Year changes are symbolic times for reflection about the past as well as forecasts and resolutions about the future. This departing year is particularly enraging in too many ways to enumerate here. The year ahead is ominous, also in too many ways to quickly enumerate.
As this New Year dawns, with the added pressures from the raging Pandemic and with the Doomsday clock advancing for multiple reasons, a few personal conclusions: I will no longer be writing as I have for some time. I will rarely be on Facebook or other social media. It’s time to reconsider the overall situation including personal options.
(Opening Paragraph) We dare not delay and defer any longer. We conclude we have a responsibility to make an urgent plea and to express our concerns bluntly, clearly, abandoning prudent language filled with qualifications that academicians and journalists are socialized to make. This is not a time to be held back by professional, social and personal inhibitions. We feel the imperative to forcefully dramatize the dire world situation as we believe it to be, to in effect shout out for clarity, and end emphasis, and yes desperation to be heard.Human civilization and its natural habitat are seriously and immediately imperiled as never before. This precarious reality is impending right now, not in some distant future, and not as a mere possibility. Without immediate drastic and unprecedented actions human civilization itself is precariously poised at the brink of multiple abysses. What we call modern civilization is already unraveling and disintegrating in many places and in many ways…..
(Concluding Paragraph) What we are saying as loudly and unreservedly as we can is that the truly desperate situation humanity now faces requires demanding that the “old realists” be compelled, one way or another, to be superceded as their continued authority makes them as well wolves at the door leading us all to cataclysmic doom. There is now no other reasonable and sane choice but to insist on urgently pursuing what we are presenting here as a preliminary outline of a Manifesto for Human and Habitat Survival. To do anything less – boldly and urgently — is to remain on the path leading to species suicide.
Her father was one of Israel’s most valuable international Mossad assets. Then he got in major financial trouble, so he tried to blackmail and threatened to squeal on the Mossad. They then killed him; coerced and blackmailed Ghislaine into silence; and held an elaborate funeral for her Dad in Israel with top Israeli officials, including the leaders of Mossad, giving him top honors in death for his service to Israel.
Now that Ghislaine faces the rest of her life in prison she has a choice. She could try to bargain what she knows about the killing of her father, and even more timely what she knows about the criminal sexual and financial exploits of some of the biggest personalities — Prince Andrew, Presidents Clinton and Trump, Barak of Israel, as well as such notables as Bill Gates and Allan Dershowitz. The nearly 100-page Epstein book of names and goings on, on top of the disappeared sex/blackmail videos, all remain either hidden from public view or either hidden or destroyed. Ghislaine is the single major key to all of this.
But first of the establishment prosecutors do not want to criminally indict, convict, and imprison the above and so many more. Doing so even for one could lead to everything unraveling and with Ghislaine’s help and testimony many of them ending up on trial themselves. And second, if Ghislaine were to try to sing in a big way, it is more likely she would end up swinging as did her father Robert and her boyfriend Jeffrey. Even so…life in prison, much in solitary for protection as well as on suicide watch, is quite an incentive to take the risks of squealing big-time.
With a world Pandemic that has already killed more Americans than all the wars of the past, the American Empire still refuses to adjust, refuses to atone, refuses to acknowledge, and most of all refuses to actually deal with the real dangers to our country, and to our world, and about which we are actually the primary perpetrator. The race toward catastrophic war — whatever the combination of cyber, nuclear, bio, space will be — is escalating, the U.S. Empire the primary provocateur and perpetrator as the Doomsday Clock keeps advancing.
But today just a few words about the worldly Pandemic. If the Americans would have repurposed just 1% of the largest military budget just approved, that would have freed up $8 billion, enough to vaccinate the entire world in the year ahead. If the American Empire would have declared a total world war on the Pandemic, and seriously lead the way on an urgent war-footing, not only world our world, but we ourselves in the American Homeland, would be much better protected…and alive.
Gee, what’s all the fuss about this time? Agreeing with Donald Trump about anything is in itself exasperating and existentially traumatic. Even when he says something that is true his motivations, demeanor, attitudes, and extreme malignant narcissism make it so difficult to dare to quote him or even worse agree with him.
In this particular case, while all the serious negatives about Trump certainly apply, what he actually said is true and actually is quite well known, though establishment persons, most especially journalists and politicians and academics, are frightened to say publicly what is well known and quietly discussed privately.
Is Congress on many crucial matters largely controlled by the Jewish State of Israel through AIPAC and a panoply of literally dozens of Jewish and Evangelical organizations who use money, threats, and intimidation to keep everyone cowering? Simple answer is yes. Mechanisms and details far more complicated.
Is much of the media, including the New York Times, very Jewish heavy when it comes to ownership and involvement, and also very much kept in line by the extensive Israeli/Jewish lobby? Simple answer is yes. Mechanisms and details far more complicated.
Did the Israelis successfully manipulate and use Donald Trump even more than other Presidents, including via his extreme Zionism son-in-law, to get what they wanted? Simple answer once again is a big yes. Also again mechanisms and details far more nuanced.
WWIII may not be the nuclear war long talked about, long prepared for, but so doomsdayesque that it may be avoided. It may be instead an explosion and escalation of regional wars, with the superpower of each area asserting itself with conventional (which today also means cyber) arms and the conflicts staying sub-nuclear (or pre-nuclear) as everyone is aware that if that threshold is crossed armageddon could quickly result.
What could happen is reginal wars in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; and maybe soon in this way:
Russia decides that to stop the US/NATO threats, and to assert its own regional authority, it must take part or all of Ukraine and draw the line. The escalating provocations pushing Russia to do so have been pursued by the U.S. for many years.
China decides that under all the circumstances, with a Pacific alliance against it escalating, and with Taiwan being further armed to assert independence, the time has come to end that situation. China too has been provoked in many ways in recent years with the U.S. orchestrating growing military forces to surround, contain and weaken China while whittling away at the basic “One China Policy”.
Israel decides under all the circumstances to take down Iran while it still can, not because Iran has nuclear weapons, but because Iran is the regional power opposing Israeli and Arab client-state domination of the region with American sponsorship. If Iran can be finally brought down then Syria and Lebanon are dealt with as well. The Israelis might even use the opportunity of WWIII at the sub-nuclear regional level to orchestrate the long-in-waiting plot to bring down the Hashemite regime in Jordan, declare today’s Jordan to be Palestine, and “transfer” as many Palestinians as possible to the east.
Full-scale production and deployment of this “low-yield” nuclear bomb — one that can be deployed and used somewhat similar to how conventional bombs have been dropped since the dawn of air warfare — is being rushed into production in the new year. The great danger is that by making such “smaller” and more easily deliverable by conventional means nukes the risk and temptation of their use greatly escalates; and thus breaking the nuclear taboo becomes more likely. In this regard 700 scientists including 21 Nobel Laureats are publicly calling on the U.S. to renounce any first use of nuclear weapons; the very antithesis of what the military-industrial complex is doing with these new “low-yield” nukes.
Think-tanks are warning about it. Top retired Generals are publicly saying the U.S. military has to start preparing for it. Throughout the country it is being talked about. But this possibly impending American civil-war will not be so much geographical as it will be ideological. And it is indeed being prepared for by the two major political parties, with one party, fearing that the demographics is continuing to shift against them ready to use under-the-table and street violence means to “seize power” if need be, regardless of the actual popular and electoral votes.
And the civil war may not wait till 2024. With legal proceedings against Trump and his band underway in many forums, with the Congressional Committee ramping up its efforts to expose what really happened on 6 January and that Trump himself was the conductor of the insurrection orchestra, the former President is already signaling that with any attempt to indict and imprison him he will unleash his forces in the year ahead. Trump is well aware that he just needs to somehow get bye for another 11 months after which time the Trumpee party will control the Congress, will be able to block attempts to hold Trump accountable for the past, and will be well positioned to bring him back to the White House in 24 more months.
Taking on Joe Biden has become a past-time in contemporary Washington. Today the other President Joe, this one named Manchin, blindsided the titular President giving him a political body blow it will be hard to recover from.
Too many times Biden, like the former Democrat President Obama he served, tries to twist things and ends up tying himself in knots. Problem is all these times add up making it difficult to treat Biden as a strong and credible President. True, compared to Trump, an outright con man for whom gross lying and deception are his trademarks, Biden seems to be a relief. But even so, things catch up with Biden when they keep being repeated in so many different ways and forums. This of course helps explain his dismal polling and the increasingly desperate situation the Dem Party is in as 2022 approaches. Also of course explains the other Joe deciding to essentially tell President Joe to shove it.
