@ 2 vk I am also baffled by the WSWS, it has many decent articles assuming you ignore the mandatory “workers of the world class bah blah” they are required to cut and paste at the end of each article. So, the articles calling for defense of monuments erected to honor Thomas Jefferson, George Washington etc on the basis of that these leaders were against the forces of reaction is utter nonsense.
Handsoff

removal of monuments to the leaders of America’s revolutionary and civil wars has no justification. These men led great social struggles against the very forces of reaction that justified racial oppression as an incarnation of the fundamental inequality of human beings.

In the United States, there is a deification of the “fathers” of the 13 colonies that is taught in schools, regurgitated in plays, theatre, stories of all kinds and saturates the culture. It amounts to a complete whitewashing of their active historical roles as architects of a slave-Republic, in which land speculation from dispossessing Indigenous peoples and slave trading -and plantation were the core components of this new Republic. The primary beneficiaries of which included some of the most important land speculators such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin .. and of course slave holders. More than the symbolic significance of tearing down these cultural markers, it is the question of the history of racial capitalism and their oligarchic elites in the rise and formation of the United States that is unmentionable. For the wrestling about the past we see around these cultural markers are not just about “culture,” it is about the present predatory capitalist parasites and their choke hold on the levers of power, economy and culture.
Tell a random college “educated” U.S. – American that George Washington was amongst the richest men in the colonies and one of the largest land speculators, who actively fought the British because they forbid the theft of Indian land across the Ohio Valley (and not because the British were benevolent) and you will be treated with a blank stare.
For a country that commemorates the Holocaust like it is its own history and uses that as a moral shield to preach about the need to stop genocides (never again!) I guarantee you will never find an educated U.S.-American that even knows the “little” genocide that happened in Upstate New York on the orders of the great “founding father” George Washington in his own words:
Genocide of Native Peoples and Scorched Earth in Upstate New York

The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.
I would recommend, that some post in the center of the Indian Country, should be occupied with all expedition, with a sufficient quantity of provisions whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed.
But you will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements is effected. Our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them.

Posted by: Thirsty | Jun 25 2020 16:49 utc | 3

A few years back, our them prime minister Tony Abbott declared that Australia is part of the anglosphere – in other words, a British outpost in the Asia pacific.
Abbott was a so called Rhodes Scholar.
Cecil Rhodes on the subject of the anglosphere ..

“Why should we not form a secret society with but one object the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole uncivilised world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, and for the making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire…”
“Let us form the same kind of society, a Church for the extension of the British Empire. A society which should have its members in every part of the British Empire working with one object and one idea we should have its members placed at our universities and our schools and should watch the English youth passing through their hands just one perhaps in every thousand would have the mind and feelings for such an object, he should be tried in every way, he should be tested whether he is endurant, possessed of eloquence, disregardful of the petty details of life, and if found to be such, then elected and bound by oath to serve for the rest of his life in his Country. He should then be supported if without means by the Society and sent to that part of the Empire where it was felt he was needed.”“Let us form the same kind of society, a Church for the extension of the British Empire. A society which should have its members in every part of the British Empire working with one object and one idea we should have its members placed at our universities and our schools and should watch the English youth passing through their hands just one perhaps in every thousand would have the mind and feelings for such an object, he should be tried in every way, he should be tested whether he is endurant, possessed of eloquence, disregardful of the petty details of life, and if found to be such, then elected and bound by oath to serve for the rest of his life in his Country. He should then be supported if without means by the Society and sent to that part of the Empire where it was felt he was needed.”

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/18/from-dodgy-dossiers-to-sacking-of-whitlam-british-empire-stands-exposed/
Although US has the economy and military, the actions against other countries are not just the US but five-eyes. The anglosphere as Abbott termed it which I guess was a little more PC than saying British empire.
Russiagate and the Steele dossier just an inhouse spat over leadership of five-eyes – the American nationalist vs the anglo deep state centered around the English monarch.
On these blogs, there is quite often comments on the hidden hands of power though that is generally about bankers – Rothchilds ect, But this anglo deep state centered on the English monarch is I believe that hidden power.
Mathew Ehret wrote two pieces on it at strategic Culture both worth reading.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/13/sacking-gough-whitlam-and-royal-intention-behind-five-eyes/

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 25 2020 17:22 utc | 5

India, once again the crown jewel of the British British Empire in the coming hot or cold war to take China down.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 25 2020 17:35 utc | 7

@ 6 william gruff… thanks… it is too bad most people are easily duped…. developing critical thinking is a ongoing challenge for most..

