Manufacturing the “Russian Threat”

 

The Rise of German Imperialism and the Phony “Russian Threat”

By Prof. James Petras

The principle Nazi ideological prop that secured massive financial and political support from Germany’s leading industrialists was the Communist and Soviet threat.  The main Nazi military drive, absorbing two-thirds of its best troops, was directed eastward at conquering and destroying Russia.  The ‘Russian Threat’ justified Nazi Germany’s conquest and occupation of the Ukraine, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, with the aid of a substantial proportion of local Nazi collaborators.

After Germany’s defeat, division and disarmament, and with the extension of Soviet power,  the US reinstated the Nazi industrial and banking giants, officials and intelligence operatives. At first they were engaged in rebuilding their domestic economy and consolidating political power, in collaboration with the US military occupation forces.

By the late 1960’s Germany regained economic primacy in Europe and was at the forefront of European ‘integration’, in association with France and England. It soon came to dominate the principle decision – making institutions of the European Union (EU). The EU served as Germany’s instrument for conquest by stealth. Year by year, through ‘aid’ and low interest loans,the EU  facilitated German capitalist’s  market penetration and financial expansion, throughout south and central Europe. Germany set the agenda for Western Europe, gaining economic dominance while benefiting from US subversion and encirclement of Eastern Europe, Russia and the Baltic and Balkan states....

See the rest of this important article here

We Are In Lockdown - Can We See It?

A domestic Gladio fear-terror operation is underway throughout the nation intended to make the public turn to the authority structure for protection.  The mob called it the 'protection racket' ... now- a-days its called the Department of Homeland Security.

Can we see the links between militarized local cops and the armed neo-fascist para-military forces heavily funded by corporate right-wing cats?   Can we see El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua all over again right here at home?

We are in lockdown now here in the USA.  Can we even see it?  Can we understand how Mr. Big wants to control all of us?  Can we get over our addiction to "success" mythology which keeps us in line?

This is a powerful video to me because I crawled under my desk in the early 1960's 'hiding' from the possible explosion of a nuclear bomb over our heads at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota where we lived.  Then the 'enemy' was commies and today the 'enemy' is terrorism - even harder to define and contain.  We've been manipulated all of our lives.  

Cancerous US Militarization of the Asia-Pacific

• Irish TV reports on local opposition to the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island off South Korea, and examines the effects of the arms race on the world in general. US Navy warships including aircraft carriers, nuclear subs, and Aegis destroyers (outfitted with so-called ‘missile defense’ systems) would be ported at this base. I highly recommend watching this excellent 25 minute documentary - find it here.  Please share with others. 

• This Jeju Navy base, and other manifestations of Obama's "pivot" of 60% of US forces into the region, is forcing China to respond with their own military counter-moves.  China did not go looking for this fight but does not appear willing to let the US develop the ability to be the Master of Space or the Earth below.

• The new media outlet called Sputnik reports:

Igor Korotchenko, Director of the Center for the Analysis of the World Arms Trade told Sputnik on Friday that China's successful testing of a Hypersonic Strike Vehicle (the HGV) demonstrates the country's potential to affect US national security in a serious way.

"US anxiety is centered on the fact that China is actively experimenting with weaponry that is based on hypersonic speed, which is nearly impossible to intercept using currently-available US missile defense systems," Korotchenko told Sputnik.

It had been reported earlier that China had conducted another test of the HGV, dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, an ultra-high speed vehicle capable of travelling up to eight times the speed of sound. Earlier tests of the vehicle had shown it capable of carrying nuclear warheads at a speed of over Mach 10, or 12,359 kilometers per hour. 

• In the meantime a new arms race is underway as the US-NATO encircle Russia and China.  The environment suffers, human rights in places like Jeju Island, Okinawa, and Guam are put in jeopardy, and back here in the US our economy and society become increasingly militarized as weapons of war becomes the prevailing job creation enterprise of cancerous corporate capitalism. 
• Can anyone deny that the CIA is an out-of-control brutal monster doing the bidding of the corporations that control this nation and seek world domination? The New York Times reports:

A scathing report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday found that the Central Intelligence Agency routinely misled the White House and Congress about the information it obtained from the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, and that its methods were more brutal than the C.I.A. acknowledged either to Bush administration officials or to the public.