Among Biden’s latest deceptive not really believeable twists came earlier this month when a Taiwan Minster (not the President who was probably told not to appear) spoke at the so-called, itself a bit corny, Summit of Democracies. Of course the whole thing was a kind of deflection/subterfuge — but that’s a much longer story. Anyway with Taiwan, the only non-country invited with the obvious purpose of trying to pry the island away from Chinese sovereignty despite the long-enunciated “One-China Policy”, an “honest mistake” happened, say the Biden folk.
Imagine, this “honest mistake” happened just at the very time the Taiwanese Minister was unexpectedly displaying a flag clearly picturing Taiwan as an independent country. Right then at that precise moment there was a video feed break down with audio only substituted. Seems the Taiwanese thought they could outsmart the Biden team and get away with it They did at first. But getting caught in the act the Biden team pulled the video feed and then with a big deceitful spin lied about what had happened. Not very believeable! So chalk it up to one more Biden and team screw up.
Captain Kirk’s had an epiphany from his few minutes nearly in space after so many Gene Rodenberry Fantasy Years galivanting around the Universe: “Humans are Insignificant” he concludes.
If William Shatner were more articulate he seems to be saying, “Hey everyone! We all live on this little beautiful but endangered planet I just saw from space. We better join together to save it and ourselves as we are just little creatures on a little round rock in a vast cosmos; and its time we stopped so narcissistically pretending we are so omnipotent or we won’t survive.”
Remember what was called the Cuban Missile Crisis? After the U.S. had deployed nuclear missiles against the Soviet Union in Europe and Turkey, that country decided to deploy nuclear missiles to Cuba. The CIA at the time was super busy trying to assassinate Castro and upend the Cuban government. The Pentagon was seriously war-gaming first strike scenarios against the Soviet Union. The Americans pushed the world toward nuclear war demanding the Soviet missiles be removed from Cuba. Has it not been for a very sophisticated President, namely JFK, nuclear war could well have resulted.
Flash forward now to the current let’s call it Ukraine Missile Crisis. After repeatedly assuring the diminished Russia that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union (fomented by none other than the USA) that NATO would not expand eastward, that’s precisely what the U.S. did big time. Now it is the Russians drawing the line when it comes to Ukraine, a region with long and deep historical ties to Russia and which geostrategically is critical.
The overall aggression in Europe in today’s world is not Russia threatening to invade westward, but rather the U.S. using NATO actually invading — politically, economically, and militarily — eastward and using all kinds of economic and covert means to weaken, threaten, badger, and bully Russia.
The way out of this crisis is actually not that difficult in concept. But a weak President Biden and a totally out of control American nationalist militarist right wing society make what should be done difficult to impossible for Biden and his party.
Russia is right to be demanding security guarantees for itself, to be demanding that the march of NATO to Russia’s border and the still escalating military armament of the former Warsaw Pact and Soviet countries be halted, including guarantees that Ukraine will not become part of NATO now or in the future.
Many people participated in the insurrection, which we now are learning was very carefully conceived and choreographed by Trump personally along with an inner circle of sabateurs. And many people participated in preventing a successful or at least a much more drawn out coup attempt. That said there is one unsung hero whose name we still do not know. Had it not been for this “Senate Staffer” the outcome in the early days of this year might have been very different. It wasn’t the Speaker or ranking members of the House who had the presence of mind to give the instructions to a group of interns to secure the electoral boxes from the House Chamber. It was a “Senate Staffer” who does not want to be known fearing she would then have to live in fear.
“If our capable floor staff hadn’t grabbed them, they would have been burned by the mob… Thank you toher and the entire team that rescued the voice of the American people. Had they not done so, then the hooligans outside, disrespecting the Constitution, would have come in here and opened these boxes and burned the ballots, destroying the voice of the people symbolically.”
