14

Russiatosis

by James Howard Kunstler, via Clusterfuck Nation, August 4, 2017

Russia hysteria has become a full-blown national psychosis at a moment in history when a separate array of troubles poses the real threat to America’s well-being. Most of these have to do with the country’s swan dive into bankruptcy, but meeting them honestly would force uncomfortable choices on the grifters and caitiffs in congress. Meanwhile, the Treasury Dept is burning through its dwindling cash reserves, and all government activities will face a shutdown at the end of the summer unless congress votes to raise the debt ceiling — which may be way harder than passing the stupid Russia sanctions bill.
That bill, vaingloriously called The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act will only blow up in America’s face. This country’s actual trade with Russia is negligible, but the bill aims to interrupt and punish Europe’s trade, centering on oil and natural gas, which they need desperately. Mainly, the US bill seeks to interrupt a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea that would bypass several of the Baltic Nations currently being used by America — under the NATO banner — as staging areas for unnecessary and provocative war games on Russia’s borders.
Germany is certain to not stand for it, and like it or not, they are the straw that stirs the European drink. The sanctions pretend to seek to isolate Russia, but the effect will only be to isolate the United States. Europe will laugh at the measure as impinging on their sovereign prerogatives to trade as they please. And Russia can turn around and sell all the natural gas it wants to customers in Asia. Left undiscussed in the moronic American media is the American gas industry’s hidden role in pushing the sanctions so it can sell liquefied gas overseas — which would only end up raising the price for American gas customers to heat their homes.
The stupid bill pretends to be a lever for improving relations between the US and Russia, but is actually designed to make relations much worse. In the meantime, the US Deep State military and intelligence matrix is engineering new crises and confrontations for absolutely no good reason. For instance, shoveling arms to Ukraine so it can step up conflict in the eastern Donbass region bordering Russia. The sanctions bill will also make it impossible for the US and Russia to coordinate an end to the conflict in Syria. Anyway, Deep State strategists in the State, Defense, and Intel departments are tacitly determined to create another failed state by insuring continuing chaos there.
Another interesting unanticipated consequence of the sanctions bill is that it will only intensify Russia’s effort, already well underway, to provide for itself many of the products it currently imports. Import replacement, as the process is called, is actually the same dynamic that led to the rise of the USA as a great industrial power in the 19th century, so the bill only prompts Russia to diversify and strengthen its economy.
So what exactly was Mr. Trump thinking when he signed the “deeply flawed” (his words) Russian Sanctions bill coughed up like a hairball by congress? It’s a ridiculous piece of legislation from any angle. It limits the president’s own established prerogatives for negotiating with foreign nations (probably unconstitutionally), and will only provoke economic warfare (at least) against the US that can easily lead to shattering global trade relations entirely. Some observers say he had to sign it because the vote for it in congress was so overwhelming (419 to 3) that they would only override a Trump veto. But the veto would have had, at least, symbolic value in the Jacksonian spirit that Trump pretended to want to emulate at the outset of his term. Perhaps he sees the Deep State endgame and is tired of resisting.
On the home front, Russia paranoia is at the center of Robert Mueller’s intensifying probe of Trump and his political associates as he calls a federal grand jury to hear testimony — which implies that he some lined up. This opens up all kinds of opportunities for prosecutorial mischief, for instance going after every business transaction Trump made as a private citizen before he ran for president, and coercing Trump intimates into immunization deals in exchange for testimony, real or cooked-up, to enable the establishment’s ultimate goal of shoving Trump out.
The “Russian meddling in our election” story hasn’t produced any credible evidence after a full year — and speaking to foreign diplomats is not a crime — but the Russian meddling juggernaut rolls on perfectly well, and might accomplish its ends, without it. Just repeating “Russian meddling” five thousand times on CNN has surely induced many poorly-informed citizens to believe that Russia changed the numbers in American voting machines though, in fact, voting machines are not connected to the Internet.
All of this psychotic political behavior screams for the rise of a new party, or more than one new party, composed of men and women who have not lost their minds. I’m sure they’re out there. Plenty of traces on the Internet attest to the existence of a higher and better political consciousness in this country. It just hasn’t found a way to congeal. Yet.


