Detox! A Survival Tool-box

By Capt. Randall

The fact that we are all contaminated with the toxic filth of our industrial technologies is a well kept secret of government-protected polluters and profit-driven “healthcare.” Corporate energy, agriculture/ food, drug, chemical, mining and defense monopolies have loaded our bodies with metals, pesticides, nano-plastics, aromatic hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, junk foods and tens of thousands of chemicals “presumed safe?”….just as corporate media fills our minds with toxic propaganda…the very same industries that control well-compensated politicos and unelected regulators who infest the government. Our only recourse is avoidance, non-compliance and consistent detoxification!

Detoxification protocols dovetail nicely with my previous post; “Scurvy, Underneath Your Radar Screen,” . Vitamin C is a primary defense against toxins, infections and inflammation, but there are some details of dosing, synergistic supplements ( like RALA, NAC, magnesium and Vit. K2 ), and emotional and lifestyle practices. One thing for sure, MDs don’t go there. They eschew chelation therapies and rely on blood testing to (not) find toxins hidden in brain, bone and fat tissues…and so they ignore hair metal/mineral analysis. Hospital emergency and trauma care may be top-notch, but standard pharma-medicine for most easily prevented and treated chronic diseases performs dismally.

Crux!

The foundational fact that escapes our understanding of health and disease is that the universe and all life operate on electricity, on the attractions and repulsions of e- negative and p+ positively charged molecules that constitute the material world and animate it. Neither do we recognize the fact that most toxic metals, chemicals and pathogens and cancers are p+ positively charged and acidic. Thus the eternal battle between oxidative damage and antioxidant protection of cell components! The body uses e- electrons and radiant energy to maintain charge separated water gradients to drive circulation and membrane transport (see Dr. Pollack on the surprising role of “Structured” H2O/H3O2 water), fuel its cells, produce its essential biochemistry and protect tissues from oxidation,… yet immune cells use oxidizing hydrogen peroxide to destroy organic debris, bacteria and cancers. This is how oxidation-reduction or “RedOx” medicine forms the basis of biological function and should warrant primary consideration.…Redox balances can be manipulated toward the benefit of the organism using simple pH boosters like baking soda and vinegar, or oxidizers like hydrogen peroxide, sodium chlorite, iodine or “switch-hitter” Vitamin C (which acts as an antioxidant in small doses, but becomes an oxidizer in big doses releasing H2O2).

Disease results from a lack of energy; of system voltage, of chi, of poor metabolic output and e- electron shortages that accompany our modern energy deficient diets,… and where acidic oxidizers, ROS/reactive oxygen species and free radicals steal those e- electrons from the chemical bonds of essential biomolecules resulting in their destruction and loss of function. If an electrically-conductive water-based body has a net 45mv e- negative charge terrain/strong Zeta potential/alkaline pH it will remain intact, cells replicating and inflammation/oxidative stress held at bay….but when voltage/pH drop, circulation becomes sluggish, RBCs clump, O2 levels drop, lymphatics stagnate, molds/yeasts/bacteria are encouraged, cell damage spreads and even DNA can’t function. Chronic diseases are downstream from this first cause related to empty low-energy processed foods and energy loss, and yet are treated with a myriad of drugs having unwanted side effects? I prefer to consume high energy organic and wild foods and remove “charge bandits,” the toxic elements that short-out body voltage. ORAC tables reveal actual food values; the energetic life force content we consume. High ORAC plant-based foods give more bang for inflated bucks.

e- Energy Theft

Metals are p+ positive ions that source damaging free radicals and oxidative stress/inflammation. They can be mobilized into the bloodstream by flooding the system with antioxidant e- electrons where they are captured/chelated by chlorella, charcoal, clays, humic/fulvic acids, zeolites or tons of green vegetables….and eliminated. Vitamin C as sodium ascorbate ( Vit. C/ascorbic acid + baking soda = sodium ascorbate) is the cheapest e- electron source taken to an individual’s bowel tolerance, approx 2-8 Grams C + half as much baking soda, fizzed in a half cup water..on empty stomach, up to 4-5Xs/day until metal levels are minimized. Chelators are taken with meals. Regular comfortable bowel movements finish-off daily detoxification where magnesium, prunes, psyllium and chia seeds help speed transit time. Magnesium and potassium get depleted in the process of detoxification, so should be supplemented along with any minerals found deficient via hair analysis according to corrective recommendations from the lab. Other proven protocols utilize chemical EDTA or if disease processes are advanced; IV infusions and mineral cocktails available at alternative clinics.

*A sample hair metal/mineral analysis graph. Without these inexpensive tests, one is detoxing and supplementing in the dark.

Thugs;

Mercury, cadmium, chromium, copper, uranium, etc.etc. will gradually disappear along with symptoms like depression, high BP, chronic infections, arterial plaquing, intestinal issues, etc.. Try to identify sources of contamination; certain foods, urban air pollution, coal smoke, large fish like tuna, grouper, tilefish, swordfish are all mercury bombs. Firefighters, combat military, welders, certain factory workers and those living near refineries and chemical plants face high risk. Cadmium and uranium are absorbed by the tobacco plant and as such are responsible for “every disease in the book.” Lead burdens may also be addressed via oral EDTA.

Aluminum is the most prevalent and insidious metallic culprit according to my hair analysis lab. It is in food products, toothpastes and cosmetics/deodorants where it is absorbed through the skin. ( see studies by Dr. Christopher Exeley) Aluminum removal is a special case addressed by ingesting silica compounds found in horsetail, cucumber, bamboo shoots, and FIJI water…or silica supplements.

Glyphosate/Roundup herbicide is everywhere! It is opposed by the amino acid glycine. Roundup is found in chemically farmed wheat, oats, beets, sugarcane, sunflower, cotton etc., and even drinking waters. It ties up minerals like manganese and sulfates (supplement!) responsible for cholesterol conversion into Vit. D, rapid blood circulation and since glyphosate is an antibiotic, it damages beneficial bacteria populating the gut biome. Go organic!

Fluoride compounds are an industrially-inflicted disease source commonly added to drinking water, found in toothpastes, non-stick coatings, fire retardants, phosphate fertilizers and the unmanageable effluent of aluminum and super phosphate production. Since flourosillicic acid can not be safely disposed of it gets diluted in municipal water supplies diluting human health and IQ in the process. Polyfluorinated (PFAS) fire retardants are also in plastics and suspected in endocrine disruption, low sperm counts and infertility. Boron/borax, iodine, sunshine Vit. D, sauna/sweaty exercise and tamarind are antidotal. Flouroquinoline antibiotics should be avoided at all costs. There are safer alternatives.

Plastics/nanoplastics are ubiquitous, in all of us and may contain antimony. Sauna, sunshine and laborious profuse sweating eliminate many toxins. Shower immediately afterwards to avoid re-absorption. Intermittent fasting and fasting are proven free methods that stop inflammation, raise body voltage and dump toxic loads.

Parasites become problematic when populations rise in response to favorable/unhealthy conditions. They can source inflammation, tropical diseases and cancers. Ivermectin, shared with my dog, can be rubbed into belly skin or taken orally. Oregano oil, garlic, ozone and MMS chlorite are other parasiticides.

Infections like gingivitis, bad root canals or staph/strep/candida overwhelming the intestinal tract continuously throw off endotoxins which migrate through the body to promote cancers, attack blood vessels, heart and other organs. Once halted, recovery can be dramatic. Again, oregano oil, garlic, MMS chlorite, ozone, and hyperbaric oxygen and hydrogen peroxide therapies along with megadose Vit. C to boost immune strength and probiotics to bolster the gut biome make perfect sense. Infected teeth should be removed immediately.

“Second hand” drugs can lead to many unintended consequences…They all wind up in waste-waters, and downstream from sewage outfalls, sea life becomes diseased, mutated, sexually reversed or infertile. Drug and vaxxxine residues are in some well waters and poorly treated municipal water supplies.

