US GOVERNMENT CRIMES

JAY JANSON—The many bloody and thieving wars ordered by President Obama should make people recall how Obama as a candidate for president ran as a peace candidate, and so be cautioned not to be fooled with the present promising of both this years candidates to end America’s forever wars. Recently, President Trump called the Vietnam War “a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.”  With all President Trump’s macabre and bizarre use of US military, including assassination and deadly sanctions, and mainstream media’s consistent wars promoting, the world is prone to forget how candidate Trump was the most dramatic American denouncer of US wars in history. 

RT.COM—Many industry leaders and some of the biggest US corporations included on the S&P 500 index are now challenging the tariffs. In addition to electric carmaker Tesla, which is seeking a cancellation of tariffs along with a refund for duties already paid, other big-name producers such as Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo are suing the US government. The long list of plaintiffs, totaling around 3,500 according to Reuters, also includes the operator of major US pharmacy store chain Walgreen, retail firms from various spheres such as Pep Boys, Home Depot and Target Corporation, as well as clothing company Ralph Lauren and guitar manufacturer Gibson Brands among others. 

PEPE ESCOBAR—As President Putin has made it very clear over and over again, the US is no longer “agreement capable” . As for the “rules-based international order”, at best is a euphemism for privately controlled financial capitalism on a global scale. The Russia-China strategic partnership has made it very clear, over and over again, that against NATO and Quad expansion their project hinges on Eurasia-wide trade, development and diplomatic integration. Unlike the case from the 16th century to the last decades of the 20th century, now the initiative is not coming from the West, but from East Asia (that’s the beauty of “initiative” incorporated to the BRI acronym).

EVE OTTENBERG—What the idiotically bellicose U.S. policy toward Iran – including the recent U.S. push for more sanctions – has mainly achieved is a warm embrace between Iran and China. And that’s not a matter susceptible to piracy on the high seas – the preferred U.S. approach to tankers taking Iranian fuel to Caracas. Nor will wild charges about planned assassinations of obscure, random U.S. bureaucrats affect this relationship. The Trump regime has blustered, threatened, insulted and caused the great Iran-China friendship to sink deep roots and blossom. It probably would have anyway, but Trump surely deserves credit for nourishing it.

MoA—That the ‘rules based international order’ is supposed to include vague concepts of ‘democracy’, ‘human rights’, ‘fundamental freedoms’, ‘diversity’ and more makes it easy to claim that this or that violation of the ‘rules based international order’ has occurred. Such violations can then be used to impose punishment in the form of sanctions or war. That the above definition was given by a minority of a few rich nations makes it already clear that it can not be a global concept for a multilateral world.