John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
‘A Pair of Tankers ‘Struck’ and On Fire at Entrance to Strait of Hormuz
‘Iranian FM: "Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what happened"’
Looks like Bolton or Netanyahu decided the effort this time must be a little more dramatic.
The last effort, with a small dent in the rear of a tanker, bordered on the ridiculous.
Can there can be any doubt that if Iran were interested in such provocations, it could do a better job than this?
After all, it had the immense experience of fighting a terribly bloody war for most of the 1980s against invading Iraq, a war which was much assisted by American covert efforts in hopes then of toppling Iran's government.
And how can there be any doubt that Iran, threatened on every side by America, has no interest in making such provocations?
No, the vicious children in the room are Bolton and Netanyahu, both proven performers.
Of course, the fact that the stricken tankers were carrying Japanese cargo at a time when Japan’s Prime Minister Abe was holding talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran is likely no coincidence.
I’ve just learned, too, the attack came not very far from a significant Iranian naval base at Jask, the last location Iran would choose for such a provocation.
But it is a location completely in keeping with the kind of vicious, bone-headed stunts Bolton has staged for us all to see in Venezuela. Some sick and obsessed people can’t help revealing themselves through their acts, almost as though they secretly want credit.
LATER INFORMATION:
The American military has released a video of men in a very small ship next to one of the stricken tankers. Supposedly, they are removing an unexploded magnetic-type mine from the hull of the tanker. But the video is of is such poor quality, it tells us almost nothing.
The height at which the blurry “unexploded mine” is located, where a man is vaguely seen reaching, is far above water level and seems ridiculous. And we have a good deal of confusion in various press claims over whether the ship actually was hit by a torpedo or mined or perhaps hit by a missile.
Is it even possible that any American military would photograph an event of that nature instead of immediately responding with gunfire?
A mini-ship of the nature used by the men in the video might well have been built in the past by America or Israel as a prop for future efforts. They have been ferociously occupied with Iran for quite a period of time.
And we've absolutely no more reason to believe the blurry figures are Iranians than that they are US Marines of IDF.
It just makes no sense. Or about as much sense as America’s opening shot over the bow for events in Venezuela, its ridiculous antics in trying to deliver unwanted food aid from trucks stopped on a bridge, aid that was shortly later set fire to, not by Maduro’s people as the United States publicly claimed, but by the same American-supported opposition members who were trying to force its delivery. It all showed up clearly on video.
STILL LATTER INFORMATION:
Yutaka Katada, president of Kokuka Sangyo, told reporters on Friday that sailors on board the ill-fated oil tanker observed “flying objects” just before the incident in which the ship caught fire and was badly damaged. The giant vessel was hit twice.
He suggested that those flying objects could have been bullets, and called reports of striking a mine “false.”
Further, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that Iranian search and rescue teams picked up 44 sailors - 21 from the Kokuka Courageous and 23 from the Front Altair - following the incidents and took them to the nearby port of Jask.
So, Iran rescued the crews.
STILL FURTHER IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS:
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
"The confusion in the Middle East is being stage managed to benefit Israel"
Note, the US has advanced drones active in the region.
We know that to a certainty because there was a complaint about Iran trying to shoot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone near the location of recent events with the tankers.
And of course, the US has its unblinking fleet of Keyhole Spy Satellites operating 24 hours a day.
The satellites have cameras comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Either source is capable of giving us infinitely better images than those grainy blobs the US tried passing off as proof of Iranian foul play in the Gulf of Oman.
Yet we never see a single image from either one of these sources in this matter, as in a good many others, such as the downing of Flight MH-17 in Ukraine.
Wonder why that is, do you think?
Friday, June 14, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: ON WHY AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE IS TEARING THE COUNTRY APART FROM INSIDE - EXPECTATIONS FOR TRUMP'S AND THE AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENT'S VICIOUS EFFORTS ABROAD
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DMITRY ORLOV IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“The US Intelligence Community Is Tearing the Country Apart from the Inside”
https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/us-intelligence-community-tearing-country-apart-inside/ri24324
I might quibble about a sentence or two, but this piece by Orlov is pretty much right on the money.
This is what American intelligence services do.
I might offer an explanation for why things have changed so much.
The change reflects America's new effort to assert itself in the world, to reclaim the place it once effortlessly enjoyed in the 1950s.
It has badly slipped from that place over decades, and for several reasons, but there is now a concerted drive to reclaim it, actually, to more than reclaim it, to exceed its former level of influence, and by methods antithetical to friend and foe alike.
It is not content with the idea of just building excellent products, offering excellent services, and competing with the world. And I think at least part of the reason for that is because it no longer can compete over a whole range of economic activities.
It wants also to export things like the primacy of American law over other national laws and international ones, giving American corporations immense advantages. And it wants to exert its remaining military and financial muscle on gaining concessions from others, activity approaching economic extortion. There are in fact no ready markets for these two desired American exports, embracing American law and demands for imperial tribute.
I think, ultimately, the American establishment will fail in its effort. The only way it could succeed is through war and genuine tyranny, and while Americans seem to relish war as a pastime, at least as viewed on television with bowls of popcorn from couches in the evening after work, they are in fact not very good at it, at least judging from the results of more than seven decades of imperial wars having absolutely no relationship to defending anyone or any principle worth speaking of.
Anyway, the world is changing so rapidly with the combined effects of globalization and world trade, population growth, migration patterns, the emergence of new economic actors, the emergence of new economic blocs and alliances, and the impact of new technology in so many places that it simply cannot be contained the way America’s establishment so ardently desires. America’s very goal reveals a kind of inherent weakness.
The MAGA slogan reflects a wish for it to be 1959 again, an impossibility of course. But unfortunately, Trump and his truly dumb slogan are attached, like a barnacle on a ship’s hull, to something much larger, something having little to do with Trump except for using him so long as he seems useful.
That something is the American power establishment – something perhaps best defined as America’s wealthy individuals and corporations and their utterly compliant Congress served by agencies of the security services and the military, all of it driving for maintenance and expansion of world empire.
That, in fact, is “the swamp” Trump loved alluding to, and it is beyond influencing, and certainly by a such a weak, almost angry child-like figure as Donald Trump. He is indeed now engaged fully in their purpose, whether he understands it or not, his immense ego hoping to survive politically, but he does such a poor and destructive job, I doubt they’ll let him continue.
The very way the United States approaches its national-purpose task tells us something. It is alienating, with its demands and arbitrary acts, leaders in many of its oldest allies and associated states. People will only swallow so much crap before they strike out in new directions. We are seeing clear signals from Italy, Germany, and even smarmy Macron’s France that they are tired of being expected to eat plate-loads of crap in order to be considered as good allies.
The truth is that the benefits of being a good ally of the United States have declined substantially while the costs have risen steeply and continue to rise. These two graphs – benefits and costs - have crossed, or are about to cross, and it cannot be long until there are serious responses to that new reality.
At the very same time, everyone can plainly see the orientation of Russia and China towards not only doing sound business worldwide but in engaging in world-improving projects like the New Silk Road and the Northern Sea Route. They cannot miss the much-repeated theme of “working with partners,” a theme completely missing from America’s rhetoric.
The United States has weighed itself down in completely preventable and very bloody wars, a comparison in behavior with Russia and China not be missed by anyone looking. The wars have killed a couple of million people, cost an unbelievable amount of money that the United States does not even possess, and caused terrible side-effects like millions of desperate refugees.
And the United States takes no responsibility for any of it, going so far as to mock and demean, and at the highest level, the refugees and the countries who do try to help them. That kind of almost-criminal thinking only goes so far in places of traditionally more humane attitudes, places like Europe.
But in the meantime, as it tries to do its self-assigned, and pretty much hopeless, task, we are going to experience some frightening and dangerous times. And there will be many opportunities for utterly chaotic mistakes.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DMITRY ORLOV IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“The US Intelligence Community Is Tearing the Country Apart from the Inside”
https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/us-intelligence-community-tearing-country-apart-inside/ri24324
I might quibble about a sentence or two, but this piece by Orlov is pretty much right on the money.
This is what American intelligence services do.
I might offer an explanation for why things have changed so much.
The change reflects America's new effort to assert itself in the world, to reclaim the place it once effortlessly enjoyed in the 1950s.
It has badly slipped from that place over decades, and for several reasons, but there is now a concerted drive to reclaim it, actually, to more than reclaim it, to exceed its former level of influence, and by methods antithetical to friend and foe alike.
It is not content with the idea of just building excellent products, offering excellent services, and competing with the world. And I think at least part of the reason for that is because it no longer can compete over a whole range of economic activities.
It wants also to export things like the primacy of American law over other national laws and international ones, giving American corporations immense advantages. And it wants to exert its remaining military and financial muscle on gaining concessions from others, activity approaching economic extortion. There are in fact no ready markets for these two desired American exports, embracing American law and demands for imperial tribute.
I think, ultimately, the American establishment will fail in its effort. The only way it could succeed is through war and genuine tyranny, and while Americans seem to relish war as a pastime, at least as viewed on television with bowls of popcorn from couches in the evening after work, they are in fact not very good at it, at least judging from the results of more than seven decades of imperial wars having absolutely no relationship to defending anyone or any principle worth speaking of.
Anyway, the world is changing so rapidly with the combined effects of globalization and world trade, population growth, migration patterns, the emergence of new economic actors, the emergence of new economic blocs and alliances, and the impact of new technology in so many places that it simply cannot be contained the way America’s establishment so ardently desires. America’s very goal reveals a kind of inherent weakness.
The MAGA slogan reflects a wish for it to be 1959 again, an impossibility of course. But unfortunately, Trump and his truly dumb slogan are attached, like a barnacle on a ship’s hull, to something much larger, something having little to do with Trump except for using him so long as he seems useful.
That something is the American power establishment – something perhaps best defined as America’s wealthy individuals and corporations and their utterly compliant Congress served by agencies of the security services and the military, all of it driving for maintenance and expansion of world empire.
That, in fact, is “the swamp” Trump loved alluding to, and it is beyond influencing, and certainly by a such a weak, almost angry child-like figure as Donald Trump. He is indeed now engaged fully in their purpose, whether he understands it or not, his immense ego hoping to survive politically, but he does such a poor and destructive job, I doubt they’ll let him continue.
The very way the United States approaches its national-purpose task tells us something. It is alienating, with its demands and arbitrary acts, leaders in many of its oldest allies and associated states. People will only swallow so much crap before they strike out in new directions. We are seeing clear signals from Italy, Germany, and even smarmy Macron’s France that they are tired of being expected to eat plate-loads of crap in order to be considered as good allies.
The truth is that the benefits of being a good ally of the United States have declined substantially while the costs have risen steeply and continue to rise. These two graphs – benefits and costs - have crossed, or are about to cross, and it cannot be long until there are serious responses to that new reality.
At the very same time, everyone can plainly see the orientation of Russia and China towards not only doing sound business worldwide but in engaging in world-improving projects like the New Silk Road and the Northern Sea Route. They cannot miss the much-repeated theme of “working with partners,” a theme completely missing from America’s rhetoric.
The United States has weighed itself down in completely preventable and very bloody wars, a comparison in behavior with Russia and China not be missed by anyone looking. The wars have killed a couple of million people, cost an unbelievable amount of money that the United States does not even possess, and caused terrible side-effects like millions of desperate refugees.
And the United States takes no responsibility for any of it, going so far as to mock and demean, and at the highest level, the refugees and the countries who do try to help them. That kind of almost-criminal thinking only goes so far in places of traditionally more humane attitudes, places like Europe.
But in the meantime, as it tries to do its self-assigned, and pretty much hopeless, task, we are going to experience some frightening and dangerous times. And there will be many opportunities for utterly chaotic mistakes.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE TANKER ATTACKS IN THE GULF OF OMAN NEAR IRAN - FACTS WHICH TELL US A GREAT DEAL
John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
‘A Pair of Tankers ‘Struck’ and On Fire at Entrance to Strait of Hormuz
‘Iranian FM: "Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what happened"’
Looks like Bolton or Netanyahu decided the effort this time must be a little more dramatic.
The last effort, with a small dent in the rear of a tanker, bordered on the ridiculous.
Can there can be any doubt that if Iran were interested in such provocations, it could do a better job than this?
After all, it had the immense experience of fighting a terribly bloody war for most of the 1980s against invading Iraq, a war which was much assisted by American covert efforts in hopes then of toppling Iran's government.
And how can there be any doubt that Iran, threatened on every side by America, has no interest in making such provocations?
No, the vicious children in the room are Bolton and Netanyahu, both proven performers.
Of course, the fact that the stricken tankers were carrying Japanese cargo at a time when Japan’s Prime Minister Abe was holding talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran is likely no coincidence.
I’ve just learned, too, the attack came not very far from a significant Iranian naval base at Jask, the last location Iran would choose for such a provocation.
But it is a location completely in keeping with the kind of vicious, bone-headed stunts Bolton has staged for us all to see in Venezuela. Some sick and obsessed people can’t help revealing themselves through their acts, almost as though they secretly want credit.
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
‘A Pair of Tankers ‘Struck’ and On Fire at Entrance to Strait of Hormuz
‘Iranian FM: "Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what happened"’
Looks like Bolton or Netanyahu decided the effort this time must be a little more dramatic.
The last effort, with a small dent in the rear of a tanker, bordered on the ridiculous.
Can there can be any doubt that if Iran were interested in such provocations, it could do a better job than this?
After all, it had the immense experience of fighting a terribly bloody war for most of the 1980s against invading Iraq, a war which was much assisted by American covert efforts in hopes then of toppling Iran's government.
And how can there be any doubt that Iran, threatened on every side by America, has no interest in making such provocations?
No, the vicious children in the room are Bolton and Netanyahu, both proven performers.
Of course, the fact that the stricken tankers were carrying Japanese cargo at a time when Japan’s Prime Minister Abe was holding talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran is likely no coincidence.
I’ve just learned, too, the attack came not very far from a significant Iranian naval base at Jask, the last location Iran would choose for such a provocation.
But it is a location completely in keeping with the kind of vicious, bone-headed stunts Bolton has staged for us all to see in Venezuela. Some sick and obsessed people can’t help revealing themselves through their acts, almost as though they secretly want credit.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: MORE ON THE RELATIVELY MINOR ROLE OF D DAY IN ENDING WWII - THE WAR'S TURNING POINT CAME MORE THAN A YEAR BEFORE AT STALINGRAD, THE MOST TERRIBLE BATTLE IN ALL HUMAN HISTORY - A FEW WORDS ON AMERICAN PREJUDICE ABOUT THE WAR
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Russian TV Blasts Trump for Not Mentioning That Russia Won WW2, Not last-minute D-Day Landings”
I recall once, many years ago, seeing a large article in an American urban newspaper about D Day and ensuing events. It, quite seriously, referred to the Battle of the Bulge as the greatest battle ever fought.
I immediately wrote a letter to the editor correcting the error and explaining that Stalingrad was an immensely greater battle and was indeed the greatest battle in human history.
Stalingrad was also far more consequential, marking as it did, the genuine turning point of the war. It came more than a year before D Day, and after the victory, a lot of people, including Germans, understood that it was just a matter of time.
The anecdote is a good measure of fairly widespread American ignorance about history. Endless propaganda about the "indispensable nation" and its unparalleled achievements in every field of human endeavor always stands ready to fill any gaps left by ignored or forgotten facts.
And Americans, many of them, are only too happy to lap up such stuff, reinforcing their own prejudices.
There apparently was a film a few years back which had Americans making the Enigma German Code machine discovery instead of the British. The same kind of fat-headed nonsense gets repeated countless times in speeches and films and popular articles.
So, keep in mind, it is not easy for anyone outside America to cut through the layers of insulating nonsense in order to communicate sensibly.
It is a serious problem for genuine communication and understanding, much akin to someone trying to tell an ultra-Orthodox person from Israel that you don't believe God ever had a chosen people, whatever some of those old papyruses written in caves by eccentrics and lunatics thousands of years ago might say.
D Day, despite its importance, including symbolic importance, quite simply was, I'm sorry to say, a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the Eastern Front.
I believe nothing is more important for history and the later decisions based upon it than perspective, accurate perspective.
23 American divisions, 14 British, 3 Canadian, 1 French and 1 Polish.
Apart from what greeted the Americans on the beaches of Normandy, the Germans had 228 divisions fighting desperately on the Eastern Front, battle-hardened and originally equipped as the finest army ever fielded.
