Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 162
November 21, 2024
FBI Pays Visit to Pro-Palestine Journalist Alison Weir’s Home
Storied pro-Palestine journalist Alison Weir of If Americans Knew revealed Monday that she was visited at her home by the FBI — seemingly over interviews she gave to Iranian state media outlet Press TV.
“FBI agents suddenly showed up at my home recently,” Weir said on X. “They asked me about a person whose name I didn’t recognize. I asked to have a family member present and ascertained from the agents that one of their offices had asked them to check in with certain people in regard to something to do with Press TV.”
Weir continued:
This is an Iranian outlet that has interviewed me on various occasions over the years. (During my 20+ years writing and speaking about Palestine, I have taken as many opportunities as humanly possible to get the facts out via any traditional and alternative, domestic and international media outlets available. I don’t attempt to vet media outlets and try to reach as many audiences in the U.S. and around the world as I can with the facts about Palestine.)
I have since found out that other individuals who have a history of working for a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis have also been visited by the FBI. I understand the agency has been weaponized in the past to try to silence groups and people that some members of government oppose.
It would appear someone is now trying to set the stage to silence dissent on Israel-Palestine in the United States by trumping up “connections with Iran.”
The FBI now operates as the ADL’s intimidation arm.
It’s possible the agency could change if Matt Gaetz becomes Attorney General and Kash Patel FBI Director but I wouldn’t bet on it.
“In September, the United States Department of the Treasury added Press TV to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List,” Press TV noted in their own report on the FBI’s visit to Weir’s home.
“The US government has enacted stringent sanctions against the Tehran-based news channel, which has been on air since 2007,” Press TV added.
Attorney General Merrick Garland brazenly seized Press TV’s 14-year-old web domain PressTV.com in June, 2021 after Israel lost the propaganda war over their May, 2021 bombing of Gaza.
Last month in the UK, pro-Palestine journalist Asa Winstanley had his home raided by police and his electronic devices seized under the “terrorism act” despite not being charged with any crime.
As I reported on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is moving to try and silence criticism of Jews and Israel as hate speech and empower the federal government to crack down on anti-Israel protests on college campuses through the ADL-backed “Antisemitism Awareness Act.”
There is a bipartisan effort to take away the First Amendment rights of the American people in order to silence criticism of the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza.
[…]
Via https://www.renegadetribune.com/fbi-pays-visit-to-pro-palestine-journalist-alison-weirs-home/
Once Again Undercover FBI Sets Up Florida Man in Terror Plot to Bomb New York Stock Exchange Before Thanksgiving
New York Stock Exchange
Jim Hoft
Federal authorities arrested Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, a South Florida resident, for allegedly planning to detonate an improvised explosive device (IED) capable of massive destruction outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
According to court documents reviewed by The Gateway Pundit, Yener’s motives were rooted in a desire to “reboot” the United States government.
Yener, 30, reportedly spent months crafting a detailed plan to construct and detonate the device in one of the world’s most critical financial hubs.
His alleged target date was the week leading up to Thanksgiving 2024, a time of heavy market activity.
The FBI’s affidavit claims Yener believed the attack would “wake people up” and disrupt the U.S. government.
Investigators revealed that Yener had a history of extremist behavior, including prior threats of violence and documented attempts to join militia groups.
The affidavit reveals that Yener, born in the U.S. in 1994, began crafting his plan as early as 2017, gathering bomb-making materials and researching high-impact targets. His stated motivation? A radical vision of triggering a “reboot” of the U.S. government.
Yener, who previously sought affiliation with extremist groups, constructed the IED with assistance he believed came from a militia, though these “militia members” were, in reality, undercover FBI agents.
The investigation began when a tip led authorities to Yener’s unlocked storage unit in Coral Springs, Florida, containing bomb schematics and other alarming materials.
Surveillance and undercover operations confirmed his intent to target the NYSE, a symbol of American financial power.
