The Weekly Watch
A Bull in a China Shop:
a person who breaks things or who often makes mistakes or causes damage in situations that require careful thinking or behavior
Is it WMD deja vu all over again? There is a steady drum beat trying to create a major conflict with China. Some how it is China which is the aggressor, but it is western powers sailing war fleets up and down China's coast. Today we'll hear a number of voices describe this foolish rush to war instead of working cooperatively toward the survival of the species.
The best conversation I heard all week was among Michael Hudson, Ben Norton, and Max Blumenthal. They discuss Hudson's book "Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire." Professor Hudson just published a 3rd edition that updates his analysis for the 21st century, discussing the new cold war on China and Russia and the ongoing transition from a US dollar-dominated financialized system to a "multipolar de-dollarized economy." Insightful conversation about US aggression if you can spare an hour and a half.
Ben has two other good clips from the week...
Debunking media propaganda claiming China is 'colonizing' Latin America (20 min)
Corporate media outlets have absurdly accused China of "neocolonialism" in Latin America, while whitewashing nonstop US imperialist intervention.
How US is threatening China to turn Taiwan back into nuke-armed military base (40 min)
The US had a military base, armed with nuclear weapons, in Taiwan for decades, and threatened to nuke mainland China. Ben Norton discusses how Washington is provoking Beijing, risking war, to try to rebuild that base and have a Pacific foothold for the new cold war.
Taiwan has been in the news a lot lately, and it’s really bringing out the crazy in people.
The mass media have been falsely reporting that China has been encroaching on Taiwan’s “air defense zone”, which gets stretched into the even more ludicrous claim that China “sent warplanes flying over Taiwan”. In reality Chinese planes simply entered an arbitrarily designated area hundreds of miles from Taiwan’s coast it calls its “Air Defence Identification Zone”, which has no legally recognized existence and contains a significant portion of China’s mainland. This is likely a response to the way the US and its allies have been constantly sailing war ships into disputed waters to threaten Beijing.
As Moon of Alabama reports, US warmongers inflamed this non-controversy even further by feeding a story to the press about the already public information that there are American troops in Taiwan training the military there, citing “concern” about the danger posed by China.
How The 'China is a Threat' Fake News Cycle Works
...Propaganda has made us so compartmentalized and detached from the realities of the horrors of war. If people could really see what war is and what it does, truly grok deep down in their guts how their own governments are inflicting those horrors on people right now, they’d fall to their knees in anguish and never again advocate for such things. No sane person would support a war of this scale if they truly understood what it would mean.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/10/08/anyone-whod-support-going-to-war...
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on US China Relations: We Are Creating Our Own Worst Nightmare
President Joe Biden met with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Geneva on June 16. US-Russia “disarmament discussions have been pushed to the back burner. Instead, treaty compliance disputes have dominated bilateral engagements. Meanwhile, each side is rushing to replace and upgrade its bloated nuclear arsenal,” writes Daryl Kimball in Arms Control Today.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is intensifying technological and economic competition with China and using US-China military tension to justify an increased Pentagon budget. Congress is preparing to pass Sen. Robert Menendez’s Strategic Competition Act of 2021 (S.1169), which constitutes a de facto declaration of a New Cold War with the People’s Republic of China. It would codify a comprehensive, and systematic strategic competition with China as the organizing principle for U.S. domestic, foreign, and defense policies, and possibly for other nations as well.
(12 min)
Vijay Prashad, historian, journalist, and commentator, spoke about the US’ new Cold War with China. He touched on the impact of colonialism on China, the US campaign to isolate China, Xinjiang, Taiwan and the US-Australian submarine deal. He was interviewed by Merriam Ansara. (25 min)
Another excellent interview with Vijay Prashad, a writer, a journalist and the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He discusses the Western countries powerful propaganda machine and its hybrid war on China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_-w7IsUvwQ (44 min) Time stamps at the link.
Are we approaching a new war with China?
Garland Nixon discusses it with George Galloway. (12 min)
They suggest China could wage an economic war to head off a hot war, and also examine US politics in the last 5 minutes.
The CIA announced a number of structural changes on Thursday, including a new mission center for China, the result of a months-long review and a reflection of the intelligence community's view of China as the greatest long-term threat to the United States.
The new China Mission Center "will further strengthen our collective work on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, an increasingly adversarial Chinese government," CIA Director William Burns said in a statement, echoing what the veteran diplomat had said during his Senate confirmation hearings would be among his main priorities at the helm of the agency.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/07/politics/cia-china-mission-center/ind...