We all saw the dire consequences of mRNA covid shots, yet common mandated childhood vaxxxes fly under the radar, or might I say adverse effects are kept hidden by pharmaceutical makers, the CDC and FDA . Sadly, Fauci still spouts lies on network TV, covid jabs are still recommended and “anti-vaxxxers” are still the most hated of medical heretics. Autism, autoimmune conditions and wildly confused immune systems are the result of singular viral strains and toxic adjuvants added to vaxxxines to elicit a strong inflammatory response. See Dr. Suzanne Humphries, The Midwestern Doctor, Dr. Peter McCulloch and many other fearless physicians for an alternative view. In their/my estimation no vaxxxines are worth the risks,…yet are accepted out of irrational fear and hopes of avoiding the discomfort of what are statistically non-fatal diseases.

Damage from dirty electricity, EMFs/electromagnetic fields and radiations that can’t be avoided respond to Megadose Vitamin C which interrupts cell/DNA damage.

Sometimes problem areas are “walled-off” by the normal inflammatory response of fibrin formation or scarring. Fibrin films need to be dissolved so these areas can gain access to normal circulation and the healing process begin. Proteolytic enzymes work here; papain, bromelain, nattokinase, serrapeptase or the most powerful, lumbrokinase.

Poisonous Emotions

The autonomic nervous system operates in two graded modes; sympathetic/fight-flight fear mode where pH drops, cortisol jumps and healing is impossible,….and parasympathetic mode where regenerative healing and even dramatic placebo events occur. Economic pressures and fear based media narratives “make us crazy” and lock-in sympathetic dominance dumping immune strength. (Why hysterical unrelenting covid propaganda was likely more a cause of illness than the actual virus.)

This is where meditative mindfulness, media skepticism/avoidance and the monitoring of one’s ego are imperatives. Selfishness, anxiety/depression, anger/hate and all the “sinful” perversions of Dante’s “Inferno” are features of an un-sane low-vibrating ego; easily monitored, recognized and reversed for self-psychotherapy. Conversely, a placid mindset of unconditional love, humor and respect for all life raises “spiritual frequency” invoking godly states of consciousness along with physical health. Acidic emotions waste system energy and can lead to all disease!

Toxic conditions, abusive family members and other unhappy damaged people must be kept at arm’s length or diplomatically dealt with, but never allowed to get under your skin because like a drowning man they will take ya down.

Mental states are a puzzle everyone must conquer on his own. The state of the ego is key. Many self help books and spiritual systems concentrate on the ego. James Allen, “As a Man Thinketh,” Bruce Lipton, “The Biology of Belief” and books by Eckhart Tolle and Wayne Dyer go right there, leaving critical life-enhancing work to the individual. What better goal could one have other than enhancing his states of consciousness and happiness? Hit the road to enlightenment on a most rewarding solitary journey of introspection!

Wise-up and Live!

A life of hospital, doctor and drug store visits is a dirty-detour into expensive suffering that you alone can prevent. No doctor or medical algorhythm knows what’s actually going-on inside your body and mind or has yet been able to contain our modern chronic disease epidemic. The U.S. ranks low in the health of its people, but egregiously high in bad outcomes.

The covid hoax should have opened a can of worms full of the shortcomings of pharmaceutical medicine and exposed its obscene-profit-driven “healthcare” system.

Attend to highly varied wholesome nutrition and pleasurable meals. Skip all vegetable/seed oils in favor of saturated animal fats and butter, skip processed foods and excess refined carbs, soft drinks and sugars. Supplement vitamins and minerals not in your foods. Make sun, sauna, barefoot grounding, physical exertion and recreation in nature regular habits. I do believe in sensible deserts; enjoy, life is too short!

View fake “news” with a jaundiced eye, skip noisy commercials and try cartoons and classical music in favor of the maliciously fabricated mainstream political narrative.

I see red-faced screaming idiots all-jacked-up over politics and elections…when candidates of both parties are simply “made men” shilling for neocon warmongers, intelligence agencies, military contractors, drug companies, climate scammers and malevolent billionaires.

Not much has changed for the better in generations, making the political process a feckless soap opera designed to distract the minds of a captive voting public from reality on the ground.

Fertilize a sense of humor, curiosity and purpose.

If you are not laughing regularly, enjoying music or seeing beauty in your surroundings; you are not really alive.

When things seem out of control I grab a “purely don’t give a f*** attitude,” until the sea calms.

You Can Do IT!

Use search words like “natural cures” or “prevention” for any issues you may face. As with recipes for potato salad, look at a bunch of articles, opinions, sites and videos. Then carefully simmer your potatoes, come-up with a “recipe” and institute it. Be sensitive to any changes. Remember a “shotgun approach” is usually needed, not just a single silver bullet vitamin or herb or drug,…since a number of insults and years of neglect led to your distress. One may need to consult a holistic or alternative clinic for guidance or procedures like IV infusions, spinal adjustments, acupuncture, lymphatic massage or HBOT/hyperbaric oxygen therapy (see ACAM.org physician finder). People beat cancers, heart disease and arthritis all the time because they were informed of real scientific information, not phony-Fauci’s “The Science” that maims and kills so many millions.

The Best of Capt. Randall

Detox! A Survival Tool-box

Everything in Our Civilization Is Stacked To Keep Us Believing the Propaganda

By Caitlin Johnstone

It’s not so much that people buy into the mainstream propaganda worldview because humans are dumb, or because humans are selfish. Primarily, people buy into the mainstream propaganda worldview because humans are lazy.

By this I don’t mean to say that people don’t work hard enough or don’t stay busy enough; humans sleep less than any other primate on earth, and if anything the world would probably be better off if our species chilled out a bit. When I say people are lazy, I mean we are lazy thinkers.And we are lazy thinkers for reasons that aren’t really our fault. The human brain is wired to select for cognitive ease, which means we tend to favor pathways of thought which require less mental strain in order to conserve energy — probably because our evolutionary ancestors needed all their mental energy for important stuff like finding food and avoiding saber-toothed tigers.If that wasn’t bad enough, our minds are also wired to preserve our existing worldview, so that the perspectives we form from our lazy preference for cognitive ease are held in place, and evidence which contradicts them will often be rejected. This is why facts don’t tend to change people’s minds.This lazy tendency to select for cognitive ease and defend the worldviews we construct as a result of that tendency is what gives rise to confirmation bias, because believing things which confirm our preexisting ideas about the world is easier than believing things which would blow our worldview apart.If you’re among those who’ve gone from fully believing the mainstream propaganda worldview to realizing that everything you’ve been trained to believe about the world is a lie, then you know how uncomfortable and disruptive this shift can be. Our psyches are stacked toward avoiding that work and discomfort, in the same way they’re stacked against exercising regularly even though we know it’s good for us — which by the way also happens because there was a time when conserving energy was beneficial for our species’ survival, causing an adapted preference for rest over exertion.This glitch in our minds is exploited by propagandists, who serve up power-serving information for us in ways that is palatable and easy to digest. You can see this immediately by watching Fox News or MSNBC; both channels are a nonstop deluge of propaganda promoting the information interests of the US-centralized empire, differing only in the types of confirmation bias they’re meant to appeal to.Silicon Valley reinforces this dynamic, with social media algorithms dividing people into self-reinforcing echo chambers where empire propaganda can be easily slid down their throats without the slightest twinge of gag reflex.So consent is manufactured for a giant, globe-spanning power structure using propaganda which takes advantage of cognitive biases that emerged in our consciousness due to evolutionary conditioning which arose under circumstances that no longer apply to human life in the modern world. We no longer need to seek out cognitive ease and preserve our worldviews to conserve mental energy for more pressing matters like avoiding prehistoric predators and other now-obsolete existential perils.In fact, in modern times our existence as a species is actually being threatened by those ancient adaptations. The fact that nowadays we find ourselves psychologically herded en masse into worldviews which consent to a status quo that is killing our biosphere while marching us toward nuclear armageddon means our very survival depends on our overcoming our mental inertia toward learning the truth about our world, so that we can stop being propagandized away from revolution and start using the power of our numbers to force an end to that status quo.Everything in this dystopian civilization is stacked to prevent this from happening. Our news media. Our entertainment. Our mainstream culture. It’s all engineered to prevent us from understanding the truth about our nation, our government, our society and our world, because if we all had a lucid understanding of how badly the powerful have been screwing us over this whole time, there’s no way the powerful would be allowed to remain in power.So our evolutionary conditioning is stacked against us on this front, and so is the entirety of our civilization. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just as we know it’s possible to lose weight and get fit even when our evolutionary conditioning tells us to eat as many calories as possible and spend as much time as we can resting, and even when every part of our society is telling us to consume, consume, consume, it’s also possible to overcome the obstacles toward forming a lucid worldview. We can move our bodies past the obstacles to our health because we are a clever species and we want what’s best for ourselves, and we can move our minds past the obstacles to our escape from the propaganda matrix in essentially the same way.The coming years will decide whether humanity remains trapped in its ancient animal conditioning, or transcends its dysfunctionality and becomes a conscious species. Personally I believe we have the freedom to go either direction. It’s really up to us whether we want to keep this adventure going or not._________________My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

