Media so desperate for Republicans to nominate Trump that they devote most of their programming to him. GOP candidates who don’t surrender a quote to media are accused of “enabling” Trump–Ann Coulter

 .

“Democrats have won three national elections in a row by making them all about Trump….[Republican] Candidates who aren’t talking about Trump are attacked for “enabling” him.”

July 26, 2023, “GOP Pledge: No More Talking About Trump,”

“Please, God, can we talk about something else?”

“The media are so desperate for Republicans to nominate Donald Trump that they’ve turned over 96.7% of their programming to covering him, with brief interruptions for Emmett Till updates. Like dogs playing a game of fetch for eternity, they never tire of rehashing Trump’s legal troubles, his behavior on Jan. 6 (which has now been more investigated than the Kennedy assassination), his payment to a stripper, his call to election officials in Georgia and on and on and on.

It has become clear that the media also plan to make the GOP presidential primaries entirely about Trump.

Every Republican running for president

is required to spend half of any interview answering questions about the former president.

Even when they’re not saying anything at all about him,

somehow the media make it about Trump.

E.g.:

Ron DeSantis gives a speech in South Carolina not mentioning Trump.

Headline: “Ron DeSantis says little about Trump indictment; decries unequal justice and ‘weaponization‘” — USA Today

Mike Pence announces he’s running for president.

Headline: “Pence Delivers Strong Rebuke to Trump in Campaign Announcement” — New York Times

Nikki Haley attacks Trump.

Headline: “Nikki Haley accused of ‘MAGA agenda’ after supporting abortion restrictions in town hall” — The Guardian

Candidates who aren’t talking about Trump are attacked for “enabling” him. MSNBC’s totally objective, nonpartisan anchor (and former Biden press secretary) Jen Psaki denounced Republicans on Monday, complaining that,

unless they’re constantly berating him,

“they are effectively enabling a guy who led an attempted coup. And for what? To maybe win a handful of delegates?”

Republicans, forget the pledge to support the party’s nominee. It’s pointless, irrelevant, stupid and openly defied, as it was in 2016 by Jeb! and John Kasich.

The pledge we need candidates to take is this:

We jointly refuse to answer any more questions about Trump. All of you, except Chris Christie.

Do you really think the media are trying to help you with this endless focus on Trump?

They’re putting Republicans in a no-win situation:

Either the candidates are forced to take

an utterly indefensible position by defending Trump, 

or they’re required to write off the votes of all Trump supporters.

Democrats will never be asked to criticize any part of their coalition — and they’ve got a much crazier base than Republicans do. Why are Republicans held responsible for every nut on the right, while Democrats are allowed to skate on the core beliefs of their base?

Here are some questions Democratic candidates ought to be asked but never will be.

— Do white lives matter? Why did Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley have to apologize for saying “All lives matter” in 2016?

— What percentage of white people do you believe are racist? Should teachers and college professors who indoctrinate students to believe that all whites are guilty of “systemic racism” keep their jobs?

— Did Joe Biden really believe that “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was nearly lynched by white guys shouting, “This is MAGA country!” in the most affluent part of Chicago during a polar vortex? Did Kamala Harris believe it? Nancy Pelosi? Cory Booker? They said they did. Do you think such psychotic paranoia is, as liberals like to say, “normal”?

— If one unionized teacher could stay home while still being paid,

but 10 children would die, which would you choose? The American Federation of Teachers, a major Democratic donor,

relentlessly fought to keep schools closed throughout the [so-called] pandemic. A Reuters study later found that the school closures led to a 43% rise in drug-related 911 calls for people aged 20 and younger.

— Should the police be defunded? If not, will you denounce left-wing “philanthropist” George Soros? A major source of dark money for Democratic causes, this sinister figure gave $35 million to anti-police activists in 2021. Last year, as the murder rate continued to soar, he pledged to give more.

— How about ICE? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigned on abolishing ICE. Other Democrats who support abolishing ICE include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand. House Democrats have actually introduced legislation to abolish ICE.

[Former “New York Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo Calls ICE “A Bunch of Thugs”,” 8/31/2018]

–– What is a woman? Do you think Biden’s Supreme Court pick, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, was lying when she claimed under oath not to know the answer to that question, or is she stupid?

