The Nature of Foxes

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A New US Hegemonic Culture Is Being Constructed

The Courtier Class Is Being Remade To Reflect It
Roger Boyd
Sep 17, 2025


The 1933 Reichstag Fire, started by a “lone arsonist”, which lead to the Reichstag Fire Decree that suspended most civil liberties in Germany.

In the 1970s, the US oligarchy coalesced around a rejection of the New Deal compromise and the implementation of neoliberalism. Its courtier class of politicians and state operatives, corporate executives, and those employed in the educational and cultural industries were either replaced, subjugated, or remade to facilitate the construction of a new hegemonic culture that supported this move to neoliberalism. The details of this transformation are too great in scale and scope to detail in anything less than a large book or even series of books, but included the consolidation of the means of cultural production in fewer and fewer hands, the orientation of corporate executive toward financial exploitation through such things as stock options and share buybacks, the much tighter control of the political space by the oligarchy (the “donor class”), and the purging and “re-education” of the judiciary.

After five decades of neoliberalism, as the international environment becomes less and less amenable to US oligarch exploitation, as a new oppositional coalition to the West is forming around BRINCISTAN (Belarus, Russia, Iran, North Korea, China, Iraq and the “Stans”), and exploitation at home reaches new extremes, the US oligarchy is coalescing around the need for a new means of social control; fascist totalitarianism to replace the previous neoliberal inverted totalitarianism. In the same way that the Italian oligarchy did in the immediate post-WW1 period, and the German, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese oligarchies did in the 1930s. With a colossal concentration of wealth even within the ranks of the US oligarchy, a relatively small group have the ability to drive this re-orientation. The election of Trump for a second term represented the failure of the rearguard actions of a subset of the oligarchy and a courtier class predominantly oriented toward the previous orthodoxy of the oligarchy.

We are now seeing the processes by which this re-orientation will be operationalized both within the courtier class and through the disciplining/subjugation of the remaining oppositional elements of the oligarchy. The notion of anti-semitism (as operationalized in the US to any opposition to anything that the Zionist regime does) became an extremely useful tool of this disciplining as the anti-Zionist opposition so much overlapped with the “left-wing” in the US. Under the auspices of the “anti-semitism” drive the Overton Window of acceptable political discourse could be significantly reduced on the “left”; fully aided by the supine “progressive” media. What we see with the murder of Charlie Kirk is an attempt to construct a right-wing martyr and a straw man of a “violent left-wing extremism” to facilitate a greater level of purging and reconstruction of the hegemonic discourse. Of course, both the martyrdom and straw man construction are not based in fact; Kirk was a hate-mongering racist and political violence in the US has been predominantly a right-wing project. But that does not matter, in the same way that the genocidal Zionist regime constantly claims victimhood. Such propaganda does not need to be based in fact, it just needs to be effectively imbued in the population. As both Bernays and Goebbels very much understood, and Orwell depicted in his most famous novel.

The problem for the US oligarchy is the remaining oppositional parts of the oligarchy itself and a courtier class that has been steeped in the previous hegemonic project of inverted liberal and then neoliberal totalitarianism for a century. The process of disciplining, subjugating and replacing these elements will require extensive and not so pretty efforts. The takeover of Paramount Global (CBS, Showtime, BET, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central etc., as well as Paramount Pictures) and the rumoured bid for Warner Brothers Discovery (Warner Brothers Pictures, DC Comics & Studios, CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TNT) by the son of the Zionist libertarian capitalist oligarch Larry Ellison, would create a huge media empire that supports the new hegemonic discourse. The possible purchase of a major stake in TikTok by Larry Ellison himself would then create a quite dominant new US media family. We would expect an extensive process of purging, subjugation and replacement to take place, as is already being seen at Paramount Global with the appointment of the former head of the Hudson Institute as “Ombudsman” and the moves to place the Zionist apologist Bari Weiss in a senior editorial position at CBS. We can expect Trump to override the myriad of anti-trust and media consolidation issues that should block the above moves.

