Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, February 23, 2021

• 💥Dr Simone Gold "The truth about the CV 19 vaccine" from America's Frontline Doctors via their channel on uncensored Bitchute. This is a best post that was forwarded to me by a truth-seeking-activist from Oregon. I wish there were more such activists.
  

Presentation of 3 January 2021. "In the middle of that day we took a break and we walked over to the Supreme Court, and that was the video that got 20 million views. It gets 20 million views not because I can sing as Beyonce, but because human beings recognize truth. We have something inside of us, right. I really emphasize that point. Within an hour all of the platforms censored us simultaneously. [...] YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, facebook, Twitter, all of them."

• Neoliberals Seek to Establish Their Own Brand of Fascism by Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford in a 22:10m audio format from Black Agenda Report.
  

• Capitol Riots were a Dark Day for American Journalism by Patrick Cockburn from CounterPunch. (Note: Be sure to read the link to the Greenwald article, if you haven't already. I posted it on my website some time ago.)
  

• What Is Bill Gates Up To? with Max Blumenthal on The Jimmy Dore channel of Rokfin offering what he knows about Bill Gates in an 18:08m video.

• The Art of Being a Spectacularly Misguided Oracle by Pepe Escobar from Global Research.
  

• Iran Picked Up the Glove Thrown by Israeli Secret Services by Vladimir Platov from New Eastern Outlook. (Platov uses the metaphor of "the glove" to stand for the assassination of scientists.)

• Snowstorms, the Breach of the Arctic Vortex and the Effects of Ice Meltwater on the Oceans by Dr. Andrew Glikson from Global Research. My reaction: Prof. Chossudovsky who founded this website, has in the distant past (over one decade) been always negative about scientific evidence that indicated over-all global warming. But it seems that he has changed by recognizing scientific evidence that indicates climate destabilization along with abrupt global warming.

The extreme rate at which the global warming and the shift of climate zones are taking place virtually within a period less than one generation-long, faster than major past warming events such as at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary 56 million years ago, renders the term “climate change” hardly appropriate, since what we are looking at is a sudden and abrupt event.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 17, 2020

• The Rumbling Methane Enigma by Robert Hunziker from CounterPunch.

• Could Humans Go Extinct Within Years? from Arctic News.

• Climate crisis dominates the top risks in World Economic Forum report ahead of Davos by Rachel Koning Beals, News Editor at Market Watch. 

• Critique of Capitalism – Dr. Marguerite Mendell from Post-Capitalist Possibilities. (Note: Dr. Mendell still has hope.)

• Battle of the Ages to stop Eurasian integration by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

• America’s Long History of Meddling in Russia by Ted Rall from CounterPunch. (Note: This cartoonist misses the larger historical fact that the USA and its secret "intelligence" subversive services has meddled in most countries of the world since WWII while building the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

Recommended articles to keep you politically aware on Tuesday

• Turkey’s position on Venezuela- a Perspective from the Left by Justus Links from LeftEast. (I cannot vouch for this author, but because the article is posted in a leftist website based in Bulgaria and offered a Turkish point of view, I thought it should offer a different perspective on the Venezuelan situation as well as Turkish politics.)

• Turkish Army seeking to build new bases to block Syrian Army offensive in Idlib from AMN (based in Beirut, Lebanon).

• This Map Shows a Trillion-Dollar Reason Why US is Backing Terrorism in Western China by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Mr Bolton’s Long Game Against Iran – Pakistan Becomes Saudi Arabia’s New Client State

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. (This article requires a greater degree of knowledge of recent events in the Middle East.)

Despite the history of Crooke's service to the Anglo section of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, he continues to shed light on the Empire's covert strategies in the politically important region of Eurasia. This rather mysterious geopolitical analyst has written some solidly argued analyses of recent political events, and this is one of the best, in my opinion. Bolton appears to be continuing the David Rockefeller's protege Zbigniew Brzezinski and his influence outlined in his book The Grand Chessboard together with the current Empire's obsession with Iran. 

