Has Washington Lost the Middle East After Qatar? [a must read]

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

Engdahl scores again with this revealing analysis at the recent developments in the Middle East and, further back, to the Empire's war by proxy in Syria, and still further back by the US ruling class's reliance on Saudi Arabia to control its neighbors to insure the oil-backing of the US dollar. It's all about imperialism US style which has relied heavily on economic means to dominate much of the world; but where that doesn't work, they have used a variety of other means to insure their dominance (most recently proxy terrorist armies). But this regimen of dominance, named back in 1941 by US capitalist ruling class propagandists as the "American Century", is showing marked signs of rapid disintegration which Engdahl explains so well to reach this conclusion:

It ain’t easy to be the world’s Sole Superpower today, not at all as it was, say, in the 1990’s. Not even psychopathic generals with nicknames like Mad Dog can scare others into falling back in line when Washington barks her orders. Back as recent as the 1990s it was, so to say, a piece of cake. Run a war in Yugoslavia, destabilize the Soviet Union after a long war in Afghanistan, loot the former Communist economies of all Eastern Europe. Worse still, the world seems not to appreciate Washington’s wars of destruction anymore. Now that’s real ingratitude after all that Washington has done for them in recent years…

Could it be that the American Century, viewed by future historians, will have its obituary written around the time in 2017 when Washington lost control of the “strategic prize” as Dick Cheney called the energy-rich Middle East?

PBS’ Anti-Russia Propaganda Series

Click here to access article by Rick Sterling from ConsortiumNews. 

The U.S.-government-supported Public Broadcasting System (PBS) recently ran a five-part series dubbed “Inside Putin’s Russia”. With a different theme each night, it purports to give a realistic look at Russia today. The image conveyed is of a Russia that is undemocratic with widespread state repression, violence and propaganda. Following are significant distortions and falsehoods in the five-part documentary.

The Empire's ruling class is using all of its organs of misinformation to smear Russia and Putin in a desperate attempt to portray Russia as the new devil incarnate (to prepare us for an attack on Russia?) and to cover for its recent failed imperialist policies in Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine. Such policies have created vast armies of immigrants currently overwhelming Europe, killed and maimed untold millions of people, and have nothing positive to show for it--not even fossil fuel pipelines under the Empire's control.

Sterling reports on all the propaganda themes that pervades the PBS TV series of programs, while, in addition, providing valuable links to documentation that put the lie to such propaganda. 

Is This The Way Capitalism Works or a Sign of Cultural Degeneration?

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog. 

Roberts has a large following among liberals who, like old-fashioned conservatives such as Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, and Roberts do not like today's government and its policies. However, they will go to the ends of the earth to deny that the latter has anything to do with capitalism. No, they always blame bureaucrats, neoliberalism, or as Roberts does in this article by suggesting that it might be due to "cultural degeneration". 

They loved the capitalism as was practiced before and during their youth while ignoring such facts as the imperialist history of the US from 1898 onwards, the numerous massacres by private armies and public militias of union organizers, the seizure of the control of our money by private banking interests, the constant cycle of recessions or depressions since the second half of the 19th century, etc. 

They loved capitalism throughout their careers and, through their services to the government, aided and abetted it by promoting low taxes on the rich and deregulation of corporate operations while being generously rewarded for their services. So, it may be understandable now that they will never criticize the system. Guilt? (Well, to be fair, Roberts with this headline may be starting to question the system.)

When you create a class system and endow a ruling class with special privileges, laws and practices that insure their prerogatives and protections--in the case of capitalism, those who already possess wealth--then you must accept the inevitable abuses of the system.

Washington Behind the Mirror

Click here to access article by Gordon Duff from New Eastern Outlook.

Duff attempts, and I believe largely succeeds, to bring us his assessment of the disturbing realities behind the mirror of fake corporate media reports. It seems that the crazies, the militarists, Christian fundamentalists (the Taliban and ISIS of America), Ziocons, and literally old Cold warriors are now at the helm of the nuclear weapons loaded, US-led Empire's ship of state. It might be a good time to re-view the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove.

