The Weekly Watch

Creating (Evermore) Control

Open Thread Image.jpg

There's a power grab in plain sight...easy to see for those who look. There's the rapid move toward government controlled digital currency to track your every purchase. TPTB are passing "no protests allowed laws" in some countries. The UN is creating a preponderance of new health regulations in addition to their "Pandemic Treaty". The so called "Green Movement" has become yet another means of control as they require the sale of farmland, dictate the car you can drive, and want to corral you into "15 minute cities". All the levers of control are being driven by a complicit media propaganda megaphone. The Censorship Industrial Complex silences those who reveal their lies with Julian as the most obvious case, and many other examples we'll discuss below fold...

hand-about-to-grab-earth-3-clipart_csp1275401-2971856255.jpg

Coming out of the pandemic has left me particularly suspicious of so called health mandates. The idea that the UN can dictate what we "must" submit to, take, and do in global lockstep is wrongheaded from the start. You want different approaches for comparison, beside their track record was really, really bad. Why on Earth would you take orders from such an incompetent "bought" organization. Hopefully the western WEF minion leadership class, that cares more about their "club" than their countries, will not be able to shove this down our throats.

Notes under clip... (12.7 min)
Some British MPs speak out, Article by Article Compilation of Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005). WHO could gain powers to impose lockdown on UK. MPs fear new treaty designed to increase the organisation’s powers would enable it to enforce border closures and vaccine passports.
Written to ministers,
“ambition evident…for the WHO to transition from an advisory organisation to a controlling international authority”
Urge the Foreign Office to block powers that “appear to intrude materially into the UK’s ability to make its own rules and control its own budgets”.
Changes to make WHO advice 'binding'
“recognise WHO as the guidance and coordinating authority of international public health response…and undertake to follow WHO’s recommendations in their international public health response”.
'Particularly worrying'
to call for a Commons vote on the draft treaty and regulations before they are signed.

John continues the discussion on the new international health regulations with James Roguski (article at link) in an extended 50 min discussion.
Silence Equals Consent offers some ways to voice concerns.

As an aside I caught a revealing piece which explains how the WHO is responsible for the lie that meat is bad for us. They cherry picked data from poor studies to push their mistaken agenda.
'What is the beef with beef?' 30 min w/ 15 min Q&A

The problem is they don't want to hear our concerns. TPTB are trying to pave new ways to silence us, and already have tools to inhibit and silence dissent, and it is happening across the so called "collective west".
(3 min)

Sadly, South Australia joins the other states with similar anti-protest laws.
The South Australian government has passed legislation to lift fines for obstructing a public place from $750 to $50,000 – or three months jail – after a marathon 14-hour overnight debate.
...
The legislation was introduced after an Extinction Rebellion protest last Wednesday, in which a Willunga woman abseiled [rappeled] from the Morphett Street bridge above Adelaide’s North Terrace and caused widespread peak-hour traffic disruption.

Here in the US just providing bail for protesters can land you in jail.
The Details of the Atlanta Bail Fund Arrest Are More Horrific Than First Described

Early on Wednesday morning, police officers from the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation raided the Teardown House, a hub for a constellation of organizing activity in East Atlanta. At least a dozen officers in riot gear, wielding assault rifles, arrested three organizers from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a nonprofit that supports people who are arrested for protest or activism. The Solidarity Fund pays bail, provides jail support, and refers people who have been arrested to available lawyers. In other words, the Solidarity Fund connects people who are still presumed innocent to things that they are legally entitled to: the ability to have others pay their bail and a lawyer to represent them in court.

As a collective of people who post bail for strangers, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund is one of nearly a hundred organized bail funds around the country. These community bail funds share a sense that the state should not be subjecting people to the violence of jail simply because they cannot pay their bail. More essentially, bail funds understand that one powerful way to push back against the injustice of pretrial detention is to join together in the act of paying bail for strangers.

Early on Wednesday morning, police officers from the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation raided the Teardown House, a hub for a constellation of organizing activity in East Atlanta. At least a dozen officers in riot gear, wielding assault rifles, arrested three organizers from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a nonprofit that supports people who are arrested for protest or activism. The Solidarity Fund pays bail, provides jail support, and refers people who have been arrested to available lawyers. In other words, the Solidarity Fund connects people who are still presumed innocent to things that they are legally entitled to: the ability to have others pay their bail and a lawyer to represent them in court.

