14) The inevitability of War, the bigger picture. WAR, IDEOLOGY, MONEY, POLITICAL WILL, HISTORY

I want this grandly themed article by Paul Craig Roberts to crack open my entire take on world politics :http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/may/26/why-war-is-inevitable.aspx?author=Paul+Craig+Roberts
I don't agree with all of its conclusions since it alomost excuses the inane Islamic contribution to damaging society and paints Israel with the same stick as the US Neocon, which is not entirely fair, but has some substance.

Here we go:

Those who lose family members and dear friends to war don’t want the deaths to have been in vain. Consequently, wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us how much we owe to those who gave their lives so that America could remain free.

The speeches are well-intentioned, but the speeches create a false reality that supports ever more wars. None of America’s wars had anything to do with keeping America free. To the contrary, the wars swept away our civil liberties, making us unfree.

President Lincoln issued an executive order for the arrest and imprisonment of northern newspaper reporters and editors. He shut down 300 northern newspapers and held 14,000 political prisoners. Lincoln arrested war critic US Representative Clement Vallandigham from Ohio and exiled him to the Confederacy. President Woodrow Wilson used WWI to suppress free speech, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt used WWII to intern 120,000 US citizens of Japanese descent on the grounds that race made them suspect. Professor Samuel Walker concluded that President George W. Bush used the “war on terror” for an across the board assault on US civil liberty, making the Bush regime the greatest danger American liberty has ever faced.

Lincoln forever destroyed states’ rights, but the suspension of habeas corpus and free speech that went hand in hand with America’s three largest wars was lifted at war’s end. However, President George W. Bush’s repeal of the Constitution has been expanded by President Obama and codified by Congress and executive orders into law. Far from defending our liberties, our soldiers who died in “the war on terror” died so that the president can indefinitely detain US citizens without due process of law and murder US citizens on suspicion alone without any accountability to law or the Constitution.

The conclusion is unavoidable that America’s wars have not protected our liberty but, instead, destroyed liberty. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”

Southern secession did pose a threat to Washington’s empire, but not to the American people.Neither the Germans of WWI vintage nor the Germans and Japanese of WWII vintage posed any threat to the US. As historians have made completely clear, Germany did not start WWI and did not go to war for the purpose of territorial expansion. Japan’s ambitions were in Asia. Hitler did not want war with England and France. Hitler’s territorial ambitions were mainly to restore German provinces stripped from Germany as WWI booty in violation of President Wilson’s guarantees. Any other German ambitions were to the East. Neither country had any plans to invade the US. Japan attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor hoping to remove an obstacle to its activities in Asia, not as a precursor to an invasion of America.

Certainly the countries ravaged by Bush and Obama in the 21st century–Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan, and Yemen posed no military threat to the US. Indeed, these were wars used by a tyrannical executive branch to establish the basis of the Stasi State that now exists in the US.

The truth is hard to bear, but the facts are clear. America’s wars have been fought in order to advance Washington’s power, the profits of bankers and armaments industries, and the fortunes of US companies. Marine General Smedley Butler said, “ I served in all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.”

It is more or less impossible to commemorate the war dead without glorifying them, and it is impossible to glorify them without glorifying their wars.

For the entirety of the 21st century the US has been at war, not war against massed armies or threats to American freedom, but wars against civilians, against women, children, and village elders, and wars against our own liberty. Elites with a vested interest in these wars tell us that the wars will have to go on for another 20 to 30 years before we defeat “the terrorist threat.”

This, of course, is nonsense. There was no terrorist threat until Washington began trying to create terrorists by military attacks, justified by lies, on Muslim populations.

Washington succeeded with its war lies to the point that Washington’s audacity and hubris have outgrown Washington’s judgment.

By overthrowing the democratically elected government in Ukraine, Washington has brought the United States into confrontation with Russia. This is a confrontation that could end badly, perhaps for Washington and perhaps for the entire world.

If Gaddafi and Assad would not roll over for Washington, why does Washington think Russia will? Russia is not Libya or Syria. Washington is the bully who having beat up the kindergarden kid, now thinks he can take on the college linebacker.

The Bush and Obama regimes have destroyed America’s reputation with their incessant lies and violence against other peoples. The world sees Washington as the prime threat.

Worldwide polls consistently show that people around the world regard the US and Israel as the two countries that pose the greatest threat to peace. http://www.ibtimes.com/gallup-poll-biggest-threat-world-peace-america-1525008 and
http://www.jewishfederations.org/european-poll-israel-biggest-threat-to-world-peace.aspx

The countries that Washington’s propaganda declares to be “rogue states” and the “axis of evil,” such as Iran and North Korea, are far down the list when the peoples in the world are consulted. It could not be more clear that the world does not believe Washington’s self-serving propaganda. The world sees the US and Israel as the rogue states.