Trump's political philosophy seems only guided by racism as revealed in his many vigorous attempts to roll-back any actions associated with the previous Obama administration (Affordable Care Act, Iran, Cuba). Otherwise he appears to be leaving policies regarding foreign affairs mostly to Pentagon generals except where his financial deals might be affected. It's no wonder that the atomic clock has been moved closer to midnight--the closest it has been since 1953 when...

Over the opposition of many nuclear scientists, the United States [the ruling class] decides to pursue the hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any atomic bomb. In October 1952, the United States tests its first thermonuclear device, obliterating a Pacific Ocean islet in the process. Nine months later, the Soviets test an H-bomb of their own.

Except for his apparent racism, Trump's policies are understandable for someone of his limited experience: only as a real estate tycoon who has never held any elected public office and is ignorant of foreign affairs. But then, what choice did Americans really have in the last "democratic" election? Hillary, the mad-dog war monger, Clinton?

The Myth of the Kurdish YPG’s Moral Excellence

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from What's Left. (Some editing for clarity at 5:30 PM Seattle time on 7/26/2017)

The issue of the political idealism of the Syrian Kurds has been so confusing because a number of writers, who identify with the "left", have been inspired by the apparent political beliefs of this group. You only have to enter "Syrian Kurds" and/or "Rojava" in one of my search boxes to find many articles that extol the political virtues of this group as well as more recent articles that cast doubts on these Kurds. 

The Syrian conflict is a giant stew where many powers are involved and with very different objectives. I think that many left supporters are also confused. Even the Syrian Kurds appear to be divided on some issues. The General in command of US forces in Syria also seems confused, or at least worried, about their orientation: see this video from 54:15-55:54 in which Gen. Raymond Thomas is leery about their left-wing political orientation (the PKK are the Kurdish Workers Party mostly based in northern Iraq with which the Syrian Kurds are affiliated).  (By the way, in this presentation he also admits that the US involvement in Syria is in conflict with international law: 53:35-54:13.)

In this rather lengthy article Gowans impresses me as being very knowledgeable about the Syrian Kurds whereas others such as David Graeber and Marcel Cartier seemed to believe the people they talked to on their visits, and Pepe Escobar apparently believed what he read in left-wing media. I notice that Graeber is still promoting the Syrian Kurds on what appears to be based purely on ideology that impressed him while on a 10 day visit reportedly in April of 2015.

A number of other writers like Tony Cartalucci, Alison Banville, and Sarah Abed are at least critical of the Syrian Kurds mainly because they are serving the interests of the US to balkanize Syria. I personally place great emphasis on deeds not words, and the fact that they have allowed the US to establish eight military bases on territory under their control is very disturbing. As we have seen, the US will use any forces to support their objective to destabilize the government of Syria or, failing that, at least to dismember it. 

Today's post entitled "Vying with Kurds: Turkey Opens a New Front in Syria" confirms what others have argued that the Turks will not tolerate a separate Kurdish state adjacent to their country. The project to destabilize Syria was undertaken by US coalition of forces, Saudi Arabia and its satellites, originally Turkey (but they are changing), and Israel, and this project is now doomed. The Syrian Kurds need to realize that and act accordingly by seeking compatible relations with the Syrian government with a hope for some kind of confederation status. Hopefully it's not already too late.

Social Security: The 14th Amendment and “Odious Debt”

Click here to access article by Dr. Nayvin Gordon from Dissident Voice.

Section 4 [of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution]

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

I take it that Gordon questions the legality under the Constitution for permitting this "borrowing" because it wasn't "authorized by law".

A frequent theme among Congressional people and corporate media pundits is that Social Security is running out of money and is in crisis. Well--no wonder--with the use of these funds to offset taxes to the rich and fund our never-ending wars!  

For decades the politicians have not only borrowed from Social Security to run the government, but 70% of the national debt has been borrowed from banks, financial institutions, corporations and rich individuals.  The politicians borrowed because instead of taxing the rich banks and corporations, they cut their taxes.  As a result, workers’ taxes and Social Security payments provide almost 90% of the federal government’s revenues.

I particularly want to direct your attention to his reference to the Princeton University study which you can find here. The study reveals that democracy is fake like much else in our capitalist-run nation.

A 2014 study by Princeton University came to the conclusion that the majority of the American public actually has little influence over the policies the government adopts. 

Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism

Click here to access article by Kate Raworth from Aeon.

The game of Monopoly has long been a source of wonder for me even though I played it a lot in my high school years without any concerns. To me at that time, it was only a game that had no relevance to contemporary society. Having since become aware of social justice issues and having to deal with adult reality, I have often wondered why such a game became so popular.  

After all, it is the ultimate expression in game form of sociopathy. To the extent that the game reflects any kind of reality, it celebrates sociopathy by making the best sociopath the winner. Of course, this is no accident. The game is an integral part of the indoctrination of capitalist values along with all the other pro-capitalist propaganda that all people are subject to growing up in a capitalist-ruled society.

I previously looked cursorily into the history of the game, but (as I remember) it lightly passed over the original game as invented by Elizabeth Magie and its original design and intent before Parker Brothers company got control of it. The company purchased the patent (nearly everything is a commodity under capitalism) and changed the original design of the game to what it essentially is today. Raworth gives us this original history and explains Magie's intended educational purpose of the game as an exercise in understanding the socially immoral aspects of capitalism.

Incidentally, in the 1980s while I was living in San Francisco, I tried to provide an alternative to Monopoly for my family by shopping at a store that advertised as having 10,000 games. I explained to the salesperson that I wanted a game that promoted cooperation, and I was told that they didn't have any such game! Magie's intent had been completely eliminated from any kind of board games.

Sleeping Monster: The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and Its Expansive Definition of “Services”

Click here to access article by Lambert Strether and posted on Naked Capitalism. 

This is the best article I could find about a report entitled "Foul Play" authored by Legal scholar Jane Kelsey from New Zealand who was apparently commissioned by the UNI Global Union to report on ongoing secret meetings held by transnational corporations to promote versions of TISA in any free trade agreement.  I am posting this because I think that all social justice advocates should be aware of the continuing attempts by transnational corporations to eliminate any governmental regulations that protect workers and might interfere with the profits of transnational corporations. 

I read only the initial Summary of the report and the Introduction. (You might want to see links to the various sections of the report here--you will need to scroll down.)

A coup in the House of Saud? [updated commentary]

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

I wouldn't post this piece except that it was authored by one of the world's most knowledgeable journalists. He seems to suggest without qualification that the US had opposed the Saudi support and sponsorship of terrorist armies trying to overthrow the Syrian government. 

Nearly a month ago, as I’ve written elsewhere, a top Middle East source close to the House of Saud told me: “The CIA is very displeased with the firing of [former Crown Prince] Mohammad bin Nayef. Mohammad bin Salman is regarded as sponsoring terrorism. In April 2014 the entire royal families of the UAE and Saudi Arabia were to be ousted by the US over terrorism. A compromise was worked out that Nayef would take over running the kingdom to stop it.”

(Added at 9:50 AM Seattle time on 7/22/2017)

Although not anti-capitalist, I recommend "Bernhard's" website, Moon of Alabama including the comments section, for excellent speculations about all happenings behind the geopolitical scenes as portrayed by the lies of media corporations. See the article on Saudi Arabia posted on the website that is related to this article.

Controlling the Narrative on Syria

Click here to access article by Louis Allday from BSNews (Britain).

Although I didn't read all of it, this article appears to me to be an excellent antidote to Empire propaganda that is spread by media corporations.

In the current environment, to express even a mildly dissenting opinion, point out basic but unwelcome facts such as the presence of significant public support for the government in Syria, or highlight the frequently brutal acts of rebel groups, has seen many people ridiculed and attacked on social media. These attacks are rarely, if ever, reasoned critiques of opposing views; instead they frequently descend into personal, often hysterical, insults and baseless, vitriolic allegations. Generally, a set of core arguments are used to denounce those who question the dominant narrative.... The policing of acceptable opinion in this way has a simple and practical function: to foster a climate in which people feel too intimidated to speak out, thus allowing the dominant narrative to remain unquestioned so that, crucially, it can continue to be utilised to generate public support for further Western intervention in Syria. ....

...this is a strategy with a well-established precedent; the treatment given to many opponents of NATO’s assault on Libya in 2011 and the US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003 are obvious recent examples. Unfortunately, it remains an effective means to stifle dissent and establish the acceptable parameters of mainstream debate. Its success has meant that those in favour of greater Western intervention in Syria have virtually monopolised the popular debate and control the narrative.