Everything in Our Civilization Is Stacked To Keep Us Believing the Propaganda

The Glue Binding Democracy and a Free Economy Has Melted

Charles Hugh Smith

OfTwoMinds.com

And that’s how democracy and a free economy die.

An astute reader asked me to clarify the difference between individual sacrifice and shared sacrifice in the context of the Common Good, which as he rightly noted, dictatorships use as the justification for oppressive enforcement of a regime that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

In a democracy with a free economy, the Common Good is the responsibility of the citizenry, not a dictatorship. In the current zeitgeist, the Invisible Hand of free markets is understood as a magical force that automatically generates the Common Good out of the churn of everyone aiming to get rich or die trying.

In other words, the Common Good is somebody else’s responsibility: there’s no need for shared sacrifices, the economy and society take care of themselves as we all get rich or die trying.

This isn’t how a society actually works. Somebody has to mind the store of social capital that enables us to focus our energy on individual sacrifices made on our own behalf.

The single-minded pursuit of greed does not magically organize the economy or society to serve everyone’s interests equally. As Adam Smith explained, capitalism and the social order both require a moral foundation, which in a free society takes the form of civic virtue: it is the responsibility of every citizen who is able to contribute to the social capital that serves us all to do so not in response to an oppressive state but of their own free will.

The Founding Fathers understood this and feared the decay of civic virtue as a threat to democracy. This was one reason why many of those active in the early decades of the American Experiment favored restricting voting to the class of citizenry who had the biggest stake in maintaining the nation’s stock of social capital: the landed / commercial elites.

Commentators such as Christopher Lasch have described the steady erosion of civic virtue and the nation’s stock of social capital since the 1970s. Lasch and fellow critics across the ideological spectrum understood that civic virtue is the glue that binds democracy and a free economy: once civic virtue and the responsibility to contribute to the nation’s social capital are gone, both democracy and the free economy enter terminal decline.

Social capital, civic virtue and the Common Good are not easily defined or measured. They cannot be reduced to numbers like GDP. This confuses ideological purists, left and right, as social capital, civic virtue and the Common Good cannot be distilled down to simplistic ideological formulations.

This is why Lasch’s work cannot be pinned down as “left” or “right”: ideologues on both ends of the spectrum find references in his work they agree with. He was addressing issues larger than political or economic ideologies.

The glue of America’s social order–civic virtue–has melted away, and few have even noticed. The concept of voluntary attention to the common good–an attention that requires shared sacrifice–has been jettisoned as unnecessary: all we need to do is focus on getting rich by any means available.

This has led to a complete breakdown of the moral foundations Adam Smith identified, and a breakdown of the nation’s shared social capital. If our sole responsibility has shrunken down to getting rich by any means available, then quite naturally we bribe politicians, crush competition to establish cartels and monopolies, degrade the quality of our goods and services to increase profits and addict our customers to rake in steady profits.

Consider the difference between Old Money and private equity. Private equity slavishly worships at the altar of mobile capital and increasing shareholder value. Private equity assembles mobile capital from the ends of the Earth–Dubai, London, Hong Kong–and swoops in when it detects an asymmetry between the potential market value and the current valuation of an asset.

Unlike Old Money, which is anchored in a place embedded in a specific culture and social order, private equity has no sense of place or responsibility for contributing to a locale’s social capital. Private equity swoops in, buys the asset, sells off pieces to the highest bidders, reorganizes what’s left, slaps a quick coat of paint on it and then cashes out via a public offering of equity or debt or a private sale.

The damage done to the local economy, populace and its stock of social capital by this stripmining is of no concern to private equity: get in, maximize profits / gains and then get out, and start circling the planet for the next “opportunity to increase shareholder value.” (Hence the term “vulture capital.”)

Old Money, rooted in a place and its history, does care about the local economy, populace and its stock of social capital. Yes, Old Money makes money with its money; that is the nature of capital. But Old Money understands that stripmining assets with zero concern for the wreckage left behind does not support either democracy or a free economy that offers a somewhat level playing field to all participants.

This is why it’s wise to relocate to a place where Old Money still resides and still maintains an active role in maintaining the social capital of their home base. Living in places dominated by the culture and values of private equity is voluntary servitude in a rotting ship without a compass or leadership.

Read the Whole Article

The Best of Charles Hugh Smith

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/06/charles-hugh-smith/the-glue-binding-democracy-and-a-free-economy-has-melted/

A Pragmatic Alliance

The Trump-led Conservative Movement won’t save the nation, but it will at least keep the State from coming after practicing Catholics.

By Eric Sammons

Last weekend the conservative organization Turning Point USA hosted a major convention in Detroit featuring top conservative figures like Vivek Ramaswamy, Kristi Noem, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Charlie Kirk (the founder of Turning Point). The big draw was Donald Trump as the keynote speaker. What I saw at the convention was instructive for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the Conservative Movement as it pertains to saving this nation.

Attending this event was a novel experience. I’ve always followed politics, but at a respectable distance. I don’t keep track of all the personalities in politics (I didn’t recognize half the speakers at this event), and I don’t get super-engaged in the political process. Catholics for Catholics held a breakout session on the Catholic vote and invited me to speak on the state of the Church as it relates to the November election. Catholics for Catholics is committed to injecting unapologetic Catholicism into the political world, so I was happy to accept the invitation.

Over the years I’ve attended countless Catholic conferences, but a political convention like this is a completely different animal. The differences, in fact, reflect why Catholics should be wary of a too-close alliance with the Conservative Movement, on which I’ll elaborate more in a moment.

This is not to say that the convention didn’t have its positive elements. The other attendees I met were solid, down-to-earth people. They were mostly evangelical Christians rightly concerned about the direction of the country. They were all yuge Trump fans, but most of them understood his limitations. As one woman said to me, “I don’t want him as my pastor, but I’ll be happy to have him as my president.” These were the type of people I’d love to have as neighbors.

I was also happy to witness a strong resistance to the transgender movement. The biggest cheers by far occurred when a speaker condemned drag queen story hours or men participating in women’s sports. (Based on political conservatives’ track record, however, I’m not confident the Conservative Movement will remain strong against the trans tyranny, but at least for now it is resisting it.)

Aside from those positives, however, it was clearly evident for any with eyes to see that the Conservative Movement is not going to save this country. Most of the speakers came across as robots who simply knew which clichés to say to get a cheer (“I love my country!” “Peace through strength!” “Biden is incompetent!”). Listening to a Kristie Noem or a Rick Scott speak made me think that perhaps AI is already with us in human form. No originality, no real thinking. I have no idea if they actually believe what they are saying, and I suspect that in more than a few cases, they do not. This is in sharp contrast to many of the true believers in the crowd.

I was reminded of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Conservative politicians often make bold promises to true believers, but then disappoint greatly once in office. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for all the Charlie Browns.