As a collective of people who post bail for strangers, the Atlanta Solidarity Fund is one of nearly a hundred organized bail funds around the country. These community bail funds share a sense that the state should not be subjecting people to the violence of jail simply because they cannot pay their bail. More essentially, bail funds understand that one powerful way to push back against the injustice of pretrial detention is to join together in the act of paying bail for strangers.

In the case of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, much of their focus in the past year has been on providing this collective support to activists in their local movement to stop “Cop City,” shorthand for the Atlanta Police Foundation’s plan to raze 85 acres of the Weelaunee Forest and, in its place, build a $90 million police training complex that includes a small model city in which to practice police tactics. The Cop City project would, in turn, be funded by at least $30 million in Atlanta’s public funds, and possibly as much as $51 million in public money. For more than two years, the Stop Cop City movement has pushed back against this proposal, through protest actions and tactics ranging from occupation of the forest to mass testimony at city council hearings on the proposal. In return, local and state police have continuously surveilled and criminalized these activities, beginning with the arrests of protesters in September 2021. The movement lost its first member to state violence when, in January 2023, Georgia State Patrol killed a 26-year-old nonbinary movement activist who was known as Tortuguita, and who was shot at least 57 times by patrol officers while they sat cross-legged in the forest. According to the police, Tortuguita fired first and hit a state trooper, but the available evidence—including the autopsy report, body camera footage, and a lack of gunpowder residue on Tortuguita’s body—point to the state trooper being hit by a fellow officer and Tortuguita’s hands being up in the air when they were gunned down in cold blood.

Jimmy explains in more detail...Paying Bail For Cop City Protesters Is Now A CRIME In Georgia! (14 min)
Police in Georgia have escalated their war against protesters trying to derail the so-called “Cop City” development in an Atlanta area forest. Recently Atlanta police arrested three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund who collected and disbursed donated bail money for activists arrested protesting Cop City. The three were charged with the felony crimes of charity fraud and money laundering but their real crime was to oppose the police state, and now they’re being used as an example. Jimmy and Kurt Metzger discuss the way accusations of “terrorism” have expanded and are now routinely deployed against anyone dissenting from the establishment’s party line.

Reporters are being targeted for wrong speak. Julian is the prime example, but others are occurring on the regular...

How free is free speech in the U.K.? Well it isn't a good sign that the Grayzone reporter Kit Klarenberg was detained when landing in England due to his war coverage that is antagonistic to the government. Should we start fearing our government now when journalists are detained for telling the truth? We speak to Klarenberg about this chilling turn of events.

Gonzalo has been arrested in Ukraine for wrong speak. The State Dept. is questioned. First few minutes of Alex report.

I'm concerned for Max, he may be pushing the envelope too far challenging TPTB...
The Grayzone debates National Endowment for Democracy VP on group's CIA ties (19 min)
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) contacted The Grayzone to dispute our characterization of their organization as a CIA cutout. Listen to the highly revealing conversation that ensued with the NED’s communications director.
Article here.

Max Blumenthal had some questions for the socially progressive imperialists at the Truman Project.
Max Blumenthal TROLLS Woke Warmongers in EPIC Fashion (3.7 min)

While at TruCon (a true con alright) Max challenges the MadCow...hope he didn't catch her disinformation disease being so close to her. (13 min)

The Grayzone reporter Max Blumenthal recently attended the Truman Center for National Policy’s annual national security conference, an event designed to promote the security state among left-leaning Democrats. And with such a directive it’s no surprise that a key speaker at this year’s TruCon would be MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.

Jimmy fans might enjoy a 2 hour discussion with Jimmy on Niko house' show Revolutionary Blackout where he makes a number of epic rants as only Jimmy can.

Max Blumenthal On Rising: USAID Director Says QUIET PART OUT LOUD Re: Ukraine Funding.

More on DIIA...
Ukraine's dystopian digital snitching app premiers in DC (30 min)
The Grayzone's Anya Parampil and Max Blumenthal discuss their reporting from the USAID's DC rollout of the dystopian Diia "state in a smartphone" app introduced by the government of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. Parampil and Blumenthal discuss how the Ukrainian conflict zone has been turned into a profitable laboratory for corporations seeking to profit from the harvesting of personal data from the war-torn population, how it is used to control and intimidate Ukraine's population, and how this disturbing technology is being exported throughout the global south.