The US and Israel are the only two countries in the world that are in the grip of ideologies. The US is in the grip of the Neoconservative ideology which has declared the US to be the “exceptional, indispensable country” chosen by history to exercise hegemony over all others. This ideology is buttressed by the Brzezinski and Wolfowitz doctrines that are the basis of US foreign policy.

The Israeli government is in the grip of the Zionist ideology that declares a “greater Israel” from the Nile to the Euphrates. Many Israelis themselves do not accept this ideology, but it is the ideology of the “settlers” and those who control the Israeli government.

Ideologies are important causes of war. Just as the Hitlerian ideology of German superiority is mirrored in the Neoconservative ideology of US superiority, the Communist ideology that the working class is superior to the capitalist class is mirrored in the Zionist ideology that Israelis are superior to Palestinians. Zionists have never heard of squatters’ rights and claim that recent Jewish immigrants into Palestine–invaders really–have the right to land occupied by others for millenniums.

Washington’s and Israel’s doctrines of superiority over others do not sit very well with the ”others.” When Obama declared in a speech that Americans are the exceptional people, Russia’s President Putin responded, “God created us all equal.”
To the detriment of its population, the Israeli government has made endless enemies. Israel has effectively isolated itself in the world. Israel’s continued existence depends entirely on the willingness and ability of Washington to protect Israel. This means that Israel’s power is derivative of Washington’s power.

Washington’s power is a different story. As the only economy standing after WWII, the US dollar became the world money. This role for the dollar has given Washington financial hegemony over the world, the main source of Washington’s power. As other countries rise, Washington’s hegemony is imperiled.

To prevent other countries from rising, Washington invokes the Brzezinski and Wolfowitz doctrines. To be brief, the Brzezinski doctrine says that in order to remain the only superpower, Washington must control the Eurasian land mass. Brzezinski is willing for this to occur peacefully by suborning the Russian government into Washington’s empire. ”A loosely confederated Russia . . . a decentralized Russia would be less susceptible to imperial mobilization.” In other words, break up Russia into associations of semi-autonomous states whose politicians can be suborned by Washington’s money.

Brzezinski propounded “a geo-strategy for Eurasia.” In Brzezinski’s strategy, China and “a confederated Russia” are part of a “transcontinental security framework,” managed by Washington in order to perpetuate the role of the US as the world’s only superpower.

I once asked my colleague, Brzezinski, that if everyone was allied with us, who were we organized against? My question surprised him, because I think that Brzezinski remains caught up in Cold War strategy even after the demise of the Soviet Union. In Cold War thinking it was important to have the upper hand or else be at risk of being eliminated as a player. The importance of prevailing became all consuming, and this consuming drive survived the Soviet collapse. Prevailing over others is the only foreign policy that Washington knows.

The mindset that America must prevail set the stage for the Neoconservatives and their 21st century wars, which, with Washington’s overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine, has resulted in a crisis that has brought Washington into direct conflict with Russia.

I know the strategic institutes that serve Washington. I was the occupant of the William E.Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, for a dozen years. The idea is prevalent that Washington must prevail over Russia in Ukraine or Washington will lose prestige and its superpower status.

The idea of prevailing always leads to war once one power thinks it has prevailed.

The path to war is reinforced by the Wolfowitz Doctrine. Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative intellectual who formulated US military and foreign policy doctrine, wrote among many similar passages:
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere [China], that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”
In the Wolfowitz Doctrine, any other strong country is defined as a threat and a power hostile to the US regardless of how willing that country is to get along with the US for mutual benefit.

The difference between Brzezinski and the Neoconservatives is that Brzezinski wants to suborn Russia and China by including them in the empire as important elements whose voices would be heard, If only for diplomatic reasons, whereas the Neoconservatives are prepared to rely on military force combined with internal subversion orchestrated with US financed NGOs and even terrorist organizations.

Neither the US nor Israel is embarrassed by their worldwide reputations as the two countries that pose the greatest threat. In fact, both countries are proud to be recognized as the greatest threats. The foreign policy of both countries is devoid of any diplomacy. US and Israeli foreign policy rests on violence alone. Washington tells countries to do as Washington says or be “bombed into the stone age.” Israel declares all Palestinians, even women and children, to be “terrorists,” and proceeds to shoot them down in the streets, claiming that Israel is merely protecting itself against terrorists. Israel, which does not recognize the existence of Palestine as a country, covers up its crimes with the claim that Palestinians do not accept the existence of Israel.

“We don’t need no stinking diplomacy. We got power.”

This is the attitude that guarantees war, and that is where the US is taking the world. The prime minister of Britain, the chancellor of Germany, and the president of France are Washington’s enablers. They provide the cover for Washington. Instead of war crimes, Washington has “coalitions of the willing” and military invasions that bring “democracy and women’s rights” to non-compliant countries.

