, given the marketing around climate change & so on.
Empire 1: US
2: China
3: Russia
Yay nonalignment!
How small does Russia have to shrink before you'd say it isn't an empire? Maybe look at the Soviet Union borders might help.
Until its borders do not extend to any known or accessible reserves of oil, gas or minerals and the inhabitants of all territories turned into livestock or feral fauna, depending on their degree of obedience. The value of the livestock will depend on wage levels set by global arbitrage, the value of all other fauna by the availability of organs for transplant or wombs for hire elsewhere on the planet. Governance will be negotiated between the relevant stakeholders in accordance with best practice as established by ESG and the global consensus on property law. Then, and only, then will Russia be ready for full acceptance into the rules based international order.
That is the view within NATO.
Thank you for revealing this. I've had the sense that Tucker is a double propaganda agent--mixing lies in with truth so you swallow the whole. And on Africa, don't forget the 14 countries forced to use the African franc. Currency colonization is why Quaddafi got a French bullet to the brain for intending to create the Pan-African dinar backed by Libyan gold.
Quadaffi was not lucky enough to get a bullet. He died from internal bleeding after a metal pipe was forced into his backside. The barbarism was filmed and broadcast. Hilary famously joked when she discussed his death.
I have to laugh at the fruitcakes here and elsewhere who lament Kadaffy Duck's death and manner of death. They won't bother to shed a tear for Sophie Scholl, but Kadaffy Duck, well, he's a hero and a martyr. That's honey trap bullshit for sure. Nobody forced Kadaffy to swim in the waters he swam in. He was a brutal military dictator and certainly not the answer to empire or imperialism. That's not apologia for the West's machinations regarding Libya by the way. I never condoned any of it. A bullet to Kadaffy Duck's head would have been more acceptable and that bullet should have been delivered and could have been forty years prior at least. It wasn't because Kadaffy was useful in some way.
It's up to the people of his country to decide, not some western dude, what is best for them. That's what sovereignty is about.
They did decide. They decided to end Kadaffy Duck's life brutally. Next you'll tell me I should shed a tear for what the Italians did to Mussolini and his mistress.
It was a Hillary operation. "We came, we saw, he died <cackle, cackle, cackle>"
Tereza is right -- Kaddafi was negotiating with the rest of Africa to set up a pan-African currency that would have challenged the dollar's dominance.
"The people" didn't "decide" anything. There were NGOs financed by NED that organized terrorist mobs to take down the Libyan government. Look at the mess it is in now.
Libya is just another victim of the US quest for hegemony. It is disturbing that you maintain a "Tucker Carlson" perspective on what is happening in the world.
Same way as mobs took down the legitimate government of Ukraine. With the same disastrous result
Now I know you're an imposter. Ukraine has never had a legitimate government since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Corruption is all Ukraine has ever known.
👍💯🎯 it was a Killary Operation. They wanted his gold. Quadaffi also kept terrorists in check. He was no saint BUT facts are facts. Amazing how sheeple quick to battle for CIA asset "Phucker Carlson". Focus on what he's NOT reporting. Same with Elon Musk. Focus on what he's NOT releasing.
HIGHLY SUGGEST follow Tore Says for insider very painful truth
Libya was more a France operation than it was an American operation. Sark led the charge of the Light Brigade. Obama had to be pushed kicking and screaming into it. It was not his choice, but of course, he ultimately did acquiesce.
the troll is back spewing the typical propaganda...too obvious
Rich is a "spoogeneck" type of guy, don't you know? Is that you Buckley?
by your choice for a screen name I'm guessing you're referring to intelligence
Except that they didn't. The country was looted once he was gone.
It's tragic what has become of Libya and it was foreseeable and maybe even intended by those who stoked the civil war. That's independent of the fact that Libyans decided to brutally execute him.
Only Simple-tons expect a tear out of Necessities. A Bear only sheds crocodile tears.
