Friday 26th of April 2024

thrones...

juanitajuanita

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the early 1970s, after I landed at Circular Quay as a 20-buck migrant — an event not found in the e-record of the Australian government — there were a few events I remember clearly. First, one could not avoid seeing the New South Wales government was corrupt to the core and many things happened to indicate this state of affairs. Barrett’s funny novels seems to have been based on the sorry sagas of the times…

 

 

NOW AN ABC TELEVISION DRAMA STARRING DAVID WENHAM AND REBEL WILSON They don't call him Lucky Les for nothing. A ticket in a raffle and Norton was off to see to US of A-Siestasota, Florida, where it turned out hot, red hot, and it wasn't just the weather. Night club brawls, mafia hitmen, too many girls called Lori, gun crazed Americans and the whole lot washed along in a sea of margaritas. Even for Les Norton it was just too hot to handle. So it was off to 'greener' pastures-the Caribbean-for reggae, rum and Rastafarians, not to mention Sultry Delta, sweet-lipped Esme, and Millwood Downie, schoolteacher, historian and would-be stand-up comic, who helps Les trace his family tree and possibly uncover the biggest earn ever. The world is finally Norton's oyster. All he has to do is get the shell open. About the Author: Robert G. Barrett was raised in Bondi where he has worked mainly as a butcher. He has appeared in a number of films and TV commercials but prefers to concentrate on a career as a writer. He is author of 11 other books including You Wouldn't be Dead for Quids and Day of the Gecko.

 

Read more: https://www.thereallygoodbookshop.com.au/product/7613/And-De-Fun-Dont-Done-7-Les-Norton

 

The battle for Victoria street, Kings Cross in Sydney was hotting up to become a sad saga…

 

There had been violence brewing on their street over two things that drive Sydney: money and land.

Arthur had organised a group of about 50 neighbours to oppose a developer's plans to knock down their homes on Victoria Street in Kings Cross.

The fight to save their street was costing some powerful and dangerous people a lot of money. It would ultimately be linked with the suspected murder of Arthur's neighbour, high-profile journalist Juanita Nielsen.

 

 

Was there a conspiracy?… Just a small one? A conspiracy between the “crooked” developers, the City Councils and the State government? This is what the investigation is trying to find. Meanwhile, Jack Mundey and his union saved part of the Street with Green Bans, while developers eventually managed to built half of what they had dreamed of. And don’t get me wrong, some perfectly legitimate Councils voted legitimately on issues in favour of development, but this does not mean that the votes were (or are) in favour of the communities. Nowadays, we still face the same issues. Developers want more high rise because they can make more money by the square metre and Councils favour high rise because they cash in on rates and stamp duties. The quaint beauty of some suburbs can be destroyed in a wink by vista-blocking piles of flats (I am polite — I meant to say “piles of shit”).

 

Money rules.

 

And our media are part of these un-declared conspiracies, because they make most of their money through advertising real estate agencies… The price of houses is going through the roof...

 

The second events that started my 1970s in Sydney were the protests against the Vietnam War. We often discuss war(s) and the conspiracies of war(s) on this site… Anyway, I made sure I was in the middle back of the crowds. Being on the edges lend to be hit by police truncheons. From then on one has to question every move, every observation and suspect some organisational shenanigans from governments, councils and local clubs. At the time I was familiarising myself with Orstraya by reading little books like “They’re a Weird Mob” by Nino Culotta (John O’Grady). But this did not go deep into the dangerous corruption of intent and of people, just the perversion of language…

 

Amongst all this, I sailed through life with a ton of good luck in my backpack. Failures can be exploited as part of the experiments to gain knowledge. One has to know that there are more than one solution to any complex problems. Or is there? Or do we grade our relative solutions according to various parameters from culture to passion and historical baggage? Are progress motions versus retaining historical representative items such as buildings, a conflict of ideals? 

 

I believe that should Firenze (Florence, Italy) be run by Australian progressives, the city would have been peppered with high rise buildings from where you could contemplate the dome, had it not been replaced by a sports stadium…

 

Had Hunter Biden been a black man, one can believe he would be in prison for 20 years, for drug use, for possession and many other misdemeanours… Here we must study our narratives in the media. We have to accept that this narrative is ALWAYS designed to frame us into a point of view with little leeway. There is even little difference between the ratbag-right media such as the New York Post and the fake-left media such as the Washington Post. THEY PUSH an agenda: that of the rich.

 

In my sarcasm, I would say that Hunter Biden should be in prison for impersonating an artist. But the media is pretty cool about this aspect. The right-media are incensed that Hunter could be using his dad’s fame to make a name for himself, while the left-media are showing a “bad boy” made good. I repeat, Had this “bad boy made good” been a black man, he would be in prison, doing laundry. Or dead (shot)...

 

So is there a conspiracy to whitewash Hunter Biden despite his laptop showing he was corrupt? One of the problem with the media is that they are dependent of the “establishment” (the rich) no matter what. Lifting rocks to find traces of Hunter’s dirt would inevitably lead to Joseph Biden’s own iffy past… So, Joe Biden is introduced to us as “reformed”, “improved”, “a new man”, etc… Cleaned slate. Even decent journalists believe this shit because the alternative would have rocked the boat so bad… First, Joe HAD TO defeat Bernie Sanders. The media and the religious organisations made an unwritten pact: socialism had to be defeated. The establishment had to survive. 