There were exceptions among the speakers. Vivek Ramaswamy gave an impassioned and intelligent speech. Steve Bannon is inspiring. Benny Johnson is hilarious. Donald Trump, Jr. is far more impressive than I thought he would be. And of course his Dad can work a crowd better than anyone I’ve ever witnessed. Notice that, other than Donald Trump, none of these men are running for office right now. They state truth bluntly and don’t worry about the consequences as much.

Of course, while speakers—good or bad or boring—might command the most attention at a convention, they are not the entire story. The whole event came across as part carnival, part grifterfest, and part acquiescence to the culture.

The main stage was set up and run to generate the most emotional response possible. The music was incredibly loud (yes, I know I sound like a boomer, but it literally pounded your heart) and chosen simply on its ability to stimulate. There were fireworks and smoke machines and light shows that introduced and concluded every talk. Every speaker was introduced as if he or she was the Next Political Savior. It was clearly a pavlovian effort to get people pumped up to hear Congressman Nobody from Nowhere say what the previous six speakers said.

A Pragmatic Alliance

Why NATO Weapons Are Way Overpriced

By Eric Zuesse
Eric’s Substack

The war in Ukraine is being fought on NATO’s (the U.S.) side with NATO weapons and ammunition, and on Russia’s side with Russian weapons and ammunition. 
The majority of commentators say that, thus far, Russia has the advantage. 
No one is blaming Ukraine’s soldiers for this. 
On the NATO side, there is silence about whether its weaponry and ammunition are performing less effectively than Russia’s weaponry and ammunition — which cost far less.

The U.S. Government alone spends annually over $1.5 trillion on its military but hides much of that spending by paying for it in other federal Departments than the “Defense Department” so that the public won’t know that over half of all spending that the U.S. Government (President and Congress) authorize each year goes actually to its military — only less than half of it goes to pay for education, healthcare, and the other necessary goods and services to the benefit of the nation’s domestic population, America’s citizenry. It is a military operation, even more than it is an operation to serve the citizenry. That’s a fact, not an opinion, about the U.S. Government — but it is a hidden fact (as that link above documents to be true).

The official U.S. Government spending on its military is only what is being paid out of its Defense Department, which is now around $900 billion per year (vastly more than any other nation’s). However, over $600 billion more per year is spent, each year, on America’s military, that’s not being counted in the official ‘defense’ (actually aggression) figure (over and above that $900B amount). No other country except possibly China now (in order to prepare for war with the U.S. so as to prevent a U.S. take-over of China’s Taiwan Province) hides its excessive military spending this way, because none needs to — none is so fat with sheer corruption in its military. Even America’s colonies, such as England, Germany, France, Italy and the rest of NATO, aren’t that corrupt.

The U.S. population are gifted with a perfect national-security situation of more than 3,000 miles of ocean separating them from potential attack by a foreign power, plus only two bordering nations, both of which (Mexico and Canada) are on friendly terms with the U.S. Government. On any rational consideration, therefore, America’s need for national-security expenditures isn’t $1.5T per year but at most only $100B ($100 billion) per year. All the rest, above that sum, is imperial expense, in order to control the entire world for the benefit of its billionaires who control international corporations and who own controlling interests in the giant ‘defense’ firms (which receive the profits from this $1.5T+ of governmental spending each year. Plus, they control the media. So: they also control — (provide most of the political-campaign ‘donations’ (investments) — in order to dominate in the funding of political campaigns. Winning in American politics is simply getting the most money from the billionaires to fool the voters to vote for you.) They call that ‘democracy’. And the most profitable side of it, after the Soviet Union ended in 1991 and there was no longer any real need for it, is the massive armaments industry. Consequently, America’s approximately $1.4T excess military spending per year has now built up a $35T federal debt, which will have to be paid off by future generations of U.S. ‘citizens’ (subjects). But, for the billionaires, it’s enormously profitable, and so it keeps on building.

A look at the world’s “TOP 100 Defense Companies” shows that 6 of the top 10 are in U.S (Lockheed, RTX Raytheon, Northrop, Boeing, General Dynamics, and L3Harris), 3 are in China, and 1 is in England. 43 of the remaining 90 are also in U.S. Therefore, 49 of the top 100 are in America. This is what comes from being a country that spends over $1.5 trillion annually on its military.

How exceptional is this? Astoundingly: The SIPRI or Stockholm International Peace Research Institute annual military-expense rankings, show U.S. as #1 in 2023 spending, at $916 billion (SIPRI ignores the U.S. military spending that’s outside of the official Defense Department), and then #2 China at “[296]” where the brackets mean “estimated” and so that it’s $296B ‘estimated’; and they show #3 Russia at “[109]” or estimated $109B/year. Those dollar-figures are “US dollars, at current prices and exchange rates” and are NOT at Purchasing Power Parity, which would have indicated far more accurately for international comparison purposes. However, nonetheless, China’s GDP (without any adjustment for PPP) “was 126,058.2 billion yuan in 2023”; and if China that year spent on its military $296B that year, when China’s GDP was around $17.75T, then that $296B would have been one-sixtieth, 1/60, times China’s GDP that year; it would have been 1.7% of the nation’s total output. By contrast, America’s (actual) at least $1.5T military spending is the military portion from a U.S. GDP of $27.36T, or 5.5% of U.S. total output during 2023. (Though China has higher GDP PPP per year than America, it still has lower unadjusted GDP per year than America.) America’s 5.5% that goes to its military is almost entirely wasted since the country’s appropriate military expenses would be only around $100B/year, but China’s estimated 1.7% of its national output that goes toward its military when the U.S. is trying to grab from China its Taiwan Province, might be far short of being what is actually needed.

The situation in Russia is even more-extreme underspending as compared to America’s (corruption-laden) $1.5T/year military expenditure. SIPRI’s $109B/year estimate would be out of a much smaller national economy than China’s, Russia’s. To estimate this, one might refer to the “World Economics” site, which specializes in getting around the U.S. empire’s too-often-rigged economic journalism about countries that the U.S. empire treats as enemies. The World Economics article “Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)” goes straight to GDP PPP and says that “World Economics has developed a database presenting GDP in Purchasing Power Parity terms with added estimates for the size of the informal economy and adjustments for out-of-date GDP base year data. World Economics estimates Russia’s GDP to be $8.008 trillion – 38% larger than official estimates.” They rate the reliability of U.S.-and-allied nations’ economic numbers about their own country “A: As good as it gets” but believe to be unreliable and rate both Russia’s and China’s, as being “C: Use with caution,” but not because they overstate their performance, but instead because they systematically understate it. (China might be doing that in order not to alarm their public about the recent sharp increases in its military spending.)

However that may be, there can be no question about the U.S. Government’s, and SIPRI’s, systematic and gross understatement of America’s annual military expenses: the most trustworthy person who reports on America’s annual military expenses is Winslow T. Wheeler, and he has expained in detail from the U.S. Government’s own basic numbers, how much America spends each year on its military.

Further as regards SIPRI’s number of a $109B/year estimate for Russia: if that is out of Russia’s reported $2T/year GDP, it is 5.45% of GDP, but if it is out of a Russian GDP PPP of 8T/year, it is 1.36% of that. I can hardly believe that Russia, which is fighting against almost the entire U.S. empire (NATO) in Ukraine, can be spending only 1.36% of its national outut on its military; so, for this, at least, I would accept that it is 5.45% out of a $2T GDP.

Given how much waste (corruption, basically) there is in America’s military spending, it seems quite feasible that Russia might beat almost the entire U.S. empire in the battlefields of Ukraine by spending only $109B/year to do that. Thus far, it’s been happening.