Talk about control...you can see the plan if you look!
In addition to the app you'll have CBDC incorporated into your government program.
The Bank of Canada is exploring a digital currency. Here’s why that is terrifying

Unlike the digital digits we see on our credit cards, payment services, and bank accounts, the digital dollars of CBDC would be issued and backed by the central bank. When a person has 100 dollars in their bank account, it means that their bank is liable that they can use the money. Conversely, in the future when a person will have 100 CBDC dollars, the central bank will be liable for it.
...
In its current form, the idea of a Digital Canadian Dollar is presented detached from the terrifying possibilities it opens, and it does not entail any meaningful safeguards for democratic oversight. As such, we risk being led to digital-financial control of the population and to deterioration of structural discrimination. Responsible development and implementation must consider these worries and draw red lines.

Seems to me different country are performing different experiments, Canada the CBDC, the Netherlands farm take overs, sex identity as a distracting wedge issue in the UK and elsewhere, and so on. TPTB have an agenda and it doesn't benefit th people but it does the powerful elite.

Debt Ceiling bill, Who Loses? Rep Andy Biggs (23 min)
Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona joins Judge Nap to discuss the national debt.
"How bad was this legislation?" - Biggs weighs in hard stating this will have a multi-generational impact and we're on the brink of economic disaster.

One of the most effective propaganda techniques is to simply not report issues of concern or embarrassment. Circling back to health, As we've discussed there are excess death rates around the globe. Global Excess Mortality Rates — Where’s the Investigation?

Heart issues have become more common in younger people. A recent study found that heart attacks in people ages 25 to 44 increased by 30% compared to the expected number.

Also Stokes are on the increase in younger people.
Massive increase in young people having STROKES (9.5 min)
Article here.

But wait there's more. Cancer is on the rise too.
Cancer mystery as cases rise among younger people around the world

Now if TPTB were really concerned about our health there would be a massive push to understand the root cause of increased mortality.

Another important story which still hasn't hit the MSM is the depth and corruption of the Biden crime family and the suppression by not only media but government agencies like the FBI. So, bits are beginning to fall through the cracks. (This goes double for the Clinton Crime Cartel).

(3.7 min)

infinite war_1.jpg

Lets wrap with a look at our endless wars which we were lied into and are continually misled.

Scott Ritter: NATO's war on Russia has failed

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter joins Redacted to talk about his month long trip to Russia and what he saw in the stores, streets, and among the people. What he saw is frankly SHOCKING. Moscow was hit with another round of drone strikes by NATO and Ukrainian forces. Russia just struck Ukraine's intelligence headquarters destroying it.

Mike Jones discusses conditions on the front lines in Ukraine
with George Galloway. (15 min)
A day trip to the front line in Soledar turned out to be much more than that. Mike Jones explains how shelling and a communication blackout extended it.

The US/NATO alliance is stirring up more shit in their invented country of Kosovo. Glenn Diesen talks with George about the situation. Professor Glenn Diesen explains how Nato forcibly took Kosovo from Serbia and why the latest trouble flared.

U.S. Building ANOTHER Illegal Military Base In Syria (7.5 min)

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the US military is currently occupying a third of the nation of Syria and, based on recent news, it looks like the U.S. won’t be leaving any time soon. That’s because the military is reportedly building a new military base in Syria’s northern province of Raqqa. Jimmy and Kurt Metzger discuss the U.S. military’s ongoing occupation of Syria and the sheer hypocrisy of doing so while criticizing Russia for invading Ukraine.

All these wars pale compared to the one the US is attempting to brew with China...
This is What Happens Next in the US China War (12.5 min)
The US and China are marching closer to war and both countries want control of the Asia Pacific region. There is a small circle of influence in Asia Pacific that contains 4.2 billion people and whoever wins control of this circle wins control of the future of the world. China is the No 1 trading partner for EVERY country in Asia Pacific but the US is actively expanding it military presence, who will win control?

levers1-l-1532405316.jpg

There's so much more to say about all the new levers of power from AI to financial means of control. I hope you'll add your thoughts in the comments below and fill in my missing blanks. It is plain to see if you look, but the people are absorbed in the theater and circus of the day and miss what is being done to them on the large scale. It really is no fault of theirs, the MSM lies to them on the regular. That is what makes this community valuable. Thanks for being here and contributing to our knowledge!
See you in the comments.

Share
up
17 users have voted.