 

Have you noticed that many pictures used in adverts (and media articles) show people with a GIGANTIC smile? Have you noticed how much Joe Biden is shown with a smile when talking about his government and a frown when he hears the word “Trump”? Or someone mentions “Putin”? This is part of the massage… Trump was too painful for the establishment. He had to be painted as a mad man (he did some of it himself as well). Many tricks were used to destabilise him, before and after the 2016 elections… The “liberal” media pumped the sauce. 

 

Now, Trump has to be prevented from coming back into politics. Hence the tax inspections which will last at least till 2029 and prove nothing (my guess)… Trump was an accident. But he was an accident invented not by the Russians, but by Rupert Murdoch (like he did “invent” Tony Abbott, the unelectable PM, we’ll see about that…). The last thing Rupert wanted was Hillary ruling the roost. He could have managed, but I don’t think he liked her very much… Obama’s failure to deliver anything except rhetorical grandeur and wars started to irk the populace. Murdoch exploited this…

 

Someone recently said to me that Murdoch won’t be a friend of Joe Biden and vice-versa… Yet one has to see that Joe is a member of the establishment. Murdoch and Joe are connected "through the pipeline"… Biden won’t rock the boat like a Trump or a Sanders. Joe's teleprompter will do noises about making the populace happy, while making sure the establishment makes its cut and is in control. At the head of the establishment media we’ve got… Rupert Murdoch. His progeny isn’t as bright as he ever was, especially in his extraordinary ability to guess which way he could make the wind blow. For example, the little voice in the back of my head is telling me that Rupert did not mind a Biden victory at the 2020 elections… He could have destroyed Joe’s bid easily. He chose not to, without upsetting his fare, Trump, who was a bit of a handful. Making trump look good was always a challenge for the Murdoch media. 

 

This slowly leads us to the concentration of conspiratorial theories… The establishment… 

 

 

If you can't figure out what the establishment is, the political philosopher Jack Black has a good definition.

"You don't know the man? Oh, well, he's everywhere. In the White House, down the hall," he rants in the movie School of Rock. He adds, "And there used to be a way to stick it to the man. It was called rock 'n' roll."

This idea is at the core of what establishment means in the 2016 presidential race, according to one (actual) political analyst.

"It's kind of what we used to call 'The Man,' when you are against The Man," said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the Rothenberg and Gonzales Political Report. "The establishment has become 'The Man.'"

No one wants to be the square who hates rock 'n' roll. And no one wants to be "establishment" in the 2016 presidential race. Hillary Clinton quickly distanced herself from the label when Bernie Sanders used it against her in the last presidential debate. Republican Jeb Bush only grudgingly accepted the label.

"Fine, I'll take it," he said.

That's too bad for him. As political strategist Mark McKinnon told NPR, this is the most anti-establishment race he has ever seen.

In fact, here's how he defined "establishment": "The measles. A disease. A political disease."

 

Read more:

 

https://www.npr.org/2016/02/11/466049701/how-establishment-became-the-buzzword-of-the-2016-election

 

 

This is MEDIA glib stuff… The US establishment is similar to the old bourgeois networks in some European city. THEY DECIDE where to build a new bridge, if you know what I mean: the people will be “consulted”, the establishment will decide… The media WILL SPRUIK the “excellent” decision… It is part of the corporate culture. It is part of the system which HAS TO MAKE MONEY and every member of the club has to make money. Amongst these principles learnt at Harvard schools, is the control of government through the Federal Reserve, which in the USA is a PRIVATE enterprise, running the money bags on behalf of the governments. Is there “conspiracies” within the club? SURE. It would make no sense if there was not, because no matter what, “The Games of Throne” isn’t fictitious at this level…

 

And so comes the greater conspiracy…

 

Can you imagine an all powerful group, that knows no national boundaries, above the laws of all countries, one that controls every aspect of politics, religion, commerce and industry, banking, insurance, mining, the drug trade, the petroleum industry, a group answerable to no onebut its members? To the vast majority of us, such a group would appear to be beyond the realms of possibilities and capabilities of any given organization. If that is what you believe, then you are in the majority. The conception of a secret, elite group exercising control of every aspect of our lives is beyond our comprehension. Americans are prone to say, "It can't happen here, our Constitution forbids it." That there is such a body, called "The committee of 300," is graphically told in this book. When most people attempt to address our problems, they speak or write about "they"; this book tells precisely who "they" are, and what "TheY" have planned for our future, how "they" have been at war with the American nation for 50 years, a war which we are on the brink of losing, what methods "They" use and exactly how "they" have brainwashed us. If you are Puzzled and perplexed as to why things are occurring that we as a nation don't like yet seem powerless to prevent, why it is that the United States always seems to back the wrong horse, Why the united states is in a depression from which it will not emerge, why our former social and moral values have been turned aside and seemingly buried; if you are confused by the many conspiracy theories, the conSPirators' hierarchy: the committee of 300 will clearly establish that these conditions have been deliberately created to bring us to our knees. Once you have read the applying truths contained in this book, understanding past and present political, economic, social and religious events will no longer be a problem. This powerful account of the forces ranged against the United States, and indeed the entire free world, cannot be ignored.