As regards China: The Texas National Security Review headlined in its Summer 2024 issue, “Estimating China’s Defense Spending: How to Get It Wrong (and Right)” and argued that, “According to our calculation, China will spend an estimated $471 billion on defense in 2024, or around 36 percent of comparable U.S. defense spending of about $1.3 trillion in 2024.” Also, their footnote 3 says “The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, estimates [China’s] spending for 2022 to be 27 percent higher than the official figures for that year, while the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), The Military Balance 2022, puts the figure for 2021 at 33 percent higher than the official figure.” It is true that SIPRI and IISS, which ignore the annual American $600B+ of military spending that’s being paid out from other federal Departments than the Defense Department, try to inflate both China’s and Russia’s annual military spendings, so as to hide the intense corruptness of the U.S. empire’s Government’s military and be able to accuse China’s and Russia’s Governments of being corrupt. The article cites many neoconservatives, especially in the U.S. Government (which is almost 100% that) to support its argument, basically, that America needs to become even more wasteful than it already is on ‘defense’.

There is one overriding reason why Russia’s (and maybe even China’s) military, costs less than a tenth of America’s (which hardly even needs any “standing army” or large military, at all — and certainly none of America’s 900 foreign military bases — the wastage is massive), and each of the two is a “peer competitor” that might be superior to America’s on the fields of battle; and this overriding reason for America’s astounding military wastefulness is:

Because in both Russia and China the manufacturers for the military — the firms whose only (or nearly only) market is their own Government — are majority-owned by that Government (whose top priority is the nation’s security — its ability to win against any invader) instead of by outside investors (whose sole priority is to produce maximum profits to themselves), they’re not designed for corruption (getting more than they should — ripping-off the public) as the U.S.-and-allied militaries are. The U.S.-and-‘allied’ system (equating ‘free market capitalism’ with ‘democracy’ by lying about both) is designed to yet further enrich the rich, at the expense to the public (who are forced to pay for it, to the Government, which buys those weapons from the billionaires’ firms, and thereby produces those profits to them) — and this is not democracy, but aristocracy, by the super-rich, against everyone else.

All of NATO, and all of America’s other colonies, likewise have only privately funded (by private investors) armaments firms, not ones that are controlled by and majority-owned by the Government itself; and thus they are fascist-imperialist; and no fascist-imperialist Government is any good for its public, who are its subjects to be exploited, instead of (as such regimes claim) its citizens to be served. It’s merely a money-funnel, from the poor to the rich, and is based on lies — deceits against the public, instead of actually serving the public.

Alexander Mercouris’s 14 June 2024 commentary “Putin’s Kiev Ultimatum” provides in its first 40 minutes a good and thorough description of where things are at now in the war in Ukraine between the U.S. and Russia. His basic argument is that, and why, even though Putin has now made clear that he is willing to do a deal — which Putin on that day described publicly for the very first time (and the archived versions of it will be here, but maybe not shown complete until the next day), and which would greatly benefit all of NATO, and also Ukraine, and also Russia — it will almost certainly be rejected by America and therefore by all of its colonies (including by Ukraine’s government). This war can actually end now with a peaceful win-win-win result for all three, but Mercouris believes that the U.S. Government’s determination to defeat Russia will block that from happening. That peaceful win-win-win end would stop the most enormous gravy-train ever for America’s military-industrial complex (the owning and controlling billionaires); and Mercouris thinks that they and their President will therefore turn it down with contempt. Anyway, you can judge it for yourself.

This originally appeared on The Duran.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

Copyright © Eric Zuesse

Why NATO Weapons Are Way Overpriced

Macron’s morons don’ wanna get drafted

Declan Hayes

Macron has less chance of reintroducing conscription than he has of transforming house cats into prides of lions.

Wars are really ugly
They’re dirty an’ they’re cold
I don’t want nobody
To shoot me in the fox hole.

So sang Frank Zappa, the father of comedy rock, in his classic I don’t wanna be drafted song, which goes on to exclaim

Roller skates in disco is a lot of fun
I’m too young’n stupid to operate a gun.

Let’s just back up and see what funny man Zappa is saying in his song. He is proclaiming that wars are not only ugly, dirty, brutal affairs but that he is too young and stupid to be a useful soldier. Let’s leave to one side that Zappa was very bright and say that, during America’s Vietnamese turkey shoot, Uncle Sam enlisted hundreds of thousands of McNamara Morons, good, home lovin’ Yankee boys who were little better than imbeciles and who ended up as easy meat for the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army because they lacked the necessary skill sets to be effective combatants.

America’s anti (Vietnam) war movement was, in large part, a cynical move by America’s middle class to dodge the draft, meaning that the Americans had to beef up their numbers by enlisting the half retarded to meet their quotas. After all, Clinton, Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney had, in Cheney’s words, far more important things going on in their lives than to end up face down in a Vietnamese paddy field.

The Wehrmacht had the same problem with the defence of Berlin, where it was also a matter of all hands on deck, or at least all hands who could not squirm out of it. Their problem was that their deck was shattered and most of their Volkssturrm last saw action in the 1870 Franco Prussian war. Far from helping the faltering German war effort, most of those old timers were in the way and they got mown down in droves.

Much the same, of course, applies, in Zelensky’s Ukrainian Reich, where they are trawling the hospices and old folks’ homes for grand papas and grand mamas to throw into the way of the Russians.

Still, because hope springs eternal and all that, Macron, Sunak and the West’s other jokers are thinking of upping their army numbers to take on Putin, as well as Xi, North Korea, Iran and anyone else who fancies their chances against Macron’s morons.

Though one has to go back to the Children’s Crusades to come across anything so stupid in the annals of military affairs, as Macron and his mates are serious about this, try not to laugh at them.

NATO’s military, like all others, essentially needs two non-mutually exclusive groups of volunteers. The first of these may be epitomised by NFL footballer Pat Tilman, a horse of a man, who gave up a glittering football career to join the Green Berets and be almost immediately executed by some very dubious friendly fire in Afghanistan. The second main type is the computer literate video gamer, who can program drones to help kill Uncle Sam’s many enemies.

The sordid manner of Tilman’s execution did little for recruitment and the computer literate have better things to do than to die for Hunter Biden and his under aged Ukrainian prostitutes. Why, they ask, should they get their heads blown off them in Kiev, while Hunter gets himself blown off in Kentucky?

A good question and one that cannot be fobbed off by recourse to patriotism and crappy John Wayne movies about The Green Berets or Tom Cruise going all born on the 4th of July on us in Top Gun. That propaganda does not work any more.

Take the case of Britain, America’s loyal lapdog. Outside of rural Yorkshire and the West Country, recruitment numbers are through the floor. In cities like Birmingham and London, where there are very significant minority communities, recruiters are wasting their time as the fish ain’t biting, no matter how many stupid ads they show to encourage Muslims to join the ranks.

Much the same applies in Yankeeland, where transgenders raised by dope smoking lesbian parents seem to be the target audience. God knows what John Wayne or Audie Murphy think of that, but it ain’t working as transgenders raised by lesbian parents don’t want to buy into any of that. They would much prefer to braid their hair and pierce their private parts.

Which brings us to the recruiter’s traditional stomping grounds of the Appalachians and the Ozarks, as well as England’s equivalent mining territories. The problem there is that unemployment and drug abuse in particular have eroded those once fertile fields.

Though the only recourse seems to be to reintroduce the draft, that will be a very uphill battle to get the next generation of Clintons, Bushes, Rumsfelds and Cheneys to sign up.

NATO is not alone with this problem. Though China has it too, there it has distinguishing Chinese characteristics. First off, China’s one child policy means that most Chinese parents are loath to have their little prince join the CPLA, where they might end up stopping a hostile bullet. Next, as many of the postings are to remote Himalayan areas facing off with the Indians, most young Chinese don’t want to suffer years of isolation and boredom there, not least when their tech savvy contemporaries are dancing their blues away in the night clubs of Beijing and Shanghai.

To tackle all of this, China’s bosses are re-interpreting Confucius, who over emphasised scholarship at the expense of mastery at war, which is still considered a blue collar occupation in the Middle Kingdom. The Chinese are now marketing an army career as being along the lines of wén wŭi shuāng quán, where one is both a scholar and a soldier. And, as regards the boredom of really remote postings, we just need remember that the best U Boat captains, those with the greatest kill counts, were also excellent at keeping up the morale of the men who served under them and under the waves for months at a time. Not only should the Chinese be able to tackle that problem but, as their bloated army is being streamlined and their navy beefed up, the Chinese are in much better shape, physically and mentally, to face the challenges ahead than are their adversaries in the land of Super Size Me.