I have a chapter in my book on Qaddafi called Swept Away by the Currency, mostly informed by Vijay Prashad's Arab Spring, Libyan Winter. After he nationalized the 3M barrels of oil per day exported by the 7 Sisters, Prashad writes: "The money was then diverted towards social welfare, mainly an increase in housing and healthcare ... fixing a minimum wage and slashing the obscene rents being charged by property owners ... When Qaddafi took power, the literacy rate in Libya was a miserable 20%. The consequences of the transfer payments lifted the rate to 90% by 1980." He allowed people to settle on confiscated Italian land with interest free loans and low interest to buy farm equipment and a gov't salary until they became self-sufficient. He built the Man-Made River that brought water to 70% of the population. Workers took control of about 200 companies and bank holdings had an upper limit. He donated $300M to help Africa set up their own satellite phone system instead of paying Europe $500M a year. All possible because Libya isn't part of the BIS and owns its banks and currency--something it was about to bring to all of Africa along with Laurent Gbagbo of the Cote d'Ivoire.
Instead, Qaddafi ends up brutally murdered, as Phillip points out, and the new BIS Bank of Benghazi is formed and an oil deal with Qatar is signed before his body is cold in the freezer where it's thrown. Gbagbo was kidnapped in a French coup and taken to the Hague.
I don't really care about analyzing personalities, Qaddafi's or Putin's or Trump's. I analyze policies and their actual results. That Carlson is making a hero of Bolsonaro tells me he's either complicit or deluded. It matters which, but the result is the same.
The Sisters....remember Enrico Mattei? Enough said. I believe that the first official act of the anti-Gaddaffi forces was to establish a central bank. The first rebels in history to do anything like that. It gives it all away. The BIS is surely one of the great fountains of evil and cruelty. We all need to do as much as possible to direct attention towards it.
Your disinclination to analyze personalities is wise. Keeping the focus on the tangible, pragmatic, facts is the key. A focus on personalities leads us astray.
Yes! I titled my subsection on this "Insurgents in Suits." What rebel mob sets up a Central Bank?
Glad that you appreciate my practice of politics as policy rather than personalitics, which is all our current level of debate boils down to.
And Sunni Arabs at that! The only people on earth to retain a cultural/religious abhorrence of finance. And the rebels were supported by Qatar (which is Wahabi). The official narrative does not add up.
Thank you Tereza, was sketchy on details but knew of the overall picture. And now, what? Only three BIS independent countries left, is that right?
That's a great question and google, from a quick search, is not going to give us that answer! I think that Russia has been able to decouple thanks to the sanctions. I talk about Putin's brilliant economic policies, which I suspect are due to Sergei Glazyev, in Russia: A Wrench in the Reset Gears? Iran is certainly not a part. Venezuela? And the elephant, China? China definitely creates its own currency and has been able to fund projects without borrowing, which caching all the export wealth. What three are you thinking of?
https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/russia-a-wrench-in-the-reset-gears
I thought probably North Korea, Iran and China but truth be told I don't know for sure, this is all way too complex for me. Just trying to understand what's going on in general. Thanks for the link Tereza.
Oh of course N Korea! Thank you for subscribing to me, Marta. I'm so happy you found it worthwhile!
I have to laugh at people who think fallen dictators like Qaddafi getting what they deserve was some kind of western delivered justice. They won't bother to shed a tear for the thousands of victims of Reagan's born again death squads in El Salvador in the 1980's (War on drugs? just say no! Iran-Contra scandal anyone?) They turn away from the 3 million starved to death by Churchill in Bengal in 1943. Only some dictators are worthy of their hate...you know, the uppity swarthy fellows like Sadaam (who the US continued to help, even when he was using chemical weapons on Kurdish civilians)...and now the mass slaughtering in Yemen by the head chop prince of the house of Saud...'please sir, can I have some more...oil'. All that sniveling western hand wringing...about dictators...really?
Exactly. Not to mention that no US president was a saint, does it justify a foreign power overthrowing him for alleged misdoings (and there are plenty)?
No doubt many feel that way, but not me. That's not even a good try. I'm not sure what persuasion you are if any, but you're a buffoon if you think Kadaffy Duck is someone or something to use as a retort to or resistance to empire or imperialism. How is blowing up nearly 300 noncombatants over Lockerbie "giving it to the man?"
