A new revised direction on Geopolitics out of the United States. It’s very clear now.

Enjoy this article and be careful with the USA/Ukie propaganda. It is everywhere.

…

Well, today is 24MAY22 and the Chinese understands, and we all know, what the direction and the revised thinking of the United States is (Geopolitically speaking). That is crystal clear after the Biden meetings with South Korea, Japan, and Australia. We now fully understand the pans for global dominance out of the USA.

This is the manifestation and implementation of the “unipolar” (rules-based order) world.

The original plan is out. It is obsolete. It is not possible.

The original plan; to first [1] destroy Russia, and then [2] destroy China is “off the table”. That plan is not feasible.

So the plan has become to one of isolation; to isolate Russia from the rest of the world, and to isolate China from the rest of the world. Both of them together. The way to accomplish this is simple.

First by cutting off and interrupting the systems of communication, trade, and interaction… and if that fails, to place harsh embargoes on Asia and punish all those that dare disobey the Untied States.

Russia

The American plan to [1] suppress Russia, [2] invade (parts of it) and [3] topple Russian leadership though domestic discord and [4] to isolate Russia have all failed.

Ukraine

Discussions and manipulations on how to carve up Ukraine into something other than a nation is in the works. We can see this with Poland’s involvement at this time.

Iron Curtain

The USA intends to put up another “Iron Curtain” to isolate Asia (Russia and China together). One half of this curtain is already up and complete. That is the part around Russia. And, you know,  nations such as Sweden and Finland don’t want to be on the Asian side of that curtain.

All of Asia

This curtain will surround all of Asia, and that was the purpose of the Biden meeting; to set up work-around systems so that no one trades or interacts with China, Russia or any of their friends.

China

But China is trying to be peaceful. How to justify putting it behind a curtain? Certainly, of course there will need to be a “reason” to enact “Sanctions from Hell”.

Which of course, are just the first stages of a full-on military embargo. And that will involve the crossing of one or more “red lines” regarding Taiwan.

The USA will scream, and holler.  The MSM propaganda machine will be working overtime (again), but you know, the USA will start sailing up and down the Chinese coast, but will refrain from getting involved in a “Hot war”. The “Sanctions from Hell” will appear, and that will lead up to the Pacific Rim nations choosing sides.

The “Wet Dream” of the United States

If the USA gets their way, Russia and China will become isolated and alone, and will eventually collapse domestically, as the USA will continue to wage bio-warfare carpet bombing, engage in “color revolutions”, and do everything in their ability to crush Russia and China simultaneously. Eventually, within a year, a “NEW Iron Curtain” will be up and policed by the nations of the world.

Judging from past historical precedents, I do not believe that this will turn out as planned.

What probably will happen…

We do not know what will happen.

Certainly the concerns of a full-scale thermonuclear war is still possible, but I personally believe that something different, something easier, but scarier, will emerge. I don’t know what it is.

But I do know, that war or no war, isolation of no isolation, the following points will factor into the way the future will unfold…

• The vast remaining manufacturing in the USA is in the defense industry. This requires a war, a constant and steady war to do battle with.
• The value of the USD is going towards absolute zero.
• The American population are corrupt, ignorant, manipulated, and armed. As the government raises the intensity level on them in regards to lies and propaganda, there will be consequences.
• Japan’s and Korea’s manufacturing has all been off-shored to China. If isolation does occur, a great deal of discomfort will manifest in these nations.
• Russia and China are led by merit, and they have certainly planned for this sequence of events. Do not be under the impression that they are not ready to deal with them, and retaliate.
• Retaliation to the USA and it’s allies, whether through military or other means, will be painful for the West. I argue and suspect that the pain “dial” will be pinging red.
• Domestic American politics will play a large role in the Geopolitical situation.

And that’s where we are today. Let’s see what unfolds.

In the meantime, let’s continue our daily mix…

World Hal Turner 23 May 2022

Gasoline has hit a record high of $7.29 per gallon in Los Angeles, CA as of May 23, 2022.

This is what Democrats did when they stole the US Presidency in November 2020, through rampant and brazen election fraud, aided and abetted by weak-minded Republicans in states like Georgia and Arizona, who were more concerned with President Trump’s “mean tweets” than public policy.

Once the Democrats and Republicans-In-Name-Only (RINOS) ousted Trump through a stolen election, the Democrats imposed their Green Agenda to wage war against fossil fuels under the fraudulent guise of “Climate Change.”

They know that earth’s climate is changing because earth’s magnetic field is moving west, and is now farther west than it has been in about ten thousand years.

Instead, they blame Fossil fuel emissions, which is total fraud.

The war against fossil fuels resulted in canceled oil pipelines, closed oil drilling leases, and enormous regulation of existing oil-production.  Those changes reduced gasoline supplies and as such, the prices are skyrocketing.

(Hal Turner Remark: This is what politicians who are supposed to SERVE us, have done TO us. If you keep voting the way you've voted, you'll keep getting what you're now getting.  Wise-up.)

Zelensky “nationalizes” the Polish army to send it to fight under the flag of Ukraine

This is an extremely serious danger for the entire Russian, Russian-speaking population of Ukraine. Not only representatives of the business elite, not only opposition politicians like Medvedchuk, but also ordinary citizens, and representatives of various public organizations, representatives of the church, representatives of various local communities will fall under this norm. A significant part of the population of Ukraine will be declared enemies of the people.

