Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 31, 2020

Blogger's Note: Because the bigger, more imminent threat (more than the pollution of carbon) to the human species is a global nuclear war, I am forced to post many articles related to world geo-political events in what I think is now the start of the disintegration of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. We live in a very dangerous world.

• Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? by Robert J. Burrowes from Wall Street International Magazine.

• Britain leaves the European Union: Against nationalism, For the United Socialist States of Europe! from World Socialist Web Site.

• Brexit and the world: The risks and opportunities for non-European countries from United World (independent analysts based in Turkey).

• Did the US just concede defeat in China tech war? by David P. Goldman from Asia Times. 

• Globalization – A sneaky overview by Naresh Jotwani from A bird's eye view of the Vineyard.

• U.S in the Middle-East: Preparing for Disaster by "The Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from The Unz Review. 

• Why we need a socialist solution to climate change by John Molyneux from Global Ecosocialist Network. (I now think it is too late for this.)

• The Merchants of Death by "FD" from The Internationalists. 

• Rewriting History of World War II Is Ominous Warning from the editors of Strategic Culture Foundation. (The victors always re-write history.)

• Nobody Sets Out To Become A War Propagandist. It Just Sort Of Happens. By Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• American Dream meets the Chinese Dream: A Nightmare on Fuyao Avenue by Dyjbas from Internationalist Communist Tendency.

• FBI probes use of Israeli firm's spyware in personal and government hacks from The New Arab. 

• Trump Is A Symptom Of A Larger Problem from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube).

• Saudi, UAE trying to partition Iraq – fmr Pentagon official from RTAmerica. "The US has stopped all weapon deliveries to Iraq over security concerns, according to an Air Force spokesman. Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof weighs in."

• Erdoğan’s Outburst Against Russia Reveals Frustration by "InfoBrics" from The Duran (based in Cyprus).

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

• How climate change influenced Australia's unprecedented fires by Dana Nuccitelli from Yale Climate Connections.

• Lords of Food from Maize.

• No Crisis gone to waste: IMF celebrates signs of approaching global financial crisis by Joaquin Flores from Fort Russ News.

• Trump’s Feeble Phase 1 China-US Trade Deal by Jack Rasmus from his weblog.

• How a Hidden Parliamentary Session Revealed Trump’s True Motives in Iraq by Whitney Webb from Mint Press News. 

The Globalization of Capitalism: The Rise of Capitalism's Fourth Epoch [third in a series of five]

Click here to access article by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D. from ThoughtCo. 

Capitalism, as an economic system, first debuted in the 14th century and existed in three different historical epochs before it evolved into the global capitalism that it is today. In this article we take a look at the process of globalizing the system, which changed it from a Keynesian, "New Deal" capitalism to the neoliberal and global model that exists today.

The foundation of today’s global capitalism was laid, in the aftermath of World War II, at the Bretton Woods Conference, which took place at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944.

Global Capitalism: Five Things that Make Capitalism "Global" [fourth in a series of five]

Click here to access article by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D. from ThoughtCo. 

Global capitalism is the fourth and current epoch of capitalism. What distinguishes it from earlier epochs of mercantile capitalism, classical capitalism, and national-corporate capitalism is that the system, which was previously administered by and within nations, now transcends nations, and thus is transnational, or global, in scope. In its global form, all aspects of the system, including production, accumulation, class relations, and governance, have been disembedded from the nation and reorganized in a globally integrated way that increases the freedom and flexibility with which corporations and financial institutions operate.

What's So Bad About Global Capitalism? Ten Sociological Critiques of the System [fifth in a series of five]

Click here to access article by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D. from ThoughtCo. 

I don't think that Cole wishes to imply that the other stages of capitalism were beneficial to working people. Because capitalist laws made everything created on the owners' property as belonging to the owner, and by reducing everything to a commodity that could be purchased, soon capitalist "owned" everything of productive value and workers were reduced to wage-slaves to be hired or fired at the discretion of the "owners".

I think she is arguing that each stage of capitalism tightened the hold that capitalists had over their nation-states and workers residing in these states, and now with the advent of trans-national capitalism things are even worse. 

The five key elements that make capitalism “global” are summarized below. A more detailed analysis can be found here.

