FB Posting for January 9, 2021

 FB posting for January 9, 2021

Now as many of us pretend to have defeated fascism, a comical notion at best, can we finally ask this question: In nominating Victoria Nuland to the State Department as President-elect Biden has, will she engage in the same sort of Imperialist shenanigans as she did last time when she engineered a coup with neo-Nazi elements in the Ukraine? How many people remember when President Obama enlisted the support of neo-Nazis in the Ukraine in 2014 to overthrow that democratically-elected government? That action, known as the Maidan Revolution" was largely orchestrated by Victoria Nuland, the point person for President Obama when he chose to get into bed with neo-Nazi elements such as the Azov Battalion, the Svoboda Party and Right Sektor. Now you may be asking why would an African-American president get into bed with neo-Nazi elements? (otherwise, sadly, maybe you are re-plugging your head back into the sand by yelling "fake news!!!"). But this really happened.

The answer is a bit more complicated but is mostly about geopolitics, the neoconservative policy of encircling and provoking Russia (and recently China too) and attempting to reduce Russian regional influence. How could such a thing happen? How could an African-American President get into bed with Ukrainian neo-Nazis? It happened because those who really run and manage the U.S.-American Empire (which is not our elected civilian politicians) are dead set dedicated to provoking Russia and China, two geopolitical rivals they view as threatening U.S. Imperialist global domination (when either nation reacts to such provocations, they are then disingenuously accused of aggression [think Crimea]) --------but in fact, the office of the President does not manage the Empire because the office of the President of the United States is largely more just a figurehead with only a few powers to change the status quo. As we have seen time and time again when a President takes steps to change the status quo, they are largely undermined, subverted and out-maneuvered by those who are truly running our national foreign policy------those at the Pentagon and in the U.S. intelligence community along with their collaborators in the media, the corporate sector and academia, in short, the Establishment blob. How can a nation claim to be a democracy when civilian control is so thoroughly undermined? Well, they can claim anything but that does not make it true. To be genuinely anti-Imperialist and pro-democracy now requires one to be genuinely anti-Establishment.

https://original.antiwar.com/Danny_Sjursen/2021/01/07/the-neocon-empire-strikes-back-victoria-nuland-and-the-kagans-who-love-her/












"Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland engineered Ukraine’s “regime change” in early 2014 without weighing the likely chaos and consequences. Now, as neo-Nazis turn their guns on the government, it’s hard to see how anyone can clean up the mess that Nuland made, writes Robert Parry."

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/13/the-mess-that-nuland-made/










Do you want to know a dirty little secret? This is a dirty little secret:

If there were no Republicans elected and there were only Democrats that were elected---a 100% Democratic Congress and President----------
STILL NOT MUCH WOULD CHANGE!!! Why? Because the give lip service to your values even as the serve the corporations and the Pentagon. the Pentagon.

The 20th anniversary of the war on terror arrives.

"This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the war on terror, including America’s undeclared conflict in Afghanistan. After that war’s original moniker, Operation Infinite Justice, was nixed for offending Muslim sensibilities, the Pentagon rebranded it Operation Enduring Freedom. Despite neither a clear victory, nor the slightest evidence that enduring freedom had ever been imposed on that country, “U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan ended,” according to the Defense Department, in 2014. In reality, that combat simply continued under a new name, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, and grinds on to this very day."

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/07/will-americas-forever-wars-ever-be-over









"The U.S. government’s job is to protect its own people, and that should mean avoiding unnecessary involvement in destructive wars, not embracing them.

Yet in the nation’s capital foreign conflict attracts armchair field marshals like lights draw moths. There is an overwhelming desire throughout government bureaucracies, think tanks, and media newsrooms to get involved or, more accurately, to make others get involved. Opinion leaders rarely go themselves. But they are only too happy to send others to do the dirty work. Successive administrations have imposed sanctions, provided weapons, trained soldier, introduced troops, launched bombing raids, seized resources, occupied territory, and done more in assorted civil wars, including Syria."

https://original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2021/01/05/washingtons-endless-policy-bankruptcy-in-syria/










"In the American policy debates, there is a dangerous assumption that the pursuit of US hegemony can continue unquestioned, as Russia’s economy is not in the same league as the US’ and Moscow is not seeking confrontation with the US and NATO. But the signals coming from Moscow is that Russia will not surrender to the American notion of world domination. Moscow has drawn the conclusion that given the pervasive anti-Russia narrative that is firmly rooted among the American elite, any concessions on Russia’s part for the sake of a nominal improvement in relations with Washington no longer makes sense.

