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Do they know what they are doing? When the U.S. Congress adopts draconian sanctions aimed mainly at disempowering President Trump and ruling out any move to improve relations with Russia, do they realize that the measures amount to a declaration of economic war against their dear European “friends”?
Whether they know or not, they obviously don’t care. U.S. politicians view the rest of the world as America’s hinterland, to be exploited, abused and ignored with impunity.
The Bill H.R. 3364 “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” was adopted on July 25 by all but three members of the House of Representatives. An earlier version was adopted by all but two Senators. Final passage at veto-overturning proportions is a certainty.
This congressional temper tantrum flails in all directions. The main casualties are likely to be America’s dear beloved European allies, notably Germany and France. Who also sometimes happen to be competitors, but such crass considerations don’t matter in the sacred halls of the U.S. Congress, totally devoted to upholding universal morality.
Economic “Soft Power” Hits Hard
Under U.S. sanctions, any EU nation doing business with Russia may find itself in deep trouble. In particular, the latest bill targets companies involved in financing Nord Stream 2, a pipeline designed to provide Germany with much needed natural gas from Russia.
By the way, just to help out, American companies will gladly sell their own fracked natural gas to their German friends, at much higher prices.
That is only one way in which the bill would subject European banks and enterprises to crippling restrictions, lawsuits and gigantic fines.
While the U.S. preaches “free competition”, it constantly takes measures to prevent free competition at the international level.
Following the July 2015 deal ensuring that Iran could not develop nuclear weapons, international sanctions were lifted, but the United States retained its own previous ones. Since then, any foreign bank or enterprise contemplating trade with Iran is apt to receive a letter from a New York group calling itself “United Against Nuclear Iran” which warns that “there remain serious legal, political, financial and reputational risks associated with doing business in Iran, particularly in sectors of the Iranian economy such as oil and gas”. The risks cited include billions of dollars of (U.S.) fines, surveillance by “a myriad of regulatory agencies”, personal danger, deficiency of insurance coverage, cyber insecurity, loss of more lucrative business, harm to corporate reputation and a drop in shareholder value.
The United States gets away with this gangster behavior because over the years it has developed a vast, obscure legalistic maze, able to impose its will on the “free world” economy thanks to the omnipresence of the dollar, unrivaled intelligence gathering and just plain intimidation.
European leaders reacted indignantly to the latest sanctions. The German foreign ministry said it was “unacceptable for the United States to use possible sanctions as an instrument to serve the interest of U.S. industry”. The French foreign ministry denounced the “extraterritoriality” of the U.S. legislation as unlawful, and announced that “To protect ourselves against the extraterritorial effects of US legislation, we will have to work on adjusting our French and European laws”.
In fact, bitter resentment of arrogant U.S. imposition of its own laws on others has been growing in France, and was the object of a serious parliamentary report delivered to the French National Assembly foreign affairs and finance committees last October 5, on the subject of “the extraterritoriality of American legislation”.
Extraterritoriality
The chairman of the commission of enquiry, long-time Paris representative Pierre Lellouche, summed up the situation as follows:
“The facts are very simple. We are confronted with an extremely dense wall of American legislation whose precise intention is to use the law to serve the purposes of the economic and political imperium with the idea of gaining economic and strategic advantages. As always in the United States, that imperium, that normative bulldozer operates in the name of the best intentions in the world since the United States considers itself a ‘benevolent power’, that is a country that can only do good.”
Always in the name of “the fight against corruption” or “the fight against terrorism”, the United States righteously pursues anything legally called a “U.S. person”, which under strange American law can refer to any entity doing business in the land of the free, whether by having an American subsidiary, or being listed on the New York stock exchange, or using a U.S.-based server, or even by simply trading in dollars, which is something that no large international enterprise can avoid.
In 2014, France’s leading bank, BNP-Paribas, agreed to pay a whopping fine of nearly nine billion dollars, basically for having used dollar transfers in deals with countries under U.S. sanctions. The transactions were perfectly legal under French law. But because they dealt in dollars, payments transited by way of the United States, where diligent computer experts could find the needle in the haystack. European banks are faced with the choice between prosecution, which entails all sorts of restrictions and punishments before a verdict is reached, or else, counseled by expensive U.S. corporate lawyers, and entering into the obscure “plea bargain” culture of the U.S. judicial system, unfamiliar to Europeans. Just like the poor wretch accused of robbing a convenience store, the lawyers urge the huge European enterprises to plea guilty in order to escape much worse consequences.
Alstom, a major multinational corporation whose railroad section produces France’s high speed trains, is a jewel of French industry. In 2014, under pressure from U.S. accusations of corruption (probably bribes to officials in a few developing countries), Alstom sold off its electricity branch to General Electric.
The underlying accusation is that such alleged “corruption” by foreign firms causes U.S. firms to lose markets. That is possible, but there is no practical reciprocity here. A whole range of U.S. intelligence agencies, able to spy on everyone’s private communications, are engaged in commercial espionage around the world. As an example, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, devoted to this task, operates with 200 employees on an annual budget of over $30 million. The comparable office in Paris employs five people.
This was the situation as of last October. The latest round of sanctions can only expose European banks and enterprises to even more severe consequences, especially concerning investments in the vital Nord Stream natural gas pipeline.
This bill is just the latest in a series of U.S. legislative measures tending to break down national legal sovereignty and create a globalized jurisdiction in which anyone can sue anyone else for anything, with ultimate investigative capacity and enforcement power held by the United States.
Wrecking the European Economy
Over a dozen European Banks (British, German, French, Dutch, Swiss) have run afoul of U.S. judicial moralizing, compared to only one U.S. bank: JP Morgan Chase.
The U.S. targets the European core countries, while its overwhelming influence in the northern rim – Poland, the Baltic States and Sweden – prevents the European Union from taking any measures (necessarily unanimous) contrary to U.S. interests.