'Deep State' in Charge

Here are some interesting words from an activist I recently made contact with after seeing him interviewed on RT:

These people [US ruling corporate oligarchy] are always looking to get their mitts on resources (oil and gas in the Middle East, for instance) – even less to use them ourselves than to control (or deny) others’ access.  (Likewise, as you point out, the militarization of everything from space, to the Antarctic, to IT.)  For example, Washington worries far less about the canard “our dependence on Middle Eastern energy” (on which, relatively we don’t much depend, getting most of our imports from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, etc., though our allies satellites in Europe, Japan, etc. get a lot) than we do on Europe’s dependence on Russia, which we want to block for “strategic” reasons.

I tend to put the emphasis on ideology.  Bottom line, the people who rule this country want to rule the world.  Full stop.  Why? To get rich.  Well, there’s that.  But it’s more than that.  Especially the GOP neocons but also the Dems’ “liberal interventionists” are genuine convinced they are (to use the old Soviet phrase) the vanguard of all progressive humanity.  Whereas the Soviet Union’s trilogy of values was the global march of “peace, progress, and socialism,” ours is “democracy, human rights, and free markets.”  Of course, all of this sloganeering is shamelessly manipulated to fit the aggressive agenda of the moment.

So why target Russian and China? Because they are obstacles to global domination.   Worse, they are bigger and more powerful than our other targets (Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Syria), even Iran. 

I also think there’s the symbiosis of corporations and government.  The populist Left thinks Big Business is the culprit – and they’re right.  The populist Right thinks Big Government is the problem – and they’re right too.   Why?  Because the government and the corporate world are two overlapping components of an integrated Deep State in which the nominal rulers, of whichever party are factional figureheads.  Plus, since the two parties have a lock, the only way people can show their disdain for one party, is to vote for the other in these repeated “referendum elections” that solve nothing.

~ James George Jatras
Washington DC

'Greater Israel' in Motion

Israel, with full US backing, wants to expand their control in the region.  A take down of Syria would give Israel a new base of operations as they work with the Pentagon to make long-range plans for 'regime change' in Iran.  Watch this one as it develops.  Very provocative program.

History Lesson: American Guinea Pigs

Kiev Are The Terrorists

Ukrainian Major and military expert Oleksandr Taran who's been on the "enemy" territory and drove about 300 km in current conflict zones says that he did see Cossacks and volunteers that came from Russia fighting on the militia's side but didn't see any regular Russian military units. He also says that the Kiev government and security services act like terrorists.

You Are Invited

Both Parties Support War

The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution denouncing Russia's foreign policies.

See who voted in House of Reps for picking a fight with Russia.....  click here

Sunday Song

Which Seed Do We Carry?

I'd like to watch this on TV but probably won't.  There are growing numbers of space movies with the general theme about the need to move human civilization off to another planet.  The aerospace industry is doing mass marketing for their expensive technology venture.

You can find many links between outfits like Lockheed Martin and corporate front-groups such as the Mars Society.  The Mars Society line is that the Earth is a rotting, dying, stinking planet and we need to terraform Mars and move our civilization there.  Likely ride on a nuclear powered rocket to a nuclear powered Martian mining colony.  I'm not interested in that trip.

It looks like this TV production called Ascension might cross a few of those themes and I'd be interested to see how they treat them.  Here is the official description of the program:

Who will save Humanity's last chance for survival? Ascension, a three night event, begins Dec. 15 at 9/8c.

A young woman's murder causes the subjects of a century-long mission to populate a new world to question the true nature of the project as they approach the point of no return.

What is Sacred?

