BRUCE LERRO—Using loaded language in politics supports narrowing the thinking process to heroes and villains, gods and devils, dictators or democrats. Working-class people do not initiate what these words mean, or in what contexts they are used. However, working class people circulate these words unconsciously when they talk about politics to others. Working-class people also internalize these words and this narrows the span of how they think about political processes. The purpose of this article and the next one is to challenge you to try purging from your vocabulary the words totalitarian dictatorship or democracy. Chances are very good that the Yankee anti-communist campaign is playing you.
CULTURE & HISTORY
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MAIN DESK—BIDEN’S BIG BOY SUMMIT—The roundtable discusses Biden’s carefully scripted but underwhelming “Big Boy” press conference, which, to no one’s surprise, turned out much more an electoral campaign speech—often mumbled—than a presidential presser, the whole concoction punctuated by hilarious gaffes that Biden’s mental deterioration now make almost inevitable (like confusing Zelensky with Putin—of all people). In addition, guest Jeff Brown paints a comprehensive picture of the global strategic situation, with a focus on Asia, where America’s futile attempts to surround China with military bases and alliances in order to stop its rise to global prominence, (already a fait accompli), is opening yet another front for a major kinetic war threatening humanity with nuclear Armageddon. A SECOND VIDEO-THE WEAPONISATION OF IGNORANCE—is also part of this outstanding package.
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Oh, Looks Like Bombing Hospitals Is Bad Again
20 minutes readCAITLIN JOHNSTONE—“Russia’s missile strikes that today killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians and caused damage and casualties at Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital are a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality,” tweeted whoever runs the US president’s Twitter account, adding, “It is critical that the world continues to stand with Ukraine at this important moment and that we not ignore Russian aggression.”
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ERIC ZUESSE—His answer was duplicitous. At 1:03:52 he had condemned “the neocon ideology, which is bankrupting our country” (which is true), then said, “That money is not being used for self-defense. That money is used for world domination and to make America the policeman of the world. NATO is the instrument of that. I am not going to abolish NATO.” So: he won’t abolish the instrument of America’s being the policeman of the world. Clearly, then, he’s not really against neoconservatism. But he continued there as-if it’s not so: “I’m going to change the function of NATO so that it becomes an instrument of peace.”
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ERIC ZUESSE—Domestically, America’s aristocracy are united against the public (their consumers and workers); and, so, their internal policies are united — Republican versus Democratic, or conservative versus liberal, as one — but differ only on their proposed ways of implementing this “neoliberal” domestic policy. However, on foreign policies, they are virtually 100% united on expanding yet further their empire, with virtually no difference on this “neoconservative” foreign policy — which is extraordinarily aggressive — to capture all countries that haven’t yet been brought into their ‘alliance’ (as being colonies of the U.S. empire).