— Should men be allowed in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms and prisons? Should they compete in women’s sports? Should children be allowed to poison and mutilate themselves under the belief that they can change genders? Are Republican governors

who ban these practices guilty of “hate” —

as claimed by almost all Democrats? Do you agree with Biden that such measures are “ugly“ attacks from “hysterical” and “prejudiced” people?

— If blacks, Hispanics, whites and Asians are not disciplined, arrested and imprisoned at their exact proportions in the population, is that proof of racism?

— Is it OK to be white? If so, will you call on liberal “hate watch” groups and college administrators across the nation to stop treating that phrase as “hate speech”?

— Should Al Sharpton be required to pay income taxes? This Democratic kingmaker has been a guest of President Biden’s at the White House at least twice, the Obama White House more than 72 times and has his ring kissed by any Democrat running for president.

The last time The New York Times investigated, about 10 years ago, Sharpton owed more than $4 million in income taxes. 

While we’re on the subject, he’s also responsible for the Tawana Brawley hate hoax in 1987, and in the 1990s he helped gin up angry mobs in Crown Heights and at Freddy’s Fashion Mart in Harlem,

which resulted in eight deaths.

True, that was a long time ago. Do you think if DeSantis had met with David Duke a really long time ago, the media would say, “no biggie”?

Democrats have won three national elections in a row by making them all about Trump.

Unless the GOP is intent on committing suicide, their No. 1 objective has got to be preventing this from happening again. Every Republican candidate for president (except Chris Christie) has got

to take this pledge. 

I promise not to answer any more questions about Trump.”

............. 

COPYRIGHT 2023 ANN COULTER

 

..................

 

Thousands of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors with tuberculosis released into 44 states to sit next to your child in school. Feds also send states minors with venereal disease, HIV, and history of violence

 .

July 18, 2023, “Illegal immigrant kids with tuberculosis infections released into 44 states," Washington Times, S. Dinan

[10/22/2018, “Caravan of 7,000 Central American migrants continues north, defying warnings to turn back,” CBS News]

“The government is releasing thousands of illegal immigrant children with latent tuberculosis infections into American communities without assurances of treatment.

Nearly 2,500 children with latent infections were released into 44 states over the past year, according to a court-ordered report on how the Health and Human Services Department is treating the children.

About 126,000 total were released, indicating an infection rate of 1 in 50 migrant children.

The government says it can’t treat the children because they are in custody for a short time and

treatment requires three to nine months.

HHS releases infected children to sponsors and

[allegedly] notifies local health authorities in the hope

that [already overburdened local taxpayers] they can arrange for treatment

before the latent infection becomes active.

Those hopes are often dashed.

Local health officials say the notifications are infrequent

and the child has often already arrived

when they are told about a case in their jurisdiction.

“We do not know how often the sponsors follow through on treatment,” the Virginia Department of Health told The Washington Times in a statement.

“By the time outreach takes place,

the child has sometimes moved to another area or state.”

The Times reached out to HHS for this report.

The children in the department’s custody, known in government-speak as unaccompanied alien children, or UACs, are a particularly tricky population.

Under the law, Homeland Security

must discharge most children quickly

and send them to HHS. The department holds the children in government-contracted shelters while searching for sponsors to take in the children…at the border without parents.

The system is fraught with problems, including crowded shelters and struggles to find capable and conscientious sponsors.

In thousands of cases, the government quickly loses track of the children….

Treatment requires knowing where the children are

and having sponsors willing to follow through

on the lengthy course of care.

Tuberculosis isn’t the only disease that’s challenging.

The government had to create protocols to handle chlamydia and gonorrhea, according to the court report, written by Aurora Miranda-Maese, the monitor ordered by the court to keep tabs on how the government is treating children in its custody.

Ms. Miranda-Maese identified tuberculosis as one challenge. Because the

government wants to rush the children out of custody [and deliver them to already overburdened local taxpayers across the US], authorities usually

don’t feel they have the time to begin treatment.

“Minors are not routinely treated for [latent tuberculosis infection]while in [resettlement] care

because the average length of stay is typically shorter than the time required to complete treatment,

and because there could be negative effects from discontinuing … treatment before completion, such as developing drug-resistant TB,” Ms. Miranda-Maese wrote.