Biden pushes war with lies and false narratives....
US President Joe Biden in a speech on Friday linked Beijing’s policies targeting the Uygurs in China’s Xinjiang region to the horrors of the Holocaust more than seven decades ago, and warned against global silence and complicity as world leaders trample on individual human rights.
Interesting in his litany of human rights crises, he failed to mention Israel's genocide of the Palestinians. I guess Chinese Muslims are somehow more important.
Too bad Bye-done doesn't read the newspaper. (6 min)
BREAKING: Associated Press Says "There's NO Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang"!!!
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-china-health-t...
[video:https://rokfin.com/post/54665/China-Wall-Street-and-the-New-Global-Econo...
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1666-james-corbett-on-research-c...
Hypocrisy is plain to see if people would think for themselves, question, and look.
A number of people in the West on one hand say they " love and stand with Chinese people," yet on the other hand defaming Chinese culture and using slurs referring to Chinese.
Any ridiculous baseless accusations towards China even with apparent loopholes will get front page coverage on Western media yet any fact-based positive voices about China will be attacked or shut down. Isn't that care for Chinese people very hypocritical?
They don't really care about China or Chinese people, it's part of the Western governments' propaganda war to paint a negative image of China globally.
This is my full speech for The Propaganda War Against China (13 min)
British researcher exposes Western propaganda against China (20 min)
Here is a nice example how the U.S. keeps certain issues in the news and thereby propagandizes its people against its perceived enemies. The US cannot defend Taiwan, and China knows it
Daniel Dumbrill: people must understand how propaganda is used to build public support for war (12.5 min)
Jeff Sachs: The US Should Pursue Cooperation with China
Jeff is too partisan for me but I sure think cooperation is better than conflict and would serve people in real terms
“Cooperation is not cowardice, as American conservatives repeatedly claim,” wrote Jeff Sachs in a February 2021 article. “Both the US and China have much to gain from it: peace, expanded markets, accelerated technological progress, the avoidance of a new arms race, progress against COVID-19, a robust global jobs recovery, and a shared effort against climate change.”
In other recent articles, Sachs argued that the Xinjiang genocide allegations are unjustified and that the recent US/China agreement to cooperate on climate change is an important and welcome development.
So, today, under conditions of deepening social, political and economic crisis, dominant sections of the American ruling class see a conflict with China as a mechanism for enforcing “national unity,” which means, in practice, suppressing and criminalizing domestic opposition.
This view is spelled out by Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh in a February 2021 column titled, “America’s best hope of hanging together is China.” Ganesh concluded, “Without an external foe to rail against, the nation turns on itself,” adding, “only an external foe” can end the “age of discord.”
...
The working class must be on alert. The pandemic has made clear that the American ruling class is capable of sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives to achieve its goals. If the deaths of millions of people in war is the “least bad” of several unfavorable options for the ruling class, these deaths will be tolerated.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/09/pers-o09.html
Caity nails it again...
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/10/16/it-takes-a-lot-of-education-to-k...
The oligarchic empire is working harder and harder to bolt down our minds in service of its agendas.
Silicon Valley is working more and more openly in conjunction with the US government, and its algorithms elevate empire-authorized narratives while hiding unapproved ones with increasing brazenness.
The mass media have become so blatantly propagandistic that US intelligence operatives are now openly employed by news outlets they used to have to infiltrate covertly.
NATO and military institutions are studying and testing new forms of mass-scale psychological manipulation to advance the still developing science of propaganda.
A transparently fake “whistleblower” is being promoted by the US political/media class to manufacture support for more internet censorship and shore up monopolistic control for institutions like Facebook who are willing to enforce it.
Wikipedia is an imperial narrative control operation.
They’ve imprisoned a journalist for exposing US war crimes after the CIA plotted to kidnap and assassinate him.
...If you can control how people think about what’s going on in their world, if you can control their shared how-it-is stories about what’s happening and what’s true, then you can advance any agenda you want to. You’ll be able to prevent them from rising up against you as you steal their wealth, exploit their labor, destroy their ecosystem and send their children off to war. You can keep them voting for political institutions you own and control. You can keep them from interfering in your ability to wage wars around the world and sanction entire populations into starvation to advance your geostrategic goals.
This status quo of exploitation, ecocide, oppression and war benefits our rulers immensely, bringing them more wealth and power than the kings of old could ever dream of. And like the kings of old they are not going to relinquish power of their own accord,...
