JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: RECENT BITS AND PIECES – AMERICA’S EXTREMELY DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES IN TAIWAN – “INDEPENDENCE MEANS WAR” – SOUTH KOREAN-AMERICAN MILITARY EXERCISES – WHY THEY ARE SO DANGEROUS, JUST AS ARE THE US-NATO EXERCISES ON RUSSIA’S BORDER – NORTH KOREA BOTHERS NO ONE AND WHY IT FEELS IT MUST HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS – CHINA’S REMARKABLE INVESTMENTS IN HUMAN AND PHYSICAL CAPITAL BUILD A STRONG BASE FOR MANY YEARS OF GROWTH – PUTIN’S ABILITY TO TALK WITH PEOPLE ALMOST LIKE A FAMOUS PROFESSOR CASUALLY DISCUSSING MATTERS WITH A GROUP OF STUDENTS AND NOTHING LIKE IT FROM WESTERN LEADERS – A DEFINITIVE SET OF OBSERVATIONS ON RUSSIAN DISSIDENT ALEXEY NAVALNY AND WESTERN EFFORTS TO MAKE OF HIM SOMETHING THAT HE IS NOT – A CASE STUDY IN WHY IT IS SO HARD TO GET GOOD INFORMATION IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS – NAVALNY “POISONING” HOAX – THE “PUTIN’S PALACE” HOAX – EVIDENCE OF NAVALNY’S DISHONESTY – AMERICA’S DISGUSTING RECORD OF BEHAVIOR IN IRAQ FOR 18 YEARS – THE NEW START TREATY AND STABILITY – THE BAD HABIT OF REFERRING TO “THE WEST” INSTEAD OF “THE US” DIFFUSES RESPONSIBILITY – THE VALUE OF AMERICA’S WORD

 John Chuckman

COMMENTS – RECENT BITS AND PIECES – VOLUME FOUR

 

America’s recent activities in Taiwan have been among its most dangerous abroad, and I fear nothing is going to improve under Biden.

Taiwan is an historic part of China, and the US even solemnly agreed under Richard Nixon.

However, since Nixon’s day, the US has gone back on its word, not an unusual pattern as we’ve seen with many treaties and agreements. America’s word is worth very little beyond what advantage it can extract for the day.

China has shown great restraint in the face of American provocation, but its patience, while great, is not unlimited.

I think there can be little doubt that China will fight for Taiwan if pushed to it.

Is that really what the US wants?

A BRIEF LATER NOTE:

China’s Defense Ministry has just said: “Independence [for Taiwan] means war.” I don’t recall China ever speaking so bluntly on the matter.

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The joint South Korean-American military exercises, regular events, have long been a very troubling thing for North Korea, as indeed they are meant to be.

When a hostile country holds large-scale military exercises on your border, it is always something about which you must be on very high alert because you never know when such an exercise will suddenly become a genuine attack. It is a ploy used by others in the past.

It would be comparatively easy for the US to end these exercises, and a signal of good will, but it refuses to do so.

And it is just the same for the American-organized large-scale military exercises with NATO in Europe on Russia’s doorstep. Russia must be on high alert when these take place.

Such situations greatly increase the possibilities of error among anxious troops. That is exactly what we saw in Iran with the accidental downing of a civilian aircraft when Iran was put under tremendous military pressure by the US after it wantonly assassinated General Soleimani, an Iranian national hero.

In all these instances and others, it is the US staging an elaborate and threatening war dance. Do you think that fact might just point to something about the highly aggressive nature of America?

North Korea, on its own, bothers or threatens no one, And the same for Russia. Indeed, today’s Russia is ready to cooperate and work with anyone on economic projects. From Washington’s point of view, that is likely its greatest crime.

And whenever we speak of North Korea, we cannot neglect America’s atrocities in the Korean War. Three years of carpet bombing which killed one-fifth of the entire population. A series of war crimes like the massacre of civilians at No Gun Ri. And documented efforts with biological weapons in North Korea and nearby China.

Those are the real reasons for North Korea’s sacrificial efforts at creating a credible nuclear defense.

When it comes right down to it, almost all the serious problems on the Korean Peninsula have American roots. Today’s reasonable and intelligent South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, isn’t even allowed to deal with North Korea as he was inclined to do.

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If you look at what China has been doing with education, with elimination of poverty, with high-speed trains, with airports, with sophisticated ports, you will be amazed.

And of course, the greatest economic initiative of our era is China’s BRI, the New Silk Road. It will change the economic geography of the world while building good international relations and improving the lives of hundreds of millions.

America spends a sickening amount of money on trying to control the world. Some 800-1000 military bases all over the world, all to be constantly supplied. A vast bureaucracy for imposing and enforcing illegal sanctions on others. Threats. Blockades. Black operations. Assassinations. Coups. Hybrid wars. Bombing. Support for some of the world’s worst tyrants.

And all of that is costly, destructive, and economically unproductive.

China is totally focused on progress and growth. And it emphasizes cooperation, both at home and abroad. It is an unbeatable combination.

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Putin is a remarkable statesman, and he sets a very high standard for political discourse, as he displays here.

I can’t think of any of our Western leaders who speak in these truthful and philosophic terms. Some of his recorded talks, like this one, have almost the feeling of hearing an off-the-cuff discussion by an eminent professor at a gathering of students.

What we hear in the West are slogans and jingoism and whining and bald-faced lying. Constantly. There is no room for honesty or directness where purposes are devious. After all, it is not a national purpose of Russia to overthrow the US, only to defend itself from it.

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I believe Alexey Navalny is quite a dishonest man despite big efforts by the Western press and politicians to portray him as a heroic Russian dissident.

I say this for many reasons, and those who know my writing know that I am the kind of person who supports heroic dissidents, not one who opposes them.

First, there is the Navalny “poisoning” Affair. I have already written about it at length, and I just do not see how it can be anything but fraud contrived by Western security services. I regret that Angela Merkel dirtied her hands with it, but Ms. Merkel has dirtied her hands with a number of unpleasant things under pressure from the United States, including the horrors of Syria, Yemen, and Libya

Of course, we have never received any convincing proof that he was poisoned at all. Russian doctors had attended him first, certainly saving his life from what was suspected to be diabetic shock, and they even took blood samples showing no poison. I remind readers, too, that military nerve agents like Novichok, supposedly used in both cases (Navalny and Skripal), are among the deadliest substances known. They kill within a few moments of skin contact. See these summaries and analyses to appreciate fully the absurdities of the story:

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/john-chuckman-comment-more-on-the-mysterious-navalny-case-we-have-been-provided-no-evidence-russias-criminal-investigators-have-also-not-been-provided-evidence/   

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/john-chuckman-comment-the-alexei-navalny-affair-none-of-the-facts-that-we-have-so- -support-assertions-of-poisoning-this-is-beginning-to-resemble-british-prime-minister-theresa/      

Now, we have the Putin’s Palace matter. A video from Navalny tried to pass off images of an exotic, palatial home belonging to an unknown wealthy Russian as Putin’s personal secret property. Apparently, there were even images of its luxurious indoor swimming pool interspersed with crops of Putin swimming in some river or sea.

Now, additional up-to-date photos of this this “palace,” once grand, show that it is in a state of decay. Much of the inside is rotted out. The Navalny video images were either very old or were “photoshopped.”

What kind of man makes such deliberate misrepresentations? This is a man entitled to call Putin dishonest?

Furthermore, even if Putin ever did use such a palatial home as guest of its wealthy owner, there is absolutely nothing unusual about that when it comes to world leaders.

