INTERESTING ANALYSIS .... AND SOME FUNNY CONCLUSIONS ....

 

 

How Do Some Catholic Priests See What Most Evangelical Pastors Don’t See?

By Chuck Baldwin 
December 16, 2021

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One of the most mysterious paradoxes of the modern church is how most evangelical pastors can be so deaf and dumb when it comes to the Biblical Natural Law principles of Liberty. And nothing illustrates that reality any more graphically than the way most evangelical pastors have rolled over and played dead regarding the antichrist Covid narrative. As I have said before in this column, most of the resistance to Fauci’s fascism is coming from outside the church. On the whole, the evangelical church has submitted to the beastly Covid Empire lock, stock and barrel. 

 

By submitting to the beastly Covid narrative, evangelicals have demonstrated that 1) They have zero awareness and discernment regarding all things antichrist and 2) They have zero resistance to all things antichrist. This means that in their heart of hearts, they have already submitted to the spirit of antichrist.

 

This is in spite of the fact that evangelicals claim a born-again relationship with Jesus Christ, which if true, would mean that they would be indwelled with the Holy Spirit, Who Jesus said would “guide [them] into all truth.” (John 16:13) Certainly, this Holy Spirit instruction would reveal the system of antichrist to them.

I have brought several messages over the past 21 months showing from the Scriptures how the Covid narrative is a devilish, beastly, antichrist system.

 

Here.

 

Here.

 

And here.

 

In my mind, any pastor or Christian who does NOT see the antichrist nature of the Covid narrative is more than blind; he or she is spiritually blind, which casts much doubt on their spiritual confession.

To make it even more perplexing, there are several outspoken anti-Covid narrative priests, bishops and cardinals from the Catholic Church who are courageously resisting the draconian Covid system.

It is a very strange and very sad day when leaders from a false religious system have more understanding regarding the God-given Natural liberties of man than do leaders from within Christian orthodoxy.

 

Story Number One

 

A German cardinal has sparked controversy by claiming that the coronavirus pandemic has been used by the likes of George Soros and Bill Gates to create a global “surveillance state.”

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked “chaos” and “turmoil” stemming not only from the “lacking knowledge” about the transmissibility and danger of the virus itself, but from the will of the super-rich to “snatch an opportunity to bring people in line,” Gerhard Ludwig Mueller said in an interview with Austria’s St. Boniface Institute last week. He is a high-ranking judge at the Vatican court.

 

The world’s financial elites are now using the pandemic and the measures governments take to fight the spread of the virus to subject people to “total control” and establish a global “surveillance state,” he added. The St. Boniface published a video showing a small part of the interview and the cardinal has since confirmed to the German dpa news agency that the footage is genuine.

 

“People, who sit on the throne of their wealth,” see an “opportunity to push through their agenda,” the cardinal said, naming Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, billionaire George Soros and the head of the Davos Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, among those behind the alleged global control scheme.

The cardinal then accused the global financial elites of an attempt to bring forth “a new man” created “in their own image and likeness,” adding that he would not wish such a fate on himself. “That has nothing to do with democracy,” the former Regensburg bishop, who once headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said.

 

Ask yourself, dear evangelical friend, have you heard your pastor say anything like this—even once? If not, why are you still attending a church with such an obviously politically controlled and spiritually silenced pastor?

 

Story Number Two

 

A Catholic priest has slammed vaccine mandates from the pulpit, saying that “no earthly king or president…gets to dictate what we must put into our bodies.”  

Addressing his congregation at Christ the King Church in Towson, Maryland, Father Edward Meeks of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter used Catholic doctrine to defend the right of bodily autonomy through his homily.

 

Speaking on the feast of Christ the King, November 21, Meeks reminded the congregation that “you and I belong to another realm, another kingdom. This earthly kingdom, this earthly realm is not our home; it is part of our journey.” 

 

Mentioning the “ongoing conflict” within the human being, Meeks noted that in saying that “Jesus is our Lord and King, what we’re saying is that we owe our allegiance and our loyalty first and foremost to Him and to His kingdom.” 

 

“So then how does this principle work itself out in our daily lives, practically speaking?” he asked rhetorically. 

 

Drawing from Scripture, Fr. Meeks defended the right of individuals to refuse forced medical intervention, saying that the body must be cared for since it is a “temple of the Holy Spirit”: 

 

Our King tells us in His written word that our bodies … are temples of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians, 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.” 

 

Do you believe that? Do you believe that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Do you take it seriously? 

 

Among all the other things that that implies – if you do, if you do take it seriously – is this: that no earthly king or president or public health official or billionaire technocrat gets to dictate what we must put into our bodies – into these temples of the Holy Spirit. 

 

For decades, I have been flummoxed by the inability (or unwillingness) of evangelicals to understand the evil, conspiratorial nature of our Enemy. If God would warn the prophets, priests and people of Old Testament Israel of the evil conspiracies of the Enemy in that day (Ezekiel 22:25 – 29; II Samuel 15:12; Jeremiah 11:9) and if evil conspiracies are noted taking place against the Early Church (Acts 23:13), are we to think that that same diabolical Enemy has abandoned his evil treacheries in our day? Such a proposition is utter foolishness!

 

For the past 21 months, our Arch-Enemy has been manipulating the medical and pharmaceutical industries, including hospital officials, local health boards and health officers, educational systems, including school teachers and principals, the major media, Big Business and politicians from both parties to launch the most diabolical and devilish antichrist system of our lifetimes. And the vast majority of evangelical pastors don’t even see it.

 

Then again, these same evangelical pastors do not see the diabolical, devilish nature of Zionist Israel either. Maybe that explains it. I am willing to bet that the Catholic priests, bishops and cardinals referenced in this column also understand the sinister evil nature of Zionist Israel. That is not a coincidence.

 

The blindness of evangelicals to the antichrist system known as Zionism has blinded their eyes to many things, including the antichrist nature of the Covid Empire.

 

P.S. I am introducing a brand new message DVD entitled Christian Zionism Has Taken Bethlehem Back To The Days Of Herod.

 

I began the message with a detailed description of the wickedness of King Herod and his family. I showed how the evil family of Herod constantly intersected—in a very menacing way—with the life of Christ and the apostles.

 

I also relayed my visit to Bethlehem (and Palestine) and told of my preaching in a church in the city of Christ's birth—comprised mostly of Palestinian Christians—and the fond impression I had of those wonderful people.

I went into some detail to show how the rise of the Religious Right in America back in the 80s (which I was much a part of) has enabled the Zionist Israeli government to torment and terrorize Palestinian Christians for many decades now.

 

(I, again, urge readers to get the powerful book written by renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe entitled The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine. This book tells the true story of how Israel became a state off the murder, rape, genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. I consider this book MUST-READING.)

 

I also gave a somewhat graphic description of the kind of life Palestinian Christians are forced to endure under Zionist domination and how evangelical Christians in America are facilitating Israel's persecution of Christians because of their acceptance of the false prophecy doctrines of Scofield Futurism.

 

I urge readers to get this brand new DVD message: Christian Zionism Has Taken Bethlehem Back To The Days Of Herod.

In my opinion , it's a fair and bright analysis of the indoctrination and attitude phenomenon within a large part of the American population, even spreading to other western countries, it couldn't have been said any better or clearer.   Thanking all my good readers for their time and appreciation, stay safe and well.