So is it even possible to avoid a war with China. Are we caught in Thucydide's trap?
Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
Or is it possible to avoid this terrible looming war? I liked George and Garland's hypothesis that China could take down the US currency hurting the US more than themselves and avoiding a hot war by creating an economic conflict instead. There's no doubt we all need to be calling out America's aggressive behavior and quelling the anti-China nonsense spewing out of the MSM.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3QVsW30j0]
Comments
The US Should Pursue Cooperation with China
I'm with Jeff Sachs on this. Cooperation instead of competiton. Where is the Department of Peaceful Solutions when you need it? I still think the scattered and diluted US military is in no way, shape or form in a position to "defend" the 'homeland'. Rattling our scabbards all over the world is only asking for trouble. At some point in time, our chosen enemies are going to retaliate in our face. Then we will suffer the consequences.
Which one of the presidential contenders suggested a Department of Peace? Can't recall, but it would be a good idea ..
Thanks for the WW Lookout!
Good morning...
A chilly 40 degrees this AM. There are many projects where we could cooperate with our perceived/advertised enemies....climate, energy, and environmental restoration would be good starting points. War is a waste of lives, wealth, and effort.
Sadly the oligarchs think they will profit from more aggression. Too bad they are so short sighted and don't see the hastening of their own extinction.
Well, we can have a good day. Best enjoy what we've got while we've got it. All the best to you and yours!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
We are cool and clear here this morning
a good shower overnight has cleaned the air fairies.
A good day for apple picking ..
Good Morning lookout and QMS
"Sadly the oligarchs think they will profit from more aggression. Too bad they are so short sighted and don't see the hastening of their own extinction."
Ummmmm....I think it is more "Apres moi, le deluge." There may or may not be an after, but for sure, if there is one, only I will not drown.
NYC sunny and sixty something. back into the seventies later this week.
I am watching the war drums beating faster for conflict with China. Like the passages quoted I see what's happening. Pretty much in accord with everyone else who is watching.
Where my thinking diverges is, the how will this end portion. This is where I expect China to play one of the cards it holds. Take down our grids, maybe. Destroy our currency, more likely. And if you favor the better weapons always win theory, did you all catch the new super speed thingy that flies at low altitude undetected right to us?
The Pentagon expressed shock.
https://www.wionews.com/world/with-new-hypersonic-missile-test-in-august...
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3872929/china-fires-nuke-capable-hypersonic...
Happy Day everybody.
NYCVG
Weapons as deterrents?
or perhaps for defense? Obummer wanted to end atomic weapons at first, but later embarked on an atomic modernization trillion dollar plan.
China needs all the deterrents it can get.
and for a laugh...
Great Atomic Power: The Louvin Brothers [1952]
lyrics at link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5i4ZGVQGa8
They were from Sand Mountain, one ridge away from Lookout.
Have a lovely Sunday!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
ummmm...
Jesus will stop nuclear power???? I must have misheard.
NYCVG
hey, it was for grins...
Sand Mt is a big location for snake handling.
https://www.supersummary.com/salvation-on-sand-mountain-snake-handling-a...
Crossing the mt to Huntsville years ago we came across a four way stop money collection like the firemen often do, but it was the Klan in their robes. You can't make it up.
Just to give you a bit of a picture. Of course GAWD has control over atomic power on sand mt.
We used to do this one which is in the same ballfield Satan's Jeweled Crown - The Louvin Brothers
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PizBVqcAn0o]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Department
, of Peace. Dennis Kucinich
Marianne Williamson releases plan for a Department of Peace
The idea of a U.S. Department of Peace has been around since the 1700s. Benjamin Rush, a founding father and physician, called for a "Peace Office" that would be equal to the Department of War.
In 1935, U.S. Sen. Matthew Neely of West Virginia introduced the first bill for the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace.
More recently, former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio reintroduced a bill to create the department, and in 2013, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of California introduced a similar bill. Lee has introduced updated versions of the bill in each session since then.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/cauc...
What's not to like? Investing in peace just makes sense.
Sure sounds sensible
...guess that's why it hasn't happened. Peace isn't the US goal...nor is defense. The goal is covert and overt war.
I didn't mention Iran, but US hypocrisy has been over the top demanding they come to the table after we scrapped the original deal. We claim they are unreasonable. In what world do they see that?
Good to "see" you both this morning. Have a great day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It can't happen,
because "wholesale death" is our last remaining export product. And we can't be not making money, now can we?