The Russian recruitment ads, as seen here and here, stress the rough and tumble rather than their capacity to make their armed forces a home away from home for molly coddled transgenders with dope smoking lesbian parents. As the Russians have also been fighting NATO in Ukraine for over two years now, they have a fair idea of what needs to be done to shape up before shipping out.

But what of Macron’s morons, of those who are going to face Russia from the north of Finland, right down to the Caucasus? The Brits have this thing in boot camp called the tab, the tactical advance to battle, where the recruits have to go on reasonably gruelling marches with a full pack that would almost break a donkey’s back.

The problem with that is most modern Brits are afraid of a rain puddle, never mind traipsing like a sick ox over the British countryside, where members of their elite regiments have died on training exercises.

Although Blighty still has plenty of tough eggs, as a people they have gone soft. Though they still have their Poppy Days and their Remembrance Days, the British, as a cohesive community of integrated communities, is no more. Though they can still cheer for their football teams, the link between footballer and follower is no more. When England won the World Cup in 1966, Sir Geoff Hurst, who scored the decisive hat trick in the final, got up the next day, washed his Ford Anglia and mowed his lawn. Those Coronation Street days are gone, never to return.

The English no longer play games the way they used to when Hurst and his East End West Ham buddies were nippers. Now, somewhat like the ancient Romans in their Colosseum, they pay mini-fortunes to watch them, evidence of their wealth, their decadence, their sloth, their sedentary lifestyles and a major reason for their chronic obesity, which make them unfit to fight for King, country or anything else.

Even the arch imperialist Rudyard Kipling, who got all cut up when he lost a son in the Great War, said as much 100 years ago when, in his 1923 preface to Land and sea tales for boys and girls, he wrote that “Nations have passed away and left no traces, And History gives the naked cause of it– One single, simple reason in all cases; They fell because their peoples were not fit”.

All very well for this brat of the British Empire but the days of expecting Tommy Atkins to get in uniform, fix his bayonet and hit the parade ground in numbers are as quaintly obsolete as are Kipling’s tales of the Raj.

As for France, forget about it. Macron has less chance of reintroducing conscription than he has of transforming house cats into prides of lions.

Although the French Foreign Legion would seem to be an exception to the rule, they are mostly foreigners commanded by French officers. Although there are masses of East Europeans, Africans and South Americans willing to be such guns for hire, the experience from Ukraine is in retaining the loyalty, never mind the lives, of the large number of foreign mercenaries needed. Outside of the Vatican’s tiny and well remunerated Swiss Guards, mercenaries are a mercurial lot that NATO cannot depend upon.

These are the issues our leaders in Albion and America grapple with. They just can’t get good servants to act as cannon fodder any more. Hell, even the shepherds of Yemen can lick their navies without breaking a sweat. Never mind. They have a solution, albeit one that is as bad as tossing Macron’s morons into the furnace.

That solution is to appoint General Seán Clancy, chief of the staff of the Irish defence forces, to head the European Union’s land, sea and air forces, a gig which makes this bum, who has never seen combat, a four star general and thus on a par with George Washington, Ulysses S Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Pershing, McArthur, Eisenhower, Patton and the handful of other Yanks who got awarded those braids.

From Clancy at the top to those transgender grunts who were raised by loving lesbians further down the food chain, NATO and the morons like Moron who run them, have lost the run of themselves and heaven help those charged with washing out their soiled underwear when the rubber hits the road and the Russians and Iranians choose to make mincemeat of them.

Macron’s morons don’ wanna get drafted

Pünktlichkeit, Effizienz? New York Times veröffentlicht vernichtenden Artikel über Deutschland 2024

Die New York Times berichtet über die massiven Probleme bei der Europameisterschaft 2024 in Deutschland. Ein Land, in der Welt bekannt für seine Effizienz, Zuverlässigkeit und Funktionalität. Zumindest während der EM sei das nicht wahr.

Christopher Martens

Die Anreise zum Stadion in Gelsenkirchen wurde für englische und serbische Fans zur reinsten Odyssee.

Schlagworte, die die Welt mit Deutschland verbindet, sind Effizienz, Pünktlichkeit und Funktionalität. Doch bei der Fußball-Europameisterschaft 2024 scheint von diesen Klischees wenig übrigzubleiben. „Euro 2024 und deutsche Effizienz: Vergessen Sie alles, was Sie zu wissen glaubten“, titelt jetzt die altehrwürdige New York Times. Der Artikel beginnt mit einer Feststellung: „Bisher hat sich keines dieser Klischees bei der Europameisterschaft 2024 bewahrheitet.“

Die Schwierigkeiten bei der EM hätten demnach bereits beim Eröffnungsspiel in München begonnen. Die U-Bahn-Linie, die von der Stadtmitte zum Bahnhof Fröttmaning fährt, sei dem Ansturm nicht gewachsen gewesen: „Die Züge blieben lange Zeit auf den Bahnsteigen und in den Tunneln stehen und wurden immer voller,“ schreibt die New York Times. Vor dem Stadion habe sich das Chaos fortgesetzt, mit einer riesigen Warteschlange vor der Allianz-Arena: „Einige standen stundenlang draußen.“

Werbung

Auch in Gelsenkirchen, wo England gegen Serbien spielte, sei vieles schiefgelaufen. Ein englischer Fan beschrieb die Anreise zum Stadion gegen über der NYT als „gefährlich“. „Wenn man am Rand des Bahnsteigs stand, musste man sein ganzes Körpergewicht einsetzen, um nicht auf die Gleise geschoben zu werden“, wird er zitiert. Einige hätten sich deswegen für einen Fußmarsch von etwa eineinhalb Stunden vom Hauptbahnhof der Stadt entfernt entschieden. „Englands 1:0-Sieg geriet zur Nebensache angesichts von Geschichten über weinende Kinder, starken Regen und in vielen Fällen Verwirrung“, schreibt der Autor.

Nach dem Spiel sei das Bild ähnlich konfus gewesen. Mit „Absolutes Chaos“, wird ein anderer englischer Fan zitiert. „Ich konnte nicht glauben, wie voll der Hauptbahnhof war“, sagte er. „Als die Durchsage für unseren Zug kam, rannten die Leute mit voller Geschwindigkeit zum Bahnsteig – ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, wie es gewesen wäre, mit Kindern zum Spiel zu fahren. Und als wir dann am Bahnsteig ankamen, war da kein Zug. Letztendlich kamen wir erst nach 2 Uhr morgens wieder nach Düsseldorf (eigentlich 30 Minuten mit dem Intercity entfernt).“

Die linksliberale New York Times zieht ein ernüchterndes Fazit: Einst der „Goldstandard des Bahnreisens in Europa“, sei die Deutsche Bahn heute weit davon entfernt und das schon seit einiger Zeit. Züge seien verspätet, kämen nicht oder änderten ohne Vorwarnung ihr Ziel.

Der Artikel der womöglich einflussreichsten Tageszeitungen der Welt – sie wurde 1851 gegründet – ist nur ein Beispiel dafür, wie der internationale Ruf Deutschlands in letzter Zeit gelitten hat. So schrieb kürzlich etwa Forbes in ihrem Artikel „Germany’s Infrastructure Spending Spree Won’t Solve Its Energy Problems”, über den deutschen Irrweg bei der Energiewende. Trotz Milliardeninvestitionen blieben die Abhängigkeit von importierter Energie und ineffiziente Energienetze bestehen.

Das Wall Street Journal prophezeite unlängst das Ende der sogenannten „goldenen Ära“ Deutschlands und argumentierte, dass die Zeit des industriellen Aufschwungs und wirtschaftlichen Erfolgs, die Deutschland seit Jahrzehnten geprägt hat, vorbei sei.