1. the fully globalized nature of the production and distribution of goods;
2. the flexible nature of a global pool of labor that corporations can choose from;
3. globalized circuits of accumulation and investment among wealthy corporations and individuals;
4. the existence of a global class of elite who set the agenda for production, trade, finance, and development; and,
5. a globalized form of governance, known as the transnational state, run by these elite via institutions like the WTO, World Bank, and IMF, among others.

Now, let’s take a critical look at the implications of these particular arrangements of capitalist relations of production.

Six maps that will make you rethink the world

Click here to access article which features an interview by Ana Swanson of The Washington Post with Parag Khanna, a globalist.

The life thus far for Khanna illustrates how those who serve the ruling directorate of the US Empire can move anywhere in the world that pleases them while ordinary people face all kinds of barriers to their movement. But not to worry--he promises that, along with many other good things, this will change in the future.

I am posting this article from one of the two chief media sources of the Empire because it features how the capitalist directorate of the Empire thinks and, more importantly, want us to think about the future. By reading it you will learn that they expect explosive growth in population to be concentrated in mega-cities throughout the world and that we will live in a world that is "four degrees Celsius above the 1990 baseline"!

He then goes on to reveal what splendid opportunities this will present for commerce and investment banks, and of course, jobs. What he doesn't tell you is what disasters lie ahead given these conditions. Of course, he has sold his soul to the people who have rewarded him with so many opportunities: the capitalist ruling class of the Empire.

Companies Continue to Profit by Playing Dumb

Click here to access article by David Macaray from CounterPunch.

The author reveals the games that liberals play to cover for predatory corporations on the make for profits.

By now, everybody knows the drill. An American or European company (typically a manufacturing or food-processing enterprise, but increasingly expanding to include IT operations) sets up shop in a stable Latin American or Asian country in order to take advantage of ridiculously low wages and weak or near non-existent environmental laws. It’s beats the hell out of what they face back home.

Writing The New Rules For The 21st Century – In Secret?

Click here to access article by Dave Johnson from Campaign for America's Future.

In this strongly sarcastic, but well-deserved, attack on NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman who seems to be the mouthpiece for the Empire's policies of globalization and war, Johnson distills the basic effects of TPP, and by extension, other neoliberal trade policies: an attack on the American economy and democracy (the little that exists) for the benefit of international corporations.

China and The New World Order

Click here to access 1:11:55 video and transcript by James Corbett from The Corbett Report. (I made some modifications to my commentary at 3:25 PM Seattle time.)

I read most of this transcript recently and found Corbett's grand geopolitical view to be overly "conspiratorial", that is, in my opinion it ascribes too much power to power figures that can influence global political events. The metaphor that he often uses refers to a puppeteer controlling puppets. The puppeteers he has in mind are globalists, mostly bankers, who are intent upon creating a "new world order", and they have been attempting to do this for quite some time, at least since about 1916.  

Such people who come up with unconventional explanations of world events are often smeared with the term "conspiracy theorist". I don't wish to smear Corbett for his effort because I think it is an honest effort to understand the world we are living in, but I think his analysis suffers from an over emphasis on the power and omniscience of relatively powerful figures. However, his theory does appear to support an explanation for what I still regard as the inexplicable participation of so many Western countries in China's international banking organizations, particularly the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. (I will address this later.)

In this long podcast essay he draws from a number of sources evidence to support this theory and I don't have the time or desire to confront many of them. He draws a lot from Antony Sutton who, I believe, was also overly impressed with powerful figures acting from behind the scenes of world events and went to extreme lengths to cherry-pick evidence to support his theory. (In the process he did uncover a lot of valuable evidence that bankers played both sides in WWII.) 

Yes, there were capitalist funders who did supply some modest amounts of money to Lenin and Trotsky to aid them in getting back to Russia and alter the Russian government. There are always some capitalists who believe in using their money to influence people who they think can shape political events. They do this in an effort to co-opt such people into serving their interests. We have seen this phenomena in recent years here in the US and abroad with capitalist foundations and NGOs funding alternative websites and organizations in order to influence their views. But, they are not omniscient or all powerful--they do make mistakes, and they did so dramatically with Trotsky and Lenin.