I'm including a link to the original article, for anyone who might be interested to dig further.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/KtbxLxglmqsRpzgcLMnLTMFNdQWZWJNngVanalysis of a growing indo

WHAT EXPLAINS SUCH COMPLACENCY.....

Americans who pay attention to international affairs - a category that surely includes Kissinger and the authors of the Intelligence Report - are growing fed up with Israeli intransigence and fanaticism. Netanyahu's bizarre, widely-ridiculed performance at the United Nations, where he brandished a cartoonish caricature of a bomb in such a way that he himself came across as a caricature of a “mad Zionist,” was the latest in a series of gaffes by Israeli leaders who seem prone to overplaying their hand.

A second factor is the festering resentment many Americans feel over the Israel Lobby's imperious domination of public discourse. Every time a well-known American journalist is fired for going “off-script” about Israel, as happened to Helen Thomas and Rick Sanchez, a mostly-invisible backlash, like a tidal wave rippling beneath the surface of the ocean, grows in power. And every time the Israel lobby slaps down someone like Maureen Dowd, who recently observed that the same Israel-fanatics who dragged the US into the Iraq war are now trying to do the same thing with Iran, the more people begin to wake up and realize that people like Dowd, Thomas, and Sanchez are speaking the truth.

A third reason for complacency in the face of Israel's impending demise: The American Jewish community is no longer united in support of Israel, much less its Likudnik leadership. Sophisticated Jewish journalists and analysts like Philip Weiss are recognizing the insanity of Israel's current leadership and the hopelessness of its predicament. According to recent reports, it is no longer fashionable among young American Jews to care about Israel. And despite Netanyahu's frantic attempts to sway Jewish voters toward the Mormon Likudnik Mitt Romney, polls show that Obama, who is on record saying he “hates” the “liar” Netanyahu, will easily win the majority of Jewish votes.

Finally, we come to the least obvious - but most powerful - reason for Kissinger's and the CIA's complacency in the face of Israel's implosion: The inexorable trickle-down of knowledge that Israel and its supporters, not radical Muslims, carried out the 9/11 false-flag attacks.

Increasingly, it is not fringe anti-Semitic groups, but high-level responsible observers, who are saying this. Alan Sabrosky, the half-Jewish former Director of Strategic Studies at the US Army War College, has come on my radio show to say that he has discussed with his colleagues the “100% certainty” that Israel and its supporters did 9/11. And Alan Hart, the former lead BBC correspondent for the Middle East (and personal friend of Golda Meir and Yasser Arafat) has also come on my radio show to break the story that he, too, knows that Israel and company orchestrated 9/11.

Today, we even have a presidential candidate, Merlin Miller, who is on the record stating that Israel, not al-Qaeda, carried out the 9/11 attacks. The chief purpose of 9/11 was to “seal in blood” an intense, unbreakable emotional bond between the US and Israel, in a desperate bid to assure Israel's survival by launching a long-term US war against Israel's enemies. As the “dancing Israelis” arrested for celebrating the 9/11 operation tried to convince the police: “Our enemies are your enemies. The Palestinians are your enemies.”

But more and more Americans, including the US intelligence community as a whole, now recognize that the enemies of Israel (the entire Muslim world of over 1.5 billion people, along with most of the non-European world) do not have to be the enemies of the United States. In fact, the US is going broke and sacrificing thousands of lives in wars for Israel - wars that damage, rather than aid, US strategic interests. (One of those interests, of course, is buying oil and gas from stable, cooperative governments.)

As the recognition grows that 9/11 was not a radical Islamic attack, but an act of dastardly, bloody treason by supporters of Israel, it will become ever-easier for American policy makers, following in the footsteps of Kissinger and the sixteen intelligence agencies, to recognize the obvious: Israel has reached the end of its shelf-life.

 

 This is part two of an article by Kevin Barrett, part one was copied in my November 23 blog, an excellent analysis, albeit a few years old. 

 As always, my many thanks to all my good readers, keep safe and well.

GHISLAIN MAXWELL IS FINALLY ON TRIAL !!!!

 

Don’t expect much – the cover-up has already begun!

By Philip Giraldi

Jeffrey Epstein procurer Ghislaine Maxwell is finally in court going through the juror selection process and opening arguments after a 17 month stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Given Epstein’s somewhat suspicious departure from this earth in what may have been a murder rather than a suicide, Maxwell has been jailed under a somewhat more intrusive regime, with constant surveillance and only limited ability to do anything but sit on her concrete bunk and contemplate her future. She has complained frequently about her isolation, abuse by jailers and the terrible food. She was undoubtedly correct about the food. Her offer of as much as $28 million in bail money in return for her freedom while awaiting trial was turned down by the judge who observed that Maxwell had more than fifteen separate bank or investment accounts as well as multiple passports. She suggested that Ghislaine might have much more money and other assets squirreled away outside the United States, making her a flight risk, presumably to flee to Israel which has no extradition agreement with the US.

There is significant back story to consider when examining the Ghislaine Maxwell/Jeffrey Epstein saga. The suspicion that Epstein was working for Israel’s external intelligence agency Mossad or for its military intelligence counterpart is based on considerable evidence and that he was being “protected” has also seemingly been confirmed through both Israeli and American sources. Indeed, there already exists some evidence that Epstein was granted unusual leniency when he was convicted in Florida of sex crimes in 2008 involving 19 underage girls and received a sentence that was little more than a slap on the wrist. After the fact, the US Attorney for Miami Alexander Acosta, who was involved in the case, reported that the arrest and sentencing were above his pay grade, that he had been told that Epstein “’belonged to intelligence’, and to leave it alone” a comment that apparently was never been pursued by investigators.

Also, a recent book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales written by Ari Ben-Menashe the former Israeli intelligence officer who actually claims to have run the Epstein operation, described inter alia how Epstein was blackmailing prominent politicians on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Epstein had been working directly for the Israeli government since the 1980’s and his operation, which was funded by Israel and also by prominent American Jews, was a classic “honey-trap” which used underage girls as bait to attract well-known politicians from around the world, a list that included Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton. Clinton reportedly flew at least 26 times on Epstein’s private 727 the “Lolita Express” to a mansion estate in Florida as well as to a private island owned by Epstein in the Caribbean. The island was referred to by locals as the “Pedophile Island.” The politicians would be photographed and video recorded when they were in bed with the girls. Afterwards, they would be approached and asked to do favors for Israel.

Ghislaine Maxwell is in fact the daughter of top Israeli spy Robert Maxwell, who received a state funeral in Israel after his mysterious death in 1991 which was attended by the prime minister as well as by all the former and serving heads of that country’s intelligence services. Ghislaine is presumed to have been an active participant in the Epstein operation acting as a procurer of young girls and on at least one occasion has hinted that she knows where the sex films made by Epstein are hidden. She also has claimed that the tapes featured both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

It doesn’t take much to pull what is already known together and ask the question “Who among the celebrities and top-level politicians that Epstein cultivated were actually Israeli spies?” And, of course, there is a subplot. Assuming that Epstein was in fact involved in recruiting and/or running high level American agents in an “influence operation” that may have involved blackmail it is plausible to come to the conclusion that he was killed in prison and that the suicide story was just a convenient cover-up. The Epstein case remains technically “open” and under investigation though it doesn’t seem that anything is actually happening, the sure sign that someone powerful in the Establishment is making certain that nothing incriminating surfaces. That is sometimes referred to as a government cover-up.

