US Asian Headache: Japan Is Shrinking!
Roger Boyd
Geopolitics And Climate Change
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Japan is the pivotal power for the US in Asia, a reliable vassal with a population of 120 million and a large manufacturing sector. With prodding from the US, its comprador leaders have moved away from the non-aggressive orientation built into its post-WW2 constitution (written by and imposed by the US) toward a more militarized and aggressive stance; specifically anti-China. But as the US works to strengthen the Japanese orientation as its aggressive anti-China puppet, the nation has tipped into medium and long term decline.
Demographics
The article “Koizumi’s Coup” by Gavan McCormack covers the start of the move to neoliberalism. His book “Client State Japan in the American Embrace” covers the over two decades of neoliberalism in more detail.
The following also details the neoliberal turn in Japanese society, the specific discussion of Japan starts at 17:54.
reported by the Atlantic Monthly. The inflation effects of the COVID pandemic in Japan then just intensified the problem, which has been added to by Japanese women’s increasing unwillingness to deal with misogynistic attitudes and unfulfilling and unequal relationships; a change seen in all nations with rising female education and job opportunities. The result is documentaries such as the following:
Industrial Decline
Financial Implosion or Inflationary Decline
will see a doubling of Japanese government interest payments in the next decade. These already represent almost 25% of planned government expenditures in 2024. At the same time Japanese government social expenditures (one third of all government expenditures) keep increasing as the population keeps ageing, and revenues will be negatively impacted by a smaller working age population. And at the same time the government is ballooning defence spending at the behest of the US and an increasingly nationalistic and militarily aggressive leadership class. Since the 1990s there has been increasing divergence between tax revenues and government expenditures, made worse by the COVID crisis; the deficit was 5.05% of GDP in 2023. There are rosy forecasts for a reduction in the government budget deficit in future years, which require solid economic growth and still low interest rates. With the Japanese GDP being negative in Q3 2023, flat in Q4 2023 and negative again in Q1 of 2024 and Japanese interest rates doubling in the first half of this year, such forecasts look delusional. The only real way out of Japan’s debt problem is inflation plus GDP growth that is significantly above the rate of interest on government debt, which is very much against the interests of the wealthy individual, and institutional, bond holders. But this is starting to be taken out of their hands as this reality is reflected in the foreign exchange markets. A falling Yen both serves to increase inflation and improve exports (although it also greatly increases the costs of the energy and raw material imports that Japan relies upon), while the Bank of Japan can keep interest rates down through further monetization. wages lagging far behind inflation. Forecasts of a small Japanese recession in 2024 may be extremely optimistic. The risk becomes that a falling Yen becomes seen as a one-way bet and instead of a currency decline, a currency collapse ensues that wreaks havoc with the domestic economy and will require deep domestic deflation (i.e. much higher Japanese interest rates and massive government expenditure cuts) which may only exacerbate any crisis. The only alternative would be capital controls and debt defaults, which would be greatly resisted by Japan’s US masters. In the past week the Bank of Japan has directly intervened in the foreign exchange market to slow down the decline of the Yen, but this may only act as a speed bump. When I visited Japan in the mid-2000s I noticed that Japan had gone from horrifically expensive to foreigners to extremely reasonably priced in a couple of decades. Nowadays, Japan has become a relatively little-known cheap vacation option. Fundamentally, the Japanese government cannot square the circle and the Japanese general population will become increasingly older and relatively poorer (and the Japanese economy smaller). An ageing population is also more motivated to cash in savings bonds to fund everyday consumption, rather than to save. And an increasingly precarious younger generations will have less ability to save. Only a falling exchange rate which drives domestic inflation, combined with an ongoing central bank holding down of interest rates below the rate of inflation, will allow Japan to limp along without a full blown crisis. But in such circumstances a currency crisis will always hover in the background, with the Japanese drive at rearmament and increasing opposition to China only making things worse. “The asking price is unbelievable” says the Australian woman, comparing the AU$50,000 cost to the manic home price bubble in her home country. Foreigners should be careful to leave their savings in their home currencies though, given the probable ongoing collapse in the Yen. They should also be careful of ending up in dying communities as the Japanese population shrinks. And this Australian report: Also, how long will the extremely homogeneous Japanese population be welcoming to such immigrants that live better than they do as their own incomes and futures continue to deteriorate? At the very same time the shrinking Japanese working-age cohort has increasingly become open to working abroad, as Japanese employers resist raising real wages in the face of a declining workforce. The path for Japan from an industrial powerhouse in the 1980s to a deindustrialized and declining nation, with its gifted youth increasingly looking abroad while foreigners buy up its cheap real estate, is being rapidly set. Perhaps its tourist industry will also become much more dominant as it becomes cheaper and cheaper for foreigners to visit? This is not the future of a strong US vassal but that of an increasingly weak one, while China (and ASEAN and EurAsia) continues to gain in strength. it no longer sells cars in China. The extremely cozy relationship between the South Korean government and a handful of large corporations (the Chaebol) has created a significant corporate over-concentration and extensive corruption, made worse by neoliberal policies and low capital gains taxes. Creating both a growing level of income and wealth inequality, and an economy highly exposed to the possible failure of a handful of corporations and industrial sectors. And also a great bifurcation in salaries between those lucky to be a full time employee of a Chaebol and those not. With Russia now using North Korea as a source of munitions and other military equipment, the Ukraine War may provide the economic boost to North Korea that the Korean and Vietnamese wars provided to Japan and South Korea. Or perhaps also a source of workers for desperate South Korean corporations and a driver for a reintegration which would be a nightmare for the US Empire? Philippines to the Rescue of Empire?