By far the biggest catch in Uncle Sam’s financial fishing expedition is Deutsche Bank. As Pierre Lellouche warned during the final hearing of the extraterritorial hearings last October, U.S. pursuits against Deutsche Bank risk bringing down the whole European banking system. Although it had already paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the State of New York, Deutsche Bank was faced with a “fine of 14 billion dollars whereas it is worth only five and a half. … In other words, if this is carried out, we risk a domino effect, a major financial crisis in Europe.”
In short, U.S. sanctions amount to a sword of Damocles threatening the economies of the country’s main trading partners. This could be a Pyrrhic victory, or more simply, the blow that kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. But hurrah, America would be the winner in a field of ruins.
Former justice minister Elisabeth Guigou called the situation shocking, and noted that France had told the U.S. Embassy that the situation is “insupportable” and insisted that “we must be firm”.
Jacques Myard said that “American law is being used to gain markets and eliminate competitors. We should not be naïve and wake up to what is happening.”
This enquiry marked a step ahead in French awareness and resistance to a new form of “taxation without representation” exercised by the United States against its European satellites. They committee members all agreed that something must be done.
That was last October. In June, France held parliamentary elections. The commission chairman, Pierre Lellouche (Republican), the rapporteur Karine Berger (Socialist), Elisabeth Guigou (a leading Socialist) and Jacques Myard (Republican) all lost their seats to inexperienced newcomers recruited into President Emmanuel Macron’s République en marche party. The newcomers are having a hard time finding their way in parliamentary life and have no political memory, for instance of the Rapport on Extraterritoriality.
As for Macron, as minister of economics, in 2014 he went against earlier government rulings by approving the GE purchase of Alstom. He does not appear eager to do anything to anger the United States.
However, there are some things that are so blatantly unfair that they cannot go on forever.
Diana Johnstone is the author of Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions. Her new book is Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton. She can be reached at [email�protected]
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It looks like the rest of the world is going to have to bring down the economic yankee imperium or be destroyed themselves.
LOL! Naïve, I think. As long as European countries (and the UK) are prepared to carry on acting as Washington’s bitches, Washington will go on treating them as such.
The political, media and business elites need to be thoroughly cleansed of US apologists. That won’t be easy, especially when Europe and the UK are in the grip of an ideologically anti-nationalist culture that is essentially treasonous and utterly lacking in national self-respect.
Ending NATO and suppressing the US-backed anti-Russian propaganda that keeps Europe and the UK subordinate would be the bare minimum first steps, along with cooperating with China and Russia to promote and use financial systems independent of the dollar.
The countries that are regularly targeted for US bullying are building structures that avoid vulnerability. European countries and the UK need to join with them in doing so (though it’s unlikely they will be trusted very far given their track records of collaboration with Washington).
Also companies that decline to deal in the US market should be protected and supported, on national security grounds. It should be straightforwardly illegal in all sovereign countries for the US to try to impose its laws on any company merely for dealing in dollars, and the US should be held directly responsible when its courts seek to do so. US extraterritoriality has always been a gross intrusion into and threat to national sovereignty.
Ideally this kind of extortion will be to some extent counterbalanced by retaliatory extractions from US business assets such as Google and Facebook.
The US plea bargain system is a disgrace to any kind of concept of justice and basically means that no US confessions or guilty pleas can be regarded as meaningful, and nor should any sovereign country agree to extradition of its own citizens to the US. It is basically a system of organised blackmail, coerced confessions and corruption of witnesses.
Well, Europe could consider all of these payouts to the US as “reparations for Nazi atrocities”. This will make it go down easier, after all who wouldn’t want to enslave himself to Yankees to repair Nazi atrocities?
Meanwhile, self-flaggelation goes on
I tend to feel only assassinations are the solution here.
Congressmen should live in mortal fear.
Western European allies?
Nice choice of words, but fiction-supporting. Under-surerainty would be a better fit.
The dollar has been the world’s major reserve currency since the end of WWII. Nations worldwide use dollars as financial reserves and to settle their international accounts … as was intended in the post-WWII Bretton Woods agreement. This financial privilege was and is the major component of the United States’ status as a global power. However, the United States has recently started using that privileged status to claim control over all dollars held as reserves and/or used in international trade and banking.
The claim: These are US dollars and therefore any nation using them is subject to US veto power over their dollar-based transactions. This veto power is now being used to eliminate international competition as well as weaponizing the dollar in geopolitical contests with Russia, China, and Iran.
An example: The United States wants to ship expensive liquified natural gas to Europe to replace the less expensive Russian natural gas that has been fed to eastern and western Europe via pipelines for decades. This would create a new commercial market for US natural gas as well serving as a geopolitical attack on Russia’s economy. It would also constitute another element of control over EU foreign policy by controlling its major source of energy.
The mechanism: Any entity doing business with Russia cannot use dollars in any other international transactions, which means that if they trade with Russia, they cannot use dollars to trade anywhere else in the world.
The import: Traditional naval economic blockades are considered acts of war. The United States new dollar sanctions/vetos are financial blockades and are therefore equivalent to acts of war.
The sanctions are ill-conceived, even from the perspective of the United States. They are a message to the world that the United States will (mis)use the privilege of printing the world’s major reserve currency to extract unilateral trade concessions and dominate international trade at the expense of other countries’ economic and political interests, including those of its allies.
The consequence: The dollar sanctions are an invitation for the world to drop the dollar as the world’s major reserve currency as quickly as possible. That’s already one of the goals of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) consortium that seeks to use local currencies as an alternative to the current international trading system dominated by the United States and its petrodollars. The EU may shortly join them.
At some point, the race to an alternative to the dollar will become a route as the BRICS and EU negotiate dollar-free trading agreements on a global basis. This portends an economic collapse within the United States as the trillions of dollars floating around the world in international trade are repatriated causing massive inflation … something seemingly inevitable at this point in time!
They managed to push China into alliance with Russia and Iran. Then they forced Turkey into the Russian camp. Now Germany and France. Not to worry. We still have the Zionist Entity and the Wahhabi Terrorists on our side. The American Congress is nearly unanimous in their folly. I wouldn’t say they are stupid so much as criminal. All of them are Democrats and Republicans of course. Our political institutions are rotten to the core. I’m afraid it’s all down hill from here for the Anglo/Zio Empire. Soon the United States will be just another large country in the Americas. In no position to “sanction” anybody.
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.”
— Mark Twain
Interestingly, Macron just nationalized a famous French shipyard:
Macron Nationalizes Shipyard, Spooking Outsiders
Move that harkens back to old French ways pleases nationalists
Macron step is effort to appease country before labor reforms
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/macron-nationalizes-shipyard-in-domestic-step-spooking-outsiders
He is an absolutely interesting and intriguing figure to me.
I have long been suspecting, that he might be an Alt Right “secret agent”:
– https://www.counter-currents.com/2010/11/secret-agents/
– https://www.counter-currents.com/2014/10/counter-currents-radiogreg-johnson-interviews-patrick-lebrun-on-entryism/
– https://www.unz.com/article/trumps-warsaw-speech-and-the-real-clash-of-civilizations/#comment-1946225
Macron presidency: French president pushes reforms as popularity slips
Video Link
This is wrong, no matter which political camp says it. Assassinations are not the answer. Congressmen should live in POLITICAL fear. This is important.
The author of this article has some good articles on “banker-boy” Macron. I suppose the sect of corrupt jewish bankers could be considered the most extreme-right-wing racist-supremacist mafia on the planet, but their media don’t tell us that.
France: Another Ghastly Presidential Election Campaign; the Deep State Rises to the Surface
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/france-another-ghastly-presidential-election-campaign-the-deep-state-rises-to-the-surface/
All Power to the Banks! The Winners-Take-All Regime of Emmanuel Macron
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/22/all-power-to-the-banks-the-winners-take-all-regime-of-emmanuel-macron/
As some historian wrote ‘war is the way politicians destroy apparently superfluous wealth’.
Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki war became more or less impossible, that is, war against countries that also have atomic bombs ad long range missiles.
That the terrible state of N Korea, created by USA, still exists is because it has atomic bombs.
Now that hot war against states with the bomb is impossible we have a new kind of war: soft power.
Especially the Brussels EU court uses this concept, and seems to be proud on it.
Soft power is just as costly as hot power, it is also the way politicians destroy superfluous wealth, the difference is that no blood flows, people die of hunger or disease.
Sanctions, like hot war, always work both ways, both parties suffer.
We in the Netherlands know this quite well, after MH17 was shot down, a blesssing in disguise, EU sanctions against Russia became possible, the Netherlands exported relatively most to Russia.
Brussels and Washington were very lucky that a plane with mostly Dutch was destroyed.
But our vegetable and fruit industry paid the price, export to Russia stopped, and, what in the long term is even more harmful, Russia began to develop its own fruit and vegetable industry.
“Nazi atrocities” certainly cannot be the ‘6M Jews, 5M others, & gas chambers’.
“Some stories are true that never happened.”
– Elie Wiesel
The ‘6M Jews, 5M others, & gas chambers’ are laughable, scientifically impossible frauds.
see the ‘holocaust’ scam debunked here:
http://codoh.com
No name calling, level playing field debate here:
http://forum.codoh.com
Why have supremacist Jews have been marketing the ‘6,000,000’ lie since at least 1869?
http://balder.org/judea/New-York-Times-Six-Million-Jews-Since-1869.php
https://6millionfairytale.wordpress.com/more-proof-six-million-is-a-lie/
Fighting fire with fire does not lower you down to your opponent’s level.
Bit of understatement there … Macron sounds like a puppet, which kind of makes sense since the EU is a paper tiger staffed by puppets who growl at the US but always give way when push comes to shove. Is it a surprise that Obama lobbied so hard for the U.K. To Remain rather than take its chances with a U.K. That might always surprise it, a la Hugh Grant as PM in Actually?
Europe must finally tell America (actually, its Zionist owners[and our own]) to f*ck off.
These people care nothing for Americans, nor Europeans, nor Russians. they care only about their “project”.
Unfortunately, they have no trouble getting their owned whores in the US Congress to do their bidding.
That is the ‘happy, smiling’ face put onto these heinous sanctions.
The truth is that the lopsided vote is the result of AIPAC strong-arming Congress to vote for them so that Israeli NG, taken from the Leviathan field, and stolen from Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt will be exported to Europe.
That’s the NG that Europe will be forced to buy, not American NG.
I can only agree with this article & most of its commentators.
The US government & its Elites (the head & tail of one coin) have caused the US to become a rogue nation. An essentially criminal entity posturing behind a well rehearsed display of hypocritical idealism. Words such as “democracy, freedom, justice”are the mere tokens now of its bad faith.
Both American citizens & other countries are equally the victims of this Mafia State. ( The US “gangster behavior”” against EU companies has its parallel in the rise of Civil Forfeiture against innocent US citizens: which, incidentally, the current Sec of Justice is encouraging !)
The US is the most grave danger the world (& US citizens) now face.
US behaviour has degenerated from merely bullying to reckless & to now insane. The shame is half the world is so focused on anti-Trumpism that they can not — will not — see the profound systemic danger.
Very very true. I agree 100%. And I have no idea what happened to USA. US elite live in their own fantasy world and if they continue with this stupidity-one day they will wake up and understand that world has changed. But there is one thing that interest me:what do ordinary Americans think about all of this? Since I am not american,and never was in USA and have no plans to travel there soon-I am very much interested in their opinion. Do they actually know what is going on in the world? Or they just dont care? I dont know,but it seems to me that they are being ruled by very malicious and frankly stupid and corrupt and arrogant people. I am not insinuating that Americans are like that elite,i want to say that it seems from outside like a very rotten state.