Mr. Zelensky can form a new military unit from Polish citizens and appoint Poles as commanders there. It turns out that, on the one hand, this is a Ukrainian military unit, but it will be completely Polish. Of course, they will import NATO weapons, which they know how to use, unlike Ukrainian soldiers. On the territory where they will be placed, it will be such a hidden occupation.

The Poles, if it is hard, of course, will try to start talking with NATO member countries, - says Bashirov. - But large countries such as Germany and France, of course, will rest against the horn. If they agreed, now in Ukraine such a garden would not be fenced. And this design bypasses just the resistance of Germany and France.

"All of this is extremely dangerous, and the Chinese are reacting very dangerously to this. They see this as a challenge, and one that they MUST face."

...

"What a freaking disaster if this happens. What a freaking disaster..."

This is the situation right NOW.

CEO of an insurance group , indicted for trafficking in minor human beings, rape of minors, and participation in a criminal activity

Who’s this guy ?

From HERE

INFO RTL – The CEO of an insurance group imprisoned for exploitation and rape of minors.

One of the largest fortunes in France has been placed in pre-trial detention since Saturday, indicted for trafficking in minor human beings, rape of minors, and participation in a criminal association with a view to committing kidnapping or kidnapping. organized.

He is 75 years old and is one of the 500 largest French fortunes.

This entrepreneur in the insurance field has been placed in pre-trial detention since Saturday May 21, indicted – among other things – for trafficking in minor human beings, rape of minors, and participation in a criminal association with a view to commit kidnapping or organized forcible confinement.

After a meticulous investigation which mobilized a good part of the staff of the Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM) of the Parisian PJ, a whole system was discovered by the police.

According to information from RTL, a 22-year-old woman presented herself to the Parisian police last March.

She explained to them that for 5 years, she had been “captive” of a very wealthy man, who lodged her in one of his apartments and raped her on several occasions.

Worse still, while according to her, she was becoming “too old for him”, the young woman would have been forced to find a “substitute” to take over.

This is how a 14-year-old girl was then housed in this apartment.

The complainant managed to film the CEO and the 14-year-old girl together in bed. This video was turned over to investigators.

Relatives also incarcerated.

The story does not end there.

While the CEO is aware of the existence of this video, he will try to silence the complainant.

Justice suspects him of having wanted to set up a team to kidnap the young woman, seize the video, and force her to leave France.

For this, the septuagenarian would have asked his wife, two employees of his company, a young woman close to the complainant, as well as a former gendarme member of the GIGN.

All five were arrested last week, and indicted on Saturday for “failure to report sexual assault on a minor, and participation in a criminal association to commit kidnapping or kidnapping in an organized gang”.

They were also placed in pre-trial detention, confirmed the Paris prosecutor’s office to RTL.

Their respective roles and objectives have yet to be determined at this stage.

A system that had been repeated for many years.

According to our information, the investigators also traced the past of this man.

They discovered the existence of at least 7 young women, minors or young adults, who succeeded each other in this apartment.

The investigation determined that they were young girls with similar profiles: unemployed or runaways, at odds with their family or society.

Always the same mechanism in place, once they reached their twenties, the CEO said he was not interested in them and asked them to find a younger girl to take their place in the apartment.

RTL has tried to reach the lawyer for the main respondent who has not yet responded to our requests.

“My mom was Homecoming Queen, 1965”

White House Rejects President’s Foreign Policy

From MoA

U.S. President Joe Biden apparently pursues different foreign policies than the White House.

October 23 2021:

‘Strategic Ambiguity’ on Taiwan Apparent as White House Walks Back Biden Comments

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday appeared to walk back President Joe Biden's statement on Thursday that the United States was committed to defending Taiwan should it come under Chinese attack.

"The president was not announcing any change in our policy, nor has he made a decision to change our policy," Psaki said during a White House news briefing. "Our defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act."

The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act states that the U.S. will provide arms for Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability. It does not say the U.S. would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.

Psaki's statement stands in contradiction to Biden's comment at a CNN town hall Thursday night. When asked if the U.S. would come to the defense of Taiwan, Biden said, "Yes, we have a commitment to do that."

November 17 2021:

Biden Struggles to Stick to the Script on Taiwan

Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is habit—or so the saying goes.

Amid escalating tensions with China, U.S. President Joe Biden has misspoken about U.S. policy toward the self-governed island of Taiwan at least four times since August, fueling speculation as to whether the president is subtly trying to signal an evolving U.S. policy toward Taiwan or just fumbling the details.

March 27 2022:

Biden’s Putin remark, White House walk-back faces scrutiny

President Biden’s remark that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” reverberated throughout Washington on Sunday, with some current and former officials and lawmakers scrutinizing the reported ad-lib while others slammed the White House for its subsequent walk-back.

Biden turned heads on Saturday when, at the end of a speech in Warsaw, Poland, he said, “for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

The White House quickly tried to walk back the comment, claiming that Biden was referring to Putin exercising power outside of Russia, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirmed that the U.S. has no plans for regime change in Moscow.

May 23 2022:

US would defend Taiwan if attacked by China, says Joe Biden

Joe Biden has said the US would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if it came under attack from China – a statement that is likely to enrage Beijing as concern grows over Chinese military activity in the region.

