Garland Nixon
with
JOTI BRAR
THE COMMUNISTS.ORG

This is Episode 11 of @joti2gaza  on Garland’s channel—an incredibly informative conversation about Capitalism/Marxism/Socialism origins & examples—how & why the US has intervened and what’s happening now. ENJOY! (And be sure to pass it on!)

Streamed live on Apr 26, 2024
Garland Nixon
IMPERIALISM: DECADENT PARASITIC AND DOOMED WITH JOTI BRAR EPISODE 11 - WHY IS THE EMPIRE CRASHING?
Garland and Joti analyse the current historical juncture, essentially but the latest and gravest global structural crisis of capitalism, arguing that helping to stabilise the system now is only to prolong the agony of 99% of humanity, and, equally important, increase the risk of seeing the entire planet go up in nuclear flames as a result of some desperate provocation by the hypocritical oligarchic capitalist elites concentrated in the "collective West". The "collective West values' paradigm"—grounded in unipolar supremacism and exploitation— is over. It has reached the end of its political, scientific and economic line. As heroic Russia has finally demonstrated, it lacks the capability to impose its will on other nations by military force. The US and its vassals—as the cases of Ukraine, Palestine, Taiwan and other theaters of manufactured conflict and horrendous crimes clearly show—are now completely devoid of moral legitimacy.

ABOUT JOTI BRAR

Joti is a leading British anti-imperialist, scientific socialist, and truth seeker. Workers of the world, unite; we have a world to win! She is a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (M-L), where she fills important positions.

. Find me on Telegram: http://t.me/JotiBrar. No DMs.

News 2739

• If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
• Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
• We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
• This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
• YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

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ERIC ZUESSE

How America’s Military-Industrial Complex Wins All of Its Wars Against America’s Taxpayers

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Yanks operating tank during Korean War. It wasn't at all the way they showed it on MASH.

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News 2739

• If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
• Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
• We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
• This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
• YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at:

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Salwa Amor
A TNA (THE NEW ARAB) DISPATCH

MENA • 19 April, 2024

Palestine solidarity activists are preparing a flotilla to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, vowing to break Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory on board the Akdeniz, a seven-floor passenger ship.

Currently docked in Istanbul, the boat will carry 800 people from over 30 nations, from Indonesia to Hawaii, and is expected to transport 5500 tonnes of aid to Gaza once it sets sail from Turkey in the coming days.

On Friday, reports in Israel media suggested the Israeli authorities are preparing to intercept it. The activists joining the Akdeniz will be mindful of a previous fatal attempt by a vessel of comparable size to set sail from Turkey to Gaza.

The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish aid ship, part of a flotilla attempting to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010. Israeli commandos intercepted the flotilla in international waters, boarded the Mavi Marmara, and killed nine Turkish activists, injuring several others. The incident sparked international condemnation and strainedrelations between Turkey and Israel.

The acquisition of the Akdeniz was made possible through the support of four million donors worldwide. Organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a coalition of 12 countries including Turkey, in partnership with İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), the mission aims to break the deadly siege that has severely impacted the lives of the people of Gaza for years amid Israel's genocidal war that has killed over 33,000 Palestinians since October 7.

Pro-Palestinian activist and human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf, who was on the Mavi Marmara in 2010, announced she would join the flotilla nevertheless.

"While we recognize Israel's potential for intercepting the mission, we hope for a peaceful outcome. If they choose to attack, those on board are prepared to engage in nonviolent resistance," she told reporters on Thursday.

RELATED

As Gaza starves, Israeli protesters are blocking vital aid

In-depth
Jessica Buxbaum

Redemption and hope

Former US diplomat and retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright is one of the primary organisers of the FFC. In 2003 she resigned from the US Government in protest against the Iraq War. 

Speaking to TNA, Wright said the mission of the flotilla was to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza's starved population. 

"When you witness genocide, you can't stand back. I'm 77, but even if I were a hundred, I'd still be on this boat," said Wright.

Wright and her fellow activists are also determined to shine a spotlight on the dire humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, bringing international human rights observers to the territory to witness the unfolding genocide.

“Our message to the people of Gaza is that we love you and are trying desperately to stop this genocide...To the Israeli people, I say you have a responsibility to stop your government's genocide of Palestinians. I know the propaganda that comes from governments at war, having been a former US diplomat. But what's happening in Gaza is genocide, and when you see what your government has done, you'll be horrified.” Wright added.

The New Arab also spoke to Michael, a 77-year-old former US veteran from Seattle, USA. He said his decision to participate in the flotilla was a way to atone for his involvement with the US army in Vietnam.

“This is a dangerous journey to undertake, and I do ask myself, why am I here? My wife asks me why I am here. I was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1965, I was just out of high school. At the time I understood what conscientious objection was, but I did not have the courage to fight against the US military and say, no!

"But now, I am older, and as I watch what is happening to the people of Gaza, I am appalled. It is not only the children, although that is what hits me the most. But now, it is the time to object to what my country, the US is doing. This is what conscientious objection is about. I am putting my body, my money, my time, my everything on the line to say, ‘I object to what my country is doing, we should not be doing this’. I want to stand up for those people in the US who agree with what I am doing and represent my country on this journey,” said Michael.