So, given all the drama and possibilities, one might plausibly ask why the media coverage of Maxwell, for all its allure of deviant sex combined with possible espionage, so much less in the media spotlight than were the recent Rittenhouse and Arbery trials? And even less than the ongoing trial of Elizabeth Holmes. Well, the answer is actually quite simple, even ignoring the liberal media’s desire to inflame racial passions whenever possible. We are in an era of government control of information and are witnessing selective management of what Maxwell is being charged with to eliminate any possible damage to senior US politicians or to Israel.

Television courtroom dramas notwithstanding, the fact is that people are only tried in court once they have been charged in advance with specific crimes. And the crimes they are charged with depend on what emerges from the police and other law enforcement investigation. The result then goes to a frequently politically biased district attorney who, if he agrees there is a case, then passes the case on to an elected or politically appointed judge for trial. That means in practice that trials by jury go through a winnowing process before they reach the courtroom and what comes out at the end is often only what the criminal justice system regards as “winnable” or desirable in terms of prevailing political viewpoints.

Or to put it another way apropos of Maxwell and Epstein, in spite of considerable evidence suggesting espionage, there is absolutely no suggestion that either the New York City police or the Federal Bureau of Investigation ever seriously interrogated either party on their relationships with IsraeI and with Israeli intelligence. Nor is there any indication that “celebrities” who might have been targeted like Bill Clinton were ever even questioned. That is no coincidence, as Israel almost always avoids any scrutiny. Indeed, Israel, in spite of its demonstrated and well-documented history of massive spying in the United States is unlikely ever to be confronted in a court of law because there is a bipartisan consensus that such an embarrassment to the world’s greatest friendship between Jerusalem and Washington should never be subjected to any serious examination. That is why Maxwell has only been charged with helping the convicted sexual predator Epstein traffic and sexually abuse four women, three of whom were underage, as well as lying in a civil suit. She has denied the charges and is heavily lawyered-up to make her defense which will likely involve debunking the nature and closeness of her relationship with Epstein. A suitable plea bargain after a few weeks of court room jousting is a likely outcome.

Maxwell’s eight count indictment was issued on March 29^th. If her defense fails to convince and she is convicted on all the charges, which relate to sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy, Maxwell could receive as much as an 80-year prison sentence. Epstein likewise was only arrested and charged with sex trafficking and abuse of minors when he died while awaiting trial, not with being involved with a foreign country in engaging in espionage directed against the United States as well as other nations. There are, by the way, laws against such activity, including the Espionage Act of 1918 and the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, the latter of which has recently been enforced against Russian media outlets. If anyone expects the espionage angle to surface even implicitly during the Maxwell trial, they will be terribly disappointed because Alison Nathan, the Obama appointed j udge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and, appropriately enough, a Lesbian, will not allow it, the prosecutor will not seek it, and the defense attorneys will not use it in their arguments.

So do not expect anything dramatic to happen in the New York courtroom. One has to suspect that a tale of Mossad running a major spy ring in the US using a pedophile and young girls might just be too much for some folks in power to tolerate and they have made sure that that aspect of the story will never see the light of day. That is the real story that is being conveniently covered-up. Israel yet again spies and Washington denies.

     Copied from http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56895.htm, a very informative analysis of a current affair and court case in the U.S. My as always many thanks for my readers, stay safe and well.  

SERIOUS PREDICTIONS ......

 

By Kevin Barrett

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been vilified in the Western media for daring to imagine “a world without Israel.”

But according to news reports, Henry Kissinger and sixteen American intelligence agencies agree that in the near future, Israel will no longer exist.

The New York Post quotes Kissinger “word for word”: In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.

Kissinger's statement is flat and unqualified. He is not saying that Israel is in danger, but could be saved if we just gave it additional trillions of dollars and smashed enough of its enemies with our military. He is not saying that if we elect Netanyahu's old friend Mitt Romney, Israel could somehow be salvaged. He is not saying that if we bomb Iran, Israel might survive. He is not offering a way out. He is simply stating a fact: In 2022, Israel will no longer exist.

The US Intelligence Community agrees, though perhaps not on the precise 2022 expiration date. Sixteen US intelligence agencies with a combined budget over USD70 billion have issued an 82-page analysis titled “Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East.”

The US intelligence report observes that the 700,000 Israeli settlers illegally squatting on land stolen in 1967 - land that the entire world agrees belongs to Palestine, not Israel - are not going to pack up and leave peacefully. Since the world will never accept their ongoing presence on stolen land, Israel is like South Africa in the late 1980s.

The extremist Likud coalition governing Israel, according to the US intelligence report, is increasingly condoning and supporting rampant violence and lawlessness by illegal settlers. The report states that the brutality and criminality of the settlers, and the growing apartheid-style infrastructure including the apartheid wall and the ever-more-draconian system of checkpoints, are indefensible, unsustainable, and out of synch with American values.

The sixteen US intelligence agencies agree that Israel cannot withstand the coming pro-Palestinian juggernaut consisting of the Arab Spring, the Islamic Awakening, and the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the past, dictatorships in the region kept a lid on the pro-Palestinian aspirations of their people. But those dictatorships began to topple with the fall of the pro-Israel Shah of Iran in 1979 and the establishment of a democratic Islamic Republic, whose government had little choice but to reflect its people's opposition to Israel. The same process - the overthrow of dictators who worked with, or at least tolerated, Israel - is now accelerating throughout the region. The result will be governments that are more democratic, more Islamic, and far less friendly to Israel.

The US intelligence community report says that in light of these realities, the US government simply no longer has the military and financial resources to continue propping up Israel against the wishes of more than a billion of its neighbors. In order to normalize relations with 57 Islamic countries, the report suggests, the US will have to follow its own national interests and pull the plug on Israel.

Interestingly, neither Henry Kissinger nor the authors of the US Intelligence Report give any sign that they are going to mourn the demise of Israel. This is remarkable, given that Kissinger is Jewish and has always been viewed as a friend (if occasionally a tough friend) of Israel, and that all Americans, including those who work for intelligence agencies, have been influenced by the strongly pro-Israel media.

        

     An interesting analysis by Kevin Barrett, I've copied part of his article for this blog, next blog might include the other part.    As usual, my many thanks to all my readers, keep safe and well.

BUILD BACK BETTER ACT .....

 

For decade after decade we have spent ourselves on short-term consumption and false acts of arrogant imperialism while ignoring many or most of modern economy's long term needs and necessities.

 Billionaires and their political machines and lobbyists have been for the past few years and more so lately out in force, openly and defiantly. Few days back, a known Republican billionaire, who is a traditional fossil fuel tycoon, announced that he would hold a gigantic fundraiser for Senator Joe Manchin, a pseudo Democrat from West Virginia, who has been holding a key vote on president Biden's infra structure bills and his Build Back Better Act, as well as the antiquated filibuster. Corporations, billionaires and their lobbyists are definitely ramping up the pressure on different members of Congress, stalling the Democratic agenda and all of Biden's promises to the American people.   

Few days ago, the House of Representatives passed the infrastructure Investment and jobs act, which congressional insiders call it "BIF", passage of the infrastructure package puts the other part of the act as the Build Back Better Act on thin ice. If and when passed, the bill will allow Medicare cover for vision, hearing and dental benefits, lower prescription medicinal drugs prices, invest in home, community and child care, as well as senior care. Plus making serious investments in combating climate changes. So that our children and grand children can have some hope in their future and a habitable planet. 