They are merely the puppets. Easily replaced. You must go after the globalist puppet masters and/or work to bring down the house-of-cards financial system which would pull the plug on Deep State, etc.
The American is quite gentle to the Euopean comparing to what they have done to China before WWII, the American considered China a land absent of law, in 1906 the U.S. Congress passed a law entitled “An Act Creating a United States Court for China and prescribing the jurisdiction thereof.” The new court, equivalent to a federal district court, assumed civil and criminal jurisdiction over American citizens within the “District of China,” which excerise its extraterrestrial judicial power until 1943.
The United States Court for China allowed the Americans to steal Chinese properties and commit crimes with impunity like what they have done to the native Americans.
For the moment the American only set up stealth United States Court for EU to steal their money, perhaps soon the United States Court for EU will excerise the power of the United States Court for China too. American imperium did not start today, it’s in American blood.
The American is ‘God-fearing’ morally defunct evil ‘puritans’, who will be worse, those perpetrated Catholic inquisition or the American?
The Europeans will swallow it all down, complaints or not, they’ll do it. They’re weak and in the grip of the dictatorship of the EU and NATO. To prevent any rapprochement between them and the Russians the US must engineer conflict which will keep them in the US camp.
Nobody would tell big whoppers on Unz Review but my mind is still boggled at trying to believe that extraordinary story of the US Chinese court!
As my opposition to Australians being extradited from Australia is largely the result of extraditions to the US I am indebted for your contribution of some historical depth to my case.
It is hard to know whether European spinelessness. or what amounts to stupidity is the major problem. Surely de Gaulle would have said yes to a lawyer who sought to legislate severe criminal and civil penalties for anyone complicit in prosecuting or otherwise taking action against a French owned entity or person where the use of a particular currency was an element in establishing the jurisdiction or defining the crime. To reinforce this possibly empty sanction the Minister of Finance would be given wide discretion to freeze or expropriate the assets of businesses from any country where any such criminal or civil case had been prosecuted.
Just curious: Did the Nazis commit any atrocities?
Politically, Americans don’t “know” we “feel”. Feeling is a universal human trait to some extent but it has been selected for and conditioned into the American psyche for centuries due to our mixture of Christian faith and our professed founding egalitarianism, all combining with the impact of disproportionate feminine mentality in politics which we indulge as a “valuable perspective.”
You see, the West is at base a project of civilizing (domestication of homo sapien sapiens), and civilizing is at base a function of male sexual control. Consequently, the female is elevated socio-politically.
Organized Religion was invented out of the necessity of inter-group conflict. Any people who lacked a patriarchal religion would be outbred and overwhelmed by those who did. Thus resulting in the functional lie of monotheism. (Darwinian Natural selection/Survival of the fittest). If a powerful fairy tale results in more babies and a will to fight to live, it is an evolutionary good regardless of its truthfulness.
Government was invented out of necessity because there are only enough food and resources for 9 out of 10 people, governments role is determine what to do with the 10th person and why. (The Malthusian Trap).
Government and organized religion will never go away because they are both required to propagate group dominance, and yet they are locked in a mutually-assured-destruction feedback loop with one another.
No, they don’t, at least not the vast majority. Those who might know something are greatly outnumbered and in this fake democracy only 51% is needed in an election. The US is just one big island, isolated and detached. Very little foreign news is disseminated and of that it’s all distorted propagandistic rubbish. The educational system for most people gives nothing and has been in the grip of PC adherents for one-two generations now. Apathy is encouraged and professionals are generally very narrow in their interests, knowing little outside of their own careers. Public campaigns easily influence most people. I can go months without running across a single person who can make any sense or think independently. They don’t have the tools were they so inclined and most aren’t, preferring to spend their time on worthless social media and staring into the little screen in the palm of their hand.
Since this was a congressional mandated debacle, can we quickly change the congressional representatives and senators through recall elections? Most of us figured we would just wait out Obama. and that took 8 disasterous years. I’m not sure we can wait out McCain, Schumer, Pelosi, Feinstein, etc. Also, how can we citizens motivate politicians to support investigations and prosecutions of voter fraud? This would likely lead to majorities in congress that arent psychopaths, narcissists, sociopaths, opportunists, deceivers, and insane people. Any ideas?
I’ve already expressed my opinion on these idiotic sanctions on other threads, so let me just take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mr. Unz for making Diana Johnstone available to us on this website. She is one of the best commentators on European affairs today.
Let’s see, we have a vote on this sanctions bill which ends up having only two dissenters in the Senate and just three dissenters in the House.
What other sorts of bills end up having such totally disparate. final vote counts?
I will give you only a second to figure out the answer (and it doesn’t involve the National Rifle Association (NRA).
What are these bills? For the newbies out there they are any bills that effect Israel in some way. I sorta guessed that Israel and its lobby were somehow behind these sanctions just because of the funny vote count that somehow crosses political party lines. Our congress seems to have been really leaned on this time however.
Previous and simlar types of vote counts are ONLY common when the vote comes for something benefitting Israel. (Why does the 16th richest country in the world, Israel, still get a free $3.9 billion annual donation from the American taxpayer. Is it aid or tribute money?).
I also thought initially that the probable author of the new sanctions bill, Israel, merely wanted them to punish Russia and Iran for their support of Israe’ls enemies in the Mideast like Assad in Syria.
Then I read Greg Bacon’s brilliant comment here (#17) and realized that Israel’s ambitions involving this bill might be far greater than I thought.
Quote:
“The truth is that the lopsided vote is the result of AIPAC strong-arming Congress to vote for them so that Israeli NG, taken from the Leviathan field, and stolen from Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt will be exported to Europe.”