this article notes, becoming a manufacturing powerhouse remains a pipe dream to the Philippines, with the share of manufacturing in the nation’s GDP actually shrinking in the past decades. With Filipino students lagging far behind those of other nations (77th out of 81 on a measure of math, reading and science) and widespread corruption, it will remain trapped in growth without development. Another weak vassal, also facing the possibility of an energy crisis as its domestic gas production stalls. The Philippines does have a large and growing young and poor population, so perhaps they will be willing to die for the US Empire? Those conflicting signals on Monday showed ongoing strength in industrial production more than offset by tepid consumption as the property slump continues, leading to the slowest quarterly growth pace in five quarters. But through the fog a silver lining is becoming clear: Xi Jinping’s long quest for technology-driven “high-quality growth” is actually starting to pay off. If Beijing can keep batting away US-led containment efforts, exclusive analysisfrom Bloomberg Economics forecasts the hi-tech sector will account for 19% of gross domestic product by 2026, up from 11% in 2018. Combining what Beijing has dubbed the “new three” — EVs, batteries and solar panels — the proportion of GDP swells to 23% of GDP by 2026, more than enough to fill the void from the ailing real estate sector, which is set to shrink from 24% to 16%. “Pessimism on China’s prospects is understandable but also overdone,” say Chang Shu and Eric Zhu, economists with Bloomberg Economics. “The government might just be about to pull off a great rebalancing.” This report puts the drop in Beijing property prices at 10-30% from peak, and falls could be significantly larger outside such a Tier 1 city. With Chinese inflation of approximately 6% since 2020 and GDP per capita real growth of about 20%, that’s a fall of more than 36% and 56% relative to nominal GDP per capita in a Tier 1 city. With moderate inflation and continued 5% growth, and a slow controlled unwinding of the overhang in unsold properties, the Chinese house price to income range could be brought into a reasonable range of 3-4 from its current level of around 11 (from a peak of 29 in 2020) during the next decade. As about 75% of domestic retail savings are tied up in housing, and a huge amount of mortgages taken out against housing, it is important that Beijing deflates the bubble slowly rather than a risk a triggering of a debt-deflation cycle. Chinese house price falls do seem to be accelerating this year, so we can expect more government action to control the rate of deflation. In addition, the Party-state has taken actions to shut down the private tutoring industry which helps lead to extremely high costs for Chinese parents wanting their children to succeed, and provides extensive advantages to rich parents, in China high school and college entrance exams. We will see if such actions lead to any increase in Chinese birth rates, or perhaps just a halt to the long-term fall. Geopolitics And Climate Change: A Holistic And Joined Up View
An Increasingly Weak Vassal
South Korea
A Related Note On China
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Expectation? To be superhumanly inhuman
THOMAS BALISTRIERI, ED.D.
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Expectation? To be superhumanly inhuman
Empty Talk
Heinrich Himmler was a master of language, a master of marketing and knew how to influence his soldiers to ‘do their duty’ without judgement during and after the war. Eichmann and other Nazi’s on trial claimed, “We did nothing wrong, we were simply doing our duty.”
Judges at the Eichmann trial and Nuremberg Trials called it, “Empty Talk’
Part 1: 00:00:00 Part 2: 00:43:49 Part 3: 01:29:39 Part 4: 02:09:11
The armies of the Third Reich invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941. Mobile commandos, the Einsatzgruppen, were following their advance to Stalingrad with the mission of eliminating all Jews (and Communists, Roma, the "genetically deficient", etc.) on the conquered territories. Between June 1941 and the end of 1943, they shot to death close to two million Jews—men, women and children—from the Baltic countries (where they had plenty of local collaborators) to the Black Sea. Michaël Prazan also director of “The Nanjing Massacre”, selected for the Chicago Documentary Film Festival showcases this first, unknown phase of the Shoah. We retrace, chronologically, the mechanisms that will drive the Nazis to conduct these meticulous mass murders—the foundations of the industrial extermination of European Jews in the death camps. This documentary reveals why this “Shoah by bullets”, the traumas of which were carefully erased by the commandos as they progressed on their march, remains to this day a forgotten episode in our history. Relying on archival footage filmed by the Nazi propaganda machine in the Baltic countries and in Belarus, Ukraine and Romania, on the memories of witnesses of these public executions, on the words of survivors and also, for the first time, on the confessions of the executioners that were found in Germany. This remarkable and disturbing film will captivate your audience and show them a truth they will never forget.