She said the government relies on a reporting system through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to alert local health authorities.

Virginia’s experience suggests the follow-through rate for sponsors to obtain the needed treatment is low.

Virginia’s health department said it focuses on connecting local health officials with sponsors who take in children younger than 5 at high risk of latent infections progressing to active tuberculosis and juveniles

who might be infected with HIV.

The CDC, which runs the notification portal, didn’t respond to an inquiry from The Times.

UACs do get routine dental care and reproductive care, including pregnancy tests, and are given information about emergency contraceptives. The government will also facilitate abortions, including making “all reasonable efforts to secure a legal abortion” for girls in states where the procedure is restricted.

The report details the levels of accommodation for the children, including individualized assessments of their educational attainment and daily schooling that is “sensitive to the cultural differences of the minors in care.”

Under new rules, each UAC is allowed at least 50 minutes of phone calls every five days and additional 45-minute calls on birthdays and holidays.

The report also revealed that HHS has no “secure” shelters to place UACs

with criminal records or histories of violence, threats or

sexually predatory behavior.

The report doesn’t say where those dangerous UACs are placed,

given the lack of a secure facility.

Tuberculosis is another instance where illegal immigrants

receive better treatment than those

attempting to enter the U.S. legally.

Those arriving as permanent legal immigrants are

required to undergo screening beforehand, as are refugees.

Those with active cases can be excluded from entry.

Illegal immigrants who show up at the border

are already in the country.

In one glaring example,

tens of thousands of illegal immigrants being welcomed and “paroled” into the U.S. through Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ policies

are not required to test negative for latent tuberculosis infection

before arrival.

Instead, they are told to be screened within 90 days of arrival.

Homeland Security would not disclose the compliance rate nor the consequences for those who fail to comply.

In a brief statement to The Times, the department did call the rate “high” and pronounced itself “encouraged,” but acknowledged that it must prod migrants to comply.”

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

 

 

...............

 

In Venezuela Trump was deeply complicit in making ordinary people suffer for no reason except to show that US is a Big, Stupid Bully-Stephen Kinzer, Boston Globe

 .

Venezuela: “Nowhere in the Western Hemisphere is the United States more deeply complicit in making ordinary people suffer, with less reason, than in Venezuela.…Our refusal to tolerate foreign leaders who defy us lies at the heart of this heartless campaign....It should not be up to Americans to decide whether Maduro is a bad leader.”…Trump continues US status quo of depraved indifference to humanity.

9/16/2020, “Back off of Venezuela already,” Boston Globe, Stephen Kinzer

“The American campaign against socialist leader Nicolás Maduro is only hurting the people of the country.”

“Somehow, Venezuela has moved toward the top of our list of foreign enemies. Presidents Obama and Trump have portrayed it as

a dangerous challenger to American power.

It’s an odd choice. This nation of 28 million, perched on the northern coast of South America, is effectively bankrupt. Its navy has six small gunboats, three frigates that can barely sail out of sight of land, and two 40-year-old submarines. Yet according to many in Washington, it ranks with China, Russia, and Iran as an urgent threat to American security.

In 2015, evidently moved by reports of corruption and human rights violations,

Obama declared “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States

posed by the situation in Venezuela.” He began imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s government and leaders.

Trump has intensified the pressure. The United States has sanctioned more than 150 Venezuelans, revoked the visas of more than 1,000 others, and offered a $15 million bounty to anyone who delivers President Nicolás Maduro into our hands. We have

seized billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets;

placed Venezuela on lists of countries that support terrorism, drug trafficking, corruption, and human rights abuses;

and sought to prevent it from processing or buying oil, once the mainstay of its economy. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, echoing Obama’s exaggeration, has declared

Venezuela “a true threat to the United States.”

US Navy warships, including guided-missile destroyers, conduct maneuvers near the Venezuelan coast.

Last year [2019] Trump announced that the United States would no longer recognize Maduro because of the doubts, shared by many Democrats, about the legitimacy of his 2018 re-election.

