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Dollars

Best of the Web: US gives the world a free choice: Dollar debt or death - Keynote speech by Michael Hudson

Lincoln/skull money
© nuzzel.com/Global Look Press/KJN
Today's world is at war on many fronts. The rules of international law and order put in place toward the end of World War II are being broken by U.S. foreign policy escalating its confrontation with countries that refrain from giving its companies control of their economic surpluses. Countries that do not give the United States control of their oil and financial sectors or privatize their key sectors are being isolated by the United States imposing trade sanctions and unilateral tariffs giving special advantages to U.S. producers in violation of free trade agreements with European, Asian and other countries.

This global fracture has an increasingly military cast. U.S. officials justify tariffs and import quotas illegal under WTO rules on "national security" grounds, claiming that the United States can do whatever it wants as the world's "exceptional" nation. U.S. officials explain that this means that their nation is not obliged to adhere to international agreements or even to its own treaties and promises. This allegedly sovereign right to ignore on its international agreements was made explicit after Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeline Albright broke the promise by President George Bush and Secretary of State James Baker that NATO would not expand eastward after 1991. ("You didn't get it in writing," was the U.S. response to the verbal agreements that were made.)

Likewise, the Trump administration repudiated the multilateral Iranian nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration, and is escalating warfare with its proxy armies in the Near East. U.S. politicians are waging a New Cold War against Russia, China, Iran, and oil-exporting countries that the United States is seeking to isolate if cannot control their governments, central bank and foreign diplomacy.

Smiley

Best of the Web: No, YOU'RE the 'Russian asset': Meme war turns tables on Washington Post

the washington post
With the Washington Post stuck in a mud-slinging meme war with Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, the capital's paper of record has found itself on the receiving end of internet trolls' meme-cannons.

Confused? The sordid saga began Friday, when the Post published an op-ed titled "Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset," in which columnist Dana Milbank accused the Senate Majority Leader of selling out to the Kremlin by refusing to bring a trio of anti-election-meddling bills to the Senate floor. That the bills came bundled with untenable (to the GOP at least) Democratic demands was immaterial; McConnell was quickly dubbed "Moscow Mitch" on Twitter.

Asked by reporters on Tuesday to respond, President Trump said, "The Washington Post called Mitch McConnell what? I think the Washington Post is a Russian asset by comparison."


Though Trump has called the Post "garbage,""fiction," and "more like a poorly written novel than good reporting," "Russian asset" is a new one for the president.

The Post wasted no time fact-checking Trump's quip, proudly tweeting out: "Trump makes unfounded claim The Washington Post is a 'Russian Asset."

The irony wasn't lost on McConnell, however. "OMG I'm so sorry this is happening to you" tweeted his campaign team, with the patronizing just dripping from the emojis.

Comment: Sweet memetic justice. The sad thing is that the idiots at WaPo probably don't even see how they are being treated exactly the same as they have treated all the people they have labeled Russian agents. They're that delusional.


Question

Best of the Web: If Greta Thunberg is worried about the end of the world, why does she pose with status quo politicians?

Greta Thunberg France
Greta Thunberg speaks in the French parliament on Tuesday.
After nearly a year of her endless tour through parliaments and conferences, the climate activist must by now realize that she is little more than a feelgood photo op and an advert for train travel. Is Greta Thunberg OK with this?

In France on Tuesday, the 16-year-old delivered her stenciled masterclass of rhetoric presented as stark plain-spokenness.

"You say that nothing in life is black or white. But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie," she told the packed hall of deputies from a lectern adorned with the tricolor and parliamentary insignia. "Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we don't. That is as black or white as it gets."

Comment: Perhaps one ought to have compassion for the somewhat autistic Greta, who like Syrian Twitter-girl Bana before her, is a puppet of larger forces. But on no account should she be paid any mind. Her campaign of eco-fear is propaganda through and through. Al Gore has passed the torch.


Eagle

Best of the Web: 'United States' to Imperial America: Our Hidden Empire

empire immerwahr
The global expanse of US military bases is well-known; but it's actual territorial empire is largely hidden. The true map of America is not taught in our schools. Abby Martin interviews history Professor Daniel Immerwahr about his new book, 'How To Hide An Empire,' where he documents the story of our "Greater United States."


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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Not wrong: Trump triples down on criticism of Baltimore democrats - "Disgusting, rat infested mess!"

West Baltimore
© Reuters / Jim BourgWest Baltimore neighborhood.
President Trump has unleashed a Twitterstorm on Rep. Elijah Cummings, advising the congressman to clean up the "worst" congressional district in the US instead of criticizing the treatment of migrants at the border.

"Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous." President Donald Trump said in his first tweet on Saturday. "His district is considered the Worst in the USA."



Unlike the "clean, efficient and well run" US southern border with Mexico, Maryland's 7th congressional district is just "filthy," the president said.
Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.
Advising the African-American politician to spend more time in Baltimore, Trump spent most of Saturday tweeting footage of the problems faced by Cummings' constituents.

Comment: More Trump:





Baltimore IS a sh*thole.




Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: US and Iran stuck on negotiation Ground Zero

Hormuz
© FlickrChokepoint: The Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump says he's 'okay either way', whether there's war with Iran and Tehran seems to be okay with that too, warns Pepe Escobar.

All bets are off in the geopolitical insanity stakes when we have the President of the United States (POTUS) glibly announcing he could launch a nuclear first strike to end the war in Afghanistan and wipe it "off the face of the earth" in one week. But he'd rather not, so he doesn't have to kill 10 million people.