Heinrich Himmler coined slogans intended to SOLVE PROBLEMS OF CONSCIENCE. His motivation? He knew his soldiers were being asked to conduct horrific crimes against humanity that might lead to those soldiers refusing to follow orders and/or cause the soldiers deep existential agony. Some of Himmler’s slogans:
My honor is my loyalty
These are battles which future generations will not have to fight again. (alluding to the ‘battles’ against women, children, old people and other ‘useless mouths)
To have stuck it out and, apart from exceptions caused by human weakness, to have remained decent, that is what has made us hard.
This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be written.
His most terrifying twisting of words to ease the conscience mind was this slogan:
The order to solve the Jewish question, this is the most frightening order an organization could ever receive. We realize that what we are expecting of you is ‘superhuman’ , to be ‘superhumanly inhuman’. -Himmler’s speech to the Eisatzgruppen. (Mobile killing units that murdered Jews, partisans, the insane, the elderly, Sinti, Romani and clergy by shooting them in the back of head. They murdered over 1.5 million people)
Contrary to popular belief, the members of the Eistatzgruppen were NOT sadists. The S.S. made a point of weeding out sadists, those that enjoy killing. Himmler influenced the S.S., Gestapo and Eisatzgruppen that they were simply ‘doing their duty’ and had an opportunity to become a part of history, part of a 2000 year Nazi reign!
Thus, Himmler turned around the psychology of what the soldiers experienced, from, “I did horrible things to people’ to ‘What horrible things I had to watch in pursuance of my duties, and that tasks weighs upon my shoulders.’” (Arendt, Eichmann, 1963).
Why recount this history over and over and over again? Because maybe, just maybe, if enough people had known the details of the history of Nazi Germany it wouldn’t be playing out again under ZioNazi-ism. The language is the same. The behaviors are the same. Listen to the words of Netanyahu and his cabinet. Read the orders IDF commanders give their soldiers and the reasoning behind the orders to ‘shoot freely’. History does repeat itself when people are ignorant and don’t realize they are Repeating History Again.
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SOME REPLIES...
- In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
- Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
- Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
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Dispatches from Andrei Martyanov—culture critic, debunker maximus
Andrei Martyanov
Reminiscence of the Future...
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1. Europe Is Getting Back...
... to its roots.
The only thing which surprises me is why France is not on their itinerary. It would be interesting to see how fast Paris will fall. By the same token, they should visit London and Sandhurst--you know, to explain to the British Army what real war is. I am sure Europeans will be delighted. Did USMA at West Point submit the request? They should... Ah, wait Oh, Canada!
Good destination, let me tell ya...
2. Bean Counting... may help.
3. Nima And I...
... spoke yesterday. I stressed again that nothing much will change in the US foreign policy and all US "strategies" are a kindergarten level ruses based on a complete detachment from reality. Even with Trump. I'll talk about it in my video today. The only positive in a possible Trump Admin is that it will start bean counting, which indicates a certain degree of rationality. Russian-American relations are ruined for good, Russia doesn't trust the US but also knows that behind the bluster the US is in no position to demand anything.
People Already Posted It...
... but here is a direct report about Tenacious D:
I have news--America's so-called creative class due to it being degenerate has no mental tools for "reflection". This is a bunch of spoiled ass-holes brainwashed with propaganda and having no tools to even comprehend what agenda they push and what they stand for. Where is the Secret Service? Where is the FBI? I don't like Trump, I abhor Biden and his cabal of war criminals but I don't call on anybody to even try on the life, however pathetic and degenerate, of present POTUS, nor the former ones. This also shows you to what degree the system has become dysfunctional when you have pathetic entertainers who wouldn't know shit from shinola calling the shots. They [simply] hate and all their "excuses" are worthless.
Monday, July 15, 2024
4. On A More Pleasant Note...
... good retro-future (stressing--good) is hard to come by. But this is fabulous.
Synthsaga SciFi: 20th century retro TrainPunk - Arrivals & Departures - ,parallel dimension
Jul 8, 2024
(Scifi content, AI used for animation generation) In the 1950s of the parallel world, in which some events took place and others did not, railroads developed around the world in a similar way, but with notable peculiarities. Each country used different technologies according to criteria related to their raw materials and trading /geostrategical partners. All this resulted in a diverse ecosystem of rail-based modes of transportation, which evolved from new redesigns of old diesel engines, to hybrid hydrogen traction, to magnetic cruisers with their train axles to match the tracks. In this clip we can see different arrivals and departures of various engines that populated that possible parallel past. This video has been inspired by users such as @Wardfiction5693 , @cj18333 , @user-dh2qf5kd8c "The Old Man" and @brookeking8559. Thank you so much for your comments!
