U.S. ups the ante: are we indeed headed into WWIII and what can save us?

Gilbert Doctorow, 9/9/22

The UK and Commonwealth may be mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday. I am in mourning as well, but for a very different reason: the gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in the Ramstein air base in Germany yesterday reshuffled the deck on Western military and financial assistance to Ukraine, raising contributions to the ongoing holy crusade against Russia from still more nations and adding new, still more advanced precision strike weapons to the mix of deliveries to Kiev. It was an open summons to the Kremlin to escalate in turn, as were the test firing the same day of a new intercontinental rocket, the Minuteman III, from Vandenberg air base in California and the unannounced visit to Kiev yesterday of not only Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was featured in Western media accounts, but also other top officials of the Biden administration. The most notorious member of this delegation was surely Blinken’s deputy, Victoria Nuland, who had stage managed the February 2014 coup that put in power in Kiev the Russia-hating regime that Zelensky now heads.

Gilbert Doctorow: U.S. ups the ante: are we indeed headed into WWIII and what can save us?

Related:

A Former US Marine Corps Officer’s Analysis of the Ukraine War (archived, in case the original is removed)

H/T: Natylie’s Place: Understanding Russia

China’s Pacific Islands Position Paper Debunks Fake News Claims

The Chinese Foreign Ministry released a position paper on the country’s relations with the ten Pacific Island Countries (PICs) that have diplomatic relations with Beijing. It comes as Foreign Minister Wang Yi wraps up his regional sojourn that saw him interacting with many of his counterparts and their other representatives. His trip was decried by American, Australian, and other Western media as supposedly signaling some sort of imperialist intentions on China’s part, yet the position paper debunks all of that.

China’s Pacific Islands Position Paper Debunks Fake News Claims

How Successful Were Trump’s Tariffs?

How Successful Were Trump’s Tariffs?

**Job Creation: On average, Trump’s tariffs destroyed jobs. But there were some winners and losers notably steel. The cost of the “winners” was $800,000 to $900,000 per job created. More jobs were lost elsewhere.
**Negotiation Leverage: Nonexistent. Trump resorts to threats so often on the flimsiest of grounds creates mistrust.
**Improve Security: No. Antagonizing allies never improves security.