Posted by: james | Jun 25 2020 17:47 utc | 9

”
US Senate passes bill that would punish China for Hong Kong national security law””
So nice that US politicians are concerned for Hong Kongers

Posted by: arby | Jun 25 2020 18:30 utc | 11

Alright so attempting to link attitudes towards masks with IQ is stupid, but I will refrain from linking B. with low IQ.
That is not how it works. I recall a study which looked at attitudes towards climate change, and the link with political views was much stronger than the link with level of education.

Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Jun 25 2020 18:47 utc | 13

Peter AU 1 @5–
IMO, there’s some merit as the major pushback against the reformist drive sponsored by the Classical Economists and their allies to rid Europe of Feudal prerogatives and the income derived from them arose within the UK in the form of an ideological and legislative battle–ideological in the shaping of education and legislative to retain Rentier privileges. Covering those moves was the ongoing and very overt Scramble For Africa from 1870 until WW1. The core of the threat was seen as arising in Germany with its superior education system and academics and its banking system that was somewhat integrated with its industrial system. A little known fact of great importance is that German was the #2 language of instruction and governance within the USA from 1680 to WW1 and its universities were the #1 choice for promising academics for advanced study in all areas. (There’s much to be gained from this Hudson essay although it strays from my timeline.) There’s a strong thesis stating the Rentiers wanted war with Germany to negate its reforms that were being emulated elsewhere. They were very fortunate in June 1888 to get Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert named as the German Emperor–Kaiser Wilhelm II–with his visceral hatred of Slavs that would lead him to wage WW1, which he came very close to winning. But the key as Hudson relates was the change in US policy about forgiving loans for war materiel to the victors–a volt-face seen as a stab-in-the-back by the British and French that led to the Great Depression. Those running Wilson’s Fed and Treasury gave us an inkling of what Neoliberal policy would look like. Also very important was the changes made to the USA’s educational system that aimed at erasing Classical political-economy from the curriculum of all universities and replacing it with the precursors to today’s Neoliberal Junk Economics.
There’s an untold–aside from bits and pieces–yet very important historical series of events that helped generate our current crisis. Rhodes likely played a small role in it with the education aspect.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 25 2020 18:50 utc | 15

well, I am an american, south american, nearly trotskyist, so what?
For 200 years the US public, the us school children have kneeled revered and worshipped a long list of barbaric, inhuman and immoral individuals to the extent of enshrining them in “golden calf’ statues… Well, so why the first adverse reaction to them you seem to get back to the old worship of false gods? Isnt it the land of the free? Because Media daily lies macht frei, of course)
the crimes of Stalin were openly listed and discussed in the URSS and now with more amplitude and reason in Russia. Do you want us to list down the POTUSes crimes in a two dozen countries, just to begin with?
if I start discussing the crime curricula of American public figures we will easily run out of commenting space.
Who the hell, what the shit ideology did authorize the 9/11 liers to pull down and destroy for example, the statue of Saddam Hussein?
Now you are gettin the home made backlash. FUSM

Posted by: augusto | Jun 25 2020 20:05 utc | 17

karlof1
US has a different history to Australia, Canada and New Zealand due to the revolution in which the British colonies kicked out the British and went their own way. From what I have read US and Britain were basically hostile until WWI. I had read about Rhodes and his ideals quite some time ago and also the scholarship he had begun, which now I think is the foundation of the anglo deep state. US was separate to this for some time and its difficult to put a finger on the relationship between US and Britain, but the British based anglo deep state does look to have a good foothold in the US.
I have recently been watching the Soviet storm series on youtube and the most recent one was on soviet intelligence. After Germany was defeated and before the defeat of Japan, Churchill asked the military to draw up a plan for war against the Soviet Union to see if it were feasable. Another thing I had not known was that Eisenhower reneged on Roosevelt Yalta deal concerning the island chain to the north of Japan. The although Japan had surrendered the Soviet Union had to take them by force.
As for the Rhodes scholarship and the anglo deep state, wikipedia has a short list of notables.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Scholarship.
I will have to do a bit more reading on Rhodes. His thinking was probably not that far removed from nazi thinking.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 25 2020 20:11 utc | 19