The material below was added by the Editor
Typhoon motorcycles, parallel dimension
Scifi Content, AI generated images. In this episode, former pilot Jason Jesse explains the origins of the famous "Typhoon" class motorcycles. They began to be seen in the late 1940s, featuring impressive aerodynamic designs with bizarre hybrid propulsion configurations (diesel, gas, magnetic concentrators, levitation devices), and gave rise to numerous popular races where each neighborhood presented its best advances. They were based on the naval aesthetics and propulsion aircraft famous at the time, usually emulating their colors and shapes.
- In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
- Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
- Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS
Butler Update (Trump Assassination Attempt)
OLIVER BOYD-BARRETT
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Three very critical reports of great interest:
(1) (The Hill)
Details of Trump shooting security breakdown start to emerge
By Ellen Mitchell - 07/17/24 6:00 AM
Amid swirling questions about how the Secret Service allowed a gunman with an AR-style rifle to get close enough to shoot and injure former President Trump at a rally Saturday, some answers are starting to emerge.
The security gap appears to stem from how and what the agency communicated with local law enforcement before and during the event, and the apparent decision not to place security personnel on the building the gunman climbed up and shot from.
The gunman — Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa. — was killed by Secret Service agents, but not before he fired multiple shots toward the stage from a rooftop just outside the rally venue, about 152 yards from the GOP presidential nominee. The shooter grazed Trump’s ear with a bullet, killed one attendee and injured two others.
Members of the Secret Service’s countersniper team and counterassault team were at the rally and placed on rooftops immediately in the vicinity of the stage, but Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told ABC News that no agent had been placed on the building the shooter climbed because ithad a “sloped roof.”
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point, and so there’s a safety factor that would be considered there, that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said in an interview aired Tuesday. “So, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside.”
Secret Service faces fresh scrutiny over Trump assassination attempt
That reasoning has gotten heavy blowback given that Secret Service snipers — a heavily armed counterassault team with the code name “Hawkeye” — were positioned on a roof that was also sloped. The team is responsible for taking out threats so agents on the ground can physically shield and remove the person they are protecting. Another Secret Service countersniper team, code name Hercules, was also at the rally to eliminate any long-range threats.
Local law enforcement agencies were tasked with securing areas around the venue that didn’t require attendees to go through magnetometers for screening, but officers told BeaverCountian.com a lack of manpower and “extremely poor planning” were to blame for endangering Trump.
While three snipers were stationed inside the building the shooter climbed, with an operations plan having them look out windows toward the Trump rally, no one was placed on the roof, local law enforcement officers said.
In her ABC interview, Cheatle confirmed “there was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
Part of the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service is theprimary agency in charge of protecting current and former presidents, as well as presidential candidates and sometimes foreign dignitaries, a job that includes thousands of trips requiring event security.
That massive undertaking requires the agency to have assistance from local law enforcement, with the two teams typically working together on a rally for a major presidential candidate like Saturday’s.
Phil Andrew, a former FBI agent and head of the Pax Group security consulting firm, said protection at such events are made up of “three rings of security,” with the first being the Secret Service agents who can physically shield an individual, a second team working the perimeters of an event, and a third focused on the exterior areas.
While the first two rings are pretty much entirely Secret Service responsibility, local law enforcement can be used for the third, as it was with the building the shooter climbed.
“What seems to be the issue now is [whether] that part of the venue should never have been given to local law enforcement, or if it was ever reviewed as a vulnerability,” Andrew told The Hill. “And then if it was assigned to local law enforcement, how it was briefed, how it was understood to control it and maintain its security?”
In a Tuesday statement, the Secret Service said it was not putting any blame on local law enforcement.
“Our agency relies on the support of courageous police officers and local partners. We are deeply grateful for their unwavering commitment and bravery. Any suggestion otherwise is simply not true,” according to thestatement posted to social media.
A lack of manpower also meant the local officers did not have spotters assigned to them, usually a standard operating procedure, according toBeaverCountian.com.
Once shots began to be fired, Secret Service members rushed the stage to shield Trump but were heard on the microphone asking each other, “What are we doing?!” and “Where are we going from here?”
The gap in coverage and confusion in the midst of the chaos has roiled many Trump supporters, some of whom allege gross incompetence at best and outright conspiracy at the worst.
Multiple investigations have since been opened into the incident, including by the Biden administration and several congressional committees.
Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI, noted that “one of the most basic elements” for securing a site like the rally is to remove sight lines to the place where a protectee will be speaking.
The buildings just outside the perimeter of the rally, including the one the shooter climbed, should have been found to be within shooting range and had some law enforcement on top of them, or placed obstacles between them and Trump, McCabe told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“I think preliminarily, there are going to be a lot of questions about why those steps weren’t taken here,” McCabe said, adding that there are “many questions to be answered in light of what we now know.”
And several former top Secret Service agents told The Associated Press that the agency must find out how Crooks even gained access to the roof, suggesting there may have been a flaw in the event’s security plan.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a former Navy SEAL, cautioned against jumping to assumptions.