The true president, Trump declared, was a little-known politician named Juan Guaidó. He invited Guaidó to be a guest of honor at his State of the Union address last year [Feb. 2020]. Leaders of both political parties treated him like a hero.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said he had touched “the conscience of the world.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In mid-2019 Guaidó proclaimed the “definitive end of the usurpation” and called on Venezuelans to rise up in rebellion. Nothing happened. Then, in a bizarre escalation last April [2019], three boatloads of American mercenaries tried to land in Venezuela to set off an uprising. Their “Bay of Piglets” effort ended with eight would-be invaders dead and more than a dozen others arrested.

“As for who bankrolled it, we’re not prepared to share any more information,”

 Secretary Pompeo said afterward.

Describing the event a few months later, Senator Chris Murphy tweeted: “It got real embarrassing. We tried to organize a kind of coup, but it became a debacle.

Everyone who told us they’d rally to Guaidó got cold feet and the plan failed publicly and spectacularly,

making America look foolish and weak. Since then, it’s been a running comedy of errors.”

Realizing that he is unlikely to topple the government, Guaidó has begun negotiating. His aides have met with Maduro supporters in Norway and Barbados. Both sides have said they want to work together to fight the spread of COVID-19, which has killed nearly 500 Venezuelans. Maduro has invited the European Union to monitor upcoming parliamentary elections. 

Yet the United States rejects all efforts at compromise. Regime change remains our single goal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maduro’s government provides free housing to about 3 million Venezuelans, along with subsidized food and medical care. Nonetheless the country is suffering tremendously from a combination of mismanagement and the weight of sanctions. Inflation is raging. Five million citizens have fled. So why do American leaders insist on crushing a nation

that poses no conceivable threat to the United States?

The official answer–Maduro is corrupt and repressive–is hardly credible,

since we happily support governments from Ukraine to Honduras to Saudi Arabia

that are demonstrably more corrupt and repressive.

Domestic politics is part of the explanation. Republicans and Democrats alike have concluded that appearing militantly anti-Maduro will win votes in Florida. Yet pressure on Venezuela began long before this political campaign.

The real reason for our wildly disproportionate focus on Venezuela is that Maduro is an outspoken socialist who regularly

denounces US policies in Latin America and the world.

Our refusal to tolerate foreign leaders who defy us lies 

at the heart of this heartless campaign.

It should not be up to Americans to decide whether Maduro is a bad leader.

Our efforts to depose him have not only

contributed to impoverishing millions of Venezuelans,

but have led him to build relationships with Russia and Iran–surely not a positive development for the United States. Now that both sides in Venezuela seem ready to make a deal, compromise looks possible. The United States should join with the European Union in promoting talks.

Instead we insist on confrontation.

Nowhere in the Western Hemisphere is the United States more deeply complicit

in making ordinary people suffer, with less reason, than in Venezuela.”

…………………………..

Images: First two images are screen shots from PBS video: “WATCH: Trump praises Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó at the State of the Union | 2020 State of the Union,” Tues., 2/4/2020.

Third image, “President Donald J. Trump meets with Interim President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Juan Guaido Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)”

---

“Stephen Kinzer is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.”

…………………………………………………

Added: “The United States has the power to decree the death of nations.”

“If people in Bhutan or Bolivia misunderstand Syria, however, that has no real effect.

Our ignorance is more dangerous, because we act on it.

The United States has the power to decree the death of nations.  

In Syria, it is: “Fight Assad, Russia, and Iran! Join with our Turkish, Saudi, and Kurdish friends to support peace!”  

This is appallingly distant from reality. It is also likely to prolong the war and condemn 

more Syrians to suffering and death.”  

Feb. 18, 2016, “The media are misleading the public on Syria,” Boston Globe, Stephen Kinzer, opinion

............................................

Added: "Big, stupid bully" reference, per Candidate Trump in 2016:

"Mr Trump insisted he was "not isolationist" but "America First".

He said: "We have been disrespected, mocked, and ripped off for many, many years by people that were smarter, shrewder, tougher.

"We were the big bully, but we were not smartly led. And we were the big bully who was the big, stupid bully and we were systematically ripped off by everybody.""

March 27, 2016,  "US Election 2016: Trump laments 'ripped off' America," BBC

 

 ...............

 

 

 ..................

