Fishing for Narratives

and smashing a few crappy ones

[Image: a frame from an example discussion video.]

Published 2023-04-11

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Introduction

While I enjoy reading essays or listening to presentations by knowledgeable elements of the independent media, I have begun even more to enjoy discussions held amongst them. An earlier essay noted the emergence of linkages between persons of the independent media. This essay is a continuation of that theme.

To name some names: Gonzalo Lira's round tables, The Duran with guests, Haiphong with Berletic, The Gaggle with guests, Paul Jay (or other interviewers from theAnalysis.news) with guests (especially Lawrence Wilkerson), Judge Napolitano with guests (especially Scott Ritter or Douglas Macgregor), and many others.

To borrow a phrase from George Szamuely, let’s smash some narratives.

We Need to Defend Democracy in Ukraine

Bbbbb-ullshit. US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin admitted that the mission is/was regime change in Russia. Even Forgetful Joe admitted it when he wandered off script in Germany.

We now know, thanks to admissions by former Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande, that the Minsk Accords were a delaying tactic to train the Ukraine military to NATO standards. Meanwhile the Nazi's of the Azov Battalion, Right Sector and C14 started an "Anti-Terrorist Operation" in which they inflicted terror on other Ukrainians creating a civil war. This was the policy implemented by the government which the USA had chosen following its "most blatant coup in history" (to quote Ray McGovern quoting Stratfor).

The war in Ukraine was not "unprovoked". It was not even "allowed" to happen. It was engineered.

We Need to Defend Democracy in Taiwan

Now, firstly Taiwan is the largest island in a collection of islands that call themselves the Republic of China. Let that sink in. Not the Republic of Taiwan, The Republic of China is the official title for their attempt at nationhood. If you've studied recent Chinese history you will know that the losing side of the Chinese civil war, interrupted by Japan during WWII, was the Kuomintang (KMT; the party representing the Republic of China during the civil war). When the KMT lost they fled to the island of Taiwan with stolen riches in gold and art. The victor in the civil war was the Communist Party of China (CPC) and they had quite a lot to do in establishing the Peoples Republic of China rather than running after the KMT.

The calculation may have run something like: well the island isn't going anywhere and neither is the mainland. We'll talk. We have the same culture, language, history, cuisine etc.. They'll come around eventually. All we need to do is ensure that they are not able to declare themselves as a nation. The Chinese have a very long view of history.

During Cold War 1.0 this policy, more commonly known as the "One China Policy", was taken on board by the USA during the Kissinger/Nixon visit during 1971 to separate the two communist powers. It is still listed as USA policy on their State Department's website, but the USA is now noted more for the breach than the observance.

The conflict with Russia in Ukraine seems largely to have been due to some old Cold War hatred. Russia was developing cool new weapons like the hypersonics, and it was establishing influence in Europe due to the sale of its energy. Of course, the Anglo-sphere has forever been afraid of a bond, and especially a strong bond between Russia and Germany. These seems the combination of fears which drove the Anglo-sphere to engineer the conflict in Ukraine.

As for the civil war currently being engineered between the mainland of the Peoples Republic of China and the islands which may wish to be known as the Republic of China, while being out of the same playbook, the motivation is far simpler. Its all about pure economic power.

The civil war which the USA is attempting to engineer in China is an attack on China's growing economic dominance. It has nothing to do with the civil rights of Uighurs or democracy on the island of Taiwan. The Chinese are investing hundreds of billions of US dollars in their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This will cement their economic dominance for decades to come. This trading infrastructure and investment in nations connected to it is the threat to which the USA is responding.

The USA is the Essential Nation

Post WWII the USA produced 50% of the world's industrial output. With this immense power and the backing of its and other international banks they established the Bretton Woods system in which the USA dollar was pegged to gold and served as a stable international currency. Along with pegged currency were created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to ostensibly control international finance and direct funds to rebuild national economies.

The political wing of this new system was the League of Nations version 2.0 known as the United Nations equipped with its Security Council including 5 permanent members who possess a veto; USA, UK, Russia, China and France.

Investment in rebuilding Europe and Germany in particular, and also Japan enabled an effective money recycling system whereby the profits generated from US industry could be re-invested in these recovering economies. Economists like Yanis Varoufakis have praised this architecture. For reasons I forget, nations such as France wished to convert their dollars into gold according to the Bretton Woods agreement. The gold had become more valuable than the equivalent in dollars. In the same year that Nixon was befriending China he took the USA off the gold standard. Soon thereafter a deal is made with Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern oil producers which allows them to price oil as they wish but that it must be sold in US dollars. The profits in US dollars are then to be re-invested in the US by purchasing Treasury bonds. This created the Petro-dollar.

During the 1990s the shift in manufacturing to south east Asia begins and the USA's economy shifts towards that which Michael Hudson refers to as a FIRE economy (Financialization, Insurance and Real Estate). This is essentially a 'rentier' economy which produces little physical produce. There are exceptions, like the USA's subsidized agricultural industry and their electronics industries, though the later will eventually also be relocated.

Currently, there is nothing essential at all about the USA. Pick any industry. You'll find an equivalent or better elsewhere in the world. Their diplomats don't negotiate, they demand. The USA has lost all moral legitimacy over the last two decades of constant and usually illegal warfare. Their banking sector has stolen billions from other nations. They even needed Russian rockets to resupply the International Space Station. The USA is no longer a "shining city on the hill" but a gangster garrison with thugs roaming the diplomatic streets. Their legislature is owned by their oligarchs. The rules of their "rules based order" are for others while they act irrespective of them.

The BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) already has more economic influence (measured in GDP or PPP) than the G7, and BRICS is growing. The non-G7 nations of the world are not interested in entering the City on the Hill. They have built their own towns on the fertile plains and are trading with one another.

[Image: Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on theAnalysis.news]

Undermining Even Your Own Objectives

Since the 1990's USA's foreign policy has been hijacked by a bunch of Straussian neo-cons with the existing cabal of bankers and billionaires running the show in cahoots with other wealthy globalists represented at meetings like the Bilderberg Group and World Economic Forum. War criminal that Kissinger is, he at least had some brains in his head. Although not a war criminal the almost equally reprehensible Zbigniew Brzezinski was also a strategic thinker. Since the early 2000s the USA's executive has managed to isolate itself from any intelligent advice and has completely succumbed to the Military Industrial (Congressional) Complex which President Eisenhower warned the USA citizenry about so many decades ago.

The War of Terror has been a wonderful money making machine for the Complex and has been egged on by all elements of the MICIMATT (Military Industrial Congressional Intelligence Media Academic and Think Tank) complex. But, efforts to establish lasting political influence in areas were the USA has used its military have absolutely failed; Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria. Indeed, a current assessment would be that they have lost influence. That which remains is the influence which the CIA and MI-6 have over various fanatical religious groups which are used to cause trouble.

Instead, the Shia "axis of resistance" runs from Iran via Iraq through Syria to Lebanon. Iran has withstood the, at the time, mother of all sanction regimes and has just re-established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, brokered by China no less. Syria is being invited back into the Arab League. Turkiye and Syria are to meet up soon and re-affirm the Astana agreement to resolve tensions in northern Syria, with this being brokered by Russia. This will leave the USA illegal military base in northeastern Syria rather bereft of friends.

The recent mother of all sanctions packages (the EU is up to 11 of them) against Russia, designed to induce a change of government, has failed utterly. The USA executive's destruction of 3 of the 4 Nord Stream pipelines has successfully severed the economic relationship between Russia and Germany but has and will continue to severely damage the German economy. Resistance to continuing to support the idiotic war in Ukraine is growing in Europe. The impounding or theft of central bank currencies or gold from Venezuela ($2 billion, gold, by the Bank of England, plus the billions of dollars of assets of Citgo, the US registered arm of the Venezuelan national oil company, by the USA), Afghanistan ($7 billion, national reserves, by USA banks) and Russia (~$130 billion, foreign reserves, by USA and European banks) has taught the rest of the world that not only does the USA create wars to feed its arms manufacturers but that "western" banks or governments will steal your assets.

Is it at all surprising that a whole range of international trade agreements have been reached between non-Western nations to use national currencies? Iran and China, Saudi Arabia and China, Russia and China, Russia and India, Brazil and China are just a few pairings which have agreed to use their own national currencies in international trade.

The USA empire is flailing in its demise. Do not, however, expect the uber-rich to suffer. They will not. But, should the USA citizenry regain control of their government, its military will not be so easily able to create the chaos from which the wealthy have recently profited. This, of course, depends on dramatic changes to laws for election funding. The problem has been well studied and a variety of alternatives are awaiting perusal and trial. Go have a chat with Professor Lawrence Lessig if you’d like to know more, USA citizens.

Creating New Narratives

Thanks to the USA's Dept of Defence opening up "the Internet" to commercial enterprise we have been given a few poisons and a few gifts. The poisons would be spam and surveillance. The gifts would be extremely good international communications tools (e.g Signal) and the emergence of the new media.

One of the great gifts of the new media is that it is "on demand". Choose what you want when you want. Even the disinformation warfare units are failing with a range of print, audio, video and social media platforms emerging. The market is doing what markets do given the underlying technology developed by the hardware manufacturers and the standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Its not all roses, as censorship and deplatforming are also "features" of this new landscape along with the surveillance. Nonetheless, these independent commentators are there offering differing narratives from the USA and Europe's controlled legacy media.

We are living through one of the most dramatic changes in international power relations since the end of WWII. Sir Winston Churchill (the art forger and magnificent leader of Great Britain during WWII) gave his "Iron Curtain" speech and essentially created Cold War 1.0. Following the destruction of the Berlin Wall and then the dissolution of the USSR the USA rode solo as the world "super-power". The power balance is shifting as Asia rises and brings with her South America and parts of Africa.

For those who've been around a while and had the opportunity to study history there is so much to observe, discuss and contextualize.

Enjoy the freedom of this new media. Everyone is competing for your attention. Fish around and see what you catch!

PS: If you're looking for new sources I've kept mostly up to date an article in which I list those who I find of great interest.

Sources

Examples of the conversations

Can Leaks Prevent More War in Ukraine or Taiwan? Ray McGovern, Judge Napolitano interviews Ray McGovern, Judging Freedom, 2023-04-10

NATO on the Ropes in Ukraine? Multipolarity RISING w/ Brian Berletic LIVE!, Danny Haiphong and guest, The Left Lens with Danny Haiphong, 2023-04-09

The Roundtable #49: The View from Russia, with RWA and Donbass Davushka, Lira and guests, The Round Table, 2023-04-04

https://www.youtube.com/@theroundtablegonzalolira5818

Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage and One Year Since Russia's Invasion of Ukraine - Larry Wilkerson, interviews Lawrence Wilkerson, theAnalysis.news, 2023-03-22

Russia conservatism. Ideological conflict w/ West - Paul Robinson, Alexander Mercouris, Glenn Diesen, Mercouris and Prof. Diesen interview Prof. Robinson, The Duran, 2023-04-08

TG 1027: The Gaggle Talks To Matt Ehret, Peter, George and guest, The Gaggle, 2023-02-20

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