There are three worlds.
1. The world we live in.
2. The world that could and should be.
3. The world we want to live in.
When discussing Kadaffy Duck and his demise, I prefer to analyze it according the the world in which we live. That's the context. In a world that could and should be, not only is what happened to Kadaffy anathema and nay impossible, but so too is the likes of Kadaffy anathema and nay impossible and that's the world I want to live in but unfortunately that isn't this world, is it?
I lament nothing but the manner that he was murdered was cruel and foul. Gaddaffi was no hero, but Libya did have the highest standard of living in Africa and the terrorist stuff he admitted to sponsoring (as a price for reconciling with the West) was in fact carried out by the Syrians. The religious nuts who hated Gaddaffi are stooges of the Western intelligence services.
You are dead right about Gaddaffi being useful. The anti-Western antics of Gaddaffi (like Mugabe etc) never got in the way of essential business. It is political theatre.
I agree the cheering on of his undignified execution by Hillary and Obama and their ilk was sick. So much for human rights. What disgusting hypocrites they are.
I am comfortable with their hypocrisy, it is their lack of empathy that is chilling. We are ruled by sociopaths. There is no limit to the cruelty that people like Hilary and Obama will tolerate and there is no point believing that they feel any differently towards any of us.
The world at large is ruled by psychopaths, no exceptions.
The manner of his death could be one big reason why Putin is doing what he is doing - he does not want to end up like that.
His actions assure he will. For someone who is so smart, he's not so smart. The American Christian Fascists he has helped enable will turn on him in a heart beat and ram a bayonet so far up his ass it exits his mouth. That, or they will nuke Russia MAD be damned.
Phillip, see my answer to SBN if you think that nationalizing the oil and demonstrating what can be done with a Central Bank not tied to the BIS and a currency not held in the French Treasury never got in the way of essential business. He almost torpedoed the petrodollar a decade earlier than Putin is. The "Axis of Evil" corresponds exactly to the small handful of countries whose central banks aren't tied to the BIS and IMF. Owning the oil is chump change. The big game hunters go for the currency in which oil can be bought.
Yeah, the NIH tracks the private communications of CIA double propaganda agents. The district of corruption has been trying to get tucker off the air for years because you know, double propaganda agent for the deep state.
There has been no serious effort by anyone who matters to take Tucker Carlson off the air, any more than there was any serious effort by anyone who matters to get rid of Trump. The TV man is not your friend.
Have to reply that I like your comment. For some reason I am only allowed to like a few comments.
The entire demonrat party and their communications division comprised of 98% corporate state media (CIA controlled) have been screaming bloody murder about tucker for years and they just rigged an election to get rid of trump and spent four years undermining his presidency with Russiagate lies. Must be all for show by nobody who matters lol. TV man friend is better suited for Twitter performances where you'll get the 'gotchya' cheers from followers.
You can count, can't you? Who owns Fox? Who owns Verizon? Who owns ClearChannel, and then there are the radio and newspaper conglomerates. You need to get help with that glue sniffing habit.
Exactly. So once again I will reiterate, if Trump remains free, and it appears despite all the faux media rage he will remain free, and he wins in 2024, all this investment in NATO expansion will come to a halt and that investment may be lost or squandered. These are some of the most powerful people on earth. Will they just sit by and let Trump do it again? If Biden and Garland arrest Trump and his henchmen, at least they — Trump and his henchmen — will live. If Biden and Garland don't, the only fate I see for Trump at least, is death. Is Biden setting that up by holding Garland back?
NATO means shit. The taxpayers will pick up the tab. Washington is always about Washington. The question of who controls Panem/Mordor takes priority over all else.
Obama will get Michelle to run in 2024 on the grounds that only she can save 'our democracy'. Biden's administration is essentially a covert Obamanian project. Domestic policy is run by Susan Rice, who despises and mocks Biden. Foreign policy is a self-managing clown-show, but there is evidence that things are breaking down at the top (when Burns was in Moscow he spoke to Putin by phone using a landline within the Kremlin; presumably he could not trust the phones in the embassy itself which tells you that something is up). Obama can count on support from the oligarchy and Deep State, unless the threat of unrest from the Red States becomes unmanageable and it is expedient for them to compromise and stick a Republican in.