As luck (?) will have it and Israel’s probable plans work out, Russia’s and Iran’s competition in the NG market will either be partially or totally eliminated from the market by the new sanctions. How convenient for Israeli NG!
I then projected into the future. The Israeli natural gas (NG) will probably end up being either cheaper in Europe than the US variety, either because of either cheaper transportation and production costs or because our ever compliant US congress will somehow end up being pressured into granting Israel what amounts to US taxpayer-paid defacto subsidies, much to the detriment of US domestic producers.
In the end, and like everything else involving Israel, our country will end up getting screwed yet again by our “only ally in the Mideast.”
If the Europeans do in fact end up having to buy Israeli natural gas (which, if the new sanctions are fully effective , they will) , Israel will have new leverage over Europeans and will then be able to extort concessions from the Europeans such as ending the BDS movement and insisting on stricter “hate crime” legislation. that will end up ending any criticism of Israel as regards the Palestinians and its other Muslim neighbors.
The concept of Eretz (greater) Israel will suddenly seem a lot more plausible than it was in the past as pressure is also applied to the European to take an ever larger number of Mideast refugees. (Round them up and clear them out)
Cui bono, It’s alway cui bono.
There are two things the American can do to save the USA.
1. Ban all private funding in all political elections and campaigns, and make it a criminal law. Public funded political elections only.
2. American must amend constitution to limit senators and congressmen to maximum two terms in office, the length of terms for the senate and house of representative the same. Get rid of the staggered election in the senate; elect all the congressmen (senators and house of representatives) at the same time.
They do so, in order to keep the goyim in line. When in danger of discovery, immediately they call people ‘anti-Semites! And that word makes the most macho man into a coward and goes crawling before the Talmudists feet. The Talmudist knows that calling some one anti-Semite will cause any white person to scream in fear, and to spend the rest of his days defending himself that he is not a racist and or anti-Semite etc. Once people realize this, then they will be free to think and to laugh at that stupid and useless name calling. Once a Talmudist accused me of been anti Semite. I asked him what was a ‘Semite. He could not respond correctly. So I informed him that according to some, a Semite is so you also know, a descendant of Shem, the descendant of Noah. Since most Talmudist are atheist, they don’t believe in the Hebrew bible, so sham! He was put on his place. I don’t care either for the Hebrew bible, only for the new testament, so their fables etc, are worthless to me also. So whites, please, PLEASE! Stop getting afraid of this word: “anti-Semite”. The day you laugh at it, the paralyzing effect on you will cease!
Define ‘atrocities’ then.
Packing off a lot of Jews in WWII to camps a la what the US did to Japanese Americans in WWII? A la what the communist USSR did to Christians? A la what Jews have done / are doing to Palestinians?
Robert Parry: “Can Trump Find the ‘Great’ Path?”
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/30/can-trump-find-the-great-path/
(Various proposals for a Great Path elided)
The issue is that most Americans either don’t know, or are controlled by their ‘pastors’ in churchianity telling them that the Talmudist are the ‘people of god’. So once people remove that lie from their brain, then they will realize that the Talmudist are nothing but the adversaries of humanity, and at this time in history, specifically the worst foes of America and the American people. They care not but for the fulfillment of their desire to talmudize America and eventually the whole planet. So if you read this message, call out your pastor and show him how wrong he is, about the Judaic, calling evil good, and good evil.
Like I said somewhere else, it’s about time Germany & Co. pushed back against the Neoconed American foreign policy. Although they have given mixed signals themselves. But this is good and should help Trump, even if it’s from Merkel.
Of the major European countries Italy is the least anti Russian, followed by France with Germany and the UK as toss up for most anti Russian sentiment, Germany because of violent history and the UK because it’s become an American/Neocon lap dog. But even there with Germany, they will make good deals with the Russians and would rather work with them than fight them.
The proposition in your second last par is interesting. I”ve never seen it put quite like that. But let’s test it by reference to people who went for decades without serious and sustained food shortage to find what other factors there must surely be. At one end of the spectrum the Australian Aborigenes and Eskimos both seem to have learned to feed their whole clans though infanticide may have helped balance the diet for some, but not ordered by government. But then you may have to consider whether it was food distribution problems that led to the first large towns bring created. I agree that once you have the urban centre and culture the strong will combine (most of the time) with the shamans to hold on to power and privilege but that leaves open in each case the question of how government came to be imposed and accepted or acquiesced in.
Are you descended from St Simeon Stylites or merely serking to emulate his detachment from beastly reality in himan form?
Perhaps the purpose of the draconian fines imposed on the banks by European courts says something about their legal systems.
Could it be that punishment so obviously impossible to pay is a ploy to get the case re-tried? Or negated in some way?
It looks great to the sheeple to see bankers “poisectuted”, but I’ll bet my lunch money those fines will never be paid.
I can’t take credit for that particular phrasing, I saw it on a blog linked from Zerohedge (sorry I don’t remember which). But the idea that “there are only resources for 9 people and the purpose of government is to deal with the 10th person” has stuck with me.
I combined it with my view on religion and found it makes a rather illuminating heuristic.
After all, Religion and Government are the two oldest abstract inventions I can think of so where and why did they come from?
To answer your question: I would think that the size and power of government is related to the proportion of the population that can’t obtain resources on their own.
The smallest human groups dealt with it through cultural practices (infanticide and senicide), medium groups through tribal councils (war and marriage), and large groups through eco-footprint propaganda and abortion (modern government).
In some ways progressive logic makes sense; if you invert the purpose of religion (fecundity), then that religion could serve to delegitimize the justification for more government as long as conquest is not a threat. But it seems to me that they completely discount another religion (Islam or Mormonism) just filling the vacuum.