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Filed under: empire watch, latest, Russia
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John
John
Aug 5, 2017 4:30 PM

Speaking on the words on the last lines of the article: there is a movement out there. I just discovered it yesterday. It is called Congress of People and they will be at Washington D.C. later this month. One can research more into this at their website at congressofpeople.org. Also, there is a link to a radio conversation at psl.com( party for socialism and liberation, led by 2017 presidential candidate Gloria Le Roca) with one of the leaders of the organization/movement.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Aug 5, 2017 2:21 PM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth.

michaelk
michaelk
Aug 5, 2017 9:45 AM

Chomksy’s role on the left is… fascinating. He’s close to being a guru. With all his knowledge, intelligence and education it’s not surprising that he’s opposed to the Republicans, but what I find extraordinary is his support for the Democrats, who, let’s be honest, are the flip side of the same coin. Chomksy seems to believe that there’s a significant difference between these twin factions which justifies voting for them over and over again. I find his arguments difficult to accept.
What I find staggering is his silence about an unfolding political coup aimed at toppling Trump, an unconstutional coup based on brazen lies about Russian interference in the recentl elections… one would imagine that this was perfect opportunity for the left, exemplified by Chomsky, to Educate the wider population about the true character of American democracy and deep seated power relationships in society, because if Trump can be toppled from power or politically castrated, so can any other politician who comes from outside the Washington consensus, for example if by some miracle a social democrat ever became President. Chomksy’s role seems to be, despite all his criticisms of the US, to underline that the US is still a democracy and voting matters. Yet, if Trump is deposed by a coup, a coup presented as legal, that house of cards comes crashing down.
I don’t understand why the left don’t reach out to Trump and his supporters and attempt to form an anit-war and Washington alliance. Stop wasing billions on the Empire and spend the money at home. Stop trying to ‘fix the world’ and fix America first. Bread and Peace.

Peter
Peter
Aug 5, 2017 1:40 PM
Reply to  michaelk

The trouble is, Mike, that it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Trump, whose ego-centrism (‘Ah am the Greatest’) seems to be his only driving factor. Apart from that, he has no idea about anything. Well, maybe staying rich. He’s certainly not interesting in improving ordinary people’s lives. (Even many of the latter seem to have given up as well – cf. yesterday’s vote against having a trade union in the Renault-Nissan factory.)
Re Chomsky – could you give us any links to pro-Democratic statements he’s made?
Last point – does voting matter? George Bush Junior was elected by the Supreme Court, after all.

Steve Hayes
Steve Hayes
Aug 5, 2017 2:12 PM
Reply to  Peter

Chomsky publicly advocated voting for Clinton:
https://chomsky.info/an-eight-point-brief-for-lev-lesser-evil-voting/

BigB
BigB
Aug 5, 2017 2:24 PM
Reply to  michaelk

“I don’t understand why the left don’t reach out to Trump and his supporters and attempt to form an anit-war and Washington alliance. Stop wasing billions on the Empire and spend the money at home. Stop trying to ‘fix the world’ and fix America first. Bread and Peace.”
I admire your sentiment but the bottom line is this: what is the US economy dependant on? Oil. What is US Foreign Policy predicated on? The control of oil. Can anyone change that? No. Significant change to the Reserve Status or petrodollar would destroy the currency: neither an allowable or electable platform. MAGAnomics? Bullshit. America First would lead to dollar repatriation which would lead to hyperinflation. Ergo: Republican or Democrat – it’s oil and war for the USA. Does Chomsky know this – you bet! A vote for Clinton is a vote for war. No one upsets the status quo.

Dawn
Dawn
Aug 6, 2017 5:14 AM
Reply to  BigB

This is really interesting and it would be wonderful to have a longer article helping us understand this point better. Thank you.