But, modern times American politics, the selfishness and hate of so many, resulting in the assault on liberal democracy, experienced lately in America threatens it all. Fascism, Neo-cons, war machines and military industries, big pharma and the fossil fuel barons, are all interfering big time against the majority of Americans. Since this past summer, the plan has been to craft two bills that move together or roughly in parallel, the BIF and the Build Back Better Act, this strategy was designed to hold the Democratic caucus together, and to lure some Republicans to vote for the welfare of the people. 

Now that the BIF has passed both the House and Senate, big interests are pressuring politicians to endanger the Build Back Better Act, or even kill it totally if possible, and destroy the Biden's agenda, all in preparation of the mid term elections in 2022, and possibly a Trump come back in 2024. We are even witnessing some people or groups with wishes of economical collapse, or severe crises just to undermine or topple one political party, or win an election and glorify its leaders.

It is up to the American masses and the entire middle classes to keep the pressure on and make sure all these historic acts pass and become a reality and part of our future. As legislation that would help our communities stand and improve. Several powerful politicians, including some Senators are getting set to ram through an astronomical 780 billion Pentagon budget, to fund more weapons, wars and military contractors. 

The U.S is not and should not be built and run by military needs alone, nor its passion to police and shape the world according to its whims, wishes and colonial interests.  It's OK to have a second look at the 780 billion Dollars Pentagon budget, and exercise a policy of less wars and adventures. 

        As always, my profound many thanks to all, stay safe and well.          

         

A MYTH OF OUR TIMES .....

 

It's been circulating for years now, and we all sort of know it, with our own medicine, food and drinks labels and expirations, or when we advise someone close, but we keep this little guilt feeling, we keep thinking that maybe we're not being safe enough, maybe we are doing the wrong thing after all, and not playing it safely, maybe we are harming ourselves and our close ones. It's all brain washing and intentionally misguiding us and everyone else world wide, it's all for profit, for greed, for maintaining a mentality of  abundance, all habits and convictions that we all humans cannot afford anymore on our planet. 

We are talking about expiry and out of date medicines, even most canned food and beverages, and certain other products. Everything nowadays is by law labeled with an expiry date, whereby even the wording used in most products are misleading, best before... use before... sell before... freeze before... discard after... while serious research by many experts including some French researchers, including Dr. Christiane Laberge, who concluded lately; Most medicine, if not all keep the same effectiveness 4 years after expiry dates. 

We all somehow know these facts but never express them loudly, because big pharma companies don't like it nor allow it, they brainwashed us all, including official government agencies, through the years to ridicule and ignore such ideas and words. To think that any medicine after its expiry date will automatically turn into some type of deadly poison, Even when we realize how huge of an ecological waste it is, how empty it renders our pockets. 

The U.S. military had over a billion drugs pilled up, and they wanted to know if it was true that it had to be disposed of by the indicated dates, they tested and retested everything, only to get to the conclusion that only one product of them all lost some of its potency and minimally reduced its effectiveness after 4 years. 

Many serious studies, published in many scientific journals, assert that the shelf life dates on all our medicines are imposed by manufacturers to sell as many products as possible and regularly renew their stocks and profits. In fact yogurt products that were analyzed and tasted 57 days after the last authorized consumption date indicated by the manufacturers on the packages, only indicated; Same flavor, same freshness and no health problems by consuming them. 

The same goes for vacuum-packed meats, chicken or fish, that can be safely consumed 15 to 20 days after the displayed expiry dates. As well for dry cakes, vacuum cookies of all kinds, confectionary, chocolates, pulses, pasta, rice, lentils and many other, they can all go for way longer periods than indicated. These products are edible and keep their same flavor 3 to 4 years after their packaging expiry dates. 

Manufacturers and pharmaceuticals are organizing, lobbying and pushing for these food and drugs  waists to increase their profits and continually satisfy their increasingly demanding CEOs and shareholders, the same goes with pills of different uses, it is intentional by their manufacturers, while the only difference is that 3-4 years after expiration, the efficiency is slightly reduced for few of them, around 95% instead of the original 100%. Even antibiotics have exactly the same reduction numbers. 

So before we all throw away our Tylenol, Aspirin, Ibuprofens, Imodium, vitamins and the like, let's make sure we're not only making big pharma richer while throwing away good and efficient stuff. They are only making more money at our expenses. These policies proved so effective, and the consumers so gullible and willing, that it wouldn't be surprising to see them replicate and be applied on other products, your car will expire after 5 years, your TV, your computer, your phone even your cloths will all serve for short, well studied periods. Anything and everything could expire after a short while, and be harmful if not discarded, so be careful and obey the rules. 

In the U.S. we pay the highest prices for medicine, and it was for long years a national demand to reduce and regulate it, at least by allowing Medicare negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, still it was defeated lately in the Senate, by few sold members who obstructed any thought of negotiating , importing or relying on cheaper generic products, just to show us all how powerful these manufacturing entities are. 

         As always , my gratitude to all my good readers, stay safe and well.                

WE ARE DEAD SET TO BLOCK AND DESTROY .......

Let's counter the massive lobbying efforts , taking place these days, by big pharma, big tech, big oil, coal and gas and the chamber of commerce, and as always of course the war machine and arms industries and the relatively newly created military contractors, they are all fighting hard to suppress and gut the 10 years 3.5 trillion$ proposed by this administration, let's demand the legislators include the billionaires wealth tax in the build back better legislation now. 

Let no one kid you, or try to convince you of the contrary, but taxing billionaires wealth and big corporations is incredibly popular in most States, and more so in congressional swing districts across the nation. But billionaires, big corporations and special interests wield and exert too much power in D.C. from Congress to Federal employees and Pentagon leaders, many are under the special influence of the lobbying machine, that's why legislators and Congress will act sometimes in different directions from what their constituencies want them to do, and only when they hear clearly from us all, do they think and act rightly. 

The billionaires income tax bill is our chance to raise enough funds, hundreds of billions of Dollars, from the richest Americans, and use those funds to invest in critically needed programs for the vast majority of working families including direct unemployment help, child tax credits to the needy, universal pre K. for  3-4 years old kids, and free community colleges, making health care, elder care, child care, education and housing more affordable. As well as many more needed social and equitable distribution of wealth programs. 

On another level, I wonder why don't Democrats in Congress eliminate the obstructionist filibuster, which is not mentioned in the constitution, not a law, just an internal rule serving minority parties to delay or kill legislations. As Democrats will never be able to pass very needed and essential legislations and bills. Abolish the filibuster now and let Republican legislators reestablish it when they win back the Senate or both Chambers of Congress. 

To show how far Trump's influence has spread in the general ultra right populist movement and the red GOP States, listen to one of the candidates for lieutenant governor in the State of Georgia, a Mr. B. Miller, he went on a talk show and said;" We have attracted too many people to the State of Georgia, that don't think like us, if they don't think like us, they need to assimilate into our values and our culture. To my ears, it sounded like; There's no place in Georgia for people of color, black, brown or any shade, no emigrants from anywhere, no LGBTQ, or non Christians, or anyone who votes for the wrong party. That's not the kind of leadership America deserve if we want to move into a successful  new century. 