Peter AU 1 @19–
Thanks very much for your reply! It would be best if we could actually sit across from each other and have an actual conversation on this and other topics. Yes, it was very fashionable for popular media and members of Congress to be seen “Pulling the Lion’s Tail” as depicted here, but behind the scenes were rather different, particularly the collusion of Rentier interests thanks to the rapid growth of the USA’s FIRE sector–the sector responsible for Wilson and the creation of the Federal Reserve. Operation Unthinkable was Churchill’s brain child. The behind the scenes financial collusion prior to WW1 was the reason why the British felt betrayed by having to pay their debts after the war. And yes, Rhodes would’ve made an excellent Nazi.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 25 2020 20:43 utc | 21

Very important news:
Fed Limits Bank Payouts and Suspends Share Buybacks as Pandemic Grinds On

“Several” banks could near minimum capital levels if the pandemic recession worsens, Fed officials said, as it announced its stress-test results.

A financial crisis coming?

Posted by: vk | Jun 25 2020 22:10 utc | 23

@23–
It’s been an ongoing financial crisis since Nixon was forced to take the dollar off gold in 1971. It was discovered how to run a scam as a result of that but the underlying problem has never been solved, only worsened over the ensuing 50 years.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 25 2020 22:21 utc | 25

karlof1
I am thinking of the rejection of social norms a customs for that era. The Beetles – in their early years dressed in suits and tie as was the norm. What I term as the hippy movement certainly overlapped with the civil rights movements.
What I am thinking though is that earlier rejection of norms evolved, as well as being used by those in positions of power. Vietnam era protests were part of all that and a number of times I have mentioned and linked Robert Parry’s pieces on perception management which was the US establishment response to those protests.
The dumbing down of education, along with removing any form of discipline in public schools I think of as part and parcel of the evolution those movements of the sixties, both good and bad.
On top of all this though is Perfidious Albian’s ability to prevent revolution and hold onto power for the last 800 years or so. Here in Australia most think we are an independent country, and I guess its the same in Canada and New Zealand. I’m skipping around a bit here but i feel all this is tied in.
Something to think on. Perfidious Albion’s modus operandi when it comes to empire is divide and rule. US is now very divided and the Steele dossier from GCHQ was a big part of that.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 25 2020 22:54 utc | 27

Anyone heard what the “massive explosion on the outskirts of Tehran” about 5 hours ago was?
AJ reported it but no detail. I’m thinking Palestine’s occupiers but what with an election, falling popularity & desperation it coulda been orangey.

Posted by: A User | Jun 26 2020 0:21 utc | 29

Yet another installment of my musings related to the oncoming Critical Mass is here. The motif that what’s occurring is a segment of what FDR described as the USA’s “perpetual peaceful revolution” has captured my imagination and I’m working it into the overall narrative.
Peter AU 1 @27–
I get what you’re saying and you’ll note I use Jefferson’s observation of Albion’s works in my latest writing. IMO, I need to provide the essay with enough historical context to fill in the large holes in prior knowledge that exist within the projected audience.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 26 2020 1:28 utc | 31

450.org #1
Andre Vltchek offers analysis on the false start revolution.
Barflies might appreciate his take on this.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 26 2020 1:53 utc | 33

It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for even the US to send stealth bombers or missiles to target the facility without getting lit up by all of the air defenses Iran has setup over the past 20 year. It would be much easier to arrange some sabotage through a MEK operative.

Posted by: Kadath | Jun 26 2020 2:01 utc | 35

Peter AU1 #20

Re education. A lot of things changed in the sixties and seventies as a result of and response to the hippie movement.

The hippie movement was multidimensional as it was both a protest against the multifaceted brain of the beast AND a broad exploration of other social, political and cultural landscapes. It was born in an atmosphere of a cold war, a hot war, a conformist war, a puritan war. So the explorers grabbed a bag of dope and some clear light or some forbidden hard stuff and set off following the trail set by earlier non-conformists or the trail to the forest and farm.
They discovered collective title to land and shared land investment and so much more. Reclaimed the commons so to speak.
The whole earth catalog stumbled off the press and music unheard of rumbled down the air waves. Rodriguez dared to challenge but the US pumped the safe white man – Dylan.
It was a major step forward to reject and escape from the tentacles of the state. It was a strike by many educated people against being co-opted and subverted by the rentier class offer of wealth. The hippies got smart and the state got smart AND devious and punished the hippies and their fellow travelers. For some it was an ideological free zone and for others it was a serious political creation zone.
We are richer for it. We have major conservation successes to celebrate and many conservation losses to regret. We have major political change to celebrate and we have the political wimps yet to deal with.
Viva les hippies and long live intellectual and cultural freedom.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 26 2020 5:18 utc | 37