“I’ve spoken with law enforcement, I’ve spoken with the Secret Service, [I’ve] gotten a better understanding of what actually happened,” he said in a video posted to social media. “Now, no excuses being made here, this is a security failure. Anytime a president gets shot, it is a security failure. But then we have to assess whose fault it was.”
Reports indicate Crooks was spotted observing the building by local law enforcement, who alerted others that he was walking toward the back of the building with a backpack. One officer was even reportedly hoisted up to the top of the building, but Crooks pointed his gun at them, and they dropped back down. State police also started rushing to the scene.
Crenshaw said their failure to actually confront the shooter was a problem, but it was important to keep in mind that the officers were not Secret Service agents or trained military specialists, and it was “likely the first time they’ve ever had to do security of this manner for such a large event.”
And Andrew said as Secret Service agents travel through the country and interact with any number of roughly 18,000 police departments, there can be differences in how individual departments respond to or understand what is communicated to them.
“There was a communication problem before, during and after, and there’s no question,” he said. “Whether Secret Service didn’t communicate that [local police] had responsibility, or did or asked somebody to, and they didn’t understand it and didn’t do it, there is some sort of pre-event communication issue.”
Many have also pointed to the fact that attendees in the crowd noticed the gunman on the roof nearly two minutes before the shots were fired, according to witness videos from the event.
Due to the time lapse, a popular conspiracy alleges the countersnipers purposefully didn’t take the shot when the shooter was spotted, but Crenshaw said agents are meant to exert control in an evolving situation where things aren’t clear.
“You’re a countersniper at a Trump rally, there’s people everywhere. It’s loud. Supporters are very excited. They will climb on top of whatever they can climb on top of to get to see Trump,” he said.
What’s more, if Secret Service agents believed the building had been secured by the local law enforcement team, they may have thought the shooter was a SWAT officer, “because those are the guys who were supposed to be at that building in the first place.”
“You don’t exactly know what you’re looking at, and the consequences of you making a mistake by shooting a civilian are enormous. They’re absolutely enormous,” he said. “Now, of course, the consequences of Trump getting shot are even more enormous. But you should at least have some context in your head before you start pointing fingers.”
(2)
And this from Dennis Speed of the Schiller Institute:
Butler Farm was a security catastrophe
A very senior security specialist characterized the failures of the security service in the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump as a “security catastrophe“. This source, well known to EIR for decades has been in charge of security arrangements for visiting heads of state for his government, high profile personalities as was as regularly organizing the security for the Davos conferences. He has often liasoned with the Secret Service. He made the following points:
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While he understands that the Secret Service claimed the Police was responsible for perimeter security, this cannot be true. Where ever the Secret Service deploys they take over and manage the entire security operation, there is no independent action by other services.
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The fact that the roof where the shooter stationed himself was unguarded is absolutely unbelievable and unprecedented. The fact that when there was the altercation between a police officer and the shooter on the roof and the counter snipers did not respond is also unbelievable since the Secret Service would have been informed even before the policeman tried to mount the roof. Furthermore it is standard procedure for counter-snipers to work as a two man team. One handles the weapon while the other observes with binoculars to indicate the target and its location. If one sees the plan of where the rally took place there was buildings on both flanks of the rally field which would have had clear shots to the President. So the place was the equivalent of a shooting gallery.
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He said he is afraid to think about what would have happed if Trump had not move his head. The political situation would have been explosive. He compared the hit attempt to the assassination of Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin where prior to the hit posters were plastered throughout Israel depicting Rabin as a nazi, that triggered a rightwing extremist to say, now is the time. Given the level of attacks on Trump he was surprised such a hit did not occur sooner. He emphasized the killing of Rabin destroyed the peace process and has led directly to what we are seeing in Gaza. If Trump was killed it could have been civil war in the US the source said.
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While he said he is not for conspiracies he would like to consider this gross incompetence from a service known for its arrogance. Nonetheless he said the failure of the Secret Service even puts the life of President Joe Biden in danger. [dea] (Note: The source is a very satisfied subscriber to the daily alert)
(3) Paul Craig Roberts
The Assassination Attempt
Paul Craig Roberts
Some say that it is too early to know what explains Trump’s near assassination. However, a good case can be made that we already know all we will ever know. The passage of time simply allows official narratives to be constructed, and they are used to muddy the waters.
I support the calls for an official investigation, but government investigations are always coverups. Think the Warren Commission Report, the 9/11 Commission Report, the NISH Report. If there is an investigation, nothing will come of it, and if by chance it does the presstitutes won’t report it.
We have all the information we need to form an opinion. Earlier I wrote that we have three choices of explanation for which there is evidence. But two of the explanations merge into one. The withholding by the foreign-born director of the Department of Homeland Security of adequate Secret Service resources from the Trump campaign can be merged into the incompetence explanation. So we have two choices, both supported by evidence or circumstantial evidence: Secret Service incompetence and a pose of incompetence to coverup an organized assassination.