Had even a fraction of those German divisions been freed-up to turn towards Normandy, D Day either would not have taken place or been a tragic fiasco, a larger-scale version of Churchill’s terrible failure at Gallipoli in WWI.
About three-quarters of all German soldiers killed in the war were killed by Soviet armies.
The Soviets themselves lost 27 million people, somewhat less than half of them soldiers, the most terrible toll in all of recorded human history, both military and civilian.
For comparison, America's entire losses in the war, including the Pacific, were about 300 thousand. By comparison to Russia and Europe, America lost virtually no property or industry. No wonder it emerged afterward as a strong imperialist power, ready to take over almost everywhere.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Russian TV Blasts Trump for Not Mentioning That Russia Won WW2, Not last-minute D-Day Landings”
I recall once, many years ago, seeing a large article in an American urban newspaper about D Day and ensuing events. It, quite seriously, referred to the Battle of the Bulge as the greatest battle ever fought.
I immediately wrote a letter to the editor correcting the error and explaining that Stalingrad was an immensely greater battle and was indeed the greatest battle in human history.
Stalingrad was also far more consequential, marking as it did, the genuine turning point of the war. It came more than a year before D Day, and after the victory, a lot of people, including Germans, understood that it was just a matter of time.
The anecdote is a good measure of fairly widespread American ignorance about history. Endless propaganda about the "indispensable nation" and its unparalleled achievements in every field of human endeavor always stands ready to fill any gaps left by ignored or forgotten facts.
And Americans, many of them, are only too happy to lap up such stuff, reinforcing their own prejudices.
There apparently was a film a few years back which had Americans making the Enigma German Code machine discovery instead of the British. The same kind of fat-headed nonsense gets repeated countless times in speeches and films and popular articles.
So, keep in mind, it is not easy for anyone outside America to cut through the layers of insulating nonsense in order to communicate sensibly.
It is a serious problem for genuine communication and understanding, much akin to someone trying to tell an ultra-Orthodox person from Israel that you don't believe God ever had a chosen people, whatever some of those old papyruses written in caves by eccentrics and lunatics thousands of years ago might say.
D Day, despite its importance, including symbolic importance, quite simply was, I'm sorry to say, a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the Eastern Front.
I believe nothing is more important for history and the later decisions based upon it than perspective, accurate perspective.
23 American divisions, 14 British, 3 Canadian, 1 French and 1 Polish.
Apart from what greeted the Americans on the beaches of Normandy, the Germans had 228 divisions fighting desperately on the Eastern Front, battle-hardened and originally equipped as the finest army ever fielded.
Had even a fraction of those German divisions been freed-up to turn towards Normandy, D Day either would not have taken place or been a tragic fiasco, a larger-scale version of Churchill’s terrible failure at Gallipoli in WWI.
About three-quarters of all German soldiers killed in the war were killed by Soviet armies.
The Soviets themselves lost 27 million people, somewhat less than half of them soldiers, the most terrible toll in all of recorded human history, both military and civilian.
For comparison, America's entire losses in the war, including the Pacific, were about 300 thousand. By comparison to Russia and Europe, America lost virtually no property or industry. No wonder it emerged afterward as a strong imperialist power, ready to take over almost everywhere.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: AMERICA IS GOING TO TARGET CUBA'S WORLD-ADMIRED PROGRAM FOR TRAINING DOCTORS AND SENDING THEM WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MOON OF ALABAMA
“Cuban Doctors Provide Healthcare to Those in Need - The U.S. Wants to Stop Them
“The Trump administration wants to reassert hegemony over Latin America. Cuba is one of its main targets. Through right wing allies and by its own means it targets Cuba's most successful export program - the provision of Cuban doctors to countries in need of them”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/cuban-doctors-provide-healthcare-to-those-in-need-the-us-wants-to-stop-them.html#comments
Thanks for this.
Cuba's medical system has been much admired in the world for years. It is a genuine national achievement.
Naturally, the Appalachian Throwbacks now running international affairs in Washington dislike the system, if for no other reason than it speaks well of Cuba.
Cuba is on Bolton's "hit list" for sure.
In this, as in so much else, America has made itself a negative force in the world, a kind of Mafia state that focuses on hurting anything over which it has no control or which offers the world a counter-example of the way things should be done.
What an extremely nasty way to spend your days.
But then, nothing really should surprise us. America's ongoing major activity abroad - bombing the crap out of people everywhere - does offer the world an unparalleled example of viciousness.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MOON OF ALABAMA
“Cuban Doctors Provide Healthcare to Those in Need - The U.S. Wants to Stop Them
“The Trump administration wants to reassert hegemony over Latin America. Cuba is one of its main targets. Through right wing allies and by its own means it targets Cuba's most successful export program - the provision of Cuban doctors to countries in need of them”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/cuban-doctors-provide-healthcare-to-those-in-need-the-us-wants-to-stop-them.html#comments
Thanks for this.
Cuba's medical system has been much admired in the world for years. It is a genuine national achievement.
Naturally, the Appalachian Throwbacks now running international affairs in Washington dislike the system, if for no other reason than it speaks well of Cuba.
Cuba is on Bolton's "hit list" for sure.
In this, as in so much else, America has made itself a negative force in the world, a kind of Mafia state that focuses on hurting anything over which it has no control or which offers the world a counter-example of the way things should be done.
What an extremely nasty way to spend your days.
But then, nothing really should surprise us. America's ongoing major activity abroad - bombing the crap out of people everywhere - does offer the world an unparalleled example of viciousness.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE ULTIMATE INTERFERENCE IN THE ELECTIONS OF OTHERS - AMERICA'S SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO OPENLY VOWS AMERICA WILL WORK AGAINST BRITAIN'S LABOUR PARTY LED BY JEREMY CORBYN
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“Pompeo’s Vow to ‘Push Back’ Against Corbyn
“Comments by the U.S. secretary of state that sound like a threat to interfere in the U.K.’s democratic process”
How can anyone in the United States ever again speak with a straight face about foreign interference in elections?
Here is the American Secretary of State openly vowing to work against fair elections for the Mother of Parliaments.
Truly, America, corruption, hypocrisy, and dishonor are becoming the chief characteristics of your national government.
Instead of Old Glory, maybe it should be renamed as Old Tawdry.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“Pompeo’s Vow to ‘Push Back’ Against Corbyn
“Comments by the U.S. secretary of state that sound like a threat to interfere in the U.K.’s democratic process”
How can anyone in the United States ever again speak with a straight face about foreign interference in elections?
Here is the American Secretary of State openly vowing to work against fair elections for the Mother of Parliaments.
Truly, America, corruption, hypocrisy, and dishonor are becoming the chief characteristics of your national government.
Instead of Old Glory, maybe it should be renamed as Old Tawdry.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF REVERSING THE CLOCK ON ANY ASPECT OF TECHNOLOGY - A REMINDER THAT TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE NEVER COMES WITHOUT HURTING SOME, EVEN THOUGH IT BRINGS BENEFITS TO MANY - THE LONG-TERM DRIVING FORCE IN ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY AND POLITICS, EVEN IN ETHICS
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DON PETTIS ON CBC NEWS
"Why we can never put the Big Tech monster back in its box
“Facebook, Google and the rest have changed the world — and Congress can't reverse it”
I can't imagine why anyone would think that possible. I can understand people wishing it might be so, but wishes carry no more weight in the real world than dreams or fantasies.
The thought is akin to the thinking of the infamous early-19th century Luddites in Europe, who thought that by smashing machines they could halt the effects of the Industrial Revolution.
The truth is that it is changing technology which drives our economy, always. All of our advances, but the advances come at a price to the settled and comfortable notions and assumptions all of us have to one degree or another.
Along with changes in the economy, technological change ultimately drives most of what we call social and political change, not great popular movements or even revolutionary books. Thinking otherwise, something not at all uncommon, is much like putting the cart before the horse. The truth is that even our concepts of ethics change and will continue to change.
The flow of technological change resembles almost an acid or solvent flow eating away at all of our old arrangements and conventions and ideas in society.
And what is plain to see is that the rate of change in technology comes at an ever-increasing rate. It will only continue to accelerate, unless we have a thermonuclear war or the earth is struck by a great asteroid.
The time approaches when most ordinary people will not be able to cope, much less understand. And I don’t mean just cope with gadgets, I mean cope with the rapid changes coming in social arrangements and ethical understanding.
Brave new world indeed.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DON PETTIS ON CBC NEWS
"Why we can never put the Big Tech monster back in its box
“Facebook, Google and the rest have changed the world — and Congress can't reverse it”
I can't imagine why anyone would think that possible. I can understand people wishing it might be so, but wishes carry no more weight in the real world than dreams or fantasies.
The thought is akin to the thinking of the infamous early-19th century Luddites in Europe, who thought that by smashing machines they could halt the effects of the Industrial Revolution.
The truth is that it is changing technology which drives our economy, always. All of our advances, but the advances come at a price to the settled and comfortable notions and assumptions all of us have to one degree or another.
Along with changes in the economy, technological change ultimately drives most of what we call social and political change, not great popular movements or even revolutionary books. Thinking otherwise, something not at all uncommon, is much like putting the cart before the horse. The truth is that even our concepts of ethics change and will continue to change.
The flow of technological change resembles almost an acid or solvent flow eating away at all of our old arrangements and conventions and ideas in society.
And what is plain to see is that the rate of change in technology comes at an ever-increasing rate. It will only continue to accelerate, unless we have a thermonuclear war or the earth is struck by a great asteroid.
The time approaches when most ordinary people will not be able to cope, much less understand. And I don’t mean just cope with gadgets, I mean cope with the rapid changes coming in social arrangements and ethical understanding.
Brave new world indeed.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A VERY POOR EXCUSE OF A "JOKE" ABOUT BRITAIN'S NIGEL FARAGE - ALL OF OUR POLITICS SEEM TO BE TURNING VICIOUS AND TRUMP-LIKE
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
“Theresa May has told the BBC it needs to explain its decision to broadcast a joke about throwing acid at politicians.
“Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has accused Jo Brand of inciting violence following the comment on a Radio 4 show”
Much as I dislike Farage, I cannot accept such words.
Words about throwing battery acid at someone are not a joke in any sense of the word.
They are vicious, threatening, and darkly suggestive to the weak-minded.
The milk-shake stunt was in the best tradition of British off-beat humor and protest. Monty Pythonesque.
Genuinely funny, keeping Farage on a bus under threat of having milk shakes tossed at him.
But this "joke" is not amusing. It’s almost like something from Trump’s foul mouth.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
“Theresa May has told the BBC it needs to explain its decision to broadcast a joke about throwing acid at politicians.
“Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has accused Jo Brand of inciting violence following the comment on a Radio 4 show”
Much as I dislike Farage, I cannot accept such words.
Words about throwing battery acid at someone are not a joke in any sense of the word.
They are vicious, threatening, and darkly suggestive to the weak-minded.
The milk-shake stunt was in the best tradition of British off-beat humor and protest. Monty Pythonesque.
Genuinely funny, keeping Farage on a bus under threat of having milk shakes tossed at him.
But this "joke" is not amusing. It’s almost like something from Trump’s foul mouth.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: MY REACTION TO THE SUGGESTION THAT IRAN "RETURN TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE" - WHAT TRUMP'S MINDLESS DEMANDS OF IRAN ARE REALLY ALL ABOUT - CLEAR ECHOES OF HITLER RAGING AGAINST CZECHOSLOVAKIA AT MUNICH 1938
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY PATRICK LAWRENCE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
"Regrouping the Nuclear Dealmakers
"There are three good reasons for Iran to go back to the table"
I couldn't agree less.
Go back to the table? That reads like mainstream corporate output.
Iran has done nothing, except lawfully abide by its nuclear agreement for four years, something affirmed by every expert and major country on earth.
The United States arbitrarily ripped up a valid, working international agreement, and did so consulting no one beforehand. Its own major allies do not even accept its action.
The United States also has severely attacked Iran’s economy with sanctions. Severely.
Such sanctions, used frequently now by the United States, are nothing more than coercive efforts to apply American law universally, ignoring local and international laws. It is America ignoring the rule of law, simply the West’s most important civilising principle.
On top of those destructive acts, the United States now has clearly threatened war. The threat, whether intended to actually be carried out or not, is totally in violation of international law.
How does anyone “negotiate” with people who have taken such steps?
What is the meaning of “negotiation” under dire threat?
It's really an exact repeat of behavior seen in the late 1930s from Germany against states such as Czechoslovakia. Hitler would suddenly throw terrifying rages during talks with high officials and scream the gravest threats, trying to set them completely off balance, to get his way. Sound familiar?
No one should validate that approach to international affairs. It is the very opposite of what the world requires for peace and security and stability. After four years of faithfully abiding by an international agreement, Iran, suddenly, should enter new negotiations, facing new and unrelated demands from an impulsive and dangerous man whose only real motivation, as we shall see, is his own domestic political situation?
What Trump did to create this situation is simple and sleazy. In serious fear of impeachment and other threats to his security in office, he approached some exceedingly wealthy people in the United States for support and reassurance, people whose chief concerns are with other matters.
He received money and support for his re-election in 2020 and for any possible attempt at his impeachment, undoubtedly. Seriously big money.
But he was required to pay a price. That price included ripping-up a valid, working international agreement, appointing frighteningly dangerous men like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to important offices, and being seen as very solicitous of Israel’s views about a country that it has always deeply resented as a competitor for regional influence, Iran.
This is a country that has never represented any real threat to Israel – ever hear of a non-nuclear country attacking a nuclear one? - although Israel has made many threats against it, even once spending a small fortune during Obama’s time planning and preparing for a large surprise (non-nuclear) attack, and Israel has carried out, over the years, a number of murderous dark ops against Iran.
So, the whole world must now pay in fear and apprehension for Trump’s becoming comfortably tucked into office? That really is what America’s ghastly behavior towards Iran represents. The Congress, of course, will not interfere in any matter touching Israel - every successful member of Congress being either already beholden to Israel’s lobby or deeply fearful of offending it – so, it just quietly stands back, allowing Trump his own way, literally, a madman in charge.
And a law-abiding country, one that has never attacked anyone in its entire modern history, Iran, is supposed to validate the vicious prejudices and demands of a country, Israel, that has been almost continuously at war for seventy years? One that has attacked every neighbor that it has, some more than once? One which holds at least five million people as desperate captives and has held them for almost an entire lifetime? One that has an illicit nuclear arsenal and substantial stocks of poison gas? A country that refuses to cooperate with any international arms control and one that stands in violation of dozens of United Nations’ Resolutions and international laws?
Makes sense to me.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY PATRICK LAWRENCE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
"Regrouping the Nuclear Dealmakers
"There are three good reasons for Iran to go back to the table"
I couldn't agree less.
Go back to the table? That reads like mainstream corporate output.
Iran has done nothing, except lawfully abide by its nuclear agreement for four years, something affirmed by every expert and major country on earth.
The United States arbitrarily ripped up a valid, working international agreement, and did so consulting no one beforehand. Its own major allies do not even accept its action.
The United States also has severely attacked Iran’s economy with sanctions. Severely.
Such sanctions, used frequently now by the United States, are nothing more than coercive efforts to apply American law universally, ignoring local and international laws. It is America ignoring the rule of law, simply the West’s most important civilising principle.
On top of those destructive acts, the United States now has clearly threatened war. The threat, whether intended to actually be carried out or not, is totally in violation of international law.
How does anyone “negotiate” with people who have taken such steps?
What is the meaning of “negotiation” under dire threat?
It's really an exact repeat of behavior seen in the late 1930s from Germany against states such as Czechoslovakia. Hitler would suddenly throw terrifying rages during talks with high officials and scream the gravest threats, trying to set them completely off balance, to get his way. Sound familiar?
No one should validate that approach to international affairs. It is the very opposite of what the world requires for peace and security and stability. After four years of faithfully abiding by an international agreement, Iran, suddenly, should enter new negotiations, facing new and unrelated demands from an impulsive and dangerous man whose only real motivation, as we shall see, is his own domestic political situation?
What Trump did to create this situation is simple and sleazy. In serious fear of impeachment and other threats to his security in office, he approached some exceedingly wealthy people in the United States for support and reassurance, people whose chief concerns are with other matters.
He received money and support for his re-election in 2020 and for any possible attempt at his impeachment, undoubtedly. Seriously big money.