 

Read more: https://www.amazon.com/Conspirators-Hierarchy-Committee-John-Coleman/dp/0922356572

 

Now you know why the Yanks are trying to destroy Russia and China by whatever means, and why China and Russia are "not playing the game" and are resisting the push which to say the least OUR MEDIA HAS BEEN PART OF THE ANTI-RUSSIA AND ANTI-CHINA CONSPIRACY to various levels in order to appear “diverse”. This is targeted hubris.

 

Beware. The clamour decibels on this hubris are only going to climb up… The cannons are being polished...

 

Any pretextes, including some plausible — especially plausible ones — will be invented…

 

Remember Juanita Nielsen… 

 

See also: 

another paver in hell...

 

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political influencers...

 

As the USA is leaving Afghanistan in some way, the history of this excursion is embedded into the life of political “influencers” such as Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski…. We already have mentioned him in the long game, the west duplicity, the trap, the naive russians and Zbigniew Brzezinski... He was the main instigator and implementor of the US imperial push on the world. To Gus, Brzezinski was a very devious but extremely clever, persuasive and powerful man who understood how to manipulate public opinions in order to achieve “ground zero” politics. He was the devil whispering into President Carter’s ear…

 

 

 

Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (/ˈzbɪɡnjɛf brəˈzɪnski/ ZBIG-nyef brə-ZIN-skee,[1] Polish: [ˈzbiɡɲɛf kaˈʑimjɛʐ bʐɛˈʑij̃skʲi] (listen);[a] March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017) was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. As a scholar, Brzezinski belonged to the realist school of international relations, standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman.[2][3] Brzezinski was the primary organizer of The Trilateral Commission.[4]

 

Major foreign policy events during his time in office included the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China (and the severing of ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan); the signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II); the brokering of the Camp David Accords; the overthrow of the US-friendly Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the start of the Iranian Revolution; the United States' encouragement of dissidents in Eastern Europe and championing of human rights in order to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union;[5] the arming of the mujahideen in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; and the signing of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties relinquishing U.S. control of the Panama Canal after 1999.

 

Brzezinski served as the Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a member of various boards and councils. He appeared frequently as an expert on the PBS program The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, ABC News' This Week with Christiane Amanpour, and on MSNBC's Morning Joe, where his daughter, Mika Brzezinski, is co-anchor. He was a supporter of the Prague Process.[6] His eldest son, Ian, is a foreign policy expert, and his youngest son, Mark, was the United States Ambassador to Sweden from 2011 to 2015.

 

In his 1970 piece Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era [see below], Brzezinski argued that a coordinated policy among developed nations was necessary in order to counter global instability erupting from increasing economic inequality. Out of this thesis, Brzezinski co-founded the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, serving as director from 1973 to 1976.[4] The Trilateral Commission is a group of prominent political and business leaders and academics primarily from the United States, Western Europe and Japan. Its purpose was to strengthen relations among the three most industrially advanced regions of the capitalist world. In 1974, Brzezinski selected Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter as a member.[7][4]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski

 

 

What follows is an introduction to Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski’s views

in a book of essays expressing his views: 

 

Between Two Ages... (1970)

 

 

Here is the beginning:

 

 

CONTENTS 

 

THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF THE  TECHNETRONIC REVOLUTION 8 

 

1. The Onset of the Technetronic Age 10 

 

New Social Patterns 10 

 

Social Explosion/Implosion 11 

 

Global Absorption 13 

 

 

2. The Ambivalent Disseminator 15 

 

The American Impact 75 

 

New Imperialism? 18 

 

 

3. Global Ghettos 19 

 

Prospects for Change 20 

 

The Subjective Transformation 21 

 

The Political Vacuum 25 

 

 

4. Global Fragmentation and Unification 26 

 

Fragmented Congestion 26 

 

Toward a Planetary Consciousness 28 

 

 

 

 

THE AGE OF VOLATILE BELIEF 31 

 

1 . The Quest for a Universal Vision 31 

 

The Universal Religions 32 

 

The National Identity 33 

 

Ideological Universalism 34 

 

 

2. Turbulence within Institutionalized Beliefs 35 

 

Institutional Marxism 35 

 

Organized Christianity 38 

 

Privatization of Belief. 40 

 

 

3. Histrionics as History in Transition 41 

 

Escape from Reason 42 

 

The Political Dimension 43 

 

Historical Discontinuity 45 

 

 

4. Ideas and Ideals beyond Ideology 47 

 

The Quest for Equality 47 

 

Syncretic Belief. 48 

 

 

 

 

COMMUNISM: THE PROBLEM OF RELEVANCE 52 

 

1. The Stalinist Paradox 52 

 

The Necessity of Stalinism 53 

 

Imperial Pacification 55 

 

 

2. The Bureaucratization of Boredom 57 

 

The Innovative Relationship 57 

 

Defensive Orthodoxy 58 

 

Perspective on Tomorrow 61 

 

 