 

US objective in Ukraine is to create Hell on Earth as it does everywhere it goes. Defeat of US Empire is single precondition for solving mankind’s problems-Moon of Alabama Commenter Bevin

.

July 7, 2023, “Ukraine – Biden Again Escalates,“ Moon of Alabama

…………………………………….

Among comments

……………………………………….

“...The underlying cause of the Ukrainian conflict has not yet been identified, yet alone addressed…” [commenter] too scents@82″

[Commenter Bevin, #103, replies to commenter “too scents”]

“The underlying cause of this-and every other conflict of the kind–

is the US government’s commitment to Full Spectrum Dominance.

It really is as simple as that- the US government is the global equivalent of

Organised Crime. And everywhere that it goes,

from south east Asia to Europe, to Africa and Latin America,

it recruits and trains the criminally inclined to work with it and for

its objective which is to produce a Hell on Earth,

in which a small class of exploiters devour the substance which humanity, in harmony with nature, produces.

The war in Ukraine, where victory [by the Russian Federation]

is critical to humanity’s future,

is nevertheless little more than a sideshow

in world wide struggle between imperialism, no longer masked

as anything more than a criminal project,

and life.

Life demands balance, justice and love and abhors

cannibalism

which is the very essence of the criminality of Empire-

a greedy minority

surrounded by the bones and the shortened, blighted lives

of those whom they have devoured.

What Biden is telling us, and those like him have been

telling us with increasing confidence

for eighty years,

is that obvious breaches of law and morality no longer matter

because the domination that the ruling class has over the world

includes control of information and opinion, which means that

the criminals have the ability to re-write the law to ensure that they cannot be identified as breaking it.

The US government has been breaking every rule in the book,

reneging on every agreement it ever made and

betraying both the letter and spirit of every law it runs into-

domestically and internationally-

since people started paying attention to its actions….

But since 1945….

it’s government has been taken over by the CIA, an institution which is

not only out of but beyond control-

it runs all three branches of government,

the entire law enforcement system,

the media,

the internet,

all means of communication and education.

And is rapidly taking over every other government-

it owns the UN for example.

Its agents fill the legislatures across Europe-

they command the armed forces of most of the world’s military, and they are constantly beavering away,

gnawing at the roots of the few power centres that it does not already control.

But there is hope, yet, in those countries which have had, over the centuries

enough of imperialism-

as its colonised objects- to teach them that

there is one imperative in politics today,

one precondition to the solution of mankind’s many problems,

and that is the defeat of the Empire

and the re-education of the millions that it has corrupted.

This last will not be hard- the basis of imperialism is the belief that it is the winning side, once that is dealt with

in the form of a comprehensive defeat,

the Empire will expire with the whimpering of bullies and time servers

learning that might

is not right

and that justice, the foundation of all physics and philosophy,

will triumph or life will end.”…

“Posted by: bevin | Jul 7 2023 18:46 utc | 103″

 

 

....................

The Russian Federation remains humanity’s only hope

 .

“All of life has an interest in a Russia too strong to be attacked or provoked as a strong Russia is the only way to curtail the Western aggression.”…March 8, 2019

……………………………………

“All of life has an interest in a Russia too strong to be attacked or provoked as a strong Russia is the only way to curtail the Western aggression that is leading to nuclear war.­…As far as we can tell, the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences is so brainwashed by neoliberal economics that their minds are closed to correct policies. The failure of Russian economic leadership imposes far more costs on the Russian economy than do Washington’s sanctions. Intellectual leadership is weak with many in the intellectual class favoring integration with the West rather than with the East.”

3/8/19, “Is Neoliberalism Killing Russia?“ foreignpolicyjournal.com, Paul Craig Roberts, Michael Hudson

“Russia is experiencing capital outflows due to the Russian private sector’s repayment of loans to Western creditors. Russia has experienced over $25 billion a year of capital outflows since the early 1990s, accumulating to over a trillion dollars. This money could have been invested in Russia itself to raise the productivity and living standards of its citizens. The outflow puts the ruble under pressure, and the interest payments draw money out of the country away from Russian uses.  If it were not for these outflows, the value of the ruble and Russian wages would be higher.