But he was required to pay a price. That price included ripping-up a valid, working international agreement, appointing frighteningly dangerous men like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to important offices, and being seen as very solicitous of Israel’s views about a country that it has always deeply resented as a competitor for regional influence, Iran.
This is a country that has never represented any real threat to Israel – ever hear of a non-nuclear country attacking a nuclear one? - although Israel has made many threats against it, even once spending a small fortune during Obama’s time planning and preparing for a large surprise (non-nuclear) attack, and Israel has carried out, over the years, a number of murderous dark ops against Iran.
So, the whole world must now pay in fear and apprehension for Trump’s becoming comfortably tucked into office? That really is what America’s ghastly behavior towards Iran represents. The Congress, of course, will not interfere in any matter touching Israel - every successful member of Congress being either already beholden to Israel’s lobby or deeply fearful of offending it – so, it just quietly stands back, allowing Trump his own way, literally, a madman in charge.
And a law-abiding country, one that has never attacked anyone in its entire modern history, Iran, is supposed to validate the vicious prejudices and demands of a country, Israel, that has been almost continuously at war for seventy years? One that has attacked every neighbor that it has, some more than once? One which holds at least five million people as desperate captives and has held them for almost an entire lifetime? One that has an illicit nuclear arsenal and substantial stocks of poison gas? A country that refuses to cooperate with any international arms control and one that stands in violation of dozens of United Nations’ Resolutions and international laws?
Makes sense to me.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: "DA VINCI'S" SALVATOR MUNDI PAINTING IS MISSING - AFTER MUSEUM QUESTIONS AROUND ITS AUTHENTICITY IT'S SAID TO BE ABOARD THE GIGANTIC YACHT OF SAUDI ARABIA'S BLOODY CROWN PRINCE, THE MAN WHO PAID NEARLY HALF-A-BILLION FOR IT
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN GOVERNMENT SLAVES
"You Won’t Believe Where A $450 Million DaVinci Painting “Vanished” To"
[It’s on board the Crown Prince’s Gigantic Yacht Apparently]
Anyone with a good eye might well harbor some suspicion about this picture, named “Salvator Mundi.”
It just does not have the impact of Da Vinci's small number of surviving paintings.
There is something very much missing from the face that one expects from a Da Vinci.
I have to think wishful thinking displaced judgment in purchasing it for such an immense amount, close to half a billion dollars.
I wonder will the charming Crown Prince, perhaps already having been embarrassed by questions around its authenticity at museums, have it cut into pieces and burnt, as he is known to have done in at least one other instance of embarrassment?
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN GOVERNMENT SLAVES
"You Won’t Believe Where A $450 Million DaVinci Painting “Vanished” To"
[It’s on board the Crown Prince’s Gigantic Yacht Apparently]
Anyone with a good eye might well harbor some suspicion about this picture, named “Salvator Mundi.”
It just does not have the impact of Da Vinci's small number of surviving paintings.
There is something very much missing from the face that one expects from a Da Vinci.
I have to think wishful thinking displaced judgment in purchasing it for such an immense amount, close to half a billion dollars.
I wonder will the charming Crown Prince, perhaps already having been embarrassed by questions around its authenticity at museums, have it cut into pieces and burnt, as he is known to have done in at least one other instance of embarrassment?
Monday, June 10, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A FEW THOUGHTS ON WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO GIVE UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT TO ISRAEL TODAY
JOHN CHUCKMAN
WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO GIVE UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT TO ISRAEL?
It means supporting a man who has never once been directly elected by people. A man with a perpetual minority who rules through deals with other smaller minority parties, most of which are about as prejudiced and anti-democratic as you will find anywhere on the planet.
Only recently, there were reports of Netanyahu’s trying to strike a deal for some restrictions on women being on streets in return for the support of an ultra-orthodox party whose enlightenment values are zero. He didn’t succeed, but not for lack of trying, so he has called another election.
This is also a man whose entire record is fanatical, stained many times over with the blood of thousands and thousands of people, people in Gaza, on the Mediterranean Sea, in the West Bank, in Southern Lebanon, and it is overwhelmingly the case that his victims have been civilians, a great many of them women and children.
A man not interested in peace as most people understand it but with the “peace” that comes in dominating others. He also has always shown an inclination to steal yet more of the property of others than he already has. His desire to dominate is why he has such a shared spirit with Donald Trump, why they admire each other. Of course, It would not be so if these two political scorpions had to share the same political arena.
Netanyahu’s years-long aggressive struggles for dominance and expansion may not have been anything on a scale with the world wars in Europe, but they have been unceasing, persistent, and bloody. And they all have been concerned with similar goals as the brutal wars in Europe, suppressing people you don’t like and taking their property. In philosophical and ethical terms, Netanyahu represents the same values as the jackboot crowd.
But you cannot look at this man’s drives and efforts only inside the geography of Israel and Palestine.
Here is a keen supporter of the bloodiest tyrant we have seen in a while, the new Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. A man who slaughters women and children in Yemen, who slaughters women and children in Syria, a man who openly has opponents brutally murdered, who oppresses the Shia Muslim minority in his own country, and a man supporting record numbers of bloody executions, including the executions of some teen-agers.
Netanyahu is also a keen supporter of President (Generalissimo) el-Sisi in Egypt, a man who holds Egypt’s only former elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in prison under death sentence. A man who regularly imprisons and tortures opponents by the hundreds and sometimes shoots people in the streets. Countless people rot in jails, forgotten. He is a man who was secretly sponsored to become leader of Egypt by Netanyahu. Indeed, it is known that a good deal of pressure was applied to Obama to help topple Egypt’s only democratically-elected government, that of Morsi, because Netanyahu simply loathed it.
Netanyahu is a man who has supported America’s long series of bloody, offensive wars in the Middle East, the so-called Neo-con Wars, whose purpose, through massive amounts of killing, has been to create “a rebirth of the Middle East,” one along lines acceptable to Israel and its imperial protector, the United States. He has been deeply involved in supporting such terrorists as al-Nusra and ISIS in Syria, both directly and through support of the efforts of Saudi Arabia, a country which has secretly paid much of the costs of the dirty work of these terrorists.
Over the years, many caches of Israeli-made weapons have been uncovered by Syria’s army. And Netanyahu openly has served wounded terrorists in Northern Israeli hospitals as well as at times having hundreds of them shifted around from one location to another by helicopter. His objectives in Syria have always been to make permanent Israel’s theft of the Golan Heights, to expand that holding even further, with, if possible, another slice of Syria, and to see the reasonable leader of the religiously-pluralistic society, Syria, eliminated and replaced by someone more along the lines of the Arab leaders he so fervently embraces.
Now, he has underway one of his biggest projects, either the toppling of Iran or the start of a war against it, a war led by the United States with Israel just enjoying the show from the sidelines. He has, inside Israel, vociferously taken credit for guiding Donald Trump on the destructive course he has taken.
This is an extremely dangerous project, a threat to all the people of the region, but Netanyahu is able, as is so often the case with various dirty projects, to keep his head down and let others assume center stage. The United States endorses such behavior because it knows how much antipathetic feeling there would be against Israel were it obvious to everyone who really leads the charge. And a Donald Trump is just the kind of warped personality only too happy to take credit for anything, no matter how destructive, which casts him in the light of someone who gets things done.
WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO GIVE UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT TO ISRAEL?
It means supporting a man who has never once been directly elected by people. A man with a perpetual minority who rules through deals with other smaller minority parties, most of which are about as prejudiced and anti-democratic as you will find anywhere on the planet.
Only recently, there were reports of Netanyahu’s trying to strike a deal for some restrictions on women being on streets in return for the support of an ultra-orthodox party whose enlightenment values are zero. He didn’t succeed, but not for lack of trying, so he has called another election.
This is also a man whose entire record is fanatical, stained many times over with the blood of thousands and thousands of people, people in Gaza, on the Mediterranean Sea, in the West Bank, in Southern Lebanon, and it is overwhelmingly the case that his victims have been civilians, a great many of them women and children.
A man not interested in peace as most people understand it but with the “peace” that comes in dominating others. He also has always shown an inclination to steal yet more of the property of others than he already has. His desire to dominate is why he has such a shared spirit with Donald Trump, why they admire each other. Of course, It would not be so if these two political scorpions had to share the same political arena.
Netanyahu’s years-long aggressive struggles for dominance and expansion may not have been anything on a scale with the world wars in Europe, but they have been unceasing, persistent, and bloody. And they all have been concerned with similar goals as the brutal wars in Europe, suppressing people you don’t like and taking their property. In philosophical and ethical terms, Netanyahu represents the same values as the jackboot crowd.
But you cannot look at this man’s drives and efforts only inside the geography of Israel and Palestine.
Here is a keen supporter of the bloodiest tyrant we have seen in a while, the new Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. A man who slaughters women and children in Yemen, who slaughters women and children in Syria, a man who openly has opponents brutally murdered, who oppresses the Shia Muslim minority in his own country, and a man supporting record numbers of bloody executions, including the executions of some teen-agers.
Netanyahu is also a keen supporter of President (Generalissimo) el-Sisi in Egypt, a man who holds Egypt’s only former elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in prison under death sentence. A man who regularly imprisons and tortures opponents by the hundreds and sometimes shoots people in the streets. Countless people rot in jails, forgotten. He is a man who was secretly sponsored to become leader of Egypt by Netanyahu. Indeed, it is known that a good deal of pressure was applied to Obama to help topple Egypt’s only democratically-elected government, that of Morsi, because Netanyahu simply loathed it.
Netanyahu is a man who has supported America’s long series of bloody, offensive wars in the Middle East, the so-called Neo-con Wars, whose purpose, through massive amounts of killing, has been to create “a rebirth of the Middle East,” one along lines acceptable to Israel and its imperial protector, the United States. He has been deeply involved in supporting such terrorists as al-Nusra and ISIS in Syria, both directly and through support of the efforts of Saudi Arabia, a country which has secretly paid much of the costs of the dirty work of these terrorists.
Over the years, many caches of Israeli-made weapons have been uncovered by Syria’s army. And Netanyahu openly has served wounded terrorists in Northern Israeli hospitals as well as at times having hundreds of them shifted around from one location to another by helicopter. His objectives in Syria have always been to make permanent Israel’s theft of the Golan Heights, to expand that holding even further, with, if possible, another slice of Syria, and to see the reasonable leader of the religiously-pluralistic society, Syria, eliminated and replaced by someone more along the lines of the Arab leaders he so fervently embraces.
Now, he has underway one of his biggest projects, either the toppling of Iran or the start of a war against it, a war led by the United States with Israel just enjoying the show from the sidelines. He has, inside Israel, vociferously taken credit for guiding Donald Trump on the destructive course he has taken.
This is an extremely dangerous project, a threat to all the people of the region, but Netanyahu is able, as is so often the case with various dirty projects, to keep his head down and let others assume center stage. The United States endorses such behavior because it knows how much antipathetic feeling there would be against Israel were it obvious to everyone who really leads the charge. And a Donald Trump is just the kind of warped personality only too happy to take credit for anything, no matter how destructive, which casts him in the light of someone who gets things done.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: CANADA CUTS SERVICES AT EMBASSY IN CUBA HURTING MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE - IT USES THE FLIMSY AMERICAN EXCUSE OF EMPLOYEES BEING HURT BY "SONIC WEAPONS"- A COVER FOR FOLLOWING AMERICA'S NEW TURN OF HARSHNESS TOWARDS CUBA - OUR FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN BAD HANDS
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
'Dear Government of Canada': Separated Canadian-Cuban families send plea to Ottawa
Dozens of families stuck in limbo as embassy downsizing leads to application confusion
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-cuba-embassy-families-video-government-von-scheel-1.5167910
Well, of course, what is being done to families is just terrible.
But I am extremely skeptical about Canada's reasons for doing what it is doing.
The vague stuff about "sonic weapons" started with American officials a couple of years ago.
And the truth is, unfortunately, who can believe anything American officials say anymore? It's just a fact that a stream of questionable claims about a great many places come from American officials these days.
And we know the current government in Washington has considerable animus towards Cuba. They've already named it in public, along with Nicaragua and Venezuela, as part of a “Troika of Tyranny,” all due for treatment along the lines of Venezuela.
Canada's Foreign Affairs today are handled in many respects as though we were a branch plant of the United States. Could this be just one more case, like our unpleasant dealings in the Lima Group, an outfit created to help overthrow the government of Venezuela?
Cuba of course has big historical connections with Pierre Trudeau, so if we were going to take off on a new American-motivated hostility in reducing services in Cuba, maybe we'd need something like the story about "sonic weapons" to make the decision more palatable?
It should be noted that recorded sounds of the American “attacks” some while ago were analyzed by scientists to be nothing more than the loud sound of Jamaican field crickets, which are plentiful in Cuba.
It should also be noted that the US only very recently announced a new set of restrictions against Cuba.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
'Dear Government of Canada': Separated Canadian-Cuban families send plea to Ottawa
Dozens of families stuck in limbo as embassy downsizing leads to application confusion
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-cuba-embassy-families-video-government-von-scheel-1.5167910
Well, of course, what is being done to families is just terrible.
But I am extremely skeptical about Canada's reasons for doing what it is doing.
The vague stuff about "sonic weapons" started with American officials a couple of years ago.
And the truth is, unfortunately, who can believe anything American officials say anymore? It's just a fact that a stream of questionable claims about a great many places come from American officials these days.
And we know the current government in Washington has considerable animus towards Cuba. They've already named it in public, along with Nicaragua and Venezuela, as part of a “Troika of Tyranny,” all due for treatment along the lines of Venezuela.
Canada's Foreign Affairs today are handled in many respects as though we were a branch plant of the United States. Could this be just one more case, like our unpleasant dealings in the Lima Group, an outfit created to help overthrow the government of Venezuela?
Cuba of course has big historical connections with Pierre Trudeau, so if we were going to take off on a new American-motivated hostility in reducing services in Cuba, maybe we'd need something like the story about "sonic weapons" to make the decision more palatable?
It should be noted that recorded sounds of the American “attacks” some while ago were analyzed by scientists to be nothing more than the loud sound of Jamaican field crickets, which are plentiful in Cuba.
It should also be noted that the US only very recently announced a new set of restrictions against Cuba.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: MORE CREEPY STUFF FROM FACEBOOK ON ITS WAY FOR CANADIANS - YOU MIGHT THINK PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE LEARNED THAT FACEBOOK IS MORE OF A GENUINE THREAT THAN ANY FOREIGN STATE IT POMPOUSLY PRETENDS TO DEFEND US FROM - BUT THE LEARNING CURVE IS LONG - A WORD FROM STEPHEN F COHEN
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY ELIZABETH THOMPSON ON CBC NEWS
“Facebook rolls out high-tech ad registry with a low-tech twist
“Registering to run a political or issues ad in Canada could take up to two weeks”
Virtually nothing Facebook does, in any of its activities, can, in my view, be harmless and praiseworthy.
The company’s record of abusing users over the years is appalling, including everything from fake trending news stories to inflated audience numbers for ad rates and to insidiously tracking users even when they are not on the Facebook site.
Julian Assange, and he should know, expert that he is, has characterized Facebook as the most diabolical system ever devised for collecting intimate personal information about many millions of people.
The information goes to advertisers and others, but it also goes to American security services like NSA and its giant hi-tech farms of supercomputers.
This initiative comes as part of a supposed "answer" to foreign interference in Western elections.
But there has been no proved interference in our elections. None, of any kind. The claim reflects Washington's hysteria over China and Russia, and that hysteria has nothing to do with bad behavior by those states.
The claim reflects a new McCarthyism taking hold, one full of American establishment concerns over losing its privileged old place in the world owing to new competition and the rise of new states.
Facebook is just, in its own way, validating those fears. It is effectively serving the interests of the same American establishment busy trying to suppress China, overthrow Venezuela, abuse Cuba, and treat Russia as an untouchable.
It is, in a word, acting as a subtle agent for America's aggressive security services, not as a public service agency. It really could be called part of the problem of intrusion and spying, certainly not part of any solution.
_____________________
Response to a reader comment about what our government is doing:
Maybe, but I think our government is afraid of Washington.
They do everything they can think of to support it and its now often-outrageous pretensions.
Pretty sad, actually.
And definitely, in general, an outfit like Facebook is a threat to privacy and rights, one faithfully serving Washington.