Speaking in Tokyo on the second day of his visit to Japan, Biden said the US’s responsibility to protect the self-ruled island – which China considers a renegade province – was “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in one of the most forceful statements in support of Taiwan in decades.

Amichai Stein @AmichaiStein1 - 6:32 UTC · May 23, 2022
White House official: Biden’s statement that the US would get involved militarily to defend Taiwan is NOT a departure from long-standing US policy of strategic ambiguity

Quoted Tweet 
Amichai Stein @AmichaiStein1 - 6:01 UTC · May 23, 2022
#BREAKING: President Biden says would be willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan from China aggression

They urgently need to shut up that warmongering idiot.

A candid moment of school girls in 1953.

The United States and Taiwan

The reason Biden is coming out the way he has is because the US Dept. of State apparently carte blanche issued this declaration, which is essentially a declaration of war against China:

US state department updates fact sheet on Taiwan ties
A bilateral relations fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations published on the US Department of State Web site ...

...was recently updated...

...to remove statements saying that it [1] acknowledged Beijing’s “one China” position, and that [2] the US does not support Taiwanese independence.

The fact sheet is produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
My guess is that this is a pre-emptive salvo issued by the John Bolton (always the dumbest) part of the Dept of State staff.

-Pacifica Advocate

“My mother, 1967”

Not my mom, but a great picture anyways…

Banana Bread French Toast

Turn banana bread into your favorite breakfast with this dish. The tangy Buttermilk Syrup is a perfect make-ahead touch. It goes wonderfully with a fine morning cup of coffee.

Ingredients

“My mother in Florida while early in her Nursing career, 1967”

Not my mom. But I can well imagine the moment.

May 19, 2022

Some NATO experts call these missiles Russia’s most terrifying weapon, apart from nuclear weapons. Although, “Iskander” can be equipped with a nuclear warhead, and then it really becomes a “sentence” for Europe.

Let’s start with the fact that “Iskander” is not a missile in itself (like “Kinzhal” or “Kalibr“) – it is a whole missile system. That is, in addition to the launcher, it also includes a bunch of other equipment: a loading vehicle, a command post, a repair vehicle, a life support vehicle (barracks on wheels), a reconnaissance vehicle, etc.

At the same time, this missile system is operational and tactical. What does it mean?

Traditionally, missile weapons are divided into three types.

• First: strategic missiles. They fly directly into enemy territory thousands of kilometres from the front line. This includes, for example, the famous “Sarmat” or “Bulava”.
• Second: tactical missiles. They are used directly at the frontline. That is, their range is small. This includes, for example, MLRS “Grad” or the same “Katyusha”, during the Great Patriotic War.
• Third: operational-tactical missiles (OTM). They occupy an intermediate position between strategic and tactical ones. Their task is to hit behind the front line (up to about 500 km) at the rear of the enemy group’s support: railway junctions, air defence systems, warehouses, headquarters, airfields, etc.

• 

One of the first OTMs was, for example, the Soviet “Luna” and “Temp-S”.

They were replaced by the “Tochka” missile system, followed by a more advanced one “Tochka-U“. We often hear about this “U” now, but it is already outdated and is not in service with the Russian Federation.

It was just replaced by “Iskander” – as a new generation of operational-tactical missile systems.

“Restricted Access Zone”

This term was coined by NATO and it refers to the territory on which, in the event of a war with Russia, NATO troops will not be able to stay without receiving unacceptable damage.

Well, that is, in the event of a war with the Bedouin in the desert, the United States can afford to fly and drive anywhere. With Russia, this trick will not work, because our country is able to create not just threats, but to cause catastrophic damage if the enemy is in the “Access Ban Zone”.

This zone is ensured, for example, by the most advanced S-400 air defence system in the world (as well as the latest S-500 and the promising S-550) – it covers us from the air.

From the sea, the “Bastion” coastal complex provides cover. But the “Iskander” is designed to work on enemy ground targets. In total, this trio creates extremely uncomfortable conditions for the enemy on our territory.

READ:  Poroshenko Inadvertently Helped the Modernisation of the Russian Navy

At the same time, “Iskander”, in fact, has two varieties that are absolutely opposite to each other. These are “Iskander-M” and “Iskander-K”.

Iskander-M

It fires a rocket that flies at a high altitude (up to 100 km, that is, touches space) and manoeuvres very strongly.

The maneuverability of the rocket is such that overloads of up to 30 G are created during flight! Let me remind you that:

• when riding a roller coaster, a person experiences an overload of up to 4 G;
• Formula 1 drivers experience up to 6 G when braking sharply;
• cosmonauts experience up to 8 G at rocket launch;
• in fighter planes, up to 12 G is generated during the sharpest manoeuvres.

30 G is deadly not only for humans, but also for almost any equipment. Thus, at 30 G a fighter jet can simply fall apart.

The “Iskander-M” missile can withstand such overloads. This is despite the fact that at 30 G body weight increases by 30 times. That is, for example, if you weigh 60 kg, but at 30 G your body will start to weigh 1800 kg. Naturally, even the bones can’t withstand such an overload.

