The Working Class Responds To Hurricane Harvey

The Working Class Responds To Hurricane Harvey

By Joseph Kishore
WSWS.org
August 31, 2017

The official preparation for and response to Hurricane Harvey
have been characterized by a stunning level of incompetence
and indifference from the lack of a coordinated evacuation and
emergency housing plan, to the completely ad-hoc character of
rescue operations.

As Houston and other parts of Texas drown and the death toll
mounts, various government officials, from the White House
on down, have spent much of the past several days patting
themselves on the back.

“You have been terrific,” Trump told the governor, the head of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and other officials in Texas
on Tuesday, hoping that no one would notice what was happening
around him.

The flooding, however, has produced an overwhelming response
from workers in Texas and throughout the region, who have rushed
to volunteer for rescue operations, using their own equipment and
receiving nothing in return.

The New York Times, which generally refers to the working class
only to disparage it, wrote on Wednesday that “the response to
one of the worst disasters in decades has been, in many ways,
improvised.”

The article continued: “Recreational vehicles—airboats, Jet Skis,
motorized fishing boats have rushed to the aid of people trapped
in their homes, steered by welders, roofers, mechanics and
fishermen wearing shorts, headlamps and ponchos. The working
class, in large part, is being saved by the working class.”

Perhaps thousands have participated in these efforts to save those
stranded in their homes, often traveling great distances.

Many of these rescues have been coordinated by means of an online
map, "houstonharveyrescue.com" put together early this week by a
local software developer.

Individuals and families needing assistance are able to register
on the site.

Thousands have done so in the first few days of its operation
and the site reports as of Wednesday night that nearly 5,000
have been “marked safe.”

A report in Quartz notes that:

“The army of rescuers, who can also register on the site, can then
easily spot the neediest cases. A team of 100 phone dispatchers
follows up with those wanting to be rescued, and can send mass
text messages with important information. An algorithm weeds
out any repeats.”

The response of workers raises broader issues.

Hurricane Harvey, like Hurricane Katrina and many other disasters
in the US and Internationally, has exposed the class reality that the
media and the political establishment attempt to cover up.

As always, it is the working class and poor of all races
and ethnicities, that are the hardest hit.

It is they who are either without insurance or face insurance
companies that refuse to cover damages.

It is they who will see the media and ruling class politicians
depart as the flood waters recede and the major industries
resume operations.

No small part of the reaction of the media and political
establishment to the disaster is motivated by fear that it
will spark social unrest, serving as kindling for a conflagration
arising from the immense contradictions of American society.

At the same time, the response of workers to the hurricane
expresses a basic class consciousness and solidarity that the
ruling class works so hard to undermine.

Contrary to the claims promoted in particular by the Democratic
Party, that American society is driven by racial hatred, the
emergency operations have involved white, black and Hispanic
workers on both sides in the boats and in the stranded houses.

The response makes a powerful case for independent workers’
organizations and workers’ control, not only of the basic industries
and means of production, but of all essential resources and
services.

Workers have a much greater understanding of what needs to be
done than those who currently determine government policy, the
corporate and financial aristocracy and beyond it the top 5 or 10
percent of the population.

If workers had been involved in decisions over how to allocate
resources, the level of preparation for the hurricane itself would
have been far more advanced.

Trillions of dollars would be allocated not to bailing out Wall Street
and financing the American military machine, but to building social
infrastructure.

The flooding, after all, was neither unforeseeable, nor unforeseen,
it was just not planned for.

The destruction of the fourth largest city in the United States
is one expression of a general phenomenon.

In a million different ways, the basic requirements of a modern
mass society preparation for natural disasters, the distribution
of food, the development of health care and education systems,
not to speak of ensuring a livable income for all of humanity,
come into conflict with the subordination of society to the
dictates of profit.

The domination of the stock markets ensures that all is sacrificed
to the quarterly corporate figures.

The case for socialism is inextricably bound up with this.

Economic planning is made not by utopian dreams,
but by the concrete demands of social development.

In every aspect of social life, the working class must take matters
into its own hands, through the organization of workers’
committees in factories, workplaces and neighborhoods to assume
control over the production and distribution of resources.

These organizations must begin with the needs of the working
class and be democratically controlled by the working class.

They must take ever greater responsibility for unifying workers
and organizing their common struggles against the capitalist
class and its political representatives.

The establishment of genuine democratic control over production
and economic organization is the necessary basis for the
development of a rational plan to replace the anarchy of the
market and ensure that all decisions are based on social need.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/31/pers-a31.html

America Is Falling Apart At The Seams

America Is Falling Apart At The Seams

By Brandon Turbeville
Axis of Logic
August 29, 2017

As America once again picks up the rubble from one of its regularly
scheduled race riots, the hatred and anger felt by the participants
is spreading throughout the country.

Black/White Left/Right division is now at one of the highest levels
in recent years, again drawing Presidential commentary and endless vcoverage in the mainstream corporate press.

Social media is on fire with every inflammatory opinion one can
imagine.

All social ills are being placed on the shoulders of whites, blacks,
Democrats, Republicans, and people long dead.

Today, lines are being drawn between racial groups, political
identities, and genders; and the average person doesn’t have
a say in the matter, those lines are being drawn for them.

At times, they are drawn by the media, other times by radical
fanatics in the street hurling insults, fists, and feces at anyone
who dares disagree or even dares not to agree with them.

They are also drawn by the average American themselves, glued to
their television screens and subjected to the “other” dealing verbal
abuse and violence on the “us.”

Everyone is either denouncing white supremacy, white racism, and
Nazis; or they are bashing Commies, blacks, and anyone on the left.

Everyone is joining their “team” and preparing for battle, as if
some racial or ideological coup will result in the betterment of
their situation.

Keyboard commandos are typing away that if the “us” can rid
ourselves of the “other” we will somehow reach a new utopia.

Fanatical ideologues from both the left and the right are in the
streets preaching the same message.

Donald Trump has a role to play in this but it’s not what you think.