The most certain fact we have is that despite the protective presence of the Secret Service and local police, Donald Trump was nearly killed, one person was killed, and two were seriously injured.
None of the shooting was prevented by the Secret Service and local police, who went into action only after Trump was down and presumably dead.
So what we have is the total failure of the Secret Service. What can explain such total failure? Some say the sacrifice of professional competence to diversity and inclusion. And there is evidence for this. The Biden regime is yet to make a single appointment based on merit and ability. All appointments have been made on a race, gender, and sexual preference basis. Secret Service professionals have complained of these non-professional appointments and pointed out that the competence of the agency has been compromised by “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The reason aside, whether incompetence or complicity, clearly the Secret Service director failed. She failed to protect Trump, and if it was an official assassination, she failed to eliminate the target. So, will she resign? Of course not. She will be promoted to some higher office exactly as all were who failed to prevent the 9/11 attack on the US.
Let’s look at some of the indications that incompetence is a cover for a plot to assassinate Trump. The first thing that struck me was the unprotected roof tops of the buildings. As a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from the days when the Secret Service reported to Treasury Assistant Secretaries, this struck me as inconceivable.
I also found it inconceivable that a person carrying a rifle could appear in a protected area and climb upon a building with a clear shot at an allegedly protected person and not be accosted.
Initially, we were told that the buildings had, somehow, escaped the protected zone. But later we learned, for what it is worth, that the building with the assassin on top was occupied by police or Secret Service forces. How is it possible that the assassin was not seen and apprehended?
We do know that the Secret Service was complicit in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, thus depriving America of an educated and aware leadership. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/07/17/the-cias-assassination-plots/
We do know from the civil case the Martin Luther King family won that the official account of Martin Luther King’s assassination is a cover up of what seems to have been a FBI operation.
So many books have been written by insiders documenting the CIA’s assassination of foreign leaders who took a different line from the line that Washington insisted on imposing that we have hard evidence that Washington uses brute force to enforce Washington’s agenda.
With the Disunited States–the blue and the red–more divided than the division caused by the North’s determination to impose a tariff regime at the expense of the South, Trump’s notion that he can achieve unity is a fantasy.
There is no possibility of unity. Good and evil cannot be unified.
Trump’s responsibility, assuming a second and a third assassination attempt does not succeed, is to root out the evil in Democrat hands, in liberal-left hands, in intellectual hands, that has turned the United States of America into a Sodom and Gomorrah Tower of Babel.
Trump cannot raise his fist and say “fight, fight, fight,” and then compromise with his and our enemies to unite Americans with evil.
The one thing that keeps me from being convinced that the attempted assassination was a deep state plot to rid themselves of Trump is the absence of a pre-prepared narrative to be repeated endlessly by the presstitutes. However, the official narrative might have been prepared to cover a successful assassination, not a failed one. Therefore, there is no ready narrative. It will be interesting to see what narrative the ruling elites construct.
- In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
- Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
- Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS
Why Russia Will Defeat NATO in Ukraine
Mike Whitney
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The summit was followed by the release of a formal Declaration which strongly suggests that the decision to go war has already been made. As many people know, NATO has green-lighted a policy that allows the firing of missiles at targets inside Russian territory. This policy will also apply to the numerous NATO F-16s that will be deployed to Ukraine sometime in the near future. (F-16s can carry nuclear missiles) Despite overwhelming support for these policies among the members, we must not forget that these are blatant acts of aggression that are forbidden under international law. No amount of public relations hoopla can conceal the fact that NATO is on-track to commit the “supreme crime”.
It’s worth noting, that NATO intends to take a more active role in the conduct of the war. According to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the Alliance plans to formally establish a NATO office inside Ukraine that will be used to oversee military operations. In short, the managers of the conflict no longer have any interest in concealing their involvement. This is now a NATO operation. Here’s an excerpt from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:
This NATO office will accompany the creation of a NATO command to oversee the war in Ukraine, transitioning the provision of weapons and logistical oversight from an ad hoc group led by the United States to the NATO alliance itself.
Sullivan’s remarks outlined the main agenda items of the three-day summit in Washington, which is expected to signal a major escalation of the conflict with Russia in Ukraine and plans to significantly increase NATO’s capabilities to fight a full-scale war throughout Europe….
He said the summit will also announce “a new NATO military command in Germany led by a three-star general that will launch a training, equipping, and force development program for Ukrainian troops….”
The creation of a NATO office in Kiev and the reorganization of weapons provision, training and military logistics under a direct NATO command marks the end of any pretense that the conflict in Ukraine is not a war between NATO and Russia. It marks a dangerous new phase in the war, raising the prospect of a major escalation. Washington summit will announce plans to set up NATO office inside Ukraine, WSWS
Add all of this to the fact that the Summit Declaration posits that Ukraine is now on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership, and it becomes clear that every effort is being made to provoke Moscow.