3. The Soviet Future 62 

 

Internal Dilemmas 62 

 

Alternative Paths 66 

 

The Problem of Vitality 69 

 

 

4. Sectarian Communism 70 

 

Phases 70 

 

Assimilated Communisms 71 

 

China and Global Revolution 73 

 

 

 

 

THE AMERICAN TRANSITION 77 

 

1 . The Third American Revolution 78 

 

The Pace and Thrust of Progress 79 

 

The Uncertainty of Progress 81 

 

The Futility of Politics 83 

 

 

2. The New Left Reaction 86 

 

Infantile Ideology 86 

 

Revolutionaries in Search of Revolution 88 

 

The Historic Function of the Militant Left 90 

 

 

3. The Crisis of Liberalism 91 

 

The Liberal Janus 92 

 

The Price of Victorious Skepticism 92 

 

The End of Liberal Democracy? 95 

 

 

 

 

AMERICA AND THE WORLD 98 

 

1 . The American Future 98 

 

Participatory Pluralism 99 

 

Change in Cultural Formation 101 

 

Rational Humanism 103 

 

 

2. International Prospects 104 

 

The Revolutionary Process 105 

 

USA/USSR: Less Intensive, More Extensive Rivalry 707 

 

Policy Implications 108 

 

 

3. A Community of the Developed Nations Ill 

 

Western Europe and Japan Ill 

 

Structure and Focus 112 

 

The Communist States 113 

 

Risks and Advantages 114 

 

 

REFERENCE NOTES 117 

 

 

INDEX 123 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction 

 

Perhaps the time is past for the comprehensive "grand" vision. In some ways, it was a necessary substitute for ignorance, a compensation in breadth for the lack of depth in man's understanding of his world. But even if this is so, the result of more knowledge maybe greater ignorance — or, at least, the feeling of ignorance — about where we are and where we are heading, and particularly where we should head, than was true when in fact we knew less but thought we knew more. 

 

I am not sure that this need be so. In any case, I am not satisfied with the fragmented, microscopic understanding of the parts, and I feel the need for some — even if crude — approximation of a larger perspective. This book is an effort to provide such a perspective. It is an attempt to define the meaning — within a dynamic framework — of a major aspect of our contemporary reality: the emerging global political process which increasingly blurs the traditional distinctions between domestic and international politics. In working toward that definition, I shall focus particularly on the meaning for the United States of the emergence of this process, seeking to draw implications from an examination of the forces that are molding it. 

 

Time and space shape our perception of reality. The specific moment and the particular setting dictate the way international estimates and priorities are defined. Sometimes, when the moment is historically "ripe," the setting and the time may coalesce to provide a special insight. A perceptive formula is easier to articulate in a moment of special stress. Conditions of war, crisis, tension are in that sense particularly fertile. The situation of crisis permits sharper value judgments, in keeping with man's ancient proclivity for dividing his reality into good and evil. (Marxist dialectic is clearly in this tradition, and it infuses moral dichotomy into every assessment.) But short of that critical condition — which in its most extreme form involves the alternatives of war or peace — global politics do not lend themselves to pat formulations and clear-cut predictions, even in a setting of extensive change. As a result — in most times — it is extraordinarily difficult to liberate oneself from the confining influence of the immediate and to perceive — from a detached perspective — the broader sweep of events. 

 

Any abstract attempt to arrive at a capsule formula is bound to contain a measure of distortion. The influences that condition relations among states and the broad evolution of international affairs are too various. Nonetheless, as long as we are aware that any such formulation inescapably contains a germ of falsehood — and hence must be tentative — the attempt represents an advance toward at least a partial understanding. The alternative is capitulation to complexity: the admission that no sense can be extracted from what is happening. The consequent triumph of ignorance exacts its own tribute in the form of unstable and reactive policies, the substitution of slogans for thought, the rigid adherence to generalized formulas made in another age and in response to circumstances that are different in essence from our own, even if superficially similar. 

 

Today, the most industrially advanced countries (in the first instance, the United States) are beginning to emerge from the industrial stage of their development. They are entering an age in which technology and especially electronics — hence my neologism "technetronic" * — are increasingly becoming the principal determinants of social change, altering the mores, the social structure, the values, and the global outlook of society. And precisely because today change is so rapid and so complex, it is perhaps more important than ever before that our conduct of foreign affairs be guided by a sense of history — and to speak of history in this context is to speak simultaneously of the past and of the future. 

 

Since it focuses on international affairs, this book is at most only a very partial response to the need for a more comprehensive assessment. It is not an attempt to sum up the human condition, to combine philosophy and science, to provide answers to more perplexing questions concerning our reality. It is much more modest than that, and yet I am uneasily aware that it is already much too ambitious, because it unavoidably touches on all these issues. 

 

The book is divided into five major parts. The first deals with the impact of the scientific-technological revolution on world affairs in general, discussing more specifically the ambiguous position of the principal disseminator of that revolution — the United States — and analyzing the effects of the revolution on the so-called Third World. The second part examines how the foregoing considerations have affected the content, style, and format of man's political outlook on his global reality, with particular reference to the changing role of ideology. The third part assesses the contemporary relevance of communism to problems of modernity, looking first at the experience of the Soviet Union and then examining the over-all condition of international communism as a movement that once sought to combine internationalism and humanism. The fourth part focuses on the United States, a society that is both a social pioneer and a guinea pig for mankind; it seeks to define the thrust of change and the historical meaning of the current American transition. The fifth part outlines in very broad terms the general directions that America might take in order to make an effective response to the previously discussed foreign and domestic dilemmas. 