Trump, whatever he may be, has been linked with white
supremacy, white nationalism, and general racism when
nothing in his campaign or his presidency has ever
suggested that this is the case (except, perhaps, for
the nomination of Jeff Sessions who is now going after
“Nazis” when he himself was once considered too racist
for ’80s Kansas Republicans).

The “left” in America immediately linked Trump with the Unite the
Right Activists and demanded that he condemn only the right wing
troublemakers.

Trump, to his credit, denounced racism, hatred, and violence
on both sides.

For the “left,” however, that was not enough. Nothing is ever
enough.

Trump had to call out only whites and right wingers or he is a Nazi.

As a result of political pressure – itself a result of insanity and
culture creation – Trump finally condemned the white protest
groups and only the white protest groups, announcing a violation
of the First and probably the Fourth Amendment should his new
policy be taken to its logical conclusion.

But that was not enough for the “left” because like flag worship
and worship of military “service” on the right, nothing is ever
enough.

But it might be enough to initiate an impeachment proceeding at
some point in the future if he goes ahead with plans to target
participants.

Once again, it looks like Trump has been routed by the Deep State.

Expect more foreign policy aggression and more domestic
oppression in the very near future as the Deep State grabs
the wheel and helps Trump keep it between the lines.

There are a number of questionable aspects to this event
that should make people take a step back and think hard
about what is happening here.

The police, despite the violence and despite expecting
the violence, stood down and let it continue.

The car crasher narrative is full of fishy details such as his actual
connection to white nationalist groups and a personal history that
might raise red flags.

Many white nationalist activists were not only from out of state but
of questionable loyalties (from the point of view of the group itself)
and Antifa had a very well-coordinated presence.

Both sides were stacked with bodies from outside of Charlottesville.

And then came Boston.

Once seen as the city where the concept that would be considered
free speech was birthed, it may now be the city in which free
speech comes to die.

After all, it was recently the scene of 40,000 protesters who came
to march against the concept of free speech itself, claiming free
speech is just a cover for “Nazism.”

Ironically, most of the participants in the counter-rally in Boston
were just typical Democrats and “leftists” who put about as much
effort into research as one does choosing a breakfast cereal from
the cabinet.

Reading emotional headlines on Facebook about the Free Speech
Rally which was really a gathering of scary “fascists,” “Nazis,”
and “White Supremacists,” these individuals rushed out to save
the world from non-violent demonstration and expression.

Of course, the event was not a white supremacist rally;
it was a rally to re-affirm the concept of free speech.

It had individuals from every walk of life, race, gender,
and political ideology.

Black Lives Matter was invited to speak, but BLM refused to do so.

Instead, BLM joined Antifa and other violent groups to attack the
participants and engage in violence to make sure that free speech,
not racist ideologies, is put back in the closet.

No doubt most of the participants in the counter-protest thought
they were fighting Nazis and the KKK.

Antifa and BLM, however, were there to fight free speech.

It’s also ironic that so many radicalized leftists are now arguing
that “free speech is just a cover for Nazism” and warn against
the dangers of becoming a “free speech fetishist.”

If this doesn’t solidify a person’s position as an enemy of
free people, I don’t know what will.

There’s nothing like seeing a young lesbian being labeled
a bigot and symbol of “Nazi hate.”

There’s nothing like seeing a self-described “radical feminist” from
the ’60s being shouted down as a “Nazi” by a man proclaiming to
be fighting for “women’s rights.”

Watching the live stream, I saw this very “radical feminist from the
’60s” trying to reason with unreasonable people, pointing out that,
without free speech, she would never have been able to speak out
for her cause decades ago.

She was immediately decried as a fascist by the very group of
people who are trying to eliminate her right to free speech.

Is this not a hallmark of fascism?

This level of cognitive dissonance is scarcely conceivable.

In another example of cognitive dissonance, the radicals of the
“revolutionary left” claim that “free speech” is cover for Nazism
and, since Nazism killed 6-14 million people, free speech should
not be allowed in their case.

However, following that logic, shouldn’t we prioritize
banning the free speech of Antifa and BLM?

After all, Communism killed at least 150 million people
in two countries alone.

Wouldn’t Communism then be the greater danger?

Obviously, free speech is free speech.

So long as speech doesn’t become an overt act of violence
(saying we should do something is different from actually
doing it) or restriction of rights, etc., it must be allowed
and protected.

This is the case for BLM, Communists, flag burners and,
yes, even Nazis.

Freedom of Speech is the most basic human and civil right.

It is the last line of defense for anyone with a grievance
and for any oppressed minority.

It must be protected and defended at all costs.

What is clear, though, is that Love did not Trump Hate in Boston.

Hate and Fascism Trumped Freedom and Free Speech.

It is also important to point out that, while 40k leftists found it
possible to march in the streets against Nazis that were never
even there.

They were quiet as mice for eight years as their messiah bombed
the shit out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan,
destroyed Ukraine, and aided in the bombing and destruction of
Yemen.

Even now, with Donald Trump in office, leftists still can’t find
it in their hearts to oppose bombing any of the aforementioned
countries.

So congratulations to all the protesters who flooded the streets
to protest free speech and have the most basic of human rights
dismantled.

You have made yourself the enemy of free people and of
oppressed minorities everywhere.

Make no mistake, the events in Charlottesville and Boston
are only the beginning of what is coming to America.

This is not the result of two opposing sides at the grassroots; it is
the Hegelian dialectic playing out once again, and the American
people, true to form, are falling for it.

Out of this problem, we have already seen the reaction and,
soon, we will see a solution.

Of course, that solution will come from the top down.

I personally am convinced that these marches, rallies, and events
have been carefully constructed to achieve an ultimate goal.

The overwhelming majority of white supremacist groups
have long been infiltrated and controlled by agents of the
federal government, and there is scarcely a leftist group
that can survive longer than two weeks without a paycheck
from George Soros.

America is falling apart at the seams.

It may soon become an unlivable country.

As its empire continues to spread across the world and as the
once most powerful economy on the face of the earth continues
to hemorrhage jobs, the junk heap of infrastructure that was
once the envy of the world is now the scene of skirmishes
between increasingly radicalized people, hyped up on political
and racial ideology, gender issues, sexuality, and religion.