Not surprisingly, Russia was thoroughly demonized in the Declaration which follows the familiar pattern we have seen with other enemies of Washington including Saddam, Qaddafi and Assad. Here’s a brief summary of “evil” Russia directly from the text:
- Russia remains the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security…
- Russia bears sole responsibility for its war of aggression against Ukraine, a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Charter.
- There can be no impunity for Russian forces’ and officials’ abuses and violations of human rights, war crimes, and other violations of international law.
- Russia is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians and has caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure.
- We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s horrific attacks on the Ukrainian people, including on hospitals, on 8 July…
- We are determined to constrain and contest Russia’s aggressive actions and to counter its ability to conduct destabilizing activities towards NATO and Allies… Washington Summit Declaration, NATO
Washington’s ferocious repudiation of Russia leaves no doubt as to where all this is heading. It’s headed for war.
The authors of this declaration were reiterating the views of the billionaire elites who are determined to roll-back Russia’s battlefield gains, topple the political leaders in Moscow, and splinter the country into smaller, more-manageable statlets. Russia represents the most formidable obstacle to Washington’s overall geopolitical strategy of projecting power into Asia, encircling China, and establishing itself as the preeminent power in the world’s most prosperous region. These strategic objectives are invariably omitted in the media’s coverage, but they are the underlying factors that shape events. Here’s Biden:
And we know Putin won’t stop at Ukraine. But make no mistake, Ukraine can and will stop Putin — (applause) — especially with our full, collective support. And they have our full support. “Ukraine can and will stop Putin.” The White House
The truth is that the war was triggered by NATO enlargement, an inconvenient fact that NATO chairman Jens Stoltenberg has admitted on numerous occasions. Some readers might also recall that—during the peace negotiations between Kiev and Moscow in April 2022—Russia’s primary demand was that Ukraine reject NATO membership and declare permanent neutrality. Zelensky agreed to those terms which, in effect, prove that Putin’s action was linked to NATO expansion. There is virtually no proof that Putin wants to conquer Europe. None. Putin simply wants Ukraine to honor its treaty obligations regarding neutrality. Check out this excerpt by Ted Snider at Antiwar.com:
Ukraine.. promised to stay out of NATO. Its non-alignment was enshrined in the foundational documents of the independent state of Ukraine.
Article IX of the 1990 Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine states that Ukraine “solemnly declares its intention of becoming a permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs.” That promise was repeated in Ukraine’s 1996 Constitution, which committed Ukraine to neutrality and prohibited it from joining any military alliance. But in 2019, President Petro Poroshenko amended the Ukrainian Constitution, committing Ukraine to the “strategic course” of NATO and EU membership.
NATO’s 75th Anniversary: The Broken Promises That Led to War, Antiwar.com
The issue, of course, could have been resolved long ago if Washington had acted in good faith, but Washington has not acted in good faith. In fact, Washington is still determined to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in order to implement its “pivot to Asia” strategy to ensure its future as the world’s only unchallenged superpower. These goals cannot be achieved without escalation, confrontation and a full-blown war. The NATO summit is merely a prelude to a broader and more violent conflict between the nuclear superpowers.
The question we should be asking ourselves is whether NATO can actually win a war with Russia. Can it?
The answer is “No”, it cannot.
Why?
Here’s how military analyst Will Schryver answers that question:
I have done my research — for years, dating back long before 2022…. I repeatedly warned that it (Ukraine) was a war the US/NATO could never win….There is a VAST difference between the “on paper” strength of NATO (including the US) and their actual war-fighting capability. The US could not assemble, equip, field, and sustain even 250k combat effectives in eastern Europe, and any attempt to do so would necessitate the evacuation of every major US base on the planet. The US/NATO not only could not win a war against Russia, but they would be eviscerated in the attempt.