For example, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, hardly regarded as a tyrant, in 2016 spent a luxurious vacation on the private island of the Aga Khan in the Bahamas.

You probably cannot name an American President who was not a guest at the palatial homes of some America’s wealthiest.

It’s just not much of an accusation. Even if it happened, and we have no reason to believe it did.

But claiming, as Navalny did, that Putin secretly owns the home, without any evidence, is extremely dishonest and an important measure of Navalny’s credibility.

I will just add, that the Western press, in an effort to build up his “hero” credentials, ignores many of Navalny’s less-appealing views. For example, he is a strong nationalist and is not sympathetic to immigrants.

I think the entire Navalny saga provides a fine case study of what we face in all of our efforts to learn about events in international affairs. America’s efforts to dominate leave no room for truth. And other countries we might think we can turn to for information only echo Washington.

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"Suspicion of Chinese-Born Researchers Threatens US Innovation"

Just one more advantage to China, one owing to American superstition, prejudice, and ignorance.

By the way, China has roughly eight times the number of university students that America has enrolled in the sciences, math, and engineering.

They are a naturally gifted people in those fields.

I do think almost every detail you examine argues for the future belonging to China.

Their current investment in infrastructure is jaw-dropping, while the US throws money away on the Pentagon and security services.

China now has two-thirds of the entire world’s high-speed rail lines. It has a brand-new constellation of airports all over the country. Its subway lines are amazing. The bridges and huge tunnels through the mountains, for rail and vehicles, are like nothing found anywhere else. It has already installed 700,000 5G stations.

Its investment in education and elimination of poverty are beyond admirable.

The total investment in human and physical capital is unparalleled. It will support decades of strong growth.

Just look at the Wuhan experience. Once China understood what was happening, it put on a war-time effort and defeated the virus.

Now, it is the only major country showing growth. It will be the engine of growth in the world economy this year.

It has joined a number of important trade blocs which will give it new opportunities.

President Xi’s BRI project (the New Silk Road) is the great economic project of our era. It will change the economic geography of the world while establishing many excellent new relationships and improving the lives of hundreds of millions.

Meanwhile the US has established a massive new bureaucracy for imposing  and enforcing illegal sanctions, runs several destructive blockades, supports criminals like the Saudi Crown Prince and Israel’s Prime Minister, sells tens of billions of dollars in new weapons in the Middle East, works on an unbelievably-costly program to improve its nuclear arsenal, has troops in a number of countries who’ve said they don’t want them, and never stops lying about what it has done in Ukraine, Yemen, Venezuela, and other places.

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“US military refusal to pull out troops to be met with Iraqi nation’s resistance, MP warns”

America’s behavior in Iraq has been disgusting.

Nearly 18 years after invading the country, it still keeps troops there, against the local government’s wishes.

It uses all kinds of excuses, such as fighting ISIS, something it has never seriously done. Indeed, it uses ISIS as an excuse to occupy and bomb various places, including Syria. In fact, there are many reasons for believing ISIS and other terror organizations in the region have always been subsidized by America and some of its allies.

Iran’s General Soleimani is the Iranian hero who genuinely fought ISIS in Iraq, and America chose to murder him.

On top of everything else, America’s invasion of Iraq was illegal. It was just plain aggression under international law. In its respect for international law, the American invasion was indistinguishable from some of the assaults by 1930s’ Germany in Europe. Indeed, its Shock and Awe horror, given great publicity at the beginning of the invasion, was an adaptation of the Third Reich’s Blitzkrieg.

During the invasion, America destroyed Iraq’s power grid, leaving the people of an advanced Arab country to suffer for years, destroying opportunities to work for years.

To this day, much of it is not repaired. Reports have it that America demanded a share of Iraqi oil production to repair what it destroyed in an illegal war. Iraq has now made arrangements with China to do the work on favorable terms.

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“The New START extension is welcome, but it won't deliver stability. The last thing the US wants is improved relations with Russia”

The headline says it all. It is a deadly truth.

And I am glad the author has said “the US” instead of “the West,” an expression often used to diffuse American responsibility for destructive behavior.

Countries like France and Britain and Germany are dragged along like children by the US, hurting even their own interests – billions in trade with Russia, for example – to please the international bully.

And despite the foul Trump’s departure, it remains an international bully, causing pain and suffering and deprivation in a great many places.

The world could become a better place almost overnight if the US just released everyone from its unjustified demands and threats.

World growth in the wake of COVID could be considerably stronger if only the US would mind its own business.

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: RECENT BITS AND PIECES FROM MANY PLACES – POLL SHOWING THE WILLINGNESS OF THE CHINESE TO BE INOCULATED – COOPERATION AS A POWERFUL TOOL FOR ECONOMIC ADVANCE – THE MENNONITE EXAMPLE – TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT AND THE REASONS IT IS LIKELY TO FAIL – “BUY AMERICAN” CAMPAIGN AND OTHER UNHAPPY SIGNS OF WHERE BIDEN IS HEADED – THE NAVALNY DEMONSTRATIONS IN RUSSIA PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE – HOW ANY COUNTRY’S DISCONTENTS CAN BE EXPLOITED BY AN OUTSIDE POWER – THE IMPORTANT TASK OF REJOINING THE IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT (JCPOA) AND THE MAIN DIFFICULTY IN DOING SO – A NOTE ON HOW A COUPLE OF NEAR MADMEN CAN CAUSE SO MUCH PAIN AND DIFICULTY IN THE WORLD

 John Chuckman

COMMENTS – RECENT BITS AND PIECES FROM VARIOUS PLACES – VOLUME THREE

 

I view these poll results about China’s citizens being among the most willing to be inoculated as evidence of the spirit of cooperation among China’s people.

That very quality is a powerful one contributing to China’s economic success.

The contrast with the US could not be starker.

I think we all know from our personal lives how much more powerful and constructive cooperation is than belligerence and divisiveness.

When a young Amish or Mennonite farmer (minor, very old-fashioned rural Christian religious sects) in the American Midwest needs a barn, the whole community comes together and gets it built remarkably fast. The example has never had widespread appeal for Americans.

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“Trump impeachment trial has to happen: Biden”

Yes, it is necessary to demonstrate rejection of Trump’s horrible behavior.

And conviction, the best of all possible worlds, would prevent him from again entering politics, as he plans to do in 2024. He has already collected a war chest of the best part of a hundred million dollars towards that goal.

But politics always distort realities and often disappoint hopes.

Biden has been quoted as saying that the Democrats do not have the votes in the Senate for conviction. Yes, they have some Republican support, but not enough for the two-thirds vote required for conviction.

There are serious political costs for some Republicans who would vote to convict Trump. Remember, almost half the entire American electorate voted for this man despite his many failures and stupidities. It is actually hard to underestimate the judgment of large portions of the American electorate. Just look at Trump’s own political career as well as the careers of a good many well-known American politicians.

And Trump is working overtime to deflect any efforts to convict hum. That is what his threat of starting a third political party is about. Its only purpose would be to punish Republicans by dividing the vote on the Right. Trump has lots of money to work with and plenty of fanatical followers to help.

A divided vote on the Right would make any Republican victory impossible.

For those reasons, I think a conviction is unlikely, though I wish it were otherwise.

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Policies like “Buy American” always reflect a kind of desperation, and they go against sound economics.

They appeal to emotions and not to minds and will not contribute anything to American success.

Their only real purpose is as a war chant to hype-up Americans against people abroad.