China gets much the same treatment. A country with four times the US population but a smaller prison population, China is constantly criticized by Washington as an “authoritarian state.” China is accused of human rights abuses while US police brutalize the US population.

The problem for humanity is that Russia and China are not Libya and Iraq. These two countries possess strategic nuclear weapons. Their land mass greatly exceeds that of the US. The US, which was unable to successfully occupy Baghdad or Afghanistan, has no prospect of prevailing against Russia and China in conventional warfare. Washington will push the nuclear button. What else can we expect from a government devoid of morality?

The world has never experienced rogue states comparable to Washington and Israel. Both governments are prepared to murder anyone and everyone. Look at the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine and the dangers thereof. On May 23, 2014, Russia’s President Putin spoke to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a three-day gathering of delegations from 62 countries and CEOs from 146 of the largest Western corporations.

Putin did not speak of the billions of dollars in trade deals that were being formalized. Instead Putin spoke of the crisis that Washington had brought to Russia, and he criticized Europe for being Washington’s vassals for supporting Washington’s propaganda against Russia and Washington’s interference in vital Russian interests.

Putin was diplomatic in his language, but the message that powerful economic interests from the US and Europe received is that it will lead to trouble if Washington and European governments continue to ignore Russia’s concerns and continue to act as if they can interfere in Russia’s vital interests as if Russia did not exist.

The heads of these large corporations will carry this message back to Washington and European capitals. Putin made it clear that the lack of dialogue with Russia could lead to the West making the mistake of putting Ukraine in NATO and establishing missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine. Putin has learned that Russia cannot rely on good will from the West, and Putin made it clear, short of issuing a threat, that Western military bases in Ukraine are unacceptable.

Washington will continue to ignore Russia. However, European capitals will have to decide whether Washington is pushing them into conflict with Russia that is against European interests. Thus, Putin is testing European politicians to determine if there is sufficient intelligence and independence in Europe for a rapprochement.

If Washington in its overbearing arrogance and hubris forces Putin to write off the West, the Russian/Chinese strategic alliance, which is forming to counteract Washington’s hostile policy of surrounding both countries with military bases, will harden into preparation for the inevitable war.

The survivors, if any, can thank the Neoconservatives, the Wolfowitz doctrine, and the Brzezinski strategy for the destruction of life on earth.

The American public contains a large number of misinformed people who think they know everything. These people have been programmed by US and Israeli propaganda to equate Islam with political ideology. They believe that Islam, a religion, is instead a militarist doctrine that calls for the overthrow of Western civilization, as if anything remains of Western civilization.

Many believe this propaganda even in the face of complete proof that the Sunnis and Shi’ites hate one another far more than they hate their Western oppressors and occupiers. The US has departed Iraq, but the carnage today is as high or higher than during the US invasion and occupation. The daily death tolls from the Sunni/Shi’ite conflict are extraordinary. A religion this disunited poses no threat to anyone except Islamists themselves. Washington successfully used Islamist disunity to overthrow Gaddafi, and is currently using Islamist disunity in an effort to overthrow the government of Syria. Islamists cannot even unite to defend themselves against Western aggression. There is no prospect of Islamists uniting in order to overthrow the West.

Even if Islam could do so, it would be pointless for Islam to overthrow the West. The West has overthrown itself. In the US the Constitution has been murdered by the Bush and Obama regimes. Nothing remains. As the US is the Constitution, what was once the United States no longer exists. A different entity has taken its place.

Europe died with the European Union, which requires the termination of sovereignty of all member countries. A few unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels have become superior to the wills of the French, German, British, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Greek, and Portuguese peoples.

Western civilization is a skeleton. It still stands, barely, but there is no life in it. The blood of liberty has departed. Western peoples look at their governments and see nothing but enemies. Why else has Washington militarized local police forces, equipping them as if they were occupying armies? Why else has Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, and even the Postal Service and Social Security Administration ordered billions of rounds of ammunition and even submachine guns? What is this taxpayer-paid-for arsenal for if not to suppress US citizens?

As the prominent trends forecaster Gerald Celente spells out in the current Trends Journal, “uprisings span four corners of the globe.” Throughout Europe angry, desperate and outraged peoples march against EU financial policies that are driving the peoples into the ground. Despite all of Washington’s efforts with its well funded fifth columns known as NGOs to destabilize Russia and China, both the Russian and Chinese governments have far more support from their people than do the US and Europe.

In the 20th century Russia and China learned what tyranny is, and they have rejected it.

In the US tyranny has entered under the guise of the “war on terror,” a hoax used to scare the sheeple into abandoning their civil liberties, thus freeing Washington from accountability to law and permitting Washington to erect a militarist police state. Ever since WWII Washington has used its financial hegemony and the “Soviet threat,” now converted into the “Russian threat,” to absorb Europe into Washington’s empire.