We went to the Great Colorado Air Show on Saturday, and got to see some of our tax dollars at work. Boy, that F-35 makes a lot of noise. And we got to see Blue Angel #6 break down and slide to a stop in a big cloud of tire smoke right in front of us on the runway.
There's a lesson in there somewhere, but I just can't put a finger on it.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Waste
is the message I got.
But maybe I am nothing but a cynic.
NYCVG
Nice history summary
, thanks. It would rank as one of the best, most useful departments if we had one and it functioned as intended. If we did that it would be the answer to a large portion of our problems..
I agree on the idea of 'cooperation' but with one requirement
and that is that 'cooperation' is not like the US cooperation in Russia and of Sachs knows all about that operation.
Any other Country should know that anything the US offers needs to be in writing in ,right down to details in 'the small print', witnessed by others, and a financial cost if the US violates the terms of the agreement.
In short do not trust the US.
The Iran deal...
and all the treaties with first nations peoples prove US is not an honest partner about much of anything.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Betrayal
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDqmJEWOJRI]
The USA betrays every principle, country and person, other than a few select overlords, unlucky enough to depend on this "exceptional" country.
NYCVG
Good morning
Thanks for an interesting WW. There is a lot to unpack and I am very tempted to sit here and do just that. I's a beautiful day outside though , so there is no way can be inside.
Have a wonderful Sunday, it sounds as if you have great weather as well.
oops
@#0, I saved an empty space so I'll play a song
cool banjo music
thanks for that! Me too, going outside to play in the fall extragavanza.
Will carry the banjoes in my heart / mind / spirit .. plays nicely with the fall folk.
Magic fingers play by their own feelin' good spirit dancing
Yes it is nice here too
I've been out and about, and just coming back in. Enjoy your time out as well!
I really enjoy Bella and his wife. She plays old timey clawhammer style (notice no picks) whereas he is a chromatic player. They sure blend nicely. Thanks for the clip. I play all three of those tunes...Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn - Sally in the Garden / Big Country / Molly Put the Kettle On - though in a slightly different way.
Thanks and be well!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I would
, truly enjoy hearing you and your crew play those tunes. That was a lucky pick on my part, didn't know that was in your repertoire.
Thanks again for the chock-full WW and the dose OT as well!
old time music...
is in my wheelhouse, but I really think of myself as a folk musician. Spent 30 years in an old time dance band and played all over the country...of course teaching was my career and pay day. Playing music typically pays 10's of dollars, but it was a hobby that almost paid for itself.
Have a good day eating up them weeds out there!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
We had a good day yesterday here
, hope you did as well. My challenge is to squeeze in all the outdoor chores in, amongst all the other to-do's. It seems I always fall short, but I enjoy them for the most part so the glass-half-full sentiment is that there is always something more (and more or less enjoyable) to do.
Thanks for the good thoughts/spirit and the tunes. I have to catch up on many of the tunes offered here (including some from last week's EB) That's for my down-time reward.
Best to you.
We saw them in Portland when
they were falling in love. Bela plays classical music as well. Abigail speaks Mandarin and composes songs in Mandarin.
I am fear-porned out. Aren't people tired of the constant crisis of the hour?
Thanks for the W W Lookout.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
I very much miss
, seeing live music and the very occasional theatre. I know you are missing your choir and all those sorts of activities as well.
I don't think all the fearful news gets to me, mostly I'm just profoundly disappointed that TPTB don't want to solve any of problems facing us. In fact they continue on to make things worse and don't care about the colossal damage they have caused. It is a tragedy and is such a wasted opportunity. We could have gone down a better path. That said, I still want to witness and try to understand what is going on.
My only solution is to shepherd the small things within my control as best I can.
We have beautiful weather today again, I've been enjoying it very much. Best wishes to you across the pond.
Good morning Lookout. Thanks for the WW.
Clever title, btw.
We've always had a China problem, all those people in desperate need of somebody like us to exploit them with their own damn culture and their own damn government getting in our way; what's with that?
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
What is with that?
More money? That is what I see as TPTB foolish filter.
Hope you have a wonderful day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, Lookout and everybody.
What's the danged deal ?
Here's some interesting stuff to read.
From Vox. We all know these people, many of us are these people and, believe me, your local Democratic Party is crawling with them and their prejudices.
The problem with America’s semi-rich
I never thought Clapton was God, or even uniquely talented. I liked a few of his tunes, had the Mayall album and Derek, but God ? No.
Eric Clapton's Covid vaccine conspiracies mark a sad final act
Here's an interesting take: US elites’ imperial corruption compares to Opium War
Later
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
The Vox piece sounds about right...
