Category: Uncategorized Page 1 of 84

by Tony Wikrent

Strategic Political Economy

Will the American Oligarchy Accept Limits or Choose World War Three?

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Conor Gallagher

Database Exposes ‘Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World’

Brett Wilkins, April 05, 2024 [CommonDreams]

“Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?”

Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the “Reactionary International“—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.

PI calls it an “illicit network undermining democracy around the world.”….

A cursory search of the database’s contents shows users can:

• Learn about Israel’s NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
• Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey’s roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
• Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun….

Global power shift

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by Tony Wikrent

Strategic Political Economy

Heather Cox Richardson Politics Chat: April 9, 2024

[Youtube, April 9, 2024]

[TW: 3:00 Two major things are occurring in USA, and they are closely tied to each other. One is what Trump is doing. The other is what the Republican Party is doing, which since 1981 has operated under the ideology that the way to make the country better is to concentrate wealth at the top of the economy, so the wisest and most business savvy cam invest it most efficiently to create growth and jobs.

5:30 Why the question “Is Trump a fascist?” is not really interesting or useful.

8:00 Even though the Founders were including only white wealthy males like themselves, the Declaration of Independence was radically revolutionary because it rejected the ideology that some people are better than others and should be the rulers. Trump and the people who support him have rejected this bedrock belief of American democracy; they believe some people are better than others, and they have the right to rule. They do not believe in human equality.

Trump is not running to win the popular vote. They realize they are a minority but believe they are correct and morally superior. They believe they are opposing the causes of USA decline.

Corporate leaders are seeking to protect their positions of privilege and the preferential tax treatment they have enjoyed under the Reagan, Bush and Trump tax cuts. They are determined to prevent Biden from upsetting their applecart.

25:30 The Republicans have only a minority of voters supporting them, and they recognize this. In 1986, they began their campaign of suppressing Democratic votes with their “ballot integrity” campaign. Then they began aggressive gerrymandering after the 2010 election which was the first election after the Citizens United decision allowed unlimited amounts of money into politics.

28:00 ? In 2007, Mitch McConnell became Senate leader, and he recognized that they did not have majority support. The clear majority of Americans liked Social Security, clean air and clear water, and business regulation. But, if Republicans could screw up Congress and prevent progressive legislation from being passed, they could pack the courts with people who believed like they did, and they could rewrite the laws by reinterpreting them, without passing any laws.

40:00 ? HCR lists Biden’s accomplishments, and concludes Biden is the most consequential President since LBJ and perhaps FDR. ]

If Trump Wins, the GOP Is Ready to Wage War on the Working Class

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by Tony Wikrent

Strategic Political Economy

Navies are obsolete, but no one will admit it 

[Crooked Timber, via Naked Capitalism 04-04-2024]

Rethinking tanks on the modern battlefield

Stephen Bryen [AsiaTimes 04-02-2024]

…The problem with adding explosive reactive armor (ERA) is that it is heavy. When you already have a 70-ton behemoth, adding another few tons makes its roadworthiness questionable. A key problem for the Leopard and Abrams tanks has been getting stuck in the mud in Ukraine, where they then can be picked off fairly easily….

The US has stopped upgrading the M-1 Abrams tank and canceled the latest modifications. It is clear that, given the new battlefield weapons, even the huge M-1 Abrams is not survivable. A new tank design is needed…. The M1 tank dates back to the period 1972 to 1975, meaning the design is at least 50 years old.

 

Gaza / Palestine / Israel

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza 

[972, via Naked Capitalism 04-04-2024]

A must-read. Exeptionally nasty.

Two Iranian Generals Killed in Israeli F-35 Strike on Damascus Diplomatic Building: Focus on Air Assassinations Continues 

[Military Watch, via Naked Capitalism 04-04-2024]

US opposes Palestine’s bid to become UN member state 

[Anadolu Agency, via Naked Capitalism 04-04-2024]

Israeli F-16s Provide Close Air Support to Turkish-Sponsored Jihadists in Syria’s Aleppo 

[Military Watch, via Naked Capitalism 04-01-2024]

Austin Calls for ‘Rapid Increase’ of Aid Into Gaza Through All Crossings (press release)

[U.S. Department of Defense, via Naked Capitalism 04-05-2024]

“2,000,000 humanitarian aid meals per day” via the pier.

Oligarchy

[X-Twitter, via Naked Capitalism 03-31-2024]

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by Tony Wikrent

Strategic Political Economy

There Are Four Postelection Scenarios, and Not One Is Good 

Brynn Tannehill, March 22, 2024 [The New Republic]

Secret RCMP report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are 

[National Post, via Naked Capitalism 03-24-2024]

“The coming period of recession will … accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations,” reads the report, entitled Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada.

“For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live,” it adds.

The report, labelled secret, is intended as a piece of “special operational information” to be distributed only within the RCMP and among “decision-makers” in the federal government.

Global power shift

This is the way the West ends 

[Asia Times, via Naked Capitalism 03-30-2024]

With the United States entangled in conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and the threat of a war with China looming large, Professor Michael Brenner’s insights and views on the state of the US-led liberal order are arguably as timely and important as ever….

MB: The entire foreign policy community in the United States now shares the basic tenets of neoconservatives. Actually, the scripture is Paul Wolfowitz’s notorious memorandum of March 1991 wherein he laid out a comprehensive, detailed strategy for systematizing American global dominance. Everything that Washington is doing, and thinking, now is derivative of that plan.

Its core principles: the United States should use all the means at its disposal to establish American global dominance; to that end, it must be ready to act preventively to stymie the emergence of any power that could challenge our hegemony; and to maintain full spectrum dominance in every region of the globe. Ideals and values are relegated to an auxiliary role as a veneer on the application of power and as a stick with which to beat others. Classic diplomacy is disparaged as inappropriate to this scheme of things.

For Biden himself, a confident, assertive, hard-edged approach to dealing with others derives naturally from belief in Americanism as a Unified Field Theory that explains, interprets and justifies whatever the US thinks and does. Were Biden reelected, this outlook will remain unchanged. And were he to be replaced by Kamala Harris mid-term, which is likely, inertia will keep everything on the fixed course.

‘Structural’ problem: top China scholar says US tensions will be ‘with us for a long time’ 

[South China Morning Post, via Naked Capitalism 03-25-2024]

India’s coal & lignite production at ‘historical’ one billion tonnes .

[The Hindu, via Naked Capitalism 03-25-2024]

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