From this and a few other acts, I think we can expect little from Joe Biden worth having except cancellation of some of Trump’s more lunatic diktats.

Biden has just been quoted as saying he thinks the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline – a large project to supply Europe with additional Russian natural gas – Is “a bad deal for Europe.”

That sounds like Trump without the grimace and abusive language.

Are hundreds of millions of Europeans incompetent to judge such important matters for themselves? Gas is needed for their economic future, and Russia, just next door, is where they can get it. It has massive reserves.

America in the past has pushed the unsatisfactory alternative of American liquified natural gas, a much more expensive option which would diminish European competitiveness and sell a commodity for which America has inadequate markets. That is certainly looking after your friends and allies.

It is America trying to control the planet.

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It is nonsense to write of a new significance in the street demonstrations in Russia. They represent the US using its now classic technique of street crowds to stir things up and promote instability. They’ve used the technique many times in many places.

Please, something like a thousand times this many people voted for Putin. Perspective is everything.

You can find discontent in any country, if you look for it.

The United States is bristling with it. A foreign power could easily exploit it, if it weren’t for the fact the United States maintains seventeen different national security agencies, including, of course, undercover members in any organization regarded as at all questionable. They used to say, jokingly, that America’s pathetic communist party was kept alive by FBI agents paying dues.

Navalny remains a fairly minor figure in Russia despite American efforts to blow him up into something important. And those efforts have been huge in the last couple of years (see my discussions on the Navalny “poisoning” case.  Also, the equally fraudulent Skripal “poisoning” case of a couple of years ago.).

The American Moscow embassy even rudely broke all diplomatic protocol by publishing the routes and times of unpermitted, anti-government demonstrations. Talk about interfering in another country’s internal affairs. Just shabby.

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Rejoining the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA) is one of the most important things Biden can do.

However, it is difficult and complex despite the fact that the agreement ran smoothly for almost four years before the lunatic Trump suddenly tore it up and inflicted great harm on Iran for doing absolutely nothing wrong.

It is made difficult and complex because Israel has now high-handedly threatened several times to attack Iran if the US rejoins the agreement. Of course, Iran’s inevitable response to an Israeli attack would almost certainly drag the US into the conflict. Such are the disastrous possibilities that come from America’s being hogtied to an aggressive and unreasonable Israel.

Iran’s position in this matter is fair and reasonable: the US must rejoin the agreement without qualifications and end all illegal sanctions before the two nations can discuss anything.

The European signatories to the agreement could in theory be helpful here, but they have been of no help and almost spineless since Trump first destroyed the agreement, so I wouldn’t put much faith in them, the main European countries involved being just about as subservient to Israel’s unreasonable demands as the US itself.

I think it makes an interesting side note here the way one or two sick men can inflict so much damage in the world. For surely, Trump and Netanyahu are as close to lunatics running countries as we’ve had for a while. It is quite amazing how small a role reason and logic and dedication to law and justice often play in international affairs.

Just look at the genuine mass killer running Saudi Arabia, a barbaric horror terrorizing his own citizens and others, yet Trump and Netanyahu both love and protect him because he serves their interests.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: REFLECTIONS ON MARTIN LUTHER KING’S LAST VIEWS ON AMERICAN VIOLENCE – HIS PROGRESS FROM A LEADER IN CIVIL RIGHTS TO A DEVASTATING CRITIC OF AMERICA’S ABUSE OF POWER – THE VIETNAM WAR – HIS TERRIBLE ENEMIES AND DEATH

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN PRESSS T V

“US government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world”

 

Dr. King, a man I greatly admired, was, of course, right, although few Americans then would speak in such terms, days when intense, unquestioning patriotism was expected.

It was quite ordinary for even the most minor critic of American policy then to be threatened and shouted down with “Love it or leave it!” The “it” being their country, the United States.

Recall that Dr. King was speaking in the early days of the Vietnam War, the most massive war crime of the era.

America’s deliberately-induced war slaughtered 3 million Vietnamese and a million Cambodians and left a lush and beautiful land a hellhole of bomb craters and poisons, including 20 million gallons of Agent Orange, and millions of landmines and unexploded cluster bombs.

Many victims died hideous deaths, as being burned alive by napalm, a substance which clings to you like sticky jelly while it burns ferociously.

Rapes and torture were commonplace, and there were many atrocities, perhaps the greatest being Operation Phoenix which saw belly-crawling night-time intruders into villages cut the throats of 40,000 village leaders over time.

America’s Vietnam War is rightly called a holocaust.

Dr. King’s growth, from a leader in civil rights to becoming a devastating critic of American government, likely cost him his life.

The FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover loathed Dr. King. He even had a secret COINTELPRO program to discredit King and drive him to suicide with terrible, threatening letters. I am sure a number of other power establishment figures had similar attitudes. Power deeply resents being embarrassed by truth.

Many regard King’s death, with its great many unexplained details and contradictions, as likely the work of such establishment figures who began to see him as a risk to national security.

Why would such people hesitate when America had become comfortable with assassinating foreign leaders quite regularly?

Such is the reward for genuine support of human rights and freedom in America, a place where only power and money count, and “human rights” is a line used in Fourth of July speeches.

I remember the evening his death was announced on television, and I couldn’t stop weeping.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: RECENT BITS AND PIECES FROM MANY PLACES – THE NORD STREAM 2 GAS PIPELINE – EUROPE AND RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES – EUROPE’S VITAL INTERESTS – AMERICA EXPLOITS ALLIES TO BENEFIT ITSELF – THE SHABBY STATE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY – RUSSIAN DEMONSTRATIONS – SOUTH CHINA SEA AND WHY THE US IS THERE – CBS POLL CONFIRMING EXTREME DIVISION IN AMERICA – JOE BIDEN SIMPLY CANNOT CHANGE THE DIVISION – POMPEO’S POISONOUS, UNINFORMED COMMENTS ABOUT GENOCIDE OF UIGHURS IN CHINA – THE UIGHURS ARE THRIVING – TRUMP’S IDEA OF PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST IS DUMPING MORE ADVANCED WEAPONS THERE – WHY WOULD ANYONE HAVE THOUGHT TRUMP WOULD WANT THE LEGACY OF PARDONING ASSANGE? – THE CHARACTER OF TRUMP’S PARDONS, ALL WITHOUT HUMANITY OR DECENCY – NOT A SIGN OF AGGRESSION FROM RUSSIA – THE NEED FOR AN INDEPENDENT EUROPE – BIDEN’S ACTS IN SYRIA NOT ENCOURAGING – PRESIDENTS AND FOREIGN POLCY – MONARCH BUTTERFLIES MIGRATING – “THIS IS AMERICA AND NO ONE SHOULD GO HUNGRY” BUT WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE IN YEMEN AND VENEZUELA AND IRAN AND CUBA? I GUESS THEY DON’T COUNT AS PEOPLE

 John Chuckman

COMMENTS - RECENT BITS AND PIECES FROM MANY PLACES – VOLUME TWO

Completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with gas flowing from Russia to Europe, is a crucial test for Europe: follow your own best interests or continue to follow arbitrary American directions.

The pipeline has already been long-delayed by America’s countless destructive efforts, even though it is more than ninety-percent finished.

And Europe, under American pressure concerning non-existent Russian aggression in Ukraine after an American coup there, already has punished itself by maintaining sanctions against Russia costing its own industries many billions of dollars.

But what is at stake with the pipeline is more than just economics.