One to another
we are all sacred
each to
each other
brother to brother
sister to sister

the rain
the rocks
plants, trees
things that fly
crawl
swim
all sacred

Our path
where do we step?
how does our heart
stay open
to our sacred
relations?

How do we
deal with our rage?
Better to
share it
with others
turn it towards
the light
where it
will heal
and become
pure energy
for the good

We Do

You can get the subtitles by clicking on the wheel in the lower right hand corner after the video starts and then select your desired language

U.S. Pushing War with Russia

The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution lashing out at Russia over its foreign policies. The language of the non-binding document has been widely equated by critics to Cold War-style rhetoric. RT's Gayane Chichakyan looks at the diplomatic falling out between the US and Russia.

Socialized Medicine

Like air - at this point free, though not always clean - medical attention should be free and abundant for all.  But the free enterprise-niks got their greedy hands on dispensing health care and turned it into a profit machine.  In fact many of those same interlocking corporate entities that own the 'health insurance' gambit are doing alot of the polluting.  They have no real incentive to stop poisoning us.

Last Monday I made my first trip to the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital complex at Togus here in Maine near Augusta.  I had recently applied for coverage and was accepted into the VA program.  I have a few nagging medical issues and thought I should get into the VA system while I am still kicking.

I'd never been to Togus before but it is a huge place - almost looks like a college with their red brick medical campus.  A covered walkway connects the many buildings where thousands of Maine veterans get excellent medical care.

After my introductory appointment with my new doctor I walked the halls of the hospital.  I had some time on my hands because the van that picked me at my door and would return me home would not be available for another two hours.  I had on my new VFP knit cap that I bought while in St. Louis from the national office.  Many of the vets there at Togus wore various service jackets and hats.  I saw no visible signs of any anti-war thinking but knew in my heart that many had to harbor such feelings on some level.

I felt some guilt being able to walk into Togus and have a red carpet thrown out for me just because I had been in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.  I couldn't help but think of all the deserving people across the country that have no health care or are paying a high-price for insurance that in the final analysis is making some corporation wealthy.  Shouldn't all US citizens (human beings) get this socialized medicine?

I read something along these lines the other day by Iowa's outgoing Sen. Tom Harkin who I used to think alot of.  But over the years, like most Democrats in power, he repeatedly let our side down.  Here he acknowledges that the Dems essentially took an unneeded dive when they went with the ObamaCare program (basically a giant corporate subsidy) instead of creating a single-payer health care system for everyone.

Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the co-authors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill.

The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, laments the complexity of legislation the Senate passed five years ago.

He wonders in hindsight whether the law was made overly complicated to satisfy the political concerns of a few Democratic centrists who have since left Congress.

“We had the power to do it in a way that would have simplified healthcare, made it more efficient and made it less costly and we didn’t do it,” Harkin told The Hill. “So I look back and say we should have either done it the correct way or not done anything at all.

"What we did is we muddled through and we got a system that is complex, convoluted, needs probably some corrections and still rewards the insurance companies extensively,” he added.

It's 1950's All Over Again in Missouri

Raw footage of the NAACP's Journey for Justice: Ferguson to Jefferson City through Rosebud, Missouri. Local racists lined up along the highway as the peaceful NAACP march went back - you can see and hear some of what happened.

The US is going back to the 1950's when it comes to race, income inequality, foreign policy and more. 

Read more about this incident here

We Can't Breathe!

New York City last night (Photo by Ellen Davidson)

Another not so
grand
Grand Jury
announcement
yesterday
Eric Garner
"I can't breathe"
choked to death
by NYC police
caught on tape
he was unarmed
once more
cops set free
no accountability

No justice
No peace!

In the US
an African American
killed every 28 hours by cops,
security guards or vigilantes
African American 22 times
more likely to be killed by cops
than a white person

Hands Up
Don't shoot!

Militarization of local
police
now serve and protect
the corporate oligarchy

Shut this shit down!

Mr. Big
is cutting off our
air supply
democracy drowned
in the bathtub
the citizens
are the enemy

We can't breathe!