There is insufficient awareness on the American side that the danger of a nuclear confrontation is growing."

https://indianpunchline.com/us-risks-confrontation-with-russia/










The European Union is right and smart to look for economic opportunities with China rather than just posture for world in the grips of U.S. domination.


"Biden added that “on any issue that matters to the U.S.-China relationship,” including “ensuring security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, [we]are stronger and more effective when we are flanked by nations that share our vision for the future of our world.”

Biden’s quest is likely to fail. Indeed, just two days after the president-elect’s comments, the European Union signed a major investment deal with Beijing. RealityChek blogger Alan Tonelson contended that the EU’s action constituted a “punch in the mouth.” That may be an exaggeration, but negotiations had been going on for seven years, and there was no reason why EU leaders could not have held off and consulted with the Biden administration after it took office before taking final action. Their failure to do so indicated that the EU will chart its own course regarding economic relations with China based on an assessment of European interests, not U.S. policy preferences."

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/01/05/why-the-us-europe-front-against-china-is-pure-fantasy/










"A new book by a former Obama official condemns the war in Libya and takes the fight to the interventionists."

"Regime change leads to long-term costly failure even when it initially “works” at bringing down another government. Toppling a foreign government always causes more instability and costs more than its advocates expect. Both the U.S. and the affected country end up being worse off than if the old government had been left in place, and any ephemeral benefits that might come from overthrowing the government are soon far outweighed by the losses that follow. That is the main argument of Philip Gordon’s engaging Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East. Gordon’s thesis echoes many familiar non-interventionist and realist criticisms of regime change policies. TAC readers will find themselves nodding in agreement with many of his observations and conclusions.

The book is a useful survey of the U.S. record of regime change policies in the Middle East spanning from the 1953 U.S./U.K.-backed coup in Iran to the most recent unsuccessful effort to remove Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria. Because Gordon’s focus is on the impracticality of regime change, it leaves a few blind spots in his treatment of these policies. The illegality of these operations is never seriously discussed, nor is there an explicit acknowledgement that the U.S. has no right to decide the political futures of other countries. The audience Gordon wants to persuade are would-be regime changers by showing them that they cannot get what they want from toppling foreign leaders. Sometimes that leads him to concede too much."

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/rejecting-regime-change-for-good/









"As the 117th Congress prepares to get to work and President-elect Biden continues to put together his administration, it is time to repeal and replace the 2001 AUMF."

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/07/biden-and-congress-must-repeal-law-authorizing-endless-wars










"National security concerns must not become a talisman used to ward off inconvenient claims, a 'label' used to 'cover a multitude of sins.'"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/05/federal-judge-blocks-trump-order-targeting-lawyers-supporting-icc-afghan-war-crimes









"But why, exactly, are the U.S. and China rivals? Beneath the comparisons to any number of classical or modern conflicts, the reality is very different. China is not a threat in the way traditionally understood. There is nothing vital to American security or prosperity that China threatens. While the U.S. will be less powerful in the coming decades in relative global terms, that is inevitable with the rise of the developing world more generally, a trend Washington has encouraged.

China’s true menace is neither military nor geopolitical, but rather ideological. Its continuing success, even if it in no way harms the prosperity or security of most Americans, poses a major threat to the American political establishment, how it justifies its own power, and its understanding of the U.S. role in the world."

https://palladiummag.com/2020/12/14/chinas-real-threat-is-to-americas-ruling-ideology/








"Activists and reformers like Alhathloul have worked for years and sacrificed tremendously to pave the way for change in their country. But the atmosphere became dramatically more dangerous when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ascended to power. He perceives any dissent, criticism, or political or social independence in the country as a threat that must be crushed and eliminated. So he inaugurated his rule with the arrest, torture, detention and even killing, of hundreds of activists, religious leaders, scholars, journalists, and business leaders.

The abuses haven’t let up either. Even the royals haven’t been spared. The Crown Prince has jailed or put under house arrest the most prominent and powerful amongst them, including former Crown Prince and long-time CIA ally Mohamed bin Nayef, Princes Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, Faisal bin Abdullah, and Turki bin Abdullah.

MBS also tracked down and hunted dissidents outside the kingdom, most infamously ordering the abduction and murder of DAWN founder and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, but also ex-royal adviser Dr. Saad al-Jabri and journalist Ghada Oueiss. He now faces three lawsuits in U.S. federal district courts as a result."

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2020/12/29/jailed-saudi-womens-rights-activist-poses-early-test-for-biden/










"Periods of strife often benefit a small subset of interests quite well. The recent SolarWinds hack was no exception."

"Sorry Charlie, a bunch of breached public networks isn’t a game-changer. There are criminal botnets like 3ve that easily sport over a million compromised endpoints. What happened with SolarWinds is run of the mill subversion. The truth is that American spies have been jiggering supply chains and impersonating foreign entities on a global scale since the end of World War II and—hello—show no sign of slowing down. In fact if anyone knows how to hack foreign networks on an industrial scale it’s Uncle Sam."

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-deep-state-will-not-dial-down-hacking/









"It seems perverse that, a judgement against extradition having been made, Julian Assange should continue to be held in high security prison pending the U.S. government appeal, writes Craig Murray."

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/01/07/assange-bail-denied-both-tortuous-and-torturous/







"Contrary to what the judge who blocked his extradition implied, the Espionage Act does not include an exception for "responsible" journalism."

"Responding to Baraitser's decision, Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, warned that "the U.S. indictment of Assange will continue to cast a dark shadow over investigative journalism." In particular, he said, the nine counts focused on "pure publication" represent "an unprecedented attack on press freedom, one calculated to deter journalists and publishers from exercising rights that the First Amendment should be understood to protect."

https://reason.com/2021/01/06/the-case-against-julian-assange-is-also-a-case-against-the-press/









"On Monday January 4 a British court denied a U.S. request to extradite world renowned journalist and Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, to face charges in the U.S. under the Espionage Act. Shortly after this breaking news, President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), urged the U.K. to consider the possibility of freeing Assange and announced that Mexico “offers political asylum” to the activist.

This bold announcement by López Obrador draws a stark contrast to the revocation of asylum by the President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, who turned Assange over to British authorities in April 2019 after the journalist had spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. To provide political cover for this controversial act, part of the mainstream press deployed character assassination, painting an image of an erratic Assange, ungrateful for Ecuadorian hospitality. Numerous human rights and civil liberty organizations, however, denounced the decision of the Moreno administration to violate Assange’s diplomatic protection and allow the police to penetrate the Embassy building and arrest the journalist. The sudden reversal of Ecuador’s provision of asylum and protection was consistent, however, with Moreno’s dramatic pivot to the right after he was elected on a leftist platform. It was viewed by his critics as an act of subordination of Ecuador’s foreign policy to the imperatives of Washington.

The struggle to free Assange is far from over."

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/01/07/mexico-offers-asylum-to-assange-a-step-forward-for-government-accountability-and-press-freedom/









Don't believe the propagandists-----Julian Assange is the most sane, most genuine advocate of transparent government and accountability than most of those who work in mainstream corporate media. It is their paid silence that is criminal, sick and frankly insane------as they slut themselves as sycophants to a global murder machine------the U.S.-American Empire----an Empire that invariably comes home. They work for their own ultimate end-game oppression and so what better definition of insanity could there be?

“We lose sight of that fact that the reason he is going through this torture is because he had the gall and the temerity to expose U.S. war crimes and human rights violations,” she said, which included undercounting civilians deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, the torture and abuse of detainees, and covering up war crimes committed by Iraq forces working with Americans. “Keep in mind we would not know any of this if it were not for national security journalists publishing the classified information” put out there by Wikileaks, said Cohn.

For this reason Assange is a “national security threat,” said Chomsky. “What we have here is a security issue. But it’s the security of the state against its own citizens.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/julian-assange-gets-a-bit-of-breathing-room/










"Throughout Latin America, poor masses, the working class and young people are rising—in response to the deepening crisis imposed upon them by U.S. imperialist domination and neo-Liberal governments."

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/05/venezuela-elections-key-victory-anti-imperialist-movement-latin-america











"Hearing follows key ruling earlier this week blocking US attempt to extradite the WikiLeaks founder.

“He should not be deprived of his liberty for another day,” Rebecca Vincent, the director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told Al Jazeera.

“It would be a travesty to continue to detain him now in light of this decision,” she said."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/5/assange-appeal-bail









"What Baraitser failed to address was a core allegation that Assange, Manning and others (including this author) have made that national governments routinely and deliberately misuse the classification system to conceal their own crimes. In the case of Manning and Wikileaks, it was exposing potential U.S. Army war crimes in Iraq."

https://rightsanddissent.org/news/the-assange-extradition-decision-no-time-to-celebrate/









"Washington has wanted Assange permanently silenced and made an example of – by demonstrating to other journalists its terrifying reach and powers of retaliation – ever since the WikiLeaks founder exposed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago."

https://original.antiwar.com/cook/2021/01/07/the-us-and-uk-are-making-assanges-death-more-likely/









"From the Cold War to the War on Terror: the harms from authoritarian "solutions" are often greater than the threats they are ostensibly designed to combat."

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/violence-in-the-capitol-dangers-in