Today, we are seeing some people (such as Kissinger) in the ruling capitalist classes who realize the inherent dangers of trying to dominate China, that in this nuclear age a war would be far too devastating to contemplate, and thus they would like to reach an accommodation with Chinese and Russian leaders. Capitalist ruling classes are not monolithic with regard to strategies for enhancing their wealth and power. There are many others, often in the ranks of neoconservatives, who think otherwise. They are pursuing policies of aggressive containment with both Russia and China. From all appearances, I think that they are the dominant faction among the Empire's directors.

Getting back to how his theory accounts for many Western countries participating in China's international investment banks, I think there are other alternative explanations. The most likely one is that they want to influence how the investment banks function so that they do not collide with the interests of the Empire. Or global-elitist factions in these countries see this as a step to reach an accommodation with Chinese leaders in pursuit of something like a collusion of elite interests, or something like a "new world order". Or some combination of these motives. But I don't yet have a definitive answer. I'm still looking.

Dollar Imperialism, 2015 Edition

Click here to access article by Michele Brand and Remy Herrera.

If you didn't find the above article sufficiently challenging, maybe this one will. Both are excellent attempts to explain the ill effects of the US dollar on the rest of the world. The authors conclude this rather lengthy essay with the following commentary:

With $5.7 trillion of dollar denominated debt, the BRICS still have a ways to go before liberating themselves fully from the dollar. If they enter into a full-fledged economic crisis (and Russia is already there), they could be forced to act more quickly toward creating a de-dollarized alternative financial sphere, in order to survive. This bipolar world, which seems likely, could at least offer some respite to those economies; however, if the world split into two rival spheres, it could lead to a new cold war – and possibly the risk of a new world war. A much preferable solution would certainly be the creation of a new global reserve currency – which would not replace national currencies but only take over the dollar’s unfair hegemonic role – managed by an international institution, whether a reformed IMF (if that’s possible) or another one which would be more “neutral” than such institutions are currently.

Liberating the world from the burden of the dollar, and from the hot and cold wars waged in its interest, will of course not relieve us from the world’s true, insidious disease: capitalism. But it would allow some breathing room necessary for alternative experiences working toward the socialization of the economy, toward socialism, to survive and hopefully thrive.

Earth, Now Available in Ultra High Definition

Click here to access article by Brian Kahn posted with this video from Climate Central.

This is an actual view of our planet-home from a Russian satellite. 

Forget about emigrating to another planet after we thoroughly destroy the habitat that can support our lives here--that is just another fantasy of the rich who are bored with all their wealth. Thus, we must take care of our home, the mother Earth that nurtures all our lives. Because the rich appear intent on destroying it, it appears that we may have to take away the wealth and power hoarded by the rich in order to protect our home.

I recommend viewing this while listening to this: first click on the latter link, then return to this window and re-open this video in full screen mode. Enjoy.

NATO’s Achilles’s Heel: Secession

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

Madsen assembles evidence to prove his thesis that the recent drives for smaller segments of nations to move toward independence as a threat to NATO. I'm not sure how much of a threat these independence movements pose for global capitalists, but it is surely obvious that the latter much prefer the efficiency of dealing with larger nations. 

Also it bring to my mind what has been cited as "America's single greatest contribution to political theory" as quoted in historian Woody Holten's book Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (chapter 16). He refers to "the notion that the republican form of government works best in a large area...." that the early ruling elite soon discovered along with other bulwarks against popular rule such as indirect voting for electors, division of government in three institutions, and a transfer of the power of states to a central government.

Our benevolent founding capitalist fathers, who saw the huge commercial potential of what they saw as a rich and empty continent, were eager to exploit these riches under the system of property ownership and rule by property owners. Thus, they regarded all the democratic rhetoric that they had espoused before and during the War of Independence from Britain, in order to enlist the support of workers, as being an impediment after the revolution. This early ruling class consisting of plantation owners (e.g., James Madison), slave holders (e.g., Thomas Jefferson), and land speculators (e.g., George Washington was one of the most active) feared the "unwashed masses" and their participation in political affairs. Thus, large voting districts along with many other anti-democratic methods served to give the wealthy considerable control over elections.

Will Russia and China Hold Their Fire Until War Is the Only Alternative?

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from Institute for Political Economy.

Having served in the Reagan's administration at a high level, Roberts is very well connected with the levers of political power. Although his outlook is constrained by a multi-polar capitalist world perspective, he has many valuable insights about the existing power arrangements in the world. 