Putin is hoping that the interests of European countries will prevail over subservience to Washington. This is Putin’s current bet. This is the reason Putin remains unprovoked by Washington’s provocations in Ukraine.

If Europe fails Russia, Putin and China will prepare for the war that Washington’s drive for hegemony makes inevitable

11) Whats really going on in the UKRAINE?

http://themadjewess.com/2014/05/19/gmo-monsanto-pushes-its-way-into-ukraine-all-putins-fault-america-innocent/

Check out this article above on a quirky yet informative site that the source comes from. I don't endorse all views but I welcome divergent viewpoints that stretch or challenge conventional wisdom by making a fair case based on citeable sources

Below is what I feel is a great a great article by Vladimir Golstein that I can no longer locate on www.thenation.com , all source links have been retained. It's such a good article because it's convincing, believable, and his perspective and agendas feel relatable to the reader even when the reader comes from an altogether different background. 


Western Media Coverage of the Ukraine Crisis Is as Distorted as Soviet Propaganda

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I used to approach words like “Voice of America” (Golos Ameriki), BBC, Deutche Welle (Nemetskaia volna) with a certain reverence: they meant hidden, clandestine and therefore precious truth. Truth and news were not found in Pravda orIzvestia, regardless of the explicit claims of these newspapers’ titles; truth and news dwelled in the little short-wave radio, which would tell its eager audience what was really happening in the world.
Official Soviet press was notorious for its manipulation of facts, and even more so for its tendency to ignore particular issues altogether. Dissident activity, Israel, unrest in socialist countries—these stories were off-limit, unless the most vicious vitriol was thrown at them. This policy bordered on the ridiculous.
I learned since then that these radio stations were government-sponsored, that they rarely reported “the whole truth,” but still, the facts that they reported were sufficient to break through the all-encompassing fantasies created by the Soviet media.  
With the recent crisis in Ukraine, and much to my dismay, I've begun to experience an eerie sense of déjà vu. It is as if I'm observing the good old days of the Cold War but through some distorted mirror. Too many major news organizations believe, rather naively, that simple echoing of their government lines will somehow work in the West, even though it failed in the Soviet Union. It is rather ironic that Secretary John Kerry has decided to make RT the subject of hiscriticism, by calling it the “propaganda bullhorn” echoing the accusations that good old Soviet apparatchiks would hurl at Voice of America.
The official line for the Ukrainian story has been already scripted: Ukrainian desire to embrace Western and democratic ways is blocked by spy-master Putin who utilizes his guile and aggression in order to restore the Soviet Empire. And therefore, any unexpected impediment in Ukraine’s march toward Europe is to be blamed on Tsar Putin. The concrete changes and challenges that time brings to this story are ignored, dismissed or misread. Be it the refusal to take Russian interests into consideration, or the causes behind Russia’s annexation of Crimea, or the Russophobic hysteria that keeps ostracizing large segments of the Russian-speaking Ukrainian population. Not to mention the current Ukrainian government’s heavy handed and violent tactics, including the military excursions into the east of the country that have pushed the country to the brink of civil war. All these unexpected events are set aside, while the wheels of the press keep on turning in the same rut and dutifully condemn Putin’s aggression, or articulate different ways of punishing Russia, or juxtapose thuggish Russian separatists with the benevolent and restrained Kiev regime.  
One salient example of the western information blockade is the Odessa massacre of May 2, 2014. When not ignoring the story, the western press articulates a version of it, which is as biased as the Soviets' reports about their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Czech’s quest for independence was blamed on the West, and the presence of Warsaw Pact tanks on the streets of Prague was explained by Pravda as the need to thwart the plan cooked up by Pentagon and CIA. In other words, the tanks were not the means to intimidate Czech citizens, but the weapon against American imperialism. Likewise, in discussing Odessa, the Western press dutifully refers to “the clashes between pro Ukrainian and pro-Russians,” without any explanation as to why several dozen unarmed citizen of Ukraine were burned alive in an Odessa building. Reading western reports, one gets the impression that pro-Putin “separatists” in their stupidity locked themselves into the building and set themselves on fire. 170 years ago the most celebrated Ukrainian author, Nikolai Gogol, mocked Russian bureaucratic abuse by presenting the corrupt mayor, explaining to the inspector general  that the widow of the soldier who was whipped by his orders, “did the thrashing herself.” This prophetic mockery is indeed echoed in the BBC report, which states that “someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the closed window… the glass didn’t break and a fire started inside.” Russians seem both skillful enough to organize the whole mess, and so incompetent as to set themselves ablaze by their own Molotov cocktails.
Likewise, the Wall Street Journal’s article entitled: “Deadly Ukraine Fire Likely Sparked by Rebels, Government Says” asserts that “Rebels Accidentally Dropped Molotov Cocktails on Roof, According to Preliminary Investigation.” Why quote the government on the issue that is so controversial and explosive? In all fairness, the newspaper does present the view of the victims, at least acknowledging the presence of those who “challenge” the story. They are: “victims’ relatives,” “Pro Russian activists,” “Russian media” or “the Speaker of the Russian Parliament.” In other words, the very way in which the people challenging the official line are introduced casts them in a suspicious light, suggesting that their objectivity is mired by anger, political posturing or nationalist commitment. Doesn’t the fact that unarmed people end up butchered and burned warrant the reporter to question the official line on his or her own?
In its turn, the Washington Post’report introduces the violence as the result of “clashes …between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists.” It then interviewed an “ethnic Russian” who provides the following explanation of the massacre: “Victor Dementyev, an ethnic Russian who says he is on Kiev’s side, described seeing anti-government activists attack a crowd of young ultranationalist Ukrainian football hooligans Friday. …”I know that it doesn’t take much to provoke their fury,’’ Dementyev said of the ultranationalists. “By killing one of their friends, separatists made them crazy.’’ In other words: blame the victim. And of course, even that doesn’t work, since there is no reports of any “ultranationalist” being killed. But rumors of such violence were surely spread, and the mob was incited.
The New York Times’s report of May 3, 2014 follows the familiar pattern: “An official in the city said 46 people had died as a result of street battles between pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine groups; many of the dead were pro-Russia militants who had retreated into a trade union building that was then set on fire.” Acknowledging that the violence was rather one sided, the newspaper still fails to state the obvious, suggesting though that the ultranationalist mayhem was almost ritualistic: “Amid the chaos… it was not immediately clear who had started the blaze, though a report from a pro-Ukraine national newspaper, Ukrainska Pravda, suggested that Ukrainian activists had done nothing to help those inside. … As the building burned, the Ukrainian activists continued to scream mottos about Putin and sing the Ukrainian national anthem.”  Yet without pursuing the questions that such ritualistic display of violence has to raise, the report quickly hides behind its ever useful even-handedness: “Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry blamed the day of violence on provocateurs 'paid generously by the Russian special services,' while Russia’s Foreign Ministry blamed a Ukrainian nationalist group, Right Sector.”
With serious news outfits failing to investigate what really happened in Odessa, the field has been left to conspiracy theorists who follow the familiar pattern of blaming either Western or Russian machinations. Thus, according to an essay published online by National Review, the former KGB officer Putin must have organized the whole thing. 

