CHRISTIAN PARENTI—Trump described his foreign policy as “America First,” thus tapping into a more-than-century-long strain of American isolationism, or conservative anti-war sentiment. But his attacks on American empire were not ideologically coherent. He hated NATO but he loved Israel. He increased pressure in Cuba, but did the opposite with North Korea. He increased the military budget even as he attempted to withdraw troops all over the planet. His reasoning, when given, was crassly transactional.
CAPITALIST TENTACLES & FRONTS
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EDITOR—ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE—HAITI IN CRISIS – WITH KIM IVES – EDITOR OF HAITILIBERTE.COM
Kim Ives, editor of Haitiliberte.com (English edition) describes, vividly, how he came to know the much maligned Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, and chronicles his evolution from fearless police leader to people’s champion. At the more personal level, Ives also describes how a protégé, Karine Jean-Pierre, currently Biden press secretary, after starting as an anti-imperialist communicator, due to her obvious careerist ambitions, was sucked up by the Democratic Party machine, and is now shamelessly serving the goals of US imperialism. -
OLIVER BOYD-BARRETT—Netanyahu and even Benny Gantz (invited by Washington without Netanyahu being advised) both confirm Israel’s intention to proceed with a ground operation against Rafah, demonstrating that there is little point in trying to divide Israeli leadership. Biden continues to send weapons to Israel, yet says that the US cannot stomach the loss of another 30,000 Palestinian lives. As Alastair Crooke notes in interview with Judge Napolitano today, Biden, despite the fact that he claims that Rafah is a red line, actually has no red line – he is failing to show Israel that there are consequences for mass murder. Biden’s plan to build a pier for offloading aid will take at least two years to implement, and is a clumsy, contorted route for getting aid to people who needed it months ago by the most direct route possible. Crooke thinks that the IDF has a lot more preparation to complete before going into Rafah: it has the potential of trouble in the West Bank during Ramadan, which started two days ago, and given the scale of resistance it is likely to meet in and from Lebanon and Iraq.
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EDITOR—A high point of the episode is a discussion about climate change. Chris Black is extremely pessimistic, believing that the assertion that climate change is a hoax needs to be reexamined carefully. The idea this is a hoax has become popular, of all places, notes Black, among the world’s left, and progressive statesmen, which may be a huge miscalculation. Leaders around the world keep talking about this issue but do little, with Russia and China doing the most, but still not enough, and the West doing the least, or next to nothing. We are at a point where a few more degrees may spell the death of all life on this planet due to the collapse of agriculture and plant life in general, says Black.
Ben Toth replies that a Russian scientist recently advised Putin that humanity had a “Window” of about 10,000 years to solve this problem. This may be wildly optimistic. In Siberia the problem may be extreme, as permafrost (thought to be “eternal”) is now melting away at ever faster rates, in the process releasing methane.
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RON UNZ—I think that the Israeli leaders have become so arrogant, so insular, and so confident in their complete political control over the enormous power of the U.S. and its media that they don’t have the slightest concern over what the people of the world think. This explains their very public massacre of Gaza’s helpless civilians by bombs, bullets, and starvation.
After all, the Israelis and their Zionist predecessors have been freely committing the worst sort of crimes and atrocities for generations, without ever incurring any penalty. Instead, nearly all of those dark deeds were either successfully concealed by their media allies or have been almost entirely forgotten.