Hmmm….what is this all about? This so-called organization — Israeli Palestinian Confederation — which has of late stepped up promoting itself is actually a tricky Zionist plot/deception/diversion. It is not, as it promotes itself, a thoughtful novel new way of looking at and justly resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — that’s just the come-on sloganeering. It is a cleverly masked Zionist front organization which in reality under-the-table attempts to legitimize and promote acceptance and justification for what the Israelis have done in totally subjugating and splintering Palestine, in implementing a worse-than-apartheid reality in the once “Holy Land”, and with the Israeli/U.S. creation, financing, and arming, of a sub-occupation force known as “The Palestinian Authority”. This is by design, no matter how much founder Josef Avesar, an Israeli long-living in the U.S., claims otherwise, purposefully designed to deflect talk and attention away from the real issues into an endless, fruitlessly, legalistic mumble-jumble deception, diversion, and public relations masquerade. It is another attempt to buy still more time for the Israelis to further enlarge their settlements and de facto annex all of historic Palestine, covering it all up under a facade of grossly hypocritical language about peace, democracy, equal rights, and secular values.
The bottom line of this so far very marginal but potentially dangerous front organization — which incidentally has the cooperation of some of the most crafty Zionist operatives among them Alan Dershowitz, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Alon Ben-Meir, and Dennis Ross — is more public relations chicanery and Zionist diversion and duplicity. Avesar, and whoever is really behind this Conferderacy scheme promoting and financing it, have managed to hood-wink and mislead some serious personalities into dialoguing with him in what he calls “simulations”; and that in fact must be his goal for he surely knows that his plan/plot will never amount to anything other than being such a diversion from the real critical issues. And thus it should be not just avoided and shunned, but exposed and condemned.
If the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell now underway were a sports game with bets, one might think that the prosecution team is purposefully throwing the game, purposefully holding back from scoring points so the defense can prevail and unknown payoffs result.
And if so it’s not just Ghislaine who will go free, after Epstein was probably killed to prevent a far more notorious trial, but the very powerful men who were also involved — two former American Presidents, a son of the Queen of England, and quite a few business billionaire tycoons and super famous luminaries.
The prosecution rushed through their case calling far fewer witnesses than they could have and not pressing even those it did call to name the big names and give the details of extreme sexual connections. A twitter account with half a million followers which was doing that kind of thing about the trial got terminated last week. And what about all the black books and sex videos used for nefarious purposes?
Now the defense has indicated it may be calling some 35 witnesses; and the prosecution has an excuse for not being fully prepared for this as the persons and the order in which they will be called is still being sorted out.
Obviously the defense is counting on being able to convince at least one juror that Maxwell’s guilt was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt; and maybe even sway the whole jury to acquit. Who is really behind this questionable but deniable charade? Of course one would have to think it is whoever managed the killing of Epstein in his maximum security prison cell, and whoever has means and motive to protect the super biggies who were also involved in the sex, blackmail, and unending political/financial misdeeds.
Four times this year before what happened this week I’ve written about Assange:
Navalny or Assange 26 January 2021
He publicly and skillfully exposed the corruption and criminality of the rulers. They then framed him and one way or another tried to discredit, delegitimize and kill him. He then as a result quite understandably “skipped bail”. They then arrested him. Many worldwide have protested for his release and vindication.
It’s not one or the other, it’s both Navalny and Assange. And what needs saying the most is how inexcusably duplicitous and hypocritical the Americans and the Brits are, having in fact in many ways treated Assange far far worse for far far longer than the Russians have treated Navalny. Yet the Americans and Brits are loudly screaming and manipulating for Navalny’s release while doing the very opposite when it comes to Assange.
Our Trial of the Century 7 June 2021
There are Trials and Legal Proceedings that go down in history. In some cases very positively – like Brown vs Board of Education. But most are remembered for their infamy – like Dreyfus, Dred Scott, Daniel Ellsberg. The most meaningful trial and legal proceeding underway for nearly a decade now is Julian Assange. Yes it is not hyperbole to call if Assange “The Trial of the Century”.
This is not the place to go into the details of why this trial is so critical; there’s plenty of information about that for those who seek it. Like all such matters, the individual is a scape-goat for something much bigger. In this case the real goal of the American Empire is to frighten and intimidate all journalists and whistle-blowers, worldwide, to enable them to keep their “classified” secrets (i.e. in many cases crimes) from reaching the public.