In their desire to whitewash the current Kiev regime and its Western backers, the western press avoids stating the obvious. The Odessa massacre was a blatant and violent attack against the civilian population intended to intimidate and silence. At least BBC, rather than camouflaging the one-sidedness of the violence behind neutral “clashes between,” described it more vividly: “several thousand football fans began to attack 300 pro-Russians.” But who directed the soccer fans toward the square where protesters—in the manner of the Occupy movement—were camping? Who taught young girls to prepare Molotov cocktails for the attackers? Who organized the retreat of the protesters into the building, where they were ambushed and killed, axed—according to recent reports—before being set on fire? Where were the police and fire engines? If security forces are at fault for failing to protect the civilians who simply refuse to share the radical nationalist agenda than emanates from Kiev, can we call those same civilians “separatists” or “terrorists” only because they want Russia to protect them? Why not call them moderate Ukrainians? Incompetent at best, and vicious at worst, the Ukrainian government is failing its own population by radicalizing and ostracizing big segments of it. This is major news, yet the tenor of western coverage is reduced to reports on deaths, and suggestions that since the details are murky, there is nothing else to discuss. Those who want to understand this awful act of violence that can become a watershed in the unfolding drama of Ukrainian civil war will have to rely on the information that is gathered piecemeal from eyewitnesses and published by various alternative sources of information.
Odessa appears to be intimidated and scared, and no pro-Russian demonstrations are taking place there now. Whoever was behind the massacre has clearly succeeded in delivering the strategic Ukrainian port to the Kiev rulers. But for how long? 
The question remains, however, why is the press so invested in expounding the highly unconvincing narrative of the official line? Why such clumsy reporting on the part of such a sophisticated instrument? Why the reluctance to expose the glaring failures of the current Ukrainian government and its western backers? Why on earth does the western press want to emulate this universally ridiculed feature of the Soviets? Is it that difficult to proceed from the fact that we do not yet know all the forces that are vying for control of Ukraine, that we don’t know who is behind the events in Odessa, or how to interpret the rebellion in the East of Ukraine? Only by incorporating different voices we can hope to get closer to the truth of real life, rather than to the monolithic truths of Pravda.
It is a clear indictment of the current Ukrainian government and its leaders that the candidate who is winning in the polls and who will most likely be next president of Ukraine is Petro Poroshenko, the oligarch-politician who kept his distance from the rhetoric and the violence unleashed by Kiev. The politicians who wanted to reap the benefit from playing the nationalist, anti-Russian card, such as Iulia Timoshenko, are clearly falling in popularity. Moderate people in Odessa and the rest of Ukraine might be intimidated but they are hardly in the mood to forgive such actions. One hopes that the new Ukrainian government will find perpetrators, and re-establish national dialogue on the way various groups of Ukrainians treat each another. Without such a dialogue, the future of Ukraine looks very grim indeed.

