Is the next threat too many 'them' in a resource-scarce future?

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from Middle East Eye.

Read the article to see how Ahmed comes to this conclusion: 

The uncanny alignment here between the bigoted rhetoric of far-right extremists, and the calculated strategic planning of the Western and Israel security elite, speaks to a fundamental problem: the extremism of the far-right is being fuelled by the paranoia of an interlocking security elite.

Their ideologically driven response to global systemic crises springs from the same false, narcissistic diagnosis: this system is pretty much the best there is; there’s no alternative, and therefore, we must maintain business-as-usual (and concomitantly, our privilege) as long as possible, while fending off “threats” to the system from those who fail to understand this. It so happens that those who fail to understand this comprise most of the world’s population.

Germany is bluffing on Greece

Click here to access article by Mark Weisbrot from Al Jazeera.

Weisbrot agrees with one Greek official in the latter's understanding of what the Empire's European vassals are doing to Greece.

One senior Greek official involved in the negotiations referred to it as a “slow-motion coup d’état.” And those who were paying attention could see this from the beginning. Just 10 days after Syriza was elected, as I noted previously, the European Central Bank cut off its main line of credit to Greece and then capped the amount that Greek banks could lend to the government. All the hype and brinkmanship destabilize the economy, and some of this is an intentional effect of European authorities’ statements and threats. But the direct sabotage of the Greek economy is most important, and it is remarkable that it has gotten so little attention.

The unannounced objective is to undermine political support for the Syriza government until it falls and get a new regime that is preferable to the European partners and the U.S. This is the only strategy that makes sense, from their point of view. They will try to give Greece enough oxygen to avoid default and exit, which they really don’t want, but not enough for an economic recovery, which they also don’t want.

The Price of Being a Power Mom on Park Avenue

Click here to access an excerpt from a new book by Wednesday Martin entitled Primates of Park Avenue posted at Vanity Fair.

This is another contribution to my occasional practice on Saturdays to run articles about lifestyles of the rich ruling class also known as the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) who, under the rules of capitalism, "own" the economy in which we work. The ultimate effect of this economic design is that we all work for them to support their lifestyle. This is simply a fact of life that we need to adapt to--if we haven't already.

Thus, it is my hope to create a better understanding of our masters by becoming acquainted with life as they live it. I hope that by doing this we won't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote better understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions--for us, since we are too stupid or lazy to do this ourselves--which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us.

Today, thanks to this member of the One Percent, Wednesday Martin, we can get a glimpse of the lifestyle of rich women of this class that we are working to support. The editor of Vanity, a magazine which is popular among the rich, introduces the excerpt this way:

In an excerpt from her buzzy new memoir, Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin calculates all of the personal-training sessions, Botox, and spa treatments required to survive and thrive as a wife and mother on the Upper East Side [of New York City]. It ain’t cheap.

The Geopolitics of American Global Decline

Click here to access article by Alfred W. McCoy from TomDispatch. (If you wish to skip Engelhardt's introduction, you will need to scroll down to the article.)

This post represents another example in a recent trend by observers of world events, usually referred to as geopolitical analysts, to report on a global shift of power, this time from the US Empire to a Chinese-Russian dominated world. The former is always seen as a classic imperial power whereas the latter are more vaguely framed as an emerging power that will unseat the reigning hegemon. I would like to offer my take on this kind of perspective, weltanschauung, or way of thinking. 

This way of thinking is quintessentially elitist, and frequently has the appearance of a kind of game that armchair imperialists like to pass the time with as they play with the people of the world and economies, markets, resources, etc, using instruments of violence as they, or their nations, seek to impose by force their will on the rest of the world. Obviously it is very important for us powerless people to understand these game-like exercises because the outcomes have always entailed disasters that we--not elites--suffer through. However, I think in this period of human history the outcomes are of a such a magnitude that such thinking must always be presented in another very ominous context--a catastrophic threat to human existence. And this I argue is not being done by today's more critical geopolitical analysts. McCoy's perspective and Engelhardt's introduction are no exception.

In this period of human history the weapons these elites have under their control are so destructive that if they are able to keep playing these power games, we powerless people along with most of them will suffer a disaster of a much greater magnitude than what we have previously seen. Indeed, it is questionable whether humans as a species can survive another global war. Yet, we see pollsters calmly going about asking people if we ordinary Americans should attack these other players under certain conditions (wars can always be arranged with a false flag attack or some mostly covert provocative NATO action), and most of these ordinary Americans and Canadians are answering in the affirmative.

