No Reverse Gear in the Collective West...

Prepare for impact fellow crash test dummies, or so it seems as the west doubles down on its collision course to war with both Russia and China. This week alone, the US pledged another three billion over the next few years to provide arms to Ukraine, and the UK and BoJo pledged an additional $63M in arms. Not to mention the likely new PM of the UK is ready to start a nuclear war with Russia. Additionally the US is setting up Taiwan as Ukraine 2.0 to provoke a war with China. Meanwhile, much of the world plans to hitch their wagon to the rising economies of the BRICS+ economic alliance rejecting subjugation to the US, IMF and the collective west. The west continues its self delusion that they are most of the world, but in reality comprise 12-15% of global population.

Provoking war appears to be the US stock and trade.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) arrived in Taiwan on Thursday in the fourth US visit to the island this month as Washington continues to escalate tensions with Beijing. Blackburn’s trip was unannounced, and she and her aides arrived in Taiwan aboard a US Army plane. On Twitter, Blackburn said that she made the trip to “send a message to Beijing.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/08/25/sen-blackburn-arrives-in-taiwan-in-f...
Her hawkish rhetoric gets worse..

Blackburn labeled China as being a part of a new “Axis of Evil” in her remarks on Twitter. “It’s time we focus on rewarding Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values and ensure they have the necessary resources to combat Communist China and the New Axis of Evil,” she wrote.

The overwrought fear of China and Russia is sold to a Western public through manipulation of the facts.
The West’s Dangerously Simple-Minded Narrative About Russia and China

The world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe in no small part because of the failure of Western political leaders to be forthright about the causes of the escalating global conflicts. The relentless Western narrative that the West is noble while Russia and China are evil is simple-minded and extraordinarily dangerous. It is an attempt to manipulate public opinion, not to deal with very real and pressing diplomacy.

The essential narrative of the West is built into US national security strategy. The core US idea is that China and Russia are implacable foes that are “attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” These countries are, according to the US, “determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.”

The irony is that since 1980 the US has been in at least 15 overseas wars of choice (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Panama, Serbia, Syria, and Yemen just to name a few), while China has been in none, and Russia only in one (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union. The US has military bases in 85 countries, China in 3, and Russia in 1 (Syria) beyond the former Soviet Union.

The US has a bad habit of projection. That is describing our actions as the intent of others.
Why does the US see China as such a threat?

China is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries, after already cancelling $3.4 billion and restructuring $15 billion of debt from 2000-2019. Beijing pledged more infrastructure projects and offered favorable trade deals in a “win-win” model of “mutually beneficial cooperation.”

China’s Africa debt waiver weakens US’ narrative, targets bullying. The recent relief effort reaffirms China's desire to be Africa's long-term development partner.

However some US allies in Asia are not so gullible.

...when it comes to South Korea, which hosts 28,500 American ground troops and the Pentagon’s largest military base outside of North America, U.S. media coverage is, shall we say, highly selective. That was made resoundingly clear on August 14, when Seoul was the scene for the largest public demonstration in decades against the U.S. military presence in South Korea.
Amazingly, not a word about the protest appeared in the U.S. media.
That Saturday, thousands of people chanting “this land is not a U.S. war base” demonstrated against Ulchi Freedom Shield, the first large-scale military exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces since 2017. The protests were organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), South Korea’s second-largest labor federation. They were joined by a range of progressive allies, including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), an influential citizen’s group founded in 1994.

At least so far it is only tensions which are escalating in the US-China conflict. In Ukraine it is the death tolls which are rising...as well as western donations.

If Taiwan is Ukraine 2.0 then as Noam suggests, Ukraine is Afghanistan 2.0.
Noam Chomsky: We're Repeating Afghanistan in Ukraine (about 30 min)
Professor Noam Chomsky has a stark prediction for the future of humanity if the US refuses to cooperate with other countries:
“It is absolutely necessary for the great powers to cooperate if there’s going to be any hope for survival,” he explains. “China, the US, Russia, they have to be cooperating on the major issues of the day: climate, nuclear war, pandemics. You work on them together or you all fall over the cliff together.”
And while cooperation sounds like a smart idea, Chomsky doubts the US will go along.
“The US orders allies to follow its rules-based international order while China calls for the UN-based international order. And the US doesn’t accept that for a very good reason: the UN rules out US foreign policy explicitly. The UN charter bans the threat or use of force in international affairs. Can you think of a US president who hasn’t engaged in a threat or use of force?”
This sparks an analysis of US censorship and how the government can suppress the truth without throwing us in gulags.
“Read things carefully that do come out: the Washington Post had a long, comprehensive article in which they reviewed in great detail the background for the war. Nothing in it about possible negotiations. They don’t want it on the agenda.”
entire interview here

Discussing Ukraine. Glenn Diesen interviews Scott Ritter and Alexander Mercouris (2 hours) This is an interesting discussion.

Scott Ritter joins us to analyze the Ukraine war at the six month mark. (25 min)

Scott has been a voice of reason, and I like Col. Douglas MacGregor too. (17 min)

Zelensky Steamrolls Workers To Pave Way For Mass Privatization (10 min)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has earned a reputation as a heroic defender of the Ukrainian people, but his commitment to Ukrainian workers is not nearly so heroic. Zelensky has signed into law a bill eviscerating workers’ collective bargaining rights. The bill is part of a larger neoliberal plan to privatize public utilities and property while creating a more “inviting” post-conflict environment for investment in the embattled country. And if workers have to pay the price, so be it.