US Special Forces, (mostly) withdrawn from Syria, are deploying into this new Iraq military ‘hub’ in order, Trump said, to “watch Iran”. (Trump rather inadvertently ‘let the cat out of the bag’ with that comment).

The detail of the US ‘hub encirclement’ of Iran, however, rather gives the rest of Mr Bolton’s plan away: The ‘hubs’ are positioned precisely adjacent to Sunni, Kurdish, Baluch or other Iranian ethnic minorities (some with a history of insurgency). And why is it that US special forces are being assembled in the Iraqi hub? Well, these are the specialists of ‘train and assist’ programmes. These forces are attached to insurgent groups to ‘train and assist’ them to confront a sitting government. Eventually, such programmes end with safe-zone enclaves that protect American ‘companion forces’ ....

The covert element to the MESA programme, targeting Iran, is ambitious, but it will be supplemented in the next months with new rounds of economic squeeze intended to sever Iran’s oil sales (as waivers expire), and with diplomatic action, aimed at disrupting Iran’s links in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Earlier in the article he explains what the MESA program is:

MESA (Middle East Security Alliance) maybe the new bland vehicle for a seemingly gentler Arab NATO, but its covert sub-layer is, under Mr Bolton’s guidance, as fixated on Iran, as was ‘Arab NATO’ at the outset. How would it be otherwise (given Team Trump’s obsession with Iran)?

And he continues his cogent analysis citing the recent moves and interests of all the other players in this dangerous part of the world.

No matter how it appears, Trump isn’t getting out of Syria and Afghanistan

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left. (Bloggers note: I added Bernhard to the list of top geopolitical analysts at 8:27 AM CT on 12/25/2018.)

I regard Stephen Gowans (along with Pepe Escobar, Tony Cartalucci, and Bernhard of Moon of Alabama) as one of the top geopolitical analysts in the world.

Gowans argues, with considerable supporting documentation, that Trump has not changed the fundamental policies of the Empire's imperialist policies, but there is a change in methods to finance foreign military adventure. True to the views which Trump as consistently argued in the past, he wants our allies to bear more of the cost of maintaining these foreign adventures. Gowans further argues that Mattis's resignation was motivated by the opposite view: that the USA must maintain its predominate role. It is a debate between imperialist policies, not imperialism itself. Thus, there is no fundamental shift in the Empire's funding of imperialism. (However, I doubt that USA's allies will be willing to replace US troops in eastern Syria.)

I think that the Mattis camp is right in their opinion that the Trump decision to cut back on the cost to the USA will eventually lead to the weakening of the Empire's control of the world. But Trump is simply recognizing reality: the USA simply can't afford to supply troops and other financing of these adventures any longer. We are too broke to do this. 

Trump's decision puts another marker on the beginning of the end of the US Empire. To be sure, the capitalist ruling classes of the US's subordinate allies will pick up the military and financial burden because they have no other choice. They too have financial problems of their own, and cannot much longer fund such adventures. So, I view Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan in order to shift more of the burden on their partners-in-crime to maintain the Empire as a positive sign in the long run.

Pakistan in the middle of Saudi, Iran and rival pipeline plans

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

The master of pipeline politics describes the complex nature of the two oil/gas pipeline systems that are in competition in the Middle East and Eurasia, and that the forces promoting these two systems might experience a tectonic shift affecting the power struggle between the US Empire versus the emerging and powerful Chinese-Russian coalition. Now stir the analysis provided in the previous post into the stew of geopolitical interests described in this article to see what you get. Could the Khashoggi incident along with the sanctions be the catalyst that could produce such a tectonic shift? Although Escobar does not factor in the Khashoggi incident, he sees one possibility:

... an irresistible geopolitical pull – heavily influenced by Washington’s sanctions obsession – would drive Turkey-Iran-Pakistan closer to BRI [China's Belt and Road Initiative] and trading in their own currencies or in yuan.

Back in the (Great) Game: The Revenge of Eurasian Land Powers

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from ConsortiumNews. 