________________________
Here's an important quote from Stephen F Cohen, former distinguished Princeton professor, authority on Russian affairs, not a political partisan, a true liberal, and someone consulted over the years by many important figures:
"It cannot be emphasized too often: Russia-gate—allegations that the American president has been compromised by the Kremlin, which may even have helped to put him in the White House—is the worst and (considering the lack of actual evidence) most fraudulent political scandal in American history."
That entire episode of madness is the origin of all the noise, repeated a thousand times over by a compliant corporate press, we hear about foreign interference in elections.
Our government's going along to get along with Washington on this has been just distasteful.
And any initiative using Facebook is even more distasteful, given that corporation's history of abusing its users and itself being a major conduit of intimate personal espionage against tens of millions.
Saturday, June 08, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: LATEST AMERICAN PHONY TRUTH-IN-MEDIA PROJECT - "THE TRUST PROJECT" - WHAT WE REALLY SEE REVEALED IN ALL SUCH SCHEMES - THEY ARE IN LINE WITH AMERICA'S EFFORTS TO CONTROL THE PLANET - JUST LIKE THE RUSSOPHOBIA NONSENSE - 21ST CENTURY PURITANISM IN AMERICA
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY WHITNEY WEBB IN MINTPRESS
“The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s Weaponized Algorithms Silence Dissent
“Given the Trust Project’s rich-get-richer impact on the online news landscape, it is not surprising to find that it is funded by a confluence of tech oligarchs and powerful forces with a clear stake in controlling the flow of news.’
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-trust-project-big-media-and-silicon-valleys-weaponized-algorithms-silence-dissent/259030/
Thanks, another solid piece from Whitney Webb.
Of course, America's big hi-tech media companies and corporate press are not in the nasty business of misrepresenting what is true simply out of their convictions, although they are able to stage a rather impressive piece of mass theater with each of them having speaking parts claiming heroically otherwise.
Multi-billionaire companies and people are very little concerned with philosophical questions such as, “what is truth?” or with fundamental matters such as scrupulous honesty.
Oh, yes, they are much concerned over the appearance of honesty, the appearance of concern for truth, but that is another matter entirely.
Otherwise, they simply would not be billionaires. Becoming exceedingly wealthy requires a steady focus on very different matters. There are no high rates of financial return for honesty or principle.
I don’t see why anyone would doubt that, especially in light of America’s present extremely aggressive efforts to bend the entire planet to its will – in the Middle East, in Russia, in China, in South America, and in Europe.
Threats, illegal sanctions, wars, coups, proxy armies, lies, and a high general level of hostility and arrogance all play a role, day-in and day-out. America simply insists on applying American law to the entire planet, ignoring the laws of other nations and the laws of international organizations. Which, of course, in the end, comes down to gaining an immense benefit for America’s corporations and its power establishment.
America’s foreign policy now intimately serves its establishment in securing economic advantages through force and concessions, advantages the establishment seems unable to secure through traditional product excellence and fair competition. American foreign policy today has little to do with diplomacy.
After all, what is “the American power establishment” but a collection of America’s wealthy corporations and individuals, supported by a compliant Congress and such intimidating and powerful agencies as the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA?
That combination of power is something many people struggle to find proper language to describe, using terms such as the Dark State, the unelected secret government, or even “the swamp.” Millions instinctively understand that something real is at work influencing events, though they may not have a good name or definition for it.
In the end, it comes down to America’s plutocracy supported by powerful agencies supplied by a completely accommodating national government.
Despite centuries of intellectual ferment and struggle and reform and revolution in the West around human rights, freedoms, and democracy, we remain pretty much ruled by wealth, just as people in 18th century, pre-revolutionary France were.
The centuries of struggle have produced an elaborate stage play of democracy, not the actual thing. Oh, there have been gains, such as it no longer being acceptable for a nobleman’s carriage to run down a peasant in its way on the road or for a nobleman to rape a peasant’s daughter, claiming Droit du seigneur. The gains are about civility and behavior, not about governing.
Money’s dominating politics, with the only serious source for that money being the wealthy, tells you who still calls the shots. The situation is identical for both political parties in America, and it is no different in Western Europe.
We really have no record of our corporate press ever deeply concerning itself over journalistic integrity. Lip service, yes, of course. But experience over time demonstrates the opposite in its normal practices.
There is clear self-interest in all the new schemes to certify “what is true and what is not” in the press and media, and the only truth about those schemes is that what ordinary people and philosophers mean by "truth" has nothing to do with any of it.
It's sad how such schemes so readily gain a solid foothold in American society, gain a kind of ersatz reality, much as with Russophobia, which has been just another tactic in the power establishment’s efforts to secure global supremacy.
Please notice the complete contradiction between all the earnest stuff about truth and the quiet acquiescence in persecuting Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden, people who gave us indisputable and great truths.
I have a personal theory as to why that is so, one I think with a good deal of substance.
It involves the role and influence of Puritanism in American history, which is extensive, going back at least to “the Pilgrim Fathers.” Now, those were people who always ferociously believed that they had the truth, and to the total exclusion of all others. They were also people who very much believed that wealth and material success were signs of God’s approval and special blessing.
Note the very terms used today, as “The Trust Project” or “News Guard” or “Election Guard” are dead giveaways of Twenty-First Century Puritanism.
Readers might enjoy this:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/john-chuckman-comment-some-history-of-puritanism-in-america-it-explains-a-lot-of-todays-wars-and-belligerence-and-close-mindedness-they-werent-quite-the-nice-folks-a-benign-name-like-pilgri/
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY WHITNEY WEBB IN MINTPRESS
“The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s Weaponized Algorithms Silence Dissent
“Given the Trust Project’s rich-get-richer impact on the online news landscape, it is not surprising to find that it is funded by a confluence of tech oligarchs and powerful forces with a clear stake in controlling the flow of news.’
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-trust-project-big-media-and-silicon-valleys-weaponized-algorithms-silence-dissent/259030/
Thanks, another solid piece from Whitney Webb.
Of course, America's big hi-tech media companies and corporate press are not in the nasty business of misrepresenting what is true simply out of their convictions, although they are able to stage a rather impressive piece of mass theater with each of them having speaking parts claiming heroically otherwise.
Multi-billionaire companies and people are very little concerned with philosophical questions such as, “what is truth?” or with fundamental matters such as scrupulous honesty.
Oh, yes, they are much concerned over the appearance of honesty, the appearance of concern for truth, but that is another matter entirely.
Otherwise, they simply would not be billionaires. Becoming exceedingly wealthy requires a steady focus on very different matters. There are no high rates of financial return for honesty or principle.
I don’t see why anyone would doubt that, especially in light of America’s present extremely aggressive efforts to bend the entire planet to its will – in the Middle East, in Russia, in China, in South America, and in Europe.
Threats, illegal sanctions, wars, coups, proxy armies, lies, and a high general level of hostility and arrogance all play a role, day-in and day-out. America simply insists on applying American law to the entire planet, ignoring the laws of other nations and the laws of international organizations. Which, of course, in the end, comes down to gaining an immense benefit for America’s corporations and its power establishment.
America’s foreign policy now intimately serves its establishment in securing economic advantages through force and concessions, advantages the establishment seems unable to secure through traditional product excellence and fair competition. American foreign policy today has little to do with diplomacy.
After all, what is “the American power establishment” but a collection of America’s wealthy corporations and individuals, supported by a compliant Congress and such intimidating and powerful agencies as the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA?
That combination of power is something many people struggle to find proper language to describe, using terms such as the Dark State, the unelected secret government, or even “the swamp.” Millions instinctively understand that something real is at work influencing events, though they may not have a good name or definition for it.
In the end, it comes down to America’s plutocracy supported by powerful agencies supplied by a completely accommodating national government.
Despite centuries of intellectual ferment and struggle and reform and revolution in the West around human rights, freedoms, and democracy, we remain pretty much ruled by wealth, just as people in 18th century, pre-revolutionary France were.
The centuries of struggle have produced an elaborate stage play of democracy, not the actual thing. Oh, there have been gains, such as it no longer being acceptable for a nobleman’s carriage to run down a peasant in its way on the road or for a nobleman to rape a peasant’s daughter, claiming Droit du seigneur. The gains are about civility and behavior, not about governing.
Money’s dominating politics, with the only serious source for that money being the wealthy, tells you who still calls the shots. The situation is identical for both political parties in America, and it is no different in Western Europe.
We really have no record of our corporate press ever deeply concerning itself over journalistic integrity. Lip service, yes, of course. But experience over time demonstrates the opposite in its normal practices.
There is clear self-interest in all the new schemes to certify “what is true and what is not” in the press and media, and the only truth about those schemes is that what ordinary people and philosophers mean by "truth" has nothing to do with any of it.
It's sad how such schemes so readily gain a solid foothold in American society, gain a kind of ersatz reality, much as with Russophobia, which has been just another tactic in the power establishment’s efforts to secure global supremacy.
Please notice the complete contradiction between all the earnest stuff about truth and the quiet acquiescence in persecuting Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden, people who gave us indisputable and great truths.
I have a personal theory as to why that is so, one I think with a good deal of substance.
It involves the role and influence of Puritanism in American history, which is extensive, going back at least to “the Pilgrim Fathers.” Now, those were people who always ferociously believed that they had the truth, and to the total exclusion of all others. They were also people who very much believed that wealth and material success were signs of God’s approval and special blessing.
Note the very terms used today, as “The Trust Project” or “News Guard” or “Election Guard” are dead giveaways of Twenty-First Century Puritanism.
Readers might enjoy this:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/john-chuckman-comment-some-history-of-puritanism-in-america-it-explains-a-lot-of-todays-wars-and-belligerence-and-close-mindedness-they-werent-quite-the-nice-folks-a-benign-name-like-pilgri/
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE LEGISLATION IN FLORIDA HIGHLIGHTS A HUGE AND ONGOING PROBLEM - ISRAEL'S DIRECT AND PERSISTENT INTERFERENCE IN AMERICA'S INTERNAL POLITICAL AFFAIRS
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MICHAEL ARRIA IN MONDOWEISS
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits anti-Semitism in public schools and universities throughout the state. However, the legislation also equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, effectively censoring the advocacy of Palestinian rights.”
Such legislation is shameful, as all people embracing the best liberal spirit of Western tradition know.
But people with special passions and loyalties have always been willing to cast aside larger principles to “support” what it is they are so passionate about, just like parents who break rules for their children’s advancement or advantage, a practice vividly coming to light in the recent national scandal over outfits who cheat the rules of admission for the best universities in return for handsome fees.
It has been an endless battle in all societies that could be called even moderately democratic, and “moderately" is very much the operative word when it comes to the United States.
Its entire history is marked by anything but a broad dedication to free and open society, no matter what the high school civics class textbooks or the Fourth of July speeches claim. It has been an uphill battle every step of the way for over two centuries.
Today, all of Western society - not just the United States, although perhaps more visibly there than anywhere else because of the county’s immense influence on others - is faced with a determined, organized lobby which effectively opposes some of our best Western traditions - especially those of transparency in government, equal treatment under the law, and free speech - a special-interest lobby representing the narrow interests of a foreign state.
When some members of the lobby are not maligning others openly with charges of prejudice for simply criticizing the behavior, and not the identity, of that state, they are lobbying legislators both in Washington and in many individual American states to see anti-constitutional legislation enacted, as it has been in a number of cases, including this in Florida.
Anti-constitutional? Why, there’s always a remedy in the courts, isn’t there? Not really unless people are determined to spend substantial amounts of money and time seeking it. Plus, American high courts are heavily burdened and often slow to act.
And even after a successful legal action, the lobby often marshals its resources on an alternative method for achieving much the same end.
Since this is a phenomenon occurring in many jurisdictions, it represents a challenging effort to obtain fairness. After all, the special-interest lobby has made, and continues to make, serious focused efforts not only to get the legislation it wants but to protect it.
The lobby seems to believe that (moderately) oppressive measures supporting its special cause, Israel, are acceptable and necessary. Either that, or it is so focused on its cause, it just doesn’t see the unfairness of what it is does. It represents dangerous thinking for the long-term interests and freedoms of hundreds of millions of people.
The basic problem is carefully outlined here:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/john-chuckman-comment-how-american-politics-really-work-why-there-are-terrible-candidates-and-constant-wars-and-peoples-problems-are-ignored-why-heroes-like-julian-assange-are-persecuted-and-r/
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MICHAEL ARRIA IN MONDOWEISS
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits anti-Semitism in public schools and universities throughout the state. However, the legislation also equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, effectively censoring the advocacy of Palestinian rights.”
Such legislation is shameful, as all people embracing the best liberal spirit of Western tradition know.
But people with special passions and loyalties have always been willing to cast aside larger principles to “support” what it is they are so passionate about, just like parents who break rules for their children’s advancement or advantage, a practice vividly coming to light in the recent national scandal over outfits who cheat the rules of admission for the best universities in return for handsome fees.
It has been an endless battle in all societies that could be called even moderately democratic, and “moderately" is very much the operative word when it comes to the United States.
Its entire history is marked by anything but a broad dedication to free and open society, no matter what the high school civics class textbooks or the Fourth of July speeches claim. It has been an uphill battle every step of the way for over two centuries.
Today, all of Western society - not just the United States, although perhaps more visibly there than anywhere else because of the county’s immense influence on others - is faced with a determined, organized lobby which effectively opposes some of our best Western traditions - especially those of transparency in government, equal treatment under the law, and free speech - a special-interest lobby representing the narrow interests of a foreign state.
When some members of the lobby are not maligning others openly with charges of prejudice for simply criticizing the behavior, and not the identity, of that state, they are lobbying legislators both in Washington and in many individual American states to see anti-constitutional legislation enacted, as it has been in a number of cases, including this in Florida.
Anti-constitutional? Why, there’s always a remedy in the courts, isn’t there? Not really unless people are determined to spend substantial amounts of money and time seeking it. Plus, American high courts are heavily burdened and often slow to act.
And even after a successful legal action, the lobby often marshals its resources on an alternative method for achieving much the same end.
Since this is a phenomenon occurring in many jurisdictions, it represents a challenging effort to obtain fairness. After all, the special-interest lobby has made, and continues to make, serious focused efforts not only to get the legislation it wants but to protect it.
The lobby seems to believe that (moderately) oppressive measures supporting its special cause, Israel, are acceptable and necessary. Either that, or it is so focused on its cause, it just doesn’t see the unfairness of what it is does. It represents dangerous thinking for the long-term interests and freedoms of hundreds of millions of people.
The basic problem is carefully outlined here:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/john-chuckman-comment-how-american-politics-really-work-why-there-are-terrible-candidates-and-constant-wars-and-peoples-problems-are-ignored-why-heroes-like-julian-assange-are-persecuted-and-r/
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: AN EXCELLENT ANALYSIS OF THE NEAR COLLISION OF AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN WARSHIPS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA - JUST SUPPORTS THE GENERAL PATTERN OBSERVED OF AMERICAN AGGRESSION ALMOST EVERYWHERE AND IN EVERYTHING
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MOON OF ALABAMA
“U.S. 7th Fleet Cruiser Ignores Rules at Sea - Nearly Collides with Russian Destroyer”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/us-navy-cruiser-ignored-rules-at-sea-caused-near-collision-with-russian-destroyer-.html#comments
Thanks for this. There has been utter confusion in the press. Well, not "utter confusion," America's press pretty well immediately adopted the point of view that the Russian ship, of course, was wrong.
Since we see American aggressiveness almost everywhere today and since in the not-too-distant past we had a couple of incidents involving incompetence with US Navy ships, it seems you've put together a pretty definitive explanation of what actually happened.
It really is becoming scary the way America now vents its anger and frustration in almost every field of endeavor, from international trade and international military treaties to using so many sanctions it is trying to make American law into international law.
It of course isn't just big-mouth Trump behind the attitudes towards the rest of the world. Most of it could not happen without a compliant Congress. Allies have all been intimidated from speaking out.
Readers may enjoy:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/john-chuckman-comment-unavoidable-flaws-in-our-press-government-press-relationship-in-the-west-americas-basic-structural-problem-is-plutocracy-and-its-empire-and-not-globalism-myth-of-tru/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/john-chuckman-comment-some-fundamentals-about-the-american-empire-and-the-new-fervent-servant-it-has-in-trump-a-word-on-trumps-game-with-his-supporters/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/john-chuckman-comment-an-american-journalist-nash-riggins-makes-a-series-of-truly-silly-claims-while-busy-expressing-his-moral-outrage-over-trump-trump-is-a-lowlife-but-hes-only-one-in-a-series/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/john-chuckman-comment-empire-corrupts-all-the-principles-of-economics-as-well-as-principles-of-ethics-and-good-government-there-is-nothing-good-to-say-about-empire-and-the-american-one-is-no-excep/
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MOON OF ALABAMA
“U.S. 7th Fleet Cruiser Ignores Rules at Sea - Nearly Collides with Russian Destroyer”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/us-navy-cruiser-ignored-rules-at-sea-caused-near-collision-with-russian-destroyer-.html#comments
Thanks for this. There has been utter confusion in the press. Well, not "utter confusion," America's press pretty well immediately adopted the point of view that the Russian ship, of course, was wrong.
Since we see American aggressiveness almost everywhere today and since in the not-too-distant past we had a couple of incidents involving incompetence with US Navy ships, it seems you've put together a pretty definitive explanation of what actually happened.
It really is becoming scary the way America now vents its anger and frustration in almost every field of endeavor, from international trade and international military treaties to using so many sanctions it is trying to make American law into international law.
It of course isn't just big-mouth Trump behind the attitudes towards the rest of the world. Most of it could not happen without a compliant Congress. Allies have all been intimidated from speaking out.
Readers may enjoy:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/john-chuckman-comment-unavoidable-flaws-in-our-press-government-press-relationship-in-the-west-americas-basic-structural-problem-is-plutocracy-and-its-empire-and-not-globalism-myth-of-tru/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/john-chuckman-comment-some-fundamentals-about-the-american-empire-and-the-new-fervent-servant-it-has-in-trump-a-word-on-trumps-game-with-his-supporters/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/john-chuckman-comment-an-american-journalist-nash-riggins-makes-a-series-of-truly-silly-claims-while-busy-expressing-his-moral-outrage-over-trump-trump-is-a-lowlife-but-hes-only-one-in-a-series/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/john-chuckman-comment-empire-corrupts-all-the-principles-of-economics-as-well-as-principles-of-ethics-and-good-government-there-is-nothing-good-to-say-about-empire-and-the-american-one-is-no-excep/
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A SERIOUS DECLINE IN PROTOCOL AROUND BRITAIN'S ROYAL FAMILY - THE ROLE OF TONY BLAIR AND PRINCESS DIANA'S DEATH - WHY MONARCHY SHOULD END AFTER ELIZABETH - WHY BRITISH MONARCHY WILL LIKELY NOT END
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Brits, You’re Doing the Monarchy Wrong”
The Brits, decades ago, used to be far stricter about such protocols.
The (generally malign) influence of Tony Blair plus the terrible upset over Princess Diana's death and the need to recover from its shadows pressured many such changes in royal behavior.
I recall the story of Bair's secretly insisting that the Queen hold hands in a large circle of people for one of the Millennium celebrations.
That's not what queens do, and Elizabeth, while always gracious towards the people she meets, has always been by nature not a pop fad-oriented person. She apparently was not happy about the idea but complied.
Perhaps, no incident better demonstrates the ridiculous situations into which the Royal Family are now sometimes tossed.
I agree they are not all good from the point of view of maintaining the "specialness" of royalty.
But I would argue that we are well past time for such an outdated institution. as the Monarchy.
After Elizabeth passes, a woman who has done a dedicated and dignified job, they really should eliminate the Monarchy.
But I doubt that is at all likely.
The Royal Family almost resembles a rented set of expensive furniture to fill all the empty spaces of palaces and castles.
And the entire "upper crust" of Britain depends on the Royal Family's activities as a kind of defining structural environment.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Brits, You’re Doing the Monarchy Wrong”
The Brits, decades ago, used to be far stricter about such protocols.
The (generally malign) influence of Tony Blair plus the terrible upset over Princess Diana's death and the need to recover from its shadows pressured many such changes in royal behavior.
I recall the story of Bair's secretly insisting that the Queen hold hands in a large circle of people for one of the Millennium celebrations.
That's not what queens do, and Elizabeth, while always gracious towards the people she meets, has always been by nature not a pop fad-oriented person. She apparently was not happy about the idea but complied.
Perhaps, no incident better demonstrates the ridiculous situations into which the Royal Family are now sometimes tossed.
I agree they are not all good from the point of view of maintaining the "specialness" of royalty.
But I would argue that we are well past time for such an outdated institution. as the Monarchy.
After Elizabeth passes, a woman who has done a dedicated and dignified job, they really should eliminate the Monarchy.
But I doubt that is at all likely.
The Royal Family almost resembles a rented set of expensive furniture to fill all the empty spaces of palaces and castles.
And the entire "upper crust" of Britain depends on the Royal Family's activities as a kind of defining structural environment.
Thursday, June 06, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: SOMETHING OF THE REAL FACE OF WAR AMIDST ALL THE REVIEWING-STAND CLAPTRAP - WHY GOVERNMENT COMMEMORATIONS ALWAYS LIE ABOUT WAR
John Chuckman
COMMENT TO AN ARTICLE BY TOM PECK IN THE INDEPENDENT
“Ninety-four-year-old Eric Chardin spoke fiercely articulately on live television for 15 minutes. His words were worth a thousand times more than any marching band or military fly-past”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/d-day-veteran-brexit-theresa-may-trump-europe-eu-a8946041.html
Well said.
These are the truly stirring words of D Day, not the claptrap coming from officials on the reviewing stand.
War is ugly, ugly beyond description, not heroic, not inspiring, not beautiful.
But governments and the bulk of the press, which serves government so faithfully, will never stop insisting the opposite.
It not only keeps the general population ready to accept still more war, it actually represents a kind of self-deception by government over past acts it should be ashamed of. It comes with a sense of a priest’s graveside eulogy for a scoundrel or a Mafioso.
Readers may enjoy:
https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/what-we-truly-learned-from-the-great-war-and-the-absurdity-of-remembrance-day/
https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/john-chuckman-essay-this-is-what-war-does/
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: D-DAY COMMEMORATION AND THE CURRENT STATE OF THE NATO ALLIANCE - NO SUCH THING AS A FOREVER ALLIANCE - NEEDS AND INTERESTS OF COUNTRIES CHANGE - IMPORTANT COMPARISONS OF OF D-DAY LANDINGS AND THE RUSSIAN FRONT - REASON FOR AMERICA'S POOR RECORD AS AN ALLY
John Chuckman
COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“75 years after D-Day, has the old alliance fallen apart?
“The united front that cracked open Fortress Europe isn't what it used to be”
No, it has not fallen apart, yet.
But it is aging, starting to fray considerably around the edges.
And why expect anything else?
It's simply not the same world that it was three-quarters of a century ago. Every actor has changed, some dramatically. And new important actors have taken a bow.
Indeed, the alliance is beginning to be quite counter-productive in some areas. The aspirations of many Europeans to become what they have the potential for being, a major competitive and geo-political force in the world, is compromised by what amounts to American occupation with a smile.
And, of course, America is now off on new tears all over the planet, many of which are not in line with Europe's hopes and ambitions - eg, the insane, unilateral start of a trade war with China, a country many in Europe have started working with, something they intend to do more of with the New Silk Road and other big projects, including building nuclear power plants, something at which China is very good, especially in bringing them on at competitive cost.
Indeed, America has pretty much, over recent decades, changed the meaning and purpose of NATO, each step of the way exploiting the sentimental old attachments to get its way. You can only do so much of that before your allies start asking questions. NATO is barely recognizable. I think I’ve outlined that nicely here:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/13/john-chuckman-comment-trump-walk-away-from-nato-why-it-will-not-happen-even-if-he-has-the-authority-which-is-not-clear-natos-changed-purposes-serve-american-interests-so-why-shouldnt-it-pay/
__________________
There has never been such a thing as a forever alliance.
It's almost a childish fantasy to expect that there should be.
If you read history, especially for Europe, you know there has been immense change over the centuries, with the rise and fall of alliances, including some quite grand ones.
Just as is the case with the rise and fall of nation-states and empires.
God, modern Italy and Germany only came into existence well into the 19th century.
We've just seen states like Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union simply disappear.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire disappeared only in the early 20th century.
The very fact that almost everything about NATO has changed - its purpose, its constituents, its external environment - should tell us something.
People who speak of it, in terms of, say, the 1950s or 1960s, only display a lack of understanding, perhaps a dangerous lack.
It smacks a little of speaking of the days of America's Red Scare and McCarthyism in sentimental terms. Of course, inside the United States, that is very much something we still see being done by some, so thorough was the indoctrination of decades ago.
Powerful institutions grounded in lack of understanding and old emotional attachments are indeed dangerous.
_________________________
Response to a comment about the importance of D Day:
Yes, I accept all of that, but it not only doesn't speak to our future, it is a bit careless with the past.
D Day, despite its importance, including symbolic importance, quite simply was, I'm sorry to say, a drop in the bucket compared to the Eastern Front.
I believe nothing is more important for history and the later decisions based upon it than perspective, accurate perspective.
23 American divisions, 14 British, 3 Canadian, 1 French and 1 Polish.
The Germans had 228 divisions fighting desperately on the Eastern Front, battle-hardened and originally equipped as the finest army ever fielded.
Had even a fraction of those German divisions been freed-up to turn towards Normandy, D Day either would not have taken place or been a tragic fiasco, a larger-scale version of Churchill’s terrible failure at Gallipoli in WWI.
About three-quarters of all German soldiers killed in the war were killed by Soviet armies.
The Soviets themselves lost 27 million people, the most terrible toll in all of recorded human history.
For comparison, America's entire losses in the war, including the Pacific, were about 300 thousand.
_________________________
Response to a comment that “America has never been a good ally, asking for help in every war that is important to America but only belatedly and reluctantly joining conflicts with worldwide significance”:
That is absolutely true.
It has a lot to do with "the indispensable nation" deciding on its own what is important to fight for and what is not.
Virtually every war and intervention by the United States since WWII, has had nothing to do with defense, either of itself or of its allies.
It has been a piteous, brutal record of imperial conquest and eliminating those whom it disliked.
Estimates vary for the number of people America has killed over that period and for those purposes.
It cannot be less than 8 million, and may well indeed be as many as 20 million, as some have estimated.
It killed at least 3 million alone in Vietnam. It caused another million or more to die in Cambodia because it destabilized the neutral government there during its Vietnam War. At least a million souls died in the illegal invasion of Iraq.
COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“75 years after D-Day, has the old alliance fallen apart?
“The united front that cracked open Fortress Europe isn't what it used to be”
No, it has not fallen apart, yet.
But it is aging, starting to fray considerably around the edges.
And why expect anything else?
It's simply not the same world that it was three-quarters of a century ago. Every actor has changed, some dramatically. And new important actors have taken a bow.
Indeed, the alliance is beginning to be quite counter-productive in some areas. The aspirations of many Europeans to become what they have the potential for being, a major competitive and geo-political force in the world, is compromised by what amounts to American occupation with a smile.
And, of course, America is now off on new tears all over the planet, many of which are not in line with Europe's hopes and ambitions - eg, the insane, unilateral start of a trade war with China, a country many in Europe have started working with, something they intend to do more of with the New Silk Road and other big projects, including building nuclear power plants, something at which China is very good, especially in bringing them on at competitive cost.
Indeed, America has pretty much, over recent decades, changed the meaning and purpose of NATO, each step of the way exploiting the sentimental old attachments to get its way. You can only do so much of that before your allies start asking questions. NATO is barely recognizable. I think I’ve outlined that nicely here:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/13/john-chuckman-comment-trump-walk-away-from-nato-why-it-will-not-happen-even-if-he-has-the-authority-which-is-not-clear-natos-changed-purposes-serve-american-interests-so-why-shouldnt-it-pay/
__________________
There has never been such a thing as a forever alliance.
It's almost a childish fantasy to expect that there should be.
If you read history, especially for Europe, you know there has been immense change over the centuries, with the rise and fall of alliances, including some quite grand ones.
Just as is the case with the rise and fall of nation-states and empires.
God, modern Italy and Germany only came into existence well into the 19th century.
We've just seen states like Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union simply disappear.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire disappeared only in the early 20th century.
The very fact that almost everything about NATO has changed - its purpose, its constituents, its external environment - should tell us something.
People who speak of it, in terms of, say, the 1950s or 1960s, only display a lack of understanding, perhaps a dangerous lack.
It smacks a little of speaking of the days of America's Red Scare and McCarthyism in sentimental terms. Of course, inside the United States, that is very much something we still see being done by some, so thorough was the indoctrination of decades ago.
Powerful institutions grounded in lack of understanding and old emotional attachments are indeed dangerous.
_________________________
Response to a comment about the importance of D Day:
Yes, I accept all of that, but it not only doesn't speak to our future, it is a bit careless with the past.
D Day, despite its importance, including symbolic importance, quite simply was, I'm sorry to say, a drop in the bucket compared to the Eastern Front.
I believe nothing is more important for history and the later decisions based upon it than perspective, accurate perspective.
23 American divisions, 14 British, 3 Canadian, 1 French and 1 Polish.
The Germans had 228 divisions fighting desperately on the Eastern Front, battle-hardened and originally equipped as the finest army ever fielded.
Had even a fraction of those German divisions been freed-up to turn towards Normandy, D Day either would not have taken place or been a tragic fiasco, a larger-scale version of Churchill’s terrible failure at Gallipoli in WWI.
About three-quarters of all German soldiers killed in the war were killed by Soviet armies.
The Soviets themselves lost 27 million people, the most terrible toll in all of recorded human history.
For comparison, America's entire losses in the war, including the Pacific, were about 300 thousand.
_________________________
Response to a comment that “America has never been a good ally, asking for help in every war that is important to America but only belatedly and reluctantly joining conflicts with worldwide significance”:
That is absolutely true.
It has a lot to do with "the indispensable nation" deciding on its own what is important to fight for and what is not.
Virtually every war and intervention by the United States since WWII, has had nothing to do with defense, either of itself or of its allies.
It has been a piteous, brutal record of imperial conquest and eliminating those whom it disliked.
Estimates vary for the number of people America has killed over that period and for those purposes.
It cannot be less than 8 million, and may well indeed be as many as 20 million, as some have estimated.
It killed at least 3 million alone in Vietnam. It caused another million or more to die in Cambodia because it destabilized the neutral government there during its Vietnam War. At least a million souls died in the illegal invasion of Iraq.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: MORE ON CANADA'S DETENTION OF HUAWEI'S MENG WANZHOU - AMERICA'S EFFORT TO APPLY AMERICAN LAWS EVERYWHERE AND "...THAT GOOD MEN SHOULD LOOK ON AND DO NOTHING" - EXTRADITION TREATIES
John Chuckman
COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
“RCMP and CBSA say Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's phones never examined as claimed
“Authorities deny breaching Huawei executive's rights during December arrest at Vancouver airport
"Charges of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction"
Charges brought to you by a country busy with conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction on a world-scale.
Big-sounding words aren't always what they seem, as surely, we can all see in example after example, from the shameful case of Julian Assange’s arrest to the polite cover extended to the horrendous crimes of Saudi Arabia.
Had our government decent respect for fair-minded principles in international affairs and for our own traditional national reputation, it would have treated such an arrest warrant just as it deserves being treated.
American laws and American interpretation of the laws of others cannot apply to the entire world, something Washington very much is actively trying to do, or we face literally an international dictatorship.
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” – John Stuart Mill
__________________________
Response to a comment saying, “The Liberals need to do the right thing and hand Meng over to U.S authorities”:
That’s extremely bad advice.
It is exactly what will (deservedly) end all of our past excellent relationships with China for years to come.
A foolish and avoidable act that would cost us dearly.
____________________________
Response to a comment saying, “We have treaty obligations and there was an arrest warrant issued by the US”:
All extradition treaties allow for judgment on the part of the country receiving the request. All.
They are not automatic legal machines, a notion our government likes to allow in defense of its original complete lack of judgment.
Then there was the utterly foolish dismissal of a first-class Canadian Ambassador who was only offering a few wise words, despite being slightly outside the normal bounds of protocol.
And at such a vexing time, our brain trust in Ottawa still hasn't replaced him.
What can I say? You couldn't find a better extended example of mismanagement of Canada's affairs.
Just as the original (avoidable) arrest was a foolish act. China has signaled clearly what the consequences of extradition would be.
I can't believe anyone hasn't paid attention.
And that's apart from the genuine principles involved in this case, as outlined in my post, just below.
COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
“RCMP and CBSA say Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's phones never examined as claimed
“Authorities deny breaching Huawei executive's rights during December arrest at Vancouver airport
"Charges of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction"
Charges brought to you by a country busy with conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction on a world-scale.
