Inter-Imperialist Rivalry

So What Will The Sanctioned Supergroup Do?

August 20, 2018 Pepe Escobar, Atimes.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Ruling Class, Trump Administration

Those were the days, during the Cold War 1960s and 1970s, when the earth was actually ruled by rock supergroups – from Cream and Led Zeppelin to Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends – and the post-truth geopolitical remix of the supergroup. Meet The Sanctioned; a multinational band starring multi-instrumentalists Vladimir Putin (Russia), Xi Jinping (China), Hassan Rouhani (Iran) and Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey). As the whole rock universe knows, The Sanctioned run the relentless risk of being outshined – in the form of multi-layered sanctions – by undisputed glitter solo act Donald Trump (US). The two real virtuosos in the band relish playing in perfect synch. Putin may indulge only the occasional Jimmy Page solo (as in Caspian-launched missiles against Daesh in Syria); he’s more like Keith Emerson invoking the Russian classical composer Mussorgsky.

Russia Backs Non-Dollar Trade With Turkey, No Promise Of Help Amid Lira Crisis

August 16, 2018 Andrey Ostroukh and Tuvan Gumrukcu, Reuters.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, New Economy, Russia, Türkiye

“The use of national currencies for mutual trade has for several years been one of the tasks that the presidents of Russia and Turkey had set,” Lavrov told a joint news conference with Cavusoglu in Ankara. “Identical processes have been happening in our relations with Iran. Not only with Turkey and Iran, we’re also arranging and already implementing payments in national currencies with the People’s Republic of China,” he said. “I am confident that the grave abuse of the role of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency will result over time in the weakening and demise of its role,” Lavrov said, echoing statements made by President Vladimir Putin. However, Lavrov did not announce any immediate commitment to drop the dollar in trade with Turkey or provide it with financial aid, leaving observers guessing if the two countries, both hit by U.S. sanctions, have agreed on any bilateral deal.

‘Too Big To Fail’: Russia-gate One Year After VIPS Showed A Leak, Not A Hack

August 15, 2018 Patrick Lawrence, Consortiumnews.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Propaganda, Russia, RussiaGate

A year has passed since highly credentialed intelligence professionals produced the first hard evidence that allegations of mail theft and other crimes attributed to Russia rested on purposeful falsification and subterfuge. The initial reaction to these revelations—a firestorm of frantic denial—augured ill, and the time since has fulfilled one’s worst expectations. One year later we live within an institutionalized proscription of proven reality. Our discourse consists of a series of fence posts and taboos. By any detached measure, this lands us in deep, serious trouble. The sprawl of what we call “Russia-gate” now brings our republic and its institutions to a moment of great peril—the gravest since the McCarthy years and possibly since the Civil War. No, I do not consider this hyperbole.

Economic War On Iran Is War On Eurasia Integration

August 14, 2018 Pepe Escobar, Atimes.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Iran, Sanctions, Trump Administration, US Imperialism

Hysteria reigned supreme after the first round of US sanctions were reinstated against Iran over the past week. War scenarios abound, and yet the key aspect of the economic war unleashed by the Trump administration has been overlooked: Iran is a major piece in a much larger chessboard. The US sanctions offensive, launched after Washington’s unilateral pullout from the Iran nuclear deal, should be interpreted as an advance gambit in the New Great Game at whose center lies China’s New Silk Road – arguably the most important infrastructure project of the 21st century — and overall Eurasia integration. The Trump administration’s maneuvers are a testament to how China’s New Silk Road, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), threaten the US establishment.

New Sanctions On Russia And Iran Are Unlikely To Work. Here’s Why

August 10, 2018 David Cortright, Theconversation.com Strategize! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Iran, Russia, Sanctions

Sanctions are much in demand these days as a tool of American foreign policy. Members of Congress want tough new sanctions against Russia for its interference in American elections. Sanctions will remain in place against North Korea, the White House says, until Pyongyang shows progress toward denuclearization. After tearing up the Iran nuclear accord, the Trump administration restored sanctions against Tehran in an effort to get a better deal on restricting its weapons and a change in its behavior. And even NATO ally Turkey faces sanctions for imprisoning several U.S. citizens and employees of its diplomatic mission. Policymakers claim that sanctions are an effective means of achieving policy goals, but is that true? Are new measures against Moscow and Tehran likely to be successful?

Russia Is Our Friend

August 8, 2018 David Swanson, Davidswanson.org Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Nationalism, Russia

Last May I was in Russia when fascists held a rally in my hometown of Charlottesville, not to be confused with their larger rally which followed in August. At the May rally, people shouted “Russia is our friend.” I was on a Russian TV show called Crosstalk the next day and discussed this. I also discussed it with other Russians, actual friends in the human sense. Some of them were completely bewildered, arguing that Russia never had slavery and couldn’t be the friend of Confederate-flag-waving people whom they saw as advocates for slavery. (Anti-Russian Ukrainians have also waved Confederate flags.) I don’t think slavery or serfdom was on the minds of the people shouting “Russia is our friend.” Rather they believed the Democratic/Liberal accusation that the Russian government had tried to help make Donald Trump President, and they approved. They may also have thought of Russia as a “white” ally in their cause of white supremacy.

Best Of TomDispatch: Chalmers Johnson, Dismantling The Empire

August 1, 2018 By Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, US Imperialism

It’s been almost eight years since Chalmers Johnson died. He was the author of, among other works, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire and Dismantling the Empire. He was also a TomDispatch stalwart and a friend . As I watch the strange destructive dance of Donald Trump and his cohorts, I still regularly find myself wondering: What would Chal think? His acerbic wit and, as a former consultant to the CIA, his deep sense of how the national security state worked provided me with a late education. With no access to my Ouija board, however, the best I can do when it comes to answering such questions is repost his classic final piece for this site on the necessity of dismantling the American empire before it dismantles us.