This sanctions bill is totally delusional and detached from reality. The Europeans won’t buy expensive US gas in place of cheap Russian gas, and Trump won’t do anything to enforce the sanctions. On a positive note, Kelly got Scaramucci fired, sending a hopeful signal that there may, at long last, be a responsible adult in the WH. Counting the occupant of the Oval Office.
Well said, Schrub. Let’s recall that the French banking conglomerate, BNP Paribas, was fined several billion dollars last year by the US just for trading with Iran. This amounts to economic warfare.
Cyrpto-Israelis in and around Congress and the State Dept. are manipulating and using American power to coerce sovereign states into obeying Israeli economic decrees. Most Americans are totally unaware of this phenomena. Why? Zionists also dominate our elite media. They script, manage and filter virtually all ‘news’ and opinion. Yes, this is a vast conspiracy that few dare identify.
The plot to steer public opinion in a pro-Zionist direction makes complete sense when 1) one examines the ownership/management of the largest international media conglomerates (and film studios), 2) identifies the top donors to both political parties, and 3) calculates who/what constitutes the most effective and aggressive lobbies and think tanks in America. Zionist influence is unrivaled.
We Americans are living under soft Zionist occupation. Unchecked Israeli power is why Trump has abandoned his campaign pledges and transformed himself into a neocon. Just to remain in office, Trump must placate the dominant force in American life.
You are definitely underestimating Europeans. Most likely, they will.
“by European courts”???? Is that what you mean to say?
No the main victim of sanctions is Exxon. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-exxon-treasury-fight-and-the-roots-of-russiagate_us_597de928e4b0c69ef70528ff
Obama was right, why teach the Russians to frack? Obama had his moments. Here he is (a few hours before they got Bin Laden so it was buried) making the biggest mistake of his presidency, nay life: President Obama Roasts Donald Trump At White House Correspondents’ Dinner!. Obama was hilarious as went on and on tearing Trump to pieces with the man himself sitting there in the audience amid hundreds of fellow attendees looking and laughing at him. Trump’s face shows a rage of emotions from eye-narrowing displeasure to set-jawed defiance. Before the end: a decision.
Did they violate established laws of war, kill civilians, engage in torture?
The fact is many Americans our completely ignorant of what is really happening in our own country and the rest of the world. Aside from the various distractions put in place (sports, entertainment, etc) it takes some effort to find the truth. If they depend on the MSM they are either uninformed or misinformed. The MSM is the propaganda arm of the ruling elite. Our elected officials (Vichy Government) are the useful idiots that are helping to destroy our country. It is not going to end well.
“On a positive note, Kelly got Scaramucci fired, sending a hopeful signal that there may, at long last, be a responsible adult in the WH. Counting the occupant of the Oval Office.”
Yes great news! ‘The Mooch is gone, long live the Mooch’, LOL!!! Now if only ‘Linda’ Graham could catch a fatal illness like McCain. “Jesus forgive me!”
Imposing sanctions right, left, and center, first thing in the morning, as last thing of the day, and during mid-day just in case – where is this going to end? Reminds one of Lewis Carroll’s the Queen of Hearts who would perpetually shriek “Off with his head” at all and sundry.
The problem with “Off with his head” games is that the number of heads that can be “offed” easily is fairly limited, for them heads as are intact start becoming aggressively protective of their still intact heads. Then what? If the remaining heads quit the game, whose head are you going to off next? Your own? Looks like the US Congress sees the Queen of Hearts as a role model. It does get curiouser and curiouser, or perhaps queerer and queerer.
Or whatever court has jurisdiction. Sorry.
I’d change that from China to Asia in general.
Again, not only China but Asia in general. South and Central America as well.
Correct. It’s nothing new.
Actually, it was designed as a propaganda mechanism, but it definitely much worse over the past few decades.
Note the dates here.:
Sinclair also wrote “The Goslings,” which also deals with schooling. Both are excellent, as is “The Brass Check,” which deals with the corruption of newspapers.
http://ia600409.us.archive.org/11/items/goosestepstudyof00sinc/goosestepstudyof00sinc_djvu.txt
We are in the Third Jewish War on Russia.
First Jewish War on Russia was Bolshevism.
Second Jewish War on Russia was Privatization, which really should be called Pirate-ization.
Third Jewish War on Russia is Strangulation. How dare Russia restore national sovereignty and defy the new globo-religion of Homomania?
Trump should be a bit more understanding of Palestinians.
Though Palestinians are the underdogs, the media favors Israelis against Palestinians by 9 to 1 margin.
It’s like what the media did in 2016 election. They favored Hillary over Trump by 9 to 1 margin.
So, using Palestinians-as-a-metaphor, Trump is like a Palestinian in intifada against an Israeli tank.
Yet, Trump is just another whore of Zion.
It’s getting harder by the minute Mark. The legal underpinnings for the DHS and its various sub-agencies has already cast far greater powers than they currently employ into black letter law. These powers will come into play as triggering events, constructed or otherwise, make them socio-politically acceptable.
All the structural legal requirements to turn the USA into Orwell’s Oceania are in place. All that’s missing is a plausible motive to put them into effect. No action by Congress, the Judiciary, or even the Executive is necessary for them to go live, and only extraordinary action by them can stop them from going live.
What’s left of American liberty has its toes over the hairy edge of an abyss.
Did Allies violate established laws of war, kill civilians, engage in torture?
“”We have a special relationship with China and they don’t care about the political issues,” local media quoted him as saying.
Netanyahu launched a blistering attack against the European Union (EU) describing its treatment of the Jewish state as “crazy” and “self-defeating”.
“We have a peculiar situation. The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel, that produces technology in every area, on political conditions. The only one,” Netanyahu told four European leaders yesterday during a closed meeting that was inadvertently caught by an open microphone.
“I think it is crazy, I think it is actually crazy,” Netanyahu said. “I am not talking about my interests, Israel s interests; I m talking about Europe s interests.”