The US sanctions give Russians every reason not to repay their foreign loans; yet Russians continue to enable their own exploitation by foreigners, as neoliberal economists have told them that there is no alternative.

Russia’s economic problems are due to the looting of the country during the Yeltsin years, to the imposition of neoliberal economics by the Americans, and to financialization as a result of the privatizations.

Russia’s stock market became the darling of the West in the mid-1990s as underpriced mining, oil and infrastructure were sold for a fraction of their value to foreigners, thus transferring Russian income streams abroad instead of leaving the income to be invested in Russia. In effect, Russians were told that the way for their country to get rich was to let kleptocrats, oligarchs, and their U.S. and British stock brokers make hundreds of billions of dollars by privatizing Russia’s public domain.

Washington took advantage of the gullible and trusting Yeltsin government to do as much political and economic damage as possible to Russia. The country was torn apart.  Historic parts of Russia such as Ukraine were split off into separate countries.  Washington even insisted that Crimea, long a part of Russia and the country’s warm water port, was retained by Ukraine when the Soviet Union was dismembered.

People’s savings (called the “overhang”) were wiped out with hyperinflation. Privatization was not accompanied by new investment. The economy was not industrialized, but financialized. The proceeds from privatization were deposited by the Russian government in private banks where the money was used to privatize more Russian assets. The banking system thus served to finance the transfer of ownership, not to fund new investment, and the proceeds were transferred abroad. Russia was turned into a financial colony in which proconsuls created wealth at the top.

Today privatization continues in the de facto privatization of public assets, such as charging fees for use of federal highways.  As the Russian economic profession has been brainwashed by the Americans, the country is devoid of economic leadership.

We have pointed out on more than one occasion that it is nonsensical for Russia to indebt itself by borrowing abroad in order to finance investments. The Russians were sold a bill of goods that the central bank cannot issue rubles unless the rubles are backed by dollars.  This advice served to prevent Russia from using its own central bank to fund public infrastructure and private investment projects by issuing rubles.  In other words, Russia might as well not have a central bank.

Apparently, Russian economists do not understand that Russia does not spend borrowed foreign currencies inside Russia. If Russia takes a foreign loan, the borrowed money goes into central bank reserves. The central bank then issues the ruble equivalent to be spent on the project, and the cost of the project goes up by the pointless interest paid to the foreign lender.

As far as we can tell, the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences is so brainwashed by neoliberal economics that their minds are closed to correct policies. The failure of Russian economic leadership imposes far more costs on the Russian economy than do Washington’s sanctions.

Intellectual leadership is weak with many in the intellectual class favoring integration with the West rather than with the East. To be part of the West has been an important goal since Peter the First and Catherine the Great, and the Russian Atlanticist Integrationists cannot let go of the ancient goal.

This goal no longer makes sense. Not only does it imply Russian vassalage,

but also Europe is no longer the center of power.

The East is rising, and China is the center and will be until the Chinese destroy themselves by copying the Western neoliberal policy of financializing the economy.

Although Putin is a leader and has a sense of Russian purpose, many officials use their office not in service to Russia but in service to their own wealth, much of which is held abroad. Corruption and embezzlement seem to be the purpose of many office holders. Scandals abound among members of government and reflect badly on Putin and Medvedev.

The Russian government’s popularity was at a peak when the government showed it had the intelligence and will to reincorporate Crimea into Russia. However, the Russian government, hoping to reassure Washington and Europe, refused the requests of the Luhansk and Donetsk republics to be reincorporated into Russia. Russian nationalists, the majority of the population, saw this as kowtowing to the West. 

Moreover, the Russian government’s decision has resulted in Ukraine’s ongoing military assault on the breakaway republics and to the arming of Ukraine by the West.  Instead of acting decisively, the

Russian government

enabled the continuation of conflict that can be exploited by Washington.

The Russian people understand this even if the government does not.

By failing to show firmness, the Russian government encourages the crony system of oligarchs who want a government that they can use for their narrow interests. Their interests include participating in the system of Western plunder known as “globalism.” These client elites of the West oppose a powerful Russian state that could assert itself on the world stage and offer an alternative policy to the West’s policy of plunder.  The influence of this narrow interest group on government policy indicates that the Russian government is compromised.