All of the above leads us to wonder if we're really any closer to ever passing the Biden's agenda and the build back better act, that cover essential investments in care, climate, and citizenship, the build back better act will be the biggest achievement our country will achieve for many decades, it's packed with benefits for working families and middle classes, from free community colleges to substantial cuts in child care costs, lower prescription drugs prices, while expanding Medicare and protecting social security, fix immigration rules, and the most important is that if we don't legislate to have these funds for these programs they will slowly and surely be swallowed by the war and arms machines and their lobbies, and will keep circling within the same powers and riches. 

America needs a collective action now, to profit from the actual peace times, to pass this bill. Everyone including the media should ship in, and talk openly about its benefits, and that the cost of it is 350 billion Dollars per year, less than half the Pentagon annual budget, and not keep referring to it as a 3.5 trillion devastating cost. We have to convince all our legislators in Congress to put aside their personal benefits and corporate affiliations, and choose all together America first, and I'm talking about legislators from both sides and not only one side. 

Americans suffer while Democrats debate among each other, and Congress end up voting purely on partisan basis, and blocking most bills, just to satisfy political agendas, election goals and personal gains, Americans are sick and tired of watching Republicans and pseudo Democrats tramp on the legislation their communities urgently need. We used to be the light house of democracy to the entire world, look at us now playing like a typical third country cheap politicians and politics. 

          As always, my gratitude to all my good readers.    

                   

IS THERE SOME WAY OUT ???

 Unlike Europe in general, the U.S. uses lots of white supremacy and superiority rhetoric to justify many political moves, and definitely battling it is not the same as advocating or adopting it. We proudly use voter suppression laws wherever we can, using any tactic or twist we find in the book, but we do not realize that passing laws to prevent voter suppression is not the same as passing laws to suppress it. Fighting for our democracy is not as seeking to destroy it.

The media and lots of centrists from both major parties, try constantly to equate both sides. Calling one side the left and the other the right, with different degrees and ranks. Suggesting there's a fair moderate middle between hate and inclusion, between democracy and protofascism, this is naïve, misleading, dangerous and morally wrong, let's not all fall for it. 

Now is not the time to hit the pause button on social projects, nor sit and have endless discussions about what's what and who's who, now is the time to take bold actions, courageous decisions, work hard and rebuild period. Democrats need to unite and vote like Democrats. They have the House, they have the Senate, they have the presidency and the White House, they should act like it, and deliver real results for all Americans, in fact the Federal infrastructure bill must be big, bold and green. It must cover the real needs of the country and its people, and clearly profit from a lull in the war machine and its advocates. 

Back in Feb. 2016, I published a blog entitled; "Bankruptcy, insanity or hysteria" I was describing a cruel situation that hasn't changed a bit in 5 years, and surely not in the past 75 years, it worsened, while the entire world sit silent, watching while occasionally smiling. the poet/writer Sam Keen reminds us of the cruelty and brutality of wars, more so endless wars; " When your icon of the enemy is complete, you will be able to kill without guilt, slaughter without shame." 

Indeed, imperial colonizers don't have any concern for other human beings, surely not for the colonized, so they never think of improving people's lives by a better health system, culture, education and nation building, not even any civilian infrastructures creation, they only look at perpetuating imperialism, occupation and wars. There are special beneficiaries, armament dealers, and special war contractors, politicians and generals, usually from both sides, who will do the impossible to maintain the game. even if and when it turns against their own people. In America, Israel and Russia, the war machines are thriving and striving, while their people are getting neglected and impoverished, turning the war machine into a permanent enriching and feeding tube for the few.  

Couple weeks ago, U.S. Green Berets were training special forces troops in Guinea, when trainees apparently slipped away to launch a military coup. operations like these and the situation of post Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as other unidentified spots of the world, are not proof of failure of the U.S military machine, nor its manipulators, as many annalists suggested in the after math of the Afghani pullout, they are signs and evidence of the system working exactly as designed, and its evolving cycles through the years. 

It is high time we benefit from this short lull, and willingness of our actual administration to not further feed the special war interests and turn to America, as a matter of fact, once every 20 or 30 years of correct rebalancing might prove beneficial.

   My usual profound thanks to all, please stay safe and well.                

REINVENTING OUR PRIORITIES.....

 

As the Biden administration is trying to repair strained global relationships while dealing with infra-structure bills, new democracy protection bills, a possible debt ceiling crisis and a threat of  government shut down and default, plus the ongoing pandemic, and more of a persistent political partisanship, blocking blindly whatever is good for the American people and the country, even if it leads to tragic economical and instability steps. The country faces another big ongoing dilemma, the military and the for ever war-machine, that was beefed-up during the previous administrations, with unprecedented budget increases and unrealistic spending on military weaponry, special interest war industries and military contractors.

For the record, Congress is debating and voting on a three-quarters trillion dollars Pentagon budget, for context that's more than the military budgets of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran combined, in fact it's more than the next eleven largest countries military budgets combined, how on earth did we get to this point ?? When even back in the fifties president Eisenhower warned the country from a too powerful military weapon's industry and an insatiable war machine.  

Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, Pentagon spending has cost the Americans 14 trillions of their tax dollars, serious estimates are that one third to one half of all this money went straight into the coffers of  arms manufacturers and private military contractors and their joint lobbyists. The lion's share of these moneys has gone basically to just 5 major corporations, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. 

The 75 billions in Pentagon contracts received by Lockheed Martin in fiscal year 2020 alone is over one and a half times the entire budget for the State Department and agency for International Development for that year, which totaled a mere 44 billion dollars. These merchants of war and death have completely flipped our country's priorities and essential social programs. It's clearly needed to be fought tooth and nails. 

Weapons makers and military contractors, and Pentagon generals have spent and benefited over 3 billion dollars on lobbying Congress and Pentagon over the past couple decades, they have an army of 700 lobbyists pushing their pro-war agenda, that is more than one lobbyist for every single member of Congress. 

The last 60 years should have taught us that the last and least thing that will build security and peace is forever war, and stupid adventures, brutality and colonial imperialism, it leaves unbearable costs in treasure and blood. Even our closest pseudo ally Israel, is learning this basic lesson and recalculating. 

Over 66% of Americans clearly agree that it was a good idea to end the war in Afghanistan, and the ongoing one in Syria and Iraq.  Congress has spent billions of dollars each year fueling arms manufacturers and military contractors. With the disastrous U.S. war in Afghanistan behind us, the very last thing we should be doing is heaping more desperately needed taxpayer money into more weapons of war and more adventures . 

We have other obligations, domestically and internationally, we need to protect ourselves and help protecting the world from catastrophic effects of climate change, and pandemics that have no boarders, and within our own boarders to fix our decadent infrastructures, our archaic health care, and our old fashioned education system, the list goes on and on. These are not exactly the things those five mega corporations are lobbying for. It's high time we all stand up for their nefarious work. Let's all help build a more peaceful and prosperous for all world.

     All my usual thanks to my good readers, stay safe and well.                   

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES ......

Despite American admonitions to avoid estranging Arab partners like Saudi, Egypt, the Gulf Emirates and Morocco, with too much democracy, righteousness and human rights issues, Israel has already adjusted to the region's shifting geopolitics, even to some eastern big powers like China and India, China just opened the first private port in Israel over American objections. Clearly despite Israel's frequent demands that the U.S. continue to defer to the Israeli government's interests and goals. Tel Aviv will not do the same for Washington nor necessarily reciprocate with American goals and long foreign politics. 