Alerted by the US/NATO destruction of Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya, the Russians have spent the past 25 years — and particularly the past two years — engaged in a massive and exceedingly impressive military build up and modernization in preparation for an eventual war against the US/NATO. In the past 2+ years, t hey have methodically destroyed Ukraine’s three successive proxy armies with one arm tied behind their back. Their force generation, combat training, and military industrial production far exceed the entire NATO bloc combined. I appreciate the degree to which military analytical tourists like yourself have been thoroughly propagandized by Hollywood fantasies and the western state-controlled media, but wars are not fought and won by imaginary narratives and flashy superheroes. They are won by raw firepower — a metric by which the tripartite alliance of Russia, China, and Iran now possess supremacy over their hubris-drunken enemies in the rapidly eroding American Empire. There is only one sane option at this point: relinquish empire and make peace with the resurgent civilizational powers of the earth. Otherwise much of modern human civilization itself is at risk of being destroyed, and it will take centuries to recover. Ukraine Can’t Win, Will Schryver, Twitter
There’s also the niggling issue of “magazine depth” which refers to the stockpiles of weaponry and munitions required to outlast and eventually defeat the enemy. Here’s Schryver again:
There is no doubt Israel (just like its great benefactor, the United States) is, in the context of a “big war”, capable of executing several damaging strikes against a potential peer or near-peer adversary. But, throughout the imperial domain, there are fatal weaknesses that exist right now, and which cannot be turned into strengths at any point in the near- or medium-term. The first is what military types call “magazine depth”: munitions stockpiles sufficient to offensively overwhelm, defensively defeat, and strategically outlast the enemy. Neither the United States, nor any of its largely impotent client nations, possess “magazine depth” sufficient to prosecute anything more than a relatively brief campaign against their potential peer adversaries: Russia, China, Iran — and all or any of their lesser-power partners. Magazine Depth, Will Schryver, Twitter
What Schryver is saying is as profound as it is alarming. The United States and NATO will not prevail in a war with Russia because they do not have the industrial capacity, the force generation, the combat training, the magazine depth or the overall firepower of Russia. By every metric, they are the inferior fighting force. Additionally, Russia has already killed or captured hundreds of thousands of the “the best-trained and best-equipped soldiers in the Ukrainian army”. That army has already been effectively annihilated. The troops in the trenches today are poorly trained, unskilled, low-morale rookies who are being slaughtered by the thousands. Does anyone seriously believe that NATO involvement can turn this train around and secure a victory? Here’s more from Schryver:
The Russians have demonstrated that they can routinely shoot down ANY species of strike missile the US/NATO can field against them — not all of them all of the time, but most of them most of the time. And they get better and better at it as time goes on.
Indeed, over the past few months it is increasingly becoming “all of them most of the time”…. As Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported earlier this week:
“We are using air defence systems in a comprehensive manner during the special military operation. This significantly improved their responsiveness and strike range. Over the last six months, we have shot down 1,062 of NATO’s HIMARS rockets, short-range and cruise missiles, and guided bombs.”
No other military on the planet has previously attested this level of capability. The US does not have it, and is at least a decade away from developing it….
The current front-line inventory of US tactical ballistic missiles and sea- and air-launched cruise missiles would present no greater technical challenge for Russian air defenses than what they have already seen and defeated in the Ukraine War. The significance of this battlefield development defies exaggeration. It alters the war-fighting calculus that has been assumed for many decades. Empty Quiver, Will Schryver, Twitter
Some readers may find it hard to believe that NATO would rush into a war without thoroughly researching its prospects for success. But that is precisely what’s happening here. Blustery Uncle Sam foolishly believes that he will win as soon as he “throws its hat in the ring. He can’t accept that the scales are tipped in Russia’s favor and that his entry into the war will be met with a thunderous response. But that is the reality he faces. Here’s Schryver one last time:
NATO would face enormous problems of coordination, doctrine and force generation, even if it could agree an objective. Its troops are not trained for this kind of war and have never operated together…..
(they) would be hard-pressed to field a force more powerful than the reported nine Brigades trained and equipped by the West for the Great Offensive of 2023, which just bounced off the Russian forces without achieving anything of note….
The US has no ground combat units in Europe remotely suited to high-intensity land warfare…. Given enough time, money, political will and organization, most things are possible. But there is no chance… of NATO assembling a force which would constitute anything more than a nuisance to the Russians, while putting many lives in danger…… NATO’s Phantom Armies, Will Schryver, Substack
I am convinced that there is a delusional element within the foreign policy establishment that have convinced themselves that NATO will defeat Russia if they face each other on a battlefield in Ukraine. Schryver’s analysis helps to show why that’s not going to happen.
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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.
Featured image is from TUR • Copyright © Mike Whitney, Global Research, 2024
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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS
23 mins agoLiked by Thomas Balistrieri, Ed.D.
The daily stream of sickening photos coming out Gaza of murdered Palestinian children should be considered in the context of WW II and the close collaboration of Zionist groups with Nazi occupying forces and governments. In 1943, when deportations of Jews out of France to the death camps were not meeting quotas because of French resistance to the orders, Adolph Eichmann sent "one of my best men", Alois Brunner, to France to get things organized. With the cooperation of many Zionist administrators and collaborators, the deportations to the death camps accelerated. Brunner particularly focused on the deportation and death of Jewish children whom he labeled "future terrorists".
The Israeli ZioNazis -- with US financial, military and diplomatic support are doing the same thing now in the world's largest concentration camps in Gaza and the West Bank.
The above information is from Tony Greenstein's excellent book, "Zionism During the Holocaust". I strongly encourage people to read Greenstein to better understand what is happening now in Israel and the US government. You can link to this post for more information on the book and an excellent video interview with Greenstein:
"Jewish Scholar's Book Reveals Zionism's Fascist Roots & Close Collaborative Role With Nazi Regime"
https://mark192.substack.com/p/jewish-scholars-book-reveals-fascist
60 mins ago
I wonder whether one actually must be more depraved and inhuman than the Nazis in order to commit Genocide and then intentionally and proudly display it on social media for the entire world to see!?!
No wonder the ZioTurds ordered their stooges in congress to ban TikTok. They couldn't prevent their criminal psychopaths in the IDF from proudly posting videos of their atrocities!