The new Tripartite Pact: China, Russia and Trumpist America

 

Stupid is as stupid does, as you might encounter at times; such stupidity needs to be responded to, even when the tools at hand are limited:

 

It is perhaps difficult to determine who or what is the biggest threat to this country: China, Russia or the Trumpist Republican Party. Like all paranoid authoritarian types, China, Russia and Donald Trump and his disciples view citizens in their own countries with as much suspicion and fear as they do “adversarial” countries. There is no country that wants to “invade” China or Russia, and the West claims that it just wants to insure that they can be trust to act in some kind of “harmony” taking into account the interests of other countries and negotiating in good faith if there are differences. Neither China nor Russia seems interested in doing these things, bullying and threatening weaker neighbors. Meanwhile, in the U.S. the only people who have actively sought to “steal” elections in this country by voter suppression are Republicans, and Trumpists are already suggesting that violence might be “necessary” if the 2024 election doesn’t turn out the way they want.

China and Russia can be said to be operating on two slightly different sets of principles, with Russia under Vladimir Putin seemingly lacking any moral or ethical principles, while the only “principle” China operates on under Xi Jinping is paranoia—and Trumpism seems to combine all of those “principles.” Both China and Russia engaged in cyber warfare and technology theft, and have interfered in the sovereign legal rights of neighboring countries that are no threat to them, save that have something they “want”—like land or resources. Does China really “need” Taiwan? No. Does Russia “need” Ukraine? No, but their leaders are psychotic megalomaniacs thirsting for more power and more territory, and in at least China’s “Master Race” mentality, to rule the world both economically and militarily as much as by weakening other countries, which is hardly “neighborly.”

In his book  The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order Rush Doshi writes that the foolish and greed-motivated financial deregulation law passed during the Clinton administration, that led to the 2007-2008 financial meltdown, allowed China to see “U.S. power as diminished and emboldened it to take a more confident approach. Now, with the invocation of ‘great changes unseen in a century’ following Brexit, President Trump’s election, and the coronavirus pandemic, China is launching a third strategy of displacement, one that expands its blunting and building efforts worldwide to displace the United States as the global leader.”

China’s “world order” would be much different than the one that the U.S. ostensibly believes in, although first it must accomplish the following, which Chinese leaders believe they can by 2049: 

A fully realized Chinese order might eventually involve the withdrawal of US forces from Japan and Korea, the end of American regional alliances, the effective removal of the US Navy from the Western Pacific, deference from China’s regional neighbors, unification with Taiwan, and the resolution of territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. Chinese order would likely be more coercive than the present order, consensual in ways that primarily benefit connected elites even at the expense of voting publics, and considered legitimate mostly to those few who it directly rewards. China would deploy this order in ways that damage liberal values, with authoritarian winds blowing stronger across the region. Order abroad is often a reflection of order at home, and China’s order-building would be distinctly illiberal relative to US order-building.

China clearly wants a world dominated by authoritarian dictatorships like itself which it will be the global leader. Putin probably doesn’t believe Russia can still “rule the world”—or maybe he does?—but he certainly believes that he needs a like-minded partner in China. I doubt, however, that Chinese leaders view Russia as an “equal” partner now, but a “junior” partner whose current economic weakness from sanctions allows it to be manipulated geopolitically to serve its own purposes. Perhaps in China’s view, in the future Russia be no more than a naughty child, like North Korea, that needs an occasional scolding when playing with its dangerous “toys.”

In “peace-loving” countries like the U.S. and Western Europe—who only “fight” when “right” is at stake—this kind of adversarial and bullying behavior was thought to be something only “children” engaged in. But Putin and Xi don’t think “like us”—unless you are named Trump or Marine Le Pen, who despite an apparent defeat today’s French presidential election, the fascist candidate still polled a disturbing 40+ percent of the vote. They are as power mad as Hitler with visions of global domination on their terms only, and are only capable of “working” with non-authoritarian countries insofar as they can be taken advantage of economically, as Western Europe fooled itself into believing that Russia would “play nice” as long as the EU allowed itself to be dependent on Russian oil and gas, and in the U.S, “Made in China” is on virtually every consumer product sold here. It was a huge mistake to allow China in the WTO, and an incredibly stupid move by Trump to void the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, done for the juvenile reason that Trump wanted to “erase” anything to do with Barack Obama.