The above will move the majority of the “old media” sources of news over to the new hegemonic cultural project; with CBS, CNN and Fox fully in support. Leaving only ABC (owned by Walt Disney, headed up by a progressive Jewish Zionist) and NBC (owned by Comcast, which is basically the family business of the progressive Jewish Zionist Roberts family). It has already been very noticeable how even the “progressive” media sources hav been much less adversarial toward Trump during his second administration. We can expect them to further trim toward the right as they have been already doing for decades; this will just be an acceleration of an underlying trend. The same result will be seen with the Hollywood Studios, consolidated into four ownership structures (Walt Disney, Comcast, Paramount/Warner Brothers and Sony). The same within the social media space which will be owned Ellison and the right-wing libertarian Zionist more-fascist-by-the-day Musk (Twitter), together with Meta (Zuckerberg progressive Jewish Zionist) and Alphabet (founded by two progressive Jewish Zionists and headed by a Hindu). With the foreclosure of TikTok as a platform for alternative voices, we can expect increasing pressure on the other platforms to even more censor alternative opinions.

Trump’s recent stated threats to use the power of the state to deal with “left wing extremism” is another part of the oligarch moves to consolidate the new hegemonic cultural project. As is Trump’s proposed state investigation of the activities of the Soros family, one of the leading progressive elements of the oligarchy. Here we see that it is not good enough just to be a good Zionist, as the Soros family is, the correct orientation to the new hegemonic cultural project is required.

For the new hegemonic cultural project it is not enough to be Zionist, that is just a pre-requisite. And it is certainly not about being Jewish, as many anti-Zionist Jews found when the British Labour Party underwent its own cultural reorientation. It is about being properly oriented toward the new oligarch fascist authoritarian project, being implemented through a full-blown cultural revolution. As some have noted, the repurposing of the Immigration and Customs Executive (ICE), the extension of the role of Homeland Security and the misuse of the US military and state national guards against the US population very much fit the model of a “brownshirt” political army.

Where oligarch progressive elements still exercise power, represented within the Democratic Party, as with the Pritzker family in Illinois and in California, there will be some oligarch resistance. But even this resistance is trimming to the right, as seen with the increasingly authoritarian stance of the Governor of California. The rightward authoritarian shift may be slowed in some cases but not stopped. The role of the Democratic Party is to smooth the move toward the position held by the dominant section of the US oligarchy, while appearing to be opposed to it, not to stop such a move.

We are also seeing a constant testing of the “right-wing” extremes of the Overton Window, of which Charlie Kirk was very much a part; as are many of the statements issued by Trump. The recent outburst from a Fox News host about killing mentally ill people, straight from the eugenics and Nazi playbook, is part of this very conscious effort. His apology for that statement is a classic example of the “two steps forward one step back” modus operandi.

The sheer speed and scope of the effort to transform the courtier class, and implement the new hegemonic culture, is designed to remove the time needed for oppositional forces to coalesce and fight back. It is succeeding, and the exploitation and misrepresentation of Charlie Kirk and his murder represents an attempt to accelerate that transformation. As are the corporate maneuvers of the Ellison clan.

https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/a-new- ... e-is-being

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Medicalization in favor of Big Pharma, the creation of external enemies, deregulation, and neoliberal precarization served as a breeding ground for the most serious social crisis the United States has experienced (Photo: Getty Images)

Medicalization and structural impunity of Big Pharma
The fentanyl epidemic for profit: Made in the USA
Sep 16, 2025 , 3:17 pm .

The official US narrative on the opioid epidemic, which is experiencing a new wave with fentanyl, has been diligently built on the search for external scapegoats.

The seeds of its worst public health crisis in decades were planted, cultivated, and harvested within the United States' own borders by domestic actors operating under the auspices of corporate greed and the negligent—or complicit—eyes of institutions.