The Grand Illusion Of Imperial Power

July 30, 2018 By Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, Counterpunch.org Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, US Imperialism

Few Americans today understand how the United States came to be owned by a London-backed neoconservative/right-wing alliance that grew out of the institutional turmoil of the post-Vietnam era. Even fewer understand how its internal mission to maintain the remnants of the old British Empire gradually overcame American democracy and replaced it with a “national security” bureaucracy of its own design. We owe the blueprint of that plan to James Burnham, Trotskyist, OSS man and architect of the neoconservative movement whose exposition of the Formal and the Real in his 1943 The Modern Machiavellians justified the rise of the oligarch and the absolute rule of their managerial elite.

It’s Time For NATO To Go The Way Of The Warsaw Pact

July 28, 2018 By Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org Create! Europe, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, militarism, NATO, Trump Administration

The outcome of the July 11-12 NATO meeting in Brussels got lost amid the media’s obsession with President Donald Trump’s bombast, but the “Summit Declaration” makes for sober reading. The media reported that the 28-page document “upgraded military readiness,” and was “harshly critical of Russia,” but there wasn’t much detail beyond that. But details matter, because that’s where the devil hides. One such detail is NATO’s “Readiness Initiative” that will beef up naval, air, and ground forces in “the eastern portion of the Alliance.” NATO is moving to base troops in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Since Georgia and Ukraine have been invited to join the Alliance, some of those forces could end up deployed on Moscow’s western and southern borders.

High Crimes And Misdemeanors – Not By Trump But Obama And Democrats

July 26, 2018 Staff, Ajamubaraka.com Educate! Corporate Media, Electoral Politics, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry

Increasing evidence emerges that confirms what ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern suggests was a classic off-the-shelve intelligence operation initiated during the last year of Obama’s presidency against the Trump campaign by employees of, and others associated with, the CIA, FBI, and the NS. Yet the public is being counseled to ignore possible proof of state mis-conduct. The historic and unprecedented timing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of twelve Russia military intelligence officers on the eve of Trump’s meeting with Putin, was clearly meant to undercut Trump’s authority. This still did not pique the journalistic curiosity of an ostensibly independent press to at least pretend to question the possible motivation for these indictments at such a specific moment.

‘Putin’s War On America’ Is Nothing Compared With America’s War On Democracy

July 24, 2018 Paul Street, Truthdig.com Educate! Democracy, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Russia, US Imperialism

The noted North Korean political commentator Kim Jong Un got it right last year: Donald Trump is a “mentally deranged dotard.” Consider the U.S. president’s bizarre performance next to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday. Asked about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, President Trump said this: “I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be.” He continued: “So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” Talk about walking into your enemy’s wheelhouse. Trump looked, acted and sounded like a big floppy and supine plaything of his smirking Russian master. It was surreal.

Aftermath Of Helsinki Summit: American ‘Democracy’ In Action

July 21, 2018 Finian Cunningham, Informationclearinghouse.info Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, RussiaGate, Trump Administration

July 19, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - After his landmark summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, US President Donald Trump was apparently forced into an embarrassing u-turn over allegations of Russian interference in American elections. On returning to the White House from his summit in Finland, Trump read out a statement, saying that he“accepted” US intelligence claims that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election. He offered the explanation that he had “mis-spoken” during his press conference with Putin in Helsinki the day before, when he appeared then to accept the Russian president’s “powerful denial” that his country had not interfered in the race for the White House.

Let’s See Who’s Bluffing In The Criminal Case Against The Russians

July 19, 2018 Scott Ritter, Theamericanconservative.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Propaganda, RussiaGate

It was a remarkable moment in a remarkable press conference. President Donald Trump had just finished a controversial summit meeting in Helsinki with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and the two were talking to the media. Jeff Mason, a political affairs reporter with Reuters, stood up and asked Putin a question pulled straight out of the day’s headlines: “Will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a U.S. grand jury?” The “12 Russian officials” Mason spoke of were military intelligence officers accused of carrying out a series of cyberattacks against various American-based computer networks (including those belonging to the Democratic National Committee), the theft of emails and other data, and the release of a significant portion of this information to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Has Mueller Caught The Hackers?

July 17, 2018 Aaron Mate, Therealnews.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Robert Mueller, RussiaGate, Trump Administration

AARON MATE: It’s The Real News, I’m Aaron Mate. For the first time, special counsel Robert Mueller has issued an indictment directly related to “Russiagate’s” underlying crime, the theft of Democratic Party e-mails. On Friday, Mueller charged twelve officials with the GRU, Russia’s main foreign intelligence agency. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein unveiled the indictment. ROD ROSENSTEIN: The indictment charges twelve Russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Eleven of the defendants are charged with conspiring to hack into computers, steal documents and release those documents with the intent to interfere in the election. One of those defendants and a twelfth Russian military officer are charged with conspiring to infiltrate computers of organizations involved in administering elections.

Journalist For The Nation Forcibly Removed From Trump-Putin Conference

July 17, 2018 Jennifer Kang, Splinternews.com Resist! Censorship, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Russia, US Imperialism

According to CNN, Husseini was initially removed from the event, but was allowed back in to get his belongings. Russian authorities reportedly called his sign a “malicious item,” citing it as a reason for removal. “You’re grabbing me for what? I am telling you what I am doing. I am being totally open,” Husseini said as he was taken away. He also reportedly said, “I want to ask about nuclear weapons,” before being led out. The Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty is the first legally binding international agreement to ban nuclear weapons, with the ultimate goal of total elimination. Neither Russia nor the U.S. is a party to the treaty.

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