“Europe is endangering its own development by endangering its ties with Israel over this crazy attempt to create conditions” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, he said, adding that Israel is right there and Europe is disconnecting itself from this massive center of innovation.
“If this were only about my interests, I wouldn’t have brought it up. Don’t undermine the only country in the region that is looking after Europe’s interests. Stop attacking Israel, support Israel,” the Israeli premier warned.
Orban responded to Netanyahu in a conciliatory tone, saying that EU sets similar conditions to its member states as well.
“Europe must decide if it wants to live and prosper or wither and disappear. I see you’re shocked because I’m not being politically correct,” Netanyahu told the EU leaders in an unprecedented tirade.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/07/21/netanyahu-was-accidentally-caught-talking-about-modi-in-an-open_a_23041196/
1 How many times we have heard from early 20th century that Zionism and Israel would be projecting and upholding the values of the West like ‘Iron Wall” in jungle like a vibrant “Asiatic Belgium ‘?
2 How many times American war against ME countries were presented as efforts to spread the ideas of Western justice,law and of democracy ?
3 Does anybody remember the bifurcation of Sudan ? The uproar against genocidal activities on Darfur ?
4 How does the protection of Europe align with the wars on Libya and Syria that sent millions to EU?
5 How many times EU have been prodded and forced to join sanction against Iran ,Iraq and Syria on the humanitarian grounds?
These are great ideas for reform. However, like all “reforms” for the US they are way too late. The status quo is entrenched; the corruption is systemic. As such, reforms such as you mention are near to impossible in the absence of some kind of shattering calamity (not too difficult to imagine these days).
Given the opportunity, the US needs a root & branch clean up amounting to revolution rather than reform.
“After all, Religion and Government are the two oldest abstract inventions I can think of so where and why did they come from?”
Not sure I agree. In a very real sense neither are abstract nor inventions. Both emerge organically out of human social existence. “Government” is a sophisticated word to describe the exercise of power by one group over another. Originally, it probably amounted to little more than: “do this or I will hurt you”.
There have been some social organisations that approached a kind of raw democracy: usually where everyone knows everyone else & resources were sufficient for all. But generally, larger groupings & limited resourses will “naturally” encourage a minority exercise a “will to power”.
Of course, as human economic -social existence increased in complexity (& surplus or wealth) people were forced to consider — invent — ever more sophisticated approaches to “governing”. However, even then matters are still organic, in the sense that both governed & governors are confronted by various degrees of unchangeable material reality and must respond as best they can using whatever cultural inheritance & social creativity they have.
Obviously, ordinary Americans still dont feel effects of political actions of US government, foreign policy ones. And that is advantage to be an island.
The sanctions legislation is completely unconstitutional, IMO.
Under Art. 2 of the U.S. constitution, the power to “make treaties” is given to the president, not congress. The congressional role is limited to “advice and consent” (senate).
So whence comes congress’ authority to dictate foreign policy to the president?
Moreover, Obama didn’t seize Russian diplomatic property pursuant to any act of congress; rather, he apparently did it under his presumed constitutional authority as president.
Now if Obama had the power to impose sanctions in the first place (and I’m not aware of any argument to the contrary) then he also had the power to lift the sanctions, right?
So how can congress legislatively rescind a power that’s constitutionally delegated to the president? It can’t.
Thus the whole thing is a scam, which is apparently being done to give some political cover to Trump’s calculated betrayals.
If Trump was an honest person acting in good faith (which he obviously isn’t), he would return the sanctions bill to congress, unsigned, within 10 days of receiving it, thus vetoing it. If he were an honest person, Trump would also make it publicly known that he sees the sanctions legislation not only as bad policy, but also as an unconstitutional infringement of his exclusive power to conduct “foreign relations”, and that he accordingly will not abide by it, if congress overrides the veto.
The president DOES NOT HAVE TO IMPLEMENT THE LEGISLATION. He can simply ignore it, and in that case there’s nothing that congress can practically do about it.
Finally failing everything else, Trump always has the option to resign, rather than be “used” as a faux “leader” under which the last remaining vestiges of “America” will be destroyed.
But Trump is a liar and a fraud who doesn’t work for “the people”, and who never intended to live by his disingenuous campaign rhetoric.
Thank you.
It seems obvious after mentioned, but I never connected the dots.
The Americans will never sell natural gas in Europe; it’s absurd for so many reasons.
So this, (highly plausible) reason is what is behind it.
Very relevant, but I guess you’ll never see it on any mainstream media sites.
They did many times. In 1940 it was Britain that intentionally started bombing civilian targets first. And they with Americans kept doing it to the end of the war. This is one of many examples but these bombing campaigns are responsible for deaths of largest numbers of civilians. Most of the killed were not a collateral damage. 66,00 Frenchmen were killed by allies bombs. Collateral damage?
Americans were the first who started to kill survivors of sunk ships.
Soviets were the first who murdered POW’s (20,000 of Polish officers).
But such a law would limit the outstanding talents of political geniuses like McCain, Graham, Ryan, Schumer, and Feinstein.
So what are the EU vassals going to do, launch a slave revolt against the Massas in Wall Street? Don’t hold your breath; as we have repeatedly witnessed in recent years, European leaders are more than willing to cut their nations’ throats to appease Warshington. How many times has Merkel turned somersaults after a phone call from the White House, for instance? What dirt on her did the Obama wiretaps turn up?
History also shows that slave revolts almost always fail. The reason is most usually sabotage by House Negroes among the slaves, who do their utmost to wreck the revolution. And House Negroes abound in the politicana of Union Europa.
The only slave revolt I know of that succeeded was Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Haiti insurrection in the early 19th century, expelling the colonial slavers of France. And the price Haiti paid was such crippling “reparations” (for the loss of slave labour) that it was still paying them off to the 1950s.