What does need to be emphasized is that Obama needs to be remembered and shamed for what he did when he was responsible, with Biden at his side. And Biden now needs to be damned in today’s new circumstances, now that he is is fully responsible, if he does not relent.
When and if Assange gets out, what they have done to him is truly horrific and if at all possible he should find a way to bring suit against the U.S. It is government officials who need to be put on notice they can never do such things again….or else.
Damn both Biden and MSM 7 July 2021
Biden has just blew it with the unexpected opportunity to stop persecuting Julian Assange. If he needed an excuse to stop pushing for Assange’s extradition from the U.K. he had a great one — just days ago the top witness against Assange not only admitted he fabricated everything, but that he did so in coordination with the FBI and CIA! Damn Biden that he failed us all, and the Constitution itself, once again!
The so-called Main Stream Media — the big corporate titans including the major broadcast and cable networks as well as the major newspapers — are to be damned even more. From the start, for so many reasons, they should themselves have been damning the USG for hounding, setting up, defaming, lying, persecuting, and torturing, Assange. When the major media so badly omit, distort, and misinform the American public it should be of tremendous concern to the whole society.
The credibility of American politicians, corporate media, and the justice system all may be at an all-time low — and rightly so. The Assange Trial of the Century — designed to intimidate and frighten all journalists and insider whistle-blowers from reporting on purposefuly “classified” American crimes — has seriously tarnised and exposed the perpetrators.
American values are being badly trampled and increasingly undermined by those who are suppose to protect them. The Assange Trial of the Century is one example, but a very telling one. The injustice by basic institutions of the American Empire with regard to Assange is indeed frightening; for this situation is not about the past, it is about the future. As our polity experiences it’s values further unraveling through such blatant duplicity and hypocrisy, expect to come more and growing forms of retribution and rebellion — both domestically and internationally.
Julian Assange Week Ahead 23 October 2021
The week ahead is JULIAN ASSANGE WEEK. His own personal future and in many other ways our own is going to be decided in the UK, itself in so many ways an extension of the U.S. and CIA.
The matter of Julian Assange is a critically important issue for journalistic freedom in our world today, as well as the most important pubic matter for restraining the imperial abuse and criminality of the CIA and associated clandestine organizations. Decades ago they tried so hard to put Daniel Ellsberg in prison in order to cower and block American journalism — they almost succeeded. Since then they have found many other ways to infiltrate and control. Now the matter of Julian Assange is more important than any other with tremendous historic global ramifications.
This year the Nobel Committee decided to give the Peace Prize to two journalists. Whatever the merits of the winners the prize clearly should have gone to Julian Assange. But we all know how badly the Nobel has been tarnished in the past and now it has been tarnished once again.
And when it comes to Joe Biden and his Democratic Party, they deserve to be severely condemned for not ending the gross Assange travesty, all the more so as they actually had an easy way out when they came to power earlier this year.
A week ago last Saturday quite a creative event was held in Washington DC at the historic Tabard Inn from where it was broadcast online. It can be watched from the link above. Warning it’s two and a half hours. Additional warning, though the event itself was thoughtfully put together, the video was not — you may want to skip ahead to 1 hour 24 minutes where John Kiriakou speaks followed by Max Blumenthal and Lee Camp. What those three especially have to say is if considerable importance.
Despite the poor video, despite the organizers not making a 15-minute summary highlights as they should have immediately done, despite the incestuousness of the event without the major advertising and promotion campaign that should have been pursued, we all have the obligation to be aware and concerned about this important event last weekend and the upcoming Julian Assange Week. Assange has been personally grossly persecuted, and according to official U.N. documents psychologically tortured for so many years. But the real purpose for destroying Assange is to keep all of us from knowing the horrendous details of what is being done in our name as Americans and to keep other journalists, academics, and experts afraid and under control.
Yesterday 10 December 2021. It was the United Nations International Human Rights Day. It was also the concluding day of Joe Biden’s faux so-called Summit of Democracy. Ironically it was also the day the British Courts agreed to a U.S. appeal that Julian Assange can be extradicted to the U.S. Now the super hypocrisy;
The U.S. itself is guilty of so many human rights violations at home as well as atrocities abroad — past and present.