Putin is trying to break free of the West’s grip by directing Russia’s economic orientation to the East. His effort is helped by the American sanctions. But Russia remains sufficiently mired in the Western system to be vulnerable to sanctions and is only slowly extracting itself.

Various aspects of Russia’s difficulties and transformation into a power with a foot in both West and East are discussed by commentators. What goes unacknowledged is that Russian economic policy is constrained—indeed, crippled—by the neoliberal brainwashing given to Russian economists by the Americans in the 1990s.  Consequently, Russia is enfeebled by an economic policy that encourages privatization and foreign ownership, and by financialization of economic rents, that is, of income streams that do not result from productive investment but from such factors as location and rise in value due to public infrastructure development, such as a road built across a property. In a financialized economy credit is used to transfer property ownership instead of to finance new plant and equipment and construction of infrastructure.

The Russian government and central bank have been blinded to the fact that Russian infrastructure projects and private investment are not dependent on borrowing dollars abroad or by acquiring dollars by selling Russian assets to foreigners. Such projects can be financed by ruble creation by the Russian central bank. Money that flows into productive projects that raise output is not inflationary. Generally speaking, such projects lower costs.

For Russia to succeed, Russia needs an economic re-education and a government that finds its footing in Russian nationalism

and discourages Western provocations with firmer responses.

It is our view that the Western world, indeed all of life, has an interest in a Russia too strong to be attacked or provoked as a strong Russia is the only way to curtail the Western aggression that is leading to nuclear war.­”

“This article was originally published at PaulCraigRoberts.org on March 1, 2019.”

…………………………..

Added: Page One, NY Times, 10/4/1993:

10/4/1993, President Yeltsin of democratic Russia dissolves Parliament, sends military and tanks, attacks Russian Parliament to remove political opponents:

10/4/1993, NY Times image caption: “Part of a column of 40 armored vehicles speeding early this morning into Moscow,” AP photo

................................

Added: US supported absolute power of Russian “Strongman” Yeltsin in 1990s: UK Guardian report: In Oct. 1993 Yeltsin closed opposition newspapers and sent tanks to remove his opponents in Russian parliament. Scores were killed, hundreds wounded, Bill Clinton said, “President Yeltsin had no other alternative but to try to restore order.”

10/5/1993, “Yeltsin crushes revolt,“ UK Guardian, Jonathan Steele and David Hearst in Moscow

“Parliament taken in tank battle · Opposition parties and newspapers banned”

…………

“President Boris Yeltsin moved swiftly last night to stamp his absolute power on Russia by suspending a range of political movements and closing opposition newspapers after the surrender of his main parliamentary opponents in the wake of the assault on the Russian White House. Under a decree following the state of emergency that Mr Yeltsin imposed on Sunday, the National Salvation Front, the Russian Communist Party, the United Front of Workers and the Union of Officers were banned, while Pravda, the former organ of the Soviet Communist Party, and a number of other papers were told to cease publication. An overnight curfew was also imposed throughout Moscow….

With elections promised in December for a new bicameral parliament, the bans will severely limit the options for Russians who oppose Mr Yeltsin. They will also remove the risk that those unhappy with the government’s tough economic reforms will vote for communists on the model of Poland.

“Western leaders, warned in advance of the assault, promptly declared support, but urged a speedy return to constitutionality amid fears that the Russian leader could become a political hostage to the armed forces.

“It is clear that the opposition forces started the conflict, and President Yeltsin had no other alternative but to try to restore order,’ the US president,

Bill Clinton, said. 

“The US supported Yeltsin because he is Russia’s democratically-elected leader,” he said. “I have no reason to doubt the personal commitment that President Yeltsin made to let the Russian people decide their own future in elections.’ 

In Blackpool, the Prime Minister, John Major, said: “What is now necessary is that normal order is restored and that the Russians move forward to the elections they planned in December.”

In Brussels, the European Commission announced emergency medical aid of 300,000 ecus (around £235,000) for those wounded in the fighting.

China was the only major power not to back Mr. Yeltsin. “We are deeply concerned about the recent bloodshed in Moscow,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

“As a friendly neighbour, we hope to see an end to the conflict and a proper solution to the current situation in the interest of the stability, unity and economic recovery.""

 

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