The society that medicalized pain now criminalizes its relief
An estimated 80,391 people died from drug overdoses in 2024, a 27% drop from the 110,035 deaths recorded the previous year and the lowest level since 2019. Fentanyl deaths rose from approximately 76,000 in 2023 to 48,422 last year, still more than half the cases.

Fentanyl—synthetic, cheap, easy to produce, and 50 times more potent than heroin—was found in six out of ten cases, but its origin lies within the medical system itself. Between 1999 and 2030, approximately one million people will have died from opioid overdoses. This includes prescription and illegal opioids.


In the third "wave of opioid deaths" in the United States, which began in 2013, non-prescription opioids exponentially outnumbered prescription opioids as a cause of death (Photo: US CDC)

But the origin of these "waves" of opioids lies in a phenomenon that has been dubbed the "medicalization of life and society," which transformed everyday ailments into profitable diagnoses. This is how sociologist Susana Rodríguez Díaz summarizes it :

" Making people believe they're sick can be a lucrative source of money. One way to achieve this is by expanding the boundaries of treatable illnesses (…) for example, turning ordinary ailments into medical problems, mild symptoms into serious ones, personal problems into medical problems, or turning risks into illnesses."

Common life processes have been medicalized, including anxiety and certain moods, menstruation, birth control, infertility, childbirth, menopause, aging, and death. They were redefined as clinical conditions requiring pharmacological intervention.

This framework, promoted by the medical-pharmaceutical complex—or Big Pharma —opened the door to an avalanche of prescriptions for opioids like OxyContin, produced by Purdue Pharma. The plot begins with a 1980 letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine —since cited 600 times—that claimed that opioids were "rarely addictive" when used for chronic pain. Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, translated that phrase in 1996 for its OxyContin campaign: "Reduces pain, not quality of life." This painkiller, like fentanyl, is chemically related to heroin.

In 2001, the company paid leading doctors in the field of pain management to assure patients that the substance was effective. It also funded groups, such as the American Pain Foundation , that called themselves advocates for pain patients. Several of these groups downplayed the risk of addiction and fought efforts to reduce opioid use in patients with chronic pain.

Already in 2012, doctors in the United States were writing 259 million opioid prescriptions a year, enough for every American adult to have their own bottle of pills. When authorities began restricting access to legal pills, millions of dependent patients turned to the black market.

Fentanyl, until then reserved for chemotherapy regimens, filled the void. The first wave of overdoses—from 2009 to 2014—was from painkillers; the second, from 2015 to 2019, from heroin; the third, currently underway, is now from fentanyl and stimulants. This opioid surpassed firearms as a cause of death in adults between 18 and 49 years of age and has redefined the United States' relationship with death, pain, and social control.

Fentanyl also benefits the usual suspects
Behind every fentanyl death lies a chain of profit. The Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, amassed a fortune selling OxyContin, knowing since the 1990s that the product was highly addictive. Despite multiple class-action lawsuits, this family managed to protect billions of dollars in a settlement that many called "structural impunity." The empire of pain, as journalist Patrick Radden Keefe called it , continues as families bury their loved ones.


In 2004, psychiatrist Sally Satel published an essay in the New York Times advocating for widespread opioid use. Her employer, the American Enterprise Institute, had an undisclosed financial relationship with Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. (Photo: ProPublica)

Last March, a bankruptcy court approved Purdue Pharma's plan, in which the Sackler family will contribute $7 billion—approximately 63% of its fortune—in exchange for full civil immunity. The agreement shields some 40 members of the clan, who had already transferred $10.8 billion to Delaware, the United States' domestic tax haven, between 2008 and 2018. Another $1.5 billion ended up in entities registered in the British Virgin Islands and Luxembourg. The Court of Appeals granted immunity in 2023, something the Biden administration challenged. However, the pain business remains profitable, even in the supposed bankruptcy.

