STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC

I will not be posting Friday, 4/26, and Saturday, 4/27. Posting will resume Sunday, 4/28.

Bribes and blackmail are the order of the day as the U.S. pays off Ukraine and Israel. From Donald Jeffries at donaldjeffries.substack.com:

Hitting another new low

The other day, to celebrate one more atrocious piece of legislation that slapped average Americans in their already battered faces, members of your Congress waved a flag in celebration. Well, that’s par for the course, you might say. After all, our “representatives” love to cloak themselves in false patriotism.

But they didn’t wave the American flag. Old Glory. The Stars and Stripes. The one that once still waved over the land of the free and the home of the brave. By the way, the guy who wrote our National Anthem, Francis Scott Key, would probably have reconsidered his own patriotism if he’d lived to see his grandson imprisoned by the tyrant Abraham Lincoln. No, our “representatives” were waving the Ukrainian flag. It’s the most popular flag out there. Well, the LGBQT+ model is pretty chic as well. The last known Americans to be waving an American flag in the Capitol are now sitting in prison, victims of the draconian January 6 political prosecutions. Don’t even ask what happens to anyone daring to wave a Confederate flag.

I saw one photo of a couple of blonde bimbos (yeah, I’m sure that’s a hopelessly sexist term now, but I’m just an old White guy), who were hamming it up in a shared selfie, with the Ukrainian flags waving in the background. They looked for all the world like the interchangeable pretty White chicks (there’s another sexist term- consider it a bonus) that litter the landscape of the digital world, with their duck faces and proud hands on hips. But these weren’t anonymous young women trying to get clicks from strangers. They were allegedly members of Congress. Well, why not? They can’t very well be any dumber than AOC. Or Sheila Jackson Lee. I don’t think there are any Americans dumber than Sheila Jackson Lee. And yet, she “represents” them. The ultimate Affirmative Action politician.

The deal they were celebrating was a real monstrosity. To be fair, pretty much every deal these cretins agree to is a monstrosity. But this was a super monstrosity. Our “representatives” approved giving $95 billion to the penis-piano playing former comedian turned leading Zionist in Ukraine, as well as more for our “favorite” ally Israel. I think they also included another disastrous proposal, that of outlawing the social media platform TikTok, in there as well. But nothing for border security. Our border security. Not that it would have done anything, anyhow, because Republicucks have often demanded that the Democrats includes some meaningless “border security” provision in the especially bad laws they reluctantly agree to.

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The author talks about the U.S. screwing Europe, but he doesn’t mention the Nord Stream sabotage. From Hugo Dianísio at strategic-culture.org:

Once again, the European bureaucracy is living up to the saying that “what has born crooked, late or never is straightened out”.

Once again, the European bureaucracy is living up to the saying that “what has born crooked, late or never is straightened out”. This is the case with the European Union, which was built as a political response to a reality that is no longer there — the socialist bloc — and which, when faced with the absence of its vital force, embarked on an erratic process of enlargement, aimed above all at provoking Russia, creating the conditions for NATO expansion and responding to the monopolies’ growing need for new markets and new sources of skilled and cheap labor, as is the case in Eastern Europe.

Within this framework and in response to the same needs, the EU is once again reissuing a recipe already widely known to the peoples of the South. While there is widespread recognition that the budgetary criteria contained in the Stability and Growth Pact constitute a stranglehold on public investment and is responsible for the short-term vision that has left the member states hostage to the financial authoritarianism of Brussels, at a time when the European bloc is losing more and more ground to the economies with which it has to compete, the unelected supranational power of the EU is once again proposing, this time to all Europeans, something that none of these peoples would ever vote for: austerity for the next four years (at least).

What appears on the horizon, without any in-depth national discussion, after being approved by the Council and the European Parliament, is a global austerity package, on a European scale, applicable to almost all the countries of the Union, which has been given the pompous name of “New Economic Governance Framework” and which is based on instruments such as the “Debt Sustainability Analysis” and “Specific Fiscal Plans” per member state, which will be developed within the framework of a 4-year adjustment period, which can be extended to 7. If the Stability Pact was not enough to bring most of the countries to austerity, this time EU autocracy is working to leave no one behind. Every country must bring to an end every evidence or memory that a social state has once worked with huge success.

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When the U.S. pivots to diplomacy, it’s because it’s losing. From James Durso at unz.com:

The good news is the United States is calling for diplomacy in the Middle East. The bad news it is because it was bested by Yemen’s rebel Houthis.

U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, bowed to the obvious and admitted, “We favor a diplomatic solution, we know there is no military solution.” Lenderking was channeling Britain’s former prime minister Winston Churchill who opined, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”

The U.S. sent its navy to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in December 2023 in response to the Houthi attack on merchant ships the group claimed were connected to Israel. The Houthis claimed they were attacking maritime commerce in the area until Israel declared a cease fire in Gaza and allowed more aid to enter the enclave.

The Red Sea and Suez Canal see the transit of 30% of the world’s container traffic, so the attacks caused traffic to be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope adding two weeks and significant expense to the journey.

The Houthis claim to have launched over 520 missiles and drones, a mix of anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, and unmanned underwater vessels, at more than 50 ships, most with no connection to Israel, and killed three merchant seamen.

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The Biden administration edges the U.S. closer to direct war with Russia. From Dave DeCamp at antiwar.com:

A Biden administration official said that Ukraine has already used the missiles in an attack on a Russian base in Crimea

The US confirmed on Wednesday that it had secretly sent Ukraine long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) last month as part of a $300 million arms package.