10) SYRIA updated.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/may/16/why-wont-kerry-leave-syria-alone.aspx

Just a link to an interesting article on the Ron Paul site regarding aspects of the updated situation in Syria.  

9) CAUSES

The name of this blog is “Do we already have the solutions” for a reason.  My earlier posts on Identity and their link to values have shown that the solutions often lie in being able to removing barriers to reveal what we already know. Culture, identity and personal ego and indoctrination issues often lead do being emotionally aligned and  motivated to draw a line in the sand and choosing sides.  Nowhere is this more apparent than with getting behind a cause.

The vast majority of causes are non-issues.  The way society deals with the issues is the real problem, often creating two opposing sides defending their particular positions and my personal experience has shown me that many of us are indiscriminately being PRO or ANTI a particular issue.

This makes little sense of course, because the elements at play are never simple and broad decision of personal PRO or ANTI policy should ever be applied without due consideration of the context.  As obvious as this sounds, is very uncommon to encounter either side investigating the merits of the opposing camp, or taking the time to understand the application of their cause in each scenario.  This has the fascinating effect of producing loyalties and hostilities along with all sorts of ridiculous barriers to solutions that are so often right in front of us.

For example:

Recently the issue of trophy hunting has exposed how much emotion your average armchair activist is prepared to invest to stop a particular trophy hunter, Melissa Bachman, from plying her nasty trade.  Public opinion has likely achieved part of its goal, leaving conservationists frustrated that another hollow victory based on sentiment has achieved nothing for Lion Conservation.  The conservationist approach was for a long time perceived as PRO trophy hunting in their efforts to highlight the real issues, the issues that would achieve real success, were regarded with suspicion and prejudice. See here: http://www.toomuchtoomany.co.za/blog/2013/11/15/lions-in-the-cross-hairs

The issue of fracking has become so sentimentally polarizing, that in some cases where fracking is potentially the least environmentally impacting way to meet energy demands, there is serious talk of shelving the idea, or not even getting data on it, in favor of more harmful ways of producing power IN THOSE PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES.  It also fails to address the issue that ever growing needs for power come from our failure to manage or population, lifestyle or impact on the environment. See here: http://www.toomuchtoomany.co.za/blog/2013/12/5/we-cant-treasure-only-the-karoo and here: http://www.toomuchtoomany.co.za/blog/2013/5/6/when-should-we-start-fracking-in-the-karoo IT’s not clear what the facts on this issue are yet, but it quite clear that there is a public desire to move forward without due consideration of the facts due to sentimental attachment to a cause.

The vaccination issue is a prime example where issues are again being confused.  There is so much evidence for vaccinations saving lives and doing much good for society, but because there have been instances in the past where some bad vaccines were discovered, or where unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies and their political lobbyists have been found pushing legislation in cases where untested or unnecessary vaccines where to be made compulsory, some have turned against ALL VACCINATIONS.  For the same reason many in the PRO camp have taken to defending all instances of vaccination indiscriminately.  It’s completely unnecessary and avoidable, but until we learn to weed out the separate issues we will never focus on the real problems. Here is a potted and superficial look at the issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversies

The danger of all of this sentimentality is that it affects political will to make real change, politicians run for office based on these emotive issues often more than the real issues of the day, and often their policy is shaped by taking stands on these issues designed to resound with one group or the other in order to win over a voting section of the population tied into the issue.
Politics is not so much sick because of politicians, it is sick because politicians have to get elected, and we demand they take a stand on these matters to get our allegiance and  satisfy our agendas over finding solutions for the ails of society.

I call indiscriminate activism “slactivism”, because of the poor fact checking as well as the lack of interest shown in researching and understanding an issue one claims to feels so passionately about. Sometimes it is harmless; other times when there are consequences it is irresponsible and hypocritical.
www.snopes.com regularly cites cases where sudden public reaction and hostility spreads misinformation and lies, often harming innocent people, by outraged armchair activists who couldn’t be bothered to check their facts, spreading vitriolic hate parading as an internet meme.

