Delusions Of Grandeur

Screenshot from Biden era classic "Hunter Got High" by Afroman

With the outgoing administration revealed as "headed" by a senile old rapist, and the incoming administration "headed" by a pre-senile rapist with delusions of grandeur, who's really in charge? We're warned that the elongated muskrat will be in charge come January 20 but what part of his current billions in federal contracts and unregulated access to launch thousands of satellites into low earth orbit suggests that he wasn't already? 

Still, it's not reality but surface appearances that we are all continuously urged to pay attention to. 

For example, a zillion headlines report that 47 suggests he will annex the Panama Canal, Greenland, Canada, and Mexico once in office. It's the latest show by the guy liberals love to hate. Can his team really do it? History would suggest the answer is yes, but overextending is a typical way that empires bring about their own demise.

Israel, which both administrations back unconditionally as the west Asian arm of the U.S. empire, is busy annexing Syrian territories since the Assad regime ended and western-aligned factions took power. That is reality. So is the U.S. continuing its occupation of the the oil and wheat rich regions in the northeast, and Turkey continuing to encroach over its border with Syria's northwest.

Drones have been spotted over U.S. cities throughout the month of December, most densely over New Jersey, but the federal government claims it has no ideas whose drones they are or what they're doing there. That is the show.

The reality is...who knows? I suspect the muskrat because his M.O. is hogging the skies and clearly he has enough influence to insist that government officials maintain a strategic silence. Are they surveillance drones? Flying killer robots? Aliens? We may or may not ever know.

Illusory claims of an imminent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are written on smoke. It is said that 10% of Gazans have already died and the rest are being subjected to precedented atrocities associated with ethnic "cleansing" -- such as being herded half-naked into trucks for relocation as seen above.

An Ansar Allah spokesman this week said the Yemeni resistance has no intention of standing down until genocide in Gaza is stopped, and also that they confused the USS Gettysburg into shooting down its own warplanes. The U.S. admitted two planes over the Red Sea were shot down by friendly fire, but they declined to give Ansar Allah credit. Which is the show and which is the reality?

https://x.com/witte_sergei/status/1871643379123224615

Analysts can keep asking smart questions like that all they want, but we're unlikely to get any straight answers. The show must go on!

What Does Non-Agreement-Capable Mean & Why Does It Matter?

If someone of low morals calls you "virtuous" is that actually a burn? 

The fact that President Joe Biden called my home state Maine "a virtuous place" last week during a fundraiser where the price of entry began at $3,000 and went up to $25,000 seems a tad ironic. On the water in Freeport, they're still only a few miles from parts of the state where free school breakfast and lunch are what poor kids survive on. 

This administration seems to want to outdo the Trump administration in a race to the bottom, frequently breaking agreements and violating ethical barriers as if they mattered not at all.

Even if they don't give a rat's ass about their integrity, this is pragmatically the wrong thing to do. Some examples of why:

https://electrek.co/2023/03/13/biden-alaska-oil-drilling-project-willow/

Climate agreements have been trashed opening federal lands to new energy extraction schemes. Blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline with its big methane release was also a climate blow out. And today comes news that a key ocean currents system, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, could collapse soon -- with huge implications for weather and agriculture.

Black Sea Grain Deal Due to client state Ukraine and the U.S.'s inability to abide by the terms of the grain deal, there were two bad outcomes:

𐂎 Impoverished people in the Global South got almost none of the grain as Ukraine sold the bulk of it to Europe.

𐂎 Both grain and fertilizer were not allowed to be traded by Russia, despite the terms of the agreement.

Negotiating NATO countries are said to be "non-agreement-capable" by government officials of Russia and China. It's not hard to see how they reached this conclusion.

This current NATO map from Al Jazeera makes me want to create a geography quiz. How many of these countries can you name?

So many aspects of the proxy war on Russia in Ukraine have demonstrated bad faith. Remember assurances made but not kept about NATO expansion eastward? From Libertarian Institute:

In 2007, Putin complained, “What happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them.” A year later, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev complained that the United States “promised that NATO wouldn’t move beyond the boundaries of Germany after the Cold War but now half of central and Eastern Europe are members, so what happened to their promises? It shows they cannot be trusted.”