Comments

Lookout's picture

I just want to say how nice the Florida Folk Festival was last weekend. Unbelievably cool, dropping into the 50's at night and only reaching 80 a couple of days. No rain either. Our sets and dances went well, and we played four days straight. I had to spend the next four days at home recovering from sleep deprivation and the long drive.

Hope you didn't mind the filler piece I left while I was gone. Hope I made it up this week with the complex topic of the new (and old) means of control which have been and will be imposed.

up
8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The WEF moved up the timing of their ‘Great Reset’ power grab.

Is the pending collapse of the international dollar dominance, the failing Ukraine proxy war against Russia AND the crushing level of US debt service part of the impetus for the big hurry up?

A One World totalitarian government and digital currency doesn’t play out so well with the multi polar trading partnerships that are now rapidly forming. The future looks much brighter to me if it were to include the economic diversity and the resilience of a multi-polar structure rather than embarking on a totalitarian and trans-human dystopia nightmare.

up
11 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

@ovals49

The collective west has proven itself to be a failed system serving the elite using increasingly authoritarian measures.

We were lucky to live in the golden age of Post-WWII America, but the goal of ever more profit and of global hegemony has ruined the prospects of our future. Hope the fall of the empire doesn't bring on WWIII which will prove fatal to perhaps the entire planet. As I've often said, I hope the economic collapse precedes a global war so that we can't afford the conflict.

If only we could jettison this corrupt leadership class.

Thanks for the visit!

up
10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Happy to hear your folk fest went well in spite of the sleep deprivation.
We don't bounce back quite as quickly anymore.

You and ovals have distilled-down the state of affairs very well.
Strong drink to swallow. How to get to a multi-polar world
representing the culture and needs of the many diverse nations
of the world is one of the biggest challenges of our times.

We are fighting the financial juggernaut that seeks to subjugate us
all to their agenda. Best case scenario skips the armeggedon solution.
De-fund the pentagon and erase the secret intelligence agencies
we would be about 1/2 way there.

Thanks for the watch. A place for progressives to learn together.

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS

A place for progressives to learn together.

as well as conservatives. In fact the only anti-war voices are now of the repub persuasion. Up is down, black is white, and "so called" progressives are pro war, pro censorship, and pro FBI. You can't make it up. Whatta world!

Thanks for dropping by today. Hope your boat is afloat and sailing well!

up
11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

progressive means open to the winds of change (to me)
left don't exist anymore, it has been spliced out of meaning

two boats hit the water yesterday, third still getting fixed

Peace Los Lobos style

up
6 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

Hallelujah!!

What kind of country is one in which this happens

and we do this over and over again

The 4th Reich is what amerikkka is now, from sea to shining sea

up
11 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Lookout's picture

@ggersh

We are a failed country...and that is true in many ways and levels. The Gaddafi stats are spot on, and the US couldn't stand by and let Libya create a gold based African currency. Nor allow Saddam to continue selling his oil in Euros. Interesting during that time Saddam was using Euros, the Euro exceeded the value of the USD. And Syria had to audacity to place their country in the way of our pipeline. Etc. Etc...

A failed state indeed as people live homeless under bridges, hold the world's largest prison population, sell most of the arms and weapons in the world, and those descriptors go on and on.

Thanks for the tweets and visit!

up
9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

It was thoughtful of you to put it up for us.
Your weather at the festival sounds like the folk festival gods meant for all of you playing and listening to be very well.
Before I dig in to your articles and videos, I just wanted to comment about cops and protests, and the ever-expanding legal definition of "terrorism".
Cops must be trained to focus on an objective and method, to the exclusion of any thought that they have family and friends that could very well be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and suffer life-destroying police actions.
Felony convictions cause people to be limited on where they can work, where they can attend school, and where they can live. Landlords typically will not rent to a convicted felon.
Some years ago, some college kids got charged with trespassing at a protest. I represented one of them pro bono. It was the XL Pipeline, iirc. The prosecutorial hostility toward anybody messing with Big Oil was palpable.
Will Georgia go after pro bono defense attorneys next?
What will it take for prosecutors and cops to understand they are tools to destroy the Constitution?
Will they be for us or against us?
Time will tell.

up
8 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

I leave something to create an OT. My normal routine is to write about where we're going, in part to educate myself, and therefore better appreciate the destination. None the less, I don't like to miss the weekly news recap from my perspective, but life is about more than the news for sure!

COP CITY is designed to teach more military tactics than conflict resolution. Instead of defund the police it should have been change the direction from catch 'em to help 'em...in other words public service. That sort of thinking seems foreign in America's climate. I know, you know.

Once sentenced it is about retribution and punishment not reformation and training for re-entry. The Judicial system is little more than a rubber stamp for the elite.

Glad you came by today, and hope your weather is moderating!

up
5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

ggersh's picture

corporations have taken over all the western govt's. You
think that the TPP isn't a thing, think again.

Jimmy Dore explains it w/Matt Kennard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__BTVcmRpcc

up
6 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Lookout's picture

@ggersh

we "talk" about this all the time!

Declassified UK reporter Matt Kennard has written a book titled Silent Coup:
How Corporations Overthrew Democracy, detailing the specific measures instituted around the globe that have sought to guarantee private profites for major transnational corporations at the expense of democracy — measures that have included everything from violent coups to international “free trade” agreements that are anything but. Jimmy and Kurt Metzger talk to Matt about the creeping global trend towards complete corporatization that’s involved mass violence, the World Bank and IMF programs and the widespread sacrifice of individual nation’s sovereignty.

I caught that on jimmy's live stream this week. There were several excellent clips with Max which I bet will be upcoming. Which reminds me, George Galloway's MOATS live stream is today. On his you can wait an hour and then fast forward to the parts you want to see and hear. Jimmy's live stream doesn't back up nor go forward. His staff later post clips from the stream.

up
6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The title of the video is misleading.

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey

Doug Mac. is a busy man. He does so many interviews...several a day. He has two channels.
https://www.youtube.com/@douglasmacgregorcol5835
and
https://www.youtube.com/@DouglasMacgregorStraightCalls

Thanks again!

up
5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

often deal with the same subject and it is quite revealing.

@Lookout

up
4 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey

I'll check it out.

up
2 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@humphrey
to get past YT and search engine censorship/search suppression and such.

Simple, but seems to be at least somewhat effective, for now anyway...

Ukraine Axis.png

up
7 users have voted.

@Blue Republic

I never would of thought of that. If I hadn't watched the video I have wouldn't have noticed the trickery in the title.

up
4 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@Blue Republic

the quotation marks are not a dead give-away to who/what ever is computing.

up
3 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

is hard at work to make sure people can't hear different views. There are some work around from title changes to claims like Jimmy uses to say vaccines are safe and effective in his comic way...wink, wink.

More and more people are moving to Rumble, and several of my favorites are on locals. Others like James Cobert (another Japan resident), simply create their own website. Substack is another text based alternative.

Bottom line, truth tellers must seek alternative to the standard media like YT. Suppression is the name of their game. Control the message, control the people.

Nice to "see" you and hope all is well!

up
5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Also continues to cozy up to BRICS

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey

The CIA has a target on it, IMO. Saudi already joined the SCO. BRICS is next. Have you heard of the Petro BRICS. I only recently heard to term.

How about a BRICS CBDC and Petro-BRICS?
Or, a simpler and straightforward approach could be to use a currency indexed to the weighted average of a basket of currencies. This provides a much more manageable and neat trade settlement mechanism and a diversified reserve asset base to hold onto.

The idea of a global weighted average currency is not new. English economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes first suggested such a currency called Bancor in the 1940s. Keynes elaborated that the value of such a currency could be fixed to a basket of commodities, such as gold, wheat, and cotton, which would stabilise its value and prevent currency fluctuations.

As international groups go, BRICS is most suited for an alternative trade or reserve currency system. It’s a purely economic grouping of the “next large economies” dominated by the Global East and Global South—a perfect diversification anecdote to the Global West’s Petro-dollar system. Being purely economic grouping also helps nations with disparate geopolitical goals to come together. Having commodity producers and consumers, fiscal deficit, and fiscal surplus nations in the group also augurs very well for creating a sustained trade group.

I think that is the main topic for the upcoming BRICS meeting in August.

Take care!

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey
The African leaders are largely through with western imperialism, and are not afraid to say so.

The UK is creating a ministry of truth...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counter-disinformation-unit-o...

Thanks again for the clip calling out the hypocrisy.

up
5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

soryang's picture

...in more ways than one.

China's Minister of National Defence Li Shangfu had this week declined an invitation to meet Austin at the security summit. Li, a general who has been sanctioned by the U.S., delivers his own speech on Sunday.

On Friday, the two shook hands on the sidelines of the conference but did not hold detailed talks, the Pentagon said.

"A cordial handshake over dinner is no substitute for a substantive engagement," Austin said.

Dialogue between the two countries has stalled since

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a visit to China

in February after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was tracked flying across the United States.

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said on Friday in an emailed statement that communication between China and the U.S. was conducive to a greater mutual understanding.

"However, now the U.S. says it wants to speak to the Chinese side while seeking to suppress China through all possible means and continue imposing sanctions on Chinese officials, institutions and companies," the statement said.

U.S. defense chief tells China talks essential to avoid crisis
REUTERS June 3, 2023
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14924211

This is the link to Austin's speech from Shangri la, I mean Singapore-
https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech/Article/3415839/a-shared-vi...

Some misleading statements in the Austin's presentation-

1) The US isn't trying to create a NATO in the Indo-Pacific.
2) The US isn't trying to displace the centrality of ASEAN in Southeast Asia.
3) The US hasn't neglected its relationships with the smaller Pacific Island countries, only to resume activities there only because of Chinese overtures to the region.
4) Austin categorized Taiwan as an "ally" along with other traditional US Western Pacific and East Asian allies. Taiwan is not a sovereign state.
5) He characterized the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling against China's maritime claims in the South China Sea as "final." The ASEAN countries already have a Code of Conduct for negotiating disputed maritime claims in the South China Sea. How could one have a sincere desire to negotiate rather than exacerbate military conflict, when the other principal party in the dispute is told that an ex parte "mandatory arbitration" it rejected on multiple legal grounds is "final?" China regards the arbitration findings and opinion "void."
6) Austin erroneously characterized disputed fishing rights in the South China as a "freedom of navigation" issue. It isn't, typically it's a dispute of maritime rights to economic exploitation of marine resources between the respective parties involved in competing EEZ claims, which incidentally don't include the US.
7) Austin misleadingly portrayed with some vague equivocation, that the US wasn't concerned with the type of government an Indo-Pacific state might have when the topic of communist Vietnam was raised. This is a display of hypocrisy and cynicism, characteristic of US Asian policy. The US routinely interferes in the internal affairs of "Indo-Pacific" states to achieve its geo-political objectives.

This twitter link goes to some of Tim Shorrock's critique of the Shangri la presentation.

Here's a recent take by Cyrus Janssen on China related international affairs in the so called "Indo-Pacific." (it's about 12 minutes long, no commercials in this one).

Video Shows Chinese Warship Nearly Hitting U.S. Destroyer in Taiwan Strait
BY ELLIE COOK 6.4 9:03 AM EDT

https://www.newsweek.com/china-warship-us-destroyer-uus-chung-hoon-taiwa...

On Saturday, the U.S. Navy's Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said that the Chinese vessel "executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner" close to the U.S.S Chung-Hoon, which was moving through the Taiwan Strait on June 3 alongside a Canadian frigate, according to reports from HMCS Montreal.

China Defends Buzzing American Warship in Taiwan Strait, Accuses US of Provoking Beijing
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-06-03/china-defends-buzz...

up
5 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

up
8 users have voted.
soryang's picture

@humphrey Pure and simple. As the relative power of the China increases, it just becomes needless provocation. I have to say I don't approve when either party does it. It unnecessarily jeopardizes human lives and risks military conflict.

I would prefer if the exact coordinates of the incident were recorded every time, and made available to the public, so we could judge the pros and cons of why it happened, and what mitigating factors there might be, if any. Gratuitously flying military aircraft and warships repeatedly through the area, does give the impression of a threat, that's why the US calls it "presence."

I don't accept all the arguments at SCSPI but it seems to me there is a difference between aggressively navigating military assets "anywhere its legal to do so," and using common sense and restraint during times of increased tension. No NATO in Asia, just what are the Canadians doing there? The Chinese aren't going to back down. Austin was in Singapore said Taiwan was an "ally." What kind of reaction do they expect?

Thanks for the tweet. Wish I could read the "simplified" Chinese.

up
5 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

Lookout's picture

@soryang
Yes, I caught Cyrus good explanation, and even included it in the last link. Thanks for featuring it to increase the views.

Given US aggression, who can criticize the response. Imagine China arming Puerto Rico and declaring them an independent country and ally. US response would be far more brutal.

We're sure in global flux.