This highly educated and informed Brazilian journalist has been following and touting China's Belt and Road Initiative for quite some time. In this article he provides an historical background on the Western European powers to thwart the rise of China on the world scene, and the subsequent reaction by the Chinese Communist Party, Russia, and other Eurasian nations who are taking the Westphalian principles, that are enshrined in the United Nations Charter, seriously unlike the Empire's complete disregard of them. 

The article is well-documented, but one reference was neglected for less educated Americans: the reference to the "end of history".

Recommended articles for Thursday, June 28, 2018

• Neocolonialism and the “Migrant Crisis” by Manlio Dinucci from Global Research (based in Canada).

From the United States to Europe, the “migrant crisis” is causing bitter interior and international controversy about the policies which need to be adopted concerning the migrant flow. However, these movements are being represented by a cliché which is the opposite of reality – that of the “rich countries” obliged to suffer the growing migratory pressure of the “poor countries”. This misrepresentation hides its basic cause – the world economic system [capitalism] which enables a restricted minority to accumulate wealth at the expense of the growing majority, by impoverishing them and thus provoking forced emigration. [my insertion]

• The Rapid Postwar Increase of America’s Nuclear Arsenal by Shane Quinn from Global Research.

• Turkey’s European dream may be over, is the Sultan ready for Eurasia? by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

Erdogan has lost his parliamentary majority and must now establish a coalition with the far-right Nationalist Action Party; given the latter is anti-Western, the road ahead points in only one direction: Eurasian integration.

Recommended articles for 2/11/2018

• Downed Russian Warplane Illustrates Enduring Danger of US-Backed Terrorism by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook. Read the well-documented article to see how Cartalucci reaches this conclusion:
  

US-backed terrorism has recently claimed a Russian pilot, amid a war that has cost tens of thousands their lives over the course of several years and threatened the stability of an entire region. But long after the war ends, whenever it ends, this threat as a result of America’s state-sponsorship of terrorism will endure for many more years to come, manifesting itself not only on battlefields but also in cities and towns, targeting soldiers and civilians alike – not just in Syria but around the planet.

• Amerika, the Cartoon: The “Good Guys”, The “Bad Guys”… Reality TV Becomes President by Philip A Farruggio from Global Research. Does the author really describe the political consciousness of most Americans? My god, I hope and pray that he is wrong!

• China’s latest move in the graveyard of empires by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

Why Jihadism Won’t Be Allowed to Die

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Sputnik International.

He concludes his speculative analysis with this perceptive statement:

And that brings us full circle to the initial working hypothesis. Daesh won’t be allowed to die – as much as the geopolitical re-engineering of what Dr. Zbig [Zbigniew Brzezinski] used to call the “Eurasian Balkans” refuses to die.

ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K – that regroup in Afghanistan – can be so handy to wreak havoc in the intersection of Central Asia and South Asia, so close to key BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] development corridors.

Moscow and Beijing though, know exactly what’s goin’ on. The phony Caliphate was useful in an attempt to break off BRI across “Syraq”, as much as Maidan in Ukraine was useful to break off the EAEU. Other war fronts will follow – from the Philippines to Venezuela, all bent on disrupting regional integration projects under a Divide and Rule strategy of US satraps manipulated into Hobbesian asymmetrical flare-ups.

Sixteen years after 9/11, the name of the game is not GWOT (Global War on Terror) anymore; is how, under the cover of GWOT, to disturb geostrategic expansion by the people who matter [to the Empire's transnational capitalist ruling class]; “peer competitors” Russia and China.   

Eurasia: Some Personal Impressions of Emerging China

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.

Following a recent visit to China in which he talked to many top-level intellectuals, Engdahl reports on his impressions. In contrast to capitalists under the US-led Empire who prefer trading debt instruments and proxy wars to accumulate wealth and power, China is pursuing a program of building infra-structure to facilitate the trade of goods across the Eurasian continent linking all the economies from Asia to Europe.

Today’s China is far more complex than simply being the world’s great economic colossus, the so-called “workshop to the world.” Yet despite serious problems with the development path the country’s Communist Party leadership took beginning in 1979, when Deng Xiaoping opened China to foreign investment and a global market with a pragmatic market economy whose slogan was “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” China today is the key to any future positive world economic growth in a peaceful context. Unlike Trump’s demagogic slogan, “Making America Great Again,” China’s OBOR infrastructure undertaking is no demagoguery. It’s very richly real.

Personally, I would like to see the Chinese Communist Party which guides China's policies start to restrict what their industries produce in favor of necessities like food, shelter, education, and information structures rather than producing for capitalist markets.

The Chinese Communist Party have used China's abundance of cheap labor to serve capitalist economies in order to develop their economy and technology. They have been wildly successful. But now its time to change to producing only necessary goods and services that are required to raise the quality of lives across the world. To do this, they must create genuine democratic structures that empower people to play an increasing role in deciding what is really necessary.  

The Not-So-Grand Strategy Behind America’s Warring Around

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

Engdahl offers his framework about the long-range project of Anglo-American capitalists into which he sees the zigs and zags of recent foreign policy tactics of the Trump administration continuing. Like other informed commentators, he sees a very dangerous world ahead.

It’s getting pretty crazy, the warring around of Washington since the Trump Project took office January 20. The question is whether there is a true strategy behind the dramatic escalation of Trump Administration military aggression around the world. There definitely is in my view, and it’s not good for world peace, not good for the United States and the rest of the world.

China’s Interests in Syria and the Middle East

Click here to access an interview with Dr. Christina Lin posted on Syria Comment. 

The interview, which was conducted by the website's administrator Joshua Landis, contains by far the best observations regarding China's involvement and political interests in the Syrian conflict and nearby regions that I have seen to date.

China does not want Syria to turn into a haven/base for Uyghurs to attack Chinese citizens and interests overseas as well as in the Chinese homeland.  The August 30 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Krgyzstan, planned by Turkistan Islamic Party [TIP] in Syria and financed by Al Nusra, is a sign of what is to come if they continue to grow.

How Does A Malaysian Scholar See the Belt & Road [New Silk Road] Initiative?

Click here to access an interview with Mathew Maavak posted on CCTV (China). 

From Uncommon Thought Journal we learn:

Mathew Maavak is a Malaysian-born consultant who has lived across much of Eurasia and Australia. He is steeped in research and journalism and specializes in a panoply of areas and disciplines including: Strategic Foresight & Planning; Defense and Security Analysis; Perception/Crisis Management; Propaganda and Psychological Warfare; Energy and Resource Geopolitics; Competitive Intelligence; Science, Technology and Innovation policies; and Media, Journalism and Communications. He was an advisor/consultant to Malaysia’ National Technology Foresight (NTF 2010) program and the National Nanotechnology Policy and Strategic Direction action plan.

China Rails Linking Eurasia

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

This American geopolitical analyst, who has lived in Germany for decades and has recently made several trips to China, gives us a report on the high-tech development of rail technology which appears to be the backbone for what many analysts have labeled as a grand "New Silk Road project" linking Asia with Europe. The Empire directors consider this as a direct challenge to their control of world, and thus it presents a dangerous threat of moving beyond a new cold war into a nuclear conflagration.

What is most impressive to me in my many visits to China over the past years is the extraordinary sense of doing things, of their countless building projects, something we in the West long ago had forgotten about in our post-industrial fantasy world. This drive to change their physical surroundings is emerging with impressive scale around President Xi Jinping’s highest-priority, the so-called One Belt, One Road Eurasian high-speed rail project.

China today has the world’s longest High-Speed Railway network with over 16,000 km (9,900 mi) of track as of December 2014, more than the rest of the world’s high speed rail tracks combined. China’s high speed rail system also includes the world’s longest line, the 2,298 km (1,428 mi) Beijing–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway. In short, China knows what it is doing in railways more than pretty much anybody and they are acting on that knowledge.