Michael said he draws courage from the people of Gaza. 

"The people of Palestine have lived under occupation for so long that it impresses me how a people like that can still have that courage and continue to stand for what they believe is right. I am guided by the bravery and courage of the people of Gaza in particular but all of Palestinians.”

Solidarity without borders

Doctors Without Borders, will also be on the boat.

“In all those places I saw a lot of pain but in no place I found such an amount of people killed and wounded and suffering like in Gaza when I worked in Al Shifa hospital in 2009," he told TNA.

“When people ask me why I am going, the answer is why not! We are health workers, so it is natural to want to be with those injured,” added Dr. Carlos.

Lee Patten, a 63-year-old former merchant navy officer from Liverpool, told TNA he feels compelled to join the voyage.

"When I see those poor children, I cannot simply turn away and leave them with no one to care for them," he said.

harrowing images emanating from Gaza have left an indelible mark on Lee. "The sight of defenceless, innocent children is deeply distressing. It's unfathomable to comprehend that such suffering is deliberate," Lee explained.

"There seems to be a prevailing notion that what is happening in Gaza is confined to Palestinians and could never happen to Europeans. It's astounding. Gaza serves as a stark warning to us all,” Lee added.

As the onslaught continues with Israeli strikes devastating Gaza's infrastructure, some participants on the boat say they are not going solely to help people but are determined to initiate the rebuilding process after the war. Among them are several architects who have joined the mission to help in rebuilding Gaza.

28-year-old Dilara Karasakiz, a Turkish architect among the almost 300 Turkish citizens participating, says she's taking this perilous journey for this very reason.

“I am going on this journey to help rebuild Gaza. We will rebuild everything Israel has destroyed. Gazans deserve a good standard of life, and we're asking for their suffering to end and for them to be free. I'm not afraid because this ship is just a symbol of humanity. Why would I be afraid? I hope we'll arrive in Gaza and bring some hope."

(All picture credits to the author)

News 2739

• If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
• Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
• We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
• This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
• YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, many influential people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry mob. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...LYING WITH TOTAL IMPUNITY, what the US Government constantly does. 

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Kit Klarenberg
Covert Action Bulletin

The sprawling U.S. embassy in Berlin. [Source: spiegel.de]

On February 4th, The Economist published a devastating analysis—or perhaps, “pre-mortem”—on the collapse of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) under Olaf Scholz’s stewardship. Elected in what the Western media contemporaneously branded a “shock” result in September 2021, hopes for his coalition government in many quarters were high. Today, he enjoys the worst approval ratings of any Chancellor in modern history, and national opinion polls place SPD approval at 15% or lower.

The Economist frames Scholz’s collapsed fortunes, and the prospects of his party’s imminent extinction as a serious force within German politics, as a microcosm of Berlin’s declining economic and political clout more widely. It notes that the nation’s finances have gone “limp” during his tenure, with business-sector confidence collapsing, and record inflation destroying citizens’ incomes and savings. Other sources have detailed the country’s “deindustrialization,” Politico coining the nickname, “Rust Belt on the Rhine.”

Newsweek admits “any realistic war game could have easily predicted” the sanctions would not only fail, but boomerang on the sanctioners.

Olaf Scholz in the Bundestag on January 31, 2024

Those few analysts who predicted the invasion of Ukraine well in advance universally failed to anticipate Berlin would support and facilitate any U.S. counterattack, particularly in the financial sphere. They believed Germany possessed the requisite autonomy and sense not to commit willful economic suicide in service of Empire. After all, the country’s stability, prosperity and power were heavily dependent on cheap, readily accessible Russian energy. Voluntarily ending that supply would be inescapably disastrous.

For this failure, they can be forgiven. Berlin, particularly in the wake of reunification, has successfully presented itself to the world as sovereign, led by sensible people acting in the best interests of their nation, and Europe. In truth, ever since 1945, Germany has been a heavily occupied nation, drowning under the weight of U.S. military installations, and its politics, society and culture aggressively shaped and influenced by the CIA.

This unacknowledged reality is amply spelled out in Agency whistleblower Philip Agee’s 1978 tell-all book, Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe. Comprehending who is truly in charge in Berlin, and what interests Germany’s elected representatives are actually serving, is fundamental to understanding why Scholz, et al., so eagerly embraced the self-destructive sanctions. And why the facts of Nord Stream 2’s criminal destruction can never emerge.

“Enormous Presence”

Following World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s undisputed military and economic superpower. As Agee wrote, the overriding aim of U.S. foreign policy thereafter was to “guarantee the coherence of the Western world” under its exclusive leadership. CIA activities were accordingly “directed toward achieving this goal.” In service of the Empire’s global domination project, “left opposition movements had to be discredited and destroyed” everywhere.