If Europe is to have a real future as an important state in the emerging multi-polar world, it must stand up for its own vital interests. And the pipeline is vital.

The United States in all things is always looking out for itself with little care for the welfare of friends or allies.

Friends and allies for America are tools to use and manipulate.

America’s ravings about the dangers of a peaceful and cooperative and business-oriented Russia have reached delusional levels, and they are hurting the economic interests of hundreds of millions of people.

Nord Stream 2 is as important to the industrial strength and security of Germany and the other European industrial states as secure supplies of iron and steel and flows of immigrants to replace a population which is no longer growing.

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The United States exercises no proper diplomacy or even ethics anymore.

Imagine an embassy publishing the times and routes for unpermitted demonstrations against the local government, as the US embassy did in Moscow? Talk about interfering in another country’s internal affairs.

The behavior is just shabby.

By the way, rallies without permits are illegal in just about every country, including the United States.

It is pure propaganda to make a big deal of the rallies in Russia being halted.

And importantly, as Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, has said, the number who voted for President Putin is immensely greater than the number taking part in the rallies.

We also have to keep in mind that America now uses, regularly, induced public demonstrations in many countries as a technique to promote instability.

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The South China Sea is 8000 miles from the coast of the US.

The huge volume of trade passing through there is largely trade with China, and China is protecting it from the possibility of a future US chokehold.

China permits all peaceful actors to carry on. Indeed, it supplies services in the area like search and rescue.

So why is the US sending warships there?

For the same reason it tries to starve the people of Iran and Venezuela and Cuba and Yemen and other places.

Control.

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A recent CBS News poll showed stunning results of how Americans today view “other people in America and domestic enemies” as the biggest threat to their way of life.

The division in America is not something Joe Biden’s rhetoric can possibly heal.

It is weak rhetoric, and the division is deep.

The depth of the division does not reflect just disappointment in politics.

America’s terrible inequality in wealth serves to magnify all the country’s other divisions. The poverty you can see in many parts of America is shocking, and it is not that far from extreme, sickening wealth.

The privileged are just not willing to give up anything to help their fellow citizens, yet that is exactly what is required.

America’s resources and the attention of its leaders go to the global empire.

A trillion dollars a year is wasted on the Pentagon and the security services while America is the only advanced country in the world lacking a national healthcare system for ordinary people.

The country’s politics are for money, by money, and of money. Both parties are richly supported by the donations of the wealthy.

No matter which party you vote for, you get the Pentagon, the CIA, unlimited money in politics, wars, and empire.

America is in fact a plutocracy with a bit of democratic window-dressing, a plutocracy which maintains an empire, at great cost to its ordinary people, to enrich itself.

And it is starting to show serious cracks and strains at home.

Joe Biden puts on a pleasant face, and many welcome it after the foul and ignorant Trump, but Biden is in a position to change very little.

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More advanced weapons dumped by the United States into a fragile Middle East.

But promises of advanced weapons were an important part of Trump's "normalization" scheme.

He "bought" these states with a combination of threats, giving them what was not his to give (as the Western Sahara), and big sales of advanced weapons.

Some normalization. Some diplomacy. Some peace.

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Very interesting developments, pointing to the multi-polar world which is emerging.

And everyone with eyes can see that China builds, everywhere, while the US threatens and intimidates and destroys.

Which path do you think leads to a better future?

There is not a sign of aggression from contemporary Russia. It has become everything we could have dreamed it would become during the Cold War. It cooperates, it is ready to do business with anyone, and it calls everyone partners.

I hope it will not be too long before Europeans see the pointlessness of NATO. The USSR and the Red Army are long gone.

America has tried to pump new life into NATO by dragging its allies into wars like the Neocon Wars in the Middle East.

It is shameful that Europe has gone along. By refusing to participate, Europe might have prevented some of the mindless destruction that saw millions killed and wounded, millions more reduced to hopeless refugees, and entire well-run societies, like Libya, destroyed, leaving chaos.

It does take time to adjust to a new world after 75 years of following the US and letting it occupy Europe, but I think the time is approaching.

An independent Europe offers one more important voice in a multi-polar world, instead of serving as an echo chamber for American rhetoric.

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Why would Trump want such a legacy [pardoning Assange]?

This man who pardons grifters, cronies, and genuine, convicted war criminals?

It is out of keeping with everything he has ever said or done.

He has his legacy, and it is a very shabby one.

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A ridiculous claim of genocide. Absolutely ridiculous if you know anything about the Uighurs.

The Uighur population has actually been on the increase in China, growing at a healthy rate.

The word "genocide" means an effort to kill all of a certain type of people.

Pompeo is a genuine idiot.

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“US presidential politics is ‘a big pointless tug of war’”

That is a good summary of the situation.

All the noise and drama help to keep America’s people believing they do have a democracy.

And the huge amounts of money spent by the two parties act as a barrier to entry of other parties.

You can’t sit down at the card table without a gigantic stake, a stake which can only come from extremely wealthy people and corporations.

The truth is America is a plutocracy with democratic window dressing, working to enrich itself through world empire.

The two parties differ only on domestic social program, program which mostly never get enacted because there aren’t enough funds left for them with a trillion dollars a year going to the Pentagon and security services.

No matter which party you vote for you get plutocracy, money-dominated politics, brutal empire, the Pentagon, and the security services

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I don't see any point in "should haves."

China, when it understood what was happening in Wuhan, acted heroically. It set world standards.

Just compare the disaster in the United States, the world's richest country but one without leadership of any kind.

Even now, the US cannot manage to vaccinate at any decent rate. And more than 400,000 people have died. The record really could not be much worse.

The head of WHO is a good and competent man.

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What a shame.

I lived for some years on a major Monarch butterfly migration path, from Canada to Mexico, at Port Dover, Ontario.

It was a delight to see the height of this migration.

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If all leaders of the world’s major countries behaved the way Pompeo and Trump behave, our world would be in a constant state of tension and arguments and hostilities. There would be no cooperation, no fair dealing, and only the constant threat of war.

That truly is the legacy of these poisonous men.

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All of Trump’s many pardons consist mainly of political intimates and grifter supporters with a generous sprinkling of genuine, convicted war criminals.

Not a single act of decency or heroism or humanity in the bunch

Meanwhile, he executed 13 people in Federal prisons.

My God, what a shabby man.

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You can have a decent country or you can have an empire. You cannot have both.

An empire consists of a relatively small and privileged group telling hundreds of millions of others what to do.

An empire has no genuine respect for democracy or human rights or rule of law. Speeches don’t count. Actions do.

That is the United States today, and it does not matter who is President. Only the tone and relatively small matters change. Basic policy is fixed like a concrete foundation.

Republicans and Democrats are just two wings of an imperial party, differing only in proposed domestic policies that will never see the light of day because there is no money and no interest by those in power.

The Pentagon and security services burn through a trillion dollars a year trying to control the world.

_________________________

 

Moving more troops into Syria is hardly a promising start for Joe Biden.

I think it fair to say we are back to the same old imperial arrogance of the US, only minus the insulting, foul, and ignorant ranting of Trump.

And, yes, as one reader below suggests, why not use pinpoint missiles to destroy the pipeline America is using to steal Syrian oil?

You would have to strike it in a number of places because a single break in a pipeline is fairly soon repaired.

By the way, recently, Biden, in speaking about getting out COVID aid to Americans, said "This is America and no one should go hungry."

Well, I guess the women and children of Yemen, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and other places just don't count as people in Washington.

Because the United States has certainly caused many to be hungry and to do without medicines and other needs.