Although unprecedented, the last Israeli moves toward some Arab countries and the east in general pursuing its own political and economic agenda reveal a widening divide between the two long lasting pseudo allies, as well, the U.S. must take the same independent approach. It is long past time for American to get out of Israeli direct influence on our foreign policies. And for our successive administrations and presidents to prioritize U.S. interests over those of Israel. 

The outbreak of our efforts and diplomacy under Israeli dominance in the Persian golf and the greater Middle-East , plus our adventures in Iraq and elsewhere, always under Israeli influence, that contributed heavily to Arab animosity toward Iran, as well as toward America. Ironically only when the U.S. decreased its influence on all countries around the gulf they started coexisting with more pragmatism and realism. 

While Chinese and Russian influence in the entire region expands, and the U.S. is left to watch from afar. meanwhile Israel is adapting itself fast to these new geopolitical new games. As neither China nor Russia will give in to Israel's own interests, as it was with America for long decades, maybe this is why Israel is nervous and shifting policies. It's important though that no adventure of anyone's making to topple the game could drag the U.S. into a new war for anyone's sake or benefit. 

Apparently, the U.S. removed most of its missile defenses from Saudi Arabia in the past several weeks, leaving the kingdom and its neighbors feeling vulnerable to different missile attacks from Yemen and elsewhere, as well the administration's releasing a classified FBI report revealing contacts between the 9/11 hijackers and certain Saudi officials, it all confirms the U.S. further detachment from Saudi and the area in general. It is confirmed that American forces have withdrawn from at least 3 bases in eastern Syria. Not to mention the possibility of reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran. Even the sudden decampment from Afghanistan and handing it to the Taliban to annoy and threaten all its neighbors, and create some welcomed instability in central and western Asia. All these are clear indications that the U.S. foreign policies are moving to a more independent and not as in thrall to Saudi or Israeli hegemonic preferences. 

The Arab-Persian discord, suited perfectly Israeli hegemony and the U.S. war machine manipulators, and the Neocons under Israeli dominance, for these reasons the divide is growing, and Israel is showing us its teeth, anger and impatience. President Obama in a 2016 speech asserted that "the Saudis and Iranians need to learn how to share the region," Israel, China and Russia now, are all looking for shares of the new divided cake. 

A writer, Sam Keen, reminds me of the policies that Israel plays while the U.S. totally obliged for many decades, he says; " When your icon of the enemy is complete,  you will be able to kill without guilt, slaughter without shame." That has been the motto of our politics for too long, it's high time for a change of philosophy, we have enough problems on our own plate internally. 

My, as always, many thanks for your time. stay safe and well.                           

Power .....

September 6, 2021

Patrick Lawrence asks some pertinent questions of the American people.

Are Americans going to sit around indefinitely eating potato chips while the State Department and Treasury starve Venezuelan children? Are Americans going to play video games while Israel fires U.S.–made missiles into Damascus from Lebanese airspace—two violations of international law?

Are Americans going to sit around watching corporate sports while the Pentagon drone-murders entire families and Congress votes to increase its post–Afghanistan budget? Are Americans going to sit on their sofas while the United States condemns several generations of Cubans to lives of desperation because they have chosen to live in a socialist republic?

Are Americans going spectate on their sofas while the CIA and other rogue intelligence agencies subvert the Republic of Nicaragua, the Syrian Arab Republic, and any other nation that resists American hegemony? Are Americans going continue stuffing their faces with Cheetos, Hot Pockets, and Bac–O’–Bits while the Saudis use American–supplied bombers and bombs to drive Yemen into a state of famine and reduce its people to  Dachau-like skeletons? 

Are Americans going to sit around silently while no-neck generals push the U.S. relentlessly toward military confrontations with China and Russia, two nuclear-armed nations? Are Americans going to shop on Amazon while The New York Times, CNN, and the rest of the monstrous propaganda machine cultivate their ignorance—purposefully, knowingly, and with malign intent—by way of gross omissions and outright falsehoods as to America’s international conduct?

Are Americans going to sit around worrying about their lawns while climate change burns half the country, floods the other half, and a federal judge tells the Biden administration it is obliged by law to auction new oil– and gas-drilling leases on hundreds of millions of acres? 

Are Americans going to read The New Yorker and The Nation while mainstream journalists cheer the creeping suppression of independent media and post-adolescent know-nothings in Silicon Valley are authorized to censor their speech, what Americans read, and—it will come—what Americans think?

Are Americans going to sit around dribbling on their shirtfronts while Julian Assange, Daniel Hale, Steven Donziger, and other courageous people acting in their behalf are made victims of extravagantly corrupted judicial systems? 

Are Americans going to remain silent while millions of them are malnourished and evicted from their homes in the name of the market god? Are Americans going to sit around while millions more get sick because they can’t afford perfectly ordinary medical care and those who could remedy this crisis are paid by insurers, hospitals associations, and drug companies to refuse to do so? Are Americans going to sit around while Big Pharma treats a global health crisis as if it were simply an eternal profit center?

Are Americans going to sit around stuffing their faces with chlorinated chicken, Velveeta, and Pepsi while corporations colonize every minute of their lives and every cell in their bodies? Are Americans going to sit around soporifically watching television while Rachel Maddow takes home $30 million a year for turning news into a Barnum and Bailey circus? 

Are Americans going to sit around watching Walt Disney movies while Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez and other such “progressives” betray every voter who got them into office? Are Americans going to sit around talking about their IRA accounts while a dense web of mind-manipulating institutions, corporations, corrupt pols, and the national security state totalizes its grip on power?

Not one year into the Biden presidency, the mind regurgitates. The mind dreams of exile in the way all those principled anti–Cold War people expatriated during the 1950s, having had enough. 

And the mind wonders.  When?

When are Americans going to stand up? When are Americans going to clear the litter millionaire bums have left on their village greens and reclaim their public space? When are Americans going to stop indulging the weak-minded fiction that they are powerless?

When are Americans going to transcend the atomization of American society systematically inflicted upon it since April 30, 1975, and learn again to speak and act for the commonweal? When are Americans going to present themselves with dignity to show they have regained their self-respect, their respect for those who have to look at them, and their respect for their reawakened civic selves?

When are Americans going to figure out that a global class war rages and that race is a subset of class and not the other way around? When are Americans going to stop bickering about pronouns, gender preferences, bathroom doors, bronze statues, identity politics, and all such distracting rubbish?

When are Americans going to read the scholarly definition of fascism and then look at themselves in their mirrors? When are Americans going to dismember the scam economic “model” that produces and reproduces billionaires and an ever more impoverished majority?

When are Americans going to admit to ourselves that America’s nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, drones, bombs, and landmines are the root reason all these weapons proliferate globally? When are Americans going to tell the Pentagon, “That’s our money.” When are Americans going to demand radical action to counter the climate crisis and change their lives—joyfully and with commitment?

When are Americans going to impose civilian control over the CIA and the other appendages of the “national security” octopus? When are Americans going to say, No!” to subversive “democracy promotion” interventions in other nations? When are Americans going to reject the Russophobia and Sinophobia their “leaders” and their clerks in the press malignly stir up? When are Americans going to object that the U.S. started and prolonged the Cold War because the Pentagon needed it and defense contractors profited from it? 

When are Americans going to turn off their televisions? When are Americans going to stop eating Fritos? When are Americans going to stop bothering to write their congressmen?  When are Americans going to stop pretending their political process is intact and voting matters?

When are Americans going to stop pretending Joe Biden is mentally competent? When are Americans going to stop pretending Joe Biden is the second coming of FDR? When are Americans going to stop pretending Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Ned Price are anything more than programmed robots? 

When are Americans going to recognize that The New York Times is now a propaganda organ and the future of journalism lies in independent media?

This article by Patrick Lawrence who is Salon's foreign affairs columnist, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer, he authored several books.

My usual many thanks to all.  

A NEW MENTALITY .....

 

Less than a year after a clear majority of Americans across the country delivered a resounding defeat to Donald Trump in the 2020 elections, Trumpism has not stopped rearing its ugly and obstinate presence in almost every state of the Union. The ex president is announcing full throated endorsements of many candidates for different positions all over, diminishing the chances that Republicans with integrity and better social understanding are being able to get elected. 

He is with his machine of extremists and lackeys destroying any chances of hearing the real voices of the Republican party, representing almost 27% of American voters, he is with his oligarchy and family members and big big money from corporate and extreme rich billionaires as well as special interests, they are systematically turning the party into a rich man and special interests organization, to shape and legislate strictly for their benefits, while turning the rest of Americans into cheap tools and robo- workers and soldiers ready to serve their interests and profits, no matter what this absolute majority pays or sacrifice for these goals. 

Leaving Trumpism and antidemocratic fascism unchecked in any corner of the country shouldn't be an option, and is to be fought ideologically and politically by all means, if we want to preserve and maintain a good free America, a prosperous to all America. One example of what and how these tactics are working, is taking place nowadays in Virginia. 

We have soon in VA, an election coming for governor and many executive members for the state, the Democrat candidate is an ex governor known for his rationality and attention to all Virginians and their needs. The Republican candidate is a big rich man who was hand picked by Trump for the post of governor. Mr. Glen Youngkin who pledged to spend 75 million$ of his own money fortune to buy the governor's seat. 

One should ask, who's Donald Trump in politics to decide who's who, more so in local politics, except to insure more lackeys and followers willing to serve and facilitate his political agenda. The second question would be; anywhere in the world when a politician spends lots of his own money on an election, he or she expects to get it back at least doubled within the life of the position, so is Mr. Youngkin looking actively to make 150 millions or more within his tenure ?? 

No one is a saint, but to go all the other way to devilish behavior and acts shouldn't be the policy of the land in the 21st century and beyond, let's leave these tactics to some failed countries, the Levant come to mind, with Lebanon and Syria leading. It could lead to disastrous situations and total chaos for all. 

Basically the mainstream media machine have for long years operated on the assumption that there are always two sides to every story, and that their job is to represent the balanced reasonable center, well that is not true anymore. Today in America one side is trying to protect voting rights for all, and the other side is trying to suppress votes because it's more advantageous to them. 

One side is advocating for science and the other side is pushing pandemic conspiracy theories and climate denials. One side wants the rich and corporate taxes reduced or eliminated, while the other is advocating for universal healthcare, free education for all and more affordable prescription medicine. Equating them all is misleading and dangerous, it will kill democracy and the well being of the majority of Americans. 

As we should all keep fighting against abhorrent wealth inequality, and the money grab of power and politicians, we must fight and resist media inequality and all its misleading arms. And as the saying goes; "Why are guns good, sex bad and God seemingly okay with it all."                                                     As always, my profound thanks for your time, stay safe and well.            

Three People I Would Interview About Afghanistan Aug. 19, 2021

 

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

As I watch events in Afghanistan unfold, I find myself trying to ignore all the commentary and longing instead to interview three people: President Lyndon Johnson, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan.

Friedman: President Johnson, what did you think of Joe Biden’s speech about quitting Afghanistan?
Johnson: I listened to it, and I have to say that I choked up. If only I had had the guts to give that speech on April 7, 1965, about America’s involvement in Vietnam — the war that I inherited and then expanded with that speech. Promise me one thing: You won’t link to that speech.

Friedman: Sorry, Mr. President, but I already did. Here are some highlights of what you said to justify sending more troops into Vietnam: Why are we in South Vietnam? We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954, every American president has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. … We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe, from Berlin to Thailand, are people whose well-being rests, in part, on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked. … We are also there because there are great stakes in the balance.

Let no one think for a moment that retreat from Vietnam would bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country and then another. … Thus it became necessary for us to increase our response and to make attacks by air. This is not a change of purpose. It is a change in what we believe that purpose requires. … We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam, who have bravely borne this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. … We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired.

Johnson: Yes, Mr. Friedman, I wish I had said what Biden did — and what his predecessors never would: “How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not?’’

Friedman: President Xi, what do you think of all the American commentators proclaiming China a winner from Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan?

Xi: Oh, my, these are what we call useful idiots. What planet are these people living on? We had a perfect situation going before Biden came along. America was hemorrhaging lives, money, energy and focus in Afghanistan — and its presence was making the country just safe enough for Chinese multinationals to exploit.

The Metallurgical Corporation of China and Jiangxi Copper had a contract to develop a copper mine in Mes Aynak, and the China National Petroleum Corporation was working on a field in the north of the country — and the Americans were funding the overall security. That is our idea of perfection! Alas, neither of these projects ever got off the ground because of the craziness in the Kabul government. But Afghanistan is hugely rich in minerals we need. Who will protect our investors after the Americans have stopped doing it for free? Not me.

Friedman: How about the Taliban?

Xi: The Taliban?! You think that we trust them? Have you noticed what their brothers in the Pakistani Taliban have been doing to our investments in Pakistan? Just read The Wall Street Journal from July 28:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A gunman opened fire on a car carrying two engineers in the southern port city of Karachi, the latest attack on Chinese nationals in close ally Pakistan. … Chinese nationals have been the victims of multiple recent attacks in Pakistan. Earlier this month, a bombing killed nine Chinese construction workers in a bus being taken to the site of a dam being built in northern Pakistan. Targets of other attacks in recent years include the Chinese Consulate in Karachi, the partly Chinese-owned stock exchange in Karachi and a hotel in the Chinese-run port of Gwadar.

Xi: Pakistan cannot even keep us safe from its own Taliban and Baloch separatists — in their own country — and we own Pakistan! And don’t even get me started on how the Taliban victory could inspire our Uyghur Muslims. … Joe, Joe, what did you do to us, Joe? You should have listened to your foreign policy experts and stayed in Afghanistan. The last thing we want is you refocusing all of America’s resources and energy on competing with us for the industries of the 21st century, instead of chasing the Taliban around the Hindu Kush.

Friedman: Mohammed Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan, who ruled from 1933 until he was deposed by his brother-in-law in 1973, triggering nearly a half-century of coups, wars and invasions. He was the last of a 226-year dynasty of Pashtun monarchs to rule Afghanistan.

Your Highness, what do you think of Biden’s decision to just quit Afghanistan and of the Taliban takeover?

Zahir: Let me tell you a few things about my country. The first thing you have to know is that we are and always will be a mosaic of many different languages and cultures and ethnicities and approaches to Islam. There are 14 ethnic groups recognized in our national anthem — Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Balochis, Turkmens, Nooristanis, Pamiris, Arabs, Gujars, Brahuis, Qizilbash, Aimaq and Pashai. We have Sunni, Sufi and Shiite Muslims. The reason the country was relatively peaceful under my leadership, until my idiot cousin toppled me, was that people saw me as a unifying symbol to whom they could all relate.

The Taliban represent only one element in our mosaic — Pashtun Sunni Islamism. Since they were ousted by the Americans 20 years ago, all they have been thinking about is how to again own the Afghanistan they lost, not how to govern anew the Afghanistan that exists today.

Let me tell you, Mr. Friedman, more than 70 percent of Afghanistan’s population is under 25 years old. Most of them know nothing about the Taliban and have never heard of Mullah Omar — just like all those 20-somethings in Iran who have never heard of the shah and give Iran’s Islamic rulers grief every day. They have been raised in a different Afghanistan, in a different age, and they will not easily give up the freedoms they enjoyed these past 20 years, even if the country was a mess.

Tribes in this part of the world, Mr. Friedman, have a saying: Me and my brother against my cousin. Me and my brother and my cousin against the outsider.

Americans were the outsider, and the Taliban could always find plenty of passive and active cousins for its project of getting you out. But now they and their brothers will have to deal with all their cousins inside — from those 14 different ethnicities — and that will be a different story. The Taliban have no idea how to govern a modern country. Vietnam’s nationalist leader, Ho Chi Minh, spent his exile in Paris. These Taliban guys studied, at best, in madrasas in Pakistan, where they don’t even teach science.

And then there’s the money. The American occupation was to Afghanistan what oil is to Saudi Arabia. You were like an oil well that didn’t dry up. But now that you’re gone, so is all that income to run the government and pay salaries. How are the Taliban going to replace it? You can smuggle only so many drugs to Europe. Sure, the Chinese will throw them some crumbs to keep them away from the Uyghurs. But there are no more sucker superpowers out there that want to come in and run this place, because they all now know that all they’ll win is a bill.

Here is my prediction: The Taliban will either form a national unity government with all the major ethnic and tribal groups, under loose centralized control — and it will sort of hold the country together and be able to enlist foreign aid — or they won’t. If they do, President Biden’s bet on getting out will prove right — that America’s presence was actually preventing Afghans from compromising and coming together to govern themselves. Maybe they will even find one of my family’s descendants to be the symbolic unifier. I repeat: My reign corresponded with one of the most peaceful eras in Afghan history.

But if the Taliban try to keep power all by themselves, with no cousins, watch out. The country will eventually resist it, the Taliban will crack down harder, and Afghanistan will not implode — it will explode. It will break up into different regions and hemorrhage refugees and instability. It will be very ugly, and America and Biden will be blamed for the chaos. But America will also be gone. Afghanistan then will be a huge problem for its neighbors, particularly Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran.

Friedman: Hmm. Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran? Maybe Biden had that in mind all along.

 Mr. Friedman's article in the NY times hits the point again, in my 18th Aug. blog I tried to suggest that the whole act of leaving it all to the Taliban, even strengthening and arming them is intentional, and with tacit agreement, very few commentators and political annalists touched on this nuance, most tried to criticize and even blame the Biden administration for abandoning Afghanistan, even accusing  it of naivety, I don't think it is the case, it's strictly political hypocrisy. It is more a careful and older policy plan in development, a plan that cannot be openly declared nor discussed, and Mr. Biden at this stage is only continuing to execute accordingly. All my thanks to my good readers, stay safe and well.

 

THE AFGHANI FISHY AFFAIR .....

 

For decades, elites told the American people we were winning this war, later they told us while Iraq was wrong, Afghanistan was the war worth fighting. They told us it was worth the lives, worth the money, worth the time, it was all lies. They spend trillions in tax Dollars telling us we're building up their country and army, now they tell us we cannot afford nation building right here at home. 

One would prefer if President Biden and the State Department didn't claim and ascertain that the Taliban surprised us by moving so swiftly to take the entire country including the capital Kabul, even the American intelligence agencies and the military advisors claim that they didn't expect all provincial capitals including Kabul would fall so quickly, without even shedding any blood, all these clearly indicate that the administration, the intelligence, Pentagon and State Department had in mind that the Taliban forces would take over all powers and control of Afghanistan as a government and the country, the only failure was the timing, which created some logistical difficulties to evacuate all Americans, foreigners and loyal Afghanis. But it's working fine after all, as planned. 

The American side were in serious negotiations with the Taliban for over a year in Doha, and the Trump administration released more than 5000 Taliban fighters including some of the highest ranks. And through the past 2 decades of our Afghani adventure we didn't seriously engage in fighting or destroying the Taliban machinery, on the contrary we were playing a go between policy with some drone bombing, among several Afghani factions. 

With the presumed conclusions of this pseudo war that cost us few thousands lives, trillions to maintain, equipment and arms, and training a totally unwilling to defend itself or fight its enemies army. I wonder who was responsible and who benefited the most all these years, but I know for sure that 85% plus, of these amounts went into the pockets of special American interests. and arms manufacturers and high ranking private army contractors as well as some commanders. 

We cannot pretend that we're so naïve and gullible by not understanding the nature of the Afghani people or some factions of it, after 20 years of living and governing them. As a matter of fact we openly admit help creating them and arming them some 40 years ago, to fight Russian communism, as well as the Al-Qaida mujahidin who turned against us later, we even used the invasion of Afghanistan to open the way to invade Iraq, which probably was the real aim. 

We simply thought with arrogant confidence that Afghanistan was an easy target, easy to subdue, for a good strategically located position in the center of Asia, so we went in and played a good role with all parties, but when it became too costly and Americans got tired of endless wars, we actively looked for someone to play the game on our behalf, and who better than the old Taliban our oldest partners. Even if we sacrificed part of the Afghani population that stood with us. We're promising them total control, lots of arms and equipment with only; do not harm our people while retreating and not to harbor openly any terrorist groups, and try to be more humane toward your people, your women,  which is maybe happening.   

They will be our newest creation of disturbances to all or most of their neighbors, and help us tremendously controlling the continent. China, India, Russia, Iran, even Turkey and Pakistan, plus a score of smaller players could all be threatened by a Taliban fanaticism and godly Islamic zealots. Now my problem with such a plan is to see if the Taliban would play our game or eventually change alliances and adversaries, that would be a totally failure of the whole scheme. 

This entire scenario is mine of course, but honestly I cannot fathom, nor make sense of simpler arguments of arrogance and naivety of our entire intelligence, war machine, administration with their State dept. we cannot be so simplistic, not in today's world and times and technologies, we cannot accept little assumptions and mistakes leading us to such failures and humiliations, while sacrificing thousands of Americans, allies and hundreds of thousands of Afghani along the way. 

Politically this administration will eventually win in performing a long term plan and claiming to get us out of war situation, and if it's well played we can boost and strengthen the Taliban again or any other faction , under our rules, satisfy the military industries and war machines with fresh prospects, it's a solid win win strategic situation for every one on our side. And if I'm wrong and it is indeed a case of desperate non understanding, naivety and misplay from our side, I would classify it as tragic, calamitous and sad, and maybe we deserve to loose more adventures so we finally learn from our past. 

My thanks to all my readers, stay safe and well.