The super-maneuverability of the “Iskander-M” missile is necessary so that it is not shot down. In addition, the missile has stealth technologies, throws out false targets in flight, and also conducts radio-electronic warfare with enemy air defence systems.

That is why it is considered that it is almost impossible to shoot down this missile.

Iskander-K

But this type of missile, on the contrary, flies very low – at an altitude of 6-10 meters from the earth’s surface. Naturally, skirting the terrain.

An important advantage of “Iskander” is that both types of missiles can be launched from the same launcher. That is, “Iskander” can fire two types of missiles at a target at once: one will fly high and unpredictably, and the second will fly low and extremely imperceptibly.

All this together makes the probability of hitting the target close to 100%.

The stated range of both missiles is up to 500 km. However, many experts (including those in NATO) believe that this figure is greatly underestimated. The Russian military simply declares it, so as not to fall under the terms of the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and short-range missiles.

The actual flight range of “Iskander” can be up to 5000 km. However, it will be possible to check this only in the conditions of a real war.

What is the difference between “Kalibr” and “Kinzhal”?

You may have noticed that the “Iskander-M” behaves roughly like “Kinzhal”, and the “Iskander-K” behaves roughly like “Kalibr”.

READ:  What Has Moscow Achieved…and Did It Fail After Imposing Two Ceasefires?

And there is not just some truth in this, but a very large amount. The fact is that the hypersonic “Kinzhal”, in fact, is an improved “Iskander-M”.

Just “Iskander-M” starts from the ground and spends a huge part of its energy on acceleration and climb. But “Kinzhal” is raised to a height in advance and accelerated by a fighter jet, so it spends most of its energy on gaining hypersonic speed.

As for the similarity of the second version of “Iskander” (“K”) with “Kalibr”, this is exactly the similarity. There is no direct relationship between the missiles, although both of them are cruise missiles.

What is “Iskander” capable of?

Flying 500 km beyond the horizon, “Iskander” is able to hit the target with an accuracy of up to 5 meters.

At the same time, the mass of the missile’s warhead is 500 kg. That is, it’s possible to cram either half a ton of explosives or a fairly decent nuclear bomb into it, and then a deviation from the target of even 50 meters will not matter much.

The speed of the high-altitude missile is 2100 m/s (over Mach 6). That is, it is hypersonic (like “Kinzhal”, whose speed is 2 times higher, up to 4000 m/s).

In the non-nuclear version, “Iskander” is capable of carrying one of three types of warheads:

• High-explosive shrapnel. This is the most popular type for hitting most targets, from warehouses to airfields. It can be described simply as a “large grenade” (under 500 kg), which creates a powerful shock wave and scatters fragments
• Concrete cutting. This is for breaking through underground bunkers
• Cluster. This is for hitting large areas with shrapnel. One Iskander cluster missile covers approximately 15,000 m2 of ground with a cloud of shrapnel, which means two football fields.

In the nuclear version, “Iskander” is capable of carrying a warhead of up to 50 kilotons. This is 3 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Given that the range of “Iskander” can really reach 2-3 thousand kilometres, this weapon is not just a nightmare for Europe. This is its verdict if it comes to a large-scale conflict.

They understand this and therefore they are now acting with someone else’s hands, pushing forward naive guys who have hung their ears in front of a “bright European future”. A future in which they will not be taken in any case.

Let me remind you that “Iskander” is not called the most formidable by me, but by NATO experts. Now I want to mix military affairs with geography a little, that is, show on the map where these very Iskanders are located at all.

And so. Just as soldiers are organised into platoons, companies, battalions, and regiments, “Iskanders” have a certain organisational structure.

Much more can be found HERE.

A Photo Set of The 1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix D-500, a Reflection of The Jet-Age Styling of The Late 1950s

The 1960s opened with great promise. The Dodge Dart was a new model that year, based on a mid-sized 118-inch wheelbase unibody design adopted from Plymouth, and the Phoenix was the premium trim package for it. This special Phoenix was further equipped with the performance-oriented D500 package; indeed, this amazing motorcar features not only its original drivetrain and sheet-metal, but nearly every available option that could be added to this vehicle platform in 1960.

Dodge created 586 Phoenix D500-optioned Darts in 1960, but few were as spectacular as this one. The car is equipped with the 383/330 HP V-8 engine with Chrysler’s special long-tube D500 ram induction, which featured dual 4-barrel carburetors mounted on sonically tuned cast manifolds that looped across each opposing valve cover. It is backed by the pushbutton-activated TorqueFlite automatic transmission.

The car, featuring its Ghia-inspired finned-and-piped panels as executed by designer Virgil Exner, is painted red and augmented by front bumper guards, backup lights, door-edge moldings and dual side mirrors; lower-body stone shields and deluxe wheel covers complete the picture of Dodge luxury.

Inside are red interior components, complete with rare power-swivel front seats, power windows, factory electric clock, foam-cushioned rear seat and an Astrophonic AM Radio with rear-seat speaker. Driving ease was accomplished with power steering and power brakes.

Here is a photo set of the 1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix D-500, a reflection of the jet-age styling of the late 1950s and the cataclysms that brought about the legendary Chrysler products of the 1960s.

Chris Hedges: No Way Out but War

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (Scheerpost) — The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.

The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $ 6 trillion more than the US GDP of $ 24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $ 813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.

