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, January 25, 2017

China Just Issued a Nuclear Warning to Donald Trump and the United States

Click here to access article by James Holbrooks from AntiMedia.

It appears that that our Empire directors are greatly disturbed about the growing military, industrial, and economic strength of China. F. William Engdahl, Pepe Escobar, and Michael Hudson among others regard the Trump administration as representing (what might accurately be labeled as) a Rockefeller section of the US capitalist ruling class that intends to curb China's power by promoting policies to split the growing alliance between Russia and China, and increasing military and other threats against China. The Trump administration certainly furnishes evidence of this new US-led Empire strategy with phone contacts with government officials of Formosa, followed by continuing belligerent statements regarding China recently made by members of his administration as reported in this article, and the installation of THAAD missiles in the Empire's satrap of South Korea.

Missing from US corporate media coverage related to the issue of China's construction of military bases off its shore is the huge buildup of US military bases that almost surround China. Pilger in his recent film has dramatically pointed to this threat to China, and the New Internationalist cited additional evidence that suggests that the US Empire is preparing for war with China. 
Today, more than 400 American military bases encircle China with missiles, bombers, warships and, above all, nuclear weapons. From Australia north through the Pacific to Japan, Korea and across Eurasia to Afghanistan and India, the bases form, says one US strategist, ‘the perfect noose’.
China is not going to be bullied or intimidated nor is Russia going to split from its alliance with China. Thus, we are entering another very dangerous period in which a nuclear war threatens everyone on the planet. We were lucky the first time in the Cuban Missile Crisis under the more cool-headed Kennedy administration, but can we expect such luck with the hot-headed belligerents in the Trump administration?