Big-sounding words aren't always what they seem, as surely, we can all see in example after example, from the shameful case of Julian Assange’s arrest to the polite cover extended to the horrendous crimes of Saudi Arabia.
Had our government decent respect for fair-minded principles in international affairs and for our own traditional national reputation, it would have treated such an arrest warrant just as it deserves being treated.
American laws and American interpretation of the laws of others cannot apply to the entire world, something Washington very much is actively trying to do, or we face literally an international dictatorship.
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” – John Stuart Mill
__________________________
Response to a comment saying, “The Liberals need to do the right thing and hand Meng over to U.S authorities”:
That’s extremely bad advice.
It is exactly what will (deservedly) end all of our past excellent relationships with China for years to come.
A foolish and avoidable act that would cost us dearly.
____________________________
Response to a comment saying, “We have treaty obligations and there was an arrest warrant issued by the US”:
All extradition treaties allow for judgment on the part of the country receiving the request. All.
They are not automatic legal machines, a notion our government likes to allow in defense of its original complete lack of judgment.
Then there was the utterly foolish dismissal of a first-class Canadian Ambassador who was only offering a few wise words, despite being slightly outside the normal bounds of protocol.
And at such a vexing time, our brain trust in Ottawa still hasn't replaced him.
What can I say? You couldn't find a better extended example of mismanagement of Canada's affairs.
Just as the original (avoidable) arrest was a foolish act. China has signaled clearly what the consequences of extradition would be.
I can't believe anyone hasn't paid attention.
And that's apart from the genuine principles involved in this case, as outlined in my post, just below.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: ON THE OCCASION OF MIKE PENCE'S QUICKIE VISIT TO OTTAWA - A SUMMARY OF WHAT THE ACTUAL ROLE AND DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT ARE - BRIEF NOTE ON VENEZUELA AND CANADA'S DOING AMERICA'S DIRTY WORK
John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Canadian ambassador's Cuba comment triggered a diplomatic flap with Washington before Pence's visit
“Canadian officials were anxious about hosting VP Pence with American steel and aluminum tariffs still in place”
_______________________
Response to a comment, saying “I’m still trying to figure out what Pence actually 'does'”:
The vice presidency has long been a subject of criticism and even contempt inside the United States. The office was certainly one of a number of errors in judgment embedded into the Constitution.
John Adams, the first vice president, asked much the same question himself.
The truth, today, is that the vice president runs unpleasant errands for the sitting president, lending them a mysterious sense of top-level interest to tasks suitable for an aide or bellhop, and he "balances the ticket" (in terms of geographic regions or public attitudes of the day) for the election every four years.
His only genuine task under the Constitution is to break tie votes in the American Senate. Since each state has two Senators, tie votes happen, but not terribly often.
He has legal authority for doing virtually nothing.
Although if you want to see a great example of how power can be usurped by the ruthless, there is the example of Dick Cheney who served a president all astute observers realized was little more than a figurehead for dark forces behind the throne, including Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the CIA.
It's pretty much a ridiculous office, just as John Adams said it was.
But, of course, it is still sought after, as route to a possible future candidacy for president. But even there, historically it has not been very successful for the office’s holders. Still, politicians love celebrity, and who ever heard of Pence before?
_________________________
Response to a comment saying, “One of the clearest measures of the judgment of our brain trust in Ottawa. It's disgraceful that Canada didn't remain on the side of sanity with regards to Venezuela. We could have joined Mexico, Uruguay and others who clearly have a better understanding of the situation. Now we're stuck in a no-win situation”:
We could have politely and firmly replied, when an American official made the original request for our support of an outrageous ad hoc construct like the Lima Group, that our analysis of the situation in Venezuela was that its government was fairly elected.
Which is precisely the case.
And I believe our active participation has only done genuine damage to our international reputation, not something to take lightly and certainly not part of the job of an elected government.
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Canadian ambassador's Cuba comment triggered a diplomatic flap with Washington before Pence's visit
“Canadian officials were anxious about hosting VP Pence with American steel and aluminum tariffs still in place”
_______________________
Response to a comment, saying “I’m still trying to figure out what Pence actually 'does'”:
The vice presidency has long been a subject of criticism and even contempt inside the United States. The office was certainly one of a number of errors in judgment embedded into the Constitution.
John Adams, the first vice president, asked much the same question himself.
The truth, today, is that the vice president runs unpleasant errands for the sitting president, lending them a mysterious sense of top-level interest to tasks suitable for an aide or bellhop, and he "balances the ticket" (in terms of geographic regions or public attitudes of the day) for the election every four years.
His only genuine task under the Constitution is to break tie votes in the American Senate. Since each state has two Senators, tie votes happen, but not terribly often.
He has legal authority for doing virtually nothing.
Although if you want to see a great example of how power can be usurped by the ruthless, there is the example of Dick Cheney who served a president all astute observers realized was little more than a figurehead for dark forces behind the throne, including Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the CIA.
It's pretty much a ridiculous office, just as John Adams said it was.
But, of course, it is still sought after, as route to a possible future candidacy for president. But even there, historically it has not been very successful for the office’s holders. Still, politicians love celebrity, and who ever heard of Pence before?
_________________________
Response to a comment saying, “One of the clearest measures of the judgment of our brain trust in Ottawa. It's disgraceful that Canada didn't remain on the side of sanity with regards to Venezuela. We could have joined Mexico, Uruguay and others who clearly have a better understanding of the situation. Now we're stuck in a no-win situation”:
We could have politely and firmly replied, when an American official made the original request for our support of an outrageous ad hoc construct like the Lima Group, that our analysis of the situation in Venezuela was that its government was fairly elected.
Which is precisely the case.
And I believe our active participation has only done genuine damage to our international reputation, not something to take lightly and certainly not part of the job of an elected government.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE AMERICAN RIGHT WING'S NEED FOR ALMOST COMICAL PHRASES TO DESCRIBE THINGS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SERIOUS AND THREATENING MATTERS
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
John Bolton’s Absurd ‘Troika Tyranny’
Why do American right-wing politicians feel the need to keep coining such expressions?
Troika of Tyranny?
Axis of Evil?
Evil Empire?
Almost like slogans used to sell canned soup or household cleaner.
What is the driving need for such phrases, which are all slightly comical while supposedly concerned with threatening and important matters?
They seem almost made to appeal to children.
There is something elemental and unpleasant suggested by the practice.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
John Bolton’s Absurd ‘Troika Tyranny’
Why do American right-wing politicians feel the need to keep coining such expressions?
Troika of Tyranny?
Axis of Evil?
Evil Empire?
Almost like slogans used to sell canned soup or household cleaner.
What is the driving need for such phrases, which are all slightly comical while supposedly concerned with threatening and important matters?
They seem almost made to appeal to children.
There is something elemental and unpleasant suggested by the practice.
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: SOME WORDS ON SPIES AS RUSSIA HONORS A REMARKABLE ONE - USSR'S MATCHLESS SUCCESS WITH "HUMINT"- THE CURSE OF CASSANDRA - RUSSIA AND GERMANY SOMETIMES THREW AWAY HUGE REVELATIONS CONCERNED THEY WERE PLANTS
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Russian Defense Minister Honors Legendary German-Soviet Spy at Tokyo Grave
“Richard Sorge told Stalin Japan would not attack allowing him to move Siberian division to rebuke the Germans at Moscow”
I read a biography of Richard Sorge some years ago. He was a remarkably talented and daring man.
As with so many top spies, he was not particularly admirable or ethical in his personal life, quite the opposite indeed. That generally "comes with the territory" for top spies, who do tend to be extreme narcissists, if not out-and-out sociopaths.
But his being mentioned here reminds me of that golden period when the Soviet Union had the most remarkable success with its recruitment abroad of "humint," as some security services call their live spies.
There was a list of them, including, of course, the famous Cambridge Circle in Britain, which included such important spies as Donald Maclean and Kim Philby.
And the German, Klaus Fuchs, who worked at the Manhattan Project and gave the Soviets perhaps their best information on the American atomic bomb design.
Perhaps, the non-monetary, idealism of the time gave the Soviet Union an edge in gaining the service of such first-class people, some of them being deeply concerned about the future intentions of the United States.
Going the other way, many, although not all, of the spies in Russia serving the United States, seemed motivated by money, not as strong a motive as idealism or political faith.
Stalin, being a rather paranoid man, did not always trust the excellent intelligence he received. Some of it was definitely wasted because he refused to trust it.
In this, he resembled the Germans who threw away the deadly accurate revelations by "Cicero," a spy from the British Turkish embassy, revelations with exact details of the upcoming D-Day landing.
The ancient Greek myth about Cassandra's curse was a profound idea. She was condemned always to speak the truth while having no one believe her.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Russian Defense Minister Honors Legendary German-Soviet Spy at Tokyo Grave
“Richard Sorge told Stalin Japan would not attack allowing him to move Siberian division to rebuke the Germans at Moscow”
I read a biography of Richard Sorge some years ago. He was a remarkably talented and daring man.
As with so many top spies, he was not particularly admirable or ethical in his personal life, quite the opposite indeed. That generally "comes with the territory" for top spies, who do tend to be extreme narcissists, if not out-and-out sociopaths.
But his being mentioned here reminds me of that golden period when the Soviet Union had the most remarkable success with its recruitment abroad of "humint," as some security services call their live spies.
There was a list of them, including, of course, the famous Cambridge Circle in Britain, which included such important spies as Donald Maclean and Kim Philby.
And the German, Klaus Fuchs, who worked at the Manhattan Project and gave the Soviets perhaps their best information on the American atomic bomb design.
Perhaps, the non-monetary, idealism of the time gave the Soviet Union an edge in gaining the service of such first-class people, some of them being deeply concerned about the future intentions of the United States.
Going the other way, many, although not all, of the spies in Russia serving the United States, seemed motivated by money, not as strong a motive as idealism or political faith.
Stalin, being a rather paranoid man, did not always trust the excellent intelligence he received. Some of it was definitely wasted because he refused to trust it.
In this, he resembled the Germans who threw away the deadly accurate revelations by "Cicero," a spy from the British Turkish embassy, revelations with exact details of the upcoming D-Day landing.
The ancient Greek myth about Cassandra's curse was a profound idea. She was condemned always to speak the truth while having no one believe her.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: JUSTIN TRUDEAU ADDRESSING GENDER INEQUALITY FROM A COMFORTABLE PULPIT - WHAT'S HIS REAL PERFORMANCE IN DEFENSE OF WOMEN? THE TENS OF THOUSANDS SLAUGHTERED AND MADE REFUGEES IN AMERICA'S WARS? NOT A WORD FROM OUR FASHIONABLY-ATTIRED DO-GOODER
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
'Gender equality is under attack': Justin Trudeau opens Women Deliver conference in Vancouver
Conference is expected to draw 7,000 delegates from 160 countries
'Gender equality is under attack'
He may well be right, but other extremely important general governing principles have been badly undermined by Trudeau's own government.
Principles like opposing tyranny, always supporting democracy, standing for fairness and justice, and just providing a consistent voice of Canadian decency, reassuring to a troubled world.
But even in just the matter of women, I seriously question this government' performance when examined in a wider scope than a moment's speech intended to generate votes at a conference.
The literally tens of thousands of women and children killed in Yemen, in Syria, in Libya, and inside Saudi Arabia might, if they could speak, disagree with Trudeau's championship of women's rights.
So might millions under threat in Venezuela as their country suffers wave after wave of serious assault and privation - from loss of refrigeration in their modest homes to deliberately induced food and other important shortages - from an outside force trying to tell them what's best for them.
How about the women struggling for survival from Central America joining hopeless caravan after caravan to get away from what terrors have been unleashed by outsiders in their countries?
In none of these deadly matters do we hear from Canada today. None of them. But a brief appearance in the lights on a platform at a conference? Sure, that’s easy.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: REFERRING TO THE UNSANITARY HORRORS OF LA'S HOMELESSNESS AS "THE FILTH OF PROGRESSIVISM" - YOU COULDN'T COME UP WITH A MORE IGNORANT PHRASE - AMERICA'S GROTESQUE POVERTY WHILE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS SPENT ABROAD TO CREATE STILL MORE HUMAN MISERY
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENTWATCH
“Doctor warns Los Angeles collapsing into Third World health status… the filth of progressivism has become undeniable”
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/doctor-warns-los-angeles-collapsing-into-third-world-health-status-the-filth-of-progressivism-has-become-undeniable/
"... the filth of progressivism has become undeniable"
I don't know whether the author is blind or prejudiced. It really does not matter since the effect is the same.
This terrible situation has nothing to do with "progressivism."
Quite the opposite.
Here is direct tangible evidence of America's terrible problems with inequality, with its grotesque poverty and squalor, with its people being ignored while literally tens of billions are spent in wars and threatening others, causing still more misery.
Air-conditioned tents in the desert of Iraq for American troops invading a country illegally cost $20 billion a year just for electricity. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.” The Pentagon simply knows no limits. I remember hot, just-baked pizzas being helicoptered out to American troops scattered all over in Vietnam.
That, while this kind of third-world squalor prevailed in a hundred places in the United States.
Pretty strange idea of what it means to be a country.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENTWATCH
“Doctor warns Los Angeles collapsing into Third World health status… the filth of progressivism has become undeniable”
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/doctor-warns-los-angeles-collapsing-into-third-world-health-status-the-filth-of-progressivism-has-become-undeniable/
"... the filth of progressivism has become undeniable"
I don't know whether the author is blind or prejudiced. It really does not matter since the effect is the same.
This terrible situation has nothing to do with "progressivism."
Quite the opposite.
Here is direct tangible evidence of America's terrible problems with inequality, with its grotesque poverty and squalor, with its people being ignored while literally tens of billions are spent in wars and threatening others, causing still more misery.
Air-conditioned tents in the desert of Iraq for American troops invading a country illegally cost $20 billion a year just for electricity. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.” The Pentagon simply knows no limits. I remember hot, just-baked pizzas being helicoptered out to American troops scattered all over in Vietnam.
That, while this kind of third-world squalor prevailed in a hundred places in the United States.
Pretty strange idea of what it means to be a country.
Monday, June 03, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: INTERESTING ARTICLE ON UPCOMING MEETING OF AMERICANS RUSSIANS AND ISRAELIS PROMPTS THOUGHTS ON PUTIN'S LEADERSHIP - IMPORTANT HISTORY AND EXPLANATION OF RELATIONS BETWEEN IRAN AND AMERICA - A WORD ABOUT UKRAINE
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY M K BHADRAKUMAR IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Unprecedented: US, Russians, Israelis to Meet in Jerusalem Later This Month. Is Iran Screwed?”
https://russia-insider.com/en/unprecedented-us-russians-israelis-meet-jerusalem-later-month-iran-screwed/ri27174
This is an interesting and penetrating article.
It deals with Putin as the pragmatic, non-extreme leader that he is.
Putin does have some strong basic ideals, especially around the identity and success of Mother Russia, but he implicitly recognizes the need to be pragmatic in a great many things in order to protect and conserve those central ideals.
He does not deal from a position of limitless strength and very accurately sees himself as working in a stormy sea of conflicting international goals and intentions.
I am not sure what Iran's exact goals are in Syria, but Iran has made a good friend by helping a state in great need. I do know that Iran has no desire for war with Israel, but, at the same time, it must try securing its position in the region as much as possible because America and Israel have demonstrated unceasing hostility since the Revolution of 1979.
After all, the Shah was America’s pet imperial servant in the region - he was put into power by a 1953 American-sponsored coup against a democratic government America just did not like - and America deeply resented losing his influence, never giving a care for all the oppression and misery the Shah created inside Iran, just as today it never gives a care for the unfortunate women and children of Syria and Libya and Yemen and other places where it now enforces its will.
The sense both of decades of state terror under the Shah – the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, earned an international reputation for excess and brutality, known, amongst other things, for pulling out the fingernails of suspects with pliers - and of legitimate resentment over having their democracy destroyed from outside, naturally has not made Iran friendly to American interests.
When you add the American-inspired (and supplied) 1980-88 war by Iraq against Iran, a war literally as bloody, proportionately to population size, as a world war and intended to destroy Iran’s new-found independence, it is not hard to see how there is little trust. That history does not make the Iranian government evil, but it makes it justifiably suspicious of all American intentions towards it.