The Minsk agreements were negotiated as a stalling tactic for Ukraine to arm up -- but fulfilling their terms was never really on the table.

Similarly the mission creep of U.S. involvement in Ukraine has officials assuring the public that no troops will be sent to Ukraine (long since happened and here are the receipts), cluster bombs won't be sent (and then they are), etc.

Germany's defense minister told the public their government wasn't sending German Panther tanks to Ukraine at all. They may have been built in Germany, but they were Ukrainian tanks. Uh huh. 

How can one negotiate with such people? 

How dangerous is it to slide into escalating hot war without agreement-capable counterparts? And note that its own citizens don't trust the U.S. military.

Campaign promises Finally, we can't discuss being "non-agreement-capable" without mentioning false assurances made with the goal of winning over voters. Biden and his party promised to codify Roe v Wade, create a public option for health insurance, forgive federal student loans, and raise the minimum wage. They did none of these, and their approval ratings are commensurately low.

Back in my grandparents' day there was no higher compliment you could give a person in Maine than to say of them, "their word's good." 

For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?

What Goes Around Comes Around: Whipping Progressive Warmongering 2.0

President Obama, VP Biden, & Hunter Biden in 2014, the year Ukraine's elected government was toppled by a CIA-sponsored coup and Hunter got a lucrative job in the Ukranian energy sector. Image source: Getty Images via DK.com

There are many roots apparent in weaponizing Ukraine as a cat's paw to fight Russia.

The most significant but least visible is the goal of weakening China's ally before proceeding to attack them. One of the more visible roots is that our current president was VP during the Obama years when wars became ok with liberals because they were promoted by a handsome, articulate Black man. 

Image source:  Shutterstock via Institute for Policy Studies

The culture wars we have are meant to replace the revolution we need. 

We are led to believe there is a fundamental difference between wars waged by Democrats vs. wars waged by Republicans. There isn't, because their corporate sponsors in the weapons industry are the exactly the same and because many in Congress own stock in those corporations. So while Ukranians die, they profit.

My good friend Bruce Gagnon stumbled on an old report back from a "progressive" phone call designed to whip up support for Obama's surge in Afghanistan. It is of interest primarily because the mechanisms of manufacturing consent are so visible. I'm reposting it here so we have it handy as we reflect on why the U.S. government is galloping toward WW3 and possible nuclear confrontation while suspending women's reproductive rights, presiding over crushing inflation and runaway climate change, failing to deliver healthcare, and literally looking away as the pandemic death toll reached 1,000,000. Daily assaults on independent voices attempt to silence dissent: Abby Martin, Lee Camp, Chris Hedges, Alice Walker, Consortium News, MintPress News -- a long list, and growing. The Department of Homeland Security, which was created -- like the war in Afghanistan -- after the unfortunate events of 9/11, now has a Disinformation Governance Board. 

When you've lost the consent of the governed, narrative management is largely futile. Cue the next disaster!

First posted Dec 2, 2009 at space4peace.blogspot.com

DECEPTIVE PROGRESSIVES CALL FOR SUPPORT OF OBAMA'S WAR

This morning I got an email from a friend who tipped me off to a conference call for "progressives" to discuss Obama's Afghanistan speech last night.

The call announcement included this: "The narrative so far is that the left is against sending more troops and the right is for it,” said Jim Arkedis, Director of the National Security Project at the Progressive Policy Institute. “But that’s not the reality of the situation. There are reasons for progressives to take heart from much of the President’s new strategy, as well as reasons to tread carefully. We want to make sure all those voices are heard.”

This made me quite interested so I dialed in. The call began with everyone in the audience on mute as the following people make opening statements.

* Rachel Kleinfeld, CEO, Truman National Security Project
* Jim Arkedis, Director of the National Security Project, Progressive Policy
Institute
* Gen. Paul Eaton (Ret.), Senior Adviser, National Security Network
* Andy Johnson, Director, Third Way National Security Program
* Lorelei Kelly, Director, New Strategic Security Initiative
* Brian Katulis, Center for American Progress
* Frankie Sturm, Communications Director, Truman National Security Project (Moderator)

Frankly I had never heard of any of these people before and I've been working in the "progressive movement" for the past 30 years. A couple of the organizations they work for I had heard a bit about - they are DC-based "think tanks" that usually are heavily funded by corporations to project their message.