Can you doubt that if the Imperialist States of Amerikastan’s European slaves dare raise the banner of revolt, they will not be punished – by visa blocks, trade embargoes, asset seizures, and all the other vile weapons at the command of their owners in America? Do you think they’ll be prepared to pay that price?
Russia will survive these sanctions, especially in view of its growing alliance with China. Amerikastan’s European slaves won’t – and, given the fact that their slavery was voluntary and deliberate, they much more than deserve it. Unlike other slave revolts, there can be no pity for them.
Is also US getting poorer by day? And the two well-healed dictatorial classes fear well-armed masses rising up in protests of being the sole losers in the economic slide?
Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Signing of H.R. 3364
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/02/statement-president-donald-j-trump-signing-hr-3364
Ever since Kissinger entered the Nixon White House, the “core aim” of US policy in Europe has been the destruction of what is now called the EU in pursuit of US global hegemony. Indeed, Ms Johnstone herself has been a strident supporter of that campaign going back many years to the time when Putin was being presented as a closet communist who wanted to restore the Soviet Union. It is thus rather disingenuous of her to present herself now as the defender of the EU! According to the official English version of the German foreign ministry statement, the concern is that the effectiveness of the EU – US stance on Ukraine would be diminished if the EU and the US were no longer to take joint action if US economic pursuits were to prevail. Thus, the issue is not sanctions or not sanctions. The EU, which the US failure to stand up to Putin in Ukraine has greatly strengthened, is diplomatically hinting that it does not want to see EU companies being punished by the US for actions which do not violate the existing, commonly agreed, sanctions regime. In all probability, the US will no doubt accept that in practice. Thus, the subtext that I read into Ms Johnstone’s argument, namely that the EU is siding with Putin, doesn’t seem to stand up to analysis.
I would like to explain what led me to conclude that Emmanuel Macron has an “Alt Right” worldview.
Last year I made the case that the success of the Alt Right movement stems from and can be attributed to its Protestant nature:
– https://www.unz.com/article/what-can-msmclinton-say-about-alt-right-that-theyve-not-already-said-about-trumpgop/#comment-1561897
– https://www.unz.com/article/two-cheers-for-trump-advisor-mike-anton-he-has-the-right-enemies/#comment-1775364
Macron himself is a Catholic, but he has had interactions with Huguenots, which, I believe, formed his “Alt Right” way of thinking/worldview. It is also interesting to note in this context, that he studied Machiavelli, which, in my opinion, lends further support to my idea that he prefers to operate as a “secret agent”:
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellianism#Political_thought
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Macron#Early_life
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ric%C5%93ur#Life
The following is a good example of his Alt Right-Machiavellian- secret agent type of governing:
– http://www.france24.com/en/20170728-hotspots-libya-french-president-macron-announcement-migrant-crisis-refugees
I am openly “Alt Right”, and I generally do not have a problem to be labeled a white nationalist or an identitarian, but I usually tell people that the issue that I am most passionate/concerned about is pro-WASP advocacy, and I just use the “Alt Right” label to describe my worldview, because it is a pretty well-known term these days and generally summarizes my interests pretty accurately:
– https://www.counter-currents.com/2016/11/the-alt-right-obituary-for-a-brand/#comment-1373918
– https://www.unz.com/article/non-white-migrants-and-the-catholic-church/#comment-1870992
– http://www.amerika.org/politics/between-cuck-and-sperg/
I shared this video here at the Unz Review before, but I would like to share it again, because it best encapsulates and captures what I personally associate with term “Alt Right”:
French army band medleys Daft Punk following Bastille Day parade
Video Link
Perfectly risible! Up till now, the EU has functioned as a veritable tool of US hegemony in Europe — it’s the finance sector arm of NATO.
The eurotrash will suck it up come hell or high water.
The state dept ‘knows where the bodies are buried’
After VW execs got hung out to dry over their phoney emissions and love of hookers the Germans know what to expect if they step out of line.
Sure, they’ll talk tough and make some cheap shots but they’ll suck it up.
More good news and developments from Emmanuel Macron:
– http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/838272/Emmanuel-Macron-EU-eastern-European-workers-labour-French-labour-laws-Poland-Hungary
The EU should have never expanded eastward. The 2004 enlargement was a massive mistake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_European_Union
They should have stopped the expansion after the 1995 enlargement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_enlargement_of_the_European_Union
Visualizing Values Mismatch in the European Union
http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/visualizing-values-mismatch-in-the-european-union/
what do ordinary Americans think about all of this?
Mr, you do need to understand that the elites learnt in Russia, (Talmudists), that if they control the power structure, and the media, they cannot fear anything! They demonize any one outside and inside the country, via their ‘media’. Unfortunately, most Americans still believe the lies, and misinformation spewed by the Main Stream Media. Few here and thera are waking to the fact that they were lied and manipulated into believing lies and more lies. The internet and the alternate media such as UNZ are making a difference. I have family members who refuse to believe that they are ill informed by the MSM! They call me fanatic, and sometimes crazy when I point to them the lies and propaganda they are under via the main media outlets. So yes, Americans believe most of what our Government says. I was dismayed when I realized how we are being manipulated and lied to. So here at UNZ and veteranstoday, etc, are helping many people, except the old ones who are set on their believes, to wake up. Hopefully more and more people here in this USA, and around the world wake up, and see what is real and what is not. Most Americans are nice and easy going, so they believe that their leaders are also alike, but the internet has the alternate info, required to weight both sides, and make our own minds.
Very little foreign news is disseminated ..
I would say, zero foreign news, and only news regarding countries which will look bad on those countries, which the US will try to demonize, or to create ill will towards. I still have to see any news making Israel look bad; on the contrary, always making Israel look as the victim with the most powerful military in the area, against rocks throwing people! How the Main Stream Media, transforms a malevolent country, killing with tanks and missiles people who throw rocks at then, demonstrates the power of the Presstitute!, point made.