"Russian Collaborators" and the MIC
collaborator: someone who secretly helps an enemy or opponent, for example by giving them information
Being a collaborator is one of the worst things someone can be.
Which is why when the armed forces minister for Britain’s right-wing government, Mike Penning, accused the leader of the U.K.’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, of being a collaborator with the Kremlin, it's serious.
These comments suggest that the Labour leader would rather collaborate with Russian aggression than mutually support Britain’s NATO allies. As with Trident, everything Labour says and does shows that they cannot be trusted with Britain’s national security.
What traitorous words did Corbyn utter?
He told BBC Wales he wanted to see a "de-escalation of tensions between Nato and Russia", adding: "I want to see a de-militarisation of the border between them. I'm sure everybody wants that, we don't want to see increased tensions."
The Labour leader said it was "unfortunate that troops have gone up to the border on both sides" and he wanted to see better relations between Russia, Nato and the EU. He said while he had "many criticisms" of Russia - its human rights record and of the bombing campaign in Syria - he said there had to be a relationship.
"I don't want to see any more troops deployed on the borders between Nato and Russia, I want to see a de-escalation, ultimately a de-militarisation and better relationships between both sides of it... there cannot be a return to a Cold War mentality."
It appears that at least in the West, a return to a Cold War mentality is baked in.
As Glen Greenwald put it:
If you oppose military confrontation with a foreign adversary or advocate better relations with it, then you are accused of harboring secret sympathy and even support for those foreign leaders, and are often suspected of being an active “collaborator” with (or “stooge” for) them.
Basically, if you oppose war and seek peace, you are a collaborator.
For example, CrooksAndLiars accused Trump, Jr. of being a collaborator for the crime of trying to "find a way to cooperate with Russia to end the war in Syria".
Oh, the humanity!
No really, the humanity.
What appears to be going on here is a growing power struggle between the Imperial Executive branch and the dangerously too-strong Military-Industrial Complex.
Trump had already been warned.
New Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump is “being really dumb” by taking on the intelligence community and its assessments on Russia’s cyber activities.
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
“So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”
Most Democrats seem to be OK with this.
Trump, OTOH, not only didn't stop, he doubled-down.
Repeating a criticism of NATO he made during his campaign, Trump said that while trans-Atlantic military alliance is important, it “has problems.”
“It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump said in the Bild version of the interview. “Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should” and NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.”
...
“They have sanctions on Russia -- let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia,’’ Trump said, according to the Times. “For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it.’’
No NATO! Fewer nuclear bombs!
The militarists in Europe went ballistic, as you can imagine.
Just look at some headlines from the last couple days.
What would happen if NATO and Russia went to war?
Interactive Missile Map Reveals How Messy a NATO-Russia War Would Be
War In Europe? Norway Considers Joining NATO Missile Defense System Amid Russia Tensions
I really don't want to support Trump, but if he can take on and defeat the MIC (and not be JFK'd in the process) he'll have won me over.
Comments
Love hurts.
(OT, but thoughts about Chelsea Manning pardon by BO?
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Reply to: divineorder Reply to: divineorder
Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence
By CHARLIE SAVAGE = JAN. 17, 2017
Thank God, better late than never, that's all I can say to the commutation by Obama.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Obama cements his legacy by taking the US to the brink of war
with Russia right before he's put out of office.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
oh, wow, gjohnsit, if Trump can win you over
I think I can't get over that .... Sorry, my word play to express myself, I just can't follow you in that.
I know, I don't know much of what you all here know. But I have just listened and watched a documentary of Trump's life on ARTE. It's in German, so for those who can understand it, I recommend watching and listening to all the links below. I haven't seen so far something put together about Trump as well as this documentary does.
Four broadcast covering Trump and Media coverage of Trump.
The first is a 51 min documentary film made by Micheal Kirk. It helped me to understand where Trump is coming from and why he acts the way he has done so far.
The second and fourth are a conversation with David M. Herszenhorn (Politico Bruessel)
The third is a documentary titled "Every Government lies" - "Truth, Manipulation and the spirit of I. F. Stone". Very well done. You will find clips in there that you certainly have all seen plus some I hadn't so far.
A fifth one is live right now and about solitary confinements in VA prisons.
Sorry, I will never believe that Trumpf will take on the MIC and defeat it. He will use the MIC or the MIC uses him, and if they can't make a deal, I think the MIC will take care of business with him. And I have to say that I think Putin is more intelligent and knowledgable than Trump and if he makes deals with Putin, Putin will be happy to oblige, because he knows Trump better than Trump knows Putin.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Trump reminds me a bit of Andrew Jackson
A right-wing populist who took on the central bank (while committing genocide against the natives).
At least that's how he appears.
I hate Trump, but the MIC endangers our freedoms, our prosperity, and our very lives. I'd trade off A LOT to defeat that, as every progressive should.