We are paying a heavy social, political, and economic cost for our militarism. Washington watches passively as the U.S. rots, morally, politically, economically, and physically, while China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, and other countries extract themselves from the tyranny of the U.S. dollar and the international Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging network banks and other financial institutions use to send and receive information, such as money transfer instructions. Once the U.S. dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency, once there is an alternative to SWIFT, it will precipitate an internal economic collapse. It will force the immediate contraction of the U.S. empire shuttering most of its nearly 800 overseas military installations. It will signal the death of Pax Americana.

Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison d’état of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of “national security.” The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.

There were three restraints to the avarice and bloodlust of the permanent war economy that no longer exist. The first was the old liberal wing of the Democratic Party, led by politicians such as Senator George McGovern, Senator Eugene McCarthy, and Senator J. William Fulbright, who wrote The Pentagon Propaganda Machine. The self-identified progressives, a pitiful minority, in Congress today, from Barbara Lee, who was the single vote in the House and the Senate opposing a broad, open-ended authorization allowing the president to wage war in Afghanistan or anywhere else, to Ilhan Omar now dutifully line up to fund the latest proxy war. The second restraint was an independent media and academia, including journalists such as I.F Stone and Neil Sheehan along with scholars such as Seymour Melman, author of The Permanent War Economy and Pentagon Capitalism: The Political Economy of War. Third, and perhaps most important, was an organized anti-war movement, led by religious leaders such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr. and Phil and Dan Berrigan as well as groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). They understood that unchecked militarism was a fatal disease.

None of these opposition forces, which did not reverse the permanent war economy but curbed its excesses, now exist. The two ruling parties have been bought by corporations, especially military contractors. The press is anemic and obsequious to the war industry. Propagandists for permanent war, largely from right-wing think tanks lavishly funded by the war industry, along with former military and intelligence officials, are exclusively quoted or interviewed as military experts. NBC’s “Meet the Press” aired a segment May 13 where officials from Center for a New American Security (CNAS) simulated what a war with China over Taiwan might look like. The co-founder of CNAS, Michèle Flournoy, who appeared in the “Meet the Press” war games segment and was considered by Biden to run the Pentagon, wrote in 2020 in Foreign Affairs that the U.S. needs to develop “the capability to credibly threaten to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours.”

The handful of anti-militarists and critics of empire from the left, such as Noam Chomsky, and the right, such as Ron Paul, have been declared persona non grata by a compliant media. The liberal class has retreated into boutique activism where issues of class, capitalism and militarism are jettisoned for “cancel culture,” multiculturalism and identity politics. Liberals are cheerleading the war in Ukraine. At least the inception of the war with Iraq saw them join significant street protests. Ukraine is embraced as the latest crusade for freedom and democracy against the new Hitler. There is little hope, I fear, of rolling back or restraining the disasters being orchestrated on a national and global level.  The neoconservatives and liberal interventionists chant in unison for war. Biden has appointed these war mongers, whose attitude to nuclear war is terrifyingly cavalier, to run the Pentagon, the National Security Council, and the State Department.

Since all we do is war, all proposed solutions are military. This military adventurism accelerates the decline, as the defeat in Vietnam and the squandering of $8 trillion in the futile wars in the Middle East illustrate. War and sanctions, it is believed, will cripple Russia, rich in gas and natural resources. War, or the threat of war, will curb the growing economic and military clout of China.

These are demented and dangerous fantasies, perpetrated by a ruling class that has severed itself from reality. No longer able to salvage their own society and economy, they seek to destroy those of their global competitors, especially Russia and China. Once the militarists cripple Russia, the plan goes, they will focus military aggression on the Indo-Pacific, dominating what Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, referring to the Pacific, called “the American Sea.”

You cannot talk about war without talking about markets. The U.S., whose growth rate has fallen to below 2 percent, while China’s growth rate is 8.1 percent, has turned to military aggression to bolster its sagging economy. If the U.S. can sever Russian gas supplies to Europe, it will force Europeans to buy from the United States. U.S. firms, at the same time, would be happy to replace the Chinese Communist Party, even if they must do it through the threat of war, to open unfettered access to Chinese markets. War, if it did break out with China, would devastate the Chinese, American, and global economies, destroying free trade between countries as in World War I. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

Washington is desperately trying to build military and economic alliances to ward off a rising China, whose economy is expected by 2028 to overtake that of the United States, according to the UK’s Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The White House has said Biden’s current visit to Asia is about sending a “powerful message” to Beijing and others about what the world could look like if democracies “stand together to shape the rules of the road.” The Biden administration has invited South Korea and Japan to attend the NATO summit in Madrid.

But fewer and fewer nations, even among European allies, are willing to be dominated by the United States. Washington’s veneer of democracy and supposed respect for human rights and civil liberties is so badly tarnished as to be irrecoverable. Its economic decline, with China’s manufacturing 70 percent higher than that of the U.S., is irreversible. War is a desperate Hail Mary, one employed by dying empires throughout history with catastrophic consequences. “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable,” Thucydides noted in the History of the Peloponnesian War.

A key component to the sustenance of the permanent war state was the creation of the All-Volunteer Force. Without conscripts, the burden of fighting wars falls to the poor, the working class, and military families. This All-Volunteer Force allows the children of the middle class, who led the Vietnam anti-war movement, to avoid service. It protects the military from internal revolts, carried out by troops during the Vietnam War, which jeopardized the cohesion of the armed forces.

