Tag: Military Industrial Complex

Imperialism won’t be over after the U.S. empire falls

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Underneath the bluster of a Trump administration that still acts like the United States is the world hegemon, the ruling class is working to pragmatically respond to the loss of America’s status as a dominant power. In 2017 the Pentagon put out a report that admitted American global influence is rapidly declining, and now that the U.S. is sure to soon lose its superpower status, the corporatocracy has to address this issue.

How will they address it? The answer can be found by recognizing a basic reality: whether or not the corporatocracy can hold onto the U.S. as their dominant engine for carrying out imperialism, they’ll always do everything possible to make imperialism continue in some form. Imperialism is how the U.S./NATO capitalist class have gained their wealth, so they’ll try to maintain it or else they’ll lose a vast amount of this wealth. I’ve covered in another essay the means through which our ruling class will try to retain control over the population of the imperial core. In this one I’ll detail the ways they’ll try to keep up the cycle of imperialist exploitation.

—- Rainer Shea

Continue reading: Imperialism won’t be over after the U.S. empire falls

Nuland Proposed “Cookies for Russia”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
“The author is that American diplomat who in 2014 met the participants of Euromaidan on the main square of Kiev and treated them with cookies, buns, and bread. This event subsequently turned into the meme “State Department cookies”, having become clear proof of the direct interference of the US in the Ukrainian crisis and at the same time — a modern analog of “thirty pieces of silver”.”

An article written by the former US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland under the vociferous name “Pinning Down Putin“ appeared in the …

Nuland Proposed “Cookies for Russia”

Related:

Nuland’s biscuits again: Maidan midwife’s plan for US policy on Russia is dumb, delusional and dangerous

Floundering NATO Tries to Surface by Confronting China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Floundering NATO Tries to Surface by Confronting China

It is not surprising that Stoltenberg has leapt on the anti-China bandwagon, but his reference to Beijing’s defence budget being second-largest in the world is somewhat misleading. He emphasised that NATO countries “represent 30 members, close to one billion people” but didn’t mention the fact that military spending by all these countries totalled over 1 trillion dollars (USD 1,036,077,000,000) in 2019 while China’s expenditure was $261 billion. The U.S. on its own spent an awe-inspiring $732 billion, indicating that that the rest of NATO shelled out $471 billion which is decidedly more than China’s outlay. As Stoltenberg announced on 29 November 2019, NATO members “are also investing billions more in new capabilities and contributing to NATO deployments around the world. So we are on the right track but we cannot be complacent. We must keep up the momentum.”

Then there is the matter of nuclear weapons. According to the Arms Control Association the United States (which is modifying its F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighters to deliver B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs) has “1,365 strategic nuclear warheads deployed on 656 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers.” So far as NATO is directly concerned the U.S. has deployed an estimated 150 B-61 nuclear gravity bombs at six NATO bases in five European countries: Aviano and Ghedi in Italy; Büchel in Germany; Incirlik in Turkey; Kleine Brogel in Belgium; and Volkel in the Netherlands. These are in addition to the 300 nuclear weapons of France and Britain’s 200.

China has an estimated 290 nuclear weapons, so by no stretch of the imagination could be described as a nuclear-expansionist or global threat. In fact the reason that China embarked on a nuclear weapons programme in the Fifties was the U.S. nuclear threat, as enunciated by the commander of Strategic Air Command, the near-psychotic General Curtis LeMay who was asked what should be done if the truce in the Korean war were to break down because of Chinese military action and replied “There are no suitable strategic air targets in Korea. However, I would drop a few bombs in proper places like China, Manchuria and South-eastern Russia.” This caused alarm bells to ring in Beijing (and Moscow) — and they have been ringing ever since.

Pentagon Starts Bailing Out Defense Firms

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Pentagon Starts Bailing Out Defense Firms

On Wednesday, officials announced that five mid-tier defense companies had received a total of $135 million to “help sustain defense-critical workforce capabilities in body armor, aircraft manufacturing, and shipbuilding,” according to a Defense Department statement.“ These actions will help to retain critical workforce capabilities throughout the disruption caused by COVID-19 and to restore some jobs lost because of the pandemic,” Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, a Defense Department spokesman, said in the statement.