We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The Latest in the New Cold War: My Money’s on Putin

Click here to access article by Mike Whitney from CounterPunch.  

Whitney draws from several astute analyses by informed sources to build a case for the defeat of the US dollar. He seems to welcome this development along with many others like William Engdahl and Pepe Escobar which they regard as only a positive development, a "multipolar world", and don't see the risks that such a challenge to the US dollar and US hegemony entails for the world.
The attack on the petrodollar recycling system is one of many asymmetrical strategies Moscow is presently employing to discourage US aggression, to defend its sovereignty, and to promote a multi-polar world order where the rule of law prevails. The Kremlin is also pushing for institutional changes that will help to level the playing field instead of creating an unfair advantage for the richer countries like the US.
While Whitney seems to trivialize this prospect by framing it as a wager, I am convinced that this challenge to the US dollar is fraught with peril. The dominance of the US dollar is one of the main foundations of Empire dominance in today's world, and Empire directors will not take this challenge lightly. Indeed, I think that there are many Empire actions in recent years that clearly indicate that they will meet this challenge very aggressively. Some of the most important are: the invasion of Iraq, the bombing of Libya and arming the opposition, the sponsorship of terrorist groups in Syria, the recent and successful sponsorship of dissident groups to violently take over the Ukrainian government, the suspicious sudden appearance of terrorist groups armed with US weapons taking over a large part of Iraq, and the economic sanctions imposed on Russia. And maybe worst of all, there has been a dramatic increase of grossly inaccurate vitriol toward Russia reflected in US mainstream media coverage which seems to be designed to prepare the American public for more aggressive actions against Russia.

As I've argued before, we have already witnessed what a multi-polar capitalist world led to in the first half of the 20th century. I don't think we want a repeat of that especially with the combatants armed with nuclear weapons! Also, global capitalist elites are beginning to realize the finite nature of the world's resources, and will likely wage a fierce struggle to gain control of what's left to exploit.The only positive solution I see is a global upheaval of the world's Ninety-Nine Percent to overturn capitalism.