The All-Volunteer Force, by limiting the pool of available troops, also makes the global ambitions of the militarists impossible. Desperate to maintain or increase troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military instituted the stop-loss policy that arbitrarily extended active-duty contracts. Its slang term was the backdoor draft. The effort to bolster the number of troops by hiring private military contractors, as well, had a negligible effect. Increased troop levels would not have won the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but the tiny percentage of those willing to serve in the military (only 7 percent of the U.S. population are veterans) is an unacknowledged Achilles heel for the militarists.

“As a consequence, the problem of too much war and too few soldiers eludes serious scrutiny,” writes historian and retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich in After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed. “Expectations of technology bridging that gap provide an excuse to avoid asking the most fundamental questions: Does the United States possess the military wherewithal to oblige adversaries to endorse its claim of being history’s indispensable nation? And if the answer is no, as the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suggest, wouldn’t it make sense for Washington to temper its ambitions accordingly?”

This question, as Bacevich points out, is “anathema.” The military strategists work from the supposition that the coming wars won’t look anything like past wars. They invest in imaginary theories of future wars that ignore the lessons of the past, ensuring more fiascos.

The political class is as self-deluded as the generals. It refuses to accept the emergence of a multi-polar world and the palpable decline of American power. It speaks in the outdated language of American exceptionalism and triumphalism, believing it has the right to impose its will as the leader of the “free world.” In his 1992 Defense Planning Guidance memorandum, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz argued that the U.S. must ensure no rival superpower again arises. The U.S. should project its military strength to dominate a unipolar world in perpetuity. On February 19, 1998, on NBC’s “Today Show”, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave the Democratic version of this doctrine of unipolarity. “If we have to use force it is because we are Americans; we are the indispensable nation,” she said. “We stand tall, and we see further than other countries into the future.”

This demented vision of unrivaled U.S. global supremacy, not to mention unrivaled goodness and virtue, blinds the establishment Republicans and Democrats. The military strikes they casually used to assert the doctrine of unipolarity, especially in the Middle East, swiftly spawned jihadist terror and prolonged warfare. None of them saw it coming until the hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center twin towers. That they cling to this absurd hallucination is the triumph of hope over experience.

There is a deep loathing among the public for these elitist Ivy League architects of American imperialism. Imperialism was tolerated when it was able to project power abroad and produce rising living standards at home. It was tolerated when it restrained itself to covert interventions in countries such as Iran, Guatemala, and Indonesia. It went off the rails in Vietnam. The military defeats that followed accompanied a steady decline in living standards, wage stagnation, a crumbling infrastructure and eventually a series of economic policies and trade deals, orchestrated by the same ruling class, which deindustrialized and impoverished the country.

The establishment oligarchs, now united in the Democratic Party, distrust Donald Trump. He commits the heresy of questioning the sanctity of the American empire. Trump derided the invasion of Iraq as a “big, fat mistake.” He promised “to keep us out of endless war.” Trump was repeatedly questioned about his relationship with Vladimir Putin. Putin was “a killer,” one interviewer told him. “There are a lot of killers,” Trump retorted. “You think our country’s so innocent?” Trump dared to speak a truth that was to be forever unspoken, the militarists had sold out the American people.

Noam Chomsky took some heat for pointing out, correctly, that Trump is the “one statesman” who has laid out a “sensible” proposition to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The proposed solution included “facilitating negotiations instead of undermining them and moving toward establishing some kind of accommodation in Europe…in which there are no military alliances but just mutual accommodation.”

Trump is too unfocused and mercurial to offer serious policy solutions. He did set a timetable to withdraw from Afghanistan, but he also ratcheted up the economic war against Venezuela and reinstituted crushing sanctions against Cuba and Iran, which the Obama administration had ended. He increased the military budget. He apparently flirted with carrying out a missile strike on Mexico to “destroy the drug labs.” But he acknowledges a distaste for imperial mismanagement that resonates with the public, one that has every right to loath the smug mandarins that plunge us into one war after another. Trump lies like he breathes. But so do they.

The 57 Republicans who refused to support the $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, along with many of the 19 bills that included an earlier $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine, come out of the kooky conspiratorial world of Trump. They, like Trump, repeat this heresy. They too are attacked and censored. But the longer Biden and the ruling class continue to pour resources into war at our expense, the more these proto fascists, already set to wipe out Democratic gains in the House and the Senate this fall, will be ascendant. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during the debate on the aid package to Ukraine, which most members were not given time to closely examine, said: “$40 billion dollars but there’s no baby formula for American mothers and babies.”

“An unknown amount of money to the CIA and Ukraine supplemental bill but there’s no formula for American babies,” she added. “Stop funding regime change and money laundering scams. A US politician covers up their crimes in countries like Ukraine.”

Democrat Jamie Raskin immediately attacked Greene for parroting the propaganda of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Greene, like Trump, spoke a truth that resonates with a beleaguered public. The opposition to permanent war should have come from the tiny progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which unfortunately sold out to the craven Democratic Party leadership to save their political careers. Greene is demented, but Raskin and the Democrats peddle their own brand of lunacy. We are going to pay a very steep price for this burlesque.