Trump is not taking too many plane trips lately, so I guess he realises that he is safest in Florida. I bet he gets Melania to taste his food before he digs in.
Helicopter rides included. He knows all about that considering he had his casino managers who had all the goods on him murdered by helicopter crash.
The Deep State is vast and riddled with competing factions and mafias. One part of the US Deep State supports the agendas Carlson is pushing. Others do not.
Yes, I agree with this. After I finished reading the article I thought “she’s somewhat right, but not quite right”. What you said makes it more correct in my mind. I would add multiple factions of Shadow government… I think most of the agendas probably come from rich, unelected oligarchs, and the people who carry them out are the Deep State
There are about 17 US intelligence agencies. Some are enormous. The senior executive ranks are divided into a complex web of mafias competing for influence. Some sponsor Left causes, others Right, not from conviction, but convenience. The motivations of the mafias are constant: agrandisement, in both power and resources. Some of these mafias are loyal to the system, others purely mercenary. The political agendas at the top are concealed from politicians and subordinates and they have zero loyalty towards those they use. As a rule, the mafias undermine one another all the time, but they will unite to protect the intel community and they mostly keep each others secrets.
The real oligarchs are the 1,000 plus billionaires. The people at the top of the Deep State are desperate to join this strata. The agendas (foreign and domestic) are all about making that happen.
This is an accurate description of the national security state.
In "Harlot's Ghost" Norman Mailer wrote the first half of what was supposed to be the "War and Peace" of the Cold War. Even if you already knew about the evil shenanigans of the CIA etc. Mailer brings to life the insanity required at the individual level to be a part of it all.
Yes, there are definitely factions. How could there not be with $5 trillion sloshing around inside some of the worst accounting systems ever devised, with the most incurious workforce imaginable who choose to be oblivious to protect their sweet defined-benefit pensions, with information classified in perpetuity, with organizations siloed so the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, with most of the real secrets placed in special access programs run by corporate “partners”?
Add to that the secret competing agendas of your 1000 billionaires, the intra-imperial competitions between the five eyes intelligence agencies, the penetration of all US intelligence agencies by Israel (and others), and the absolute control of all politicos through blackmail programs (of which Jeffrey Epstein’s was just the tip of the iceberg). And add into that the power of the central banks, the World Bank, the IMF, the secret societies like the Bilderbergers, the WEF, all those webs of public-private NGOs that are de facto extensions of the deep state, and, yeah, factions.
But how is it that all those rabid cats get more or less herded together by a single dominant narrative? What or who manages that vast rabble into a kind of coherent totalitarian unified program of coordinated international actions? Is there an ultimate puppet master, or an eye in the Pyramid? If so, who (or what) the hell is it? Because if we really want to change things, we have to clearly identify the head of the snake. So, who is The Boss?
There is no boss of bosses, no capo di capi tutti. The Bond villains (Murdoch, Soros, Gates, Zuckerberg, Schwab, Musk) are flak catchers and fully expendable should the powers that be ever need any one of them gone. Coordination is instinctive and informal, like a flock of birds forming around whatever temporary leader sends the right signals. There is no narrative beyond power and money. The agenda re global integration is negotiable. So long as things between Washington and Moscow do not get out of hand (always a possibility) arrangements can be made.
I’m a regular TC viewer, but after this piece, I’ll be paying closer attention. However, to think that our uni-party rule is not influenced by the CCP is naïve . . . at best. Hell, Mitch Turtleface is married to a CCP operative. Also, that you continue to use PayPal via your support system is as equally problematic as Tucker’s past. They are full-tilt narrative control.