rehmat1
rehmat1
Aug 5, 2017 3:26 AM

The “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act ” bill is brainchild of Israel-First John McCain & Co. It’s mainly meant to further criminalize Iran and North Korea which don’t recognize Israel and support Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against Israel. Both countries don’t pose a threat to the US. Russia on the other hand, is a co-founder of Israel and in not the position to invade the US.
On April 19, 2017, US Vice-president Mike Pence with impeccable record of an ardent support for the Zionist entity, threatened North Korea with war saying: “The United States of America will always seek peace (??) but under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready.”
The Zionist entity put nuclear North Korea on its hit list during Dubya Bush presidency. On April 20, 2012, professor George Jochnowitz wrote at Israel National News: “North Korea is not even near Israel but it has directly participated in a war against it. North Korea’s anti-Israel actions have surpassed those of Iran even though it even is nowhere near Israel. And it’s not alone.”
Jochnowitz was referring to North Korea’s military aid to Egypt during the so-called Yom Kippur War. However, the hateful Jew forgot to mention that Israeli airstrike on the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 killed ten North Korean scientists.
On January 30, 2017, Ben Caspit wrote at Israeli propaganda outlet Al-Monitor: “Netanyahu’s road to Iran runs through North Korea.”
https://rehmat1.com/2017/04/21/israel-behind-us-north-korea-standoff/

susannapanevin
susannapanevin
Aug 5, 2017 12:44 AM

Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.

Dead World Walking
Dead World Walking
Aug 4, 2017 11:32 PM

The psychopathic oligarchs are grasping for straws.
Only problem is, the haystack is on fire.

Dominic Pukallus
Dominic Pukallus
Aug 4, 2017 11:29 PM

“Russian meddling juggernaut rolls on”. Trolls on, too.

michaelk
michaelk
Aug 4, 2017 9:40 PM

What really depresses me is the attitude of the liberal/left to events in the US… the Deep State coup designed to undermine and topple Trump from power because he’s less than enamoured with the drift towards war with Russia. One would think that this frightening prospect, would galvanize and radicalize them, but no, their lack of understanding is extraordinary. People like Chomsky are silent about the coup which is being organized by the CIA and the two factions of the political elite, the Democrats and the Republicans. I’ve lost a lot of respect for Chomksy because he seems as dogmatic and partisan as any Republican with a fraction of his education.

Dominic Pukallus
Dominic Pukallus
Aug 4, 2017 11:28 PM
Reply to  michaelk

People accuse Chomsky of being a Gatekeeper, but in his defence as a novice to this it seems to me that he is limited to commenting and exposing issues for which there is clear incontrovertible evidence, much as his Deep State detractors like to dismiss him as a fantasist. That’s really where his authority lies, tying together the visible details into a coherent and plausible counter-narrative. And he’s still on the fringes of the mainstream discourse, due to the “Conspiracy Theory” psyops which sees his solid scholarly work summarily dismissed by those it would help most.
Think then, about that which the educated can percieve through a perception of repeating patterns, and which we all know is happening, but cannot prove solidly with enough incontrovertible proof. I think of issues like JFK, 9/11, and many smaller ones, where the pattern of behaviour is evident to the conscognenti but there are no clear ‘smoking guns’ (to use a now detested idiom), much of what evidence there is can be easily gaslighted away, especially to those unwilling to go through the cognitive dissonance. It’s not the converted he must preach to.
I’ve seen a similar pattern of behaviour in well-respected journalists of great seeming integrity. Robert Parry springs to mind, always enjoining his followers to stop asking him to stop requesting him to cover “Conspiracy Theory” issues. I admired his own admiration in an article for the fortitude which fellow controversial investigative journalist Gary Webb showed in shooting himself twice in the head, but my admiration was more for the discretion I percieved he showed in not making claims that could not be backed up by solid evidence of any foul play whatsoever.
I think we should cut him some slack, but then again I’m fairly new at this.

rehmat1
rehmat1
Aug 5, 2017 12:07 AM

Canadian professor Tony Hall in his latest 7-part research article, Noam Chomsky and Zionism has claimed that Dr. Noam Chomsky is an Israel ‘Gatekeeper’ for September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
American Jewish philosopher Noam Chomsky was the first to author the 128-page booklet, 9-11 in December 2001. In the booklet, Chomsky tries to divert public attention from the real evildoers and claim it as a blow-back to United States imperial foreign policy by aiding western puppet regimes in Nicaragua, Turkey, and Israel in order to commit genocide of local people, Kurds and Palestinians living outside proper Israel.
Chomsky also claimed that the US along with the UK, Egypt, France, Pakistan organized, trained, funded, and trained so-called Muslim radical groups.
American Jewish writer and human right activist Roger Tucker calls Chomsky being a “Crypto Zionist” who has never called Israel being an Apartheid State.
https://rehmat1.com/2016/08/02/911-how-noam-chomsky-shielded-israel/