 

Thus we see elites, liberal geopolitical analysts, and most ordinary people engaging in archaic thinking about wars between nuclear armed nations. Even in alternative liberal media such as TomDispatch which advertises as presenting a "regular antidote to mainstream media", we find the same kind of treatment of issues of imperialism. No concern is expressed about another global conflict in this nuclear age--it's all just like a game.

As long as we ordinary, powerless people tolerate the existence of elites and their control of weapons of mass destruction, we will continue along this dangerous precipice of catastrophe. The only real solution to this critical state of affairs is to eliminate ruling classes altogether, and institute radical egalitarian societies organized on the basis of bottom-up authority. Until such time we the 99.9% of humanity will be flirting with mass, if not total, extinction.

America’s longtime support for Ukrainian fascists

Click here to access article by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture Foundation.

(I've always found Madsen's reports to be very credible and well-informed in contrast to the Wikipedia entry which I regard as subtly, yet clearly biased against him.)

In this report Madsen provides a lot of post-war history, unknown for obvious reasons to most Americans, about the collaboration of the CIA with former Nazi-connected Ukrainian organizations. Much of this is totally consistent with other reliable sources that I've read in recent years. His history reveals a pattern of US takeover of Nazi and Ukrainian agents and organizations to ramp up anti-Soviet Union post-war operations. 

What most people who have been subject to Western ideological conditioning are unaware of is that these capitalist elites have a natural proclivity to fascist governments. They hide this behind a liberal theology about humanitarian concerns, civil rights, and "freedoms". This is a cultural legacy of the capitalist revolutions against monarchies and aristocracies in the 18th century when they needed to enlist the aid of ordinary people to overthrow the older ruling class. 

Since then they have reinforced this ideology via education, media, and even entertainment. From experience they have found such indoctrination and management of consent/dissent much more cost-effective than outright police state rule. However, in recent times capitalist ruling classes have often found this legacy less effective because of the many failings of capitalism in the form of persisting unemployment/under-employment, austerity policies, and widespread debt. Hence in the US and other European countries we have seen the appearance of militarized police forces, 24/7 surveillance, and very aggressive treatment of protestors by police forces.

This inclination toward fascism is also clearly revealed in the history of Western ruling classes' ambivalence toward Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Madsen's report casts light on the same phenomenon in post-war Europe regarding US support of Ukrainian Nazis to act as a force against non-capitalist Soviet Union. 

(You may also be interested in this piece about Ukraine by F. William Engdahl entitled "An American Oligarch‘s Dirty Tale of Corruption" which is about Soros's major role in Ukrainian affairs as revealed in recent online letters hacked by CyberBerkut.

Greece: The return of ERT and its role to the class war

Click here to access article from the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens. (This is a followup post to this Wednesday's post entitled "One really crucial date in the Greek battlefield". ERT is a Greek abbreviation for what is roughly analogous to PBS in the US, although it appears to be much more professionally operated.)

The return of people in ERT who never gave up fight after the "black" [blackout?] on June 11 of 2013, shows that the government is determined to restore democratic legality, which was abolished two years ago. However, it is also a signal to the lenders that it will not tolerate mass layoffs practices. Tsipras' presence in ERT headquarters yesterday was of high meaning. [Also see this, and this and this for the latest updates on the Greek default issue.]

Growth and Destruction

Click here to access article by Nnimmo Bassey from Degrowth in action. 

The industrial mode of food production is known to greatly contribute to global warming through such means as the large-scale land use changes, deforestation and the use of chemical fertilisers. Industrial agriculture promotes monoculture, erodes biodiversity and treats agricultural produce as mere commodities and for speculation. it continues to be single-mindedly supported by vested interests and power brokers and is also used as a tool for political manipulation. This system continues to prevail on the platform of myths such as the one that small-scale agro ecological agriculture cannot feed the world....

War without End in Central Africa

Click here to access article by Keith Harmon Snow from Conscious Being Alliance. 

