Tag: War

[2018] War, censorship, and the invention of “fake news”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

War, censorship, and the invention of “fake news”

When most people think of the term “fake news,” they think of the headlines in supermarket tabloids about alien invasions and two-headed grandmothers giving birth to quintuplets. But when the New York Times and the leading US intelligence agencies use the term, they mean something entirely different: reporting that cuts across the efforts of the state to promote war and political viewpoints that challenge the establishment.

China-US tensions are now ideological & a potential conflict could be far more dangerous than Soviet-American Cold War

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China-US tensions are now ideological & a potential conflict could be far more dangerous than Soviet-American Cold War

Three developments have converged in 2020. The first is the rapid growth of Chinese economic, technological and military power that is just now beginning to rival America’s power in a number of crucial areas. The second is the coronavirus pandemic that has aggravated the already fraught US-China relations. The third is the US presidential election campaign, in which China figures as a major issue and which could push the incumbent US president to take risky steps leading to a dangerous military standoff with China in the Asia-Pacific. A still bigger issue is, who will be elected US president come November since this could define the long-term trajectory of US-China relations.

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

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.

China says it agrees with India to peacefully solve tensions

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

LOL:

Empire Babies Everywhere

China says it agrees with India to peacefully solve tensions

China said Wednesday that it is seeking a a peaceful resolution to its Himalayan border dispute with India following the death of 20 Indian soldiers in the most violent confrontation in decades.

The US Himalayan Embassy is where Bannon has said that his War Room podcast is broadcast into China, breaking through the “great firewall.” Not sure if they could even do that, though?! 🤷🏼‍♀️