Of course, China and Russia can only do this with a cowed and foolish population fed lies and misinformation. As with all authoritarian regimes—as Orwell wrote about in Animal Farm and 1984—once the population has been twisted into believing that bad is really “good” when its leaders do it, and the populace kept in a state of fear from threats from the “outside,” even as the state itself is in fact the principle threat to peace, knowledge of such must be kept from the populace at all cost. The populace must be made to believe that giving up any and all rights to free speech and the freedom of assembly—let alone vote for their own representatives—is the “price” for remaining “free” to allow the madness of a few be their guide. In such a world the “enemy” is everywhere, ready to strike at a moment’s notice, and the populace must be willing to “sacrifice” their rights in this perpetual state of “emergency.”

But we in this country are more “intelligent” to fall for that line, right? Not if you are a Republican, whose candidate has lost seven of the last eight presidential popular votes. There is much to fear from “the people” who don’t vote “right,” even with your billionaire/corporate-funded culture wars, paranoia about dark-skinned “invaders” and belief in “stolen elections.” What to do? Pass voter suppression laws and gerrymander voting district maps that look like a Jackson Pollock painting to take away the right of millions to vote and make a sham of government for and by the people.

Or simply take away people’s right to vote in the name of preventing “fraud.” With many Republicans in Congress at least tacitly (and some outright openly) supporting “insurrection” if the 2024 election is “stolen,” laws in some states that make it more difficult to vote means the most basic right of a citizen in this country is being taken away simply because Republicans under the sway of Trumpism believe only in absolute power, not democracy—just like any authoritarian, fascist state. The extremists in the Republican electorate do not care if the right to vote is suppressed if it means only their “rights” are protected, meaning the right to abuse other citizens’ rights because they believe only their views deserve to be heard.

It is those beliefs that foolish, ignorant people would move this country toward—the “world order” envisioned by China in its quest to become the rightful “superpower” in the world—which it already is in trade with so much of the world grown dependent on it. With Russia  seeking to undermine democracy in the U.S. by insuring the election of a man unfit to be president (Trump), whose so-called "America First" policies only weakened the U.S.’ standing both domestically and internationally, people in this country need to start thinking what kind of country and world they want to live in—one ruled by the people, or one by authoritarians who are subservient to Chinese economic blackmail and Russian "cyber support."

It will be a close-run thing. We see Trump continuing to hold his Nuremberg rallies, his cult of personality still strong. Trump thinks he is above the law and unaccountable to anyone for his actions or crimes. The people who attend these rallies in person or in spirit don’t seem to realize that they are being sucked into a black hole of ignorance, stupidity and danger, completely unaware that Trump is using them for his own protection from his crimes in which they are willingly complicit. January 6 was proof enough of that, and too many people still refuse to learn any “lessons” from it.

Why I write

 

This is my 2,000^th post, which at least for me means that if only half of them are any good, that means there is still 1,000 that I don’t have the fear of cringing at reading again. This thing started after I had taken to posting comments on Thom Hartmann’s (the “number one” progressive voice in America) website. Another commenter suggested that I should have my own blog, since I didn’t always toe the line with the dogma being pushed. I didn’t take that suggestion seriously until I found myself being blocked after accusing Hartmann and some of the comments as being racist against Hispanics, the usual “working class” scapegoating.

What to call my blog? I have a degree in journalism from a university people at least heard of, but it hasn’t been of much use to me. People see what they see, and most—judging by the paranoid and prejudicial way some act when they “see” me—assume I’m some “migrant” who might be an “illegal” at best, or a car prowler or drug dealer (as I pointed out a few posts ago). So I picked a blog title that was basically a middle finger to all those who only saw me as such or didn’t believe I was “qualified” to be a journalist who was worth paying real money to. And no, I have never made a red cent from doing this; I do “regular” work that I don’t have to take home with me at least, because most of the “free” time I have is spent doing what I consider to be the “real” work I went to school to do.