Such words by Biden sound nice to an American audience, make him appear decent and caring, but, given what America is doing in so many places, the words are hypocrisy.

_________________________________

 

Yes, indeed, but does he really have any choice in the matter?

American Presidents do not set the most basic foreign policy matters. The Dark State – Pentagon, CIA, State Department – does. It does so for continuity and to protect the immense investments of the Dark State and the empire.

Presidents are free to make adjustments only so they don’t appear hogtied, and even then only with heavy consultation.

The last President who thought being elected entitled him to set policy left the right side of his head on the streets of Dallas.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: PERHAPS HILLARY CLINTON’S MOST IDIOTIC STATEMENT EVER LEADS ME ON A REVIEW OF AMERICA’S POLITICAL SITUATION, A RATHER DREARY SUBJECT – A FEW NOTES ON RUSSIA’S ALWAYS-MALIGNED PUTIN – AMERICA’S BASIC PROBLEM, ONE THAT BIDEN WILL NOT CHANGE AND ONE TRUMP NEVER TOUCHED – TRUMP’S “SWAMP” NONSENSE – FOOTNOTE ON TRUMP’S JOBS ACHIEVEMENT IN HIS CLOWNISH EFFORTS WITH CHINA – TRUMP’S DESTRUCTION OF A STACK OF NUCLEAR TREATIES SERVED ONLY THE DARK STATE’S DRIVE FOR DOMINATION – TRUMP’S GIVEAWAYS TO ISRAEL WERE NOT ONLY ILLEGAL, THEY SERVED THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT – THE UTTER WASTE OF AMERICA’S MILITARY INVESTMENT – INDEED THAT INVESTMENT ACTUALLY ASSISTS AMERICA’S NEW COMPETITORS – THE LACK OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP WITH NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT – AMERICA’S POLITICAL SYSTEM MAKES IT A NATION IMMOBIIZED AS THOUGH IMMERSED IN A THICK JELLY ASPIC

 John Chuckman

EXPANSION OFA COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENT WATCH

Hillary:” I would love to see his phone records to see if he was talking to Putin the day the insurgents invaded our Capitol”

 

That has to be the most idiotic thing Hillary Clinton has ever said, and she has said a great many idiotic things.

First, does she not know that the NSA and CIA and FBI would immediately be on to any such communication?

Is she really that naïve? No, of course not, she is simply a grotesque liar.

Second, I have studied and written about Putin fairly extensively.

He is a calm, pragmatic, and highly intelligent man, one with Russia’s best interests always at heart.

The last thing he would want to see is instability in the United States with all the immense dangers that would represent.

It is precisely American politicians like Hillary who are a threat to global stability.

And it is certainly not limited to Democrats. Trump was a genuine menace in world affairs, just with a different style and emphasis than people like Hillary. He contributed nothing positive.

The basic problem is America’s insistence on having a global empire and dominating other people with its Frankenstein military and security services. That really is the primary purpose of the Pentagon. America has fought no wars of defense since WWII, yet it has fought a great many wars. And its CIA has precipitated about sixty coups, many against democratic governments, and carried out many grisly tasks.

Note that Trump was just as big a supporter of this, His law-breaking giveaways in Palestine set a record for serving Israel’s interests, Israel in many ways being almost an unofficial member of America’s political establishment. His insane acts in Iran and Syria served the same purpose and nearly started a major war.

It was all done to garner huge political donations from the Israel Lobby. Foreign policy is for sale in a country that puts no limits on money in politics or on the work of lobbies. If the political establishment is “the swamp” Trump childishly liked to harangue his followers about, then he ranks as one of its outstanding supporters, not as an opponent.

And what can you say about tearing up a stack of important nuclear treaties? Those were acts only serving an American Dark State keen on dominating the planet with new weapons and placements of weapons which those treaties had made impossible. Tearing up the treaties made no one, neither Americans nor others, safer. Quite the opposite, the risk of nuclear war has risen.

America is a plutocracy with democratic window dressing, a plutocracy which maintains a brutal empire, at great expense to its own ordinary people, to enrich itself. That makes it inherently predatory. That also makes its genuine regard for democratic and human values purely rhetorical. Empires, where one group of people dominates much larger groups of people and tells them what to do, and under threat, simply can never be places with decent concerns for humanity, no matter how many empty speeches are made.

This reality is also the source of many of America’s internal problems, the terrible division in wealth causing so much resentment and anger plus the lack of so many essential services such as national healthcare.

All the resources and all the government careerists’ attention go to the machinery of empire, not to helping ordinary Americans.

Joe Biden will change none of this, the same as Trump changed absolutely none of it. Indeed, Trump’s huge tax cuts for the rich and huge military budgets only made the situation worse.

As a footnote, a recent expert study showed that Trump’s erratic efforts with China actually cost the US economy 240,000 jobs at the time. Some help for ordinary Americans.

America has no leadership. None, in either political party. The politicians are all creatures of the existing system. And such a system leaves little room for the nurturing and growth of worthy new political talent. America is literally immobilized by the ugly realities of its political system and its policies abroad and at home, just as though it were immersed in a heavy jelly aspic.

All the happy noises over Joe Biden’s victory only reflect relief at being rid of the crudest and most ignorant man ever to be President. The change reinforces for millions of Americans the illusion that their democracy works. The people who really run America, those who own it, are largely indifferent, so long as their goals are pursued, as they very much will be.

America’s immense waste of its resources, in fact, only assists the economic rise of new competitor nations. China invests and builds, everywhere, while the United States threatens and destroys.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: LESSONS FROM AMERICA’S IMPERIAL HORRORS – THE REAL REASONS FOR THE HELL OF VIETNAM – WHY THERE REALLY WERE NO LEGITIMATE AMERICAN POWs THERE – THE LESSONS AMERICANS SHOULD HAVE LEARNED BUT DID NOT – LBJ’s REPULSIVE CHARACTER – WHY KENNEDY DIED – THE POWER ESTABLISHMENT’S EFFORTS AT CHANGE SO IT COULD GO RIGHT ON INFLICTING THE SAME HORRORS IN OTHER PLACES WITH NO OPPOSITION AT HOME – THE MIDDLE EAST’S NEOCON WARS HAVE BEEN ALMOST AS TERRIBLE AND WITHOUT LEGITIMATE PURPOSE BUT AMERICANS WENT RIGHT ON WITH FOOTBALL AND SOCIAL NETWORKING WHILE THEY RAGED, AND SOME OF THOSE WARS RAGE ON STILL

 John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF A COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY WILLIAM J ASTORE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS

Americans Are All Prisoners of War

There were really no American POWs in Vietnam.

No legal state of war was ever declared.

South Vietnam was not even a legitimate country but an artificial enclave, hived off the empire of the departing French, run exclusively by dictators, and intended to serve as an American pied-a-terre in Southeast Asia.

Even its own captive people did not support it. That’s who the Viet Cong were, residents of South Vietnam fighting the dictators of South Vietnam. America’s war was a shabby effort from beginning to end.

John Kennedy’s refusal to support the charade any further likely contributed to his assassination, although his attitudes towards Cuba and Russia were the major contributing factors.

That is the nature of the “freedom” and “democracy” LBJ’s war was all about. When asked once by a reporter in the White House why America was in Vietnam, Johnson, an extremely crude man, unzipped his pants and pulled out his ample penis. “That’s why,” he said.

The men captured by North Vietnam could justifiably be classed as war criminals, but the North chose not to do so and to keep them as bargaining chips. They knew, for example, that John McCain’s father was one of America’s most senior Admirals.

Good old John McCain, when he was shot down, was bombing a civilian facility in Hanoi. Some war hero.

I think America made a great deal of the "POWs" because the war was so shameful, so degrading, and so unsuccessful, they desperately wanted something to feel good about.

Project Phoenix cutting the throats of forty thousand village leaders in the nights. Marines burning down villagers’ homes. Napalm. Early cluster bombs. Agent Orange. Countless land mines. B-52 carpet-bombing. Massacres of civilians. Throwing prisoners who refused to talk out of helicopters. Countless rapes. Three million killed in Vietnam and another million in Cambodia.

If Americans had learned the true, terrible lessons that Vietnam offered, the history of the last half century might have been very different, but they did not.

America’s establishment was able to carry right on with its brutal imperial ways with just a few adjustments, like getting rid of the draft and creating a well-paid mercenary army. And the chances of adverse stories getting out in future were smothered by “embedding” the press with the military.

A further new element would be added in the 21^st century wars by using in many cases recruited mercenaries, both corporate American ones and rabble recruited and armed from many places who passed as jihadi types but somehow always attacked what America wanted attacked and not what true jihadis would go after.

The horrors of America’s bloody march through the Middle East in the Neocon Wars of the last two decades were nearly as great as those of Vietnam, but almost no opposition at home arose. Americans were happy to go on with football and social networking while several million died, millions more were wounded, and tens of millions were reduced to desperate refugees.

Remnants of the Neocon Wars rage on still. American troops remain in parts of Syria and Iraq where they are not wanted. America’s ugly, complex proxy war in Syria continues to scar a beautiful land and prevent its healing. America and its partner, the monstrous Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, continue slaughtering civilians in Yemen. Libya, once an admirably-run and peaceful country, remains a smoldering ruin, overrun with armed gangs. America’s vicious, relentless efforts against Iran resemble a special kind of brutal, undeclared war. And America just flaunts international law by taking property from Syria and giving away the property of others in Palestine.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: EVENTS AT THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL BUILDING WERE CHAOS, AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND MEANINGFUL PATTERNS IN CHAOS – BUT THE AFTERMATH LEAVES US WITH TWO CERTAINTIES – THE UNITED STATES IS A DEEPLY AND DANGEROUSLY DIVIDED NATION AND AMERICAN POLITICS HAVE BECOME POISONOUS – THERE ARE NO EASY FIXES – THERE IS NO SERIOUS LEADERSHIP IN THE COUNTRY AND THE PRIVILEGED ARE READY TO GIVE UP NOTHING – A STARK COMPARISON OF AMERICA AND CHINA IN THEIR GLOBAL EFFORTS

 John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY JOE LAURIA IN CONSORTIUM NEWS

Trump Impeached Amid Efforts to Silence Him

Trump has been impeached again and this time the Republican-controlled Senate may convict to keep him from running in 2024, as Democrat-aligned big tech moves to shut him up

 

I’m not sure any of the details and legalities of the Capitol gate-crashing event can ever be satisfactorily sorted. It was chaos, and it is hard to find patterns in chaos.

But in the aftermath, two things are certain.

America is a badly divided nation, one divided along some very dangerous lines.

And American politics, always under the withering influence of big money, are now also grown poisonous.

I see no easy fixes.

Joe Biden is not an inspired leader, and his political party is just about as dedicated to the status quo as the Republicans are.

At the same time, the country continues to waste a fortune on its military and security service ventures around the world.

While China builds, everywhere, America threatens and sanctions and blockades and assassinates and destroys in many places. Which approach do you think builds a healthy, long-term future?

America’s attitudes are virtually all bristling with various hostilities, and it can’t even summon the strength of cooperation and helpfulness in fighting a pandemic.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE SHAMEFUL BUSINESS OF BLAMING CHINA FOR THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC CONTINUES – NEVER BEFORE HAVE WE BLAMED A PEOPLE FOR THE EMERGENCE OF A DISEASE, SOMETHING WHICH HAPPENS PERIODICALLY AS PART OF EVOLUTION – PREJUDICE OR SPITE ABOUT CHINA’S SUCCESS IS BEHIND THIS – CONSIDER THE ORIGINAL SOURCE, THE MOST DISCREDITED AND FOUL-MOUTHED LEADER ON EARTH, DONALD TRUMP

 John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN GLOBAL TIMES

TCM [Traditional Chinese Medicine] as a cause of COVID-19? Viruses don’t talk politics: experts

Local British media reports interpreted Boris Johnson’s comments as criticism of China’s use of traditional medicine and an implication that the practice of harvesting pangolin scales is connected to the coronavirus, even though Johnson never mentioned China or Chinese traditional medicine (TCM) in his speech.

 

All viral diseases arise somewhere. They do so spontaneously with changed environmental conditions from time to time.

No one, as I recall, ever blamed any country for the rise of AIDS/HIV.

No one blamed any country for Hepatitis.

Nor was anyone blamed for Polio.

But for some mysterious reason, the rise of COVID is attributed to China, its first major victim.

And this blame is despite researchers now having found the disease existed in parts of Europe and other places in November, 2019, previous to the outbreak in Wuhan.

Does this blaming reflect prejudice? Does it reflect the spite and envy of those engaged in a new hybrid economic warfare against China?

Remember the source: the most discredited, foul-mouthed leader on the planet, Donald Trump, although his obscene theme has been more moderately echoed by a couple of other leaders seeking his favor.

That is not how we fight a disease or do anything else worthwhile.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: WHY IT IS SILLY TO SPEAK OF A NEW CIVILIAN CIA DIRECTOR CHANGING THE AGENCY FOR THE BETTER – IT IS MUCH LIKE TALKING ABOUT CHANGING DRACULA’S LIFESTYLE – SINCE THE BEGINNING IN 1947, MERE INTELLIGENCE GATHERING HAS ONLY BEEN PART OF CIA’S PURPOSE– DIRTY OPERATIONS AND KILLING HAVE BEEN A BIG PART OF ITS MISSION, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HOUSE, SO TO SPEAK – A FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF CIA’S GLORIOUS RECORD – A GOOD AND JUST SOCIETY WOULD NOT HAVE A CIA

 John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY RAY McGOVERN IN CONSORTIUM NEWS

Can Burns Change the CIA?

The hope is that diplomat William Burns, tapped for CIA director by Joe Biden, will be able to change the culture at Langley and not be subsumed by it.

 

Change the CIA?

Sorry, but that does seem a bit silly.

Like speaking of changing Dracula’s lifestyle.

The CIA does what it was designed and long-practiced to do.

Pure intelligence, from the beginning, was only a part of its mission. One side of the house, so to speak.

Dark operations and killing are the practices of more than 70 years.

At least sixty coups, including against a number of democratic states the US doesn’t happen to like. Countless dirty tricks, like Operation Phoenix in Vietnam with about forty thousand village leaders’ throats cut in the night. Many assassinations, including, almost certainly, an American President, John Kennedy. Hideous practices abroad do come home to roost as they become accepted as normal.

Today it even runs an industrial-scale extrajudicial killing operation. Thousands of legally innocent people, incinerated just by having their names put on a list. A great many bystanders, too. Absolutely no different than the practices of the old Argentine military junta in “disappearing” people by the thousands.

The disgusting practice in Argentina, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, of kidnaping citizens off the streets, drugging them, and tossing them, bound-up, from planes over the ocean, with relatives left to wonder and grieve over what happened to them, was well known to the CIA and approved of.