He also recorded a manifesto intended for public release, warning the U.S. government to cease arms sales and implement mass deportations
[,,,]
Via https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/breaking-undercover-fbi-foils-terror-plot-bomb-new/
J6 Prisoner Released After Landmark Supreme Court Overturns Obstruction Charge, His ONLY Charge
Jim Hoft
Nick Ochs, a January 6 defendant and co-founder of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, has been released from prison after serving less than two years of a four-year sentence.
Ochs, who was convicted under the controversial 1512(c) statute, had his conviction vacated after the Supreme Court overturned the obstruction charge used to jail hundreds of January 6 defendants.
Ochs’s release marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battles faced by January 6 defendants, many of whom were charged under the same statute.
Speaking to The Gateway Pundit, Ochs shared the emotional experience of reuniting with his family.
“I just got released early from Butner Prison where I was a January 6th Hostage doing 4 years. I ended up doing a bit less than 2 total,” Ochs told The Gateway Pundit, adding, “I beat the whole case and am now innocent.”
“The only charge I had was 1512(c), a charge the Supreme Court threw out on June 28 as not a crime anymore—unless someone tampered with paper ballots, which no one did,” he continued.
He also highlighted the significance of his case for other January 6th defendants, many of whom remain behind bars under similar charges.
“I believe my co-defendant and I were among the first to be released, and others will now be citing my case in court,” Ochs noted, expressing hope that this marks a turning point for many innocent J6ers.
Ochs, who was initially threatened with up to 20 years in prison for his actions on January 6th, argued that he was targeted not for any violent act but “for filming the same events in the same place as mainstream media reporters – who were not arrested.”
[…]
ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (DoD photo by Chad J. McNeeley)By Aaron Sobczak / Responsible Statecraft
On Thursday the International Court of Justice (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a member of Hamas leadership.
The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were for charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court unanimously agreed that the prime minister and former defense minister “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
“The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024,” the court detailed in its allegations.
The ICC also charged Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, including rape and hostage taking.
A plan suggested by former IDF general, Giora Eiland, called for the explicit emptying out of northern Gaza and the labeling of all remaining civilians as military targets, as well as the purposeful blockage of humanitarian aid. Netanyahu reportedly did not agree to the plan, but evidence points to aspects of the plan being enacted.
“The ICC decision shows once more how out of sync Biden’s Gaza policy is with both American and international law,” says the Quincy Institute’s Executive Vice President Trita Parsi. “Biden has sacrificed America’s international standing to arm and protect leaders who the international courts have deemed to be war criminals.”
The ICC’s move comes just one day after unprecedented votes in the U.S. Senate to end the sale of certain offensive weapons to Israel. The measures ultimately failed, with the White House telling senators that they would be supporting Iran and Hamas should they vote to curb weapons sales to Israel.
Because of the ICC warrants, Netanyahu or Gallant could be arrested upon entering a nation that has recognized the ICC and its rulings. However, Israel is among dozens of other countries, including the United States, that do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.
After warrants were requested in October, Israel reacted by challenging the jurisdiction of the ICC in the matter, but that challenge has been rejected. “Israel’s reaction — that no other democracy has been treated this way by the ICC — is indicative of how perverted certain approaches to international law have become,” said Parsi. “Israel essentially argues that because it defines itself as a democracy, it should be above the law. That war-crimes, apartheid, and genocide are ok as long as the perpetrator identifies as democratic. This approach — creating different sets of laws and standards for different countries — is a recipe for global instability and a threat to American security.”
[…]
Via https://scheerpost.com/2024/11/21/icc-issues-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-gallant/
Languages of the Fertile Crescent and Beyond
Episode 8 Language of the Fertile Crescent and Beyond
Language Families of the World
Dr John McWhorter
Film Review
70,000 years ago human began leaving Africa to establish permanent settlements in the Middle East. It’s believed these first African emigres spoke a proto-Afro-Asiatic language. At present the Afro-Asiatic family consists of roughly 300 languages spoken in northern Africa and the Middle East.