Did I read this piece correctly? China literally owns the President of the United States and his son. $13 million? They have every American industry biting their tongues on criticizing china, including the pathetic media. It's as if China is making American foreign and domestic policies because ALL of it benefits China. Some "number one enemy". Tucker is spot on with all of it. China is not lending/investing billions in these countries via belt and road and not going to cash those checks later militarily. China is patient and playing a long game. And Tucker's point is not to challenge them militarily with war, nobody has been more anti-war on corporate media than he has. His point is the fact that the U.S. elites don't give a damn about China's geopolitical expansion because they're on the take. China owns them, just like they own Biden, Mitch, Pelosi etc. They own the U.S. via securities, exports, trade, politicians, entertainment, media, sports, electronics, pharmaceutical (82% sourced in China). Hell they even help produce the pathogens for global plandemics alongside the NIH. And it's not just the Paypal here that's problematic...facebook, youtube, and grotesque patreon with their orwellian blacklisting of creators through their made up b.s. term "Manifest Observable Behavior". Caitlin throwing stones at Tucker and his audience from a glass house.
I think you are close to correct… when you factor in that China got its Technocracy model from some of the oligarchs who really run America (who wanted a test case before they went global), China meddling in the US the way it has could be just another way the Shadow government asserts it’s influence on American politics. Plus China is a useful bogey man - the US blamed things (like the pandemic) on them, they blame it on the US, and everyone else is left confused (now it seems pretty clear it was both of them, working together).
We are on much the same plane. Rivals co-operate when it suits them. And let us not forget that subordinate levels of the Deep State may have an interest in weakening their masters, in order to discredit and ultimately displace them.
Re Covid, it is clear that the US outsourced retrovirus research to China, presumably to surveil their capacity for biowarfare. The Chinese welcomed the money, assumed that they were dealing with the usual corrupt and mercenary Americans and possibly monitored the Deep State side of things as well. How much Beijing was aware of anything is beyond me. I rather doubt that Xi would want a global pandemic.
Technology transfers are so murky it is ridiculous. There is a long history of technology transfer being used for all sorts of purposes. The oligarchs would assume that the technology will spread anyway, so prefer to manage the process themselves.
Owns? I thought Biden was available for rent only.
No that's his son..
So we should be concerned that China is taking over the coveted spot of world dominatrix from the US? Well we'll see if they keep up the level of rape and pillage that is expected of one in such a position>
TL;DR Tucker: "We're only ones who get to colonize Brazil!"
The joke in Africa goes as follows:
When a Chinese delegation visits, they deliver a hospital. When a western delegation visits, they deliver a lecture.
Upon hearing this, some western commentator wishes to remind us that Chinese aid has strings attached and you need to think twice...
And there's the lecture, right on cue.
All aid, any aid, has strings attached. The Chinese, unlike the Americans and the West, are adept at hiding those strings.
Thanks for clarifying that. I saw Tucker's rant at Bolsonaro's palace and thought to myself, i've not seen evidence yet of China taking over countries. Where's the evidence?? Tucker sure didn't supply any. He just made insinuations. The right is fixated on China like the libs are on Russia. Everyone gets someone to hate. How nice.
Anyways if there is some evidence that China is taking over countries in Latin America or Africa lets see it. As far as them taking over America, well, how paranoid do we want to be?
Exactly. What does taking over mean? A Chinese face on the street or a Chinese business opening up is not the same thing as taking over. There are problems with Chinese communities overseas....as there are with all human groups. The recently established Chinese communities in some South Pacific or African communities do not always work well with others (at least not at first) but the anti-Chinese narrative is suspiciously like anti-Semitism and as inexcusable. The exaggeration and suspicion, above all the lack of any sense of proportion, to the way the debate is developing is a scandal. Worse, it is a threat to us all. We are being manipulated.
Looool
China is by force taking international airports in several African countries and so many key installments... It's not an understatement and Tucker is absolutely right, especially on Africa.
China is using force? Where? Evidence please.
It is my feeling that at present, China's "colonization" of Africa is much shrewder and less obviously intrusive than their predecessors that relied on brute force. My impression of BRICS is that it is philosophically opposed to the kind of CIA interventionist, Globohomo, policies of the west, that it seeks international cooperation without hegemony.
Feelings. Great song, but a horrible way to manage the world.
Just take a trip to Africa, Zimbabwe, Ugandan ?