A good and just and free society just would not have a CIA. Its very existence is an indictment.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: AN AUTHOR WRITES OF THE FOLLY OF LOYALTY IN TRUMP’S AMERICA – FIRST, IT ISN’T JUST LOYALTY CALLED INTO QUESTION BUT ALL ETHICAL AND MORAL VALUES – AND, SECOND, IT ISN’T “TRUMP’S AMERICA,” IT’S JUST AMERICA – TRUMP IS A SYMPTOM OF THE SAME DECAY: GOVERNMENT BY, FOR, AND OF MONEY – FOREIGN POLICY BY MONEY – CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS SERVING MONEY – IT IS, IN A WORD, CORRUPTION

 John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DAVID R HOFFMAN IN PRAVDA

The folly of loyalty in Trump's America

 

The folly of loyalty in Trump's America?

Rather, the folly of all traditional ethical and moral values.

Honesty and integrity of every description have been dissolved away in the acid reality of contemporary America.

And it has little to do with Trump. He is a product of the same forces at work.

The country is run by money, and it is about money. By, for, and of money.  Its government is the product of big money. So is its foreign policy. So even are many aspects of its universities and many other institutions.

America is a plutocracy with window-dressing running an empire to enrich itself.

I see no room for values like keeping your word or not stealing or not lying. Even killing is an everyday business for America’s police, military, and security agencies.

I am a strong believer in the validity of Lord Acton’s Dictum, and America is best described as having arrived at the second part of its statement a long time ago.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: TALES OF THE DEATH OF OSAMA BIN LADEN – AN ARTICLE REVIEWS AT LENGTH THE CONTRADICTIONS AND ABSURDITIES OF THE OFFICIAL VERSION (S) – GLOBAL EMPIRE IS ONLY POSSIBLE WITH A STREAM OF LIES TO COVER WHAT ACTUALLY IS TAKING PLACE – THAT IS JUST PART OF WHY THE APPARATUS OF EMPIRE SO ROTS AND DECAYS THE ETHICS OF A COUNTRY LIKE AMERICA – MOST AMERICANS IMMERSED IN THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF EXCEPTIONALISM AND QUESTION LITTLE THEY ARE TOLD – EMPIRE IS SIMPLY INCONSISTENT WITH THE RULE OF LAW AND CONCERN FOR HUMAN AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS – KENNEDY ASSASSINATION AND EVENTS OF 9/11 – HOW THE ‘TRUMP RIGHT’ ACTUALLY SUPPORTS WHAT IT THINKS IT OPPOSES, THE DARK STATE

 John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY LARRY ROMANOFF IN PRAVDA 

“The Death of Osama bin Laden”

https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/145497-bin_laden_death/

The author has succeeded in putting the death of Osama just where it belongs, along with such other official tales as the assassination of John Kennedy and the events of 9/11, the last two being astoundingly important events which the general public does not question despite dozens of important details supplied and contradictions identified by some capable and scrupulous independent investigators.

In such matters, contradictions no longer even seem to matter for a great many Americans. They have been so immersed in the official state religion of America’s being exceptional and dedicated to worthy purposes.

Of course, it is not possible to have a global empire, as America does, without generating a huge number of lies to cover up what is really taking place. That fact is just one of a number of important ones explaining the moral and ethical rot of a country like the United States in its post-WWll activity, activity which pretty much boils down to telling hundreds of millions of other people how to run their affairs.

Empire and democracy and concern for the rule of law and human rights are inherently incompatible, yet surprisingly few Americans appreciate the fact. It is a great irony of contemporary American society that even many people on the Trump Right, including Trump himself, believe they are fighting the dark forces of the state when they are actually enthusiastic supporters of the whole massive military-security complex and its work of empire to benefit the plutocrats who genuinely run America.

 

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."    

Attributed to former CIA Director William Casey

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: EVENTS AT THE CAPITOL BUILDING WERE UGLY – BUT THEY CANNOT BE CHARACTERIZED AS TERROR OR INSURRECTION BY REASONABLE PEOPLE – RESPONSIBILITY FOR THOSE EVENTS LIES IN TWO PLACES – POLICE PROTECTION AND PLANNING WERE APPALLING – TRUMP AND HIS CLOSE ASSOCIATES WERE CRIMINALLY RECKLESS BY INCITING A MOB –TRUMP’S BEHAVIOR HAS BEEN JUST AS RECKLESS WITH CHINA OR IRAN OR ISRAEL – HE HAS SHAMED THE UNITED STATES MANY TIMES – BUT ONLY NOW DO WE SEE A SERIOUS REACTION AND THE REACTION IS INAPPROPRIATE AND ITSELF DANGEROUS – BIDEN PROMISES NEW DOMESTIC ANTI-TERROR LEGISLATION NOW AS A FIRST PRIORITY – IT IS THE LAST THING ANYONE NEEDS

 John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS

“Joe Biden has announced plans to roll out new domestic terrorism laws in the wake of the Capitol Hill riot.”

“He said he plans to make a priority of passing a law against domestic terrorism, and he has been urged to create a White House post overseeing the fight.”

 

Just what the world needs, more anti-terrorism legislation. Thanks, Joe Biden, for making that your first priority.

But, no matter what, we may be sure that in America free speech remains securely in control.

After all, didn’t the Supreme Court tell us that money is free speech?

I just wonder how long it will be before the extrajudicial killing-by-drone industry gets extended into the domestic market?

It would be perfect for all those groups living in hard-to-reach places or police no-go areas.

In the past, the CIA’s work with other methods of control, such as assassination of leaders, gradually was adapted to domestic needs, starting around 1960.

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: RECENT BITS AND PIECES – AMERICAN NEOCONS AND WAR – VICTORIA NULAND AND SERGEY LAVROV – THE “SOLAR WINDS” HACK ORIGINATED IN THE US – THE DANGER SIGNAL OF AMERICAN OFFICIALS SPEAKING OF HUMAN RIGHTS – AMERICA’S RECORD IN HUMAN RIGHTS – THE STUPIDITY OF CANADIAN FORCES IN LATVIA DOING WHAT AMERICA WANTS – “TIME FOR EXTREME COURAGE” – AN ABSURD MAN GETS AN ABSURD SEND-OFF – WHAT TRUMP ACHIEVED FOR NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG-UN – JIMMY CARTER AND ISRAEL’s NUKES – CHINA’S HIGHLY ORIGINAL USE OF LARGE UAVs – AN EXCELLENT SELECTION OF QUOTES AND PICTURES ON AMERICA’S USE OF “HUMAN RIGHTS” – A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THE UTTER CONFUSION OF AMERICA’S EXTREME RIGHT – RECKLESS USE OF THE WORD “TRAITOR” TODAY – THE OBSCENE BULLY – THE UNFAIR TREATMENT OF IRAN OVER ITS ACCIDENTAL DOWNING OF AN AIRLINER WHEN UNDER EXTREME THREAT FROM THE US – THE KILLING OF A WOMAN IN WASHINGTON’S CAPITOL BUILDING – PARDONS – HOW TWISTED AMERICAN POLITICS HAVE BECOME

 John Chuckman

COMMENTS – RECENT BITS AND PIECES FROM VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS

 

The Neocons, an extreme and influential American political faction, have been a deadlier disease even than COVID.

They are responsible for millions of deaths and injuries through the Middle East and tens of millions of refugees.  Plus, several well-running societies being turned into chaos.