Apart from the fact that not even a nuclear strike would subdue the legendary fighting spirit of Afghan Pashtuns, the same warped logic - ordering a nuclear first strike as one orders a cheeseburger - could apply to Iran instead of Afghanistan.

Trump once again flip-flopped by declaring that the prospect of a potential war in the Persian Gulf "could go either way, and I'm OK either way it goes," much to the delight of Beltway-related psychopaths who peddle the notion that Iran is begging to be bombed.

Comment: See also:


NPC

Best of the Web: The Russians hacked our pizza! DHS warns of efforts to divide Americans over pineapple on pizza

dhs pizza
Department of Homeland Security issues a warning using pineapple pizza.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning that Russian agents could seek to further divide Americans by exploiting U.S. passions over whether pineapple belongs on pizza.

It's a cheesy, playful warning -- but it's trying to deliver a serious message. Posted online Wednesday by the department's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the tongue-in-cheek warning aims to help Americans identify and protect against propaganda campaigns from Russia and other foreign adversaries.

After all, the DHS warning says, Russian agents are capable of simultaneously insisting online that "Being anti-pineapple is un-American!" while also pushing out posts saying "Millennials are ruining pizza!"

"Foreign influencers are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to inflame hot button issues in the United States," the new DHS warning says. "They don't do this to win arguments; they want to see us divided."

Cupcake Pink

Best of the Web: Study: Democrats tend to be LESS tolerant of diversity than Republicans - And the more educated they are, the LESS tolerant they become

A new survey found Democrats live with less political diversity despite being more tolerant of it - with startling results
liberal bubble
© Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
In a surprising new national survey, members of each major American political party were asked what they imagined to be the beliefs held by members of the other. The survey asked Democrats: "How many Republicans believe that racism is still a problem in America today?" Democrats guessed 50%. It's actually 79%. The survey asked Republicans how many Democrats believe "most police are bad people". Republicans estimated half; it's really 15%.

The survey, published by the thinktank More in Common as part of its Hidden Tribes of America project, was based on a sample of more than 2,000 people. One of the study's findings: the wilder a person's guess as to what the other party is thinking, the more likely they are to also personally disparage members of the opposite party as mean, selfish or bad. Not only do the two parties diverge on a great many issues, they also disagree on what they disagree on.

Comment: Take stock of reality, in other words. But is that what happened after 2016? No, they crafted the most spectacularly unhinged political theater in known human history, blaming the leader of a foreign country for losing an election in their own.

The findings in this study probably replicate, to one extent or another, across the globalized 'Western' liberal-cosmopolitan island chain from NYC to London to Paris and beyond. It's not just that the West is divided into two camps, but that one of those camps is a clear minority, dominates the levers of power, and is rendering itself not only irrelevant but a danger to the continuation of human civilization.

Fair play to the Guardian for publishing these findings, which, of course, are devastating for most of its columnists' daily commentary...


Bullseye

Best of the Web: Destabilizing Pakistan: Bookending Washington's China policy

Balochistan
Much is being said of US activities aimed at China. Recent protests in Hong Kong together with a US-led propaganda campaign aimed at Beijing's attempts to quell a growing terrorist threat in Xinjiang are aimed at pressuring the nation to fall back into line within Washington's enduring unipolar international order.

The latter of these two campaigns in particular - claims of Chinese authoritarianism as Beijing attempts to neutralize US-backed separatists and terrorists in Xinjiang - has also been spun as China "targeting Muslims."

This ignores the fact that one of China's closest and oldest allies in Eurasia is Pakistan - a Muslim-majority nation. It also ignores the fact that in Pakistan, the US is playing the same game aimed at cultivating violent extremism, separatism, violence, division, and even the dissolution of Pakistan's current borders.

Comment: See also:


Sherlock

Best of the Web: The Jeffrey Epstein case: A rare opportunity to focus

Epstein/Trivers/Summers
© Screen Shot/Rick Friedman/PolarisJeffrey Epstein with Robert Trivers, Alan Dershowitz, Larry Summers, Harvard 2004
Perhaps, at long last, a serial rapist and pedophile may be brought to justice, more than a dozen years after he was first charged with crimes that have brutalized countless girls and women. But what won't change is this: the cesspool of elites, many of them in New York, who allowed Jeffrey Epstein to flourish with impunity.

For decades, important, influential, "serious" people attended Epstein's dinner parties, rode his private jet, and furthered the fiction that he was some kind of genius hedge-fund billionaire. How do we explain why they looked the other way, or flattered Epstein, even as they must have noticed he was often in the company of a young harem? Easy: They got something in exchange from him, whether it was a free ride on that airborne "Lolita Express," some other form of monetary largesse, entrée into the extravagant celebrity soirées he hosted at his townhouse, or, possibly and harrowingly, a pound or two of female flesh.

~ From the New York Magazine article: Who Was Jeffrey Epstein Calling?
An honest assessment of the current state of American politics and society in general leaves little room for optimism regarding the public's ability to accurately diagnose, much less tackle, our fundamental issues at a root level. A primary reason for this state of affairs boils down to the ease with which the American public is divided against itself and conquered.

Though there are certain issues pretty much everyone can agree on, we simply aren't focusing our collective energy on them or creating the mass movements necessary to address them. Things such as systemic bipartisan corruption, the institutionalization of a two-tier justice system in which the wealthy and powerful are above the law, a broken economy that requires both parents to work and still barely make ends meet, and a military-industrial complex consumed with profits and imperial aggression not national defense. These are just a few of the many issues that should easily unite us against an entrenched power structure, but it is not happening. At least not yet.

Comment: See also: