Sympathy for the Devils...

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:25 pm

When Austerity’s Chickens Came Home to Roost in the U.S., Bernie and “the Squad” were Unprepared
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor 16 Dec 2020

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When Austerity’s Chickens Came Home to Roost in the U.S., Bernie and “the Squad” were Unprepared

The theory of change that depicts the likes of Bernie Sanders and AOC as the leaders of the class struggle has failed to materialize in reality.

“The development of diverse faces in high places within the state has temporarily disarmed the Black consensus on peace and social justice.”

In March, Bernie Sanders and “the Squad” were calling for a $2000 monthly check to be included in the first governmental response to the pandemic. That didn’t happen. Instead, the Democratic Party majority in the House silently voted for the CARES Act. The CARES Act pumped more than four trillion dollars to the richest corporations while providing just a one-time $1200 payment to workers and the poor. So-called “progressive Democrats” such as Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voiced opposition to the bill but did not organize against it. Ten months later, the chickens of austerity are roosting on a global pandemic that the U.S. ruling class has used to beef up its profits at the expense of the rest of us.

Austerity is the engine of U.S. capitalism in its late stages. The regime is driven by the unmitigated rule of finance capital over all levers of the state. Everything is looked upon as an opportunity for private profit and “investment” rather than human need. Neoliberalism is a modernized version of the very classical liberal ideology which brought capitalism into being. Only this time, monopolies are the mercantilists and the very existence of workers themselves is seen as an impediment to the maximization of ruling class wealth.

“The regime is driven by the unmitigated rule of finance capital over all levers of the state.”

Labor cannot be eliminated under capitalism, so the rich overseers of the system have resorted to squeezing every drop of blood from the working class. COVID-19 brought to the fore the immense crisis facing more than 150 million people who were already in or near poverty before the economic collapse hit in March. On January 1st, more than nineteen million people risk homelessness with the expiration of CDC-enforced moratoriums on mortgage and rent payments . As unemployment increased by the tens of millions beginning in March, so too did the lines at food banks. Sixteen percent of households with children in the U.S. currently experience food insecurity . That number nearly doubles for Black and Latino households.

None of these conditions are by accident. Neoliberal capitalist decay is a boon for the rich even if it sends the system into an overall state of crisis. Jeff Bezos and the richest billionaires on the planet have increased their wealth immensely since the pandemic. U.S. billionaires have seen their net worth skyrocket by almost one trillion dollars and counting. What has been missing from the equation is a U.S.-based movement that can fight back against the resultant immiseration of the masses.

“Neoliberal capitalist decay is a boon for the rich even if it sends the system into an overall state of crisis.”

Majorities of people of all political persuasions are hungry for Medicare for All and any kind of relief from the precarity of neoliberal capitalism. Young Democrats displaced from the American Dream hoped that the rise of Bernie Sanders and “the Squad” represented the first signs of life for the resurgence of class struggle politics in the United States. A major problem with this formulation rested in the fact that Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the rest of the squad diverted their youthful and increasingly socialist base to the corporate jaws of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is where movements go to die and where austerity is given a friendly, more diverse face from which to shatter the dreams and lives of the working class.

COVID-19 has served as a litmus test for the socialist-ish elements of the Democratic Party. The theory of change that inserts the likes of Bernie Sanders and AOC as the leaders of the class struggle has failed to materialize in reality. In recent weeks, AOC and Sanders have blamed Republicans for the latest stimulus package which is half of what was formulated by Donald Trump before Biden became president-elect and excludes the singular $1200 payment to every American. They have been silent about the fact that House leader Nancy Pelosi signed off on the latest stimulus proposal coming out of Congress. When asked about the change of heart toward a bipartisan stimulus, Pelosi answered , “That's okay now because we have a new president. A president who recognizes that we need to depend on science.”

“Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the rest of the squad diverted their youthful and increasingly socialist base to the corporate jaws of the Democratic Party.”

In other words, the masses will get science but no rental assistance, a vaccine but no universal healthcare, and a new president but not a new politics that will fulfill their basic needs. Sanders and his surrogates have opposed the latest Pelosi-backed bill but have only called for the inclusion of another one-time $1200 dollar payment . It is clear that the chickens of austerity are roosting on the Sanders-wing of the Democratic Party. Austerity is politically defined by the complete absence of any demands on power which disrupt the status quo and the endless downward pressure placed on the lives of the downtrodden. Sanders’ willingness to reduce his demand for a $2000 universal basic income to a $1200 one-time payment after nine months of economic crisis follows the logic of austerity to a T.

Bernie Sanders and “the Squad” have always been unprepared to challenge austerity because their struggle does not fundamentally confront the character of the U.S. state. The U.S. state is the enforcement mechanism of capitalism. Black America has historically been the most organized, vocal, and effective force in exposing the true character of the U.S. state so that the masses of people can get to the business of transforming it. The development of diverse faces in high places within the state has temporarily disarmed the Black consensus on peace and social justice. This has in turn created a huge weakness in the U.S. left as a whole. There are but a few voices calling for Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the rest of the “progressive” Democrats to move beyond demands for a $1200 one-time paycheck and even fewer challenging their silence on the nomination of Black war hawk Llyod Austin to Secretary of Defense or the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) worth $740 billion .

“The U.S. state is the enforcement mechanism of capitalism.”

Austerity’s chickens have come home to roost in the form of the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression and there is no end in sight. The lesson of this moment is that real demands must be placed on the ENTIRE state, even the most supposedly left elements nesting within it. Movements are defined by their demands. Without them, AOC and Sanders will continue to support bloated military budgets and capitulate to the class that actually wields power: the capitalist class. The so-called “left-wing” of the Democratic Party is accountable only to the political apparatus enforcing austerity on the masses of people. That AOC and Sanders won’t respond to the demands of the masses is a lesson that has yet to be learned by loyal Sandernistas. Because so-called progressives are unprepared for the moment, it is ultimately up to workers and oppressed people to make the United States ungovernable unless their demands for a better life, and a new world, are met.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/when- ... unprepared

Like we been sayin': There will be no progress until the Democratic Party is utterly discredited in the eyes of the working class.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 23, 2020 12:35 pm

[T]he agreement on a new pandemic aid package showed the ascendance of moderates as a new force in a divided Senate and validated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s belief that it is still possible to make deals on Capitol Hill.
...
“I’m glad we forced the issue,” said Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who, along with Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, were leaders of a monthslong effort to break the impasse over pandemic aid even as the virus exacted a growing economic and health toll on the country.
...
Mr. Biden on Sunday applauded the willingness of lawmakers to “reach across the aisle” and called the effort a “model for the challenging work ahead for our nation.” He was also not an idle bystander in the negotiations.
With Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate far apart on how much they were willing to accept in new pandemic spending, Mr. Biden on Dec. 2 threw his support behind the $900 billion plan being pushed by the centrist group. The total was less than half of the $2 trillion that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, had been insisting on.

Mr. Biden’s move was not without risks. If it had failed to affect the discussions, the president-elect risked looking powerless to move Congress before he had taken the oath of office. But members of both parties said his intervention was constructive and gave Democrats confidence to pull back on their demands.

(more...)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/us/p ... mulus.html
Whenever ya see"bi-partisan consensus" what you are looking at is ruling class consensus. Thank gawd for a return to 'normalcy'. Trump will here-after be the poster child for the evils of 'populism', the adults are in charge again...
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:24 pm

Following a speech Biden gave on Monday, an NBC reporter asked the former vice president if he supports the $2,000 checks. "Yes," he said definitely, while walking off stage. Check out footage of the interaction below.

https://www.complex.com/life/2020/12/jo ... -19-relief
Well, mebbe 'yes' means yes. Or perhaps Biden 'misheard', happens to us old folks ya know. Of course it was the right answer, tho given under the duress imposed by the political decision of the Senate Dem bosses. Not even sworn in yet, ya don't wanna look like an asshole out the gate. So it's on you, Mitch, old man....

'Normalcy' means, among other things, ruling class consensus. In these days it means austerity for the masses. For this to proceed the last thing Joe wants is control of both chambers, which would energise the Dem's pathetic left wing, demands for universal health care and other pie-in-the-sky coming thick and fast. That's ain't what Biden was chosen for, far from it, regardless of the delusions of some Dems. Therefore he is quietly praying to Our Lady of the End OF History for the Republicans to win at least one of those Senate seats. 'Divided government' is his comfort zone, where dirty dealings can always be excused away, the sad necessity of compromise. Bourgeois democracy on autopilot is the sweet spot for a senile grifter.

Better from our view that the Dems win both, that intra party contention go DEFCON 6 and rip big holes in the 'Democratic coalition'. That would be educational...

Both parties are threatened by the internal dissent of bogus populists. That Trump and Sanders are both lying weasels doesn't matter much, that they both present as antagonistic to the status quo, which is the ruling class, does. Of course they are not, but people get funny ideas in their heads, even believe what some politician say if they are regarded as 'different'. And when their idols are revealed as having clay feet, then what?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Sat Jan 02, 2021 3:18 pm

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — The new year brought a disturbing discovery at the San Francisco home of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, where, early Friday morning, vandals spray-painted her house and left a severed pig’s head in front of her garage.

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https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/ ... pigs-head/
"Antifa"? MAGAs? Who the hell knows or cares? I am amused and Nancy better get used to it. By this time next year it will be the Bernie Bros sans Bernie.

Biden better find out where Trump stashed his temporary WH defences too, gonna need them. This is going to the the shortest 'honeymoon' in presidential history because Biden is intent on 'normalcy'. Which was not a good thing for a very large chunk of people in this country to start with, irrelevant to political persuasion but very much an indicator of class. To a good degree it was the rejection of 'normalcy' which brought Trump to power, in part because the Democratic Party refused to address the 'normalcy' grinding people into the ground. And with Biden spitting on the left of his party, not even with some phony-baloney pretend bullshit to piece off the simple-minded the fuse is considerably shortened.

Mitch McConnell is doing his best to get back that 'normal' feeling though taking some pains not to rile his soon to splinter 'base'. Tough luck turtle-headed geek, if it ain't Trump's party it ain't gonna be much of a party at all. And it seems the bosses have had quite enough of their prodigal sonofabitch, are willing to bet on Biden, McConnell and Roberts holding it together for them.

We are promised a high profile role for 'Cop Harris' and I expect that to be true, but not the touchy-feely crap they usually stick women with. Oh no, gonna play to her strong suit, law&order. White nationalists(ain't 'fascists' until they got state power) and 'antifa' alike will be persecuted for violation of 'normalcy' though be assured that a much wider net will be cast for the left, especially street level black leaders. Be careful but don't be timid.

Waited a lifetime for 'interesting times' and here we are. Paging Comrade Rakhmetov......
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 07, 2021 6:34 pm

The Squad Won’t Fight Pelosi and Corporate Power
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor 07 Jan 2021

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The Squad Won’t Fight Pelosi and Corporate Power

For the first time in this century, significant numbers of young people of all races are expressing raw hatred for the Democrats and denouncing “The Squad” for collaborating with the oligarchy.

“The biggest benefactor of the New Year’s revolt is the Movement for a People’s Party.”

The most volatile elements of “left” Democrats have finally understood that you can’t oppose corporate duopoly rule while living in the oligarchs’ (out)house. The former Sandernistas brought in the New Year loudly demanding that “The Squad” -- the handful of Democratic Representatives that style themselves as the “progressive” cutting edge of the Congress – refuse to support Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House unless the 80-year old millionairess and corporate bag woman agreed to submit Medicare for All to a full House vote. “A vote on Medicare for All will prompt a national conversation on guaranteeing health care in the middle of a pandemic,” wrote former Bernie Sanders press aide Briahna Joy Gray. A roll call tally “will show the country who really supports it, not just rhetorically, but in practice. Then we can hold our representatives accountable.”

The goal of the exercise was to expose and embarrass those lawmakers that pretend to back legislation favored by nearly 90 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of all Americans, but who always buckle to Pelosi’s corporate discipline. Gray, Dr. Cornel West, Movement for a People’s Party national coordinator Nick Brana, NFL player Justin Jackson and podcasters Katie Halper, Krystal Ball, Kyle Kulinski and Jimmy Dore held a #ForceTheVote Town Hall to compel The Squad to act as the people’s operatives in the legislative bowels of the beast. As it turned out, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and her leftish congressional cohorts chose to serve as the first corporate line of defense against the #ForceTheVote strategy -- originally conceived by Jimmy Dore .

“A roll call tally “will show the country who really supports it, not just rhetorically, but in practice.”

AOC threw up flak like a veteran corporate dissembler, tweeting that she and her allies had won a great concession from Pelosi to exempt Medicare for All from the PAYGO (“pay-as-you-go”) House rule requiring big-money bills to identify enabling revenues before consideration for passage. PAYGO was put in place by Pelosi in 2019 to demonstrate that Democrats were “fiscally responsible,” continuing Barack Obama’s second term quest for a Grand Bargain with the GOP. “Progressives in the House have won a rules change that would allow Medicare for All, a Green New Deal or other big ticket agenda items to be exempted from paygo,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This was a necessary step in opening the way for it.”

But of course, the gesture was merely a reshuffling of marked cards. Jimmy Dore responded to an AOC defender at The Intercept: “Unwittingly, what he’s doing here is making the case for #ForceTheVote, because now we’ve got rid of the hurdles that would stop it, so we can just go do it.” AOC was “pretending to be part of a movement," but was in reality still "running cover for Nancy Pelosi."

Justin Jackson, the Los Angeles Chargers running back whose mother died from breast cancer when he was a child, unable to afford adequate treatment, refused to accept the corporate logic. “You have politicians that are saying they are supporting us for a fight, but when we actually come up with a strategy to do it, now it’s ‘I can’t do that particular thing’…it doesn’t make any sense. What other time than now? There’s a pandemic raging right now.”

“’AOC was “pretending to be part of a movement,’ but was in reality still ‘running cover for Nancy Pelosi.’"

Ocasio-Cortez retreated into a weird combination of corporate rationalization and feigned victimhood . “To be 100% honest,” she tweeted, “it was hard during this to be targeted+marred as some sellout-enemy of the people over a late tactical disagreement over 1 floor vote. Also a bummer to see figures excuse comments like ‘f- her and f- anyone who protects her.’ That’s not tone, that’s violence.”

But, that’s what is supposed to happen when faux insurgents act as corporate defenders. As #ForceTheVote advocates pointed out, the death of 40 to 60 thousand Americans a year due to lack of healthcare, and 300,000-plus Covid-19 fatalities to date, is corporate-inflicted violence on a horrific scale. AOC has endured only slights to her celebrity as payback for defending the indefensible.

In the end AOC, newly-elected St. Louis Congresswoman Cori Bush, and Barbara Lee voted to elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House for the fourth time, after initially abstaining on a procedural ballot. In collapse, The Squad had shrunken to three fingers of one submissive hand.

It must be noted that back in 2005-06, when Pelosi was gearing up for her first successful run for Speaker, she prevented Democrats from holding hearings on the Katrina catastrophe in fear of identifying the Party too closely with Black issues, and then forbade the Congressional Black Caucus and all other Democrats from attending Republican hearings on Katrina. All of the Black Caucus meekly complied with her diktat – except for Atlanta Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who was shunned by her fellow Black congresspersons as a result. As Peter Gamble and I reported in The Black Commentator , Pelosi “was able to convince the Congressional Black Caucus, as a body, to stand down in the face of a horrific crisis: the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents of New Orleans.” The Black Caucus’s political irrelevance and impotence can be dated to that debacle. AOC and her Squad are on the same path – and the slope is much steeper in this era of accelerating national and imperial decay.

“The death of 40 to 60 thousand Americans a year due to lack of healthcare, and 300,000-plus Covid-19 fatalities to date, is corporate-inflicted violence on a horrific scale.”

In her self-pitying funk, the Bronx fashion-plate and champion tweeter -- a rival of Trump, in that regard – sounded no different than the standard “because…Trump” Democrat, blaming the outgoing Orange Menace for her own political cowardice: “n a time when the Republican Party is attempting an electoral coup and trying to overturn the results of our election, this is not just about being united as a party. It's about being united as people who have basic respect for the rule of law.” Having nothing to offer their “base,” Democrats make Trump the excuse for their refusal to buck the corporate masters. What will they do when the Orange Ogre is finally gone?

Doubtless, they will blame the Russians and a “handful of outspoken left-wing activists,” as MSN dubbed the #ForceTheVote advocates, for undermining the smooth workings of “American democracy.” However, the exodus of the leftmost ranks of the Democratic Party has finally begun, and will accelerate in the excruciatingly unending Covid-19 crisis, and as the post-Covid corporate economic order emerges with the full collaboration of the Democratic Party. The biggest benefactor of the New Year’s revolt is the Movement for a People’s Party, coordinated by Nick Branna, which vows to run a slate of congressional candidates in 2022 and mount a presidential bid in 2024. For the first time in this century, significant numbers of young people of all races – most of them unabashed Democrats only yesterday, it seems – are expressing raw hatred for the Democrats, who are richly deserving of the utmost contempt.

“Democrats make Trump the excuse for their refusal to buck the corporate masters.”

Having witnessed and participated in the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States in the past year, these young activists correctly see elections as only one aspect of “politics.” Indeed, the corporate monopoly has rendered electoral projects the narrowest, most circumscribed arena of U.S. political expression. Left political parties’ electoral activity must be an extension of grassroots and “street” advocacy.

Covid-19 ensured the demise of Trump and has laid bare the anti-people nature of racial capitalism and the corporate duopoly that serves the oligarchs. Pelosi and her Democrats have shown themselves to be one with the Republicans in enforcing the Race to the Bottom that capitalists have imposed, worldwide, and whose noose has been tightening in the United States for two generations. Medicare for All is anathema to both corporate parties because it would go far towards deprivatizing one-sixth of the U.S. economy but, just as importantly, it would greatly diminish the precarity and desperation of workers who fear they must take and hold any job that provides health insurance. The oligarchy understands perfectly that its super-profits are derived from super-exploitation of the precarity-stricken workers of the planet, and on the deepening desperation of its own workforce.

It is with these forces that The Squad is collaborating, through their subservience to Pelosi and the duopoly.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com

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https://www.blackagendareport.com/squad ... rate-power
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:36 pm

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Biden bets on an experienced diplomat to lead the CIA (Photo: Reuters)

KNOWING THE ENEMY: PROFILE OF WILLIAM BURNS, NEW CHIEF OF THE CIA
13 Jan 2021 , 3:03 pm .

With a promotional video earlier this week, the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, announced through his twitter account the nomination of career diplomat William Burns as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, according to its acronym in English).

Since the late election results of the last US elections, Biden has progressively announced to the members of the team that he will accompany him soon in his term of office, several of them being pieces that were kept behind the scenes in the era of Barack Obama and that now will be in charge of government administrative positions.

Regarding Burns, a close friend of Bill Gates , his extensive career dates from before the times of Bill Clinton's presidency, holding middle positions in the State Department, and then, for the presidential term of George W. Bush, he remained as Ambassador to Jordan and then as Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, playing a crucial role in almost all of Bush's major foreign policy initiatives.

In continuity with his foreign service career, from a political point of view, he stood out as undersecretary of state with Barack Obama until 2014, participating in secondary negotiations that set the stage for the 2015 agreement to limit Iran's nuclear capabilities. Likewise, he was the main negotiator of a nuclear agreement with India and Russia .

When Donald Trump entered the scene, he retired from the government arena due to retirement and devoted himself to serving as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank . From that space, he wrote multiple criticisms of Trump and, specifically, in 2019 he rejected the dismissal of the ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, expressing that it was " a dangerous form of diplomatic malpractice ."

Despite the criticism, in an interview with Moisés Naím, he agreed with Trump, since he commented that the way Trump was addressing the issue with Venezuela was correct , highlighting the importance of political pressure, that is, Burns is betting on resurgence of coercive measures to break Chavismo.

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William Burns_Reuters.png

Burns was a key diplomat in the Obama era (Photo: Reuters)
Beyond showing Burns's curriculum , which although it shows some important aspects to get an idea about his action profile, it is worth highlighting key data of his functions in the international field, in which he always maintained the essence of American exceptionalism and its accentuated interference practices.

William Burns on WikiLeaks cables

It is usual for the diplomatic services to rely on the intelligence services, and the US authorities do not deny such actions, in fact, in the video of the announcement of his new position, Burns expressed that he has developed enormous respect for the intelligence agents due that "he has worked with them in difficult places around the world ." And it was also confirmed by former CIA director John Brennan : "Bill has an outstanding reputation. He worked with operators for years abroad as Chief of Mission."

If Trump experienced some clashes with the CIA, Burns will know how to maneuver in the spaces of the agency, and will rely on intelligence cells to press the plans they have determined. His appointment is not alien to the modus operandi of the new administration in Washington.

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Burns' proposal bets on the restoration of the secretive but aggressive Democratic party bureaucracy (Photo: Reuters)
With the intention of adding some impressions about his ideas, some leaked WikiLeaks documents involving William Burns were selected.

President Hugo Chávez's visit to Russia in 2007 : Burns reports that that year Russian government officials held negotiations with the Venezuelan government for the sale of military components, despite US pressure, and in that context he considered that “ some see Russian backyard activism as a counterattack to perceived US interference. "
Visit to Colombia by Undersecretary Burns in 2008 : they reported that relations between Venezuela and Colombia had improved for the time being, but they suggested that Colombia should promote "its democracy" (in reference to Venezuela). They also indicated that Colombia sought to play a greater role in the international security architecture, demonstrating its willingness to contribute troops to the NATO effort.
Visit to Brazil by Undersecretary Burns in 2008 : they review the scenario prior to Burns' visit to Brazil, noting that then-President Lula Da Silva refused to criticize the issue of human rights in Venezuela and Cuba, a wild card used by the US to set up false files to countries that do not agree with their doctrine.
Issues with Russia 2010 : Raised concern about Russia's arms sales to countries of interest to the United States, noting that the imposition of US sanctions has not been successful in changing Russian behavior.
The tactics of the US establishment to impose its position on the international board in the meantime of forcing the scenarios with the letter of "concerns" are already known. Thus, Burn is a piece of silent coercive diplomacy, that prudent way of negotiating, pressing from various fronts, until it achieves its mission. Nothing new.

Unlike the Trump Administration's conflicts with the security and intelligence apparatus, as well as its conflicts with elements of the State structure, Burns supposes the return of regularity in these instances, his relationship with Biden is crucial for the survival of the agency. In this sense, the State Department and the CIA will have a close bond since Anthony Blinken and William Burns have been partners since the Obama administration.

By distancing itself from the erratic and "open aggressive policy" of the Trump Administration - although it included the United States in another war as if Barack Obama did - the US government could now return to its usual repertoire of attempted political coups, color revolutions, mercenary or paramilitary missions, false flag operations, as well as silent and noisy lobbying, within the "moderation" of the Democratic Party agenda. This will be another period in which the CIA will resume its role in another geopolitical backroom to come.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/co ... -de-la-cia

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When I heard this guy was an ambassador the 1st word that came to mind was 'spook'. At least part-time. Seems to be the case. More 'normalcy'.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:44 pm

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The American Samantha Power has strong convictions in the use of military force against other countries (Photo: File.)

JOE BIDEN NOMINATED A CHAMPION OF BELLICOSE FOREIGN POLICIES
SAMANTHA POWER IS CHOSEN TO LEAD USAID
14 Jan 2021 , 1:15 pm .

President-elect Joe Biden announced Wednesday the nomination of former UN Ambassador Samantha Power to head the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"I know first-hand the unmatched knowledge and tireless commitment to principled American engagement that she brings," he said in a statement. "As administrator of USAID, Power will be a powerful force in helping the vulnerable, ushering in a new era of human progress and development and advancing American interests globally."

The POLITICO website describes Power as a highly regarded Democratic Party token in that sector for his "diplomatic skills." In the first administration of Barack Obama, Samantha Power was special assistant to the president and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council. Between 2013 and 2017, she was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

The journalist Alan Macleod published on the MintPress website some statements by Power that give an account of his militaristic position under the facade of defense of human rights.

"Unlike other critics of US foreign policy, Power criticized Washington for not intervening enough in other countries, arguing that the United States has a responsibility to protect the world's weak," says Macleod, referring to what he wrote. the former UN ambassador in a book written in 2002 in response to the September 11 attacks, entitled "Hell of Trouble. America in the Age of Genocide."

Although he did not support the way the Bush Administration approached the conflict, he did support the war against Iraq: “An American intervention will probably improve the lives of Iraqis. Their lives couldn't get any worse, I think it's pretty safe to say, ”he stated in an interview on March 10, 2003.

Before serving as ambassador to the UN in 2013, she held various positions in the State Department and the National Security Council during the Obama administration. From there, she was a promoter of military interventions in Libya and Syria.

In the case of Yemen, a country that Saudi Arabia has bombed, unleashing a humanitarian emergency that reaches 80% of the population, Power collaborated with the Saudi monarchy to block international efforts to assist Yemenis.

From the UN headquarters, Power defended Israel's siege of Palestine. "She criticized the institution for its 'unequal treatment' of the Jewish state and for its 'indefensible silence in response to terrorist attacks against Israelis,'" Macleod writes.

https://misionverdad.com/samantha-power ... r-la-usaid

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Jfc, another monster, the wanna-be Albright. Bet she gets her body count too, 'normality' is more focused imperialism.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Jan 19, 2021 2:54 pm

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The other side of duopoly.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/ben-p ... nda-report

**************************************************

The Obama-fication of “The Squad” Strengthens the Right at the Expense of the Left
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor 13 Jan 2021

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The Obama-fication of “The Squad” Strengthens the Right at the Expense of the Left

The so-called ‘progressive” model would have us wait half a dozen election cycles before taking real action on the demand for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.

“Black Americans had grown more economically optimistic and pro-U.S. intervention than ever before by the end of Obama’s first presidential term.”

Black Agenda Report has long understood the Democratic Party to be a graveyard for social movements in the United States. An online push led by Jimmy Dore and the Movement for a People’s Party to #Forcethevote only further confirmed the true function of the Democratic Party. The call was simple. So-called “progressive” Activists pushing #Forcethevote asked “progressive” members of the Democratic Party to withhold their vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House in exchange for a floor vote on Medicare for All. Democrats have grown in number while the Democratic Party’s control of the House has shrunk, thereby making Nancy Pelosi’s path to Speaker of the House more precarious.

Not one member of “the Squad” withheld their vote for Pelosi or made the demand of a floor vote for Medicare for All a subject of protest during the proceedings. What was revealed in the weeks leading up to the vote, however, was the ongoing Obama-fication of “the Squad.” Jimmy Dore and other activists demanding a Medicare for All floor vote were relentlessly attacked on social media. Benjamin Dixon, Sam Seder, Nomiki Konst, and other mouthpieces of the so-called “progressive” media accused Dore of being a federal agent , an Assad apologist, and a “grifter.” Popular left-ish journalists Krystal Ball and Kyle Kulinski agreed with the tactic on principle but maintained their loyalty to “the Squad” as a viable leftwing political force. Activists in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) renounced Jimmy Dore publicly but avoided the political issue of the floor vote despite the demand being a key part of their organizing strategy toward Congress. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insinuated on Twitter that Dore’s brash and profanity-laden criticisms amounted to “violence” toward her.

“Dore and other activists demanding a Medicare for All floor vote were relentlessly attacked on social media.”

The backlash against #Forcethevote is indicative of a hive mentality among so-called “progressive” Democrats that is eerily reminiscent of the period of Obama’s presidential reign. Obama’s eight years in the Oval Office were a lonely time for those at Black Agenda Report and anyone else who upheld the principles of Black self-determination, socialism, and class struggle. Nearly the ENTIRE left ignored or condemned criticisms leveled against Obama. Obama was the “chosen one and his status as the “first Black president” was beyond reproach. Critics of Obama from the Left were called racists and GOP apologists. Obama’s impact on the political consciousness of the Left was so immense that Black Americans, typically the most progressive constituency on issues of economic justice and war, had grown more economically optimistic and pro-U.S. intervention than ever before by the end of Obama’s first presidential term.

In 2016, I wrote a ten-part series on the Obama legacy and clearly delineated how the “first Black president” operated as the more effective evil of U.S. imperialism. Conditions for Black America worsened under Obama, with Black wealth placed on a collision course toward zero during his two terms. Obama refused to prosecute bankers and killer cops but found time to sip contaminated water in Flint, Michigan and call protestors “thugs” in Baltimore in the aftermath of the police murder of Freddie Gray . Furthermore, Obama’s “Grand Bargain” with the Republican Party included a non-stop regime of austerity that ballooned the war machine at a time when left critics of Obama were being marginalized and denounced at every turn. The political stagnation engendered by Obama’s sheer presence in the White House paved a smooth road for Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign.

“Obama refused to prosecute bankers and killer cops but found time to sip contaminated water in Flint, Michigan.”

For many on the left, the silver lining of the emergence of Donald Trump was the growing numbers of young people in the Democratic Party who threw their support behind Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others who deemed themselves “democratic socialists.” In the last four years, the word “socialism” has become a popular term among young people and majorities in the United States have declared firm support for policies such as Medicare for All and a Green New Deal . Yet little was done to fight for these policies in the halls of Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the “Squad” as a pesky minority while the corporate media ran non-stop interference for the DNC’s marginalization of its “progressive” wing.

Under these political conditions, one would think that those who worked tirelessly to elect Sanders, AOC, and the rest of “the Squad” would be raising their voices and fighting even more boldly for Medicare for All and a host of other demands. The opposite has happened. Instead of protesting the DNC and challenging “the Squad” to stand up to their corporate adversaries, forces in the Democratic Socialists of America and the so-called “progressive” media have become more interested in careers and committee seats than with the needs of the masses. Their opposition to #Forcethevote revealed the bankruptcy of a model of change which relies upon electing “progressive”-sounding Democrats to bring about social transformation that only the power of the masses of people can truly achieve. This model mobilizes millions to bring an AOC into political office then tells the starving and oppressed masses to wait for another half dozen election cycles before taking real action on the demand for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, or anything else that would alleviate their suffering.

“Nancy Pelosi dismissed the ‘Squad’ as a pesky minority.”

The failure of this model for change is clearly demonstrated in the fact that the so-called “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party has been far from it on key issues shaping the future of humanity itself. No true protest beyond tweets were leveled against the CARES Act stimulus plan which sent trillions of dollars upward to the richest banks as tens of millions were sent to unemployment lines beginning in March of 2020. On the issue of war and peace, “the Squad” has followed Bernie Sanders into the abyss of imperialist piggishness. AOC met with fascists in Bolivia who engineered a short-lived coup in 2019, closed the door on Max Blumenthal when asked about her stance on the U.S.’ regime change war on Venezuela, and sent a Christmas Eve message to the CIA-backed Dalai Lama in support of “democracy” in China. Ilhan Omar voted in favor of U.S. support for NATO in 2020. Members of “the Squad” also mounted little challenge to the renewal of the Patriot Act —a clear signal that “the Squad” will play ball with the war machine whenever it is deemed convenient.

Politics is not a purity contest. It is, however, a contest for power. The failures of “the Squad” and the so-called “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party reveal the true contours of power in the United States. Capital reigns supreme, and the “left”-ish elements of the Democratic Party find it far easier to follow the Obama-model of leadership than to break from corporate captivity. “The Squad” poses as an alternative to corporate power during election cycles only to discipline their millions of supporters into accepting capitulation to the establishment once elected. As with Obama, “Squad” leaders have begun to frame all criticism of their failures as hostile to the cause of social justice itself. In other words, Democratic Party leadership must be obeyed for “the Squad” to exist.

“The ‘Squad’ has followed Bernie Sanders into the abyss of imperialist piggishness.”

This is what is meant by the “Obama-fication” of AOC and the rest of “the Squad.” Reverence for personalities only empowers the political right. During the pandemic, rightwing “populists” such as Joshua Hawley have risen to prominence by occupying political space that should be held by the left. Donald Trump rose to power off of the cognitive dissonance engendered by Obama’s disastrous policies and even gained ten million more voters in his loss to Joe Biden. A good portion of these supporters went on to invade and defile Congress at a “stop the steal” rally held on January 6th. This event gave further credence to the conclusion that anyone who calls themselves “the Left” must make a clean break from the Democratic Party that is responsible in large part for the epochal chaos of the Trump period. Only then can an actual struggle for socialism begin.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/obama ... pense-left
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:22 pm

Freedom Rider: Why the Left Don’t Protest
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 20 Jan 2021

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Freedom Rider: Why the Left Don’t Protest

The worse the political and economic crisis becomes, the more lethargic the US left behaves – as if generations of collaboration with corporate Democrats has sucked the life out of the left.

Until leftists break with the Democrats they will always be on a fool’s errand.”

The sight of a Donald Trump incited mob storming the United States Capitol was a political turning point for this country. It confirmed the worst fears about the outgoing president and his supporters but ironically has also empowered right wing tendencies which are never far from the surface. There are cries for domestic terror legislation which is unneeded and which will be directed not at Trump’s “deplorables” but against the left. The event also amplified positive feelings about the incoming Joseph R. Biden administration, feelings based on hope and not on facts.

There are many legitimate questions surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot, how it happened, who planned it, and what their motives were. In addition to investigating the incident, there must be a discussion about the absence of any effective left wing activism.

Why are the right wing so determined to make their voices heard while what passes for a left wing is largely silent? Why aren’t the left marching on Washington? They have much to be concerned about and the issues of great importance to them are routinely ignored by Republicans and Democrats alike. Millions of people are suffering and have more reason to “take their country back” than Trump supporters do.

“Why aren’t the left marching on Washington?”

The quality of life for most people in this country was already in decline even before the COVID-19 virus killed 400,000 people and put millions out of work. Sore loser Trump supporters should not be the only group angry enough to mass in Washington with an expectation of bringing about change.

Leftists don’t act as they should because they are still tied to the Democrats, who are devoted to crushing them as a political force. They rarely even bother to throw their left flank a bone. Until leftists break with the Democrats they will always be on a fool’s errand, defending the party that is committed to keeping them neutered.

Biden promised wealthy donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” should he be elected. He declared opposition to Medicare for All while the impact of COVID falls disproportionately on low income communities. His pledge to raise the minimum wage to a meager $15 per hour is greeted as a sign of success when it is in fact proof of failure. The promised $2,000 stimulus payment has now fallen to $1,400. The number of unhoused people grows and so do long lines at food pantries. There are a multitude of reasons to protest. Yet the left is largely silent, restricting any action to social media debates. There is no will to act in concert and make political demands.

“Trump supporters should not be the only group angry enough to mass in Washington.”

The left were already marginalized even before Donald Trump’s election. The damage done by decades of corporatist allegiance continues. Anyone who questioned bank bailouts, falling wages or privatized public education was labeled unrealistic at best, and a spoiler at worst.

After the Democratic Party leadership coalesced around Biden the deed was done yet again. Neoliberalism is again ascendant, progressives have been shoved aside and the sight of right wing mobs results in sneering instead of the urge to join the fight. It is shameful that thousands of people believe that Trump won the election, and were willing to wreak havoc against the symbol of the federal government, without any countervailing action taking place or even being contemplated.

Obviously many people who want a better and more just country do not really believe that they can bring about the changes they want to see. They barely survive on the margins and every four years hope that the people determined to give them the proverbial bum’s rush will suddenly have a change of heart and give them a hearing.

“The sight of right wing mobs results in sneering instead of the urge to join the fight.”

Black people suffer the most from this dynamic. They are the most left leaning cohort in the country but their politics have been undone by the black political class of misleaders. They lay claim to representing millions of people but in fact only represent themselves and the interests of their patrons. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has not proposed meaningful legislation in a very long time, and they have not shown an inclination to change now that a Democrat will be in the White House. In fact, that is when the real backstabbing takes place. Democratic presidents bring welfare “reform” that impoverishes the already poor, deregulation of financial services, bank bailouts, and health care plans that empower the private sector.

There must be a complete rejection of the political status quo. A Democratic president with control of Congress should be seen and treated as an adversary. Biden is not a friend, nor are the CBC or phony progressives who call themselves a squad.

“A Democratic president with control of Congress should be seen and treated as an adversary.”

The left need not riot at the Capitol but they must believe that they can get what they want. The era of the liberation movement in the 1960s and early 1970s should be remembered as a moment when millions of people made demands knowing that politicians did not want to meet them. That is how that time should be remembered. It can be repeated again if defeatist attitudes are rejected.

There must be a commitment to wholesale change from top to bottom. The failed state must be taken on without hesitation or apology and dependence on the electoral system must end. Republicans fear the Capitol rioters and straddle the fence instead of denouncing the people who make up the bulk of their party. Democrats have no such concerns about the left, and see them as an irritant to be placated at key moments.

Leftists need not behave as the Trumpers do, but they must lose their own fears and leave the Democratic Party behind. It would indeed be shameful if the Capitol rioters are the only people who believe they can achieve their political goals and are willing to act accordingly.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/freed ... nt-protest

And now for something completely unhinged:
HILLARY CLINTON AND PELOSI SUGGEST PUTIN ORDERED THE CAPITOL ATTACK
19 Jan 2021 , 7:29 am .

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Hillary and Pelosi find a new opportunity to point to Russia. (Photo: Archive.)

Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hinted that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Capitol riots. Their speculations, without proof, reached the point of wanting to start a commission "in the style of September 11" to investigate what led to the events of January 6.

The former US Secretary of State interviewed Pelosi on the podcast " You and I Both " about the revolt in the United States. In the conversation, Hillary said that outgoing President Donald Trump had "other agendas" while he was in the White House, adding that he hopes one day to find out to whom he "was in debt" and "who pulls the strings."

Clinton said she would "love to see Trump's phone records" to "see if he was talking to Putin the day the insurgents invaded our Capitol." He then asked Pelosi if it would be necessary to set up a commission like the one on September 11 to determine those responsible (finger pointing at the president of Russia).

Pelosi followed her in theorizing. "I don't know what Putin has on him politically, financially or personally, but what happened last week was a gift to Putin, because Putin wants to undermine democracy in our country and around the world," commented the Speaker of the House. Low. "So yeah, we should have a 9/11 commission and there is strong support in Congress to do that," he said.

Prior to the 2016 elections and during Trump's four-year term, the leadership of the Democratic Party was in charge of elaborating a false account of hidden relations between the US president and Russia, worthy of comparison with any conspiracy theory. That campaign did not prevent Trump from becoming president, nor did it stop him from being ousted from the White House before ending his administration through impeachment.

What it has brought is questioning of the efforts and resources wasted in investigations that have not obtained any incriminating evidence. Byron York, a conservative commentator, responded to the interview, writing : "There was a House investigation. A Senate investigation. A special prosecutor's investigation with full law enforcement powers. Obsessive media inquiries. None found what Hillary found. Clinton wanted to find. So she wants another. "

Journalist Aaron Mate labeled Clinton and Pelosi's speculations " BlueAnon, " a Democratic version of the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory that far-right sectors spread.

https://misionverdad.com/hillary-clinto ... -capitolio

Google Translator
Trump ain't the only vindictive asshole...Of course this delusional vilification of Trump serves not only as Clinton's ambrosia but provides the Dems with a near metaphysical opponent whose opposition excuses every crime against the human species these monsters care to perpetrate. Most of Trump's crimes against the working class and nature were perfectly(or at least marginally) legal capitalist actions as is his blatant self-aggrandizement, the sine qua non of any capitalist. Can't be biting the hands that feeds them, eh? Therefore other reasons must be found for the purposes of partisan politics, the Dems got nothing else.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 25, 2021 3:04 pm

<snip>
In the lead-up to Biden’s inauguration we were treated to some Senate hearings on his cabinet picks, in which we learned that this administration will continue Trump’s murderous coupmongering in Venezuela, that it will maintain Trump’s incendiary decision to have the US embassy in Jerusalem, that reviving the Iran nuclear deal is a long ways off from happening and will first require consultation with Israel, and that it will be continuing Trump’s cold war escalations against China.

<snip>

The next two years will be the Democratic Party at its most transparent. After two years they are statistically likely to lose control of the House and/or Senate, after which time they’ll be able to pawn off all imperialist bloodshed and lack of progress on an “obstructionist congress” like they did for the last six years of the Obama administration. But until then the Democrats are going to have to own all of their reactionary depravity and mass murder on their own.

This will set a sharp contrast from the past four years, where every mundane part of the US empire’s institutionalized abuse was portrayed as an anomaly unique to the Trump administration. Unable to blame their refusal to advance progressive policies and basic human decency on Trump and Vladimir Putin these next two years, they’ll be forced to kill any leftward movement all on their own. Which is why we are now already seeing mass media articles with headlines like “Under Biden, it’s time for Democrats to let go of Medicare for All“.

And this period will provide ample opportunities to highlight the fact that that’s exactly what the Democratic Party exists to do: kill all leftward movement in the most powerful government on earth. As the US continues its soul-crushing neoliberal policies at home and its murderous neoconservative policies abroad with the same degree of psychopathy it displayed in previous administrations, we must draw attention to the fact that it is the Democratic Party which bears responsibility for these things.

more....

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/21 ... ansparent/
I remember someone all about 'now the Dems will reveal themselves in undeniable fashion' 12 years ago. Wait, that was me! And it didn't happen, even as Obama buoyed up the banks and investor class, even as he foisted his gatekeeping 'Obamacare' upon us to forestall genuine humane healthcare, even as he 'surged' in the Middle East, even as he provided massive cover for the corporation responsible for the worst environmental calamity in US history....

Being the 1st Black prez gave Obama a lot of space, being suave & deboner(sic) didn't hurt. Attributes Biden surely doesn't have. OTOH, Biden and the Dems got Trump to wave as a 'bloody rag' whenever their fan club starts to waver. And the xenophobic, imperialist, warmed-over Cold War propaganda continually employed like a meat hammer is the gift that just keeps giving.

The Dems are notably adroit at the 'bait&switch' con and we will no doubt see a lot of that as one issue after another is 'defused' to the ruling class's satisfaction. And when the bait runs out or is worn out like a thrice cast nightcrawler then it will be all 'switch', austerity, liberal police state.

Drawing attention to these things is well and good but unless that puts millions on the streets and they got staying power then it might as well be Scholastic Philosophy for all the good it does us. Organization and an unifying ideology are at a premium, how that is done without the structure of a party is the problem that must be solved.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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