For several decades the American public has been instilled with an intrinsic fear of and hatred for China.
No singular event in this seemingly inevitable march to war is more emblematic of the American public’s warped psyche than the “Chinese Spy Balloon” narrative—perhaps due, in part, to its facial absurdity. The happening eclipses even similarly nonsensical yarns such as widespread TikTok paranoia (see the NSA’s PRISM program), China’s American farmland purchases (Chinese firms account for <.5% of all foreign-owned land in the U.S.), and the “invasion” of Chinese fentanyl through the Southern border (fentanyl trafficking is illegal in China).
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While some populist Republicans have bravely departed from the establishment’s support for Ukraine, many led the chorus of voices urging escalation—and not diplomacy.
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The banner narrative favored by mainline Republicans and the populist Right alike—that Joe Biden is weak—is insidious, because it implies that Biden should be more aggressive. Furthermore, it excuses Biden’s objectively ultra-hawkish policy against China.
Just in the last few weeks, the Biden administration continued its redoubling of the Asia Pivot launched by Barack Obama and furthered by Donald Trump: the U.S. Marine Corps opened a new base in Guam as the U.S. opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands, furthered diplomatic measures meant to militarize Japan, announced the opening of new military installations in the Philippines and Palau, and furthered a deal that would secure it exclusive military access to Micronesia, an area of the Pacific Ocean as large as the continental U.S.—all with the express and stated aim of confronting China.
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Unfortunately, the prevailing narrative won the day—while Americans’ heads were in the clouds, imagining a biowarfare attack, or falsely reporting the balloon carried explosives, Sino-American relations deteriorated even further. Distressingly, the American public exhibited its eagerness to rush to just about any conclusion concerning China.
An Overblown Balloon Headline Inflates False Narrative on China
Tag: fearmongering
Center for a New American Security & MICIMATT say, “Be Afraid, Very Afraid” Of China
By Richard Fontaine, the chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security.
China’s Balloon Could Be America’s Awakening
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Center for a New American Security (funding and employees):
Read More »Washington inflates the China balloon threat
The meltdown in DC risks turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy: Routine inter-state relations becoming a full-blown crisis.
Washington inflates the China balloon threat
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“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt
“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt
Here’s what this is really about: More and more members on the other side of the aisle are calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and many have referred to these programs as “socialism” throughout their existence. The other night in the Rules Committee they showed their cards. Republicans refused an amendment to declare that Social Security and Medicare is not socialism. This resolution is little about intelligent discourse and everything to do about laying the groundwork to cut Social Security and Medicare.
‘Socialism’ for me, but not for thee?!
I Don’t Want to #StopAsianHate. I Want to End US Imperialism
By Elizabeth Tang – July 8, 2021
Editorial note: As a rule Orinoco Tribune does not re-publish opinion pieces more than 10 days after their original publication, but in this case we are making an exception, because this is a on a very sensitive issue that demands attention.
I don’t like the #StopAsianHate hashtag. First of all, Asians are not the ones doing the “hating.” And second, why are we calling it “hate” at all? Anti-Asian violence is systemic—it cannot be reduced to individual feelings.
I Don’t Want to #StopAsianHate. I Want to End US Imperialism
Exaggerating China’s military spending, St. Louis Fed breaks all statistical rules with misleading graph
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a jaw-droppingly misleading graph that portrays China as spending more on its military than the US. In reality, the Pentagon’s budget is roughly three times larger.
Exaggerating China’s military spending, St. Louis Fed breaks all statistical rules with misleading graph
Tax Flight Is a Myth
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Dispelling the Myth of Tax-Induced Capital Flight
A study by the American Sociological Association in 2016 found that while massive top rate tax hikes might cause some millionaires to move from their high-tax state to a low-tax state, the amount of them doing so for this reason was negligible. Millionaires moved for tax purposes around 2.2% of the time. Indeed, in any event the rate of inter-state migration generally was lower for millionaires, at 2.4%, than it was for the general population, at 2.9%.
Matthew Hoh: War is a cancel culture
YouTube: Scheer Intelligence: War is a Cancel Culture
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The U.S. Is Drowning in Pretend Patriotism
Washington’s “Farewell Address” to the new nation was a warning about the threat of American imperial ambitions and a declaration of his high expectations for a republic of free men: “In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. …”
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But recognize that you have shamed the legacy of our first president. George Washington, who distinguished the promise of the new world from the corruptions of the old by shunning imperial conquest, said: “Our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing.”
Progressives Say Congress Must Raise Debt Limit Now to Protect Social Programs
Progressives Say Congress Must Raise Debt Limit Now to Protect Social Programs
The programs have long been targets of Republicans, despite the fact that Social Security is fully funded through 2035 and is able to pay for 90% of benefits for the next 25 years, even without Congress acting to expand it.
Related:
GOP’s Thune Sees Debt-Ceiling Hike as Vehicle for Budget Cuts
White House Knocks Thune’s Bid to Tie Debt Limit to Entitlements
Pakistan Suggests Killing Of Journalist In Kenya Was Targeted
Pakistan says evidence suggests the shooting of a prominent Pakistani journalist who was living in Kenya may have been an assassination as media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called for an independent United Nations probe into the incident.
Pakistan Suggests Killing Of Journalist In Kenya Was Targeted
H/T: Imran Khan
Related:
This famous journalist’s suspicious death in Kenya by a sniper shot to the head, which came shortly after he announced the upcoming release of an anti-corruption documentary exposing his country’s US-backed post-modern coup regime, might prove to be a tipping point in Pakistan’s political crisis.
Was Arshad Sharif Assassinated By Pakistan’s US-Backed Post-Modern Coup Regime?
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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