This article, I think, contains some of the most useful in understanding what is going on in the global world of capitalist elites in which national boundaries are increasingly being erased. Here I am thinking of the information he provides about the subversive influence of Empire-based neoliberals that he locates within the ruling classes of Russia and China. 

The solution, of course, is not a return to nationally based capitalist elites--which is impossible--but the replacement of the very system that has produced the dangerous and destructive world we live in. Only the world's underclasses can do that. But, will they? Stay tuned. Better yet, stay active and informed.

A Dark Alliance: European Union Joins Forces With Wall Street

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Wolf Street. (Formerly of Raging Bull-Shit, this is Quijones' new website home.)

I have posted a number of articles by this perceptive author on my website, but I now see evidence of some impairment of his vision in this article. Referring to the watering down water of all forms of financial regulation, he seems to have discovered a new phenomenon:

...contrary to popular wisdom, it’s not the U.S. government that is leading the charge, but rather an unholy alliance between the European Commission, Wall Street, and the City of London. 

Too often, even the most astute political observers accept the fabricated lies that the ruling One Percent must use in order to hide the realities of their class rule behind carefully constructed facades that pretend to represent the workings of "democracy" and national constructs of political institutions. Many have yet to catch up with a new world being constructed by global elites who have a global vision in which national boundaries no longer apply. The following statement in Quijones' article is an example of this type of analysis:

To its credit, the U.S. government continues to hold firm against EU pressure. U.S. treasury secretary Jack Lew has repeatedly stated that he opposed the inclusion of financial regulation in the TTIP on the grounds that “normally in a trade agreement, the pressure is to lower standards on things like [financial regulation or environmental regulation or labor rules]”. He also said that the U.S. would “not allow these agreements to serve as an opportunity to water down domestic financial regulatory standards”, or “dilute the impact of the steps that we’ve taken to safeguard the US economy.”

However, in the very next paragraph Quijones acknowledges:

However, given how often and how easily the Obama Administration has caved in to Wall Street’s demands since the financial crisis, it’s probably only a matter of time before the Commission and banking lobby groups get their way.

And, of course, his headline suggests a very different reality. 

Lew was only playing the "smoke and mirrors" game that elites must play to hide their class rule behind operations of mainstream political institutions. Sec. of the Treasury Jack Lew is a well tested and trusted member of the One Percent who always have loyal members such as Lew assume this role in order to have their hands in our national pocket (Treasury Dept).

The reality is that we now have an Empire governed by US and loyal European capitalist elites who have their own army called NATO. National boundaries are being removed by them and their representatives in secret meetings of the TTIP, TISA, and TTP. For this ruling class national boundaries are only useful in order to control the movement of workers to, and within, their Empire.

WW III: More Interclass Than International

Click here to access article by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh from CounterPunch.

The author begins his essay by describing the global nature of capitalism under the rule of the US Empire, and argues that there is a kind of WWIII in that international capitalists associated with the Empire constitute a new ruling class that is waging austerity wars against populations under their control.

WW III is already here; it has indeed been raging on for years: the unilateral, cross-border neoliberal war of austerity economics that is waged by the transnational class of financial oligarchy against the overwhelming majority of world citizens, the global 99%.

In contrast to Andre Vltchek this author sees the aggressive policies pursued by the Empire as likely being limited to small wars and various subversive projects. 

Globalization of capital and interdependence of world markets has reached a point where large scale military clashes of the magnitude of World Wars I & II could lead to financial catastrophe for all. Not surprisingly, the network of transnational financial elites, who often elect politicians and run governments from behind the scenes, seem to be averse to another wholesale international war that could paralyze worldwide financial markets. 

Has Anglo-American Capitalism Run Out of Steam?

Click here if you wish to access the transcript of this inteview from the direct posting at Real News Network.

George Irvin, who is Research Professor at the University of London and author of Super Rich: The Rise of Inequality in Britain and the United States, provides a useful summary or overview of what has happened to the economies of Britian and the US since the beginning of the neoliberal era of capitalism.



Too many highly educated observers still think is is useful to frame their analysis in nationalistic terms; and thus, ignore the globalization of capitalism that has logically developed, under the rules of capitalism, in the neoliberal era. The neoliberal Western directors of capitalism, a system which is driven by its capitalist actors to seek ever greater accumulations of wealth and the power associated with wealth, have been enabled to expand beyond national boundaries by the advances of technology, and have been forced to do so by the increasing competition from low-wage countries beginning in the 1970s as explained by Irvin.