Here's some evidence anyways...
https://youtu.be/_-QDEWwSkP0
The debt trap issue is worth pursuing. The British used debt to establish their power over weaker governments. The best example was in the 19th c when Britain used debt to take control of Egypt. The US used debt throughout the 20th to control allies, clients and rivals, especially through inter-governmental debt. The best explanation of this is Michael Hudson's SUPER IMPERIALISM. If you only ever read one book on economics, make it this one.
Here is a youtube video on it. https://youtu.be/Uiz934HVZjY?t=5
Isn't that what the IMF and world bank is for??
More or less. The IMF and World Bank front the system and formalise arrangements under the pretense of international co-operation.
Yes please supply links to a site not related to US state department. Thank you
The belt and road initiative is a good place to start. There is never evidence when you don't look...
If there was any evidence of the Chinese using force, or the threat of force, to compel another country to participate in the Belt and Road initiative it would have been reported in the Western media. China has its faults, there is no need to make up anything, let alone make insinuations. The whole point is that China is using alternatives to force. It is compelled to, since the Chinese lack the naval or air power to dominate Africa or Latin America. Voluntary exchange between China and third parties may undermine America, but America must expect to compete economically with China. The current arrangement, with the US extracting rent from the global economy via the petrodollar and the bond market, is unsustainable.
Please don't confuse military action as the only type of "force". Don't be disingenuous. You need to be better. Much like the "vaccine" mandates globally were never done by "force" right?
If you build infrastructure in a country knowing full well you will take it "by force" when the corrupt third world country you are building it in defaults.....that isn't competing...
You need to get out of your binary thinking pattern. Just because the global American empire is bad and their competitor for world domination is the CCP. That doesn't make the CCP good.
Both are totalitarian organizations. They are both equally bad.
your theory that they are both equally bad does not at this point have enough evidence... you like Tucker are still speculating...
I think Locke's ghost is letting the formadehyde get to it's brain, and loosen the beast of bigotry, which requires no facts beyond otherness.
Here's your evidence:
https://youtu.be/_-QDEWwSkP0
Nice. It's hurtful to bigots to confront them with facts.
Brilliant piece. Timely. Caitlin, you made plenty of essential points.
Further to your comments, I'd add that the US is not trying to halt China's rise per se. Washington wishes to control its second biggest creditor by using a raft of passive-aggressive policies.
Washington wants trade with China, but on US terms. Ideally, Washington wants China to further develop the cynical deal of yester-year: leverage the exploitation of Chinese labour for US manufacturing, use trade surpluses with the US to invest in US treasury bills (the geopolitical equivalent of protection money) and incentivise the allocation of favours and graft by Chinese firms to US politicians.
To maintain Chinese vulnerability to US pressure, the US needs China to remain reliant on maritime trade routes. The Belt and Road initiative establishes the physical and financial infrastructure for Eurasian integration. It has a maritime dimension, but will provide land based transportation capacity that would reduce China's exposure to the risk of a naval blockade by the US and its allies.
China is frustrated and unhappy with the US. They would vastly prefer to see the US look after the Rust Belt properly. Beijing is always frightened by protectionism within the US and they are disappointed/amazed at the way that Washington neglects its own people. The new Yellow Peril narrative on offer from sections of the US establishment is a threat to us all, as well as ethically and intellectually bankrupt.
The people who have not been and will not be duped by Carlson , or "Tucker," are those millions of Americans under the yoke of neoliberalism and in lifelong bondage to the banks: it takes more than propaganda to make you believe you're not half starved when you are, or that you are better off without that lifesaving operation you can't afford. Blaming China or Russia is a ruse with a short shelf life. The whole idea behind democracy is that it is virtually impossible to control indefinitely and subtly, people who are deeply dissatisfied.
Good point. The experience of everyday life (paying bills, insecure employment, social breakdown) is a force for reality all its own. No propaganda can match it. America is a low trust, low cohesion, society that prioritises the interests of the few over the many. The increasing use of scare tactics and scape-goats is proof that the system is under pressure.
Yes, such tactics have limited use, and they must know that. They've bet the rent that Russia will cave before they do, utterly. That of course is rank stupidity.