Last year, Endo Health Solutions pleaded guilty to a corporate criminal charge, 10 years after the allegations against it began, and it was announced it would face $1.5 billion in fines and forfeiture. Federal agencies, which had claimed the company owed up to $7 billion in criminal fines, back taxes, and other charges, settled for just $200 million, 2.8% of the debt.

The lawyers earned $350 million, some executives shared $95 million in bonuses, and thousands of opioid victims will share $40 million, about $1,000 each.

Other Big Pharma companies, such as Teva, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, have also been singled out for their role in opioid market saturation; their stock prices rose between 900 and 1,000% between 1995 and 2022. Although they denied any direct responsibility, internal documents suggest that some executives ignored warning signs about the misuse of their chemicals.

Less than a year ago, the DEA charged executives of three pharmaceutical distributors with illegally transporting nearly 70 million opioid pills and more than 30 million doses of other commonly used prescription drugs to purported over-the-counter pharmacies in the Houston, Texas, area.

According to researcher Helena Glass, 40% of the fentanyl seized on the street comes from "diverted" batches from plants in New Jersey and North Carolina. The chain is circular: the same Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that restricted opioids in 2016 approved 50 new licenses for "transmucosal" fentanyl for cancer patients in 2022. The surplus—billions of doses—fuels the "black" market without the need to import anything.

While various authorities and media outlets claim that most fentanyl is produced abroad, they ignore the uncomfortable fact that much of the synthetic opioid circulating in the United States is now not only manufactured in China but also synthesized in clandestine laboratories within the United States itself, using precursors that often go undetected.

These clandestine laboratories have grown exponentially. According to the Narconon program website , "fentanyl is no longer just a transnational trafficking problem: it is produced locally, in garages and rural homes, from imported precursors." There are an estimated 3,500 fentanyl kitchen labs in 48 states, most of them in garages in middle-class suburbs. The production cost is 30 cents per pill. But the media narrative maintains that the precursors arrive in the United States, are shipped by courier to Mexico, and then return north transformed into millions of pills.


Based on the manufacture of amphetamines, clandestine laboratories have grown in the United States because precursors and equipment are conventional (Photo: Archive)

The synthetic opioid crisis in the United States epitomizes the decline of a model based on structural impunity, driven by a market that is free only for those who can obtain everything through lobbying . While Washington judges alleged corruption in other countries and outsources responsibility, these drugs demonstrate the corrosion that lurks in the fine print of the law of supply and demand.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/la ... o-made-usa

Google Translator

Health has replaced religion as the gauge of virtue. As with the old Church virtue can be purchased, then it was indulgences, now it is a plethora of drugs, devices and procedures to be gotten from Capitalist Medicine. And if you are unhealthy, the equivalent of going to hell, it's your own damn fault and sympathy will be scarce.

Nowadays w,ith millions being thrown off of Medicaid an aspect of hardcore Calvinism is applied because if you can't afford medical attention you are damned. The well-off, because they are well-off, are ipso facto virtuous.

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Explaining The Logic Behind The US’ Reported Draft National Defense Strategy
Andrew Korybko
Sep 19, 2025



Policymakers are preparing for the worst-case scenario from their perspective, the US’ expulsion from the Eastern Hemisphere, hence their new goal of urgently achieving strategic autarky in the Americas.

Politico cited unnamed US sources to report in early September that the draft National Defense Strategy will radically break from its predecessors, including Trump 1.0’s own from 2018, by prioritizing the Western Hemisphere over containing China and Russia. If this grand strategic pivot makes it into the final version, which is likely since only comparatively minor points are usually changed during this process, then it would be accounted for by recent events in Eurasia prompting a sea change in US calculations.

To be sure, the US is still expected to pursue the containment of China and Russia, which can collectively be referred to as the Sino-Russo Entente. It’ll just be done more through proxy, AUKUS+ vis-à-vis China and NATO vis-à-vis Russia, than through direct measures like before. The predicted injection of Western influence into the geostrategic Central Asian region between them via NATO member Turkiye through the new TRIPP Corridor will complement the aforesaid measures to stir trouble for them on the cheap.