America’s upper-middle class works more, optimizes their kids, and is miserable.
Me thinks the Clapton protests are too much. No negative vax info allowed.
And the opium war update seems appropriate.
George G had a good line the other day...something to the effect of:
When the UK controlled Hong Kong, where was the cry for democracy, for they were not allowed it then. But now...bring it on. And I add with the help of Ukrainian fascists.
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/04/ukrainian-nazis-hong-kong-protests/
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
We need some Uighur music to go with this diary
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXyirCDLzdM]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IjdJtC7q-M]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXL1Usqsrpw]
Thanks for the music..
it is appropriate.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
WOW! Quite the story and it looks legit and not surprising.
Guess who the main culprits are? The link is quite a read.
http://dilyana.bg/350-diplomatic-flights-carry-weapons-for-terrorists/
surprise!!!
We are our own enemy!
https://truth11.com/2021/04/05/us-phony-war-on-isis-and-other-jihadist-g...
4 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k069rYyMy5o]
Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the biggest terrorist of all?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
This is freedom of America - enjoy
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwYu02BTL4s]
The "wanna be" rich people are the most annoying.
I have had so many encounters with them that make me sick. My job used to bring me into lots of social encounters with the wanna-be semi-wealthy in the Bay Area and I came out of these encounters with a very depressing impression of many of them and their amorality. Typically shown by a shameful level of entitlement. No, you don't have a God given right to throw tenants out on the street by "flipping" peoples rented apartment homes. Who gave them the impression they did? It just gets worse and worse for the poor families.
The way rent laws work in San Francisco, there is very little people can do when this happens, Often good tenants, working people are just harrassed out. Being working people they have to be able to sleep. So they are vulnerable to harassment. Workers are hired to make noise and toxic dust around the clock to driver renters out so buildings can be sold empty for a huge profit.
Good tenants are viewed as the worst because they pay rent month after month and never move out. Landlords want CHURN and new tenants every few months so the rent keeps going up and up.
Turn the building into a hotel and short term rentals will drive the working people out. Bachelor parties every weekend, till sunrise, then...
Starting at 8 am every Monday morning the renovation starts.
That reminds me of credit card companies...
calling those of us who pay our bill in full every month, deadbeats, cause we don't make them interest money.
That's our fate...profit margins. Sad ain't it?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
DemoGOPs are the opposite of what they say they are.
So are the Repugnicans.
They are hiding their real ideology. They are actually a neoliberalo cult that is trying to break the system so they can pull the economic rug out from underneath the whole country. Peoples lack of knowledge of the way the WTO has taken over and how its made it so the government cant fulfill its promises GATS leaves the people of this country vulnerable to huge shameless lies.
Millions of decent jobs will be lost to help prop up Third World dictatorships (which are seen as the most strongly profitable countries, where the growth is. Because of their low wages.) The new African trade deal hopes to funnel a great many jobs to the least equal countries (many are in Africa) it seems perhaps as their "payback" for propping up the neoliberal system in the mid 1990s.. (Or so PIIE implies) We hide the likely disasters in the future due to ENSO, and insist that any safety net that could prevent disasters similar to the ones in the past like food storehouses like those Imperial China used in the 16th, 17th and 18th century to prevent droughts from causing massive starvation and loss of life.. Unfortunately in the 19th we, the western powers destroyed them economically ending their system of ever normal granaries, and leading to tens of millions of deaths in the ENSO famine of 1875-77. (which are inevitable and happen due to natural variability, not man.
So we will see these mega drought famines here someday soon, As we saw them some 1000 years ago. When ENSO (El Nino) famines happen in Asia (China and India) the monsoons fail. Simultaneously we seem to have ample precipitation (or even commonly flooding during The La Nina periods elsewhere.. (See the essay here..) here. and we have good harvests here.. Spending money on their oligarch's pet projects and weapons, arms they cannot afford..will leave us in a big mess. The rich want to break the back of the labor movement - which will cripple the economy and steal millions from millions. They do this every ten years or so. One way or another. Remember Enron. (GATS biggest booster according to John Nichols in The Nation) The 2008 disaster which cost the world's's people at least 21 trillion dollars, probably much more was such a big loss the money became unauditable. Thats what they want. Thefts so large they don't fear ever getting caught. The 2008 money grab was due to GATS and cost millions of families their homes, was caused by GATS. GATS will be used to prevent a sane national response to inevitable and non-man caused natural disasters. So they are planning it so the oligarchs get filty rich and millions lose everything. Its the system they intentionally created that way - and how the rich get rich and the poor poorer under the system we have today. Restore Glass-Steagall. Restore financial regulation. Restore sanity. NOBODY WAS PROSECUTED. These neoliberal thefts which hurt so many struggling people should have been punished in equivalent weight in banker and speculator flesh.