It’s often been cited to me that slactivism can achieve results because of the attention drawn to the issue, but attention drawn to incorrect issues can often harm a cause or provide only a sense of self satisfaction those seeking to exploit the issue in order to demonstrate their righteous moral indignation to those listening.  I cannot reconcile it with the work done by those responsible activists spending their own time and resources campaigning for real change, it just does not ring true.
I will concede that if slactivism bring the issues out, and those who better understand the issues challenge the material with intention to show better understanding, then some progress can be made, but it cannot work unless the facts are corrected sensibly and politely which places personal responsibility on all of use to question and understand with open minds, and not to argue to defend our position at all costs.  The internet and social media has given everyone a platform, I think it’s time to stop going around high-fiving and siding with each other and instead learn the art of the polite disagreement and healthy debate.  We learn more about each other in respectful disagreement that we do in awkward comprise.


8) Economic Trend VS Economic Design

Economic indicators are interrelated, and trends are not merely reactions to current events.  The patterns in each have meaning and there is intent, design and subsidy behind each.

The world’s dominant powers and currencies can easily be used as a smokescreen courtesy of indices and exchange rates that, according to economists, are simple reactions to events causing a chain reaction.  Are supply/demand, political stability and other factors that determine which figure goes where on which index the only determining factors?

Here is a casual glance at some interrelating graphs:


Without consideration for any of the given reasoning for fluctuation and trends, take in the correlations. Notice, for example how the South African currency has steadily lost ground to the dollar over time, as have other emerging market economies.  Notice that despite rising US debt and marked increases in US money supply, “debt ceilings” and “fiscal cliffs”, US inflation has, in the long run, come down on the overall decade to decade average.












A quick reference on Wikipedia’s article on inflation here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation shows us that most economists can’t even agree on the reasons for inflation.

Unlearning the misinformation is the first step towards freeing the mind to stop ignoring the relationships.


In my next post I’ll be citing examples through the World Bank, where inflated debt is written off in exchange for US companies taking over the infrastructure contracts in emerging “markets” (sorry, I mean countries) and how this holds back those economies and subsidizes the first world.

7) What if corporations can hijack national identity? The nature of US debt and the reality of corporate empire building in the 21st century


I’d like to get stuck into the elephant in the room following my last post and my posts on Identity.  I have raised the possibility of a "US agenda" without mentioning many specifics or linking claims to groups with interests, and I've given out links to sites that address the sub-issues and sites that are arguably a bit sensationalist.  I've also touched on the fact that the issues governing running for office in United States are largely presented as cultural, religious and socio-economic.  Media propaganda, pop-culture, human nature and perhaps a little bit of spin-doctoring entrench these factors into western society and provide means through which this culture can be well managed in a not too sinister fashion. 

Regarding the heading of this post, of course the US is in Debt, but it doesn't matter if it can adjust the world and it politics or resources to fit its means.

In the colonial, pre-war and world war era’s empire building was based primarily on controlling the land and factors surrounding resources of value.  Nations would covet these valuable resources such as metal ore, minerals, precious metals and gems, chemicals, timber, coal, foods and fertile ground, marine and fishing related, peat, granite etc etc etc. Note that I purposefully left out oil and natural gas for now.
Nations often even invent political reasons to gain access to these riches.
In the cold war in the nuclear age, fear of global destruction was a new factor and tempered the earlier grab for riches with an ideological standoff and a battle for support and global sentiment became much more important.

Let’s appreciate one thing upfront: The United States with its corporate/lobby/governmental interchangeability has by far the most sophisticated, effective, successful and precursory methods of dealing in these matters.  Anybody who takes a superficial glance the illusion of financial difficulty the US is in has little appreciation for the reality of how the world works.

The Soviet VS USA battle to emerge as the world’s sole superpower has allowed the US powers to understand that threat of global destruction is too risky a situation to ever have to confront again, and this standoff needs to be prevented at all costs. How? Let me explain.

The emergence of China has long been anticipated, but China spent its most important development phase stuck in older economic attitudes discussed above, and that is reflected by its role in today’s global political stage.  Many have been surprised by US policy often facilitating this role, and the Chinese / American economic relationship based on debt and outsourcing of manufactured goods stimulated the Chinese drive for resources and manufacturing with cheap labour and well harnessed skills.  An increasing one dimensional economy depending on manufactured goods and trade has emerged.  The United States has been relieved of the need to control some types of natural resources and has managed through globalization to be the chief influencer of the world dollar based economic environment.  The fractional reserve method of money supply, forex and sophisticated western banking practices, now fairly global,  have ensured this.  One cannot make a case for a conspiracy in this regard as much as one can appreciate how US reaction has evolved with, facilitated or permitted certain Chinese policies regarding relationship with the USA on trade and foreign policy, and vice versa. 