Snow is an independent, free-lance journalist who spends a lot of time in Africa trying to unravel the mysteries of the chaos spread by many mercenary armies, corrupt government officials, and the hidden hand of Western corporations. I regard Snow's reports among the very few that we have access to by an independent journalist. Otherwise we occasionally get very biased reports from corporate media who, of course, interpret events in Africa to provide cover for Western mining corporations.

However, I have a few criticisms of Snow's reports. First, they are much too infrequent--it seems like he issues them once every two years. Second, when the are issued, they are extremely voluminous going into details of battle scenes, interminable names of small organizations and leaders, and history. One can easily experience fatigue while trying to put all of his information in each article together in order to attain some kind of overall grasp of what is going on there. It would be much better if he could supply more frequently simpler reports focusing on specific subjects or issues with links to other reports to supply readers with more details if they should need it. This likely would require some funding and organization, and I suspect that he functions mostly alone and with very limited resources.

Anyway for my readers, I am supplying what I believe is the major focus of this report by putting together some excerpts from it as follows:

The perpetual aggressors in this long, bloody saga of despair and death served on millions of innocent people in central Africa, Rwanda and Uganda protect the interests and insure the profits of their U.S., Canadian, European and Israeli patrons.  Meanwhile, with a new insurrection afoot in eastern Congo, the western media and its modern day intelligence mercenaries spin disinformation to project black African chaos and whitewash the corruptions of Empire.

"People are killed every day, here and there," says one Congolese human rights investigator in eastern Congo.  "U.S. intelligence agents and the organizations they work with produce disinformation favorable to Rwanda and Uganda.  These guys are on someone's payroll and they have enough money to throw around to their own networks of informants in the Great Lakes region [of Africa]."

BANRO GOLD Corporation runs a mining operation in South Kivu

The U.S. and its allies, primarily Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany, Holland and Israel, are all part of the networks of multinational interests plundering the natural resources of the Great Lakes countries.  The corporations involved in eastern Congo are never mentioned, and no pictures are ever shown of their networks of exploitation that exist in parallel and coincidence with the violence.

The corporations operating in eastern Congo protected by the media and western intelligence apparatus, but soaked in Congolese blood, include Banro Gold, Casa Mining, Mwana Africa, Loncor, Anglo-Gold Ashanti, Kilo Gold, Moku Gold, Randgold and Alphamin Resources.

Israeli Dan Gertler -- one of the Congo's greatest current enemies -- has bought up petroleum operations in the lakes regions on the Uganda-Congo frontier.  Gertler's political allies in power in Israel have been making deals with Rwanda.  Another Israeli has been awarded oil-drilling rights in Virunga National Park just in the past two weeks after Canadian oil company SOCOM pulled out under public pressure.

Corporations like Alphamin promise to provide community development programs, with all kinds of publicity of their supposed largesse and generosity. Usually these are cheap exchanges, the equivalent of trinkets for land and minerals, the legacy of colonial occupation and theft.

On 10 June 2015, communities dispossessed of lands and livelihoods by Banro Gold in South Kivu began to confront Banro Gold for the substandard homes provided by Banro. "There is trouble in Luhwindja where Banro is exploiting," reported one Congolese human rights investigator on 10 June 2015. "Banro did nothing to help the locals. The houses they [Banro] built are falling down because people had to abandon them. People are dying from pollution."

The operations of the big mining companies present in eastern Congo are completely whitewashed by the western press and western mercenaries and intelligence front group organizations like the International Crises Group, International Rescue Committee, ENOUGH, Raise Hope For Congo, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and the Social Science Research Council.[63]

The reappearance on the ground in Congo of these Rwandan warlords illuminates the apparatus of impunity involving western governments, non-government front organizations, the United Nations, multinational corporations, think tanks, western academia, the genocide industry, and the industries that profit through the creation of careers and markets for the euphemistically named AID, charity, humanitarian relief, conflict-resolution, and development industries.   None of these latter industries would flourish without the market-based manufacture of suffering, despair, disease and deracination, or the market-based production of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees.

Lies the Government Is Telling You

Click here to access article by Andrew P. Napolitano from AntiWar. 

Last week, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined President Barack Obama in congratulating themselves for taming the National Security Agency’s voracious appetite for spying. By permitting one section of the Patriot Act to expire and by replacing it with the USA Freedom Act, the federal government is taking credit for taming beasts of its own creation.

In reality, nothing substantial has changed.

This former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey continues on to provide details of how little has changed by this new Orwellian-named USA Freedom Act.

Obama Justice Department Demands Personal Information on Website Commenters

Click here to access article by Donn Marten from The Greanville Post.

Obama’s new Attorney General Loretta Lynch has had one hell of a start to her new gig. There was the sweetheart deal with the big banks over the FOREX currency market rigging, the politically motivated international bust of several FIFA officials as cover for revoking the 2018 World Cup from Russia and now the escalation of the police state. The pissing contest over Lynch’s confirmation provided a nice racially tinged cover for the fact that she is yet another establishment insider, a fox tasked with guarding the hen house. Her service on the board of the New York Federal Reserve while Timothy Geithner was heading it was a dead giveaway.

Lynch is a very dangerous woman and she is just getting warmed up right now, keep that in mind when you are making your comments folks.

Fascism just never sleeps here in the Homeland.

Leaked Text Shows Big Pharma Bullies Using TPP To Undermine Global Health

Click here to access article by Deirdre Fulton from Common Dreams. 

Public health groups have long been part of the coalition of TPP opponents, charging that it would undermine efforts to ensure access to affordable, life-saving medicines in both the United States and abroad.

Wednesday's leak appears to bolster those claims.

According to the New York Times, which obtained the Healthcare Annex in collaboration with WikiLeaks, the document provides pharmaceutical companies with "new opportunities to challenge the decisions of trading partners on which drugs they will offer their citizens through government health care programs and the rates at which they will reimburse drug sellers."

Did the War in Syria Just Become a Regional War?

Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from CounterPunch.

...in June of 2015, with Syria continuing to struggle against a full-fledged international campaign to bring regime change, Iran has finally, and unmistakably stepped into the fray. Despite there still being debate as to exactly which forces Iran has deployed, and the specific numbers, it is clear that Tehran has judged that the Turkish intervention, coupled with the participation of its Saudi and Israeli rivals, has forced its hand, necessitating a direct intervention. The stakes could not be higher.
With Iranian military forces operating mere miles from both the Turkish and Israeli borders, the potential for a direct military confrontation between the region’s powers is very high. Were such a scenario to play out, one could easily imagine a direct shooting war that would amount to a full-scale regional conflict. 

Keynesianism will not save the world

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder. 

Nostalgia for the supposed “golden age” of mid-20th century capitalism carries with it an assumption that we can simply go back to a Keynesian world. Yet this is not a matter of simply of switching horses for nobody decreed that will be [we] shall now have neoliberalism and nobody can decree we shall now have Keynesianism.

There are structural reasons for the neoliberal assault. It is the logical development of capitalism....

The Dark Saudi-Israeli Plot to Tip the Scales in Syria

Click here to access article by Conn Hallinan from Foreign Policy in Focus.

A quiet meeting this past March in Saudi Arabia, and a recent anonymous leak from the Israeli military, set the stage for what may be a new and wider war in the Middle East.

From having lived in the Bay Area for about 20 years, I am familiar with the long radical Irish clan legacy of the Hallinans. This retired professor and independent journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area has provided what I believe to be a valuable analysis of the inter-Arab conflicts among the anti-Syrian coalition consisting mainly of Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It now appears that Israel may be planning attacks against Lebanon to draw Hezbollah fighters away from Syria which could tip the balance of forces in the Syrian conflict. 

The Israeli leadership must be rejoicing over the ongoing machinations and killings between Muslim sects. Have you noticed that the dramatic arrival of the terrorist army of ISIS has not in any way posed a threat to Israel? In fact Israel has been known to treat members of affiliated jihadi groups with medical aid. 

One really crucial date in the Greek battlefield

Click here to access article from the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens. 

This article points to a very important decision facing the current Syriza administration in Greece which will likely indicate which direction the government will go: fulfill the promises made to the Greek people or cave in to the austerity demands of the Troika (IMF, ECB, EC). Apparently the Greek supreme court decided that the closing down of a government operated public broadcasting company undertaken by the previous government was illegal, and tomorrow this agency and its employees must be restored.

...there is indeed one crucial date, which is tomorrow, 11th of June. Two years ago on this date, Samaras administration proceeded in an unprecedented action by closing public broadcaster in one day.

Forget the G7 summit – Bilderberg is where the big guns go

Click here to access article by Charlie Skelton from The Guardian.

This year's Bilderberg conference will be held in Telfs-Buchen, Austria from June 11th through the 14th. 

Left-wing sources have always been highly suspicious of these gatherings by often alleging that various conspiracies are hatched at these meetings. My own opinion is that they provide an important bonding experience of highly influential people with those who hold top offices in governments and corporations within the Empire. The former are the real decision-makers of the Empire while the latter hold top leadership positions in all the important institutions within the Empire. The latter serve to carry out the policies of the former. Hence the bonding of the two is essential for running the Empire effectively. Thus, I don't think that these meetings are held as policy making meetings as is often suggested by liberal and many left-wing sources. 

Logistics 101: Where Does ISIS Get Its Guns?

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Cartalucci adds to the mountain of evidence that the terrorist army of ISIS is a creation of the Empire. He focuses on only one aspect: the logistics required of any sustained military operation. He also takes direct aim at one among many lies that are being told to Americans via their corporate media talking heads: 

The current conflict consuming the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria where the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) is operating and simultaneously fighting and defeating the forces of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, we are told, is built upon a logistical network based on black market oil and ransom payments.

Cold War II to McCarthyism II

Click here to access article by Robert Parry from Consortium News.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the U.S. government’s plunge into Cold War II would bring back the one-sided propaganda themes that dominated Cold War I, but it’s still unsettling to see how quickly the major U.S. news media has returned to the old ways, especially the New York Times, which has emerged as Official Washington’s propaganda vehicle of choice.

I have also been very surprised by the sheer audacity of our masters to engage in such blatant propaganda campaigns that have so little relationship to what is actually going on in the world. They must be either desperate or arrogant in the belief Americans will simply believe everything they are being told simply because most of them always have believed such outrageous lies in the past.

US underwrites corruption and violence in Honduras

Click here to access article by Dana Frank from Al Jazeera. 

Since 2009, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has helped depose a democratically elected president in a military coup, ousted part of the country’s Supreme Court and facilitated the illegal appointment of Honduras’ sitting attorney general. He's jettisoned the Honduran constitution through militarized policing, helped abolish presidential term limits and he even pushed through Congress a law that says that the Honduran constitution doesn't apply in new, privately-run “model cities.”

The US thoroughly dominates the governments of Guatemala and Honduras, and through intimidation and bribes heavily influences events in the rest of Central America largely on behalf of resource extracting corporations. In the 1980s Honduras in particular has served the US as a successful application of a terrorist army (the Contras) used to destabilize a nearby government (Nicaragua). Probably inspired by this success, US Empire directors have applied this method elsewhere in places like Libya and now in collaboration with Middle Easter cronies in the form of ISIS in the Middle East.

(Note: If you wish to know more about US related events in Honduras, I suggest simply entering "Honduras" in one of my search engines.)

“Under the Dome” Exposes the Extent of China’s Pollution Problems

Click here to access article by Beth Kelly from Uncommon Thought Journal. 

When former CCTV star investigative reporter Cai Jing posted her air pollution documentary “Under the Dome” on the People’s Daily website, it went viral overnight, racking over 175 million viewings over the weekend. Estimates concluded that within days the film had been seen by a third of China’s online audience. Its debut just ahead of the annual National People’s Congress seemed well-timed to air the debate on environmental concerns that had made many Chinese especially angry about the “airpocalypses” of years prior. However, just a week after its debut, China’s censorship apparatus abruptly caused all commentary and articles on the film and finally the film itself to be removed from Chinese and international websites.

China is experiencing some major contradictions under capitalism: preserving a healthy environment while meeting the requirement of economic growth, jobs, and equitable distribution of benefits. While people are clearly concerned, the ruling directors are reflexively using authoritarian methods to contain dissent. 

Here in the US, our ruling class directors are burdened by an historical legacy of liberalism, the ideology of Western capitalism. In the 18th century when the rising capitalist class in Europe was small, they saw the necessity of inducing ordinary people to support them in their opposition to the rather arbitrary rule of monarchs and their aristocratic supporters. Hence they made all sorts of promises to ordinary people about various freedoms that they would enjoy if monarchical rule could be overturned. They have always had to contend with the democratic demands of this legacy, but they have done so successfully using a variety of methods. 