 

Having said what the book does attempt, it might be helpful to the reader also to indicate what it does not attempt. First of all, it is not an exercise in "futurology"; it is an effort to make sense of present trends, to develop a dynamic perspective on what is happening. Secondly, it is not a policy book, in the sense that its object is not to develop systematically a coherent series of prescriptions and programs. In Part V, however, it does try to indicate the general directions toward which America should and, in some respects, may head. 

 

In the course of developing these theses, I have expanded on some of the ideas initially advanced in my article "America in the Technetronic Age," published in Encounter, January 1968, which gave rise to considerable controversy. I should add that not only have I tried to amplify and clarify some of the rather condensed points made in that article, but I have significantly revised some of my views in the light of constructive criticisms made by my colleagues. Moreover, that article addressed itself to only one aspect (discussed primarily in Part I) of the much larger canvas that I have tried to paint in this volume. 

 

It is my hope that this essay will help to provide the reader with a better grasp of the nature of the political world we live in, of the forces shaping it, of the directions it is pursuing. In that sense, it might perhaps contribute to a sharper perception of the new political processes enveloping our world and move beyond the more traditional forms of examining international politics. I hope, too, that the tentative propositions, the generalizations, and the theses advanced here — though necessarily speculative, arbitrary, and in very many respects inescapably inadequate — may contribute to the increasing discussion of America's role in the world. 

 

In the course of the work, I have expressed my own opinions and exposed my prejudices. This effort is, therefore, more in the nature of a "think piece," backed by evidence, than of a systematic exercise in social- science methodology* 

 

Finally, let me end this introduction with a confession that somewhat anticipates my argument: an apocalyptic-minded reader may find my thesis uncongenial because my view of America's role in the world is still an optimistic one. I say "still" because I am greatly troubled by the dilemmas we face at home and abroad, and even more so by the social and philosophical implications of the direction of change in our time. 

 

Nonetheless, my optimism is real. Although I do not mean to minimize the gravity of America's problems — their catalogue is long, the dilemmas are acute, and the signs of a meaningful response are at most ambivalent — I truly believe that this society has the capacity, the talent, the wealth, and, increasingly, the will to surmount the difficulties inherent in this current historic transition. 

 

In this respect, I share the view of Barrington Moore, Jr., that "when we set the dominant body of current thinking against important figures in the nineteenth century, the following differences emerge. First of all, the critical spirit has all but disappeared. Second, modern sociology, and perhaps to a lesser extent also modern political science, economics, and psychology, are ahistorical. Third, modern social science tends to be abstract and formal. In research, social science today displays considerable technical virtuosity. But this virtuosity has been gained at the expense of content. Modern sociology has less to say about society than it did fifty years ago" (Political Power and Social Theory, Cambridge, Mass., 1958, p. 123). 

 

 

 

 

 

BETWEEN TWO AGES 

 

"Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. . . . 

There are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the 

consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple 

acquiescence." 

 

— Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf 

 

Hermann Karl Hesse (German ( 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

 

Digest all this if you can...

 

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"leaving too fast"....

Three decades after the Soviet empire headed for the exit, is it possible that the far more powerful American one is ever so chaotically heading in the same direction?

If, for instance, Kabul falls to the Taliban months from now and US diplomats need to be rescued from the roof of our embassy there, as happened in Saigon in 1975 – something the president has vehemently denied is even possible – count on one thing: a bunch of Republicans and right-wing pundits will instantly be down his throat for leaving “too fast.” (Of course, some of them already are, including, as it happens, the very president who launched the 2001 invasion, only to almost instantly refocus his attention on invading Iraq.)

Even domestically, when you think about where our money truly goes, inequality of every sort is only growing more profound, with America’s billionaires ever wealthier and more numerous, while the Pentagon and those weapons-making corporations float ever higher on taxpayer dollars, and the bills elsewhere go unpaid. In that sense, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about the United States as a failing imperial system at home as well as abroad. Sadly, whether globally or domestically, all of this seems hard for Americans to take in or truly describe (hence, perhaps, the madness of Donald Trump’s America). After all, if you can’t even use the words “imperial” and “empire,” then how are you going to understand what’s happening to you?

Still, forget any fantasies about us spreading democracy abroad. We’re now in a country that’s visibly threatening to lose democracy at home. Forget Afghanistan. From the January 6th assault on the Capitol to the latest (anti-)voting laws in Texas and elsewhere, there’s a flailing, failing system right here in the US. And unlike Afghanistan, it’s not one that a president can withdraw from.

Yes, globally, the Biden administration has seemed remarkably eager to enter a new Cold War with China and “pivot” to Asia, as the Pentagon continues to build up its forces, from naval to nuclear, as if this country were indeed still the reigning imperial power on the planet. But it’s not.