What to write about? It is easy to write about the “usual” topics—politics and society—because nothing changes, really. You can talk about the same things over and over again because people never really learn from their mistakes, and the next generation keeps repeating them. I was watching the Smothers Brothers documentary Smothered where it showed a clip of Pat Paulsen doing one of his “editorials,” this one on gun control: “If you are old enough to commit a crime, you are old enough to own a gun”; he starts shaking as if he has cerebral palsy and accidentally “shoots” a member of the crew.

 

Then there were those Crying Indian “Keep America Beautiful” commercials. The problems of yesterday are still the problems of today, and just getting worse, as this image of plastics in the oceans attest—and that is only what you can see, not plastics that do not float, and “microplastics” that endanger plankton:

 

 

Hypocrisy is one thing that just drives me nuts, whether it is of the political, racial, “ethnic,” religious or gender variety. John Oliver’s recent show on critical race theory (CRT) is an example of how many white people—who themselves cannot even “define” what CRT is except that its “purpose” is to make their kids “feel bad”—say that they are this when they are actually that.  Oliver noted how the far-right misused MLK’s “content of character” quote from his “I Have a Dream” speech to twist into “confirming” their own racist stereotypes.

They tell us that “proof” that white Americans can’t be racist is because Barack Obama was elected twice for president. Yes, but Republicans led by Mitch McConnell said that once they gained control of Congress, every policy proposal Obama sent to them would be “dead on arrival,” which was the case for six years. The day Obama was elected, the Tea Party “movement” was “founded,” but it was just a new name for the ongoing white nationalist, nativist core of far-right voters, this time energized by the election of a black man in their white country—and those same people are the ones who make up the fascist “fringe” that elected Donald Trump to set a path of destruction through democracy in this country.

Oliver noted the MLK himself saw his “dream” speech as “aspirational” and that it had become a “nightmare.” He would later write that “while the majority of white Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice for the negro and they believe that American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class utopia embodying racial harmony, unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable vanity.”

As we saw in the governor’s election in Virginia, white voters who consider themselves “not racist” still allow themselves to become fearful of a non-existent racial “threat” and voted for the Republican candidate by a narrow margin. We saw scenes in school board meetings of white parents losing their minds over critical race theory being taught in schools when in fact it wasn’t. One of the leaders of the anti-CRT movement in Loudoun country, a white woman, told a reporter that “nobody” in the county was “racist,” and that if you only “don’t talk about it,” racism will “go away,” using the “content of character” mendacity.

But when the reporter asked her about what might be the perspective of, say, young black males, the conversation took a hard-right turn and the white woman launched into the usual racial paranoia and stereotypes, such as about “dress” and showing “respect” for abusive police. The problem was not whether or not that was "true," but that it was the first thing that came out of her mouth, instead of even acknowledging another point of view that could very well be a valid one. Oliver noted that an assessment of Loudoun county schools showed that the use of racial slurs by white “kids” was “shocking”—and of course they learn this from their parents who don’t want their “kids” made to feel “bad” about this.

For me personally, the problem is that virtually everything that comes out of virtually everyone’s mouth when discussing Hispanics is prejudicial, stereotypical and stupid, so that I am always made aware of my “place” in the world; any illusions I had since I left college disappeared long ago. But through the miracle of the Internet and Google’s free blogger program, I can say what I want, about whatever I want, when I want. No one can keep me "silent" on the Internet, like even the "liberal" mass media tries to keep "ethnic" people like me silent or "invisible," since it would expose the way they perpetuate bigotry, which exposes their hypocrisies.

So what if hardly anybody “visits”; at least I have the say that other people would have denied me in the past. Besides, a post I wrote concerning the attempted snub of the late Laura Nyro’s son at her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction (1) has by far the most “hits,” which of course says more about the order of importance of “celebrity” news in some people’s worldview.

Is “stirring up the pot” a good enough reason to vote for an immature moron? Apparently for some Republican voters it is

Some of us wonder how it is possible, in this day and age when people are supposed to be more “informed” with access to information 24 hours a day, that psychopaths like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar and Josh Hawley can be elected to federal office. Part of the answer is that voters have a “choice” to believe what they want to believe even if what they choose is demonstrably false because they are consumed with petty grievances and prejudices. They can’t see the “big picture” because they are too enamored with self, especially in regard to racial grievances they blame for preventing them from saying and doing what they want without worrying about laws that prevent blatant discrimination.

Of course the transmission of the dialogue of conspiratorial nonsense and hate has allowed the emergence from the polluted depths of the human mind figures that seem more like deformed mutants in human form, who can still be easily recognized as such by the mindless noises escaping the hole they are better off just breathing through (although what does come out is more suitable for what comes out their other hole). Greene’s office staff, for example, may put out statements claiming that she doesn’t support violent insurrection, but then she goes on podcasts and insinuates that she does, in fact, support violent insurrection. After all, you can’t tame a wild beast; they act on instinct, not by anything most human beings would consider to be behavior governed by rational thought.

We know who they all are, or at least we thought we did. Out of the sewers as emerged a new name: Madison Cawthorn, representing an Appalachian district in North Carolina, and who has been the subject of much embarrassment even for Kevin McCarthy. At 26, Cawthorn in the youngest member of Congress, and he apparently has received a “pass” from many people because he is wheelchair bound; in 2014 he was a passenger in a vehicle that crashed after the driver fell asleep, or at least that is the story we have been told. He currently is being charged with driving with a revoked driver’s license; according to NBC News, Cawthorn’s license was suspended last year for speeding, and again this year for an incident in January.

But traffic violations are just a technicality. Cawthorn is another one of those fanatical fascist Trumpists who also has been accused of helping to incite the January 6 insurrection, for which there was a failed attempt by opponents in North Carolina to prevent him from being allowed to take a seat in the House. Cawthorn ran his freshman campaign making racist smears against non-white lawmakers he accused of trying to “ruin white men,” and in general playing the white identity and nationalist card, which apparently worked quite well for him in the district that far-right “Freedom Caucus” member Mark Meadows “served” before he joined the Trump administration as chief-of-staff.

Interestingly, while Greene and Cosar have gotten away with speaking at white supremacist events and “justifying” violent insurrection that before Trump would have forced them into a “early retirement,” today, the failure of the Republican establishment to just say “no” to anything Trump has allowed any psychopath to run for office and even win. Cawthorn’s racism and support for insurrection didn’t seem to bother anyone in the Republican leadership; only something to do with sex and drugs was capable of doing that.

Thus when Cawthorn recently told another  far-right podcast that he had been “invited” to an “orgy” at an unnamed congressman’s invitation—absurd on its face because Cawthorn is disabled—and suggesting that he saw cocaine use by congresspersons, that was baaad, at least for McCarthy, who decided to privately “consult” with him on the matter. Personally, I can imagine the person doing the inviting being Matt Gaetz, but that is another story.

But it all comes back to why voters actually voted for someone who had a history of not just making racist insinuations, but clearly lacks the maturity or judgment to represent anyone’s district, which is plain to see now if wasn’t so “clear” in 2020. Cawthorn has again suggested that “violence” will be “justified” if in the 2024 election is “stolen.” A video has surfaced in which Cawthorn called Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “thug”—which is a term many people would use in reference to Cawthorn, at least in his head and whatever comes out of that hole in his face. While most people are impressed by the courageousness of Zelenskyy, you have a coward like Cawthorn justifying his name-calling by claiming that Zelenskyy is “corrupt” in “wokeness.” Yeah, that insane.

NPR tells us that there are some voters in Cawthorn’s district who are fed-up with his antics and don’t intend to vote for him in the upcoming primaries, although the Republican primary field is so crammed with wannabes that Cawthorn may still manage to reach the 30 percent threshold to avoid a runoff election. And yes, there are those for whom Cawthorn’s asinine behavior and lack of maturity is just a “thing.” Despite Sen. Thom Tillis endorsing another candidate in Cawthorn’s district, who would not "never embarrass Western North Carolina with a consistent pattern of juvenile behavior, outlandish statements, and untruthfulness,” you still have Cawthorn supporters who either don’t believe the “gossip” against him, or those like Paul Heyer, who just shrugged it off, claiming that Cawthorn was the “lesser of the evils,” as if there was more than one. He also told NPR that

As long as he (Cawthorn) gets the job done that I agree with or with what's good for us in North Carolina. I don't have a problem with him stirring the pot. The pot needs to be stirred a little bit. Sometimes the pot needs to be emptied.

It is a more than fair question to ask what exactly is that “job” people like this voter want done in the age of Trump. Being “contrary” is not enough reason to vote for someone who is a moron. What’s “good” for bigoted white nationalists is not “good” for the country. Frankly, if any “pot” needs to be “emptied,” it is the human waste that the Republican Party has allowed voters like this to fill since at least the time Newt Gingrich set out the pot to see who would be shameless enough to use it out where everyone can see them.

 

India likely to account for the largest chunk of "excess" Covid deaths in upcoming WHO report, which it is already disputing

 

Anyone who examines the numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths worldwide—and I typically check Worldometer’s numbers, since they are about as “accurate” as anybody’s and are continually updated—they can’t help but be doubtful about the “official” numbers reported by certain countries. Western countries we assume are the more accurate, since their health care systems are “superior” and the media is more skeptical of government attempts to falsify the numbers; however, it does appears that some states in the U.S. (like Florida) no longer feel they need to continue reporting updates on cases and deaths.

But it is clear that some other countries—particularly in Africa, where testing for the virus has been sporadic at best and non-existent at worst, and in Asian nations, where cases and deaths are a matter of “definition.” China and India in particular have stood out among all nations in regard to questionable figures. We have been led to believe that China’s severe lockdown measures have been rather surprisingly effective, although few outside of China actually believe it. It is interesting to note, however, that China’s case numbers—though still absurdly low—has in the last month been among the fastest growing in the world as most other nations have seen decreasing numbers. China’s near doubling of its numbers from just a month ago seems difficult to explain, although we probably should expect that international athletes from the recent Olympics will be blamed.

Or perhaps China is belatedly “revising” its numbers given that the World Health Organization is preparing a new report providing its best estimate of the true toll of the virus, taking into consideration various mechanisms including “excess deaths.” Of all countries, India seems to be the most concerned about what the WHO will report; even the Indian media accuses the Modi government of deliberately seeking to keep the numbers down by various means, such as the lack of testing and falsifying cause of death findings. The bodies of deceased persons suspected of dying from Covid-19 are often—or usually—either burned or tossed into rivers at such high numbers without being tested that they simply can’t be explained any other way. It is believed that the true virus death toll in India could be 8 times the “official” number of slightly over 500,000.

This is likely what the WHO report is set to do, and the Indian government is doing everything it can to “stall” the release of the report, according to the New York Times, in the hope that it can be “revised.” Indian officials claim that it is “unfair” for India to be lumped in with “Tier 2” countries—meaning “developing countries”—instead of Tier 1 countries. The WHO concludes that since Tier 1 countries have superior medical capabilities and more accurate reporting, their virus numbers are not likely to increase significantly in the report. But Indian officials claim that they should not be evaluated differently from Tier 1 countries, which they hope would offer a considerably different number, presumably much lower.

India, of course, has much to fear from the WHO numbers, since unlike even China, it has one of the worst per-capita medical care systems in the world. The Times of India even admitted in 2018 that the country ranked 145^th in the world in quality and accessibility of health care. Indian health ministry officials apparently do not believe that this fact, or the fact that India has the largest population living in poverty in packed slums, where there is little access to clean water, where clothes are usually washed in river water contaminated by human feces, doesn’t mean greater “access” to disease.

In response to the New York Times story, officials put out a press report claiming that "The model gives two highly different sets of excess mortality estimates of when using the data from Tier I countries and when using unverified data from 18 Indian states. Such a wide variation in estimates raises concerns about validity and accuracy of such a modeling exercise." Huh? What is being claimed here is that not everyone in India lives in slums, and some actually have access to good medical care. But India is also, according to The World Inequality Report, one of the most unequal, a charge that Indian officials also claimed to be “flawed.” In any case there is no doubt that the Covid-19 case and death rate in India is vastly underreported; it is just a matter of by how many times more seems “reasonable” to researchers, not to the Indian government.

Of course, India is only the worst case of under-reporting, and while “official” deaths stand at around 6.5 million worldwide, the New York Times is reporting that the WHO report will likely put the true total at around 15 million—with India accounting for a huge chunk of the excess. Even the WHO numbers may be too conservative, so as not to “embarrass” certain countries which have fed their citizens falsified numbers for propaganda purposes, such as China which is also disputing the WHO’s “methodology.”