The best known Afro-Asiatic languages are Arabic and Hebrew from the Semitic subfamily; Amharic (spoken in Ethiopia); and Hausa (spoken in Nigeria alongside non-Afro-Asiatic languages).
Arabic was first spoken among Bedouin tribesmen on the Arabian Peninsula. Modern Standard Arabic, the language of the Koran, is an artificially preserved dead language similar to Latin. Arabs in different countries (eg Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria) speak totally different Arabic languages with totally different vocabulary and grammar. All Arabic languages have alveolar, epiglottal and pharyngeal stops.
Most Afro-Asiatic languages use triconsonant roots with vowel changes to designate past tense or to change a noun to a verb. An example in Arabic (or Hebrew) would be the consonant combination “slm,” meaning “peace” or “submission” (as found in the words “Islam,” “salaam,” and “Muslim).” The only other languages using triconsonant roots are two native America language in California. This finding led Mormon prophets to refer them as lost tribes of Israel.
Afro-Asiatic speakers invented the alphabet. McWhorter credits likely Egyptian laborers (around 1900-1800 BC) who started using phonetic symbols to record measurements because they were too buy to learn hieroglyphics. The Phoenicians (Phoenician was also an Afro-Asiatic language) adopted the symbols for use in maritime trade.
The Semitic languages tend to use consonants only in written language (using vowel symbols only for children and other beginning speakers.
Other Afro-Asiatic languages:
Akkadian – an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Assyria and Babylonia.Aramaic – an Afro-Asiatic language used as the lingua franca of the Middle East under the Persian empire. A few small Middle Eastern communities still speak it.Ge’ez – the Afro-Asiatic sub-family to which Amheric, Tigre and Trunye belong. Amheric is still spoken in Ethiopia and the latter two along the southern rim of the Arabian peninsula.*Different types of stops (where air passage is blocked in pronunciation):
An alveolar stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the tongue in contact with the alveolar ridge located just behind the teeth. The most common alveolar stops are [t] and [d], as in English toe and doe, and the voiced nasal [n].The epiglottal or glottal stop is unvoiced and is produced by closing the glottis at the back of the mouth.A pharyngeal consonant is made with the root of the tongue against the oropharynx (back of the throat)
Film can viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/6120000/6120016
November 20, 2024
Zelensky AGAIN Refuses to Hold Elections as Most Ukrainians Oppose War
HP McLovincraft
Ukrainian ruler Vladimir Zelensky, whose term has ended in May of this year, presented his Internal Resilience Plan in the country’s parliament Tuesday where he again ruled out holding elections. This comes as the wartime leader guides his country toward global nuclear armageddon with a people who largely wish the war to end.
“We all know that the Constitution of Ukraine and the law do not permit elections during wartime, and no one in the world has demanded and does demand this from Ukraine. However, there are some people in Ukraine who may be so ‘hungry’ for [elections] that they want to fight within our state more than for our state. They seek political disputes in the trenches, like in film studios. This is detrimental to Ukraine,” Zelensky said, according to RT on Tuesday. “First, Ukraine needs a just peace, and then Ukrainians will hold fair elections. We must prioritize the common interest over any personal desires.”
Interestingly, a recent poll revealed that a slim majority of Ukrainians wish for the war to end soon.
“A majority of Ukrainians now favor a rapid end to the ongoing conflict with Russia through peace negotiations, according to a recent survey conducted by Gallup,” RT said Tuesday. “In its latest report, on Tuesday, the American pollster reported that 52% of respondents believe Kiev should pursue peace talks to end the war as soon as possible. This marks a substantial rise from 27% in 2023 and just 22% in 2022.”
While the majority that want peace is slim, it still constitutes a major increase since the war began.