World Hal Turner 23 May 2022

China’s No.2 surprises Anthony Albanese with congratulations before PM’s first big test

China has ended a block on communicating officially with Australia after Premier Li Keqiang – second to President Xi Jinping – congratulated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hours after he took office, state media reported.

The olive branch came as Mr Albanese was flying to his first major foreign policy engagement, a regional security summit formed to be a counterweight to China’s influence in the region.

State news agency Xinhua quoted Premier Li as saying he hoped that this year’s 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties would be an occasion to review relations between the two countries.

Amazing Colorized Photos Show What Kitchens Looked Like In The First Half Of The 20th Century

An amazing set of colorized photographs from Color Me Six Ways to Sunday that show what kitchens looked like from the first half of the 20th century.

World Hal Turner 23 May 2022

For over a month, the Russian Army surrounded NAZIS from Ukraine at the Azovstal Steel Mill in Mariupol. The NAZIS finally surrendered last week. Now, the Russians have found a Satellite Phone from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in EUROPE (OSCE) inside the NAZI Lair. Why was OSCE facilitating the NAZIS in Ukraine?

Here’s a full image of the Satellite Phone found by the Russian Army in the catacombs of the Azovstal Steel Mill:

This phone made it possible for an actual Army Unit from Ukraine, composed of actual NAZIS who perpetrated barbaric war crimes upon innocent civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk, to maintain contact with their bosses in Kiev for further instructions and supplies.

Why would the OSCE have provided such a communications device to actual NAZIS?

OSCE cannot claim it was “lost” or “stolen” — the phone still works. The account is still active.

So again, why was OSCE facilitating actual NAZIS?

No comment has been received back to our inquiring email from OSCE.

Asian countries have good ties with US, China and other major powers, don’t need Nato-equivalent, Singapore’s PM Lee says

“My mom, looking gorgeous as usual, Fremont, CA, mid-1960s”

Sitrep 180 Hot Potato : Ritter, Lira, Johnson and Martyanov

By Amarynth for the Saker Blog

Let me first give the links to the debate in question (and this is a sitrep, so it is more freewheeling than a serious article for the Saker blog).

We’ve been talking about Ritter’s 180 swing in his coverage on both the SMO-404 and the Russian capabilities.

This article, titled “Ukraine War Has No End in Sight” gives the Ritter view post his 180: HERE and there were three prior videos where this view developed.  But this written form is good enough.

Andrei Martynov weighed in and Larry Johnson weighed in on various occasions and on a professional basis.  Gonzalo Lira weighed in his casual style.  On the Saker Blog, I weighed in during discussions and even analyzed a few paragraphs of Ritter’s article.

Even Pepe Escobar had to retract a quasi ‘Ritter sentence’ that he used.  This was his short and creative retraction.  “Martyanov is right on Western Ukraine. I should have emphasized the conditionalities – as it stands a 404 “New Model Army” is American wishful thinking.”

All of these people (including myself) were 180 opposite to Ritter’s view and I for one asked for evidence of this New Scary NATO army because clearly, Wunderwaffe came to mind.

Yet, there is no discussion and Ritter did it again.  This time in an interview with Sputnik here:

Article HERE

Both Andrei Martyanov as well as Larry Johnson weighed in again.

Before I quote from their work, let’s try to answer the question of Why?  Why are we responding to Ritter in this manner?  I will give you only my personal perception.  I view Ritter’s 180 as pushing NATO talking points and even spreading Ukrainian manure.   He assumes a static position from Russia.  After his 180, his tone changed and he presents NATO as the All Powerful and backed by the US Money Machine and Weapons Machine, as Invincible.  He creates new armies out of thin air, and professes knowledge of the Russian thinking and possible future actions which he cannot possibly know.  We can then discuss whether this is pure deception of his mainly western audience, or purely disingenuous, or a project based on a think-tank or something.  I hope it is none of those, and that he will enter into discussion and debate with his peers.  (Note Johnson’s article quoted later in this report).  If not, we have to question his whole basis for pumping American Wishful Thinking, as well as the substance of his presentation.

I’ll go back to an older quote from Martyanov:  “That is why when I hear that some piece of metal and a pile of increasingly diminishing US Dollars are going to make any real tactical, operational, let alone strategic difference in 404, other than being blown up or taken as trophies, I smile. Even LDNR people today complain (in Russian) that most of the US equipment when even not-expired and up to date, often doesn’t work and breaks down.

I know, for true American patriot such as Scott it is difficult to accept this fact but in the last 20 years it goes without saying that institutional rot completely engulfed America’s strategic and operational thought and, and I wrote three books on that, US increasingly produced weapons which like Javelins or Littoral Combat Ships, or F-35 or Patriot PAC 3s are not really suited for a serious war against competent enemy who, in addition, like Russia, has all means to see the enemy and destroy it.”  Article HERE

Let’s go to Larry Johnson’s latest titled:  Debating Scott Ritter.