There are liars at the top.. Butmaybe there is hope because our presidents ancestors lived through whats now seen to have been a genocidal famine. One intended to decimate lives. Its why they came to the US on the coffin ships.
So we should cut our ties with the United Kingdom as our Founders wanted. Don't let them and their extremist oligarchical ideology destroy democracy.
The UK does not have a single payer system. No they are conspiring to use a trick, a sleazy trick to strip their people of their NHS.
This will happen because they sell health insurance which will make giving healthcare away WTO illegal starting at the beginning of next year. Just you wait and see. Giving should never be condemned as evil, its an act of grace and is holy Its strongly predictive of SURVIVAL. Altruism is a sign of intelligence.. The oilygarchs are the worst kinds of people. Greed kills
Has anybody here ever been to Chaco Culture, NHP?
Chaco was an ever normal granery. Exactly what the British stealing system prohibits.. But then around 1100 a huge megadrought began..It was so dry there were trees growing on the bottom of what we now know are huge lakes in the Sierra Nevada of California. zzthy sre sill there but they are now hundreds of feet underwater.
And of course, with no rain there was no corn to eat.There was no food to sustain life.
The Chaco system fell apart.. The Anisazi devolved into the ancient enemies their name means in the Navaho language.. They descended into cannibalism..
Clinton sold the party
to the banks, prison and health system, and both parties had already sold out to the CIA/MIC perpetual war machine. Obummer sealed the deal with fossil fuels and more. What a scam.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Adlung's paper.
Trade creep is not a lizard
You must realize they are
You must realize they are working to privatize EVERYTHING and they cant roll it back. This included housing, thats what build back better means. They export natural gas till its gone, then tear down old but affordable housing "blight" and build market rate housing for the fairly rich, out of reach of most current residents through eminent domain. making million homeless. GATS prohibits any public housing, Non professional or working people simply cant afford urban housing any more. People will have to do without. This (massive "slum clearance" has been their plan all along. Since before Kelo v. City of New London, and before the slumlord lawyer was anointed in 2008)
Everything is backwards, everything is fake. We fell for a huge scam, thats been planned for 30 yrs.
Their plan: includes many changes that will leave most Americans wondering what hit us. The power of the Corporate STate, to literally steal the world.
Sell off the energy reserve and use the lack of fuel at affordable prices (rapidly rising energy prices will triple the cost of heating in the cooler parts of the country and lead to millions of older multifamily buildings being torn down) Emptying the big East Coast and Midwest cities. Where will people go? Many may not be able to afford the United States. Jobs are be traded away as part of the GATS and likely soon, TISA. It will be like NAFTA for the rest of the jobs. We may lose as many as 50% of our jobs. (according to a replication study of economist Alan Blinders study on how many jobs are offshorable, which was found to be a substantial underestimate of how many jobs we would lose. Also read Jagdish Bhagwati. US workers are simply too expensive for US jobs. Wages are way too high, hey represent throwing trllions of dollars a year in too high wages away on the sidewalk, the neoliberals argue. Wake up and recognize our mistake.
Their plan? maximize profit...
Ain't about cities nor space programs nor AI control except in service of more profit FOR ME!
Sadly I think it is that simple...more for me.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The Empty the cities part
has certainly been NYC's plan or was under the 12 year reign of terror that was Michael Bloomberg's rule.
8 years of repair by de Blasio is drawing to a close and the new guy, is funded by Bloomberg.
NYCVG
Redevelopment means "slum clearance"
The emtying of the cities of non-wealthy people. Via eminent domain. Older buildings will be torn down by the millions. I vividly remember how this was done in San Francisco. The average sale price was $12000 Thousands of families got the big red X's. The Fillmore District/Western Addition looked like Hiroshima after the atom bomb had hit. I explored those buildings before they were torn down.. it was surreal wandering through them. I have a recurring dream of this..
Just a few years later after all the evictees had died, the successors to those buildings and the Victorians that were not torn down before they defeated the freeway they were going to build, were sold for literally millions of dollars.