What does this mean? This means that the US, and therefore the entire western world has become an essential customer for a China which is becoming increasingly dependent on the global marketplace to ensure its production and trade based economic model does not implode.  You don’t threaten your customer, you want your customer to prosper, and thus the Cold War scenario with China has been cleverly avoided, for now.  Managing China's relationship with Russia as the US puts the (lets face the inevitable) imperialist squeeze on the areas surrounding Russias Black Sea Crimean access areas of Ukraine, which have proximity to Russian oil, gas and gold reserves, will be fascinating to watch in terms of media spin wars in 2014/2015 RT/Fox News) 

This media clip makes a very good case for NATO blocking the Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe (not the dedicated pipeline to Germany) to encourage hostile sentiment towards Russia.



Meanwhile the US drive around its one required resource, energy (oil, and the next big energy resource, natural gas http://www.naturalgas.org/business/demand.asp) continues because of the role that will played in future global policy.  I will get there in future posts.

Here is an excellent article by David Johnson on the issues surrounding fracking: www.toomuchtoomany.co.za/blog/2013/5/6/when-should-we-start-fracking-in-the-karoo

Take a look at the world’s oil and gas reserves and US military action and try and reconcile the given political reasoning with the energy reserves and the picture emerges very clearly:


That is enough for now, in order not to lose anyone I will have to address other themes in future posts before finishing this theme. 

6) Conspiracy Theories


As I write this the United States is in the process of drumming up support for a Strike on Syria.  The reasoning offered is that the strike is necessary as a result of chemical weapons having been used by the Syrian government against it’s own people.  The difference between the few thousand dying by chemical warfare and the previous 90 000 dying by conventional weaponry isn't immediately apparent; perhaps the distinction will be clarified later. Before getting into this issue specifically or making comparison in the rhetoric used by George W. Bush previously in getting the support required for the invasion of Iraq (using non-existent WMD’s as his main selling point) I would prefer to take step back and look at the bigger picture.

The truth is that almost none of us understand what goes on behind closed doors in affairs governing world politics.  The issues themselves are certainly more complex and inter-related than the reasoning provided in the casual conversations I've been privy to. One thing does strike my as very relevant to the themes being introduced by this blog, that aspect is that many people appear very certain in their world view and align their pride and ego with a particular position.  Once the line is drawn in the sand the views and strong opinions invariably need to be defended and eyes are no longer open and free to process information clearly.  We become politically or ideologically aligned and begin to confuse our issues once we commit to a “side”.

I’m incredibly disappointed by this because I feel that the issues are not dealt with in a satisfying manner and the reporting via the already heavily politically aligned news networks reflects this polarizing stance.  Western political lobbying systems and corporate/political interchangeability have inherently built this element into the system even though no particularly sinister puppet master is required to pull the strings.

On the opposite side of the spectrum we have a collection of thematically interesting maverick perspectives that are either fervently supported or vehemently written off as crack-pot conspiracy theorists.  Many of the people or groups to get it wrong in the sense that they often claim to have all the answers or draw conclusions from incompletely formed or half true essential facts.  What has sent a chill down my spine is the fact that for every idea that turns out to be false, there is one that turns out to be true.  I have been following many of these theories for some years now, and while I am not a follower or supporter of many of these perspectives in the true sense, I have been struck by how much of it is verifiable or predicted in advance.  I lost a frustrating long argument in this vein recently with a well informed friend who predicted the “US Empire builders shopping list” as Afghanistan  Iraq  Syria  Iran  (in that order) in the early 2000’s.  He even went as far to mention political destabilizing movements in Libya, Egypt and Turkey.  It’s hard to completely dismiss the fact that something that resembles an agenda is a possibility.  It’s even more difficult to accept that the news “As Reported” is unfolding for the reasons we led to believe.

I’ll be getting stuck into some of these issues in my next post, but I’ll be following public attitudes closely to see if there is any maturing of public assimilation and processing of these ideas, and whether any balance or even perspective is appreciated over the taking of contrary positions without having all the information available to us.

As far as dismissing people wholesale as “crack-pots” or “conspiracy-nuts”, I do not, because for me some of these people do not have to be 100% on the money, just a kernel of truth is worrying enough.  There are those that have elements of such truths and the evidence is overwhelming yet pitted more often against spin and propaganda that evidence to the contrary.

In the meantime here are some links; each has something to offer, even in those cases where some have been exposed to varying degrees (often by unscrupulous attempts to discredit the sources due to the inherent agendas).  Add the awareness's to your mental arsenal without committing to them.  Use them as consideration points if you must, disagree if need. I do not advocate subscribing wholesale to any of them, but believe me, there is an important message in most of them if you are free to read and process without emotional reaction.  I must confess, have included one or two more extreme perspectives, just for fun:



Labels

Search This Blog

Your Feedback

Name

Email *

Message *