He deals with the new funding, western weapons supply, training and intelligence sharing.  And he posts a video of Gonzalo Lira, who in his casual format understands these matters.  Here are some points but read the whole article:

• Money may make the world go around but it does not magically produce trained, enthusiastic troops willing and capable of using such weapons.
• Ukraine’s problem right now is not a lack of equipment. They had combat aircraft, helicopters, tanks, artillery and drones. Russia destroyed a significant amount of that materiel and killed the soldiers and pilots who were trained to operate those systems.
• Scott Ritter sees the training of Ukrainian troops in Poland and Germany as a critical variable that could really hurt the Russians. Training reinforcements on new technology might be a potential game-changer if the situation on the ground in Ukraine was static. It is not.
• Scott also asserts that intelligence sharing gives the Ukrainians an edge. When you provide intelligence on Russian troop movements, locations or plans, there is an assumption that the recipients of that intelligence will be able to do something to hurt the Russians. How did that work out in Mariupol? How about fending off the Russian missile attack in Desna. In my view, sharing intelligence with Ukraine is an effort in futility. Am empty gesture that will not change anything on the ground.

How to actually understand this Hot Potato?, and it is an important one.  The Ukraine SMO is only but a small representation of what Russia means by stopping the growth of NATO, indivisibility of security, the security balance in Europe, and most important, military-technical measures.   And then, one has to bring into the calculus that China is solid behind Russia in the thinking, and further, that the US pre-amble to actual kinetic action in the Ukraine, is now being duplicated around China.  The dead give-away is that SHOULD in Biden’s sentence.  Remember the many ‘ifs’ and ‘shoulds’ that we saw in the runup to Russia entering the Ukraine.  “President Joe Biden said Washington could be directly involved in conflict should China try to take the island by force.”  They are again trying to project and create a condition that is not necessarily there.

And this is the tone change in Ritter’s work.  He is projecting a condition that is not necessarily existent and presents it as fact. 

We have to understand that NATO is now being presented as the ultimate force projection by the small collective west.  Those familiar with Martyanov’s work understand that this is but a paper tiger and the boogyman (although with destructive ability) under the bed.  This is a projection and the small collective west only has a boogyman left to threaten the world.

Here is another such projection, this time with a clown:  Klaus Schwab has just introduced President Zelensky of Ukraine to the World Economic Forum in Davos with a glowing tribute saying that all of Europe and the international order stands with him.

Lira’s view is important here, albeit not professional.  He asks the question, Why is it Absurd that the Ukraine is standing up a million man new army?  (Short, 7 minutes or so).

For comments, I remind you, that this is not a personality contest.  As Johnson says – it is a substantive matter.  So commentators, please be reasonable and kind, and don’t tell us who you like most.  At least present knowledge of the substance of this matter.  From the commentariat, let’s keep this one closely focused on the topic.

There is a bigger picture here.  From here and there in Europe, we see that everyone is now desperately scrambling for a peace plan.  A contributor sent me this one from Italy titled Now, Italy begins backtracking on its promises and extending an olive branch toward Russia.  HERE

I smiled, on two accounts.  This peace plan is Minsk redux!

And secondly, why this reach for a peace plan now?  Besides worrying about economics and gas and oil, it is another containment of Russia.  They all know Russia will win in the Ukraine, the way Russia perceives it, handsomely.   So, everyone desperately wants to devise new conditions, because the fear is that Russia will not stop.  So, they want to devise peace now, and send Russia back to Russia.  The news is that we are in a world-changing epoch, and Russia will not stop but take her full part in this world-changing epoch, preferably peacefully, but if not, military-technical.

What’s Behind Biden’s Resolve to Defend Taiwan Against Beijing?

Jeff J. Brown on Sputnik News. China Rising Radio Sinoland 220524  . It’s an audio track. Interesting stuff. Jeff’s stuff always is.

From HERE

This 19th-Century Tool Box Is Meticulously Designed To Hold 300 Tools

The look of tool chests can tell us much about workers and workplaces. While their purpose is to organize, carry, and protect tools, this chest also suggests what a worker thinks of himself and how society measures the value of his work.

If the workmanship in a tool chest is any indication of the maker’s talent, then the craftsmanship of Master carpenter and Freemason H. O. Studley must have been awe-inspiring. Brother Henry O. Studley (1838-1925) built this magnificent wall-hung chest while employed by the Poole Piano Company of Quincy, Massachusetts.

In an oak clamshell box adorned with rosewood, ebony, pearl and ivory, Studley kept both tools he made and a collection of the finest hand tools made prior to 1900, including a complete set of woodworking tools as well as machinist and stonemasonry tools. To pack the 300-plus tools into a case only 19 1/2 inches wide, 39 inches long and 9 1/2 inches deep, Studley devised a jigsaw puzzle arrangement of flip-up trays, fold-out layers and hidden compartments. Maine native Pete Hardwick originally owned the chest, which had been in his family since it was bequeathed to his grandfather by Studley.

Hardwick acquired the chest from his brother by trading a 1934 Ford sedan for it. A good trade? It would seem so: just one tool – the Stanley No. 1 plane housed in the ebony archway in the upper-left part of the chest – was appraised at $700.00 in 1993.

This tool chest was carefully restored to its original splendor and glory, loaned to the Smithsonian Institution, then displayed in the National Museum of American History as the centerpiece of woodworking and other tradesman tool chests. Studley’s chest then changed hands again (for an undisclosed $$$ amount) to another private collector.

The Prisoner Episode 3

Enjoy this episode. I will continue to add these episodes in the future articles.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings 4

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