I have not been silent on the issue in the public domain, but frankly I too have occasionally found myself feeling intimidated.

The Dream to Destroy Iran-Nuke Accord

Click here to access article by Paul R. Pillar from ConsortiumNews. 

I'm mostly posting this article because I had an epiphany while reading it. Do you think that it is just a coincidence that Trump has an almost visceral opposition to policies associated with Obama's administration? (This also includes his partial reversal of the Cuba restrictions.) The thought occurred to me that this opposition was an indication of his almost instinctive racism and not a matter of political principles.

Necessity: The Mother of Invention Or The Mother of Strife? [a "best post"]

Click here to access article by Bernard Marszalek from Ztangi Press. (Amended for clarity at 10:18 AM and at 5:35 PM Seattle time.)

The author takes us on a mind-expanding tour from current research through history and archeology to uncover evidence that humans need security and peace in order to realize our collective powers (as social creatures) of creativity. (Is not "creativity" the ability or power to influence an outcome in a new way?) It is clear that our Western civilization that is anchored on the dynamic engine of capitalism is becoming increasingly dysfunctional regarding these needs. This is the inevitable end result of the overwhelming power of a tiny class of capitalists who are increasingly hoarding not only wealth but power to satisfy their addiction to the latter. The power to create must belong to all the people because it is embedded in their human nature, but for this class it has become an end in itself. Sadly they have brainwashed us into being their willing accomplices or (to stick with the addiction theme) their co-dependents.

Our jobs prevent us from being creators. Or to put this another way, the false scarcity that compels us to obediently perform our daily sacrifices to maintain our miserable survival veils the real, but unacknowledged scarcity of creation. ...our condition of enslavement frustrates our species-work – the creation of culture. It is as if we are the compliant, if not the eager, agents of our own demise as evolutionary beings.

Collective intelligence manifests on a material basis as everything from jewelry to gigantic public works like the reservoirs of the Indus cities.

His tour brings us to this apt conclusion: 

Given the reality of economic trends however, no matter how important it is to retrieve from the bosses every ounce of the value of labor that they are stealing, we need to confront the fact that jobs are not only increasingly precarious and stupid, they are disappearing. No effort to ignore this fact by focusing on immediate demands will make it disappear. There can be no effective political movement that does not meet changing reality with radicalism.

I have difficulty with the last sentence. To me, it should read something like this. "There can be no effective political movement that does not insure security and peace for its inhabitants, and to accomplish this we must radically change the way societies currently function."  

The Museum of Capitalism

Click here to access article by Bernard Marszalek from Dissident Voice. 

It seems appropriate...and much overdue, to put capitalism in a museum, if not a mausoleum. The old excuses for tolerating the mayhem and waste of capitalism have evaporated. It has been long past its shelf life. Stagnant wages for the employed and little promise of a solvent pension, piss-poor jobs replacing union ones, youth (and others) shackled by gig economy bondage, and intensifying socio-economic polarities describe a system, most obviously epitomized by zombie banks, on life support provided by taxpayer funds and diminished, and increasingly, stolen earnings. Austerity defines this situation. Add to these horrors a shallow and media manipulated politics, and, well, “No Future” has been the anthem of two generations and now we are going on three. 

He then goes on to give a vivid description of what is in this museum which is located in Oakland, California. I wish I still lived in the San Francisco Bay Area so that I could visit it.

REPORT: Armies of Cyber-Troops Manipulating Public Opinion

Click here to access a summary of a (linked) PDF report issued by the The Computational Propaganda Research Project at Oxford University and posted on TruePublica.org.uk.

The basic findings include:

• The earliest reports of organised social media manipulation emerged in 2010, and by 2017 there are details on such organisations in 28 countries, including the US and UK.

• Looking across the 28 countries, every authoritarian regime has social media campaigns targeting their own populations, while only a few of them target foreign publics. In contrast, almost every [capitalist] democracy in this sample has organised social media campaigns that target foreign publics, while political-party-supported campaigns target domestic voters.