The real question may be this: Three decades after the Soviet empire headed for the exit, is it possible that the far more powerful American one is ever so chaotically heading in the same direction? And if so, what does that mean for the rest of us?

 

 

This article, written by Tom Engelhardt, was republished from Common Dreams 27 July 2021 under the Creative Commons License. Click here to read the original article.

 

Read more: https://johnmenadue.com/failed-us-empire-is-this-country-heading-for-the-exit/

 

READ FROM TOP....

 

See also: the war was lost 20 years ago...

 

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rosteimer der deutschen Marine

A German frigate has set sail for the South China Sea for the first time in some two decades as part of a six-month mission, as Berlin pledges its commitment to its allies and to ‘freedom of navigation’.  

One of Germany’s four Brandenburg-class frigates, the Bayern (Bavaria), departed the German naval base of Wilhelmshaven on Monday during a ceremony attended by Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. 

The military vessel carrying 46 anti-submarine torpedoes, as well as anti-ship missiles and anti-aircraft weapons, will spend the next six months at sea and is expected to sail near the Horn of Africa, Australia, and Japan, according to the German Navy.

 

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https://www.rt.com/news/530947-germany-warship-south-china-sea/

 

 

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family ties...

 

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Joe Biden has nominated Mark Brzezinski to be the next US ambassador to Poland, the White House said in a press release.

"Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve in key roles promoting US foreign policy and national security: Mark Brzezinski, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Poland," the release said on Wednesday.

Brzezinski served in the Obama administration as the US ambassador to Sweden from 2011 to 2015, the release said. He also served on former President Bill Clinton's National Security Council from 1999 to 2001, with a focus on Russia, Eurasia, and the Balkans, the release added.

However, according to the release, Brzezinski most recently spent his days as the founder and principal of Brzezinski Strategies LLC, which consults companies on long-term global investments. Brzezinski also spent some time as the managing director at Makena Capital Management.

Brzezinski is the son of the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as former US President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/202108041083531184-biden-nominates-mark-brzezinski-to-be-us-envoy-to-poland/

 

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family lies...

 

The son of POTUS 46, Hunter Biden, appears to have interesting relations with laptops full of sensitive information. The first one, branded by the Trump campaign as a "laptop from hell", had purportedly been left in a computer store in Delaware. The second was seized by federal agents. But the laptop saga appears to be far from over.

Hunter Biden claimed that Russian drug dealers had stolen a laptop from him for blackmail purposes when he was in a Las Vegas hotel, almost overdosed, Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

According to the outlet, Hunter appeared to have recorded sex with an alleged prostitute on camera, along with a conversation they had afterwards in which he revealed that he had spent a lot of money during his 18-day spree in Las Vegas, as he would go "round from penthouse suite to penthouse suite."

In the alleged conversation, Hunter reportedly shares how his laptop was stolen from him at some point in the summer of 2018 by some "Russian drug dealers". The laptop allegedly contained compromising videos of sex.

"They have videos of me doing this," he said, apparently referring to the freshly-made sex tape. "They have videos of me doing crazy f***ing sex f***ing, you know."

After the "prostitute" wondered whether Hunter was worried about blackmail, he replied "Yeah in some way yeah."

"My dad [inaudible] running for president," he told her quietly, according to Daily Mail. "He is. I talk about it all the time. [...] If they do, he also knows I make like a gazillion dollars."

The explicit video involving Hunter and the alleged prostitute was shared by Daily Mail.

 

If the reported "Russian drug dealers" have indeed stolen a laptop from Hunter Biden, it would mark the third computer with sensitive information that he has been accused of losing.

The first, named by the Trump administration as a "laptop from hell", was claimed to have been abandoned by him in a computer store in Delaware, and became the butt of jokes and criticism from rivals of the Joe Biden presidential campaign. This laptop was claimed to have contained multiple emails alleged to be connected to Hunter Biden's business dealings overseas - something that prompted Trump to allege that Joe Biden was involved in controversial deals with China.

The second laptop kerfuffle credited to the presidential son was seized by federal agents after a raid on the office of a Hunter Biden associate, psychiatrist Keith Ablow. Both computers are said to have sensitive information about Hunter Biden and the Biden family.

Neither Hunter Biden nor the rest of the presidential family has commented on the report about a third laptop.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/202108111083584162-video-allegedly-shows-hunter-biden-telling-prostitute-that-russian-drug-dealers-stole-his-laptop/

 

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hooking up...

In the video Hunter, seen Sunday with his wife Melissa Cohen and their one-year-old son Beau Jr., appeared dismayed that if the video was sold by the alleged thieves to porn or news companies he would be unable to cash in on the explicit videos himself

'I'm worried he gets the money up front and maybe it doesn't do a million dollars, maybe it does three. Maybe nobody wants to see me naked,' he said.

'Maybe it's 'news interest' and because my dad's a public figure they say 'we don't have to pay you anything because you're of interest in regular news.'

'I think you should just beat him to the punch,' the prostitute replied. 'I think you should release your own video.'

Photos on the laptop hard drive obtained by DailyMail.com include pictures of a woman's Russian passport, and photos of Hunter topless pulling the woman's brunette hair while she kneels on a bed.