The US’ evolving modus operandi is to “Lead From Behind” by empowering regional partners through ISR aid, logistics support, and arms deals in order to advance shared geostrategic interests without risking another imbroglio for itself. The preexisting multipolar processes from before the special operation have accelerated in the 3,5 years since and consequently reached the point where a return to unipolarity is impossible even though complex multipolarity has yet to emerge and might still take decades to do so.

The Biden Administration’s “dual containment” of the Sino-Russo Entente failed while Trump 2.0’s Eurasian grand strategy of a resource-centric strategic partnership with Russia in order to deprive China of the resources required for turbocharging its superpower trajectory also just failed as explained here. Despite high hopes that the latter would succeed, the writing was on the wall in hindsight that Putin likely wouldn’t agree to major territorial and/or security concessions in Ukraine in exchange for such ties.

In parallel with the failure of these policies, the SCO and BRICS began playing more complementary roles in transforming global governance, beginning with the impressive diversification of some members’ economic-financial ties vis-à-vis the West since the start of Russia’s special operation. American strategists accordingly calculated that the restoration of unipolarity is impossible and more complex multipolarity might thus characterize the coming years so it’s time to prioritize the ultimate backup plan.

Focusing more on the Western Hemisphere than on directly containing the Sino-Russo Entente is meant to reverse the decline of the US’ unipolar hegemony in its half of the world. The goal is to reassert its traditional hegemonic status via the “Fortress America” strategy in order to dominate the Western Hemisphere’s resources and people, thus enabling the US to achieve strategic autarky should it be pushed out of the Eastern Hemisphere, however unlikely that possibility might appear to be at present.

The logic behind the US’ reported draft National Defense Strategy is therefore that policymakers are preparing for the worst-case scenario from their perspective, the US’ expulsion from the Eastern Hemisphere. This is due to them accepting that the multipolar advances of recent years are irreversible and that the cost of attempting to directly decelerate their future progress entails too high of a risk of world war. It’s a pragmatic approach but it remains to be seen whether it’ll really defuse global tensions.

https://korybko.substack.com/p/explaini ... ind-the-us

Or mebbe it's just a smokescreen for an impending Ragnarok scenario. I greatly fear that our ruling class would risk all to preserve their wealth and power.

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US and EU sanctions have killed 38 million people since 1970.
Jason Hickel, Dylan Sullivan and Omer Tayyab

22 Sep 2025 , 11:58 am .


Washington's sanctions measures are "stealth killers," slippery and underhanded, with global implications (Photo: Atta Kenare / AFP)

New research reveals that sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe have caused the deaths of 38 million people since 1970.

The United States and Europe have long used unilateral sanctions as a tool of imperial power to discipline and even destroy governments in the Global South seeking to break free from Western domination, chart an independent path, and establish any kind of meaningful sovereignty.

During the 1970s, an average of about 15 countries were subjected to unilateral Western sanctions in any given year. In many cases, these sanctions were intended to strangle access to international finance and trade, destabilize industries, and inflame crises to provoke state collapse.

For example, when the popular socialist Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile in 1970, the U.S. government imposed brutal sanctions on the country. At a September 1970 White House meeting, U.S. President Richard Nixon explained that the goal was to "make the (Chilean) economy squeal." Historian Peter Kornbluh describes the sanctions as an " invisible blockade " that isolated Chile from international finance, created social unrest, and paved the way for the U.S.-backed coup that installed the brutal right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Since then, the United States and Europe have dramatically increased their use of sanctions. During the 1990s and 2000s, an average of 30 countries were subject to Western unilateral sanctions in a given year. And now, in the 2020s, there are more than 60, a surprisingly high proportion of countries in the Global South.

Sanctions often have an enormous human cost. Scholars have demonstrated this in several well-known cases, such as the US sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, which led to widespread malnutrition, a lack of clean water, and shortages of medicine and electricity. More recently, the US economic war against Venezuela has led to a severe economic crisis. According to one study, sanctions caused 40,000 additional deaths in just one year, between 2017 and 2018.