Indict, convict,
put the killer cops in jail
the whole damn system
is guilty as hell!

Forward together
no going back!

All Fracked Up

• The red house is ours.  This photo was taken last week after a snow storm - we had more snow last night so it is fairly accurate view of our neighborhood right now.  I am in bed sick in an upstairs room looking out over this very street.  I must have caught a bug on my way home from Missouri.  A good day to stay in bed and write a blog post.

• Obama is now preparing his nomination for new Secretary of Defense and it looks like Ashton Carter will be the pick.  Most know little about him but here is a note from renowned anti-nuclear activist Jackie Cabasso about Carter:

I am horrified that Ashton Carter has been nominated as Secretary of Defense. On June 22, 2006, Ashton Carter and William Perry co-authored an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for the US to threaten a pre-emptive strike to take out a planned North Korean missile test, even at the risk of igniting a war on the Korean Peninsula. This proposal was so extreme that it was rejected out of hand by then VP Dick Cheney in favor of diplomacy!  It should be noted that less than two weeks earlier, the US conducted a successful routine test of a Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

• My latest interview on Iran's PressTV was about how the US is using ISIS to create more fear back in the US making Homeland Security and local police stronger as the public turns to them for "more protection" while giving up our civil liberties.  You can listen here

• Efforts to reach a negotiated settlement with Iran over their nuclear program are being undermined in the US Senate by Republicans and Democrats alike.  Essentially carrying water for Israel (which wants to take out Iran so bad they can taste it) these members of the Senate should be questioned about whose interests they actually represent - US or Israeli?

• Some time ago I recall reading that Iran really wants nuclear power so they can use their existing fossil fuel supplies as their primary cash cow for their national economy.  They understand that fossil fuels are on the decline and hope to extend their profit potential by using nuclear for domestic power.  The US and Israel though are not interested in a stable and thriving Iranian economy and thus continue to work hard to destabilize that nation.

• The European Union (EU) and the US have forced Bulgaria and Serbia to deny Russia's plan to transport natural gas via pipeline (South Stream) through their countries to European markets.  They will lose lots of money as a result.  Russia turned around and made a deal with Turkey and the pipeline will pass through that nation and end in Greece for transport to markets.  The US-EU sanctions on Moscow appear to be continually harming Europe more than Russia - but that is what happens when the EU lap dog follows orders from Washington.

• Gas prices at the pump in the US are lower than they have been for quite a while.  Americans love it but few really know why the prices have dropped.  It was ultimately a deal between the US and Saudi Arabia to lower world oil prices so that Russian and Venezuelan oil profits are reduced thus helping to destabilize those economies.  One US domestic consequence is the fracking industry is hurting because they only make money when fossil fuel prices are sky high since it takes so much capital to successfully drill for fracked gas.  You can bet there is some clamor going on inside the mahogany walled offices on Wall Street about all of this.

Sicily: Plant Seeds Not War

A hundred miles off the coast of Africa, the American military has built a base in Niscemi, Sicily. Behind the cordoned-off facility, there is a new war instrument : the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS).

According to journalist Antonio Mazzeo Due, “The MUOS embodies the many contradictions of neoliberal globalization. It kills in the name of peace and order. It destroys the climate, the environment, the land. It squanders human and financial resources.”

Sicilian activists are against the military exploitation of their land and have been organizing to fight against the MUOS. For the No MUOS resistance Sicily is a bridge of peace between Africa and Europe. 

Yesterday morning, the activist Turi Vaccaro has broken into the US military base to plant some seeds of fig trees and to meditate. The US army captured him and transferred him to the Italian police. 

This act by Turi comes after similar actions by NO MUOS activists over the course of the last year. By taking back the land, even briefly, they are resisting the neo-colonial expansion of the US military.

Free Speech in Germany?

Abby Martin speaks with author and journalist Max Blumenthal about his recent trip to Germany and how he was treated like an anti-Semite for his criticism of the state of Israel.