Reply to: gjohnsit
it seems one can not be against Trump and against the NATO at the same time. Why not? I am against both, am I confused?
https://www.euronews.com/live
The key word is "if"
Trump comes from the WWE. He might be doing nothing more than talking up his game.
OTOH, the MIC is basically insulting him in public. Trump ego might force him to do the right thing.
Reply to: mimi: I wouldn't say you're confused
Definitely one can be against both Trump and NATO. I certainly am.
I will oppose Trump where he does things that are bad (and there will probably be a lot of those), but if he happens by some miracle to do something that is good, then I will applaud it... though I will also be wary that he is doing it for some purpose that works out to the advantage of reactionaries in the long-term.
Hopefully, the left can get its act together and we can get an actual socialist government elected by 2020. There will almost certainly be plenty of opportunities to attack Trump from the left. Let us have confidence in our ideas and our analysis of what this country truly needs, and persuade people to support us, and then take power on the basis of that support. It will take a lot of work, but I think we can do it. Look how close we came in 2016.
Reply to: gjohnsit
Ah Old Hickory...
You know gjohnsit, that is an interesting thought to chew on. It definitely is true the atrocities he committed against Native Americans (though not necessarily a unique function for American government). However, his attacks on as you mentioned the banks as well as stopping South Carolina from seceding just by threatening them is indicative of a personality type that will confront power.
I mean, during the nullification crisis, a visitor from South Carolina wanted to know if Jackson had a message he wanted sent to his state. Jackson's reply:
i've been thinking about
doing an essay about the history of money in America (Jackson to Hoover), because some of Trump's rhetoric applies, but it'll have to wait until I have more time.
How simple politics becomes
when everyone who disagrees with you is simply a traitor.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
NATO is protecting freedom of Europeans
ACTHUNG!!
NATO defense budget in total: $900 billion. Take away the US contribution, and it is $250 billion from European allies.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/15/news/nato-spending-countries/
Russian total defense budget: $45.15 billion.
http://in.rbth.com/economics/defence/2016/11/02/russian-military-spendin...
NATO is protecting freedom of Europeans, part II
Sorry reposted original. Just a note. The defense budgets of all NATO countries would go over $1 TRILLION intelligence agencies and American nukes were included. This is each and every year. I haven't looked at mainland China's numbers, but I imagine both China and Russian still would not even come close to the Western alliance.
The war with Eurasia continues.
Is there another venture
within our federal budget that is bigger than this, other than the national debt itself? Is our Defense budget included in this, or is NATO included in our Defense budget? Or are they separate items? Do we even know, care or understand? If we don't know, care or understand, is that what makes NATO so desperately important to our military industrial leadership, the fact that no one is in a position to question what they're doing?
Reply to: mimi - "All Governments Lie" the movie
ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: THE TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I.F. STONE
The film is coming to UVic tomorrow. I'm going to see it with my son. Thanks for the reminder, mimi.
To thine own self be true.
Here's the trailer:
https://vimeo.com/178666188
I can fully support an action
by Trump without necessarily supporting everything he does. Standing up to the CIA, by opposing the MIC drive to war with Russia, is IMO a praiseworthy and courageous thing to do - in and of itself. It is also a very dangerous thing to do. For that act alone, I think he deserves a lot of credit, and full support for it. This in no way need imply that I support everything that Trump might do in the future, or anything he has done in the past.
Likewise with Obama pardoning Manning - one can applaud and support the action without fully approving of the actor.
native
Reverse Reagan
Reagan sought to weaken the Soviet Union by increasing military spending in the US. The Soviets were determined to keep up and severely harmed their economy by doing so. Some estimates were that 70% of real GDP was spent on the military. They had built a huge military that was the envy of the US Generals, as they claimed by constantly bleated for more money because, you know, the Russkies.
So now the situation is reversed. The West spends more like $1.5T on the war machine, including fighting hot wars. Russia spends $45B in all. Yet they have the second best military in the world with total capability to decimate the US and all of Western Europe. They have a large standing army, well trained and equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, including aircraft, tanks, submarines and missiles. They have excellent technology for modern weapons development. In order to counter the size of Western militaries, Russia has a policy of responding to overwhelming conventional force with nuclear weapons. Military service is required by all males for one year from the ages of 18 to 27. Reserve service is required until age 50. Basically Russia's military is focused on never ever allowing Russia to be challenged again. But they do it in a very cost effective way.
If we had spent the $1T per year that we wasted on the military on infrastructure, and usable technologies and expanding our economy, education and sustainable energy sources we would be a very different nation today. We do this harm to ourselves and the people put up with it, because, you know, the Russkies.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Reply to: The Wizard
Brilliant comment.
It's sobering to realize that we are out-spending the Russians 33 to 1 on weapons and war. They say that the most expensive thing in the world is a second-best military, but in this case, I think it's not true. Russia has the ability to defend itself and still invest in its people, the US on the other hand, has crumbling infrastructure, derelict cities, and a flailing economy. Our military commitments and rigged banking system are breaking our economy.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."