Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China’s rise

Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China’s rise (original)

Each new candidate for Commission membership is carefully scrutinized before being allowed entry. As a rule, members who take up positions in their national governments — which is uncannily common — give up their Trilateral Commission membership while in public service. Those include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

This revolving door between the commission and senior government ranks has always been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Its first director in 1973, Zbigniew Brzezinski, later became U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. The very existence of the commission, meanwhile, seems predicated on the question of whether governing should be left to the people. It is a question the commission itself has tackled head-on since 1975: Is democracy functioning? Or does someone need to guide it?

That year, three scholars — Michel Crozier, Samuel Huntington and Joji Watanuki — wrote a report for The Trilateral Commission titled “The Crisis of Democracy.” In it, Huntington wrote that some of the problems of governance in the U.S. stem from an “excess of democracy.”

Related:

The Crisis of Democracy – Trilateral Commission – 1975

The United States Wants to Prevent a Historical Fact: Eurasian Integration

by Vijay Prashad / July 7th, 2022

Over the course of the past fifteen years, European countries have found themselves with both great opportunities to seize and complex choices to make. Unsustainable reliance on the United States for trade and investment, as well as the curious distraction of Brexit, led to the steady integration of European countries with Russian energy markets and more uptake of Chinese investment opportunities and its manufacturing prowess.

The United States Wants to Prevent a Historical Fact: Eurasian Integration

Related video:

Vijay Prashad – Why the United States Opposed the Historical Integration of Eurasia

Why Revolution? DPRK: History of Continuous US War Games Provocations Against North Korea Since 1953

We are very pleased to republish an excellent history of the massive campaign of threats and intimidation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) by the United States and its puppet government in South Korea since 1953. This document was published in English on one of the official news websites of the DPRK – the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on 4 September 2022.

The DPRK is a Stalinist workers state whose rather austere brand of socialism is entirely conditioned by this continual threat of war from the United States and South Korea. Every attempt by the North Koreans to “open up” their country economically has been met with extreme hostility and renewed threats of war from the United States Government, who can never forgive the DPRK for the profound humiliation that heroic socialist workers state inflicted on the US during the Korean War as it successfully defended itself from one of the most murderous and genocidal attacks ever seen in world history. The increasingly threatening statements from the US Government of “Lesser Evil” Democrat Joe Biden to target and annihilate the North Korean leadership in a nuclear attack is what has led the DPRK to increase its expansion of its nuclear arsenal and to publish a revised statement of its intent to use nuclear weapons if necessary to defend itself and its people from any attack from the USA, South Korea or any other regional puppet regime. We say: the DPRK has every right to possess and to use nuclear weapons to defend itself from an attack launched by US imperialism or its puppets. We agree with the latest statement published by North Korea regarding its revised policy regarding the use of nuclear weapons to deter a war on the Korean peninsula and to utilize those weapons against the US forces in South Korea should they attempt to attack the DPRK. We will be republishing the text of that declaration of the DPRK in a new article as soon as possible.

Why Revolution? DPRK: History of Continuous US War Games Provocations Against North Korea Since 1953

Related:

Joint US-South Korea military exercises conclude, with an eye on North Korea and China

Can We Please Have an Adult Conversation about China?

A new kind of madness is seeping into global political discourse, a poisonous fog that suffocates reason. This fog, which has long marinated in old, ugly ideas of white supremacy and Western superiority, is clouding our ideas of humanity. The general malady that ensues is a deep suspicion and hatred of China, not just of its current leadership or even the Chinese political system, but hatred of the entire country and of Chinese civilisation – hatred of just about anything to do with China.

Can We Please Have an Adult Conversation about China?

H/T: Vijay Prashad—US threatens China because China threatens US hegemony

Moscow prioritises ties with Myanmar

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Myanmar on August 3 shows that the relationship is assuming a strategic character. The Foreign Ministry in a press release on August 2 highlighted that the relationship is “one of the priorities of foreign policy in the Asia–Pacific region, an important factor in ensuring peace, stability and sustainable development.”

Moscow prioritises ties with Myanmar

ROK and the US – Words and Facts

After the text about the President of the ROK at the NATO summit was published, part of the audience questioned whether the ROK, despite its loyalist statements, was in fact in no particular hurry to do Washington’s bidding. This question is best answered by a combination of words and facts.

In another important development, on July 20 Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho openly stated that South Korea should be cautious when deciding whether to join the US Chip 4 or Fab 4 technology alliance initiative, as the potential implications could affect not only the country’s semiconductor industry, but also the economy as a whole. The framework, which in addition to the US and the ROK also includes Taiwan and Japan, is designed to counter China’s growing influence in global supply chains for advanced high-tech products, as well as to increase American production capacity and capabilities in this area.

ROK and the US – Words and Facts

H/T: THE NEW DARK AGE

Previously:

South Korea’s new president playing dangerous game with Pyongyang

Harpers Declares It’s Over – The ‘American Century’ Is Gone

Harpers Declares It’s Over – The ‘American Century’ Is Gone

Related:

Empire Burlesque

H/T: Franc Analysis

The oligarchs response to the loss of global full spectrum dominance will be increased military action. Their ability to foment support for aggression by the American citizenry will be used as a response to the success of China’s model of foreign investment in trade and reproduction, which will become the scapegoat for dwindling purchasing power caused by financialization of the American economy.

Posted by: Wilikins | Jul 13 2022 16:13 utc | 27