Two recent reports

Everyone knows that the United States is Number One.

The United Nations' latest annual ranking of nations by "sustainable development goals" will come as a shock for many Americans. Not only aren't we "Number One," we're not even close. The top four countries are Scandinavian democracies. The United States ranks forty-first, just below Cuba (that's right, below our Communist neighbor). Countries that outrank us include Estonia, Croatia, the Slovak Republic, Romania, and Serbia.
Every ranking contains some element of subjectivity. But the seventeen "sustainable development goals" (SDGs) developed by economist Jeffrey Sachs and his team are well chosen. They include the absence of poverty and hunger, good health and education, gender equality, clean air and water, and reduced inequality.
The goal of the report is to measure countries' progress, or development, toward a civilized and sustainable future. As historian Kathleen Frydl points out, "Under this methodology ... the U.S. ranks between Cuba and Bulgaria. Both are widely regarded as developing countries." Frydl's essay was widely circulated under the headline, "US is becoming a 'developing country' on global rankings that measure democracy, inequality."

This is not very surprising. At least not to anyone paying attention.
In a slightly less obvious, but still not surprising way is this leaked document.

A document signed RAND, under the opening heading of “Weakening Germany, strengthening the U.S.”, suggests that there is an “urgent need” for an influx of resources from outside to maintain the overall American economy, but “especially the banking system”.

“Only European countries bound by EU and NATO commitments can provide us with these without significant military and political costs for us.”

According to RAND, the main obstacle to this ambition is the growing independence of Germany. Among other things, it points out that Brexit has given Germany greater independence and made it more difficult for the United States to influence the decisions of European governments.

A key objective that permeates this cynical strategy is, in particular, to destroy the cooperation between Germany and Russia, as well as France, which is seen as the greatest economic and political threat to the United States.

”If implemented, this scenario will eventually turn Europe into not only an economic, but also a political competitor to the United States.”, it declares.

In order to crush this political threat, a strategic plan, primarily focused on destroying the German economy, is presented.

“Stopping Russian deliveries could create a systematic crisis that would be devastating for the German economy and indirectly for the European Union as a whole”, it states, and believes that the key is to draw the European countries into war.

“The only possible way to ensure that Germany rejects Russian energy supplies is to draw both sides into the military conflict in Ukraine. Our continued actions in this country will inevitably lead to a military response from Russia. Russia is clearly not going to leave to the massive Ukrainian army’s pressure on the Donetsk People’s Republic without a military response. This would make it possible to portray Russia as the aggressive party and then implement the entire package of sanctions, which has already been drawn up”.

I have some doubts about this document because it seems almost too perfect. On the other hand, it's completely believable.

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The report notching the US from First World ranking has not.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp @on the cusp
it describes the reality on the ground being plaid out in Ukraine by force of arms, and in the EU by the Russian trade and banking sanctions which now appear to be harming the EU (and the US) far more than Russia.

GW’s ‘debunked’ military records that ended Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes career comes to mind; accurate and damning information intentionally leaked, which included a single falsified document which was subsequently “revealed” and “debunked”. This had the effect of inoculating GWB from any further attacks based on his service records, regardless of the veracity of their content.

Remember our sweetheart Vicky Neuland’s recorded phone conversation discussing who the US should install in Ukraine? The one where the possible objection of the suggested replacement by certain EU members was brought up, to which Neuland ejaculated “Fuck the EU!”?

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes