Dear America

Dear America

By The Last Boy In Line
Friday, July 31, 2020

Dear America:

Sincerely,

Societal Collapse

Societal Collapse

By Gregory Langley
July 29, 2020

Here in a culture so inattentive,
We turn a blind eye to reality,
Because reality is so offensive.

So we tolerate exclusivity,
By including all of our outcasts,
In the grand scheme of losers,
At the brink of societal collapse.

He's gay; shes's straight,
They're black, I'm white,
All terms given by our forefathers,
The so-called God-fearers,
Who turned out to be faithless impostors.

Humanity is lost,
Humiliated at best,
Humbled inevitably,
Humming a nocturne of our own foreboding.

Not of death, but of silence,
In a culture so breathless and frightened,
And so de-evolution begin.

The Terminal Decline of The USA

The Terminal Decline of The USA

By Finian Cunningham
Information Clearing House
Monday, July 27, 2020

President Trump’s U-turn admission on the coronavirus pandemic,
acknowledging that it’s going to get worse before it gets better,
could be applied to the general condition of American politics.

It can only get worse under present circumstances.

That’s because there is no way to solve deep-seated problems
in the US system under the prevailing bipartisan framework.

It is delusional for Democrats to blame Trump and the Republicans
for all the woes of the nation.

The notion that America can be returned to some kind of presumed
normality if Joe Biden is elected to the White House in November is
a fantasy.

Likewise it is delusional for Republicans to scapegoat Democrats
for tearing up the social fabric.

Trump and fellow Republicans in Congress and in rightwing media
are casting all the upheaval of protests and street violence on,
“radical left Democrats”.

That’s just a preposterous denial of how deeply entrenched
problems are in the US, from poverty, police brutality and
racial discrimination.

For the US system is fundamentally broken.

That is the legacy of the two-party system, both of which
are dominated by, and servile to, the corporate power of
Wall Street, big business and the military-industrial complex.

Right and Left are superficial meaningless American political
adjectives.

They are both centrally corporate vehicles.

The two parties, Republican and Democrat, are just two sides
of the same coin.

That coin is corporate power.

The US is not a democracy in practice.

The voting cycle is just a chimera of “democratic rights” amidst
a plutocracy.

The idea of voting out one party to be replaced by the other in
order to manifest meaningful change is simply wishful thinking.

Both parties whether they control the executive in the White House
or the legislative branch in Congress have presided over endless
overseas wars and foreign aggressions, while domestically both
parties have overseen massive, relentless impoverishment of the
majority of working Americans for the obscene enrichment of a
ruling elite.

That is the essential function of American capitalism
and its imperialist bullying.

And neither of the two parties have shown any will or cognizance
of opposing that fundamental function.

Barack Obama, the Democrat who extolled, “hope and change”
brought nothing of the sort.

He oversaw more wars and more bombings and killings in foreign
countries.

Donald Trump, the Republican maverick, promised to, “drain
the swamp” and end, “endless wars”.

He has done nothing of the sort.

Nothing changes in the two-party system that defines American
politics because the duopoly is designed to ensure that there is
precisely no change.

American corporate capitalism and its oligarchy is an entity
wired for war.

The intrinsic injustice of the system, from its genocidal foundations
to the contemporary drive for global dominance, necessitates that
violence and war are constant concomitants.

Republicans or Democrats don’t change that endemic condition.
They merely deliver it with different accentuations.

Take the present reckless escalation of tensions with China by the
Trump administration.

There seems little doubt that Washington is seeking to corral China
for its global ambitions under a range of pretexts, from the corona
pandemic to allegations of espionage, which also serves to distract
the US public from its massive internal failings as a fractured
society.

But Democrat rival Joe Biden is not offering anything different.

He is engaging in mindless provocations with China too, trying to
outdo Trump as to who can sound more bellicose towards Beijing.

Biden is also posing as the would-be new sheriff in the White House,
vowing to get tough on Russia over alleged meddling in US politics.

The posturing is an empty, futile fabrication.

Meanwhile Trump asserts that, “no-one is tougher on Russia”
than him.

And so down the proverbial rabbit hole we go, never emerging.

Both parties play the foreign bogeyman game as a way to justify
American imperialism in the service of corporate capitalism.

That’s why nothing ever changes for the benefit and progress of
ordinary Americans, or indeed for the rest of the world which has
to endure US aggression over and over.

What needs to change is the entire paradigm of American politics.

The two-party system is obsolete.

The nation needs to organize political representation to defend
and progress the interests of the majority working people.

That requires a head-on challenge to the vested corporate powers
of Wall Street, big business and its media and the military-industrial
complex.

In short, American capitalism has to be reckoned with.

Can it be reformed root and branch?

Or does it need to be abolished, supplanted altogether
by genuine democracy?

That’s up to the American people organized for their rights
to determine.

But one thing is certain.

There are no answers for progress under the present corrupt
duopoly.

As it is, America is in terminal decline.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55387.htm

Dear Washington D.C.

Dear Washington D.C.

By The Last Boy In Line
Friday, July 24, 2020

Dear Washington D.C.:

Sincerely,

Dear China

Dear China

By The Last Boy In Line
Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Dear China:

Sincerely,

The US Is Militarily & Economically Impotent

The US Is Militarily & Economically Impotent

By Scott Ritter
Information Clearing House
July 17, 2020

Mike Pompeo’s statement that Beijing’s claims in the South China
Sea are unlawful was seen by some as a dramatic step toward war.

But it’s little more than bluster as the US knows it is not yet
capable of taking military action.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement this week
which rejected – as official US policy – China’s territorial claims
in the South China Sea, saying that there was no legal basis for
China’s claims and accusing China of using intimidatory tactics
against littoral states with competing claims.

“We are making clear,” the statement read, “Beijing’s claims
to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are
completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control
them. The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China
Sea as its maritime empire.”

Under its self-proclaimed “nine-dash line” policy, China claims
about nine-tenths of the 3.5-million square kilometer South China
Sea.

In addition to asserting territorial claims over existing shoals
and islands, China has constructed a series of fortified man-made
islands which it has used to assert its presence in the region.

Five other nations – the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia
and Taiwan – dispute China’s claims, and have filed various legal
challenges over the years, some of which have been recognized
as valid under UN arbitration.

Until Pompeo’s statement was issued, the official US policy
was one of neutrality regarding China’s territorial claims.

Now the US has lined up against China in a dramatic manner.

The timing of Pompeo’s statement did not take place in a vacuum.

Less than two weeks ago, the United States Navy undertook a fresh
round of “freedom of navigation” exercises aimed at putting China
on notice that its territorial aspirations in the South China Sea
would not go unchallenged.

The deployment of two carrier battle groups was an unprecedented
display of military muscle flexing, remarkable not simply for the
size and scope of the drill, but rather the context in which it was
conducted.

Yesterday, the UK, America’s closest ally, said it was intending to
station one of its new aircraft carriers in the region, apparently as
a measure to counter an “increasingly assertive China.”

China has, in recent months, publicly displayed its own military
arsenal, in particular two classes of missiles, known as the DF-21
and DF-26, which have been given the moniker “carrier killers”
for obvious reasons.

The Global Times, an English-language paper published under the
auspices of the Chinese Communist Party, made reference to these
missiles in a tweet published in response to the deployment of the
US carriers, noting that “China has a wide selection of anti-aircraft
carrier weapons like DF-21D and DF-26 “aircraft carrier killer”
#missiles. South China Sea is fully within grasp of the #PLA; any US
#aircraftcarrier movement in the region is at the pleasure of PLA.”

The US Navy’s Chief of Information, Rear Admiral Charlie Brown,
sent out a tweet in response, declaring “And yet, there they are.
Two @USNavy aircraft carriers operating in the international waters
of the South China Sea. #USSNimitz & #USSRonaldReagan are not
intimidated #AtOurDiscretion.”

Admiral Brown’s bluster disguises the reality that missiles such
as the DF-21 and DF-26, which are referred to as “anti-access/
area denial” weapons (AA/AD), represent a new face of maritime
warfare that makes the US carrier battle group obsolete.

This is reflected in new guidance issued by the Commandant of the
Marine Corps for the marines to restructure its amphibious strike
capability to reflect this new reality.

“Visions of a massed naval armada nine nautical miles off-shore
in the South China Sea preparing to launch the landing force…are
impractical and unreasonable,”General David Berger noted.

“We must accept the realities created by the proliferation of
precision long-range fires, mines, and other smart-weapons,
and seek innovative ways to overcome those threat capabilities.”

The importance of the Commandant’s guidance is that it is based
in reality, not theory – the Marine Corps is currently undergoing a
radical restructuring of its combat organization and capability,
shedding so-called “legacy” capabilities such as heavy armor and
military police in favor of a new “expeditionary” structure which
will operate from advance bases in the Pacific and make use of its
own long-range strike capabilities to disrupt a potential adversary
– in this case, China.

While some feverish commentators took Pompeo’s words as setting
the legal foundation for the use of military force against Beijing,
the truth is that neither the Marine Corps nor the US Navy are able
to successfully execute a China-beating military campaign in the
South China Sea today – and any such capability is years away.

This is the fallacy of Secretary Pompeo’s statement – words that
cannot be backed up with might are, to be blunt, "Meaningless."

Pompeo’s statement did not specify what consequences the US
is prepared to impose in the event China continues its aggressive
assertion of its “nine-dash line” claims, for the simple fact that
there are no meaningful consequences that can be imposed.

Pompeo’s bluster seemed more intent in driving a wedge between
China and its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trading
partners, many of whom have territorial disputes with China in the
South China Sea, than starting a war.

China has been for years now seeking to strengthen its economic
and security ties with the ASEAN bloc, much to the consternation
of the US. Indeed, one of the major obstacles faced by the US in
confronting China in the South China Sea is the reticence among
the very nations Pompeo sought to court in his statement to
alienate relations with China, whose status as the region’s
most economically powerful trading partner most ASEAN nations
cannot ignore.

Here, President Trump’s precipitous decision to withdraw from the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2018 has come back to haunt US
policy makers – void of any viable US-led economic alternative, the
ASEAN nations have no choice but to gravitate toward China.

By putting down a marker that it views the totality of China’s South
China Sea claims as legally impermissible, the Trump administration
is seeking to influence the diplomatic arena where the various
disputes China has with the South China littoral states will be
handled for the foreseeable future.

Other than words, however, the US has limited leverage that it
can apply – freedom of navigation exercises are an irritant to China,
but have done nothing to halt its expansion in the region, and in the
aftermath of the collapse of the TPP, the US has failed to put
forward any coherent regional economic development strategy
to counter that of China.

The critical question is to what extent the South China Sea littoral
nations are willing to rally around the new US declaratory policy
regarding China’s ambitions in the South China Sea.

Lacking either the military muscle to compel Chinese change or the
economic wherewithal to offer a meaningful alternative to China’s
economic influence, Pompeo’s statement is little more than empty
words masking growing US impotence.

The fact that the sole meaningful response to China’s stance in the
South China Sea being pursued by the US is a radical restructuring
of the Marine Corps solely designed to engage China militarily in
the region should be worrisome to all; by failing to back up strong
rhetoric with meaningful policy options, the US is in danger of
backing itself into a corner for which the only solution will be the
military tool offered by the marines.

The entire world should hope and pray that it does not come to
that.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55361.htm

Humanity Is An Endangered Species

Humanity Is An Endangered Species

Can We Do What It Takes To Save Ourselves?

By Lawrence Wittner
Dissident Voice
July 15, 2020

Have you noticed recently that things are collapsing?

Sure, the right-wing, nationalist rulers of many countries never stop
telling us that they have made their nations “great” again.

But we would have to be dislocated from reality not to notice that
something is wrong―very wrong.

After all, the world is currently engulfed in a coronavirus pandemic
that has already infected over 12.5 million people, taken over
550,000 lives, and created massive economic disruption.

And the pandemic is accelerating, while, according to scientists,
new and more terrible diseases are in the offing.

Moreover, we are now experiencing a rapidly-growing
environmental catastrophe.

Not only are industrial pollutants poisoning the air, the water, and
the land as never before, but climate change is making the planet
uninhabitable.

Extreme heat, drought, storms, floods, melting glaciers, and rising
sea levels are wreaking havoc on an unprecedented scale.

This June, the temperature in the Arctic reached 100.4 degrees
fahrenheit―the hottest on record.

In addition, defying all reason, nations persist in arming themselves
for a nuclear war that will destroy virtually all life on earth.

Publicly threatening nuclear war and casting aside or rejecting
major nuclear arms control and disarmament treaties, the nuclear
powers are currently engaged in an extensive nuclear weapons
buildup, with the U.S. government alone planning to spend at least
$1.5 trillion on this project.

In response to the looming catastrophe, the editors of the Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists recently placed the hands of their famous
“Doomsday Clock” at 100 seconds to midnight―the most dangerous
setting in its 73-year history.

Even if these disastrous developments fail to snuff out the human
race, plenty of mass misery can be expected from the rising
economic and social inequality occurring around the globe.

According to a UN study, released in January 2020, over 70 percent
of the world’s people suffer from growing economic inequality.

In a foreword to the study, UN Secretary General António Guterres
declared that the world is confronting “the harsh realities of a
deeply unequal landscape,” characterized by “a vicious cycle of
inequality, frustration, and discontent.”

Feeding on popular fears and anxieties, racism and xenophobia
are on the rise.

But extinction or, at best, mass misery, need not be humanity’s
fate.

Thanks to very substantial advances in knowledge over the
centuries, plus the efforts of creative thinkers and determined
reform movements, human beings have shown a remarkable ability
to confront challenges and to improve the human condition.

From the abolition of slavery to the creation of public education,
the banning of child labor, the guaranteeing of old age security,
the legalization of unions, the recognition of women’s rights, and
the defense of gay rights, previously unimaginable changes have
been promoted and implemented.

Why should we assume that we are incapable of responding
to today’s crises?

Working together, physicians and other scientists have either
eradicated or dramatically reduced the range of numerous diseases,
including smallpox, polio, guinea worm, malaria, and measles.

Responding to climate change activism, scientists and engineers
have developed methods to utilize solar and wind power to replace
fossil fuels.

Similarly, critics of the nuclear arms race and wise statesmen have
fostered nuclear arms control and disarmament treaties and helped
prevent nuclear war.

Furthermore, numerous movements have succeeded, on occasion,
in securing a more equitable distribution of wealth and a reduction
in discrimination.

Of course, the changes necessary to cope with today’s crises will
not be obtained easily.

To successfully battle pandemics, it will be essential to create a
far stronger public health system, accessible to everyone.

Combatting climate change will almost certainly require challenging
the vast power of the fossil fuel industry.

To avert nuclear war, it will probably be necessary to both ban
nuclear weapons and create a stronger international security
system.

And when it comes to securing greater economic and social
equality, limiting corporate greed, taxing the rich, and reducing
deep-seated prejudices remain imperative.

Even if these conditions are met, however, another challenge
remains, for implementing these kinds of changes necessitates
action on a worldwide basis.

After all, disease pandemics, climate catastrophe, nuclear war,
and economic and social inequality are global problems that
require global solutions.

As the director general of the World Health Organization remarked
in late June, the greatest threat to humanity from the coronavirus
is not the virus itself, but “the lack of global solidarity” in dealing
with it.

He added: “We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world.”

Much the same could be said about overcoming the other onrushing
disasters.

Although there is not much time left before the world succumbs to
one or more catastrophes, human beings have been able to alter
their behavior and institutions.

Let’s hope they will rouse themselves and do so again.

https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/07/humanity-is-an-endangered-
species