And America consistently has done nothing towards easing those suspicions. Indeed, quite the opposite, and recent hyper-hostility serve no worthwhile purpose other than American imperial ones.
Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran and other states, arguably his only worthy achievement in foreign policy, was suddenly and arbitrarily torn-up by Trump. The agreement had begun to work a little way in the direction of trust and understanding. Iran demonstrated through its strict compliance, conformed by every informed expert in the world, that it can be a reliable partner.
That, however, is not something Israel cares to see demonstrated at all, and it has used its extraordinary level of influence with an extremely weak and vulnerable President Trump to create immense new hostilities. In all things, Trump is the kind of man who tries to hide weakness with violent impulses and extreme words, and Israel has played him like a fiddle to get what it wants. Israel always is determined to expand its influence in the region and greatly resents anything that might show Iran, a competitor for influence, in a good light.
There was even the well-known Trump angry-child hatred for anything associated with Obama’s name to play upon. All the more the case, of course, for an achievement that was widely praised.
That perspective on Iran must always be understood as a root cause of America’s intense hostility and as a basic theme in relations between the two states, not any of the endless propaganda about Iranian terror and aggression. Iran has attacked no one in its modern era.
Unfortunately, thanks to all the war and imported terror, Iran’s Syrian friend is not a strong one and is himself dependent on cooperation with Russia, a country which, of course, has its own interests, one of them being to seek a reduction in the general level of American aggression and hostility disturbing it on many sides. After all, the very war in which Syria has been bloodily immersed is itself a covert American, Israeli-inspired, effort.
I cannot think Putin will just treat Iran shabbily, not because he is idealistic, but because he is so practical-minded.
Iran does represent an important potential ally against American aggression, so it cannot be abandoned. These days, we just never know when and where American aggression might next erupt. The country has become unnerving in its sudden destructive lurches. Iran also represents other important connections and a future state of considerable wealth and influence, a state with a population close to that of Germany and great oil wealth. And it is not hostile to Russia.
But if it is pursuing ends in Syria which significantly trouble America, always understanding that what disturbs America in the region reflects attitudes from Israel, then efforts to trade some cooperation there with reduced American aggressiveness in Ukraine make perfect sense and are just the kind of goal Putin might pursue.
I've thought from the start that Ukraine’s Zelensky represents real potential for peace in Ukraine, and the article’s author seems to think so too, saying Putin thinks he can work with Kiev. But Zelensky is surrounded by people beholden to American wishes and money. They have to be given permission to relax a bit, permission from Washington.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY M K BHADRAKUMAR IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Unprecedented: US, Russians, Israelis to Meet in Jerusalem Later This Month. Is Iran Screwed?”
https://russia-insider.com/en/unprecedented-us-russians-israelis-meet-jerusalem-later-month-iran-screwed/ri27174
This is an interesting and penetrating article.
It deals with Putin as the pragmatic, non-extreme leader that he is.
Putin does have some strong basic ideals, especially around the identity and success of Mother Russia, but he implicitly recognizes the need to be pragmatic in a great many things in order to protect and conserve those central ideals.
He does not deal from a position of limitless strength and very accurately sees himself as working in a stormy sea of conflicting international goals and intentions.
I am not sure what Iran's exact goals are in Syria, but Iran has made a good friend by helping a state in great need. I do know that Iran has no desire for war with Israel, but, at the same time, it must try securing its position in the region as much as possible because America and Israel have demonstrated unceasing hostility since the Revolution of 1979.
After all, the Shah was America’s pet imperial servant in the region - he was put into power by a 1953 American-sponsored coup against a democratic government America just did not like - and America deeply resented losing his influence, never giving a care for all the oppression and misery the Shah created inside Iran, just as today it never gives a care for the unfortunate women and children of Syria and Libya and Yemen and other places where it now enforces its will.
The sense both of decades of state terror under the Shah – the Shah’s secret police, the Savak, earned an international reputation for excess and brutality, known, amongst other things, for pulling out the fingernails of suspects with pliers - and of legitimate resentment over having their democracy destroyed from outside, naturally has not made Iran friendly to American interests.
When you add the American-inspired (and supplied) 1980-88 war by Iraq against Iran, a war literally as bloody, proportionately to population size, as a world war and intended to destroy Iran’s new-found independence, it is not hard to see how there is little trust. That history does not make the Iranian government evil, but it makes it justifiably suspicious of all American intentions towards it.
And America consistently has done nothing towards easing those suspicions. Indeed, quite the opposite, and recent hyper-hostility serve no worthwhile purpose other than American imperial ones.
Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran and other states, arguably his only worthy achievement in foreign policy, was suddenly and arbitrarily torn-up by Trump. The agreement had begun to work a little way in the direction of trust and understanding. Iran demonstrated through its strict compliance, conformed by every informed expert in the world, that it can be a reliable partner.
That, however, is not something Israel cares to see demonstrated at all, and it has used its extraordinary level of influence with an extremely weak and vulnerable President Trump to create immense new hostilities. In all things, Trump is the kind of man who tries to hide weakness with violent impulses and extreme words, and Israel has played him like a fiddle to get what it wants. Israel always is determined to expand its influence in the region and greatly resents anything that might show Iran, a competitor for influence, in a good light.
There was even the well-known Trump angry-child hatred for anything associated with Obama’s name to play upon. All the more the case, of course, for an achievement that was widely praised.
That perspective on Iran must always be understood as a root cause of America’s intense hostility and as a basic theme in relations between the two states, not any of the endless propaganda about Iranian terror and aggression. Iran has attacked no one in its modern era.
Unfortunately, thanks to all the war and imported terror, Iran’s Syrian friend is not a strong one and is himself dependent on cooperation with Russia, a country which, of course, has its own interests, one of them being to seek a reduction in the general level of American aggression and hostility disturbing it on many sides. After all, the very war in which Syria has been bloodily immersed is itself a covert American, Israeli-inspired, effort.
I cannot think Putin will just treat Iran shabbily, not because he is idealistic, but because he is so practical-minded.
Iran does represent an important potential ally against American aggression, so it cannot be abandoned. These days, we just never know when and where American aggression might next erupt. The country has become unnerving in its sudden destructive lurches. Iran also represents other important connections and a future state of considerable wealth and influence, a state with a population close to that of Germany and great oil wealth. And it is not hostile to Russia.
But if it is pursuing ends in Syria which significantly trouble America, always understanding that what disturbs America in the region reflects attitudes from Israel, then efforts to trade some cooperation there with reduced American aggressiveness in Ukraine make perfect sense and are just the kind of goal Putin might pursue.
I've thought from the start that Ukraine’s Zelensky represents real potential for peace in Ukraine, and the article’s author seems to think so too, saying Putin thinks he can work with Kiev. But Zelensky is surrounded by people beholden to American wishes and money. They have to be given permission to relax a bit, permission from Washington.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: I ADMIRE THE SPUNK SHOWN BY THE BRITISH PEOPLE DEMONSTRATING AGAINST TRUMP'S VISIT - WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Britain relying on the royals to smooth Trump visit
“U.K. 'special relationship' with U.S. 'more complicated than it used to be,' says ex-ambassador”
The government of Britain has been slavishly loyal to the interests of the American empire for a couple of decades.
But, interestingly, the people, as shown in their demonstrations, still display spunk.
I do like that.
Of course, one of the things it highlights is how undemocratic Britain's Parliamentary system truly is.
Get something in the mid- to high-thirty percent of the vote, and you can rule as "a majority." And with enough money donated, that is an attainable goal for most elections.
And we find pretty much the same thing in Canada.
Trudeau was supposed to reform that, and he swore up and down in his campaign that he would, but he let everyone down, as he has done in so many things.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Britain relying on the royals to smooth Trump visit
“U.K. 'special relationship' with U.S. 'more complicated than it used to be,' says ex-ambassador”
The government of Britain has been slavishly loyal to the interests of the American empire for a couple of decades.
But, interestingly, the people, as shown in their demonstrations, still display spunk.
I do like that.
Of course, one of the things it highlights is how undemocratic Britain's Parliamentary system truly is.
Get something in the mid- to high-thirty percent of the vote, and you can rule as "a majority." And with enough money donated, that is an attainable goal for most elections.
And we find pretty much the same thing in Canada.
Trudeau was supposed to reform that, and he swore up and down in his campaign that he would, but he let everyone down, as he has done in so many things.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A FEW WORDS ON HISTORY AND YOUTH - IT'S JUST THE HUMAN CONDITION THAT HISTORY DOES TEND TO BE FORGOTTEN
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY ANATOLY KARLIN IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Russians Beat Out Nazis as Top Villains in Mass-Market Video Games”
Yes, but you must keep some perspective.
What is current is what is what most influences a young generation.
Many of them couldn't even define a Nazi if asked, but Russia is in their news daily.
That is why Google in its searches gives priority to recent events. It is a kind of deliberate bias.
History, unfortunately does tend to be forgotten except by those with a special interest in it.
It's just the human condition.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY ANATOLY KARLIN IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Russians Beat Out Nazis as Top Villains in Mass-Market Video Games”
Yes, but you must keep some perspective.
What is current is what is what most influences a young generation.
Many of them couldn't even define a Nazi if asked, but Russia is in their news daily.
That is why Google in its searches gives priority to recent events. It is a kind of deliberate bias.
History, unfortunately does tend to be forgotten except by those with a special interest in it.
It's just the human condition.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE INTERNET AS SURVEILLANCE TOOL - A METHOD RESEMBLING CATHOLICS IN THE MIDDLE AGES GOING TO CONFESSION
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY EDWARD CURTIN IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“Speeding into the Void of Cyberspace as Designed”
“The internet was hardwired to be a surveillance tool from the start” - Yasha Levine
Putin has, more than once, referred to the Internet as a CIA tool.
I love the Internet, but I see what he means.
All of us have become like good Catholics from the Middle Ages, regularly going to the Confessional, doing so completely voluntarily and letting the people who ruled their lives know their most intimate secrets.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY EDWARD CURTIN IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“Speeding into the Void of Cyberspace as Designed”
“The internet was hardwired to be a surveillance tool from the start” - Yasha Levine
Putin has, more than once, referred to the Internet as a CIA tool.
I love the Internet, but I see what he means.
All of us have become like good Catholics from the Middle Ages, regularly going to the Confessional, doing so completely voluntarily and letting the people who ruled their lives know their most intimate secrets.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: HARD TO BEAT THIS FOR ARROGANCE AND PREJUDICE - TRUMP SON-IN-LAW, JARED KUSHNER, PRONOUNCES PALESTINIANS "NOT READY TO GOVERN THEMSELVES"
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
“Comments from Trump's son-in-law crush hopes his peace plan endorses independent Palestinian state”
“Palestinians not ready to govern themselves"
How utterly patronizing.
What a privileged and prejudiced man.
But what else would you expect from a Trump son-in-law given an office in the White House despite having no background, no experience, and no knowledge?
He much resembles Trump in those characteristics, and Trump is always totally focused on himself.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
“Comments from Trump's son-in-law crush hopes his peace plan endorses independent Palestinian state”
“Palestinians not ready to govern themselves"
How utterly patronizing.
What a privileged and prejudiced man.
But what else would you expect from a Trump son-in-law given an office in the White House despite having no background, no experience, and no knowledge?
He much resembles Trump in those characteristics, and Trump is always totally focused on himself.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: "TANK MAN" VIDEO FROM CHINA'S TIANANMEN SQUARE - WHAT IT HAS ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE TO ME - NOW WE HAVE A NEW DAMNING REVELATION ABOUT IT
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“The Truth About the Iconic Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’ Photo
“It was taken more than a day after the protest had ended”
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“The Truth About the Iconic Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’ Photo
“It was taken more than a day after the protest had ended”
The "tank man" video has always been something
other than what our press said it was.
Not only did the tank repeatedly avoid him, it is not clear
at all what his purpose was, beyond media melodrama images.
Now, it turns out that the video was taken the day after
events and that the tanks were in fact leaving the Square.
So, what was this man doing?
In the video, the lead tank works to avoid the man (a
student?) who has impetuously jumped in front of it, clearly and despite the
man’s repeated movements back and forth to remain in the tank's way.
I could never see a threat there at all, just a showboat
protester and a careful tank commander.
Now, compare the FBI's use of heavy Abrams tanks at Waco,
Texas.
They ended by incinerating about 80 souls, including women
and children, sheltering in a flimsy compound.
The people in the cult at Waco were indeed unpleasant kooks,
but they hardly deserved to die like that.
Saturday, June 01, 2019
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: OBAMA STOPS BRIEFLY IN OTTAWA TO SAY A FEW WORDS TO A THINK-TANK AND PICK-UP A $250,000 FEE - CANADA'S PRESS FAWNS OVER HIM AND HE OFFERS SOME OF HIS USUAL ARROGANT HOT AIR - NOTES ON OBAMA'S ACTUAL RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW IT
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
“Barack Obama urges Canadians to hope
“Former U.S. president speaks to large crowd as part of think-tank event in Ottawa”
"I believe the long-term trajectory of humanity is in a positive direction," he said. "But you get dark ages before the Renaissance."
Few would exceed my dislike for Trump. He's insufferable, but still I do not understand how people see any light in Obama past his smile. Perhaps they just don't read.
Obama's arrogance at times was as enormous as Trump's, just expressed in classier language. That philosophical quote at the top is really an example of it. He's free to speak about things with which he disagrees, but he doesn't. Ever. Just a dry, pompous sentence about humanity.
Well, he was busy bombing “humanity” somewhere for every single day of his eight years.
He was responsible for the chaos made out of Libya, a country whose leader, like him or not, kept his country at peace and was generous with the needs of his people.
Obama was also responsible for the start of the horror in Syria, which still continues, having killed more than half a million.
He created millions of desperate refugees in Europe from his bombing in the Middle East.
He was responsible for the ominous “pivot” towards China after his march of destruction through the Middle East.
He started the American industrial-scale extrajudicial killing system using drones, something I would never have dreamed of seeing in the United States years ago. Taken right from the old Argentine military junta’s methods.
It was under Obama’s watch that the NSA and its massive, intrusive domestic spying got really rolling.
I read a revelation today that NSA supplied, a while back, a complete copy of its records on Americans to Israel for use in its massive assassination program.
The NSA, Obama's NSA, supplied a complete copy of all the information they collected on Americans rather than be caught picking names. Some enlightened behavior.
Of course, there was the time Germany’s Mrs. Merkel discovered that her personal cell phone was being tapped by the NSA too. She was quite distraught. Obama tried consoling her, but her cell phone remained tapped.
(And just listen to the way the United States goes on about Huawei today, a company with no record of inappropriate behavior.)
Obama was almost a fanatic about secrecy and leaks and was always ready to punish leakers. He oversaw Chelsea Manning spending seven years in prison.
He did absolutely nothing for his own people, the poor blacks to whom he appealed in his campaign with “Yes, we can!” delivered in the rhythm of a black preacher.
He was involved in some pretty shady stuff we do not completely understand during the election with spying and other matters.
Please, there are no liberals in American, except some folks who gather in a few quaint shops in Vermont and Oregon and some professors no one listens to.
And there is no light in America, certainly not any coming from Obama’s insincere smile.
His brief visit to Ottawa really means only another $250,000 fee for him from a think-tank, serving as their star attraction, and absolutely nothing else.
And if you think American think-tanks promote anything in the least genuinely progressive, I’d like to talk to you about the purchase of a bridge,
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
“Barack Obama urges Canadians to hope
“Former U.S. president speaks to large crowd as part of think-tank event in Ottawa”
"I believe the long-term trajectory of humanity is in a positive direction," he said. "But you get dark ages before the Renaissance."
Few would exceed my dislike for Trump. He's insufferable, but still I do not understand how people see any light in Obama past his smile. Perhaps they just don't read.
Obama's arrogance at times was as enormous as Trump's, just expressed in classier language. That philosophical quote at the top is really an example of it. He's free to speak about things with which he disagrees, but he doesn't. Ever. Just a dry, pompous sentence about humanity.
Well, he was busy bombing “humanity” somewhere for every single day of his eight years.
He was responsible for the chaos made out of Libya, a country whose leader, like him or not, kept his country at peace and was generous with the needs of his people.
Obama was also responsible for the start of the horror in Syria, which still continues, having killed more than half a million.
He created millions of desperate refugees in Europe from his bombing in the Middle East.
He was responsible for the ominous “pivot” towards China after his march of destruction through the Middle East.