They are strongly anti-Russian, too, because they view Russia as an obstacle to America's having its way in the world, their fundamental belief being America should use its great military strength to get its way.

Victoria Nuland, to receive a Biden appointment, is an especially nasty representative of the political faction.

Even the classy and gracious Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, once was photographed avoiding shaking her hand.

___________________________________

 

Virtually the day before this announcement by American security services, again suggesting Russia as a source, independent experts announced that the big “Solar Winds” hack very much did originate in the United States.

Of course, that independent announcement received little corporate press in the US or Europe.

I would suggest this security-agency announcement, with all its heavy press coverage, was motivated by the independent finding.

_________________________________

 

If you study American history in some detail – as I have over years – you will find remarkably little concern for human rights inside the country and even less outside the country.

When you read or hear the phrase “human rights” coming from official American sources, it should be a red flag that something else is going on.

That country was founded in slavery, gained its territory by the mass slaughter of Aboriginals, endured countless killings and abuses even after slaves were technically free, a place where lynching was a way of life into the 1930s, had scores of race riots and a number of massacres of Blacks, has police today who kill an average of  three citizens every day, has prisons where hundreds disappear every year, has the world’s largest prison population, has some of the world’s most brutal prisons,  displayed sizable sympathies for Hitler before WWII with Hitler even keeping a photo of Henry Ford over his desk, had a longstanding set of prejudices against “yellow people,” passed laws against Chinese immigration, sent Japanese-Americans to prison camps during WWII while stealing their property, and has created wars and destruction almost non-stop since WWII.

Words written on a piece of parchment which is kept as a museum display have meant remarkably little.

_________________________________

 

What on earth are Canadian Forces wasting time and resources in Latvia?

But, of course, I forgot, we’re faithfully following American foreign policy.

If Russia really meant to be aggressive in the Baltics, these forces and the Baltic countries would be over run in days. But Russia has no such intention.

Please, modern Russia has attacked no one. It threatens no one. It offers to cooperate with anyone.

The United States, by contrast, has a dozen countries under various forms of threat, and it has been at war, almost continuously, since WWII.

It has ripped up a number of important and hard-won nuclear treaties recently despite Russia’s pleas not to do so.

__________________________

 

‘This is a time for extreme courage,’ says - “incites” might be a better word – the man who never once has displayed any.

He leaves office in a suitably ridiculous fashion and having achieved virtually nothing but insulting and hurting a lot of people.

____________________________

 

What a memorable and fitting exit for the worst President in history.

An absurd man receives an absurd send-off.

______________________________

 

Kim Jong-un may well be right.

Trump's blundering efforts in North Korea, which produced zero results, gave the leadership more exposure in the world press than it has ever had.

Kim, I think, has made a mildly favorable impression on many.

He is always willing to talk. He has a sense of humor. He is dedicated to the purposes of his country.

Meanwhile, the country’s weapons programs have made steady progress.

__________________________________

 

Yes, indeed.

Jimmy Carter – former President and nuclear engineer, a true expert on the topic – told us some years ago that Israel had about 90 nuclear warheads plus fissile material for about 60 more.

We also saw in the Sunday Times actual photos of the Israeli bomb-making labs and work places smuggled out by Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu. He was later captured and sent to prison.

_______________________________

 

This absurd clown, this obscene bully, Trump, leaves office, after days of inflammatory language, with his “Proud Boys” storming the United States Capitol Building, with shooting inside, with five people dead, with both Houses of Congress first locked-down and then evacuated by emergency means. You just could not imagine a more fitting end to a truly shabby political career.

________________________________

 

China’s use of large UAVs for weather modification is simply ingenious. The vehicles can linger in the skies over a region for very long periods.

And how much more creative than the way the United States uses its fleet of comparable UAVs – for its day-in, day-out systematic extrajudicial killings with Hellfire missiles, killing thousands of people in a number of countries without trial or even legal charges and often killing bystanders.

__________________________________

 

This man offers a perfect example of just how confused America’s Right Wing is.

He fights and opposes what he regards as government interference in his own election, but then he completely buys into the lies of that same government concerning Venezuela.

It doesn’t even occur to him that the government of Venezuela – including the current President’s late predecessor – was elected seven times in clean elections with international observers.

It is the very government he opposes that says otherwise, including the absurd man he supports as President in the US.

https://www.rt.com/news/511776-maga-viking-venezuela-freedom/

________________________________

 

"Traitor" is a very strong word, and one with a specific meaning. Lately, a number of those on America’s Extreme Right have taken to recklessly abusing it, conflating personal loyalty to Trump with loyalty to their country.

A person guilty of treason is known as a traitor. The US Constitution gives a very specific definition of what treason is in its “treason clause”.

If you read it, I think you will find breaking with a political associate is not part of the definition.

It is this kind of harsh, thoughtless language which drives the violence of American politics.

Anyone who genuinely cared about his nation would not use it. It is destructive of society.

Trump uses such language, but Trump, always and everywhere, cares only about himself, as he has demonstrated countless times.

_______________________________

 

Iran has been treated very unfairly in this.

The destruction of Iran Air Flight 655 by Americans over Iranian territory in 1988 and killing 290 people, saw no punishment for any of the ship's crew.

Indeed, the captain of the American warship responsible was awarded a medal.

No apology was ever given. Eventually, long afterward, some compensation was awarded quietly.

No one who understands the circumstances of the recent case, the accidental downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in Iran, can regard Iran as a truly bad actor.

Iran was under immense pressure from the US after the US murdered General Soleimani, a national hero for his fight against terror. It murdered a number of others in Iraq too over a short period.

People make mistakes when terrorized, as the US terrorized Iran with threats from fighters, bombers, cruise missiles, and an armada of ships.

Iran has apologized and has now offered compensation. Remember, this is not a rich country, and the US has had it under severe illegal sanctions for years. It cannot even buy medicines thanks to Trump.

The government of the United States surely has the major responsibility for the crash.

________________________________

 

China’s “Global Times” online today offers an article with an excellent selection of contrasting quotes and photos to make a powerful point about the attitudes of American leaders.

But, truly, how can you not exude hypocrisy when you run a brutal global empire while claiming to be a democracy concerned with human rights?

Contemporary America is, in fact, a plutocracy with democratic window-dressing running an empire to enrich itself.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212080.shtml

____________________________

 

I have not watched the video. I never watch such videos.

Of course, it was wrong to kill the woman. Those responsible should be charged.

But, sadly, that is what so many American police do regularly, shoot people. They kill an average of three citizens each day with many more injured.

Indicative of just how intense this whole post-election mania has been, it is reliably reported that the woman’s last TWEET was, “Nothing will stop us.”

That is the kind of 1930s street-fighting politics Trump has encouraged, and he takes no responsibility at all for what he has done. He resembles a man who walked through a tinder-dry forest, tossing matches as he went, afterwards recognizing no connection with the ensuing wildfires.

He is reliably reported to have asked his staff to research his granting himself a pardon before he leaves office – a terrible precedent because he faces all kinds of legal action – civil, criminal, and taxes – once he leaves office. I view the power of granting pardons as just one of many flaws in the American Constitution. It has encouraged almost nothing but a long record of corruption and shame by both parties. The Justice Department has said in the past this is not possible because you cannot be both judge and defendant, but who knows what scheme Trump might come up with?

By the way, if you glance at some Extreme Right news sources online, you’ll see the idea promoted that they were provocateurs from the Left who assaulted the Capitol Building. A good measure of just how twisted American politics have become.