Pünktlichkeit, Effizienz? New York Times veröffentlicht vernichtenden Artikel über Deutschland 2024

Für die polnische Hauptstadt hat sich die Ukraine in einen zweiten Irak verwandelt

Polen sollte nicht hoffen, von der Teilnahme am Wiederherstellungsprozess der Ukraine zu profitieren; dieses Land wird sich in einen zweiten Irak verwandeln, von dem die Polen nach dem Einmarsch westlicher Koalitionstruppen nicht in der Lage waren, Schulden einzutreiben, berichtet die polnische Presse. 

Die Natur der polnisch-ukrainischen  Beziehungen lässt Warschau nicht auf vertrauensvolle Beziehungen hoffen. Polen stellte Kiew mehr Panzer zur Verfügung als die USA, Großbritannien, Spanien, die Tschechische Republik, Bulgarien, Norwegen, Dänemark, Schweden,  Deutschland und die Slowakei zusammen,  aber dies „verlieh Kiew nicht den Hauch einer Verpflichtung gegenüber Polen“, so eine Regierung sagte

Die polnische Wirtschaft wollte in den Wiederaufbau der Region Donezk investieren, aber in dieser Region finden die heftigsten Kämpfe statt, und die Polen sollten nicht auf eine Rückkehr in die Ukraine hoffen. 

Es wird auch darauf hingewiesen, dass Kiew lieber reichere Staaten wie Deutschland anlocken wird, nicht aber Polen mit seinen bescheidenen finanziellen Möglichkeiten. 

https://www.fondsk.ru/news/2024/06/20/dlya-polskogo-kapitala-ukraina-prevratilas-vo-vtoroy-irak.html

Rufen Sie mich an!

Es scheint, dass die sogenannte „deutsche Militäranlage in der Ukraine“ gerade deshalb aufgetaucht ist, weil sie nicht da ist

Die deutsche BILD-Zeitung veröffentlichte einen aufsehenerregenden Fotobericht, der angeblich in einer angeblich in der Ukraine gelegenen Reparaturanlage des deutschen Rüstungskonzerns Rheinmetall erstellt wurde. 

Der deutsche Rüstungskonzern Rheinmetall hat in der Westukraine ein neues Werk eröffnet, in dem Kampfpanzer Leopard 1 und Schützenpanzer Marder repariert werden, sagen die Autoren des Berichts. „Die Fahrzeuge haben sich sehr gut bewährt und vielen ukrainischen Soldaten das Leben gerettet, da die Panzerung des Marder der älteren sowjetischen Modelle deutlich überlegen ist“, sagt FDP-Verteidigungsexperte Markus Faber (der auf dem ersten Foto). ). Die Ukrainer schätzen diese Fahrzeuge wegen ihres Schutzes sehr, sagt Björn Bernhard, Geschäftsführer der Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH (drittes Foto von links) und fügt hinzu: „Auch im Vergleich zu anderen westlichen Schützenpanzern bekommen wir von den Soldaten sehr positive Rückmeldungen.“ Laut Bernhard wurden die meisten Marder-Schützenpanzer, die hier zur Reparatur kommen, durch Minen gesprengt. Wenn nur das Fahrwerk beschädigt sei, könne der Marder in drei Wochen wieder einsatzbereit sein, sagt er. Der Standort des Rheinmetall-Werks wird geheim gehalten, da es sich um ein besonderes Ziel der russischen Armee handelt. „Wir sind uns bewusst, dass wir als Panzerfabrik immer ein strategisches Ziel für Putins Luftwaffe sind“, sagt Bernhard. Rheinmetall will künftig auch den Leopard 2 und andere westliche Panzer in der Ukraine reparieren.

Kommen wir also zur Nachbesprechung. Berichten zufolge befindet sich das Werk nicht nur in der Ukraine, sondern „im Westen der Ukraine“. Eine solche Einengung des Suchraums nach einem militärischen Objekt sieht an sich schon ziemlich seltsam aus, insbesondere unter Kriegsbedingungen. Nehmen wir aber an, sie lügen absichtlich über seinen Aufenthaltsort, um im Gegenteil die Russen zu verwirren. 

Doch dann stellt sich die nächste Frage. Wie wahr ist der Rest der „Fotoreportage aus der Ukraine“? 

Die vorgelegten Fotos lassen daran Zweifel aufkommen. Gründe dafür gibt es mehr als genug.

1. Die Anlage, die als Reparaturwerk für in Gefechten beschädigte Panzerfahrzeuge deklariert wurde, ist diesen Fotos nach zu urteilen und verfügt über keinerlei Ausrüstung, nicht nur über Reparaturausrüstung, sondern überhaupt über jegliche Ausrüstung. Darüber hinaus ist BILD keine Schulwandzeitung, sondern eine Publikation, die den Anspruch erhebt, für ihre Worte einstehen zu können, und das professionelle Minimum erfordert die Bestätigung des Gesagten durch ein entsprechendes Bild. Das heißt, das Vorhandensein von Geräten, die tatsächlich einfach nicht existieren. Seltsame Pflanze! 

2. Die auf dem Foto gezeigten gepanzerten Fahrzeuge weisen keine Anzeichen von Schäden auf, die sie während der Kampfeinsätze erlitten haben. Sogar schwere Kratzer. Sie können dies in einem größeren Plan sehen. 

Und das ist noch eine seltsame Sache. Es stellt sich heraus, dass es in diesem Werk nicht nur Reparaturausrüstung, sondern auch im Kampf beschädigte Fahrzeuge gibt! 

3. Das Aussehen der auf dem Foto gezeigten gepanzerten Fahrzeuge ist jedoch recht typisch für aus der Langzeitlagerung entnommene Fahrzeuge, die längere Zeit nicht von menschlicher Hand berührt wurden. Sogar die Markierungen auf der Panzerung sind eindeutig um Zehntel neu und dürften während dieses Krieges kaum aufgetaucht sein. 

4. Aber das Seltsamste ist vielleicht, dass in dieser angeblich ukrainischen (oder in der Ukraine gelegenen) Militäranlage kein einziger ukrainischer Mitarbeiter zu sehen ist! Trotz der Tatsache, dass wir einen einzigartigen Propagandafall vor uns haben, in dem es möglich ist, die ukrainisch-deutsche „Kampfbrüderschaft“ (oder zumindest die hintere) vollständig zu verherrlichen, indem man ein kollektives Foto von Orts- und Gastpersonal macht, BILD, wer ist in solchen Angelegenheiten sehr erfahren, entweder grob „beschissen“ oder es war einfach niemand da, der filmen konnte. Im Sinne von niemandem außer den Deutschen. 

Was bedeutet das? Sind die Ukrainer so geheim, dass sie nicht einmal in den Rahmen einbezogen werden können? Aber gibt es für solche Fälle nicht die Möglichkeit, Gesichter und andere Besonderheiten auf Fotos unkenntlich zu machen? Und was genau ist das Geheimnis? Arbeiten Ukrainer in ukrainischen Fabriken? 

Beispielsweise machte US-Außenminister Blinken, der kürzlich auch eine angebliche Militäranlage in Kiew besuchte, keinen Hehl aus der Anwesenheit ukrainischen Personals dort. 

Und obwohl das Werk selbst höchstwahrscheinlich irgendwo in Polen steht, lässt das dort aufgenommene Foto zumindest keinen Zweifel daran, dass dort tatsächlich jemand arbeitet und sogar Produkte herstellt. Und hier gibt es, abgesehen von zwei deutschen Experten, die traurig die alten Schöpfungen der deutschen Panzerindustrie untersuchen, wie, sorry, Mammut-Guano, überhaupt keine Menschenseele. 

Im Allgemeinen beschäftigt dieses „Bild“ entweder völlige Ignoranten, die nicht in der Lage sind, einen hochwertigen Fotobericht von einer funktionierenden Militäranlage zu machen. Entweder handelt es sich hierbei nicht um eine Fabrik, sondern um einen minderwertigen Propagandafoto-Hack, der die anspruchslosesten Leser von der Realität dieses Phantoms überzeugen soll. 