The poor always lose these battles. Because they are rigged.. Selling off the natural gas.. what were they thinking. Read the Charles River Associates reporton selling off the LNG and the huge job loss that will cause. People will freeze if they have to heat with electricty. Its many times more expensive now, it will be worse soon.
Read about the dangers of GATS, the treaty we signed in 1995 to force the one-way, irreversible privatization of everything. Keeping everything (this huge theft!) under the radar is key because many will not agree with the agenda which offshores jobs promised not that long ago, to traditionally mistreated groups in the US, to others. leaving groups, like young people, with a bad chance of managing the future job-sparse workplace. to poor and unequal countries where public services dont exist.- where skilled wages are lowest.
The poor are being pushed out
The poor are being pushed out because they cant afford it here in the US without housing. But the GATS doesnt allow building publicly subsidized homes or apartments because its sold commercially. or governments providing it below its cost. Due to the GATS Aricle 1:3.
. It also prohibits governments providing all other services, if they are sold - provided on a commercial basis.. anywhere.
unless those services are completely free and uncommercial.. In other words , Free.
So politicians promising all kinds of reforms if you only vote for them, are most likely lying. The best thing they can do is promise to stop doing things, to do nothing, because of GATS that would be the best thing they could do, GATS is a one way street to privatization, of all services. The WTO triues to confuse this issue as much as they can. it only allows one kind of change - deregulation. Dismantling what were once public services. It claims that it does not dismantle public services, easy to say because it defines almost no services as public. Its "logic" is circular. Could we lose public higher education? We could. Easily. As well as public ater, housing, ad ay other efforts by governments to improve the lot of the historically mistreated or poor.
(because of GATS and other FTAS) Could we lose Social Security? The New Deal programs all are on a sort of deth watch due to GATS. They are represented as trade barriers, you see,.
So YES, we could. Easily. Read up on the WTO. Politicians are lying to us, a lot.
And no this has nothing to do with Donald Trump. This scheme has been in the pipeline since 1986, ad it was signed in December 1994. Its hope is to radically change the world. Making corporations much less accountable, and they hope, much more profitable by dismantling "NTBs" (Non Tariff barriers) Are minimum wage laws in the US NTMs? Yes, they most certainly are. countries like India bitterly complain. The WTO wants to help them, it may be illegal for us to demand foreign companies pay workers, whomever they are, any more here than they do in India where wages are often 1/10 or 1/20th of what they are here. If we demand they pay workers legal "US wages" while they are operating here we may be found to be violating their rules.. And it may also be FTA-illegal for us to limit their numbers by requiring they apply for and win special visas. Because it limits their business. We have to understand paying US wages clearly makes it much less profitable for them to do what we prokmised them would be their payback for endorsing our capitalist system. Which they did. They fulfilled their part of the deal. By creatiung this global agreement, we stopped public healthcare in the whole world. We are also stopping lots of other trends which seemed inevitable back in the 20th century. Many were sure the US healthcare system was unsustainable. Now, its on top. Drug companies are making literally trillions of dollrs on COVID, buy or die. We won. Now its our turn to pay them back for all this with the job our workers its alleged, dont want. Instead of getting educations, our students went deeply into debt. They should have been rich, like the students of means from a belt of countries all around the world. They can afford it. Millions of US workers could be replaced by foreign workers making very low wages, That increases profit, the money the foreign firms save by cutting pay substantially will be funneled upwards to the top. This is economic growth, profit. Those "efficiency gains" may seem like losses to US workers, but they are gains to those companies. Thats the benefit we promised countries, if they would join the WTO. After all, after the fall of the USSR, we won. That means the end of all behaviors that inhibit commercial activities. Its in a treaty, thats inmternational law. What about your vote? You have none. This is not a democratic trading system. (or majoritarian as neoliberals put it) They do not see representative government as being legitimate because it attempts to govern property. Historically, money is not about democracy. The US has one vote and we can be fairly certain it is heavily influenced by international corporate lobbies. We're the country that set this system up, so that corporate needs would be 100% prioritized. You can be certain they will be. Progress in the wto means progress in deregulation. Progress in eliminating rules, like trade barriers of any kind. Why even rules that outlawed slavery or prevent a coercive trade in human organs "harvested" from the poor or from the people who voluntarily sell them to pay off debts, might be considered by some to be non trade barriers. The priority is creating a "level playing field" where my money and your money are equal. No millionaire left behind. A smooth flat superhighway to enable commerce of all kinds. With no obstacles. Where Money is everything.
Good evening LO!
I spent hours today in stocking up food and other supplies. The drive was gorgeous, as was the day.
Have your food costs risen this week? how about fuel? Gas took a 21 cent increase per gallon this weekend. Fun times for Big Oil!
This weekend flew by. I had several projects in mind, got to only 1.
The cooler temperatures are welcome, although it takes me a while to adjust to it.
I intend to watch the Gallowy interview this evening. I have disagreed with Gallowy a couple of times, but more often that not, he gives me some confidence in my judgment. No matter what, I value his opinion.
Have a great evening, and thanks for your hard work in writing this splendid essay.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It was pretty here too
And yes I've noticed things going up in price. Has too when we create currency like there's no tomorrow.
Have a great week!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Here's an interesting number
The U.S. stock market, at $54.768 trillion, is larger than the combined GDP of the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. according to GDP data from the World Bank.
what a superb metaphor
'bull in a china shop' is, especially if one imagines 'the wall street golden bull'!
buffy said it right long ago.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX_AhL2SsUs]
from telesur english, oct. 15: Peruvian President Highlights Strategic Partnership With China
and from RT.com, oct. 12: Why it now suits America to cool the talk of Beijing’s Uighur ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang
Organ harvesting
Ive read that prisoners in Xinjiang who are not guilty of any crime are being stripped of their valuable organs, like kidneys. They are removed and then the victims are stored in a refrigerator, before they have died, and its said, then left to die. These are people whop have not committed any crime other than being Uigur and residing in the natural resource-rich province.
Sale of organs is also widespread in some countries (India and Pakistan, in particular) because of huge unpayable debts people are trapped into by banks and other financial service entities.
Their organs are bought by the rich. . The finacialization of organs means that here under capitalism we will probably see poor and powerless people being stripped of anything of value, just as many are being stripped of their jobs, homes, farms, futures, rights to education, water, healthcare. Thats what we do. Might makes right. Those with the gold rule.
Is this the future? Poor desperate people are being targeted in the developing world for their land.
Some would have preferred that we never had existed. Because we are now in the way of their grandiose plans. Its the same for us. We dont have the cheap labor so to please other countries who have been promised high perceived value jobs, lots of peoples jobs are being traded away, Lots of people will lose their livelihoods. Thats why we're being pushed to hete the poor Repubicans and they are being pushed to hate us. Our unity was our strength.
They were deprived of a decent education intentionally. Because if they had it they would want better. They want the poor to fuck up. So they wont deserve what others have already been
promised.
It makes the theft easier. Soon Americans will realize what its like to be an indigenous person.
That's a click-bait hit piece.
Organ harvesting in Xinjiang has long since been debunked. Please back those vile allegations with documented proof.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjjCl2iPR6k]
Greed is a "strategy" that often works out badly.
we're all in this together. Its not a zero sum game.
Karma catches up with us all, sooner or later, ya know.
China has a long history of executing prisoners and selling
their organs.
I am not saying that every bad thing in the media about them is true. Chinese are their biggest critics. They hid most coronavirus deaths. It was much worse than they claimed.
US corporations dont care as long as factories stay running. Theyre saving a lot of money. Thats why US businesses are there, cheap, high skill labor. Thats what we want, the continuation of that dirt cheap labor.. Now history is repeating itself, and its 30 yrs later. Jobs are being shipped overseas by the millions. WTO laws demand it. Also they dismand the dismantlement of what pre-WTO were called "public services". Now they are becoming for profit services. Whether unaffordable or not. Profit is God here.
In 1989 they didnt crack down until the students started discussing the crappy deal Chinese workers were getting as the world's factory. India is being set up as the "back office of the world" and the US's desk jobs are going there, soon. Will they remain so compliant?
Americans will not have jobs and we wont have any services or safety nets. GATS makes them FTA illegal. We have it backwards. The Democratic Party like the GOP are living a lie, are one big lie. We have drunk their Kool Aid for so long. Since the 1990s. Will we wise up?
The worship of the golden
The worship of the golden bullshit. Is poisonous. Gold is a heavy metal.
Ironically it wont be long now before the ocean reclaims Wall St.
We need to know whats happened..
Okay, I'm all ears, wheres your proof? All ears.
We need to remember the past.. so we don't repeat or past mistakes..
If the Yellowstone Caldera erupts it could change the whole planets weather for years, and possibly cause a mass extinction, humanity could starve to death. There wouldnt be a damn thing we could do about it. Wonder what politicians would say and do. Jessica Ahrern (of NZ) made a funny joke a few years ago about this possibility.