uncle tungsten
Thanks for putting that into words. Very similar to what I was thinking. After my previous comment I thought perhaps the tolerance of and experimenting with other cultures was a big part of that era.
But all of that has been co-opted by the powers that be to further their agenda. US Country Reports on Human Rights kicked of in the mid seventies though it was based on a law passed in 61. A number of laws giving US officials the obligation under US law to interfere in other countries and from what I can see the last being the Advance Democracy Act of 2007. The destruction on countries under the R2P figleaf is all part of the co-opting.
My thought for sometime now has been that there is a five-eyes deep state rather than say a US, UK, Aus, Canada deep states that are separate to each other. It would be this five-eyes deep state with its globalist agenda that has co-opted civil rights the hippie movement ect. But then, in the US is the nationalists that have gone along with the anglo deep state but now see the writing on the wall for the US are trying to break away again. The US nationalist movement currently fronted by Trump.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 26 2020 6:54 utc | 39

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/06/26/censored-suppressed-zelinsky-testimony-on-barrs-obstruction-and-complicity-in-crimes/
also obstruction and complicity
The Trump for President club, promoted Trump as the best the Oligarchs could produce to run the USA, therefore I must vote for him.. While I have little doubt Trump has done his best, I replied that if Trump was the best the USA could produce, that USA governed Americans, might consider asking the USA to rescind the Article VII ratification that initiated USA -II existence in 1788 and displaced the USA that defeated the British, and allow democratic America to work together to generate suitable leadership and to develop a system of government that responds to the will and wishes of the governed. You would have thought I suggested everyone stop by to pick up their personalized infection of SARS Covid 19-2 virus.

Posted by: snake | Jun 26 2020 10:52 utc | 41

US and Hong Kong in human-trafficking row after city is placed on watch list over alleged failure to make progress combating the crime
I can tell you that every protester in the streets of Hong Kong last year had at least one Filipino/Indonesian slave to take care of his/her father’s home. He/she was probably raised by one.
Hong Kongers wanted to be “part of the West”; here they are.

Posted by: vk | Jun 26 2020 13:22 utc | 43

To usurp Colbert’s Meanwhile schtick, there’s this. THIS is something to unite over, especially considering how egregiously immoral it is amidst a pandemic and the healthcare cost implications associated with contracting this virus. But, no protests. Instead, we get talk of reparations on Morning Joe and the tearing down of statues nobody ever knew were there or who they were they were/are so unremarkable.
There should be blood in the streets over this. Many multiples more will suffer and die because of this versus police brutality, not that police brutality isn’t an important issue because it is, but it will pale in comparison to the death and suffering this will prompt.
Donald Trump is a mass murderer. The verdict is in.
Trump Asks Supreme Court to Take Away Tens of Millions of Americans’ Health Coverage

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down what remains of Obamacare after waves of Republican legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act, telling the court in a brief filed late Thursday that “the entire ACA must fall.” The move comes as hundreds of thousands of newly out-of-work Americans have used the Obama-era health care law to get coverage during the coronavirus pandemic. Dismantling the law, an obsession of Republican lawmakers for a full decade now, would leave more than 20 million people without health coverage. Despite having a decade to come up with an alternative to the law, and two years in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Republicans have offered no viable alternative for how to make sure Americans can go to the doctor.
It’s unsurprising, then, that the Supreme Court is set to hear yet another Republican challenge to the law—the third to go before the court—this fall. This, the GOP’s umpteenth legal challenge to giving Americans health insurance, comes via a Texas-led group of Republican state attorneys general. “The case began after the Republican-led Congress in 2017, unable to secure the votes to abolish the law, reduced to zero the penalty for a person not buying health insurance,” the Washington Post notes. “Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that in doing so, Congress had removed the essential tax element that the Supreme Court had previously ruled made the program constitutional.”