“Support for continuing military action until a decisive victory is achieved has been on the decline. In February 2022, 73% of Ukrainians backed continued hostilities. By 2023, that number had fallen to 63%, and it has dropped further, to 38% in 2024. The poll indicates that Ukrainians are reconsidering their positions as the conflict drags on, and their military continues to retreat,” RT said Tuesday.
Ukraine is under martial law until at least February 2025. This has allowed Zelensky to refuse to leave office, outlaw opposition parties, jail politicians and ‘purge’ people deemed disloyal, according to RT.
The highest seat in Ukraine, held by Zelensky, is not operating under its own power however. The West, which has green-lit heavy bombardment of Russia on Sunday, controls the strings of the proverbial marionette, Zelensky.
“Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, who has been described in Western media as “the real power broker” in Kiev, stated that presidential elections would be held immediately after the war ends. According to Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk, the next presidential elections would take place within 60 days after martial law is lifted,” RT said Tuesday.
[…]
White House Staffers Slam Biden’s Policy towards Israel
US President Joe Biden. (Photo: video grab)
Politico also reported that one of the staffers resigned after signing the letter in objection to the US administration’s policy concerning Israel.
Around 20 White House staffers have criticized United States President Joe Biden for not enforcing an ultimatum on Israel to take “concrete measures” to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip or face potential restrictions on arms provisions, Politico reported.
“You are running out of time to do the right thing, but decisive action could save precious lives in the next two months,” the staffers wrote, according to a letter obtained by the American news outlet.
According to Politico, the staffers who signed the letter – on condition of anonymity for fear of career retribution – work across the White House executive office of the president but are not directly involved in Middle East policy.
“One thing that drew me into this was legacy,” a senior White House staffer who signed the letter told Politico, stressing that, “if the course is continued, it will be a legacy of horror.”
Although the White House staffers acknowledge that Biden’s term is nearing its end, they maintain that American military support to Israel violates several federal statutes, namely the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, the Foreign Assistance Act, and the Leahy Laws, according to Politico.
Politico also reported that one of the staffers resigned after signing the letter in objection to the US administration’s policy concerning Israel.
A White House National Security Council Spokesperson dismissed the notion that no action is being taken, saying it is “not at all accurate.”
The spokesperson, who preferred anonymity to discuss internal policymaking, claimed that the US has received “some humanitarian commitments from Israel in response to its demands and that it has seen some improvement to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
This letter is the latest in a series of documents questioning the legality of US weapon provisions to Israel during its war on Gaza.
US Claims Vs. UN ReportThe US State Department announced on November 12 that it has concluded Israel is not obstructing humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and, therefore, is not violating US law, Reuters news agency reported.
Despite US claims, the United Nations has warned that the amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to its lowest level in a year.
A recent UN-backed report highlighted the imminent risk of famine in northern Gaza, where almost no aid has been delivered over the past month.
Joyce Msuya, the United Nations Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, stated that international crimes are being committed in Gaza.
During a briefing to United Nations Council members on Tuesday, Msuya reported that Israeli authorities are preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching North Gaza, where fighting continues.
She noted that 75,000 people remain in the area, struggling with dwindling supplies.
Ongoing GenocideFlouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 43,985 Palestinians have been killed, and 104,092 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
[…]
Russia boosts presence near Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to help Syria ‘prevent escalations’
(Photo Credit: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)The Cradle
The Russian army has increased its presence in nine observation posts in southern Syria in coordination with Damascus to “prevent potential Israeli escalations,” Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on 19 November.
Moscow has reinforced posts located in the countryside of Daraa and Quneitra governorates near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where Tel Aviv has revived efforts to build a ‘separation wall’ along the disengagement zone similar to those erected along the borders with Lebanon, Egypt, Gaza, and throughout the West Bank.
Last week, the UN accused Israel of violating a 50-year-old ceasefire agreement with Syria by starting construction work on the wall. Satellite imagery published by AP confirmed extensive construction and road paving extending for 7.5 kilometers along the Alpha Line, with armored vehicles and tanks providing security.