He started the American industrial-scale extrajudicial killing system using drones, something I would never have dreamed of seeing in the United States years ago. Taken right from the old Argentine military junta’s methods.
It was under Obama’s watch that the NSA and its massive, intrusive domestic spying got really rolling.
I read a revelation today that NSA supplied, a while back, a complete copy of its records on Americans to Israel for use in its massive assassination program.
The NSA, Obama's NSA, supplied a complete copy of all the information they collected on Americans rather than be caught picking names. Some enlightened behavior.
Of course, there was the time Germany’s Mrs. Merkel discovered that her personal cell phone was being tapped by the NSA too. She was quite distraught. Obama tried consoling her, but her cell phone remained tapped.
(And just listen to the way the United States goes on about Huawei today, a company with no record of inappropriate behavior.)
Obama was almost a fanatic about secrecy and leaks and was always ready to punish leakers. He oversaw Chelsea Manning spending seven years in prison.
He did absolutely nothing for his own people, the poor blacks to whom he appealed in his campaign with “Yes, we can!” delivered in the rhythm of a black preacher.
He was involved in some pretty shady stuff we do not completely understand during the election with spying and other matters.
Please, there are no liberals in American, except some folks who gather in a few quaint shops in Vermont and Oregon and some professors no one listens to.
And there is no light in America, certainly not any coming from Obama’s insincere smile.
His brief visit to Ottawa really means only another $250,000 fee for him from a think-tank, serving as their star attraction, and absolutely nothing else.
And if you think American think-tanks promote anything in the least genuinely progressive, I’d like to talk to you about the purchase of a bridge,
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THOUGHTS AROUND GERMANY'S OFFER TO DO AIR PATROLS IN AMERICA'S ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED REGION OF NORTH EASTERN SYRIA - WHAT INFLUENCES THE DECISIONS OF A COUNTRY LIKE GERMANY ESSENTIALLY OPPOSED TO FOREIGN INTERVENTION
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Germany Prepares Military Intervention in Syria to Appease Trump
“Offers to air patrol northern Syria to stave off Trump…”
Merkel does her best, but she has some serious vulnerabilities that the thugs now running American foreign policy are able to exploit.
If you have an "ally" who never stops putting pressure on you and who threatens you behind the scenes with "consequences," unless you are a truly audacious and brave statesman, it is almost impossible not to bend, at least somewhat.
It is the degree of the bending that becomes the topic of "negotiations" with the United States.
Merkel is always concerned that the US will impose serious new sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia.
It is a vital project for Germany. Without it, the country faces severe energy shortages in a couple of years. Of course, there is the alternative of buying costly LNG shipped from America, but in economic and competitive terms, that is a non-starter. However, in even avoiding it, because the US has tried pushing its LNG down Germany’s throat, you again put yourself in an unfavorable light with American authorities asking and demanding many different things of you.
Were it the United States, or Israel, facing something like a serious near-future energy shortage, it would of course insist on its absolute importance, and there would be no negotiations of any kind.
But we have the world's bully throwing its weight around in a country that has for years been extremely passive and submissive. The German psyche of course was immensely affected by all the horrors of WWII, a terrible defeat, guilt over atrocities, and being occupied, as it is to this day.
Germany is also concerned about the new international European payment system intended to help Iran survive the ravages of America's all-out assault on its economic interests and intended to keep Iran faithful to its side of the international nuclear agreement that the US tore-up like an angry child. America doesn't like that idea at all.
Further, Germany, more than any country, naturally, has been very self-demeaning towards Israel and its many demands over the years. It has treated Israel with exceptional generosity, in everything from paying truly massive reparations to building it a small fleet of advanced submarines at knock-down prices.
It is obviously extremely hard for Germany to disagree strongly with Israel on anything, and on the matters of American-occupied Syria and the American aggression towards Iran, it is Israel behind the scenes making the demands of Trump, completely. The United States itself has absolutely no national interest in pursuing either of those initiatives, and neither does Germany.
Trump has pushed his own country into a quagmire with his soliciting big funds and support, against the possible impeachment he feared and for 2020 re-election funding, from wealthy Americans more interested in Israel than in almost anything else, and he paid a big price for that support, just part of which is having appointed teeth-baring baboons like Bolton and Pompeo to important and sensitive offices.
Germany understands all of that, I'm sure, but it would never say so. And the shadow of Israel just adds to pressures from the United States around sanctions over Nord Stream 2 and the new international payment system helping Iran plus still other matters.
So, for now, Germany has made this offer of assistance to America’s illegal presence in Syria. It isn’t huge in the way of things, and it remains to be seen whether it will be accepted as adequate in any way and, also, whether it will have any effect around America’s other demands and pressures.
This case provides a good microcosm of how difficult America’s new aggressive rampage has made it to bring any reason to bear in international affairs. It’s even more complex than what I’ve outlined. For example, there are all the sanctions against Russia that the US has insisted its European allies honor, as they have for several years, even though honoring them is literally costing billions in trade, the export of both manufactured goods and farm products to Russia.
And yet another factor is the massive, pitiful migrations of refugees to Europe. All of it actually caused by America’s lunatic Neocon wars and bombing in a great many countries. It then takes no responsibility for what it did, leaving Europe, much closer to the tragedy, to try sorting things out.
The Trump types even add insult to injury by haranguing about migrants and about Muslims in general. I don’t believe it possible to imagine a much uglier situation, like the plot line for an atrocious horror movie.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Germany Prepares Military Intervention in Syria to Appease Trump
“Offers to air patrol northern Syria to stave off Trump…”
Merkel does her best, but she has some serious vulnerabilities that the thugs now running American foreign policy are able to exploit.
If you have an "ally" who never stops putting pressure on you and who threatens you behind the scenes with "consequences," unless you are a truly audacious and brave statesman, it is almost impossible not to bend, at least somewhat.
It is the degree of the bending that becomes the topic of "negotiations" with the United States.
Merkel is always concerned that the US will impose serious new sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia.
It is a vital project for Germany. Without it, the country faces severe energy shortages in a couple of years. Of course, there is the alternative of buying costly LNG shipped from America, but in economic and competitive terms, that is a non-starter. However, in even avoiding it, because the US has tried pushing its LNG down Germany’s throat, you again put yourself in an unfavorable light with American authorities asking and demanding many different things of you.
Were it the United States, or Israel, facing something like a serious near-future energy shortage, it would of course insist on its absolute importance, and there would be no negotiations of any kind.
But we have the world's bully throwing its weight around in a country that has for years been extremely passive and submissive. The German psyche of course was immensely affected by all the horrors of WWII, a terrible defeat, guilt over atrocities, and being occupied, as it is to this day.
Germany is also concerned about the new international European payment system intended to help Iran survive the ravages of America's all-out assault on its economic interests and intended to keep Iran faithful to its side of the international nuclear agreement that the US tore-up like an angry child. America doesn't like that idea at all.
Further, Germany, more than any country, naturally, has been very self-demeaning towards Israel and its many demands over the years. It has treated Israel with exceptional generosity, in everything from paying truly massive reparations to building it a small fleet of advanced submarines at knock-down prices.
It is obviously extremely hard for Germany to disagree strongly with Israel on anything, and on the matters of American-occupied Syria and the American aggression towards Iran, it is Israel behind the scenes making the demands of Trump, completely. The United States itself has absolutely no national interest in pursuing either of those initiatives, and neither does Germany.
Trump has pushed his own country into a quagmire with his soliciting big funds and support, against the possible impeachment he feared and for 2020 re-election funding, from wealthy Americans more interested in Israel than in almost anything else, and he paid a big price for that support, just part of which is having appointed teeth-baring baboons like Bolton and Pompeo to important and sensitive offices.
Germany understands all of that, I'm sure, but it would never say so. And the shadow of Israel just adds to pressures from the United States around sanctions over Nord Stream 2 and the new international payment system helping Iran plus still other matters.
So, for now, Germany has made this offer of assistance to America’s illegal presence in Syria. It isn’t huge in the way of things, and it remains to be seen whether it will be accepted as adequate in any way and, also, whether it will have any effect around America’s other demands and pressures.
This case provides a good microcosm of how difficult America’s new aggressive rampage has made it to bring any reason to bear in international affairs. It’s even more complex than what I’ve outlined. For example, there are all the sanctions against Russia that the US has insisted its European allies honor, as they have for several years, even though honoring them is literally costing billions in trade, the export of both manufactured goods and farm products to Russia.
And yet another factor is the massive, pitiful migrations of refugees to Europe. All of it actually caused by America’s lunatic Neocon wars and bombing in a great many countries. It then takes no responsibility for what it did, leaving Europe, much closer to the tragedy, to try sorting things out.
The Trump types even add insult to injury by haranguing about migrants and about Muslims in general. I don’t believe it possible to imagine a much uglier situation, like the plot line for an atrocious horror movie.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: SUGGESTION CHINA USE ITS TRADE-WAR "NUCLEAR WEAPON," ITS VAST HOLDING OF AMERICAN T-BILLS - HOW CHINA APPROACHES ITS STRATEGIES - THE OPPOSITE OF TRUMP - CARE, CAUTION, STUDY, TEST - WHEN YOU COMMIT IT'S VERY SERIOUS - AMERICA WILL REGRET WHAT IT HAS STARTED - BUT SO MIGHT THE WHOLE WORLD
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Supposed “Nuclear Option” [disposing of its vast stock of American T-bills] for China in the Trade War Is Just the Common Sense Thing to Do
“There is absolutely no downside for the Chinese, there is nothing "nuclear" about it for Beijing
“Goodbye Petrodollar”
China is very cautious and pragmatic in committing to any big action.
It doesn't take a huge effort to decide not to buy American soybeans, an act whose impact on Trump's political base is clear enough, although I'm sure all available alternative sources were sounded out first.
The Chinese are virtually the opposite of Trump's rash, boisterous approach in the steps they take.
They analyze. They offer hints. They put out suggestions. They observe reactions. Action is taken only after much care, but then the action is decisive, never wavering or half-hearted. Completely unlike Trump's approach, which so often involves deafening noise that disappears in a week or two.
Actually, their approach in many things resembles Putin's, which makes them very suitable partners.
A trillion is a very big number, even in this day of a billion here, a billion there, and things with big numbers have big consequences.
I'm sure the Chinese have shrewd people assessing the possibilities on the T-bills.
Look at the "rare earths" weapon, potentially quite a powerful one. The subtle approach has been, so far, just having Xi visit a rare-earths plant, knowing full well the action will be microscopically examined in the West.
The Chinese approach has the added combat value of inducing anxieties and fears in the opponent well ahead of any physical act.
The old stuff about Chinese water torture has more than a little truth in it.
Again, these are people who learn and use one of the world's most difficult languages in their affairs.
They invented one of the world's most difficult board games, Go.
They are now, with their large stock of intellectually-gifted people, producing scientists and engineers and analysts in numbers unheard of in the West.
And last, their centuries and centuries of experience living in a densely populated society have evolved subtle ways and psychological patterns a Trump cannot even imagine.
If any country is in a position to teach America an important lesson, it is China.
I am pretty confident that America will come to much regret what it is doing to its relations with China, just as it will regret its many other new impulsive, mercantilist trade policies and its open aggression through economic sanctions, ignoring all rule of law.
The trouble is that perhaps the rest of the planet will come to regret America's behavior, too.
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARKO MARJANOVIC IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Supposed “Nuclear Option” [disposing of its vast stock of American T-bills] for China in the Trade War Is Just the Common Sense Thing to Do
“There is absolutely no downside for the Chinese, there is nothing "nuclear" about it for Beijing
“Goodbye Petrodollar”
China is very cautious and pragmatic in committing to any big action.
It doesn't take a huge effort to decide not to buy American soybeans, an act whose impact on Trump's political base is clear enough, although I'm sure all available alternative sources were sounded out first.
The Chinese are virtually the opposite of Trump's rash, boisterous approach in the steps they take.
They analyze. They offer hints. They put out suggestions. They observe reactions. Action is taken only after much care, but then the action is decisive, never wavering or half-hearted. Completely unlike Trump's approach, which so often involves deafening noise that disappears in a week or two.
Actually, their approach in many things resembles Putin's, which makes them very suitable partners.
A trillion is a very big number, even in this day of a billion here, a billion there, and things with big numbers have big consequences.
I'm sure the Chinese have shrewd people assessing the possibilities on the T-bills.
Look at the "rare earths" weapon, potentially quite a powerful one. The subtle approach has been, so far, just having Xi visit a rare-earths plant, knowing full well the action will be microscopically examined in the West.
The Chinese approach has the added combat value of inducing anxieties and fears in the opponent well ahead of any physical act.
The old stuff about Chinese water torture has more than a little truth in it.
Again, these are people who learn and use one of the world's most difficult languages in their affairs.
They invented one of the world's most difficult board games, Go.
They are now, with their large stock of intellectually-gifted people, producing scientists and engineers and analysts in numbers unheard of in the West.
And last, their centuries and centuries of experience living in a densely populated society have evolved subtle ways and psychological patterns a Trump cannot even imagine.
If any country is in a position to teach America an important lesson, it is China.
I am pretty confident that America will come to much regret what it is doing to its relations with China, just as it will regret its many other new impulsive, mercantilist trade policies and its open aggression through economic sanctions, ignoring all rule of law.
The trouble is that perhaps the rest of the planet will come to regret America's behavior, too.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: RIGHT-WING MILITIA COMMANDER THREATENS NEW PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE - THE WHOLE POINT OF AMERICAN POLICY IS UKRAINE IS TO CREATE CHAOS ON RUSSIA'S BORDER - HERE WE SEE "PATRIOTISM" AT WORK AS VIOLENT RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA INSIDER
Top Ukraine Military Leader, Yarosh, Threatens to Assassinate Ukraine’s President Zelensky if He Makes Peace With Russia
I actually have regarded Zelensky as a leader with some promise, someone who just might implement the Minsk Accords and cease all the mindless antagonism against Russia. I thought his frequent use of the Russian language in his election campaign was an important signal that required no specific words to elaborate.
But this open threat from the leader of a strong militia group shows us how hard it is to achieve any progress in Ukraine.
Of course, the resulting chaos is just what the entire American policy, a policy which saw America underwrite the coup in Ukraine, is about.
Create strife and instability in this country right along a big stretch of Russia's border.
Nothing else, so this kind of outlaw military plays a role, just as the mercenaries in Syria who pose as jihadi types do there.
America cares no more for the Ukrainian people themselves than it does for the women and children of Syria or Yemen or Libya, whom it and its willing helpers have slaughtered in the tens of thousands in recent years.
America’s policy is entirely negative, and it has subsidized and supplied men of this character to assist in its success.
Here is also a very good example of the way nationalism and patriotism are so often used for dark purposes.
"Patriots" like Commander Dmitry Yarosh are not serving the long-term interests of Ukraine, not in the least. They are serving an ideology, a fanaticism, akin to any religious one we see in the world.
That kind of fanaticism never creates anything other than conflict and hatreds.
And it's so easy for a country with the kind of intentions America has - intentions which include nothing less than being sole arbiter for the entire planet - to employ such fanaticism in just the same way someone might employ suicide bombers.
JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: WHO DOESN'T LIKE THE STORY OF LITTLE DAVID DEFEATING GOLIATH? - AN IMPRESSIVE VIDEO OF HOUTHIS IN POOR YEMEN STRIKING VEHICLES OF SAUDI-BACKED ATTACK FORCES WITH MISSILES
John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO A VIDEO IN SOUTHFRONT
HOUTHIS DESTROY SAUDI-BACKED FORCES TANKS, VEHICLES IN DALI’ WITH GUIDED MISSILES
That is impressive video, considering the missile strikes were supposedly done by Houthi forces, who have no great resources, in a poor country like Yemen.
It is the most convincing I've seen of any such activity.
I oppose war, but always accept that people have the right to defend themselves against cutthroats like Saudi Arabia.
And who doesn't like the story of little David defeating Goliath?
COMMENT POSTED TO A VIDEO IN SOUTHFRONT
HOUTHIS DESTROY SAUDI-BACKED FORCES TANKS, VEHICLES IN DALI’ WITH GUIDED MISSILES
That is impressive video, considering the missile strikes were supposedly done by Houthi forces, who have no great resources, in a poor country like Yemen.
It is the most convincing I've seen of any such activity.
I oppose war, but always accept that people have the right to defend themselves against cutthroats like Saudi Arabia.
And who doesn't like the story of little David defeating Goliath?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)