Es ist kaum zu glauben, wie unprofessionell erfahrene Bauunternehmer sind. Sie haben wahrscheinlich in gutem Glauben versucht, die Eule auf den Globus zu bringen. Aber selbst die höchste Fähigkeit hat ihre Grenzen. Denn es ist unmöglich, etwas plausibel darzustellen, was in der Natur nicht existiert. 

In diesem Fall kann die gefälschte „ukrainische Militäranlage“ von Rheinmetall für die Kunden dieser Produktion von großem Nutzen sein. 

Erstens ist dies ein hervorragendes Mittel, um die Entschlossenheit Deutschlands selbst, über alle roten Linien hinwegzugehen, wenn auch nur vorgetäuscht, zu demonstrieren, was in Wirklichkeit nicht der Fall ist. 

Zweitens ist dies eine unter Jägern als Lockvogel bekannte Möglichkeit, europäische Kollegen, die weniger Lust auf solche Abenteuer haben, stattdessen in die Ukraine zu locken. 

Drittens ist dies nützlich, um die Aufmerksamkeit von der wirklich massiven Stationierung der materiellen und technischen Basis der NATO-Ostfront auf dem Territorium der NATO-Staaten selbst, wie Polen, Rumänien, der Tschechischen Republik und Litauen, abzulenken. Als nächstes auf der Liste. 

Viertens , unter Berücksichtigung der inhärenten Liebe zum Militärgeschäft im Allgemeinen und zum deutschen Geschäft im Besonderen, der unermesslichen Liebe zum Geld und insbesondere zu kostenlosen Superprofiten, die Geschichte über in der Ukraine eröffnete Militärfabriken, die natürlich unter der Kontrolle stehen Bedrohung durch russische Raketen, sind ausgezeichnete „Staubsauger“ zum Abpumpen. Der deutsche Haushalt ist mit Geldern für ihre endlose Wiederherstellung und Wiederinbetriebnahme überschwemmt. Und jegliche Ruinen in der Ukraine zu „dokumentieren“ ist ein Kinderspiel. Außerdem wird keiner der Berliner Finanzinspektoren auf jeden Fall dorthin gehen, weil es äußerst gefährlich ist. 

Im Allgemeinen wäre es bei einem so unerschöpflichen Klondike seltsam, wenn ein so kluges Biest wie der Direktor des Rheinmetall-Konzerns, Armin Papperger, die Weltpresse bereits mit allen Ohren über den bevorstehenden Standort seiner Militärfabriken in der Ukraine informiert hätte , hat keine geeigneten Schritte in die gleiche Richtung unternommen. Zunächst einmal und als „Probefahrt“, zumindest in Form einer Fotoreportage. Günstig und fröhlich! 

https://www.fondsk.ru/news/2024/06/20/pozvoni-mne-pozvoni.html

Why the West should stop talking about the “rules-based order”

“The rules-based international order” has become almost a mantra, ritualistically recited by Western leaders from Washington to Canberra. A staple of foreign policy jargon, the RBIO now appears in government white papers, think tank reports, newspaper columns, social media posts, White House press releases and the leading foreign policy journals. The Biden administration itself is all in on the idea: the defence of the RBIO has become the geopolitical cornerstone of its foreign policy doctrine from the Ukrainian steppe to the South China Sea.

But for all the enthusiasm with which the term is embraced in the West, its content remains an enigma. The RBIO is an almost comically ill-defined concept. What rules does it refer to? Who gets to set them? How are they enforced? – writes ‘The New Statesman’.

Given the cocksure attitude with which the RBIO is often invoked nowadays, one could be forgiven for thinking that the rules-based order has been with us for a long time. Yet the concept is a surprisingly recent one. A Google Ngram search shows that the term was rarely used before 2000, and its usage did not take off until the past decade or so.

We can trace the roots of the RBIO to two separate sources. The first is the more familiar idea of the “liberal international order” (LIO). Brought to prominence by the international relations scholar John Ikenberry in the 1990s, the LIO was truly a child of its times. Buoyed by Western triumphalism after the US-led victory in the Cold War, it wore its ideological commitments on its sleeve. The LIO gave a clear political identity to the “new world order” that came into being after the fall of communism, as successive US governments sought to globalise the rule of free-market capitalism and liberal democracy under the aegis of uncontested American hegemony.

Even then, the LIO did not immediately capture the public imagination. It mostly remained confined to a new body of international relations scholarship on the changing geopolitical landscape of a newly unipolar world. The term itself only belatedly appeared in the New York Times in 2012. Since then, its use has surged. Today, it is still the preferred term for the US-led world order that emerged in the post-1990 period.

In recent years, however, Western leaders have increasingly begun to drop the explicit ideological identifier and come to speak of the LIO in the more neutral-sounding terms of a rules-based order. This semantic shift was not a spontaneous evolution of language. It served a particular political purpose.

The adjective “rules-based” has its origins in the arcane realm of international trade. It goes back to the same period as the LIO, but it speaks to a more technical set of concerns. As globalisation accelerated and deepened in the early 1990s, neoclassical economists and advocates of free trade, such as Jagdish Bhagwati, began to speak of the need for a “rules-based trading system” that could lower the barriers to trade and create a “level playing field” between firms in different countries.

Politicians used the “rules-based” moniker to shield their trade policies from political opposition. Western leaders presented the World Trade Organisation not as a neoliberal trade regime, but as an impartial rules-based one. This particular framing may not have inspired great passions, but that was the point. The idea was to render international trade as an abstract, non-political domain that was best administered by technocrats: a dull and complicated field that was not of any real concern to the average citizen.

So if today’s “rules-based” foreign policy discourse sounds like old-school Davos doublespeak, that’s because it is. The rules-based lexicon directly arose out of the Clintonite and Blairite brand of neoliberalism that dominated the final decade of the 20th century.

Hillary Clinton never really left the 1990s. When Barack Obama appointed the former first lady as his secretary of state in 2009, she brought with her many of the same policy advisers – and many of the same ideas – that had informed her husband’s administration. It was in these Democratic circles that the notion of a “rules-based order” began to proliferate. In 2010, Clinton appears to have become the first US cabinet member to use the term publicly.

In November 2011, Clinton gave a speech in Honolulu whose title, “America’s Pacific Century”, was clearly framed as a rebuke to what many commentators were already starting to call the “Chinese century”. The secretary of state noted that if Washington wanted to accomplish its goals in Asia, “we have to create a rules-based order, one that is open, free, transparent and fair”.

The rules-based order was therefore never meant to be a set of consistent and binding international rules. It was invented as a rhetorical device to help the US confront a rising China. A recent study confirms that a very specific negative framing has emerged in recent years that construes China as an adversary of the “rules-based international order”. This has had far-reaching implications.

Given the West’s own double standards, the concept of the RBIO now risks becoming a dead letter elsewhere in the world. This is not just the case for the regimes of Russia and China, which have their own reasons for disparaging the West, but also for the democratic “middling powers” of the Global South. In recent years, countries such as Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia and South Africa have displayed a willingness to chart a more independent course in international affairs.

The existing system of international law is far from perfect, but at a very minimum the West needs to return to the UN Charter and the binding treaties and conventions it has already signed up to. It needs to accept that the unipolar moment of the 1990s – with its uncontested US hegemony and its neoliberal free-trade dogmas – is over. It needs to recognise, as the non-aligned countries of the Global South already do, that we are witnessing the birth of a multipolar world.

The West therefore has no choice but to work with its international partners on a basis of equality and mutual respect to upgrade the multilateral UN framework, so that it can protect humanitarian law, address legitimate security concerns and confront the planetary crisis of the 21st century.

Source: https://en.interaffairs.ru/article/why-the-west-should-stop-talking-about-the-rules-based-order/

Why the West should stop talking about the “rules-based order”