After West Germany was forged from the respective occupation zones of Britain, France and the U.S., the fledgling country became a particularly “crucial area” in this regard, serving as “one of the most important operational areas for far-reaching CIA programs” in Europe and elsewhere. Domestic Agency operations in West Germany were explicitly concerned with ensuring the country was “pro-American,” and structured according to U.S. “commercial interests.”

In the process, the CIA covertly supported the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and SPD, and trade unions. The Agency “wanted the influence of the two major political parties to be strong enough to shut out and hold down any left opposition,” Agee explained. The SPD had a radical, Marxist tradition. It was the only party in the Reichstag to vote against the 1933 Enabling Act, which laid the foundations for Germany’s total Nazification, and led to its proscription. 

Newly reinstituted following the war, the SPD maintained its revolutionary roots until 1959. Then, under the Godesberg Program, it abandoned any commitment to challenging capitalism in a serious way. It stretches credibility to suggest the CIA was not expressly responsible for neutering the party’s radical tendencies. 

In any event, effective control of West German democracy ensured that Washington’s “enormous presence” there–which included hundreds of thousands of troops and almost 300 separate military and intelligence installations—was not challenged by those in power, irrespective of the party to which they belonged, despite a majority of the population consistently opposing U.S. military occupation.

This presence in turn granted the CIA “a number of different covers to work behind,” according to Agee. The majority of its operatives were embedded within the U.S. military, posing as mere soldiers. The Agency’s biggest station was an army base in Frankfurt, although it also boasted units in West Berlin and Munich. U.S. operatives were “highly qualified technicians who tap telephones, open mail, keep people under surveillance, and encode and decode intelligence transmissions,” working “all over the country.”

Dedicated divisions were charged with “making contact with organizations and people within the political establishment,” such as the SPD and its elected representatives. All the intelligence collected was “used to infiltrate and manipulate” the same organizations. The CIA, moreover, collaborated “very closely” with West German security services in many domestic spying efforts, the country’s assorted intelligence agencies conducting operations at the Agency’s direct behest, “often [to] protect CIA activities from any legal consequences.”

“Discredit and Destroy”

Intimate bedfellows as they were, there were nonetheless “difficulties” in the CIA’s relationship with its West German counterparts, per Agee. The Agency never fully trusted their protégés, and felt a pronounced need to “keep an eye” on them. Still, this lack of faith was no barrier to the CIA partnering with the BND, West Germany’s foreign intelligence service, to secretly purchase Swiss encryption firm Crypto AG in 1970. Perhaps this was done to “protect CIA activities from any legal consequences.”

Crypto AG produced high-tech machines through which foreign governments could transmit sensitive high-level communications around the world, safe from prying eyes. Or so they thought. In reality, the clandestine owners of Crypto AG, and by extension the NSA and GCHQ, could easily decipher any messages sent via the firm’s devices, as they themselves crafted the encryption codes. The connivance operated in total secrecy for decades thereafter, only being exposed in February 2020.

The full extent of the information collected via Crypto AG—along with key national competitor Omnisec AG, which the CIA also owned—and the nefarious purposes to which it was put is unknown. It would be entirely unsurprising though if the harvested data helped inform CIA operations to “discredit and destroy” left-wing opposition in West Germany and beyond, efforts that no doubt continue to this day.

Gerhard Schindler, the president of Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the country’s foreign intelligence agency, at the former NSA base in Bad Aibling. The NSA largely abandoned the base in 2004, but an NSA team stayed behind and continued to work closely with BND agents who took over the site. [Source: spiegel.de]

The Cold War may be over, but Germany remains heavily occupied. It hosts the largest number of U.S. troops of any European country, despite an overwhelming majority of the population supporting their partial or total withdrawal in the years following the Berlin Wall’s collapse. In July 2020, then-President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of 12,000 soldiers of the 38,600-strong contingent still there.

The total number of US military personnel has risen to over 50,000 in 2024. (Image: DW.com)

While intended to punish Germany for greenlighting the now-destroyed Nord Stream 2, polls indicated most Germans were only too happy to say “auf wiedersehen.” In all, 47% were in favor of them leaving, while a quarter called for the permanent closure of all U.S. bases on their soil. Yet, just two weeks after entering the White House, Joe Biden reversed his predecessor’s policy, returning 500 soldiers who had departed.

The President also scrapped plans to relocate the Stuttgart-based U.S. Africa Command, which effectively embeds Washington in the armed forces of 53 countries across the continent, elsewhere in Europe. Research shows the Command’s training programs have precipitated a significant rise in the number of military coups in Africa. As Agee attested, U.S. military bases are a hotbed of CIA spies. Berlin therefore must remain “one of the most important operational areas for far-reaching CIA programs” within and without the country, whether Germans like it or not.

The training area at Grafenwöhr in Bavaria is one of the US Army's largest in Europe (Photo: picture-alliance/Zuma Press/U.S. Army)

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News 2739

• If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
• Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
• We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
• This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
• YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at:

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Caitlin Johnstone
ROGUE JOURNALIST

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This is a dispatch from our ongoing series by Caitlin Johnstone

Caitlin Johnstone is a brave journalist, political junkie, relentless feminist, champion of the 99 percent. And a powerful counter-propaganda tactician.