The decision-making elite have no personal experience of the kind of lives led by the Western masses, let alone the experience of ordinary Russians. Social and cultural distance disables them.
You had me till you mentioned democracy, even the founding fathers in their writings explain it's a con-job, and it's only gone downhill from there. Even Saint FDR was busy buying time till external threats were done away with. Worst thing to happen to American working class was the collapse of the Soviet Union, no threat means no hold bared on beating down the peonage. Now they need to get rid of China and Russia so they can finish the job.
The idea of socialist democracy is valid and has a very mainly unofficial historical record: no one wants to be enslaved. The democracy we have is not the one we deserve or are told exists, but it does impose expectations, and that is significant: you can't make something happen of you have no concept of it. So "western democracies" must put up some kind of show, keep the true power structure under wraps, or the game is up totally. The system needs the support of the populace in this regard and is inhibited in its methods. So power will try to avoid a showdown, and that will be difficult because the "lesser evil" tactic can't be flogged forever.
Could not agree more! Liberal capitalism was a response to the fear of revolution from below. Once d'etente was firmly entrenched and it was clear that the USSR was not a pressing threat, the push to weaken unions began. After the USSR fell, oligarchs became bolder and bolder. And there is no reason to believe that business would not push living standards down to Zimbabwean levels if they could.
If Carson was anti-establishment, he'd be unemployed.
True, and if anti-establishmentarians were truly anti-establishment, they would have no dog in this squabble between Russia and China and the West. All three comprise the establishment. Taking sides means you're not anti-establishment. It means instead you're a Dugin tool.
Perhaps you should take a small break. I've noticed your last few columns have been based more on emotion and less on reason. This is article is outrage porn, nothing more, nothing less. You could have just disagreed with Tucker, but the "Everything I Don't Like Is Propaganda" position, is low brow.
That's just you saying you're a right winger and it makes you emotional when I don't say right wing things.
I just assumed that half of us here were right wingers
This is you not helping. I was a Bernie Bros, I voted for Jill Stein. So, we have now advanced to "Everything I don't Like Is A Right Winger". Me, a "right winger" lol. Ok, have a wonderful day.
You're here having a shit fit because I called Tucker Carlson what he is. I've encountered many Jill Stein voters who wound up Tucker Carlson stans. Some of them are still raging to this very day because I didn't make the jump with them.
"Tucker Carlson stans" Did I read that right? Really, you said Tucker Carlson stans? Alright then, so we are at the level of discourse where "Trumpkin, or Libtard, are appropriate. Well, I don't have a Twitter account because this is a sewer I refuse to play in. I've enjoyed many of your articles, but It's time to move on. Good bye.
Not sure what kind of life you've lived to give you the expectation that "take a break from your job because you've been getting emotional" would receive a warm response, but best of luck with whatever's going on there.
If you want to piss someone off, or if you want to make a pissed off person angrier, or if you just want to troll...for all three, a very reliable way to do it is to tell them they're being emotional and not focusing on reason. (I.e., "unreasonable.")
If you genuinely think someone's not focusing on the facts as much as they ought to, then give examples. Personally, I don't think Caitlin was overly emotional at all recently. Let's briefly go over recent posts:
-The abortion one was full of good points, IMO.
-The one about NATO expanding being a problem was correct. It IS a problem if you think that the US should be doing diplomacy rather than trying to destroy its competitors.
-Pompeo deserves all the criticism he got in the piece about him.
-Paid operatives on social media swarming anybody who criticizes US foreign policy is also a problem.
And that brings us to today.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/tucker-carlson-biography-nicaragua-cia/279782/
I was surprised that Tucker Carlson visited Brazil to boost Bozo's popularity (that's how we call this clown named Bolsonaro). Won't really matter though, he is in desperate mode. All polls in the last 30 months show him losing the election. He and his minions in Congress even changed the constitution to allow for a boost of 10 BILLION dollars to be spent, in election period, as a free handoff to poor people. He's literally trying to buy the election results, and will fail, nonetheless.