Israeli Knesset member and former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman warned last month: “If Syria continues to be used as a logistical base for our enemies, we will simply seize the Syrian part of Mount Hermon and will not relinquish it until further notice.”
The Israeli violations in occupied Syrian land come as the Russian and Syrian armies recently increased joint operations across the country, targeting western-backed extremist groups.
“Russian forces are conducting aerial and ground monitoring to enhance security, support displaced residents’ return, and maintain stability,” Al-Akhbar reports, adding that the region “previously housed Israeli-backed militants” before a Russia-brokered disengagement deal returned control to the government in Damascus.
“All Israeli actions in the Golan, including the imposition of Israeli citizenship, settlement expansions, and attempts to breach the disengagement zone to construct a separation wall, are still today considered flagrant violations of international law,” says The Cradle columnist Haidar Mustafa.
Israeli airstrikes against Syria have significantly increased since the expansion of the war against Lebanon in late September, with near-daily strikes hitting major cities.
Some attacks hit close to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in the western Latakia governorate, prompting Moscow’s forces to activate air defense systems.
[…]
Pentagon running out of missiles. After December 1, that will be big problem.
The Pentagon is running out of missiles. After December 1, that will be a big problem.
Protracted wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are draining the US arsenal of interceptor missiles. The problem is especially severe in Palestine and in the Red Sea, where dozens of missiles are launched monthly against incoming rockets and drones.
Pentagon officials are urgently pushing weapons makers to produce more, but are bumping up against capacity and CAPEX constraints.
In another blow, China just announced an export ban on dual-use metals that are critical to the manufacture of missiles and other aerospace applications in the defense sector. Magnesium and tungsten, in particular, are two key materials necessary for the production of missiles, but where China effectively has monopolized the refining and production. China’s export ban will take effect on 1 December.
Resources and links:
Wall Street Journal, Pentagon Runs Low on Air-Defense Missiles as Demand Surges
Nikkei Asia, China to tighten export curbs on critical metals ahead of Trump’s return*
Six Strategic Metals Widely Used in the Military Industry
Forbes, The Titanium Supply Chain For The Aerospace Industry Goes Through Russia
Closing scene, Xuzhou Ancient Town, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan
[…]
American perestroïka, perestrelka and pereklichka
Dmitry Orlov
If you pay attention to the news, you may have noticed that the USA seems to be on the brink of something that may well turn out to be the Second American Revolution. The new president-elect wants to dismantle the Deep State and has assembled a slate of brave reformers to reform the Washington system of wholesale grift and corruption. Of course, the people who have been benefiting from this grift and corruption are not taking this lying down; they are working out plans to thwart the new administration’s every move and perhaps even to eliminate it physically. People around the world are watching and wondering whether the president-elect will be able to survive assassination attempts long enough to actually enter office.
Is this Second American Revolution really necessary? Yes, it is. To name just a few little problems that are simply screaming for a solution:
• The medical system in the US amounts to a 25% tax on anyone who pays taxes — a staggeringly huge expense — but produces worse health outcomes than Cuba, with many people deprived of access to even the most basic health care.
• The US defense establishment outspends those of most of the rest of the world combined but is now at least two decades behind its peers in weapons development. For instance, by now Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and, as of today, India have hypersonic rocket technology, but not the US.
• The state of the education system is such that half the population is functionally illiterate to the point of not being able to read a bedtime story to their children or to understand instructions on medicine bottles. Meanwhile, literacy rate in Russia stands at 99.8% — quite reasonable for a developed country.
• The level of corruption at all levels, but especially at the highest levels, is absolutely staggering. Over the past two years, the former Ukraine has been Corruption Central for the US government: billions of dollars in the form of freshly printed hundred-dollar bills have been transported to Kiev, then picked up and hauled home as diplomatic baggage by US and EU officials who made multiple pilgrimages to Kiev by slow night train for no other purpose than to shake hands in front of the cameras, then secretly collect the loot.