The so-called Summit for Democracy was both diversion and facade attempting to pretend the U.S. and friends are the champions of Democracy and the rest of the world, most especially the two other major powers, are the evils. Furthermore Biden and Blinken used this event as the launching pad to devote hundreds of millions more U.S. government money to twisting quasi-independent media to cooperate with the U.S. and to undermine other international media that is influenced by other governments.
Assange. And this is the giant hypocrisy. When Biden came into office he could have not pursued the appeal and after a decade of persecution and imprisonment let go of Assange. But no…Biden chose to defy basic international human rights and until now basic freedom of the press and further destroy Assange in order to greatly repress press freedom worldwide. Down the road Biden may come to regret this when Assange is in prison awaiting trial in the U.S. as the protests and exposure of American complicities, and Biden hypocrisies, will be endless.
Biden/Blinken and the Dem Party Neo-Lib Warhawks have actually bombed out with this so-called Summit for Democracy As Biden delivered the opening address just 175 people were on the live White House video fed, no more than a hundred more at any time as he spoke.
Then last night, none of the major TV networks nor the BBC even mentioned the Democracy Summit in their opening round-ups of the major stories of the day. Only American State Television (better known as PBS) played it up on the News Hour.
Both Russia and China used the occasion to severely bash the escalating flaws in American democracy — of which there are so many. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has in fact improved considerably in how they hype the inadequacies, hypocrisies, and duplicities of the American Empire. Indeed, even the majority of young Americans in a major recent poll now believe American democracy does not work and more and more actually advocate the once taboo term Socialism.
As for the additional hundreds of millions of dollars Biden/Blinken used the occasion to announce would go to promoting independent journalism, that’s quite a scam in itself. The Americans are desperate to actually further undermine truly independent journalism at home and abroad, which they now have more money to use to do so. And ironically, today, as the Democracy Summit concludes, comes the horrible news that the American plot to destroy Julian Assange and Wikileaks, designed of course to frighten all independent journalists throughout the world, is proceeding to have Assange extradicted to the U.S. and face life in the American Gulag.
Just yesterday I wrote this about what is called the Strategic Culture Foundation: “Strategic Culture Foundation: Some thoughtful analysts — many retired academics or spooks who are not welcome in the main-stream media — publish quite interesting geopolitical articles here. But who is really behind it, and who is in some cases paying out the honorariums and in charge, is unknown; and that surely is on purpose.”
I wrote this without knowing about one of the headline stories on RT this morning — another Russian sponsored media organization I mentioned yesterday.
The American government is so threatened by American experts — most of them academics and former government officials — writing openly and critically about the U.S. policies that it has now sent warning letters to persons who write for this publication and receive small honorariums are now subject to huge financial fines that would bankrupt them, hundreds of thousands of dollars!
RT is by far the greatest Russian international media success in the age of Vladimir Putin. It’s only ten years old, was born as Russia Today, and today has a major impact on cable and TV and a huge following on Youtube. Sputnik is associated with it for print. In fact my own judgement is that RT is the most important and influential directly country-sponsored media effort so far in the 21st century, unless the UK’s BBC is considered in this same category (which it almost is). In this area the Chinese are way behind, but racing to try to become more influential.
The Russians however have, or I should say probably have, other things they have instigated and promoted, things far more masked, and also far less important, than RT. Here are two examples I’m aware of — one useful, the other a cleverly disguised hoax.
Strategic Culture Foundation: Some thoughtful analysts — many retired academics or spooks who are not welcome in the main-stream media — publish quite interesting geopolitical articles here. But who is really behind it, and who is in some cases paying out the honorariums and in charge, is unknown; and that surely is on purpose.
Creative Society : Presenting itself as a worldwide movement for peace and reconciliation this organization recently sponsored a day-long nearly 12 hours on-line international conference with speakers and endorsers from many countries in many languages and broadcast on many platforms. They even managed to draw in some biggies, like The Pope and business types from the likes of Morgan Stanley.
But in the end this newbie seems to be a very well financed attempt to draw in younger and malleable persons to enhance anxiety and confusion about capitalism, the climate crisis, and world peace, without actually revealing who they are and what alternative solutions they propose. Hard to know for sure just who is behind this unless one has access to the means available to the CIA and NSA. But the signs are there that this may also be a Russian front even more masked than others — and despite all the hoopla, money, and international choreography, not so credible if one really pays attention to detail (as most do not and cannot of course).
