BLOWBACK: Everything is in Motion

1/16/2024 Episode 45 of Blowback: Exposing Imperial Decline with special guest Ian Kummer
Everything is in motion, 2024 is going to be a memorable year.
What is the US ruling class going to do with Joe Biden? Unlikely they'l let him play the president a full four more years. So what is being prepared, now that one pretense to democratic process after another—primaries, what candidates can run, free speech, etc.—are being simply deleted by a shadowy power? The panel makes fun of the media nonsense about Russian meddling in favor of Trump; they wonder how Putin managed to get Iowa to go overwhelmingly for Trump, while spending undetectably small sums. Same as during the 2016 campaign when no one could establish that Moscow itself had spent one dime to influence the vote in America (Moscow sees US elections for what they are, a bourgeois fraud; they apply Marxian analysis after all). All they could show, despite the insufferable noise, was that some private entities bought some space in Facebook, etc., for ALL candidates, investing the grand sum of about $5,000, an almost invisible amount in S electoral contests. The panel also reminds everyone that the European vassals' ruling cliques are terrified of a possible Trump victory. They fear a dismantlement of NATO and other catastrophes, despite the fact that Trump is not exactly a cogent or reliable thinker, put charitably.

The Transatlantic alliance—the US, the EU satrapies, Australia and New Zealand, etc.—fear Trump because they have to "sell" him what they regard as "obvious", such as the expansion of NATO, the continuing war on Russia and China, Iran, etc., and so on, whereas with a certifiable, semi-demented Neocon like Biden they have no problem getting him to endorse their schemes. 

The panel also discusses Biden's (the Empire's) options in regard to the Israel/Palestine conflict. It's clear the Empire, and especially the Biden admin ·from the p.r. standpoint) has only bad options. If Biden allows Netanyahu to go on genociding the Palestinian people, while hypocritically pretending to be opposed, the reputational damage is enormous. If he orders him to stop, and freezes all financial and military support, he gets in serious trouble with the powerful Zionist lobby, and major factions of the US empire itself. Either way, it's clear that the US, the EU and Israel have suffered already a major defeat in their propaganda war, with possible lasting consequences, and, despite their arrogant moves to amplify the war, such as in Yemen or Iran, they may end up losing the war or dragging the whole world into a nuclear confrontation.

Lastly, South Africa's complaint against Israel for systematic genocide before the ICJ poses its own can of worms. For one thing, it's widely understood that the ICJ has long been a tool of the Empire. However, too much has happened, appearances need to be kept, and the ultimate outcome is as yet difficult to predict. Hence the title of this episode: Everything Is in Motion.