• For a little over a decade the US has been granted a reprieve from Peak Oil. After world conventional crude oil production peaked in 2005-6, shale oil, especially in the Permian Basin, took over. But now there are voices in the energy industry timidly venturing that shale oil is also approaching its peak, perhaps as early as 2025. What this means is that the US will once again be forced to become a major oil importer — but this time will scarcely have the funds to pay for expensive imported energy. What this implies is that any plans to reindustrialize the US will be dead on arrival.
• Perhaps the worst of it is the level of US government debt, which now amounts to something like a third of global GDP and expands by a trillion dollars every time you blink. Interest payments on US federal debt are exceeding one major category of federal spending after another: they surpassed defense spending earlier this year and are getting ready to surpass Social Security spending. Things that can’t go on forever never do.
Clearly, the American system is in need of reform, and urgently so. But what if it can’t be reformed? What if it is, by now, a fully evolved system incapable of further evolutionary change? The metaphor of a biological species is an apt one: a species generally evolves to a point where just about any mutation in its genome is either harmful or fatal; past that point, a species loses the ability to adapt and goes extinct. Sabre-toothed tigers don’t devolve into house cats. Tyrannosaurus rex does not shrink and go back to catching insects.
But there is no need to wax metaphorical. All empires collapse (and the US is indeed an empire with increasingly frustrated global aspirations). When they do, they are generally replaced with something smaller, simpler and much poorer. Of the two great 20th-century empires, the USA outlasted the USSR by some 35 years. Had the USA collapsed first, as it very well could have, then perhaps the USSR would have outlasted it by some 35 years. The point is, in the final analysis, they will have both collapsed; there are simply no other alternatives for empires except to collapse.
If you are old enough or have studied a bit of history, then you probably know the meaning of the Russian word “perestroïka.” It was the name of the campaign of reforms instigated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His initiative was initially greeted with great enthusiasm at home and abroad. Abroad, the enthusiasm for him never waned, especially in the US and in Western Europe, as people watched the fearsome USSR go down on its knees and expire in pain. There were lots of tisk-tisking and crocodile tears over the plight of the poor Russians in the US in particular. At home, Gorbachev went from being most loved to being most hated in just five years as the economy fell apart, the people lost their livelihoods and their savings, the country disintegrated into a large set of corrupt little fiefdoms and anybody who could do so fled abroad in search of a better life.
The USSR was still great and powerful at the time Gorbachev took over. People in Russia and the other Soviet republics were living better than ever. They had stable jobs with good career opportunities, good housing with central heat and running hot and cold water, excellent public transportation, free and excellent education and medicine, free summer camps for the children — all the basics and lots of extras. What was missing was unimpeded access to luxury consumer goods. What’s worse, the communist party functionaries had such access but the proletariat which they ruled did not. Enough people found this situation so absolutely intolerable that they felt that the Soviet system had to be reformed.
It’s the usual problem with needs and wants: needs are finite and the Soviet system met them in spades; wants are infinite and no system can provide them to everyone. In a capitalist system, needs go unmet due to lack of money, and a person’s lack of money is easily explained: the person in question isn’t a big enough scoundrel and thief. But in a socialist system everyone’s wants need to be met or the system isn’t considered socialist enough. What a predicament!
Which is to say, not all problems have solutions and not all systems can be reformed. As Gorbachev went ahead with his reforms, not really understanding what it was he was reforming, the system simply broke. Strangely enough, it broke in all sorts of wonderfully resilient ways. There was still electricity, heat and running hot and cold water in the homes, nobody got evicted, public transportation kept running, children went to schools, hospitals continued to perform operations and a great many government-owned enterprises continued to function at some level even when they couldn’t pay the employees. But shelves in stores were mostly empty and many people had to resort to growing their own food — never mind luxury consumer goods!