The part in bold is noteworthy. Obamacare is a Republican plan. It was crafted/drafted by The Heritage Foundation. Is Obamacare flawed? Of course it is. It’s a Republican plan, afterall and was crafted as an answer to universal healthcare. So, it’s not ideal by any means and keeps the failed insurance companies afloat a while longer in this Potemkin Economy, but it’s better than the alternative which is nothing at all.
Where Did The Idea Of Obamacare Come From? A Defense Of The Heritage Foundation

Posted by: 450.org | Jun 26 2020 15:45 utc | 45

Video and transcript of China’s proposals to ease some of Lebanon’s acute problems that amount to $12.5Billion of investment. The West’s offering nothing comparable, and Lebanon would be foolish not to accept the help to make it stand up.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 26 2020 17:13 utc | 47

A User 40
five-eyes reciprocated the good deed by keeping an eye on Hollande for the French. But within five-eyes each can spy or gather or make information and dirt on the others politicians for the deepstate spooks of that country.
Anyone naive enough to run for office thinking they will do some good deeds is not just up against a deep state of that country, but the five-eyes deep state.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jun 26 2020 18:41 utc | 49

The rest of this year will be interesting, I hope I get to see it all the way to a new one.
The week that was (as I see it):
· Very sharp movements by North Korea ending in unilateral deescalation and a holding pattern. Either China saved the US from destruction or they didn’t. I believe North Korea has been ready since before Singapore.
· The O9A news reads like a 2000AD comic book story. It’s either pure fantasy or truly scraping the barrel.
My news sources are primarily but not exclusively rt.com and sputniknews.com and a little of some court filings in the O9A thing that display the mind-melting stupidity of some alleged conversations.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Jun 26 2020 20:25 utc | 51

al-Alam Mohammed al-Bukhaitia, is said to have said “Yemeni military operation using high numbers of Yemeni rockets hit highly sensitive
targets deep in Saudi territory, including Riyadh, Saudi Defense Ministry HQ, its general intelligence agency and the King Salman Air Base.
Another source said UAB backed STC expelled ARM Hadi from Socotra island. Can anyone confirm this, which if true, might impact the USA stock market?

Posted by: snake | Jun 27 2020 9:30 utc | 53

Afghanistan invasion by USA sux by Abby Martin at Empire Files

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 27 2020 10:27 utc | 55

“Hidden history is always a key to the truth”
The Coming War on China
This excellent documentary by John Pilger provides many historical perspectives and differences between the U.S. and China including their respective world vision. An introduction to U.S. attitudes of superiority is revealed in the first 20 minutes that summarizes the fate of people used as guinea pigs by the U.S. during testing of atomic bombs in the Marshall Islands.
In another part someone explains one of the key differences between China’s market economy and the U.S. capitalist system is that in China capital does not rise above political authority, whereas the U.S. is an oligarchy where billionaires control American policy-making. This despite the fact the China has had more billionaires than the U.S. since 2015.
Well worth watching by anyone not familiar with this view of history and the explosive direction that it’s headed in.

Posted by: krypton | Jun 27 2020 15:06 utc | 57

“Could US, China rivalry lead to war? History shows it might”
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3090254/could-us-china-rivalry-lead-war-history-shows-it-might
An excellent piece from former editor Leslie Fong, Singapore Straits Times and chief editor Chinese-language Shin Min Daily News, Singapore. It was during his editorship(s) the late Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew controlled and crushed the oppositions. While the American and former colonial master watched and stood helpless. I wish Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor appoints Leslie as advisor crush the rioters in HK.

Posted by: JC | Jun 28 2020 3:46 utc | 59

wrt Puerto Rico. It aint that simple Debs, there are many Puerto Ricans who are absolutely against statehood as they would lose out. some have a sweet deal now.
also, could you let me know how I can get into this whitefella club? I have all the prerequisites but don’t have the membership card yet.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 28 2020 7:32 utc | 61

I based what I said on conversations I have had with Puerto Ricans. They have US passports and have all the rights of other US citizens as far as I know. I did find this site which shows that this has been going on for a long time.
back to the whitefella thing….apparently you did not watch the video posted here the other day regarding covid-19 and trump supporters. all those guys were pretty pale looking but it is highly doubtful that they had a good education, will have a longer lifespan, or a well paying job.
You must have got burned pretty badly some time in your life to hold so much resentment. people of all colors and creeds can be dicks, white people do not hold a monopoly on dickness.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 28 2020 17:16 utc | 63