Other photos show the woman and three young men driving to Hunter's former Hollywood Hills rented home, drinking and partying by the pool, and two women naked with Hunter by the pool.

It is unclear whether the Russian woman and the three men are the same people Hunter accused of stealing his laptop.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF HUNTER BIDEN'S LAPTOP CONFESSION TO A HOOKER 

Hunter: 'You know what I just thought of something. When I was in California [inaudible] before I met you. I was with these guys. The one guy was, not like you anyway. 

'Primarily my source, ok? And I spent fu**ing crazy amounts of money. I went to Las Vegas and he said it would be one day. I made him promise me it would be one day. I hate Las Vegas. 

'And so literally after 18 days going round from penthouse suite to penthouse suite [inaudible] four different hotels, and thousands of dollars. I didn't even know. He had my credit card, he said we got half off, I was like great. Then I found out it was $10,000 a night. I'm like what.

'And each night he'd be like 'there's going to be so many people here, crazy fu**ing party' and each night it's nobody.

'Hold on I'm peeing. 

'And so that's when I went into the pool. Into the tub. In the hot tub, above, in Palms that hangs over the side [Inaudible] more than I usually do, way more than that [inaudible] 

'And I went out to the hot tub by myself, which hangs over the edge of the fu**ing top floor, with glass, it's ridiculous.

'And so I'm sitting there and that's the last I remember. And I don't ever pass out, ever.

'I wake up and the only people that are there are Miguel, the guy frantically running round gathering things up, ok – and Miguel, and Pierce, this guy, his friend. 

'So anyway, and they had kicked everybody out. And they had cleaned up the entire place, everything ok? And they were getting ready to leave, and I woke up. And there was this Russian 35-year-old, really nice, pure brunette.

'[Inaudible] I don't know how long. She refused to leave until they – she refused to leave and they wouldn't call an ambulance. And they didn't know whether I was dead or not, at first.

Hooker: ' They couldn't just come over and check [inaudible]' 

Hunter: 'They checked to see if I was breathing. When I finally showed signs of breath, at first I wasn't breathing, I was in the fu**ing pool face down, they don't know how long.

'And she told me that they don't, they were like 'we thought we'd get everybody out, because you know we didn't want, if we had to call, we didn't want everybody…' And she went no. They demanded that [inaudible] 

'Two months before… [inaudible] 

Hooker: 'Continue with the story please.' 

Hunter: 'Anyway my computer, I had taken tons of like, just left like that cam on. And he would always put in a passcode and all that, you know what I mean? It was fu**ing crazy sh*t. And somebody stole it during that period of time. He did all this kind of like pretend search and sh*t. 

'The last thing he sent me was $2,000 worth of stuff in an Uber and he sent me a [inaudible] with the Uber, and I had to send the money to a cash app or something....just waiting

Hooker: '...In Las Vegas [inaudible]' 

Hunter: 'I think he's the one that stole my computer. I think the three of them, the three guys that were like a little, like group. The dealer and his two guys, I took them everywhere. Fu**ing everywhere, crazy out of your mind sh*t.

'The Russian [inaudible] she'd walk out with a fu**ing bathing suit in her hand. 

'They have videos of me doing this. They have videos of me doing crazy fu**ing sex fu**ing, you know.

Hooker: 'How long ago did this happen?'

Hunter: 'Summer.'

Hooker: 'So it would have been out already if they-'

Hunter: 'No no no, because my dad [inaudible] running for president. He is, he is, he is. I talk about it all the time. If they do, he also knows I make like a gazillion dollars.'

Hooker: 'They'd try to blackmail you?'

Hunter: 'Yeah in some way yeah.'

 

READ MORE:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9881213/Unearthed-video-shows-naked-Hunter-Biden-claiming-Russian-drug-dealers-stole-laptop.html

 

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confession...

A former undercover criminal investigator has revealed he heard a prison confession from criminal Eddie Trigg that he strangled journalist Juanita Nielsen.

John Innes, a retired Sydney lawyer, made the explosive claims in an interview with the ABC's Unravel: Juanita podcast, where Nielsen's family uncover fresh information about her disappearance and presumed murder in 1975.

"I know exactly where she was killed, how she was killed, who killed her, how much they got paid and who paid him," Mr Innes told Unravel.

 

Mr Innes revealed for the first time publicly that he was sent undercover by NSW Police into Long Bay Gaol to covertly extract information from Trigg, a subordinate of notorious Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron.

 

Ms Nielsen was a high-profile journalist and anti-development campaigner who was last seen at the Carousel Club, a Kings Cross night spot owned by Saffron, on July 4, 1975. Her handbag was found eight days later on the side of a highway leading to the Blue Mountains, but her death remains unsolved.

Mr Innes said Trigg confessed that he killed Nielsen by "throttling" her inside Kings Cross' Lido Motel, before putting her body in the back of a car parked behind the building.

However, Mr Innes says his intel went nowhere, which he suspects was due to Saffron's power over NSW Police at the time.

"Every line of inquiry that steers towards Saffron is suddenly shut down," he said.

"I think it was blocked within the police."

 

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corrupt police.....