Here is a bit of what some of them said in the opening:

Rachel Kleinfeld: "Thrilled by last night's speech....it's a realistic goal we have been given...dismayed that progressives don't see that his will reduce the violence of this war."

Jim Arkedis: Described himself as a former counter-terrorism analyst at the Pentagon....."Think of the US like an NFL defense....by adopting this counter-insurgency strategy it essentially takes the other sides offense off the field.....this is about peace and stability." He slammed Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) who was on the news this morning criticizing the plan as being from the "far left."

Lorelei Kelly: "Progressives need to abandon the old talking points from Iraq and Vietnam....progressives need to get inside this debate, President Obama is trying to create a new way....these policies need support....The American military is probably the most progressive agency we have today."

One of them brought up CodePink's recent visit to Afghanistan and subsequent statements made by Media[sic] Benjamin to say that some peace groups understand that we need to stay there and stabilize the country. Another called Obama's plan the "full spectrum approach" that progressives must support - we "need the military" to get to a positive conclusion.

Finally they unmuted the listeners and then opened it up for "questions". I didn't ask a question but instead read a quote from the Robert Scheer article which came from former Marine captain Matthew Hoh where he said, “In the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan … I have lost understanding and confidence in the strategic purpose of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. … I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul.”

A woman listener from West Virginia (CodePink) said she had family killed in these wars and they need to stop. A woman from Georgia said we need to end the wars. A man from upstate New York said they were organizing protests and that Obama had betrayed us.

Next they put us on mute again and told us that we could only ask questions and that we'd better be good. When they unmuted I accused them of trying to silence the voices of the people as it was clear that they only wanted us on the call to listen to the talking points put out by the White House.

I know this is true because last spring I did a couple blogs about the Obama administration daily sending out talking points to groups like these that today hosted this "conference call". You can see one such story about this by Jermey[sic] Scahill here

One of the groups mentioned by Scahill in his article is the Center for American Progress which was represented on the call today as one of the "expert" speakers.

While on the call I quickly did an Internet search on the Truman National Security Project just to see what I could learn about them. Their advisory board stands out like a sore thumb:

Advisory Board
Madeleine K. Albright
Principal, The Albright Group LLC

Leslie H. Gelb
President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations

William Marshall
President, Progressive Policy Institute

William J. Perry (former Clinton Secretary of Defense)
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institute

John D. Podesta (former Clinton operative)
President and CEO, Center for American Progress

Wendy R. Sherman
Principal, The Albright Group LLC

First chance I got I read the list off and commented that it was now abundantly clear to me that this call was intended to deliver Obama team talking points to us and that they were not in the least interested in what we had to say.....these folks organizing this call came from the right-wing of the Democratic Party I said...... earlier I had strongly challenged one of them who stated that the peace movement should stop protesting and support Obama's plan!

 

They couldn't wait to finish the call and I am happy to say that it did not go as well as they had hoped. I thank Mark Roman for tipping me off and I want to warn everyone to be on the lookout for these "pseudo progressives" who will now be coming out of the woodwork to tell the public and the media that only the far-left is against Obama's war in Afghanistan. Good "progressives" they will say are going to support Obama's war surge.

 

In the old days they used to call these folks "Scoop Jackson Democrats" after the senator from Washington state who was a pro-war leader. They have wised up and now call themselves progressives and will steal the rug out from under our feet if we are not watching closely.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

You no longer need to look for such pro-war progressives. They are shouting at you from every corner that Ukraine must be defended, and that your dissent is not only unwelcome but downright seditious. Trained to hate the Russian Federation's president and assign blame for Ukranian suffering solely to him, their diatribes have a signature: use of the same nasty and insulting terms for that person. 

Trained to love Ukraine's president, whose background as an entertainer has proved almost as convenient as his Jewish heritage, used constantly to deny the truth that it is actual Nazis we are arming. 

Some in Congress would even have us declare war and send troops (rather than just trainers and mercenaries) to fight by their side. How much would your congressperson and senators stand to profit if the U.S. openly declares war on Russia?

How much more dangerous would it be than bullying an impoverished country like Afghanistan?

What use will money be if humans and their works are reduced to ashes and radioactive rubble by nuclear war?