Former Japanese prime minister provocatively visits Taiwan

In another provocative move directed at Beijing, former Japanese prime minister and virulent anti-China hawk Taro Aso recently visited Taiwan for three days. He met with senior government officials, including President Tsai Ing-wen and declared that Japan, the US and Taiwan should ramp up plans for war with mainland China.

Former Japanese prime minister provocatively visits Taiwan

Related:

China strongly condemns Japanese politician’s visit to Taiwan: FM spokesperson

Senators Warren & Graham Want To Create New Online Speech Police Commission

The regulation will continue until internet freedom improves, apparently. Last year we wrote about Senator Michael Bennet pushing a terrible “Digital Platform Commission” to be the new internet speech police, and now we have the bipartisan free speech hating duo of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham with their proposal for a Digital Consumer Protection Commission.

Senators Warren & Graham Want To Create New Online Speech Police Commission

Leading liberal Zionist voices call for ending U.S. aid to Israel

The damage Israel is causing to its support base in the United States is becoming more apparent. A very bright warning flare went up this weekend, appearing once again in the New York Times. This time, it was columnist Nicholas Kristof who took a much bolder and far less speculative step than his colleague, Tom Friedman did last week by suggesting that the very heart of AIPAC’s mission—annual military aid to Israel—should be phased out.

Friedman, you might recall, floated the idea that a “reassessment” of the United States’ relationship with Israel might be on the horizon, if not already starting. As I noted, that was meant as a warning to Israel, not a reflection of any actual steps by Joe Biden’s White House to launch a policy process of reassessment. Indeed, as subsequent events confirmed, and as was indicated by the fact that Friedman cited no sources, even anonymous ones, this was the columnist trying to use his column to get Israel to back off because political winds are shifting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not heed the warning, instead moving forward uncompromisingly on his domestic agenda and misleading the media about his conversation with Biden. Needless to say, that didn’t sit well in Washington.

Leading liberal Zionist voices call for ending U.S. aid to Israel

Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams?

Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams?

The United States owes other nations something different, something new. Democracy is in peril at home and abroad partly because of the impunity that keeps Abrams employed. Though his latest role may be somewhat ceremonial, his appointment is out of step with the demands of our time. There should be consequences for someone like Elliott Abrams. At minimum, it ought to be possible to fail out of public service, but for that to happen, we have to change the way we define failure. The massacre in El Mozote was one such failing — not a regrettable historical footnote but a catastrophic atrocity that indicts the administration Abrams served. His reward must be ignominy. The world deserves nothing less.

Previously:

Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission

How the Billionaires Control U.S.-and-Allied Governments

An artists’ mordant representation of the Euromafia: all basically illegitimate leaders at the head of fake democracies.

In virtually every country that’s allied with the U.S. Government against Russia and against China, there is a low public job-approval-rating for its head-of-state and for its Government, and a rating that is far lower than is the public job-approval for the leaders of the countries that the U.S. gang are trying to regime-change. If a given nation’s leader’s net public job-approval rating (% who approve, minus the % who disapprove) is above 0%, or positive, then that is an indication the nation’s Government is a democracy, because then that leader is satisfying his public (including his political opposition — not merely his own voters) more than dissatisfying it — that leader actually DOES represent his nation. However, if the net job-approval rating is below 0%, or negative, it’s likelier a dictatorship than a democracy (and then the question is: whom does that leader actually serve?).

How the Billionaires Control U.S.-and-Allied Governments

Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission

Abrams led the Trump administration’s failed regime change effort in Venezuela and covered up atrocities in Latin American in the 1980s

Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission

Waiting to see if Abrams’ nomination is resisted as much as it was back when Trump nominated him! ☠️

Related:

Like a bad Pennywise, Elliott Abrams could bring a taste of Iran-Contra to Venezuela

The Phony War on American Culture

The Phony War on American Culture

Consider how gender is one focus of their culture war campaign. Transgender people hardly affect our personal lives, despite the Republican campaigns to make it a voting issue. In America, only 1.3 million adults and 300,000 children identify as transgender out of a population of 332 million. Only 36 transgender athletes compete in college sports that include over half a million participants. Yet the Republican legislature in Kansas recently banned transgender girls from female high school sports, despite having only three transgender girls out of 41,00 competing in the state. Indeed, they should be respected and accommodated in some way. Yet, GOP legislators are considering a flood of bills to restrict transgender behavior, flooding email boxes with requests for donations, blasting isolated events on Fox News, and making them campaign issues.

Pentagon sending troops to train Peruvian coup regime’s killers

The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the Pentagon’s overseer for Latin America and the Caribbean, will be sending hundreds of Marines and special forces troops to Peru beginning as early as this week, to train military and Peruvian National Police special forces units. These same forces have carried out massacres and extra-judicial executions to suppress the mass protests against the coup regime of Dina Boluarte.

Pentagon sending troops to train Peruvian coup regime’s killers