 

The battle for Victoria Street, Kings Cross – fifty years on

    by Wendy Bacon

 

Why is there more homeless today, per capita, but fewer squatters? Fifty years on, Wendy Bacon looks back on the landmark protests of Victoria Street, Kings Cross.

Fifty years ago this week, hundreds of people gathered in Victoria Street, Kings Cross, to support a group of squatters who had been evicted by truckloads of Kings Cross bouncers hired by a property developer Frank Theeman.

At dawn on January 3, scores of NSW police reported for work at Darlinghurst police station, then notorious for its culture of violence and corruption. They accompanied the hired enforcers, many of whom worked in clubs owned by organised crime boss Abe Saffron. The police stood by while the men used sledgehammers to smash through barricades that squatters and NSW Builders’ Labourers had constructed to protect the large terraces. Once the doors were forced open, the police entered and arrested anyone who refused to leave.

I was one of forty people arrested that day. Others included Liz Fell, Ian Milliss, Val Hodgson, Anne Summers, Darcy Waters, George Molnar, Lauren Frost, Teresa Brennan, Elvis Kippman and Roelof Smilde.

I’d been living at 115 Victoria Street since June 1973. The sparsely furnished but spacious apartment that I shared with friends Sasha Soldatow and ‘Mrs Troy’ overlooked the working-class suburb of Woolloomooloo, which at that time, like Victoria Street, was threatened with demolition. Many of its private tenants had already been pushed out by other property developers. 115 was one of about 25 subdivided mansions and low-rise apartments left almost empty after Theeman had evicted three hundred or so tenants.

Some of the tenants who had lived there for decades were older single people who were literally picked up by Theeman’s agents and moved into nearby rooms -bedrooms with a kitchenette. This tactic broke their protected tenancies which would have enabled them to legally resist eviction in the courts. Over a fortnight, they were moved on to other tiny rooms, some of them mouldy ones behind restaurants and other businesses in Kings Cross.

There were also many other younger tenants, amongst them Arthur King, who began the Victoria Street Resident Action (Vic. St. RAG) group. Arthur was a member of the Sydney Push, and through him, some of us who lived around the Kings Cross area joined the group.

Arthur was harassed by cops from Darlinghurst Police Station and then kidnapped and held for several days by men who were also associated with Kings Cross clubs owned by Abe Saffron. He returned, but under the threat of being killed, he understandably moved out. The group continued.

Squatters unite

Sasha and I were members of the Victoria Street Resident Action Group (Vic. St. RAG), which decided to occupy the houses in mid-1973. Our purpose was to protect the few remaining tenants who felt unsafe in the nearly empty buildings, which were being stripped of their marble fireplaces and destroyed from the inside by fires lit during the night. Security guards with crowbars patrolled the street. We’d met Mrs Troy, who was homeless, on the train on our way home from a meeting of the Combined Resident Actions Groups, a Sydneywide group. On the spot, she took up our invitation to join the squat and stayed until a few days before the end of 1973.

I don’t think that Mrs Troy ever told us her first name, but she did tell us that she used to dress as Queen Victoria for the annual Sydney artists’ balls. She used to cook the squatter’s plates of morning scones. (You can read much more about Sasha, who died in 2006 in Inez Baranay’s recently published Drink against Drunkenness – the life and times of Sasha Soldatow.)

After we were carted away in police vans and spent several hours in the cells, we returned to find that three members of our group were still on the chimneys of 115. Con, Keith and Elvis stayed there for hours while a crowd of supporters chanted and sang in the street below. Our belongings were strewn over the street.

Eventually, all squatters had been removed from the properties. By the morning of January 4, 115 Victoria Street was empty save for a sole, brave remaining legal tenant, seaman and musician Mick Fowler. He had spent the first of what would be hundreds of nights surrounded by a small remaining crew of Theeman’s hired men who saw it as part of their job to threaten and taunt him.

The Vic. St. RAG aimed to protect not just the buildings but also to ensure the street would continue to provide homes for a community of workers, artists, students, pensioners and other low-income residents. Theeman’s plan was to build a for-profit development of hundreds of apartments. Originally, he planned to demolish all the nineteenth-century terraces and replace them with three huge towers.

When the National Trust recommended that the terraces should not be demolished due to their heritage value, he developed a new plan that would protect the terrace facades but remove everything else, including other heritage buildings, a small block of apartments, and scores of other tiny apartments.

At the request of the Vic. St. RAG, the NSW Builders Labourers Union and the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen Association (FEDFA) (heavy machinery drivers) had imposed a green ban, which meant no union member would demolish or build on the site.

Theeman’s development was stalled. He was advised that he needed to go through the courts to evict the squatters. His test case against one squatter John Cox, who had moved into Victoria Street with his partner and their children, took months to finalise. There were appeals. Finally, in December 1973, the case was over. Cox was found to be occupying 59 Victoria Street ‘without reasonable cause’. Theeman quietly met with NSW Askin government Ministers, the NSW police and corrupt ex-police to plan for the eviction of the rest of the squatters. We knew that our time as squatters in Victoria Street was coming to an end.

 

READ MORE:

https://michaelwest.com.au/homeless-squatters-protestors-property-developers-police/

 

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