China doesn't need to nor should it suck America's ass but it does owe a debt of gratitude in the least. China is not China without America handing over its industrial base to China despite the motivation for doing that. Yes, it was for labor arbitrage purposes which gave the shaft to America's industrial workers and middle class, but Wall Street knew China would reverse engineer and still went ahead anyway. Had Wall Street not done that, China would not be the China we see today. It would still be largely feudal and agrarian and who knows, maybe that would have been better for the world and better for China and actually probably so.
Tucker's brand of conservativism and civic nationalism makes sense when you realise that sections of the elite are now concerned about their own future in an impoverished, Third World, America with a deeply fragmented population. Tucker is laying the groundwork for an ethnically inclusive brand of American nationalism to integrate Asian and Hispanic voters into a new electoral base for the centre Right. The Democrats are in trouble for the immediate future because the electoral politics of the New Deal simply no longer work now that social peace is breaking down. The old remedies (welfare and secure employment) are not available and the more recent ones (cheap consumer credit and the prospect of college as a route to upward mobility) is failing.
The Establishment is split: some oligarchs want a trade war and nationalism, others prefer to crush the middle and working classes under the pretence of repressing white supremacy and saving 'our democracy'. Tucker supports the former.
Yea, I have a major problem with the latter. So Tucker provides the better viewpoint.
WOW - Brilliant, I sometimes think I am alone in my views - then along comes Ms. Johnstone to re-assure me I am not alone. I have always disliked Tucker - but when he reported correctly about Julian Assange or the Syrian War Crime - I thought maybe he was becoming a better Journalist. This is most likely allowed so Tucker can gather some credibility and continue with his Establishment Propaganda appearing to be anti-establishment. I always remember that Tucker got his start in broadcasting on CNN and even had that horrible show "Crossfire" that epitomizes the "inside baseball" of American Journalism. I knew Anderson Cooper was former CIA - had no idea Tucker had applied - I always thought he was the heir to the Swanson frozen dinner fortune - can anyone shed any light onto what Tuckers' family is involved in?
he's controlled opposition. CIA asset. nothing more. (no sarcasm) You don't have to take anyone's word. research any of the points above for yourself & you'll discover it's 💯🎯. I'm just a "little" sahm, voracious bookworm , with hundreds of research hours under my belt. 😉. IF you knew everything I do, you would be sick to your stomach🤢
p.s. Obama chief orchestrator of Seth Rich murder. Also " 10% to the big guy" IS Obama NOT Biden. Too many have this wrong
....reason he is still on the air!....little bit 'smarter' tham 'madcow' baffun!...
Russians love them some spoogeneck, don't they?
I think he is using his "cunning" by having Tulsi on with him.
Tulsi? You mean "spoogeneck," don't you?
I don't know what you mean spongeneck.
You should.
What's that supposed to mean? Maybe you don't know what you mean.
It's "spoogeneck," not "spongeneck" and I know you know that, "Kim."
There was a "Kim" who lived in our neighborhood when I was young. He raped his sister. No lie. I'm guessing he's "pro-life" just like Tucker and Buckley. We know he's all about, like Tucker and Buckley, "spoogeneck."
This your latest entry into trying to convince folks you're a fucktard has high potential but I still doubt it's sufficient.
Try harder. You can do it.
russian_spoogebot
Friends of Buckley
What does anything you said have to do with Tulsi? Can you communicate like an adult?
The POS you're trying to reason with is known to look up people's profiles and go after them based on that. Substack by default makes it easy for readers to expose themselves to the scumbags like that one.
In your profile you can disable displaying your subscriptions. Also, take care whom you subscribe to - that jerk also has a blog. The "authors" can learn somewhat more about their subscribers.
I see you subscribe to Chris Hedges per your profile. If you are emblematic of his audience, he is clearly casting his pearls before swine. Whatever pays the bills, I guess.
His father was CIA and he worked (works) for NED, but just like the CIA is full of drug dealers who get their own in at the same time as doing the bidding of the state oligarchy. Tucker is mostly working for himself, his audience a bunch of tools, or is it trolls, he rents out.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/tucker-carlson-biography-nicaragua-cia/279782/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHoW8Vf8wg