• Authoritarian regimes are not the only or even the best at organised social media manipulation. The earliest reports of government involvement in nudging public opinion involve [capitalist] democracies, and new innovations in political communication technologies often come from political parties and arise during high-profile elections.

• Over time, the primary mode for organising cyber troops has gone from involving military units that experiment with manipulating public opinion over social media networks to strategic communication firms that take contracts from governments for social media campaigns. 

          [my insertions to add greater accuracy]

US Intel Undercuts Saudi Bloc to Resolve Gulf Crisis

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

A timely leak from US intelligence appears to have undermined the Saudi-led Arab axis in its damaging spat with Qatar. So damaging was the Gulf crisis to US strategic interests in the oil-rich region that American intelligence was obliged to weigh in and resolve the festering row. That US intervention seems now to have worked.

The US Empire, the CIA, and the NGOs: An interview with F. William Engdahl

Click here to access article by Ludwig Watzal from Dissident Voice. 

The Ancient Greeks knew: “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” No less a figure than the late Zbigniew Brzezinski and the CIA made use of this saying by recruiting the Muslim Brotherhood to fight a proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which led to the withdrawal of the Soviets from the Hindu Kush. Since then, the CIA used the mercenaries to fight more proxy wars in the Balkans, Chechnya, and Azerbaijan. Due to the wars of aggression against Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen the US and its vassal states created sectarian violence that led to civil wars. Right now, the CIA and the Muslim Brotherhood are present in the form of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

No one has studied this triad more intensively than F. William Engdahl who is a renowned geopolitical analyst, risk consultant, author, and lecturer.

This is the insightful introduction by a German intellectual whose interview with Engdahl focuses on Engdahl's most recent book (in German only at this time) entitled Secret files NGOs (Geheimakte NGOs). 

In the interview Watzal poses a very insightful question when he asks Engdahl:

In the old days, the conquerors brought in its wake the missionaries. Today, the Western neo-colonial powers come with hundreds of NGOs who teach the indigenous population how Western democracy is supposed to function. Do you think the NGOs serve the interest of these people? ....

MSM Mourned Liberation of Aleppo, Now Celebrates Liberation of Mosul

Click here to access article by Neil Clark from Russia Insider. 

The Iraqi city of Mosul. The Syrian city of Aleppo. Both 'liberated' in recent months from radical jihadist terror groups. But while one anti-terrorist operation has been lauded in the West, the other was fiercely denounced.

The very different ways in which the respective 'liberations' were portrayed tells us much about the way war propaganda works in the so-called free world.

As Anti-Trump / Anti-Russia Campaign Fails - Yascha Mounk Feeds New Lies

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

Bernhard catches a lecturer at Harvard telling a gross lie about Russia and Putin, and finds that he is widely quoted in the Empire's media corporations. To me, this illustrates several important insights: that higher education in a class dominated social system is filled with both propaganda/indoctrination and useful intellectual skills honed by scientific principles and modes of critical thinking; how a higher education in such a system is no guarantee that graduates will be free of deceit; the tendency for elite ruling class educational institutions to hire people like Yascha Mounk; and the advanced and dangerous stage of desperation of the ruling class as evidenced by the wide dispersion of Mounk's lies and other lies about Russia/Putin in their media.


4:20 PM (Seattle time) amendment

Upon further reflection, I will state what I have argued over the past eight years that in a class ruled society every institution will be designed to serve the ruling class. Thus higher education will also conform to this principle, and the views of graduates from that system will nearly always reflect that bias. Those that don't swallow whole the values and perspectives of the ruling capitalist class will find it hard to find employment of any significance in any institution. 

Furthermore, the capitalist ruling class under the leadership of the American and Zionist capitalists has outgrown national boundaries and is now transnational having integrated capitalists of many nations that roughly correspond with the NATO countries plus Israel, Japan, and South Korea. That is why I often refer to this ruling transnational capitalist class as a US-led Empire.

‘Til debt do us part

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog. 

Using graphs he explains how capitalists extract profits from workers in two basic ways--wages and interest. It is also clear from his graphs that banksters' use of debt to extract wealth from workers was only briefly interrupted by the last collapse of the economy in 2008.

The cult of capitalism

by cartoonist Jen Sorensen from her website.