To fully understand this would require a study of the real history of the US and Western civilization which is not easy to find. Besides the reading list I've recommended on the right hand side of this website, I can recommend a few books such as The Democratic Facade by Hellinger and Judd, Propaganda by Edward Bernays, Manufacturing of Consent by Herman and Chomsky. 

So that you don't come to the erroneous conclusion that our system is so much better than China's and other countries, the point I wish to make is that ruling classes always find ways to insure their subjects' compliance to their rule. Also, it must be kept in mind that our ruling class do not entirely depend on these softer methods to induce compliance. Should these methods fail, they are ready, willing, and able to use violence against dissenters. That's why we have 24/7 surveillance (instead of widespread censorship), militarized police forces, and a huge military establishment.

Abrupt Climate Change and The Failure of Democracy

Click here to access article by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook.

The deadly and destructive effects of abrupt climate change continue to be felt across the planet and still the response of national governments is to do nothing except issue press releases expressing sympathy for the victims and empty promises of local aid.

This Canadian author and international criminal lawyer is a genuine humanitarian in contrast to directors in the ruling capitalist classes who use humanitarian concerns to justify military operations against other countries. In this article he expresses concerns about the lack of any serious effort on the part of governments to do anything about climate change. However, due to his thorough indoctrination in the capitalist ideology of liberalism, he seems to be totally confused as to the reasons for the "failure of democracy" to do anything effective. He confuses the ideology of capitalism with the inherent dynamics of the system which requires growth to exist.

Reimagining our collective powers against austerity

Click here to access article by Max Haiven from Reflections on a Revolution. (a must-read)

Wow! Absolutely stunning in its advancement of revolutionary thinking!

It's so encouraging to see people popping up in various parts of the world who are actively engaging in both theoretical projects and practical experiments to build a sustainable and peaceful world. This time we see a Canadian contribute with this essay to this grand effort.

Haiven challenges us to think deeper about what really constitutes revolutionary thinking.

Is a right something granted by a state or sovereign, or is it something that emerges more organically from communities as they struggle? I think the latter is true.

And so then how can we speak of a “right” to the commons? I think we cannot imagine that this right will ever be “granted” to us by those in economic and political power. In the end, the ideal of the commons (horizontalist, grassroots democracy, sustainable reciprocity, community-level decision-making and radical autonomy) is completely antithetical to the state-form and the Eurocentric regime of sovereignty that has, to date, been the “container” of “rights” as we are accustomed to imagining them. So any “right to the commons” would necessarily need to be an insurgent right, a radical demand aimed at undermining and replacing state sovereignty.

Migrants welcome here

Click here to access article from CounterFire (Britain).

Issues related to migrants is emerging in many places in the world as the chaos created by the Empire forces many people to move from their native lands. This article describes how the elites are using this issue in a racist framework in Britain and Europe to divide the people from a more radical opposition to their rule and the chaos they create.

By shifting blame for low wages and insecure work onto migrants, the real culprits are let off the hook. Divide and rule is the aim.

NATO Is Creating Military Blocs to Chip Away Russia's Interests

Click here to access article by Andrew Korybko from Russia Insider.

On Friday in a post commentary I wrote: 

...we see that the Empire's war lords are continuing to taunt Russia by planting stories in mainstream media suggesting additional nuclear threats directed toward Russia. Are they trying to intimidate Russian leaders or to bait a Russian aggressive response? Surely they can't be so ignorant as to believe that they can intimidate Russian leadership. Or, are they looking for excuses to ramp up their nuclear weapons in Europe in preparation for a war against Russia? 

This article looks like a well-informed response to those important questions and other questions about why the Empire is pursuing so many aggressive actions against Russia. Likewise Korybko's views might also apply toward an earlier posted article entitled "Why Is Obama Goading China?" by Mike Whitney. 

It looks like the directors of the Empire have only one response to the rise of China and Russia as the two leading countries that are seen as a challenge to the Empire's domination of the world: the threat of violent force via sponsorship of terrorist armies, subversion, NATO alliances in Europe, and military bases in, and alliances with, vassal countries in the Pacific. This, of course, together with militarized police forces at home, is wholly consistent with the inevitability of advanced capitalism, which is the engine of the Empire's system, devolving into fascism.