The anonymous letter appearing in the New York Times about how the staff
of White House trying to bypass Donald Trump or to block him from
making policies that are detrimental to the Americans gives the
Americans and the world food for thought as to who is running the USA.
If what was reported is true, Trump is a lame duck or at least only able
to do so much and most of the American policies, especially foreign
policies are dictated by his staff against the wishes of Trump.
This speaks clearly why the Americans are putting so much pressure on
North Korea and literally doing things that Trump would not have agreed,
offending the North Koreans by raising sanctions and placing more
unacceptable demands on the North Koreans. Trump is saying and willing
one thing while his staff is doing another.
The reasons for the White House staff to act in the way they are is due
to Trump’s amoral activities and also his incompetence, his
‘impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill informed and occasionally
reckless decisions that have to be walked back.’ What it is saying is
that when there is a rogue President, the staff under him will act
independently to check on the President, to obstruct or hijack the
President’s decision making process, for the good of the USA and the
American people. The President could be the president and continue
ranting and acting wildly, but these would not be allowed to derail
policy making process and bad policies from being implemented.
This is perhaps one of the strongest point in American democracy when
the power of the President is not absolute and good men and women would
stand up to do what is right and good for the country. No rogue
President or head of state could bring down the USA or work against the
interest of the people and country.
How many countries in the world has such a system of checks and balance
on executive power? Of course for such a system to function, there are
conditions and also good people who are brave enough and not beholden to
the President to think critically, logically and independently from the
President. It calls for a lot of guts and conviction to work against
the President to protect the good and interest of people and country.
American is unlikely to have a dictator as his power could easily be
checked. Trump may try to abuse his position of power, but it is not
going to be easy and unrestrained. This is what democracy is all about.
47 comments:
Obama is still running the US Administration. Even the White House, Pentagon, CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, Dept of Justice and Dept of State are still under Obama's ccontrol and influence. He in turns is working for the Deep State.
Now out of the 12 main news media, 9 are controlled, owned or in cohoot with the Deep State.
Even Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have succumbed to the pressure of the Deep State.
Who are those running the Deep State? This is a $Trillion Question.
Dotard Trump has basically fucked himself up. He has made too many enemies. Even his own hand-picked people are not happy with him.
Worst of all, his VP Mike Pence is waiting eagerly and working towards his downfall. Pence cannot be trusted.
Trump's trade war has not only caused anger throughout the world but also affected those MNC's in China, such as Apple, Microsoft, etc.
Now, Trump has made enemies out of the various retired Directors of CIA. This is not going to be a small matter. He forgot who assassinated John Kennedy. (By the way his name is also John.) His enemies are John McClain (just burried) and John Brennan, coincidentally.
Can start writhing a book titled: "Rise And Fall Of Donald John Trump"?
No US President can antagonize the CIA and Deep State at the same time and live for long.
In Singapore, very opposite. All highly-paid yes men . . .
If you believe the power of the US President is absolute, you are wrong. They all are controlled by the dark side. Going against the dark side risk being assassinated like Kennedy and Lincoln. The CIA is the unofficial assassin of the dark side, both inside and outside the USA.
Trump is not a team player. His ego is too big. Many of his aides have been sacked or resigned. There is now a strong rumour that there may be a coup to overthrow Trump. He might be impeached too. His trade war against China has failed. The deficits have widened. He may not remain as POTUS for long if he refuses to listen to good advice.
How much of a failure is his trade war against China is still difficult to gauge. It is still early days yet.
But the fact that China exported more despite the tariffs shows it is not working too well. China has gone all out to find alternative markets and sources for those products affected by the tariffs. In the long term, if the tariff war stretches on, farmers and manufacturers of finished products in the US, which depended on the Chinese market for sales and supplies, will lose the Chinese Market altogether and forever.
Trump is mulling imposing tariffs on all Chinese imports of more than US$500 billion. Lets see how this will affect the US if China retaliates, which they will. Who will be better in withstanding the pain, wins.
After all, Xi will remain in charge longer than Trump, who may not be around after his first term, or even be impeached.
@ RB,
The American Constitution, especially the Bill Of Rights (Amendments to the original) can be thought of as a document for many things, but one thing in particular it defines the LIMITS of State Power. i.e. State Power (therefore govt power) is absolute, but the nature and range of the contexts is defined and specified. Though not perfect, they take their constitution very seriously.
Trump has made a lot of NEW enemies. The old ones are still there, trying to take him down. Now he is fighting a multi-sided "war". I have to say...he's handling all this heat VERY WELL considering the lengths that people are willing to go to to remove him from office. For a former US president to come out swinging, is really something extraordinary...in fact it hasn't happened before. Trump and Bush are not friends, so I wouldn't be surprised if George W and his brother come out and take their shots too.
IMO, Obama's inability to mind his own business is going to have the opposite effect: you will see Trump's supporters (the silent majority) DOUBLE DOWN an those on the fence will probably be swayed to support him.
US is growing at over 4%, unemployment at historic lows...there is definitely a "wealth effect" going on. If the markets don't crash in Oct (as they have a 'habit' of doing), I reckon Trump will just make it past the line during the mid-terms.
I personally don't believe that economic success or failure of a cuntry can be determined by one person...but hey, every savvy marketer knows how easy it is to CON-vince The Sheeple by tying some "effect" to a "cause"...i.e. the cause you are trying to blame or praise for said effect. This garden-variety scam has a great track record of being super-effective. People just wanna believe in something. If you can provide good reasons to, you will lead them to agree with your "explanation".
Trump is great entertainment. He has turned domestic and international politics into REALITY SHOW---a field in which he is an undisputed expert.
He did ok as a businessman---mixed results, con people, don't pay bills, gone bankrupt, numerous failed ventures, a few successes etc etc. But in his show (top ratings!) The Apprentice, he was the God Almighty of the business world, because everybody who watches TV thinks the shit they see is ACTUALLY TRUE. π€£π
I must say, I'm enjoying the entertainment. Never before in human history have we had a shameless attention seeker for world leader, who is probably mentally unhinged and...the best part....has the keys, codes and the ability to launch nukes!
π€ππ
mo tuc ting:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1038604758582484993?s=20
ππΊππͺ
'He did ok as a businessman....gone bankrupt, numerous failed ventures...' unquote
He is now running the country like his ventures, and that is why he cares little about what happens to farmers and manufacturers alike. If they fail, just like him, pick up the pieces. Of course he has a rich father to fall back on, but others do not have that luxury and insurance policy to withstand failures.
Americans just have to live with someone who thinks little of failure and bankruptcy, and who can lie with a strait face, knowing that people knows he is lying. That is why the US deficit is ballooning like nobody's business. Just run contrary to his promise of bringing down the deficit.
09:23
CIA drone mission, curtailed by Obama, is expanded in Africa under Trump.
US Can Violate Other Countries' National Sovereignty With Impunity, But Its Own Sovereignty Cannot Be Violated.
The United States will threaten Monday to punish individuals that cooperate with the International Criminal Court in a potential investigation of U.S. wartime actions in Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the decision.
White House national security adviser John Bolton is expected to outline threats of sanctions and a ban on travel to the United States for people involved in the attempted prosecution of Americans before the international court in an address Monday.
Bolton is a longtime opponent of the court on grounds that it violates national sovereignty.
Three successive U.S. administrations of both political parties have rejected the full jurisdiction of the international court over American citizens.
The United States has never signed the 2002 international treaty, called the Rome Treaty, that established the court, which is based in The Hague.
"It’s going to create the impression the United States is a bully and a hegemon,” said Stephen Pomper, who is U.S. program director at the International Crisis Group.
Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com
The American trade deficit vis-Γ -vis China is rising,, despite or because of the ongoing trade war.
Two factors appear to be driving this development: a) the ongoing trade war and b) strong economic growth in the US.
US Commerce Department reported on Wednesday on the widening of the US trade deficit from $45.7bn in June to $50.1bn in July. Specifically for exports to China, the trade deficit surged by 10%, reaching in July an all-time record of $36.8bn.
The trade deficit widened vis-Γ -vis the EU and North American Free Trade Agreement partners (Canada and Mexico).
Washington’s punitive duties on China on $50bn worth of goods this summer could escalate to $200bn by the end of this week.
Thus far, this resulted in the sharp drop of US exports to China, most prominently of soybeans. US farmers exported 16% less to China, month on month.
In April, soybean farmers tried to frontload export volumes in anticipation of punitive measures.
The surge of the deficit in July could also reflect a strategy of stockpiling in anticipation of US import tariffs, DW reports. Thousands of US companies have production units in China that are disrupted by the ongoing trade war.
However, the rise in the overall trade deficit is also driven by growth.
Economists project that the widening of the trade deficit may hold back growth projections for the US economy. However, at the moment the economy is outperforming growth projections, reaching 4,2% in the second quarter.
The four wealthiest Singaporean families, excluding the first family:
Robert & Philip Ng - $8.7 Billion Net Worth.
Kwek Leng Beng - $7.2 Billion Net Worth.
Goh Cheng Liang - $6.3 Billion Net Worth.
Wee Cho Yaw - $5.5 Billion Net Worth.
"If the International Criminal Court comes after us, Israel or other allies, we will not sit quietly," Mr. Bolton planned to say, according to his prepared remarks.
Among the responses, Mr. Bolton says, the U.S. will ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the country.
"We will sanction their funds in the U.S. financial system, and we will prosecute them in the U.S. criminal system," Mr. Bolton adds. "We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans."
How can the world tolerate such US arrogance?
That is not just arrogance. That is an outright blatant lawless mafia belittling, threatening and holding the whole world ransom.
The only way to deal with such a person or country is to hit them with their own weapons in their own land on their own terms.
All Trump needs to do is to orchestrate an assassination. All hell will break lose.
Trump's strategy for making Uncle Sam great again is to incinerate other economies in ways that will also scorched Uncle Sam. Obama accused him of fomenting "dangerous times". Trump is compared to being a villain who isn't looking for anything like money and can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. He just wants to fiddle while the world burns.
All Obama did was to make commie great. He does not say anything when commie stole techno knowhow. He is highly likely working for commie. Trump may not be perfect but he is democratic not dictatoric like commie leaders.
U Ass A arrogance!!!
Just see Serena Williams beaten by Haiti-Japanese Osaka and her tantrums good enough for Americunts arrogance.
For too long, the World obeyed them like dogs.
Yale Uni group of psychiatrists already proclaimed that Dotard Trump is a MAD Man.
Danger to the World.
Uncle Redbean, you ask " How many countries in the world has such a system of checks and balance on executive power? " I have information for you, Singapore Government is a good government with many checks and balances. All PAP policies are well thought through and implementations only when Singaporeans are in agreement.
Trump will go down as the worst President in US history.
@ all
Here's a couple of ideas to upset the American haters.
America is practically indestructible and unconquerable because America is an IDEA. This point is often lost is the usual dick-sizing, "who is better than who" arguments which are essentially just time wasting.
The "idea" of America is a collection of ideas and principles hewn and integrated, often in conflict...and it keeps on going. Which leads to the "idea" of America as an EXPERIMENT
This makes "America" extremely anti-fragile (robust) and for all intents and purposes unconquerable (how do you conquer an idea, especially one ever evolving?), and practically indestructible. (How can you destroy an idea? Ideas do not exist in "reality", they exist in the MINDS of INDIVIDUALS).
That is why America can do what it does. It has its own rules and laws and not beholden to any "international bodies" like the International courts or the UN. Because America is an idea, its culture is readily transmitted thru whatever medium, so much so that American culture has touched every part of the planet and all its other cultures---for better or worse.
America gets heavily criticised by her own citizens more than the any of the anti-Americans in the rest of the world. Try that shit in the majority of the world's cuntries, and you could face disproportionate consequences or more extreme ones like ending up behind bars or disappearing. For e.g.: Saudi Arabia and "Shithole" Cuntries with Shithole cultures and people
Law suit taken against WP has been fixed for Oct hearing in PAP's court by PAP appointed judges and charge by PAP prosecutors. Do you think WP got any hope of clearing itself?
Who is running Singapore?
Complaints and criticism about US hubris, hegemony have become rampant.
Achievements of China have unfortunately become an excuse for US to devise more and more strategies to contain China's rise.
Complaints, criticism about US' irresponsible behaviors when it comes to tackling climate change, other global issues are also rising. Despite being home to only 5% of world's population, US produces about 25% of its carbon dioxide emissions and cocks a snook at the fight against climate change. US President Donald Trump has pulled US out of 2015 Paris climate accord.
If US doesn't like a country's economic policies or political system, it doesn't hesitate to misuse the WTO or the IMF to crush them. If that doesn't work, it turns to sanctions to browbeat them into surrendering or uses military interventions to overthrow the ruling government. If this is not bastard hegemony, what is?
US has always excelled in using its hegemonic power to prevent people in other countries from choosing their path of economic development and way of life.
Trump administration has been criticized for its increasingly unacceptable foreign policy and appalling, immature and shortsighted attitude toward such global issues as financing and arms race. Even some of US' traditional allies have turned against it. Never has US been so isolated in international community. And for that, it has its policy of giving precedence to self-interests over its global responsibilities to blame.
Democracy is just like USA, very messy and everyone has their says. Dictatorships is just like commie states and sinland, very organized and no one dare to say anything against their leaders. Messy does not mean not good. Messy is okay. Thats the way it supposed to be.
δΊδΈζεΊ, η°δΈζ±ε and that will make everyone much better. Thats democracy.
By market close on Monday the Hang Seng Index had clawed back some losses, ending down 1.33 per cent, or 360.05 points, at 26,613.42, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index had dropped 1.19 per cent, or 125.92 points, to 10,433.62.
All sub-indexes finished the day lower, with financials and property stocks leading the way down.
Is this the end of the bull run? Because the cow is being chased by a bear? Or is it because of the monkey playing monkey tricks in Washington DC?
7:08 comment of hang seng mkt bear here at RB..a signal of short term mkt reversal coming. Get ready for a nice rebound. Hahaha. Let's see by this friday HS from current 26613.
Those who buy a 50-year-old Housing Board (HDB) flat today can expect prices to continue to appreciate over the next 10 years, Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan said at a dialogue with young people on Sunday (Sept 2).
Mr Khaw debunked claims that HDB flats are not assets just because the lease is for a limited 99-year period. He was speaking to more than 200 young people from Sembawang GRC on topics such as housing, healthcare and cost of living, which were raised at the National Day Rally speech last month.
"If you buy a 70-year-old flat, there is still appreciation potential especially because this Government is prepared to continue to invest in it through Home Improvement Programme (HIP) II and the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers)," Mr Khaw said.
Fools will be fools. Wise men will fear snake oil sellers. By the time your flat reached 70 years, who will buy from you? You can't get loans how you buy? Cash? If you have so much cash, why buy 70 year-old flat?
70 year-old flat will appreciate more than new flat?
When will the Minister be when your flat reached 70 years old? Do you think he will still be around?
Better find a cure for stupidity. Otherwise, more and more con men and women will flood this tiny red dot to eat you for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper.
A Brief Account Of The Evil Empire That Terrorises The Whole World For Centuries - Part I
No one is more emblematic of this noble effort than David Ray Griffin, who, in book after book since the attacks of 11 September 2001, has meticulously exposed the underside of the American empire and its evil masters. His persistence in trying to reach people and to warn them of the horrors that have resulted is extraordinary. Excluding his philosophical and theological works, this is his fifteenth book since 2004 on these grave issues of life and death and the future of the world.
In this masterful book, he provides a powerful historical argument that right from the start with the arrival of the first European settlers, this country, despite all the rhetoric about it having been divinely founded and guided, has been “more malign that benign, more demonic than divine.” He chronologically presents this history, supported by meticulous documentation, to prove his thesis. In his previous book, Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World, Griffin cataloged the evil actions that flowed from the inside job/false flag attacks of September 11th, while in this one – a prequel – he offers a lesson in American history going back centuries, and he shows that one would be correct in calling the United States a “false flag empire.”
The attacks of 11 September 2001 are the false flag fulcrum upon which his two books pivot. Their importance cannot be overestimated, not just for their inherent cruelty that resulted in thousands of innocent American deaths, but since they became the justification for the United States’ ongoing murderous campaigns termed “the war on terror” that have brought death to millions of people around the world. An international array of expendable people. Terrifying as they were, and were meant to be, they have many precedents, although much of this history is hidden in the shadows. Griffin shines a bright light on them, with most of his analysis focused on the years 1850-2018.
As a theological and philosophical scholar, he is well aware of the great importance of society’s need for religious legitimation for its secular authority, a way to offer its people a shield against terror and life’s myriad fears through a protective myth that has been used successfully by the United States to terrorize others. He shows how the terms by which the U.S. has been legitimated as God’s “chosen nation” and Americans as God’s “chosen people” have changed over the years as secularization and pluralism have made inroads. The names have changed, but the meaning has not. God is on our side, and when that is so, the other side is cursed and can be killed by God’s people, who are always battling el diabalo.
He exemplifies this by opening with a quote from George Washington’s first Inaugural Address where Washington speaks of “the Invisible Hand” and “Providential agency” guiding the country, and by ending with Obama saying “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.” In between we hear Andrew Jackson say that “Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number” and Henry Cabot Lodge in 1900 characterize America’s divine mission as “manifest destiny.” The American religion today is American Exceptionalism, an updated euphemism for the old-fashioned “God’s New Israel” or the “Redeemer Nation.”
At the core of this verbiage lies the delusion that the United States, as a blessed and good country, has a divine mission to spread “democracy” and “freedom” throughout the world, as Hilary Clinton declared during the 2016 presidential campaign when she said that “we are great because we are good,” and in 2004 when George W. Bush said, “Like generations before us, we have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom.” Such sentiments could only be received with sardonic laughter by the countless victims made “free” by America’s violent leaders, now and then, as Griffin documents.
A Brief Account Of The Evil Empire That Terrorises The Whole World For Centuries - Part 2/5
Having established the fact of America’s claim to divine status, he then walks the reader through various thinkers who have taken sides on the issue of the United States being benign or malign. This is all preliminary to the heart of the book, which is a history lesson documenting the malignancy at the core of the American trajectory.
“American imperialism is often said to have begun in 1898, when Cuba and the Philippines were the main prizes,” he begins. “What was new at this time, however, was only that America took control of countries beyond the North American continent.”
The “divine right” to seize others’ lands and kill them started long before, and although no seas were crossed in the usual understanding of imperialism, the genocide of Native Americans long preceded 1898. So too did the “manifest destiny” that impelled war with Mexico and the seizure of its land and the expansion west to the Pacific. This period of empire building depended heavily on the “other great crime against humanity” that was the slave trade, wherein it is estimated that 10 million Africans died, in addition to the sick brutality of slavery itself. “No matter how brutal the methods, Americans were instruments of divine purposes,” writes Griffin. And, he correctly adds, it is not even true that America’s overseas imperialistic ventures only started in 1898, for in the 1850s Commodore Perry forced “the haughty Japanese” to open their ports to American commerce through gunboat diplomacy.
Then in 1898 the pace of overseas imperial expansion picked up dramatically with what has been called “The Spanish-American War” that resulted in the seizure of Cuba and the Philippines and the annexing of Hawaii. Griffin says these wars could more accurately be termed “the wars to take Spanish colonies.” His analysis of the brutality and arrogance of these actions makes the reader realize that My Lai and other more recent atrocities have a long pedigree that is part of an institutional structure, and while Filipinos and Cubans and so many others were being slaughtered, Griffin writes, “Anticipating Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s declaration that ‘we don’t do empire,’ [President] McKinley said that imperialism is ‘foreign to the temper and genius of this free and generous people.’”
Then as now, perhaps mad laughter is the only response to such unadulterated bullshit, as Griffin quotes Mark Twain saying that it would be easy creating a flag for the Philippines:
We can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.
That would have also worked for Columbia, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, and other countries subjugated under the ideology of the Monroe Doctrine; wherever freedom and national independence raised its ugly head, the United States was quick to intervene with its powerful anti-revolutionary military and its financial bullying. In the Far East the “Open Door” policy was used to loot China, Japan, and other countries.
But all this was just the beginning. Griffin shows how Woodrow Wilson, the quintessentially devious and treacherous liberal Democrat, who claimed he wanted to keep America out of WW I, did just the opposite to make sure the U.S. would come to dominate the foreign markets his capitalist masters demanded. Thus Griffin explores how Wilson conspired with Winston Churchill to use the sinking of the Lusitania as a casus belli and how the Treaty of Versailles’s harsh treatment of Germany set the stage for WW II.
A Brief Account Of The Evil Empire That Terrorises The Whole World For Centuries - Part 3/5
He tells us how in the intervening years between the world wars the demonization of Russia and the new Soviet Union was started. This deprecation of Russia, which is roaring at full-throttle today, is a theme that recurs throughout The American Trajectory. Its importance cannot be overemphasized. Wilson called the Bolshevik government “a government by terror,” and in 1918 “sent thousands of troops into northern and eastern Russia, leaving them there until 1920.”
That the U. S. invaded Russia is a fact rarely mentioned and even barely known to Americans. Perhaps awareness of it and the century-long demonizing of the U.S.S.R./Russia would enlighten those who buy the current anti-Russia propaganda called “Russiagate.”
To match that “divine” act of imperial intervention abroad, Wilson fomented the Red Scare at home, which, as Griffin says, had lasting and incalculable importance because it created the American fear of radical thought and revolution that exists to this very day and serves as a justification for supporting brutal dictators around the world and crackdowns on freedom at home (as is happening today).
He gives us brief summaries of some dictators the U.S has supported, and reminds us of the saying of that other liberal Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, who famously said of the brutal Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, that “he may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.” And thus Somoza would terrorize his own people for 43 years. The same took place in Cuba, Chile, Iran, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, etc. The U.S. also supported Mussolini, did nothing to prevent Franco’s fascist toppling of the Spanish Republic, and supported the right-wing government of Chiang-Kai Shek in its efforts to dominate China.
It is a very dark and ugly history that confirms the demonic nature of American actions around the world.
Then Griffin explodes the many myths about the so-called “Good War” – WW II. He explains the lies told about the Japanese “surprise” attack on Pearl Harbor; how Roosevelt wished to get the U.S. into the war, both in the Pacific and in Europe; and how much American economic self-interest lay behind it. He critiques the myth that America selflessly wished to defend freedom loving people in their battles with brutal, fascist regimes. That, he tells us, is but a small part of the story:
This, however, is not an accurate picture of American policies during the Second World War. Many people were, to be sure, liberated from terrible tyrannies by the Allied victories. But the fact that these people benefited was an incidental outcome, not a motive of American policies. These policies, as [Andrew] Bacevich discovered, were based on ‘unflagging self-interest.’
Then there are the conventional and atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nothing could be more demonic, as Griffin shows. If these cold-blooded mass massacres of civilians and the lies told to justify them don’t convince a reader that there has long been something radically evil at the heart of American history, nothing will. Griffin shows how Truman and his advisers and top generals, including Dwight Eisenhower and Admiral William D. Leahy, Truman’s Chief of Staff, knew the dropping of the atomic bombs were unnecessary to end the war, but they did so anyway.
He reminds us of Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s response to the question whether she thought the deaths of more than 500, 000 Iraqi children as a result of Clinton’s crippling economic sanctions were worth it: “But, yes, we think the price is worth it.” (Notice the “is,” the ongoing nature of these war crimes, as she spoke.) But this is the woman who also said, “We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall…”
Political office holders of all grades received an average annual performance bonus of around 4 months' salary in the last 5 years , with the amount given to each individual ranging between 3 and 6 months of their pay each year , said PM Lee Monday (Sept 10).
He gave these figures in a written parliamentary reply to NCMP Leon Perera, who had asked about the bonus paid to Cabinet ministers in the last 5 years.
A Brief Account Of The Evil Empire That Terrorises The Whole World For Centuries - Part 4/5
Griffin devotes other chapters to the creation of the Cold War, American imperialism during the Cold War, Post-Cold War interventions, the Vietnam War, the drive for global dominance, and false flag operations, among other topics.
As for false flag operations, he says, “Indeed, the trajectory of the American Empire has relied so heavily on these types of attacks that one could describe it as a false flag empire.” In the false flag chapter and throughout the book, he discusses many of the false flags the U.S. has engaged in, including Operation Gladio, the U.S./NATO terrorist operation throughout Europe that Swiss historian Daniele Ganser has extensively documented, an operation meant to discredit communists and socialists. Such operations were directly connected to the OSS, the CIA and its director Allen Dulles, his henchman James Jesus Angleton, and their Nazi accomplices, such as General Reinhard Gehlen. In one such attack in 1980 at the Bologna, Italy railway station, these U.S. terrorists killed 85 people and wounded 20 others. As with the bombs dropped by Saudi Arabia today on Yemeni school children, the explosive used was made for the U.S. military. About these documented U.S. atrocities, Griffin says:
These revelations show the falsity of an assumption widely held by Americans. While recognizing that the US military sometimes does terrible things to their enemies, most Americans have assumed that US military leaders would not order the killing of innocent civilians in allied countries for political purposes. Operation Gladio showed this assumption to be false.
He is right, but I would add that the leaders behind this were civilian, as much as, or more than military.
In the case of “Operation Northwoods,” it was the Joint Chiefs of Staff who presented to President Kennedy this false flag proposal that would provide justification for a U.S. invasion of Cuba. It would have involved the killing of American citizens on American soil, bombings, plane hijacking, etc. President Kennedy considered such people and such plans insane, and he rejected it as such. His doing so tells us much, for many other presidents would have approved it. And again, how many Americans are aware of this depraved proposal that is documented and easily available? How many even want to contemplate it? For the need to remain in denial of the facts of history and believe in the essential goodness of America’s rulers is a very hard nut to crack. Griffin has written a dozen books about 11 September 2001, trying to do exactly that.
If one is willing to embrace historical facts, however, then this outstanding book will open one’s eyes to the long-standing demonic nature of the actions of America’s rulers. A reader cannot come away from its lucidly presented history unaffected, unless one lives in a self-imposed fantasy world. The record is clear, and Griffin lays it out in all its graphic horror. Which is not to say that the U.S. has not “done both good and bad things, so it could not sensibly be called purely divine or purely demonic.” Questions of purity are meant to obfuscate basic truths. And the question he asks in his subtitle – Divine or Demonic? – is really a rhetorical question, and when it comes to the “trajectory” of American history, the demonic wins hands down.
A Brief Account Of The Evil Empire That Terrorises The Whole World For Centuries - Part 5/5
In his long chapter on Vietnam, which is replete with excellent facts and analyses, Griffin makes a crucial mistake. This mistake appears in a four page section on President Kennedy’s policies on Vietnam. In those pages, Griffin relies on Noam Chomsky’s terrible book – Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture (1993), a book wherein Chomsky shows no regard for evidence or facts – to paint Kennedy as being in accord with his advisers, the CIA, and the military regarding Vietnam. This is factually false. Griffin should have been more careful and have understood this. The truth is that Kennedy was besieged and surrounded by those demonic people, who were intent on isolating him, disregarding his instructions, and murdering him to achieve their goals in Vietnam. In the last year of his life, JFK had taken a radical turn toward peace-making, not only in Vietnam, but with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and around the globe. Such a turn was anathema to the war lovers. Thus he had to die.
Contrary to Chomsky’s deceptions, motivated by his hatred of Kennedy and perhaps something more sinister (he also backs the Warren Commission, thinks JFK’s assassination was no big deal, and accepts the patently false official version of the attacks of 11 September 2001), Griffin should have emphatically asserted that Kennedy had issued NSAM 263 on October 11, 1963 calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, and that after he was assassinated a month later, Lyndon Johnson reversed that withdrawal order with NSAM 273. Chomsky notwithstanding, all the best scholarship and documentary evidence proves this.
And for Griffin, a wonderful scholar, to write that with the change from Kennedy to Johnson that “this change of Presidents would bring no basic change in policy” is so shockingly wrong that a man passionate about truth, simply slipped up and got sloppy here. For nothing could be further from the truth!
Ironically, Griffin makes a masterful case for his thesis, while forgetting the one pivotal man, President John Kennedy, who sacrificed his life in an effort to change the trajectory of American history from its demonic course.
It is one mistake in an otherwise very important and excellent book that should be required reading for anyone who doubts the evil nature of this country’s continuing foreign policy. Those who are already convinced should also read it, for it provides a needed historical resource and impetus to help change the trajectory that is transporting the world toward nuclear oblivion, if continued.
If – a fantastic wish! – The American Trajectory: Divine or Demonic? were required reading in American schools and colleges, perhaps a new generation would arise to change the devils into angels, the arc of America’s future moral universe toward justice, and away from being the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, as it has been for so very long.....
End.
The above five parts have been authored by Edward Curtin via EdwardCurtin.com,
As the weeping over the death of Senator John McCain subsides, it should be remembered that his pride and joy, the election-meddling International Republican Institute, and his former campaign manager, Rick Davis, had longstanding organizational ties to Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager. Manafort now sits in a jail cell in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted on eight counts of fraud, and awaiting trial in Washington, DC on additional criminal counts. The Trump administration wasted no time in immersing itself deep into this political swamp and help market American political snake oil to unsuspecting countries around the world.
Political office holders of all grades received an average annual performance bonus of around 4 months' salary in the last 5 years , with the amount given to each individual ranging between 3 and 6 months of their pay each year , said PM Lee Monday (Sept 10).
That is only on personal performance bonus.
What about allowances of which there are two components: variable component allowance and national performance allowance (GDP)???
In addition, there is also a secret allowance based on loyalty.
There was one year when senior officers from the People's Association got 8 months bonus each. So during that year how much did the PM got?
Wah piang, NWC recommwnded just $50.00 increment, Mr Toothpick got to take a drawing Board and do Rocket SCIENCE formula drawings.
Hui Low Hui Tee. They themselves draw 4 to 8 Months bonus, No Sweat of Blood And Tears.
Boh hui low hui tee.
No wonder the Evil Serpents,especially the Ah Nehs,pak see boh chow stayed in the Civil Service.
Good monies, some more can swagger, Cheng Hu lan- lan par the LANs.
Wah, representing the Govt, I.e the PAP. Rubbed off power and aggrogance from them.
All their Generations see see must do Silver Evil Serpents.
Cannot survive outside.
@ Chomsky's Fan club:
Noam Chomsky is a fantastic linguistics professor and cognitive scientist. As a philosopher and socio-polical critic he obviously applies his knowlege, especially on points of heuristics and cognitive biases. However he show's obvious biases (cognitive and otherwise) in all of his work. He rarely has anything good to say about anything. The whole world is fucked and Noam can't wait to tell us why.
Noam sits on his tenured-throne at MIT and doles out pith, venom and apparent "wisdom" to the multitude of fans and idolisers. I readily admit, my younger self was a big fan of Dr Chomsky. I do owe him a debt of gratitude for what I know, and how his insights have helped me through the years.
Despite that, I find Noam's politics and philosophical meanderings boring, if not just plain wrong, as one would expect ivory-tower intellectuals to be.
Anyway, young people searching for "truths" about the world should read him. Then come back to him when you're in your 40s and 50s, after you've had a few "hard knocks", paid a shit-load of taxes, lost money, jobs and relationships, and yet still managed to prevail regardless---like providing for your family and ensuring your children and ok and adequately educated---then see how "idealistic" you still are and if Chomsky's opinion still applies.
Hopefully by then (or better before then) through your experiences, critical thought and reflection, and further education...you'd develop your own individual ideas about the world and its human inhabitants; such that you don't need to "copy" the opinions of others whom you WORSHIP, and delude yourself into thinking that their OPINION becomes TRUTHS to you.
Syrian refugee Ibrahim Ali is charged with murder of Vancouver schoolgirl Marrisa Shen, 13
Donald Trump is right where aliens are concerned! He blocked Syrian refugees from entering the US.
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2163629/syrian-refugee-ibrahim-ali-charged-murder-vancouver
Steve Bannon, redefines Republican (conservative, right-wing) politics
About a week ago, this program on Aussie "Four Corners" aired. (~35min)
Bannon (who has an incredible track record as a media operator and brodcaster of "dangerous ideas" is on a GLOBAL CRUSADE to promote ECONOMIC NATIONALISM (the economic lives of the LOCALS are put FIRST, before any considerations for what foreigners or foreign trade-treaties suggest) throughout the world.
He wants the right-wing/ conservatives to become the parties of the WORKING PERSON---the working and middle classesto end globalisation which has led to (in his and others opinion) to serious socio-economic dislocations in many cuntries.
My take on the above broadcast:
1. The journalist is an idiot. she comes to the interview with her own party-political "fixed ideas" instead of an open mind
2. What strikes me is how savvy Bannon is. He knows what the fuck is going on and how he's going about it to make economic nationalism a global movement to combat globalisation.
3. He is on right-winger who respects the left and their opinions. He want to work with the left. The left has seen its ELITES sell the working person a bill of goods down the river. The Leftist elites jumped on board with the banksters and globalists and left the people who vote for them much worse off financially, with little or no security.
What you hear in Singapore is exactly what Bannon is talking about. Singapore is just one of the many cuntries in our time where the locals have paid a steep price for the inclusion of foreigners and foreign influence in its domstic economy and social structures. How this happened is how Bannon sees it, and is the platform which got DJ Trump elected: The People feel that the ELITES in their elected governments SOLD THEM and THEIR CUNTRY out! And the people are getting more fearful for their futures, and as a result starting to get VERY ANGRY at the "establishment".
Something tells me, this guy could be a game-changer. He doesn't play "left vs right identity politics". He wants local populations to focus on and put their interests FIRST, before all else...i.e. all the "fancy theories" of multi-culturalism, open borders, free-trade etc.
LOCALS COME FIRST! Sound familiar?
Richard Duncan (Macro Watch) on Tariffs & China (57 mins)
No one wins trade wars.
However if Trump goes ahead with 200bn imposed tarrifs, rising to 500bn if "necessary", that would be The End for China. There is NO WAY to absorb all that "excess productive capacity". The US consumer will also be hit, but the average Chinese citizen will be hit the hardest of all.
Matilah, a significant percentage of exports from China to US are from US MNCs like Apple products to US consumers n manufacturers. So both side will suffer significantly not just the Chinese. The first $50bln both sides can be selective but from here onwards both sides will suffer.
@629
No doubt both sides will suffer. And Us consumers will be paying more for their goods made in China.
When China exports to the US, the trade is settled in USDs. But USDs are toilet paper. So the smart Chinese buy US Treasuries. At one time they held the most. Which is great for the US consumer: the Chinese was financing US debt, which is used as "collateral" to secure the money printing and the low interest rates to US consumers.
If Trump whacks China with the 200 billion in tariffs (ransom), that's a heck of a lot of foreign money which is now NOT financing US debt. The Fed is already unwinding the stimulus (excessive printed money), causing interest rates to slowly rise. You take away Chinese money, and interest rates will go even higher...probably very quickly. Most US consumers have very little savings, and a lot of personal debt. High interest rates are going to knock many "out of the game", and businesses too. US housing market: kaput.
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