Thanks for coming by!

up
6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

soryang's picture

@Lookout for the WW and open thread. I cut my post down to size, I had some remarks on recent South Korean measures against dissent, and media censorship underway right now. In the process I cut off my thanks to you.

I'm still trying to discern all the legal ins and outs of the South Korean oppression of freedom of expression. Maybe I'll post it later after more review.

Glad you enjoyed your visit to FL for the folk festival. Those who live further south often regard the region as southern Georgia. I lived in Jacksonville for years, and my son's family has lived in Southern GA for years, so I used to take offense at the expression. It can be rather backward. It has a lot of contradictions. I spent quite a bit of time at Georgia truckstops on the way out and on the way home. I preferred to stop at truck stops near Atlanta because I found the area slightly more enlightened. Given the recent cop city news, another GA contradiction. Hope to get back to Southern GA soon to visit, "muh kin."

up
6 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

Lookout's picture

@soryang

We do, but interpret it through an elite lens. You have free speech if you say the "right" things.

Gonzalo's Dad was on MOATS today...

Combined with Alex tweet in the body where the State department basically allowed they were glad he was silenced..much like Julian.

All the best!

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

TheOtherMaven's picture

And no, I don't mean they're adapting the Orwell classic - just adopting some of his Thought Control ideas.

It's a long story, involving revisions, reversions, relaunches, revamps, reboots, and Big Reality-Changing Event after Big Reality-Changing Event in quick succession. But the short of it is that two of DC's longest-running characters have had, or are about to have, their pasts shoved down the Memory Hole.

This has already been done to Wonder Woman. (DC has never really known what to do with her after her creator, William Moulton Marston, died.) Her New 52 "relaunch" (back in 2011) involved a grafted Grimdark past where her people, the Amazons, were murderous sex pirates and she was never molded out of clay but conceived in the human way by an affair between Hippolyta and Zeus. Most of this was flushed away by another Major Reality-Changing Event, "Rebirth" (though her being a "properly born" child stuck) and the Grimdark Amazon backstory was "revealed" as "Lies". (We still aren't all that sure what "The Truth" is.)

DC has never really known what to do with Alan Scott, the Original Green Lantern, after they introduced their New Improved space-cop model, Hal Jordan. For a while he and the Justice Society (the first ever super-team) prospered as long as they were confined to a parallel universe (Earth-2) and allowed only occasional crossovers with the Justice League (Superman, Batman, Hal/Green Lantern, et al) or individual members thereof. But then came Crisis on Infinite Earths, the granddaddy and Onlie Begetter of all the Crises that have beset the DC Universe/Multiverse/Megaverse ever since, and the JSA were dumped onto the same Earth as the Justice League, where they were essentially superfluous. All sorts of craziness ensued, including repeated attempts to eliminate the JSA from existence (Zero Hour killed most of them off, then Final Crisis erased them from ever having existed, and JSA fans were fobbed off with an all-new, all-NOW, totally recreated from the ground up group on an All-New version of Earth-2 that never got as far as having a proper name, while their world was destroyed around them again and again). But for a while before the chaos got too much for them, the survivors had found their footing as mentors to the next generation of superheroes, and their book was popular enough at times to challenge the pre-eminence of the Justice League (this was one reason for the bait and switch - DC Editorial did not want any challenges to the League's popularity).

So, anyway, it proved impossible to eliminate the JSA, and Alan Scott in particular, on a permanent basis. But they could, and they DID, graft on an "improvement" from "Earth-2", where that version of Alan Scott had been an openly gay man. Now, this totally invalidates every single bit of his pre-"New 52" history, where he was clearly and explicitly depicted as 110% straight in the shade and more than a bit of a ladies' man, not to mention happily married with a wife he adored and had literally gone to Hell for. So DC has been dropping hints that "It Never Was So", and has a planned six-issue miniseries which will completely rewrite his entire past from 1940 to 2020, including a bullshit explanation for a "middle name" that he never had until the mid-1980s, when Roy Thomas had a brain fart trying to remember what it was (Wellington, per a story in All-American #38, 1942) and substituted "Ladd" because there was a long-standing (and totally false) legend that he had originally going to be named "Alan Ladd", as a switch-up on "Aladdin" (because lamp) until somebody pointed out there was already an actor by that name (there was, but he was still toiling away in obscurity and wouldn't become famous until two years after Alan's introduction).