This development may also herald a new phase in China's development from a low cost factory for world into an export driven high-tech economy.

The image of millions of Chinese sweating away in low-paid textile labor for cheap exports is rapidly passing as the government’s current five-year plan aims to make China an exporter of high-net-value-added industrial and technology products. Rails are at the center of that strategy.

What is remarkable is that many Western economic analysts blame their recent hysteria-driven market collapse on China's economic slump.  Reliable independent journalist and geopolitical analysts like Pepe Escobar sees China's recent economic decline and market drop as only a temporary correction to an overheated Chinese market while also revealing the unstable nature of the West's economies that are based on neoliberal policies.

Pepe Escobar [is interviewed by Eric Draitser on China's strategies]

Click here to access the podcast recording of this interview from CounterPunch in which two of the of world's top independent journalists discuss the various dramatic ventures of China. I don't usually post long interviews like this (70 minutes), but the material these top notch journalists discuss is of vital importance in our attempt to understand the world we live in.

This week, CounterPunch Radio host Eric Draitser sits down with journalist and author Pepe Escobar to talk geopolitics and the emerging conflicts of the 21st Century. Eric and Pepe discuss the much publicized tensions between the US and China in the South China Sea, examining some of the principal motivations of China and its neighbors and competitors. They go in depth about the Chinese New Silk Roads strategy and what it means for political and economic development and integration in Eurasia. Eric and Pepe also explore the vast implications of the Chinese and Russian moves, and the ways in which the West is attempting to counter some of these developments, including Washington's corporate-sponsored power grabs of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA).

Pakistan, India (And Possibly Iran) Said To Be Upgraded To Members Of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

Click here to access article from Emerging Equity.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers has decided to upgrade the status of India and Pakistan in the bloc from observers to members, which is set to be finalized during the SCO and BRICs summit in July, Russia’s Sputnik news reported on Thursday, citing Pakistan’s ambassador to Russia.

The news, although not yet made official, comes following a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the Kremlin on Wednesday.

More news here for the directors of the Empire to worry about. 

China’s New Roads to Russia

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

I know of no comparable global Great Project to equal what is now unfolding, bit-by-bit, as China reveals more about her Silk Road Economic Belt high-speed railway infrastructure network. And it’s now clear that the road will be filled with entire new cities, industrial zones, construction, improving standards of living for hundreds of millions of people previously abandoned. The implications for founding a new global alternative to the bankrupt dollar system are immense.

US Wages Geopolitical Warfare against Russia in Central Asia and Caucasus

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

It appears from the evidence collected by MacMillan that Empire operatives are implementing the same subversive strategies in Eurasia and the Caucasus as they successfully applied in Ukraine. But, there appear to be problems.
 
This complex strategy involves destabilising countries in Russia’s sphere of influence which creates numerous security problems for Moscow simultaneously, stretching the Kremlin’s ability to stabilise the chaos that has been deliberately contrived. Coupled with the attempt to build strategic partnerships with states close to Russia’s borders, this geopolitical strategy is a potent one that threatens the survival of the current Russian regime and is the logical next step in the West’s war against Moscow. After staging a colour revolution on Russia’s Western frontier in Ukraine which severely weakened relations between Moscow and Kiev, the West is aiming at replicating this model in numerous Eurasian countries including in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

Go West, Young Han

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.

While the US Empire is sowing chaos in the Middle East and eastern Europe, China appears to be rapidly creating a 21st century version of the ancient Silk Road. They are not only establishing commercial ties with Europe, but commercial and military ties with Russia. The directors of the Empire are very worried: their "pivot to Asia"--that's Newspeak for a China containment policy--may be too late, and their declared economic war on Russia may backfire.

Now, mix the Silk Road strategy with heightened cooperation among the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), with accelerated cooperation among the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), with a more influential Chinese role over the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) - no wonder there's the perception across the Global South that, while the US remains embroiled in its endless wars, the world is defecting to the East.