This obviously didn’t look anything like what Gorbachev had promised and so Gorbachev was out, the USSR was broken up and Yeltsin was put in charge of Russia (which amounted to most of it). Yeltsin was little more than an American puppet (his first phone call after signing the papers that broke up the USSR was to George Bush Sr., the US president at the time) and he ushered into power a clan that swiftly privatized (i.e., stole) much of Russia’s public wealth. On his watch, Russian society deteriorated to the point where there were ethnic mafias and mobs running illegal businesses in most of the major cities and there was a low-intensity civil war (with pockets of high-intensity action) in many places. Eventually Russia was able to rebuild itself as a capitalist society with a strong federal center and a large role for the government in the economy. This model seems to suit Russia well given its size, climate and historical traditions.
Whether the United States will be able to go through a similar cycle of death and rebirth remains an open question. Russia is a historical multi-ethnic state, one of the oldest in Europe, with its own language, culture and a thousand-year history of statehood preserved through unmatched military valor. Moreover, it has a distinct tendency to periodically burn down and rise from the ashes like the mythical phoenix, growing bigger and stronger each time: Kievan Rus, then the Novgorod Republic, then the Kingdom of Muscovy, then the Russian Empire, then the USSR, and who knows what the future holds for the Russian Federation. The United States, on the other hand, is a former colonial possession of the now extinct British Empire with a borrowed culture, borrowed religions and a borrowed language — not the genuine article by any stretch of the imagination. Will its lapidary motto “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” (out of many, one) that it prints on its money, still hold in the future? Perhaps it will need to be changed to “E PLURIBUS NADA”? Only time will tell.
What are the chances of American Perestroïka actually working out? Just imagine that the military-industrial complex will cheerfully accept a huge haircut and major layoffs, that the crooked doctors and pharmaceutical companies will voluntarily embrace health care reforms that will turn them into lowly public servants, and that the three-headed beast that is the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury and the US Congress will be gently persuaded that they should suddenly start living within their means while paying down public debt? Not a chance!
If so, we need to consider the second Russian word in the list: “perestrelka”. It means “the shootout.” There seems sure to be a bit of a civil war. Certain public figures would get shot; it would be highly traditional to start by shooting a Kennedy. (Americans are by now conditioned to shrug their shoulders and wave their arms helplessly when a Kennedy gets shot: nobody ever knows who did it except the damned conspiracy theorists.) But at some point the people might start to organize against this federal reign of terror. Certain states would attempt to secede and a low-intensity civil war, flaring up to high-intensity in certain places, would commence.
This could go on for years, but all things, especially very bad things, have to come to an end eventually. Evil is just the absence of the good, and once there is nothing good left at all, then there is, by definition, nothing left. At some point enough people on both sides get shot to make further shootouts unprofitable and an uneasy truce is gradually established. By then it will be time for the third of the three Russian words: “pereklichka.” It means “the roll call”: figuring out who is still left alive in order to try to salvage what can still be salvaged and to rebuild what can still be rebuilt. Even if there is nothing left to salvage and nothing can be rebuilt, the survivors can find each other and be miserable together; misery loves company.
If what is about to happen is really the Second American Revolution (and it doesn’t seem like it can be avoided) then certain rules about revolutions would apply. The first of these is that revolutions eat their children; thus, the slate of candidates for important federal positions that have been proposed may not survive their tenure and neither may their leader. The second is that revolutions are hard to start but once started are impossible to stop. What tends to follow is a period of revolutionary terror followed by a counterrevolutionary terror followed by a counter-counterrevolutionary terror, each with its own bloody excesses and waves of destruction. There is typically a complete lack of clarity as to what happened or why. For example, did Stalin execute too many people, or not enough? This question can be argued either way.
Fully two decades ago, in 2005, I published an article: “Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century.” Some Americans found it quite funny at the time — but now they no longer do. But the lessons still apply — more and more with each passing day.
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Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/d6856766-c718-4c3d-985e-9215f8356b24
The Most Revolutionary Act
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