The long-range ATACMS can be fired from the HIMARS rocket systems and can hit targets up to 190 miles away, a range that marks a significant escalation in US support for Ukraine. Last year, the US secretly shipped an older cluster bomb variant of the ATACMS that has a range of about 100 miles.

A Biden administration official said Ukraine has already used the longer-range ATACMS twice, including in an attack on a Russian base in Crimea. US-supported attacks on Crimea or the Russian mainland always risk a major escalation from Moscow.

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Most Americans today wouldn’t like their ancestors―too rebellious, too self-reliant, too skeptical of government. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:

19^th Century America

If we wish to grasp American life in the 19^th century, it’s probably best to start by understanding that when America was young, it had no myth. Once we really understand that, the rest falls into place fairly easily. Here’s how Alexis de Tocqueville (in National Character of Americans) described it in the 1830s:

Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him.

We all know that national leaders promote myths about their glorious nation: one or more “uniquenesses” that give the people of their nation a fast, easy and noble identity. And assuredly American myths have been promoted all through our lifetimes. But in its early years, America had no such myth. America was a rebellious upstart; a collection of violent and uncivilized farmers who made so much trouble for the British that they eventually pulled out. Some Americans saw themselves as heroic, but educated and powerful people worldwide considered them semi-barbaric.

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Big Tech has the best of all worlds. It’s extensively involved in both the military and the industrial parts of the Military-Industrial Complex. From Brett Wilkins at antiwar.com:

The paper’s author found that the five largest military contracts to major tech firms between 2018 and 2022 “had contract ceilings totaling at least $53 billion combined.”

The center of the U.S. military-industrial complex has been shifting over the past decade from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to Northern California – a shift that is accelerating with the rise of artificial intelligence-based systems, according to a report published Wednesday.

The report – entitled How Big Tech and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Military-Industrial Complex – was authored by Roberto J. González, a professor of cultural anthropology at San José State University, for the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs.

The new paper comes amid the contentious rise of AI-powered lethal autonomous weapons systems, or killer robots; increasing reliance upon AI on battlefields from Gaza to Ukraine; and growing backlash from tech workers opposed to their companies’ products and services being used to commit or enable war crimes.

“Although much of the Pentagon’s $886 billion budget is spent on conventional weapon systems and goes to well-established defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, and BAE Systems, a new political economy is emerging, driven by the imperatives of big tech companies, venture capital (VC), and private equity firms,” González wrote.

“As Defense Department officials have sought to adopt AI-enabled systems and secure cloud computing services, they have awarded large multibillion-dollar contracts to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle,” he added. “At the same time, the Pentagon has increased funding for smaller defense tech startups seeking to ‘disrupt’ existing markets and ‘move fast and break things.’”

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Beware when politicians start lauding themselves for their courage doing that which is politically popular. It’s usually dangerous and always revolting. From Connor O’keeffe at mises.org: Democrats

Over the weekend, the House of Representatives passed four foreign aid bills that will allocate a combined $95 billion to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and other “national security priorities.” House Republicans followed Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) lead and joined with Democrats to deliver all the foreign aid President Joe Biden wanted without requiring much of anything in return.

The passage came after House Republicans had handed the president similar victories with Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reauthorization and government spending.

New York Times columnists celebrated Speaker Johnson for, in their words, “finally (showing) a spine.” Columnist Bret Stephens went as far as to call Johnson’s decision to roll over an act of courage:

Nothing is more difficult these days in American politics than going against your own ideological tribe. And nothing is more admirable than politicians who are willing to challenge their base and gamble their office for the sake of a great cause. I wasn’t much of a fan of Johnson when he became speaker of the House, but what he’s done is a profile in courage.

Speaker Johnson took a similar tone, framing himself as a courageous and selfless public servant willing to “do the right thing,” regardless of the personal consequences.

But Johnson didn’t do the right thing. And he certainly didn’t do the courageous thing.

America is a global empire that’s spread too thin. Washington could have used its unipolar moment following the fall of the Soviet Union to relax the totalitarian military bureaucracy built up during the Cold War. Instead, the United States government launched multiple unnecessary wars in the Middle East, needlessly expanded the anti-Russian military alliance in Europe, and helped militarize the waters and neighboring governments that surround China’s coast.

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The so-called RINOs, Republicans in Name Only, are actually quintessential Republicans and are a majority of Congressional Republicans. From Ryan McMaken at mises.org:

Thomas Woods has reminded us more than once that “no matter who you vote for, you get John McCain.” It’s not strictly and always true, of course, but the evidence is clear that it’s often true. The latest example is the GOP’s speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) who has turned out more or less exactly like us skeptics have predicted. Johnson is a friend to the war party, a do-nothing on issues important to the rank and file (like immigration), and a true enemy of the people on issues like warrantless spying. 

In recent weeks, Johnson has increasingly doubled down on supporting Washington’s foreign policy blob, and insists on spending at least a hundred billions dollars—dollars the Treasury doesn’t have and the Fed will have to print—on propping up the Ukraine regime. This regime, which Johnson tells us is essential in the battle for “democracy”—whatever that means—has abolished elections, ended the freedom of speech, and even destroyed the basic freedom of exercising one’s religion. 

But none of that matters because someone at the FBI told Johnson he must keep spending taxpayer dollars on Ukraine while courting World War III. Johnson—ignoring his constituents as most members of Congress do—has assured the agents of the garrison state that he will help them. Perhaps Johnson’s biggest crime is his ongoing support for a new and vast expansion of the American police state. Johnson now supports securing greater prerogatives for America’s spy agencies who seek to spy on American citizens without warrants indefinitely. 

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