Unlike Rome, America won’t need Barbarians to crash its gates.

They’re already inside.

The country that baptized itself in blood from the very beginning
and has created entire generations of bloodthirsty citizens will
then see the chickens of war and collapse come home to roost.

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_77217.shtml

Racial Supremacy and the Zionist Exception

Racial Supremacy and the Zionist Exception

By David Lloyd
Information Clearing House
August 27, 2017

Politicians from Senators Marco Rubio and Orrin Hatch to
Chuck Schumer and Ron Wyden have been outspoken in
their condemnation of Saturday’s Unite the Right March
in Charlottesville and the vicious acts of terror it spawned.

Criticizing Donald Trump for his reluctant and temporizing
comments, they condemn the hate and are rightly appalled
by the white supremacist chants of “Blood and Soil” and
“You Won’t Replace Us”—or, as it became, “Jews Won’t
Replace Us”.

Though they have so far fallen as far short as Donald Trump
from calling it by its real name, American fascism, they have
been forthright in calling out this assembly of virulent racist
movements.

Meanwhile, the same senators are united by their ardent support
for a racist regime that is no less inspired by racial supremacy and
an ideology that demands ethnic cleansing.

All have signed on to a bill that would protect the state of Israel
by imposing civil and possibly criminal penalties on anyone who
protests its ongoing violations of Palestinian rights, including
illegal settlement and dispossession, by advocating for the boycott
of its economic, academic and cultural institutions.

In doing so, they have placed protecting Israel and its racially
discriminatory policies above the rights of activists who are inspired
by the same commitment to justice as the demonstrators who
opposed the open display of racism and anti-Semitism in
Charlottesville.

The contradiction between condemning US racism and support for
the racist ideology of Zionism has become steadily more glaring.

The ugly chants and intimidating violence of the fascist right
have met with almost universal disgust, including naming the
lethal ramming of non-violent protesters an act of terror.

At the same time, Americans have had to confront the fact that
white supremacy is an intrinsic if shameful element in their history
and institutions whose consequences have yet to be overcome.

The brief moment when the premature claim that the United States
was “postracial” has run its course.

But the same awareness has yet to extend to the remarkably similar
and equally consequential world-view of Zionism.

Zionism has always recognized that in order to create and maintain
“a Jewish state for a Jewish people” it would have to dominate and
displace the native Palestinian population.

Early Zionists like Ze’ev Jabotinsky recognized the necessity of
ethnic cleansing; more recently, Zionist historians like Benny Morris
have acknowledged that Israel could only have been founded on the
back of the expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians.

But, as with any settler colony, the fear remains that what Israel
calls the “Judaization” of the state and the lands they have illegally
occupied remains incomplete.

So what is euphemistically called the “transfer” of Palestinians
continues, in the Negev, in Galilee, in East Jerusalem and on the
West Bank.

Meanwhile right-wing Israeli youth rampage through the Palestinian
quarter of the Old City chanting the same virulent racist
supremacism as American fascists while Israeli police arrest the
counter-demonstrators.

American white supremacists express their fury at being replaced
by an increasingly diverse population and speak of a “demographic
genocide”.

Although their rage has a long history in American genocide and
racial segregation, it is met now with disbelief and widespread
antagonism.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed “Jewish State” of Israel and its
officials not only speak openly of the “demographic threat” or
“time-bomb” posed by the Palestinian population in Israel and
in the territories it illegally occupies, they develop policies to
enact their fantasy of an Israel cleansed of all but a tiny minority
of Palestinians.

These measures include not only the demolition of Palestinian
homes in the Negev or in East Jerusalem, but also laws like the
Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, which prohibits Palestinians
outside Israel from gaining citizenship, or even permanent or
temporary residence, if they marry an Israeli citizen.

This law, which denies the basic right to family unification
to thousands of Palestinian families, was upheld by Israel’s
Supreme Court in 2006 and renewed in 2016.

Even at the height of apartheid, the South African Supreme Court
balked at accepting a similarly framed law on the grounds that it
would have adversely affected African social life.

Likewise, a version of redlining, an old American practice that
maintained segregated communities, is commonplace in Israel
and protected by law.

Adalah, the Israeli Human Rights organization, maintains a
database of some 50 laws like this that discriminate against
Palestinians in Israel, constituting a system tantamount to
if not—as some well-informed observers claim—worse than
apartheid.

Though some idealist Zionists like Martin Buber once believed in
the possibility of sharing a Jewish homeland in Palestine with its
indigenous inhabitants, that dream has long been overtaken by the
ugly reality of a supremacist state and its system of discrimination
and dispossession.

It is increasingly difficult and painful for liberal Zionists—to use a
pitiful oxymoron—to defend a system that so violates the sense of
justice and equality that they elsewhere defend.

How can one condemn white racists for fighting to preserve their
privileges and supremacy in their “homeland” while defending the
right of Israel to maintain a regime based on exactly those values?

Rabbi Matt Rosenberg had no response when leading fascist
Richard Spencer asked him “Do you really want radical inclusion
into the State of Israel?”

If he was left speechless, it is because there really is no response:
Israel’s racist regime is based on no less supremacist, no less racist
ideas and demands than America’s fascists espouse.

It is the practical outcome of the ideology of Zionism and its
practices of discrimination and dispossession have historically
been furthered just as much by the Labor Party beloved of
liberal Zionists as they now are by the currently governing Likud.

And from the long-standing courting of right-wing and anti-Semitic
US evangelists to the Zionist Organization of America’s support for
alt-right publisher and financier Stephen Bannon, the affinities run
deep between Zionism and the American right.

Ron Wyden and other progressive Democrats may be writhing in
the contortions it takes to do the bidding of Israel and its Zionist
lobbyists while claiming to defend civil liberties and social justice
at home.

It is hardly surprising.

The two are fundamentally incompatible.

Zionism has become a toxic stain that contaminates whatever
comes in contact with it.

It turns liberal media, journalists and academics into the
mouthpieces of repression and censorship; it spawns defamation
and blacklists of scholars and activists in the name of anti-racism;
it dons the mantle of democracy and liberalism to promote a
supremacist ideology and a racial state.