“Freedom” “Democracy” “Human Rights” “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”
American propaganda has few limits when it comes to so many false slogans, so many multiple means of delivery, all combined with so much never-ending hypocrisy.
Yesterday the big focus was on Biden’s “Diplomatic Boycott” of the Winter Olympics in China in February. Actually no American officials were invited and it is the Americans themselves who portray their officials at Olympics far more than any other nation does. But it gave Biden something to crow about.
Today the big focus is on the virtual summit Biden will be having with Putin. The Americans are responsible for what is happening in eastern Europe, for greatly expanding NATO to threaten Russia, and thus for provoking the Russians to respond. But that’s a much longer story. Today Biden is crowing about how he is standing up to the Russians after yesterday the Chinese.
Then at the end of the week for two days Biden will preside over his virtual Summit of the Democracies. In this case he is purposefully goading the Chinese by inviting Taiwan to participate, the only non-country so elevated. It’s another showboat media play by Biden who remains trapped and sinking in the political quicksand, much of which he himself has created despite having inherited so many near missions impossible. Both China and Russia are now standing up to Biden and to the declining no longer so exceptional American Empire.
But it’s a very dangerous situation this faux Biden diplomacy is creating internationally as well as at home where a majority of those in their 20s believe American democracy has failed, the future is bleak, and the institutions of the American government can no longer be believed in or trusted.
Imagine if on the steps of the Lincoln Monument someone with a knife seriously stabbed someone and then tried to stab a police officer trying to subdue him. Then imagine the knifer was subdued, was on the ground, was no longer a threat, yet police shot him numerous times killing him. Imagine as well that the criminal was black, the victim and the police white. And imagine that the video of the disarmed on the ground knife person quickly went viral.
Well…we know what would happen. Crowds would quickly gather in Washington, and likely around the country, denouncing the police and demanding they be arrested and tried for murder. There was of course a need to disarm the knifer; there was no need or justification for essentially then killing him in cold blood and blocking all medical aid.
aaThe Israeli version of this took place Saturday in a similarly very public place, the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. The knife wielding person was a Palestinian, the victim a religious Jew, the police and what are called border police Jewish. But the outcome was very different. The police very threateningly put down all protests and the Prime Minister applauded the police killing. Actually this is the way Israelis handle things all the time. The only difference this time is that it was a very public place where it happened with many witnesses and a bystander captured the killing on his cellphone.
Video circulated on social media showing Israeli border police shoot the Palestinian man several times, although he was on the ground and apparently incapacitated.
It goes back to Einstein, Oppenheimer, and the nuclear scientists in the years after WWII. They were aware of the terrible destructive weapons they had made possible. Way back then they were urging that nuclear weapons be outlawed. They were warning then that either we realized we lived in one world or we would bring about no world — One World or None — which they made into both a book and a movie.
They began the Doomsday Clock more than 70 years ago now. And now that clock is closer to Nuclear Doomsday than ever in history — ticking ever more loudly no longer in minutes but in seconds.
Representative Ilhan Omar is right when she speaks up! This woman born in Somalia, a refugee at a young age, then growing up in the state where I was born and grew up, Minnesota, is in my view actually a better American, more true to and more articulate about basic American values, than many native-born Americans.
Omar continues to be vilified by many American Jews egged on by Israel and by many in the far right-wing Republican party of course. But the more they attack her the more she should realize she is effectively doing her job as a member of Congress and fulfilling her citizenship responsibilities as a now publicly known person. Ilhan Omar deserves our ongoing thanks and applause.
The thousands of lobbyists in Washington working for private companies have already managed over the years to create a private money-grabbing industry to entice seniors to essentially trade-in (termed Advantage) their Medicare with private-insurance taking over from and making gobs of money off of Medicare. By manipulating Congress and the two major parties they have created a medical system that is purposefully designed to be so confusing even doctors and professionals can’t figure out the complex web of ins and outs. The result is that the U.S. has the most convoluted health care system which does not even deliver the best of care even though the costs are considerably greater than other advanced countries.
Mark Bruzonsky 