Above photo: C-Span.
The contradictions and embarrassing antics of the fascist war-mongering United States appear with stark clarity when viewed from an outside perspective.
Especially from within China, where peace is international policy.
In recent days the United States has once again shown itself to be a rogue state and a fake democracy which is firmly under the control of its oligarchic class. Elected representatives are their tools and the people are indoctrinated into thinking that the duopoly partners in crime are actually different from one another, even as they work in concert.
This columnist joined a delegation in China and from that distance observed a $91 billion giveaway by members of Congress, including $61 billion to the military-industrial complex for the Ukraine proxy war which has already been lost to Russia. The apartheid state of Israel was also a recipient of $26 billion in largesse, and $8 billion was allocated to antagonize China over Taiwan, an island that the U.S. officially acknowledges as being part of China.
The cynicism of the U.S. political class was on full display, as the same Democratic Party which regularly excoriates Donald Trump and his supporters as fascist insurrectionists, suddenly began working in earnest with the people they usually vilify. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was effusive in his praise. “Traditional conservatives led by Mike Johnson have risen to the occasion.”
Speaker Mike Johnson had balked at continuing any aid for Ukraine and for a good reason. His members wanted to stop the endless flow of money. But all that changed when the ruling class, the oligarchs, or the one-percent, call them what you will, began to call the shots. Donald Trump threw Johnson a lifeline by publicly showing support and silencing the more restive Republican members. Senator Lindsey Graham said out loud what astute observers had already figured out. “This would not have passed without President Trump. I want to thank the House Speaker [Mike Johnson] and [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries for working together in a bipartisan fashion to give weapons to Ukraine to fight a fight that matters to us.” If democrats and republicans are thanking each other, the people have gotten the shaft. What is the purpose of having different political parties if they work together against the interests of the people they claim to represent?
After the political sausage had been made, the corporate media joined in the scam. Speaker Johnson had been portrayed as a hapless loser but overnight became a hero because he opposed what his caucus and his voters wanted. “By passing Ukraine aid, the accidental speaker became an unlikely Churchill,” according to CNN anyway. Winston Churchill was a vile man, an imperialist who among other things allowed millions of people in India to starve to death, but when his name is mentioned the implication is usually a positive one. The fix was in from the white house to congress to the media. They were all of one accord and the people be damned.
It was a surreal experience watching the Washington clown show from China. Somehow the distance brought all the ugliness into high relief. While members of congress stupidly referred to the right-wing post-Soviet leader Vladimir Putin as a “Communist KGB thug ” and a “murderous, Marxist, dictator ”, China counseled peace. German Chancellor Olof Scholz met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who repeated that peace talks are the only reasonable solution to the Ukraine crisis. China has offered its services in an effort to end the bloodshed ever since the proxy war began but it has been rebuffed at every turn. Nations like Germany are firmly under Washington’s grip and dare not act as the independent nations they claim to be.
While Xi expressed common sense, members of the House of Representatives waved Ukrainian flags and patted themselves on the back for ensuring more Ukrainian deaths, an endless windfall for the warmakers, and a theft of public resources. Not one member of the Democratic Party voted against the Ukraine cash flow. Progressives, the Squad, and every single democrat were on the same page with Donald Trump.
The celebration of foolishness was almost always expressed as a sign of American leadership that the entire world wants. Yet neither China or the other global south nations that make up the majority of the world’s population want what Washington is offering. China’s population of 1.4 billion people comprises 18% of the world’s population , yet is dismissed as an irrelevance. If China is mentioned at all it is referred to as a dictatorship where people are oppressed every minute of the day.
Our delegation witnessed a country that continues to plan and to grow its economy. The constant U.S. war propaganda is proof that China is an economic rival and therefore a diplomatic rival too. China feeds its large population, launches satellites, expands a network of high-speed rail, and positions itself as a world leader while the U.S. only knows how to obstruct and steal.
We are told that China is a dystopian, authoritarian hellscape where the people lack all freedoms that Americans allegedly enjoy. But the congressional grand theft also included provisions to end the presence of the TikTok social media platform in the U.S. and to steal its operations because it is said to be controlled by the Chinese government when everyone knows that assertion is simply untrue. Now TikTok may be silenced because Zionists want to end one source of information that can defy their narratives and possibly put funding to Israel at risk.
Joe Biden also reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which allows for warrantless searches of U.S. citizens. Again Mike Johnson changed his own position, opposed his caucus, and did what the deep surveillance state wanted. Apparently China isn’t the only authoritarian state in the world.
We have been told that Trump presents an existential threat and that voting for Biden is of the utmost importance. Yet he agrees with Trump on aid to Ukraine and on the futile effort to end China’s economic prowess. Just like Trump, Biden is proposing increasing tariffs on China’s steel and aluminum, and just like Trump, he will be unable to stop this powerhouse from thriving.
The truth is that fascism is here whether Trump or Biden is in the white house and whether Mike Johnson or Hakeem Jeffries is the House Speaker. Fascism demands acquiescence to corporate interests, to the surveillance state, and to the war makers. All of those interests can be confident of getting what they want. People in the United States can also be confident that getting their needs met will be a rarity. So it is in their “democratic” nation.