Not only screwing workers, but he's been selling off all Ukraine's farmland.

With Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva and Cargill already controlling a reported 16.7 million hectares of prime Ukraine black earth farmland, and with a de facto bribe from the IMF and World Bank, Zelenskyy’s government caved in and sold out. The result will be very bad for the future of what was until recently the “breadbasket of Europe.” With Ukraine now being pried open by the GMO cartel companies, it leaves only Russia which banned GMO crops in 2016 as the only major world grain supplier without GMO. The EU is reportedly working on a new law that would overturn the long-established critical approval process for GMO crops and open the floodgates there to the GMO takeover.

More grifting from the most corrupt country in Europe. You know the regime full of Nazis that we keep supporting, throwing away our wealth as US citizens are in need.

Ukraine war veterans on how Kiev plundered US aid, wasted soldiers, endangered civilians, and lost the war
“The weapons are stolen, the humanitarian aid is stolen, and we have no idea where the billions sent to this country have gone,” a Ukrainian complained to The Grayzone.

Alexander Mercurious and Brian at the New Atlas both provide excellent detailed analysis of the military progress on the ground in Ukraine, typically an hour long descriptor.

My favorite is Alex Christoforou with his walks around (primarily) Athens Greece, but also other Mediterranean locations. Here's an example...

Mike aka iearlgrey is a Brit in St Petersburg and offers insights into the situation.

Jackson Hinkle talked with Max Blumenthal this week in an excellent wide ranging interview. (55 min) They discuss the Ukraine War, FBI Weaponization, CIA Smear Campaigns, and touch on the farmer hit job underway. They discuss this article.

As we discovered in the Dugin assassination last week, Ukraine's Black (kill) list is serious business. They've now put Rodger Waters on it.

For more than a decade an anonymous group in Ukraine has maintained a website listing names and, where they have them, addresses and phone numbers of individuals they term “enemies” of Ukraine. A number of the listed individuals have wound up the target of attacks, some of whom were killed. Now Pink Floyd bass player and noted critic of NATO’s role in Ukraine Roger Waters finds he’s been added to the so-called “kill” list.

Why a roll and roll artist? (27 min)

Here's his concert This Is Not A Drill, Minneapolis 7-30-2022 (2+ hours)

It is not so much the conflict driving the growing economic disaster, but the sanctions imposed on Russia which have become a self-inflected wound by the west. None the less the repercussions of the sanctions we imposed are Russia's fault. You can hear it over and over again on any MSM outlet. It seems obvious that commodities are more valuable than fiat currencies supported only by military power.

Max Blumenthal interviewed Mark Sleboda a US ex-pat in Moscow. (16 min)

Moscow-based political analyst Mark Sleboda joins Max Blumenthal to discuss how Europe's economic blockade on Russia has boomeranged, causing an energy crisis and looming shortages ahead of winter. Sleboda also addresses the economic situation inside Russia, where Western sanctions has so far failed to destabilize the economy as intended.

More on EU economic collapse with the Duran's Alex and Alexander
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Oa6fqnGTA (14 min)

Europe's hypocrisy on fossil fuels (7.5 min)

Europe promised to lead the world on climate change. It lectured developing nations for relying on coal. Now the same Europe is conveniently buying coal and restarting coal-fired power plants. What happened to its climate goals? Can it still preach others?

Let me add another example of the hypocrisy...blaming farmers for climate chaos as TPTB jet round on their private planes, and don't bat an eye as they shift to burning coal. All of the nitrous oxides account for less than 6% of the warming gases emitted. This isn't about global warming, it is about global control!

The economic effects are being felt in the US too. 1 In 6 Americans Can’t Pay Their Energy Bills! (8 min)

The rapidly growing cost of living from double-digit inflation has particularly affected poor families who are often forced to choose between the rent, buying groceries or paying their utility bills. It’s estimated that today 1 in 6 Americans is behind on their utility bill payments, and that figure is expected to worsen. Meanwhile, climate change will likely just increase the year-round demand for electricity.

Here's a nice recap of interviews with several economy experts discussing the current situation and the likely future of of our economy. (12.5 min)

We've been having fun with our guests this summer and compiled some interview clips from our Summer Series. Our guests have touched on hot topics such as recession, bitcoin, precious metals, Treasury bonds, and more.

The goal is control, of you and the rest of the world. TPTB are losing the global south and the BRICS+ countries much to their frustration. Perhaps that is causing them to accelerate and tighten their control over western citizens. Neil Oliver speaks truth to power here... ‘…coercion is coming down the line for us all… ’ (21 min)

‘…what they want are uneducated, unhealthy, unhappy, fearful people who are made compliant by their circumstances….’
And that is exactly what this c99 community stands against. The goal here to my mind is to do our best to sort through the MSM propaganda and find the occasional kernels of truth, as well as look for alternative voices which take on the narratives exposing their lies. Everyone misinterprets things every now and then. None of us gets it right all the time, but the value is the collective approach to suss out a more truthful view of our situation and estimate our trajectory into the future.

We may be crash test dummies on a global collision course economically, socially, politically, and militarily. But, at least we have a community facing the murky future together. Keep sharing, keep looking for truth, and keep believing in your own personal strength to face our collective challenges.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments below!