Thus, Western capitalists dominated mostly by US and British capitalists have gone global in their investments and logically found better profit-making opportunities in many low wage countries. Capitalists are organized like gangs to control access to resources, markets, and low wage labor; and they have used NATO as the ultimate weapon to insure this access. This larger view is much more important to understanding the current world we live in than the narrow nationalistic view that many observers still cling to despite this dramatic change in capitalist organization. Therefore, to me the question posed in the title and the related answer is not very useful.

The Financial Elite and the Global Land Grab

Click here to access article by Eric Draitser from New Eastern Outlook. 

It appears from this and other reports that the "next big thing" for capitalist gamblers is placing bets on land. The One Percent are now intent upon literally buying all the surface of the Earth that is worth anything. Welcome, peasants, to the new feudal lord of the global manor.

The global financial crisis, which began in 2008, has significantly altered the way many speculators and financial institutions invest. Rather than taking huge risks with dodgy derivatives like credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities, both of which have proven to be particularly volatile, many speculators have instead begun to invest in the most tangible asset of all: land.

Corporate Colonialism: The Winners and Losers of Global “Free” Trade

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Raging Bull-Shit. 

Here are more disaster stories related to the international pro-corporate agreements advertised in corporate media as "free-trade agreements" which have voided the gains made in each country by workers for more than a century. That, of course, has been their purpose. As billionaire Warren Buffett announced nearly eight years ago:

There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.

Read the rare candid words printed in a major Wall Street news source written a little over two years ago.

Yes, folks, America really is under attack daily. We are fighting on the defense in an historic class warfare. Yes, the Rich Class really did start this war. And yes, they really are winning, big-time. And yes, they are addicted to winning at all costs, to get richer and richer just for the sake of getting richer and richer.

They have no conscience about the collateral damage done to the rest of Americans. They’ve lost their moral compass. In short, they will fight this war to the death, yours, theirs, even the death of America. Bet on it: Because more is never enough for America’s morally bankrupt Rich Class.

The fact that such words appear in ruling class publications indicates to me that they hardly care about hiding their victories. They feel in absolute control of most of the world. The corporate news broadcasts that I've been viewing lately look like they were produced by a ministry of propaganda. Even while watching NBC's coverage of the Olympics I was bombarded with Putin as a Russian evil-doer commentary because he is getting in the way of Empire ambitions in Syria and Ukraine. 

The NBC host noted how Ukrainian athletes at the games were showing their concern for their country's political unrest, and tied what was going on there to Vladimir Putin's Russia. Costas said the Sochi Olympics had gone off better than many people feared going in, "all of which is truly wonderful, but should not serve to obscure a harsher or more lasting truth. This is still a government which imprisons dissidents, is hostile to gay rights, sponsors and supports a vicious regime in Syria — and that's just a partial list." While the games' may burnish Putin's reputation in some eyes, "no amount of Olympic glory can mask these realities," he said. [from Huffington Post]

Thus, I have the disturbing feeling that they have finally, and irrevocably, won the war. For some strange reason, I still feel compelled to fight back.

In India, a Spectre is Haunting Us All

Click here to access article by John Pilger from CounterPunch.

India has become a model of the imperial cult of “neo-liberalism” – almost everything must be privatized, sold off. The worldwide assault on social democracy and the collusion of major parliamentary parties — begun in the US and Britain in the 1980s– has produced in India a dystopia of extremes and a spectre for us all.

A Brave New Transatlantic Partnership: the social & environmental consequences of the proposed EU-US trade deal

Click here to access article from Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).

This piece is an introduction to a downloadable 28 page dissection of the proposed "EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and its socio-economic & environmental consequences" now being negotiated in closed door hearings by corporate sponsored government representatives. In a nutshell the European-American capitalist class are proposing to establish private tribunals that would supersede national regulations and courts while promoting corporate interests in the United States and European Union.

As the second round of negotiations on the EU-US trade agreement kick off in Brussels next week, a new report published by members of the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B), including CEO, reveals the true human and environmental costs of the proposed deal. The report shows that the promises of job creation and growth are illusions; and that the real impetus behind a deal comes from major EU and US corporations that have joined forces to remove as many labour, health and environmental standards as possible in a devastating race to the bottom.