80 years of DC history down the Memory Hole, just so that DC can have one of their better-known mid-range characters waving the Pride flag. (They wouldn't DARE hand it to Wonder Woman, even though with her background she was almost certainly raised lesbian. And while they will allow secondary members of the Bat-family and Super-family to be "Out", they will never do that to THE Batman or THE Superman. Or for that matter to "THE" Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, as they have already screwed him over too many times.)

And anyone who points out that this is a Bad Idea is greeted with screeches of "Homophobe!" and Banhammers.

up
6 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Lookout's picture

@TheOtherMaven

...of all types seems to be the MO...from text books to statues, and now you inform me, to comic book series. Whatta world!

Thanks for the comic insight!

up
4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Pluto's Republic's picture

...that the American People never had the authority or wherewithal to pull the US out of its hellish Empire insanity. From the very beginning it was a house divided, and the People are compelled to work against their own well being.

USians live on the safest continent in the world and yet they are haunted by phantom enemies that are based on words they can only define using meaningless slogans. These cognitive limitations have made them belligerent and they are proud of their ignorance. The government tells them they must fight wars in distant countries to prevent a possible invasion of United States. The People never question this absolutely ludicrous assertion.

The People were never asked to consent to the dangerous and financially risky attempt by the Federal Government to seize Empirical Rule over all countries on the planet. This drama is unfolding right now outside the US, without domestic input. The majority of Americans have blinded themselves to foreign affairs. They are not aware that the neocon Security Council has allowed US nuclear-safe treaties to expire and they are taking steps to destroy the US' two most successful peers, China and Russia.

It's just as well that People in the US are unaware of the geopolitical crisis underway. There is nothing they can do to stop it — the US and its "democracy" have never really been under their control or subject to their consent. US corporations and their financiers have been steering the Ship of State since the Industrial Revolution, and they have been in full control throughout the 21st Century. The US Corporate overlords have built a news-media monopoly and a powerful class of monied Elites who fully support their attempted global coup. They even found a place to install the nation's influential religious ideologues — the Supreme Court.

What the US coup government does internationally should no longer be seen as a problem for the American People, and the People are wise to keep their heads down and attend to their personal lives and interests. There is no way to stop what is happening from inside the United States. The Left ideology does not officially exist anywhere in US politics; the philosophy was never allowed to form as a movement in the US. I would advise any authentic "Leftist" activists and organizers and journalists to walk away. Develop alternative ways to stay in touch if you must, but if you plan to remain in the United States, immerse your interests elsewhere. Even if some pockets of social media remain open, they will exist to snag dissenters.

The US is a problem, not for us, but for the rest of the world. The sovereign nations of the world have had more than enough time to perfect their defenses, develop sustainability and key trade agreements, join useful alliances, and evolve more enlightened and enduring forms of diplomacy. They know which nations are trustworthy, and which will betray them. Our future is now in their hands.

up
8 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Lookout's picture

@Pluto's Republic

...perhaps not much has changed. After we conquered the continental US we moved overseas using the "Remember the Maine" false flag, and never stopped. It is our right!

Whatta mentality.

I think this is particularly on point.

There is nothing that can be done to stop what is happening from inside the United States. The Left does not officially exist in US politics; it was never allowed to form in the US. I would advise Leftist activists and protestors and journalists to walk away. Develop alternative ways to stay in touch if you must, but if you plan to remain in the United States, immerse yourself in other aspects of life and community. Even if some pockets of social media remain open, they will exist to snag dissenters.

Whitney Webb says very much the same thing, and suggests they sell the public on the agenda with convenience.

Thanks for your excellent comment!

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

failure of the Russian sanctions.
I want to emphasize something I learned from my extremely educated guides on my trip to Russia.
What Russians hate is surprise. Sudden change. Shock. They like consistency. They had Stalin, they figured out how to just live with him. Decades later, Yeltsin. Another abrupt change and shock. They hate it so much more than a government they do not like.
They rock on, day in and day out, with Putin. no surprises. They have figured out how to live in Putin's Russia.
They tend to adjust over time to most anything, and at this time, they are pretty much thriving. They want it to stay that way.
They will NEVER give up Russia, or give up on it. They will adjust, they will make it.

up
7 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

and as Scott says, after his month there, they have won the economic war. All we are winning is a PR propaganda war. Scott suggests the SMO will conclude in late summer, early fall.

Have a good week!

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

...see you tomorrow.

up
6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”