But it remains what it is: a racist ideology with all-too-marked
affinities with the white fascism that most of its supporters
hasten to condemn.

It is time for consistency and to end the exception made for
Zionist racial supremacy.

In solidarity with those who protested fascism in Charlottesville,
and with those who continue to protest police killings,
deportations, Islamophobic travel bans, and homophobic laws,
progressives across the board must condemn Zionism and cease
to offer uncritical support of the state of Israel.

Instead, they should stand with the activists who demand justice
for Palestinians even as they protest racism in the US.

It is no longer possible to serve the agenda of supremacism
in one place and decry it at home.

As progressive senators and an increasing number of former liberal
Zionists have learnt, the contradictions of doing so are unbearable
and the political costs are insidious.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47625.htm

Charlottesville Requiem

Charlottesville Requiem

Who Did What To Whom?

By Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
August 25, 2017

The hysteria unfolding regarding events in Charlottesville reminds
me of the anti-Russia madness that has made front page news ever
since Hillary Clinton discovered that she had lost the presidential
election to Vladimir Putin.

The media train is again rushing headlong into a terra incognita
with its only goal being to bring down President Donald Trump
by riding a wave of anti-right wing extremist revulsion.

The establishment press is essentially enforcing its own code
of ethics, insisting that just because what the mainstream
characterizes as morally repugnant, “Nazi-scum” and white
nationalists exist they are ultimately fully responsible for
any violence that is required to defeat them and disrupt their
activities.

For the ubiquitous talking heads like Wolf Blitzer and Rachel
Maddow to believe otherwise is to posit moral equivalency between
the good guys and bad guys, something that cannot be tolerated.

As far as I can determine, almost no one knows much about the
specific agendas of the various parties that were involved in last
week’s fracas in Charlottesville.

My own viewpoint extends only as far as a strong belief that the
deconstruction of this nation through the elimination of select
historical monuments is wrong, particularly when said monuments
commemorate people who fought and died for their country.

As I am a Vietnam-era army veteran I would concede
that my judgment in that regard is somewhat skewed.

That aside, there are several other issues that should be of general
interest that have been largely obscured by the violence that
erupted and the media interpretation of the event to fit in with its
own preferred narrative.

First and foremost is the free speech issue which is being
conveniently ignored by a media and political class intent on
punishing the white nationalist protesters no matter what rights
have to be trampled along the way.

As far as I can determine, the primary objective of the Unite-the-
Right gathering was to protest against removing a statue, so one
has to at least assume that some demonstrators were there in good
faith based on that issue.

And surely many of the counter-demonstrators were there to
protest peacefully against some of the admittedly extremist
groups marching under the Unite umbrella.

If President Donald Trump chooses to describe those individuals as
good people, that is up to him to make that assessment based on
what he was witnessing and hearing, but that is not what is really
important.

As far as I am concerned it matters not a whit whether some of the
Unite marchers call themselves neo-Nazis or alt-Right because they
had a permit to march and had a perfect right to gather, speak out
and demonstrate.

No one has a right to attack someone else or silence them because
you disapprove of them.

That is what the First Amendment is all about, the protection of
every individual’s right to speak his or her own mind, particularly
important if one is expressing unpopular or unorthodox views.

It matters not at all if the speaker is a Communist, Fascist,
a Green or a Libertarian, he or she has the same right.

If that speaking-out morphs into threats of violence or degenerates
into actual violence there are laws to deal with that, so free speech
is not and should not be construed as a license to run amok.

Likewise the so-called Antifa protesters had a right to demonstrate
and deliver their message though it is somewhat troubling that they
appear not to have had a permit to gather and the police allowed
them to effectively take control of the streets.

One might also note that it is the political left, so called
progressives, that have been in the forefront of using violence,
particularly on college campuses, to shut down debate on issues
they object to.

They have successfully denied access to speakers who are routinely
vilified as, “racists” or “Nazi-scum” including Ann Coulter, Milo
Yiannopoulos, Charles Murray and Ben Shapiro, and have, “shut
down” pro-Donald Trump rallies.

They push their agenda while simultaneously ignoring the racism
and domestic terror agenda of groups that they approve of like
Black Lives Matter.

This counter-demonstration in Charlottesville might easily be seen
as the latest manifestation of that particular form of left-wing self-
righteous bigotry, to shut down by violence a group that hard core
leftists are not willing to tolerate.

It is important to bear in mind that there is great danger
in selectively endorsing politically correct Free Speech.

If either the left or right is successful and we lose our First
Amendment rights through “hate speech” legislation or
other forms of state censorship such as have been introduced
in Europe it is safe to say that we will have lost our republic.

A second major issue is the role of local, state and federal
government in what both did and did not happen.

I have looked at a lot of footage of the rioting and have
also spoken to several people who were there as observers.

I wanted to know just how big the alleged Nazi and Klan
contingents were, – 100, 500, a 1,000? – which would
seem to me to be essential to understanding what took
place.

When I sought to discover more about the size of the groups
that demonstrated and counter-demonstrated I learned that
there was nothing definitive in the media on the issue.

I had been told by one of the witnesses that the so-called white
nationalists were greatly outnumbered and had not initiated the
violence, which would certainly alter the narrative.

So I picked up the phone and eventually got through to the
Charlottesville police department only to be told that there
had been no public declaration of the numbers involved or
sequence of events but someone would call me back.

No one has returned the call and I find it very odd that those
in authority have not even bothered to describe the event and
how it developed from an official point of view, if only for,
“lessons learned” to correct the procedures in place that led
to the violence.

There was in fact a considerable police presence in the area,
even accounting for bathroom breaks and donut runs, but it
was invisible where it needed to be, i.e. keeping the two
groups separated, which it had apparently agreed to do after
meeting with the organizers of Unite-the-Right.

Both right-wing and left-wing participants in the protests have
described how the police closed the park with the Lee statue
before standing around and only “looking on” when the fighting
started.

It is difficult to describe this failure to separate the groups and
clear the streets as an oversight, so it must have been deliberate.

Charlottesville has a liberal Democratic mayor named Mike Signer
who quickly climbed on the bandwagon to condemn the Unite-the-
Right protesters before, during and after the events of Friday night
and Saturday.

He appeared on national television in an interview with Jake
Tapper on the morning after the Saturday riot to lay the blame
for the unrest on Donald Trump.

One wonders what orders the Charlottesville police had received,
not to mention the numerous state troopers present who were
under the control of Governor Terry McAuliffe, another liberal
Democratic stalwart.

Who attacked whom?

Why did no one intervene until the fighting was well under way?

Was the official indifference just dumb or deliberate?

And finally, there is the possible role of the federal government
in what developed.

One media source has identified some of the allegedly radical
groups that came together to demonstrate on both sides.

Among the so-called supremacist groups one finds the Alt Knights,
Klu Klux Klan, Identity Evropa, Traditionalist Youth Network,
League of the South and the so-called “3% Risen.”

On the left, there was Antifa and Redneck Revolt.

Interestingly, though the media has made much of the fact that
some of the right-wing activists were armed, it has chosen to
overlook the fact the some of the left, most particularly Redneck
Revolt, also brought their guns along while many more counter-
protesters were prepared for action, carrying baseball bats and
wearing helmets and balaclavas to hide their faces.

In any event, neither side resorted to the use of firearms.

In reviewing the list of the various groups involved in the protests,
I was reminded of the old quip that the American Communist Party
only survived financially speaking in the post Second World War
environment because it had been heavily infiltrated by dues
paying members planted by the FBI.

Placing one’s informants in the middle of a radical group is a
time-honored practice that has exploded in the U.S. since 9/11.

Hardly any arrests in so-called terrorism cases are made
without an FBI informant being somewhere on the scene.

Of course, the informant is not supposed to encourage
or participate in any illegal action, but lacking a fly on
the wall when something goes down who is to know?

FBI officers get promoted on the basis of arrests made and both
domestic and international terrorism constitute high priority
targets.

I would assume that there FBI informants among the Klu Kluxers,
the neo-Nazis and also within Richard Spencer’s National Policy
Institute.

On the left, I would bet there were some inside sources
working the Redneck Revolt and Antifa.

The likelihood that there were paid FBI informants on both sides
of the conflict leads me to believe that the federal government
knows exactly what took place on August 12th in Charlottesville,
but perhaps no one has either the guts or requisite integrity to
be honest about it as it might be embarrassing all around.

What if it turns out that the politically more acceptable counter-
demonstrators deliberately provoked the violence and were
allowed to get away with it?

Even as I write this the tsunami, “orgy of self-righteousness”
as George Neumayr describes it, connected to Charlottesville
continues to grow.

Steven Sailer has asked how long it will be before an alleged neo-
Nazi is publicly lynched with the media blaming the victim for his
own demise?

And with all those apparent storm troopers marching around, it
hasn’t taken long for Jewish groups to raise the specter of a tide
of anti-Semitism in America all due to Trump, which inevitably
means that the accommodating media and pandering politicians
will get their talons into this story for a long time to come on
that basis alone.

Al Sharpton meanwhile wants to defund the Jefferson Memorial
and there are moves afoot to remove all the statues of former
slaveholders from the Capitol building.

Can James Madison, James Monroe and even George Washington
himself be next?

Will Washington the city be renamed Tubman?

Stay tuned.

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/charlottesville-requiem

Is Trump's Agenda Being Eclipsed?

Is Trump's Agenda Being Eclipsed?

By Patrick Buchanan
Lew Rockwell.com
August 23, 2017

“I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over
the liquidation of the British Empire,” said Winston Churchill to
cheers at the Lord Mayor’s luncheon in London in November 1942.

True to his word, the great man did not begin the liquidation.

When his countrymen threw him out in July 1945, that role fell
to Clement Attlee, who began the liquidation.

Churchill, during his second premiership from 1951-1955, would
continue the process, as would his successor, Harold Macmillan,
until the greatest empire the world had ever seen had vanished.

While its demise was inevitable, the death of the empire
was hastened and made more humiliating by the wars into
which Churchill had helped to plunge Britain, wars that
bled and bankrupted his nation.

At Yalta in 1945, Stalin and FDR treated the old imperialist with
something approaching bemused contempt.

War is the health of the state, but the death of empires.

The German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires
all fell in World War I.

World War II ended the Japanese and Italian empires
— with the British and French following soon after.

The Soviet Empire collapsed in 1989.

Afghanistan delivered the coup de grace.

Is it now the turn of the Americans?

Persuaded by his generals — Mattis at Defense, McMasters on the
National Security Council, Kelly as chief of staff — President Trump
is sending some 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to augment
the 8,500 already there.

Like Presidents Obama and Bush, he does not intend to preside
over a U.S. defeat in its longest war. Nor do his generals.

Yet how can we defeat the Taliban with 13,000 troops when
we failed to do so with the 100,000 Obama sent?

The new troops are to train the Afghan army to take over the
war, to continue eradicating the terrorist elements like ISIS,
and to prevent Kabul and other cities from falling to a Taliban
now dominant in 40 percent of the country.

Yet what did the great general, whom Trump so admires,
Douglas MacArthur, say of such a strategy?

“War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.”

Is not “prolonged indecision” what the Trump strategy promises?

Is not “prolonged indecision” what the war policies of Obama
and Bush produced in the last 17 years?

Understandably, Americans feel they cannot walk away from
this war. For there is the certainty as to what will follow when
we leave.

When the British left Delhi in 1947, millions of former subjects died
during the partition of the territory into Pakistan and India and the
mutual slaughter of Muslims and Hindus.

When the French departed Algeria in 1962, the “Harkis” they
left behind paid the price of being loyal to the Mother Country.

When we abandoned our allies in South Vietnam, the result was
mass murder in the streets, concentration camps and hundreds of
thousands of boat people in the South China Sea, a final resting
place for many.

In Cambodia, it was a holocaust.

Trump, however, was elected to end America’s involvement in
Middle East wars.

And if he has been persuaded that he simply cannot liquidate these
wars — Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan — he will likely end
up sacrificing his presidency, trying to rescue the failures of those
who worked hardest to keep him out of the White House.

Consider the wars, active and potential, Trump faces.

Writes Bob Merry in the fall issue of The National interest:

“War between Russia and the West seems nearly inevitable. No
self-respecting nation facing inexorable encirclement by an alliance
of hostile neighbors can allow such pressures and forces to continue
indefinitely. Eventually (Russia) must protect its interests through
military action.”

If Pyongyang tests another atom bomb or ICBM, some national
security aides to Trump are not ruling out preventive war.

Trump himself seems hell-bent on tearing up the nuclear deal
with Iran.

This would lead inexorably to a U.S. ultimatum, where Iran would
be expected to back down or face a war that would set the Persian
Gulf ablaze.

Yet the country did not vote for confrontation or war.

America voted for Trump’s promise to improve ties with Russia, to
make Europe shoulder more of the cost of its defense, to annihilate
ISIS and extricate us from Mideast wars, to stay out of future wars.

America voted for economic nationalism and an end to the
mammoth trade deficits with the NAFTA nations, EU, Japan
and China.

America voted to halt the invasion across our Southern border
and to reduce legal immigration to ease the downward pressure
on American wages and the competition for working-class jobs.

Yet today we hear talk of upping and extending the U.S. troop
presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, of confronting Iran, of
sending anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine to battle
pro-Russia rebels in the east.

Can the new custodians of Trump’s populist-nationalist and America
First agenda the generals and the Goldman Sachs alumni association
be entrusted to carry it out?

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/patrick-j-buchanan/
trumps-agenda-eclipsed

1939 All Over Again?

1939 All Over Again?

By Adbusters
August 21, 2017

Charlottesville shocked us with its unexpected fury . . . forces
colliding and crashing into each other all at once.

Could this be the beginning of the Planetary Endgame?

Imagine a future world locked in a severe economic downturn . . .
perhaps like the one that happened in 2008 . . . or like the stock
market crash of 1929.

People are feeling hopeless, destitute and angry . . . eager and
willing to follow any leader, any movement that promises to fix
things and “make America great again.”

Then imagine, in that world where everyone is struggling to
survive, clashes erupting like the one that hit Charlottesville
last Saturday . . . city after city falls into a dog-eat-dog war
of Right vs. Left.

Is that so far off?

We may just be entering the same territory Harry Leslie Smith
remembers as a teenager in 1939, laughing at the newsreels of
Hitler, of fascists, of Right-wing radicals across mainland Europe,
not capable of imagining that the world would descend into a
6-year dark age.

Time could very well be looping back upon itself.

http://www.adbusters.org/news/1939-all-over-again

An Open Letter To White People

An Open Letter To White People

By Expotera
August 19, 2017

Dear White People:

My name is Tony Whitcomb and I am a 51 year old African American
male and I am now writing this, "Open Letter" to each and every
one of you as, "White People" simply because as an outsider I can
very clearly see what is now happening to your people, and I think
it is time for each of you to simply hear from an, "Outsiders" point
of view.

White People, a group of individuals who I will now only refer to
you as, "The Jews" are trying to keep all of you divided, as well
as continually fighting among, "Yourselves" so they can continue,
"Fucking" all of us, as well as continue, "Controlling" all of us, with
this thing they call, "Money" and as a black man, I now wish to end
all of this by simply printing up my own version of, "Money" and as,
"White People" you should all now wish to be able to print up your
own version(s) of, "Money" as well.

You see, when we as, "Human Beings" only allow for one group of
individuals to print up and to control all of our, "Money" all of our
people will continue to suffer, "Needlessly" and our Country as a
whole, and as fellow, "Americans" will be forced to take on well
over, "$20 Trillion Dollars" of imaginary debt as well.

Now White People throughout your history several very, very smart,
as well as very, very famous, "White Men" have publicly spoken out
about, "The Jews" and below for your independent, objective, and
thoughtful review(s) are just some of their personal quotes and
personal statements from the past as well as through the present:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our
liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a
monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance.
The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the
banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."
-- President Thomas Jefferson

"History records that the money changers have used every form
of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain
their control over governments by controlling money and it's
issuance." -- President James Madison

"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit.
Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men.
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most
completely controlled and dominated governments in the world--
no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government
by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the
opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
-- President Woodrow Wilson

"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the
world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This
evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States
and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this
through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control
it." -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden

"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand
our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe
there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
-- Henry Ford

"We are completely dependant on the commercial banks. Someone
has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If
the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not,
we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system...
It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate
and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization
may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects
remedied very soon." -- Robert H. Hamphill

"The Federal Reserve System in nothing more than legalized
counterfeiting." -- Congressman Ron Paul

"To expose a $15 Trillion dollar ripoff of the American people by
the stockholders of the 1000 largest corporations over the last
100 years will be a tall order of business." -- Buckminster Fuller

"I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their
jobs....I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts,
we have been accomplices in doing something terrible and
unforgivable to our wonderful country. Deep down in our heart,
we know that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy.
We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected."
-- Senator John Danforth

"The Jews are one of the principal forces attempting to lead the
U.S. into war. The Jews' greatest danger to this Country lies in
their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our
press, our radio, and our Government. I am saying that the leaders
of the Jewish race wish to involve us in wars for reasons that are
not American." -- Charles Lindbergh

Now inclosing White People, "The Jews" cannot defend themselves
by simply calling everyone a, "anti-semite" or a, "neo-nazi" or a,
"white supremacist" nor can they fight, "A Fair Fight" this is why
they have to, "Pay" other people from both of our races to do all of
their, "Dirty Work" for them and this is why the people who directly
work for them are often referred to as being, "Filthy Rich" as well.

So the longer that all of you as, "White People" allow, "The Jews"
to continue to, "Divide and Conquer" you, by making some of you
feel bad, guilty, and/or ashamed, for simply being, "White" the
longer all of us are going to continue to live and suffer under,
"Jewish Supremacy" over here in the United States of America.

Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

By Expotera
August 16, 2017

On March 28, 2017 Dr. Michael Hill wrote an essay which was
entitled, "The Coming Civil War In America" and in his essay
Dr. Hill stated the following:

With each passing day we move closer to open conflict in America
– civil war, if you will – between the forces of Western Civilization
(which is founded on a biblical understanding of nationalism) and
the forces of Judeo-Marxism or godless international leftism in
general.

Both major US political parties are being pulled in one of these
directions or the other.

As soon as Trump took office back in January (if not before), the
left made it clear that it would not accept the practical outcome
of the November 2016 election.

For the past few months, they have done everything they can to
prevent the new administration from governing and from enacting
the platform on which it was elected.

This resistance goes as far as openly disobeying the law (see
“Sanctuary Cities”) and carrying out street violence against
Trump supporters (see Antifa and Black Lives Matter).

The elite, Jew-dominated media have run interference for the left
by pushing the anti-nationalist, progressive Narrative non stop.

The tension has been ratcheted so high that something simply has
to give.

And it will.

All it will take is one incident in which a supporter of one side or
the other is killed in a public venue and the episode distributed
widely on social media.

If things keep moving as they are now, such a tragic event is not
merely possible but likely.

Then the conflagration begins in earnest.

On August 12, 2007 in a place called Charlottesville, Virginia
Dr. Hill's words and predictions above have all now come, "True"
so in the final words of President Abraham Lincoln:

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter
and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Russians

Russians

By Sting
Genius.com
August 12, 2017

In Europe and America
There’s a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets

Mr. Khrushchev said we will bury you
I don’t subscribe to this point of view
It would be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too

How can I save my little boy
From Oppenheimer's deadly toy
There is no monopoly of common sense
On either side of the political fence

We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too

There is no historical precedent
To put the words in the mouth of the president
There’s no such thing as a winnable war
It’s a lie we don’t believe anymore

Mr. Reagan says we will protect you
I don’t subscribe to this point of view
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too

https://genius.com/Sting-russians-lyrics

Shall We Fight Them All?

Shall We Fight Them All?

By Patrick Buchanan
Information Clearing House
August 8, 2017

Kim Jong Un tested an ICBM of sufficient range to hit the U.S.
mainland.

He is now working on its accuracy, and a nuclear warhead small
enough to fit atop that missile that can survive re-entry.

Unless we believe Kim is a suicidal madman, his goal seems clear.

He wants what every nuclear power wants — the ability to strike
his enemy's homeland with horrific impact, in order to deter that
enemy.

Kim wants his regime recognized and respected, and the U.S.,
which carpet-bombed the North from 1950-1953, out of Korea.

Where does this leave us?

Says Cliff Kupchan of the Eurasia Group, "The U.S. is on the verge
of a binary choice: either accept North Korea into the nuclear club
or conduct a military strike that would entail enormous civilian
casualties."

A time for truth.

U.S. sanctions on North Korea, like those voted for by Congress
last week, are not going to stop Kim from acquiring ICBMs. He
is too close to the goal line.

And any pre-emptive strike on the North could trigger a
counterattack on Seoul by massed artillery on the DMZ,
leaving tens of thousands of South Koreans dead, alongside
U.S. soldiers and their dependents.

We could be in an all-out war to the finish with the North,
a war the American people do not want to fight.

Saturday, President Trump tweeted out his frustration over China's
failure to pull our chestnuts out of the fire: "They do NOTHING for
us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to
continue. China could easily solve this problem."

Sunday, U.S. B-1B bombers flew over Korea and the Pacific air
commander Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy warned his units were
ready to hit North Korea with "rapid, lethal, and overwhelming
force."

Yet, also Sunday, Xi Jinping reviewed a huge parade of tanks,
planes, troops and missiles as Chinese officials mocked Trump
as a "greenhorn President" and "spoiled child" who is running
a bluff against North Korea.

Is he? We shall soon see.

According to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump vowed
Monday he would take "all necessary measures" to protect U.S.
allies. And U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley bristled, "The time for
talk is over."

Are we headed for a military showdown and war with the North?
The markets, hitting records again Monday, don't seem to think so.

But North Korea is not the only potential adversary
with whom our relations are rapidly deteriorating.

After Congress voted overwhelmingly for new sanctions on Russia
last week and Trump agreed to sign the bill that strips him of
authority to lift the sanctions without Hill approval, Russia
abandoned its hopes for a rapprochement with Trump's America.

Sunday, Putin ordered U.S. embassy and consulate staff cut by
755 positions.

The Second Cold War, begun when we moved NATO to Russia's
borders and helped dump over a pro-Russian regime in Kiev, is
getting colder.

Expect Moscow to reciprocate Congress' hostility when we ask
for her assistance in Syria and with North Korea.

Last week's sanctions bill also hit Iran after it tested a rocket
to put a satellite in orbit, though the nuclear deal forbids only
the testing of ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.

Defiant, Iranians say their missile tests will continue.

Recent days have also seen U.S. warships and Iranian patrol boats in
close proximity, with the U.S. ships firing flares and warning shots.

Our planes and ships have also, with increasingly frequency, come
to close quarters with Russian and Chinese ships and planes in the
Baltic and South China seas.

While wary of a war with North Korea, Washington seems to be
salivating for a war with Iran.

Indeed, Trump's threat to declare Iran in violation of the nuclear
arms deal suggests a confrontation is coming.

One wonders: If Congress is hell-bent on confronting the evil that
is Iran, why does it not cancel Iran's purchases and options to buy
the 140 planes the mullahs have ordered from Boeing?

Why are we selling U.S. airliners to the "world's greatest
state sponsor of terror"?

Let Airbus take the blood money.

Apparently, U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen
and Somalia are insufficient to satiate our War Party.

Now it wants us to lead the Sunnis of the Middle East in taking
down the Shiites, who are dominant in Iran, Iraq, Syria and
South Lebanon, and are a majority in Bahrain and the oil-
producing regions of Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. military has its work cut out for it.

President Trump may need those transgender troops.

Among the reasons Trump routed his Republican rivals in 2016 is
that he seemed to share an American desire to look homeward.

Yet, today, our relations with China and Russia are as bad as they
have been in decades, while there is open talk of war with Iran and
North Korea.

Was this what America voted for, or is this what America voted
against?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47557.htm

Empire’s Day of Reckoning

Empire’s Day of Reckoning

By John Rohn Hall
Dissident Voice
August 4, 2017

Dawn. Another day amidst the crumbling walls of Empire.

Mired in the middle of its Misinformation Machine.

Sharing fouled air with mindless, misguided, huddled masses.

Electronically hypnotized zombies, grossly overfed on dead flesh
and chemicals, arteries clogged, welcome mats for every known
disease.

Bodies pierced in each available spot, covered head to toe with
inky, ill-conceived epidermal etchings, bizarre, flowing rainbow
locks, fluorescent-painted lips and nails, sewn-on eyebrows, glazed,
hopeless, expressionless, but highly decorated young faces, facing
meaningless futures.

Pawn shops, porn shops, gun shops.

Temporary solace from creeping moral and financial decay.

Big box stores and shopping malls, once prosperous,
now homes for roaches, rats, pigeons, and echoes.

Empty of merchandise, void of jobs.

Bridges crumbling, highways potholed and cracked.

Once-buzzing factories filled with cobwebs and despair.

Desperados, stealing what they can, selling drugs to equally
unfortunate contemporaries, trying only to survive, meeting with
increasing violence from burgeoning armies of law enforcement.

Flimsy, tin homes on wheels or crowded tenement apartments
for the fortunate.

Shelter under bridges, in arroyos, in parks for the less.

And still the flags fly. And still allegiance is pledged.

Sleepwalking through The American Dream, still believing the lies,
counting on the lies, clinging to the lies like their lives depend upon
it.

Empire’s Misinformation Machine knows the drill.

Well learned from blood brother Adolph: “If you tell a big enough
lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

Ultimate perfection of Fake News.

Still believing ’twas The U.S.A. saved the world from the tyranny
of fascism in W.W.II.

Knowing nothing of the biochemical slaughter which decimated
Korea, and carried on into Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Of course, the Moon Landings were real!…saw it on CBS.

There was no conspiracy behind the assassinations of 3 Kennedys,
King, X, Evers, Wellstone, Lennon, and oh-so many others…solitary
deranged assassins or freak accidents all.

A list of wars longer than a Summer day in Nome, Alaska.

All fought for purely humanitarian reasons.

Purely.

Or perhaps pure crude.

Terrorism has long stalked the exceptional people
and their exceptional country.

Let’s not go back too far, nor belabor the subject.

Damn that Tim McVeigh and his fertilizer bomb in Oklahoma City!

Ha! A bomb that blew in only one direction. Brilliant!

Two attacks on The World Trade Center.

Second time a charm.

No chance of malfeasance or misinformation there.

Too perfect.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, two of earth’s
most majestic structures, crashing at the speed of Newton’s
apple.

A 757 hits The Pentagon and leaves a hole barely big enough
to fly a Cessna 172 through.

Pure magic, but so believable.

Brian Williams told me so, and it was widely verified on ALL
the major networks.

Boston Marathon Mega-Whopper.

Zika! Zika! Zika!

Make sure you worry your little head about it.

Noonday sun illuminates a worldwide occupation.

A thousand military bases across the globe.

Stealth presence in every country situated upon coveted resources.

High level bribery, blackmail, assassination, coup d’etat, color
revolution, regime change, economic warfare, bombs, bullets,
missiles, whatever it takes to take and maintain control.

Worldwide domination at all cost, and life is cheap at best.

Poor lives nothing but liabilities.

Kill ’em all and let some imaginary god sort ’em out.

A million here, a million there.

Contrived and controlled mayhem in the streets of Venezuela.

Did Maduro flunk History 101?

Does he believe that the world’s biggest oil reserves will be allowed
to benefit poor people?

The Opium Wars worked so well in China, the CIA took over the
show, and is now the man to see for a good cheap high…anywhere
on earth.

Chemical Warfare on home turf, with a third of Empire’s subjects
living in opioid la-la-land…drugged sheeple are easily herded.

Drugged, delusional, huddled masses of sheeple.

Blue sheeple, red sheeple, herded into the Big Top seats.

Behold The Donald on the high wire, and Hillary the Tattooed Lady.

He’s an inappropriate thrill a second, and she’s got every corporate
logo on earth etched into her blotchy skin.

It’s the Greatest Show on Earth.

The illusion of choice.

Watch whichever freak you choose.

Choose whichever freak you watch.

The outcome is predetermined.

Nothing will change.

Twilight Zone Election/Selection Fiasco.

Hillary’s out, Donald’s in.

So what?

False flags continue to fly.

The great upward transfer of wealth continues.

Wars rage unabated.

The show must go on.

And still the flags fly, and still allegiance is pledged.

Dazed, disoriented, and distraught in Empire’s twilight.

Days must end, beings must die, empires must perish.

It is written.

Xi of China has a Heavenly Mandate to serve his people,
and his country will end poverty by 2020.

Empire’s destitution grows like a giant noxious weed.

Putin of Russia has a nearly 90% approval rating among
his populace.

Show of hands please!…who loves The Donald?

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un thumbs his nose at Empire,
develops weaponry enough to discourage the assassins.

Guess he doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of Allende,
Hussein, Gaddafi, Chavez.

And Duterte of The Philippines continues to taunt Empire,
showing the world his country’s bloody history of oppression
under its thumb.

Like school playground bullies, empires rule by fear.

Now the other children tire of the abuse.

Whispers are heard. Alliances are formed.

The bully’s closest allies now defect to the insurgency.

The oppressor stands alone.

Powerless and surrounded.

The other children move closer.

Will they show mercy, or beat the ruffian to a bloody pulp?

In the soft glow of twilight, a Russian SU-35 flies swiftly,
vertically, nearly out of sight, into the heavens.

An aerial Bolshoi Ballet ensues.

Hovering. Flipping. Spinning like a child’s top.

Defying gravity and maneuvering with dreamlike choreography.

Powerful jet engines humming a swan song for the playground
bully.

There is a name for this ballet: Empire’s Twilight.

Empire looks on, grudgingly understanding that its day has come
to an end.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/08/empires-day-of-reckoning