Until now, researchers have tried to understand the human cost of sanctions on a case-by-case basis. This is a difficult task that only provides a partial view. But that has changed with new research published this year in The Lancet Global Health, which offers a global overview for the first time. Led by economist Francisco Rodríguez of the University of Denver, the study estimates the total number of excess deaths associated with international sanctions between 1970 and 2021.

The results are shocking. In their central estimate, the authors conclude that unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union since 1970 are linked to 38 million deaths . In some years during the 1990s, more than a million people died. In 2021, the most recent year for which data are available, sanctions caused more than 800,000 deaths.


Deaths due to US and EU sanctions. 1970-2021 (Photo: Global Inequality Project)

Deaths due to US and EU sanctions, 1970-2021
According to these results, several times more people die each year due to sanctions than those who die as direct victims of war. More than half of the victims are children and the elderly, the people most vulnerable to malnutrition. The study reveals that, since 2012 alone, sanctions have caused the deaths of more than one million children.

Hunger and deprivation are not an accidental byproduct of Western sanctions, but a key objective. This is made clear in a State Department memorandum written in April 1960, explaining the purpose of US sanctions against Cuba. The memorandum noted that Fidel Castro (and the revolution in general) enjoyed great popularity in Cuba. It argued that "every possible measure must be taken to weaken the economic life of Cuba," "by denying it money and supplies, to reduce monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of the government."

The power of Western sanctions depends on their control over the world's reserve currencies (the US dollar and the euro), their control over international payment systems (SWIFT), and their monopoly on essential technologies (e.g., satellites, cloud computing, software). If countries in the Global South wish to chart a more independent path toward a multipolar world, they will need to take steps to limit their dependence on these factors and thus insulate themselves from adverse reactions. Russia's recent experience demonstrates that this approach can be successful.

Governments can achieve greater independence by developing South-South trade and swap lines outside of major currencies, using regional planning to develop the necessary technologies, and establishing new payment systems outside of Western control. Indeed, several countries are already taking steps in this direction. Importantly, the new systems developed in China (e.g., CIPS for international payments, BeiDou for satellites, Huawei for telecommunications) now offer other countries in the Global South alternative options that can become a path out of Western dependence and the web of sanctions.

These steps are necessary for countries that wish to achieve sovereign development, but they are also a moral imperative. We cannot accept a world in which half a million people die each year to sustain Western hegemony. An international order based on this kind of violence must be dismantled and replaced.

https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/l ... desde-1970

Google Translator

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A Piece of the Action--2025

Back to the Future Dystopia
Karl Sanchez
Sep 23, 2025



As the calendar turned from 1967 to 1968 in what were very tumultuous times, the Star Trek TV franchise on 12 January aired “A Piece of the Action” where “The Enterprise visits a planet with an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture, with Runyonesque dialog and costumes,” as Wikipedia reminds us. The behavior of Donald Trump and the Outlaw US Empire have brought that episode back to mind because what’s being engaged in is a classic Mafia Shakedown in the so-called trade deals being extorted from the EU, South Korea and Japan primarily but also other nations with India being the latest target. A Mafia Shakedown is a situation where protection money is demanded from a business owner if s/he wants the business to remain viable and sometimes included threats to the life of the owner as well. And this sort of extortion would continue on a weekly or monthly basis. If the gangland turf control changed, the new boss would renew the same old demand. Thus, the term “Piece of the Action”—a cut of the business proceeds. And the terms of the “deal”—the amount to be paid to avoid the penalty—could change on a whim, which is exactly what we see Trump doing to every nation that agreed to be bullied. Those nations that have stood up to the bullying know they can afford to lose access to the US market, which is the main threat Trump’s using. In many cases, a nation’s exports are subjected to tariffs while an additional demand to “invest”—pay tribute is a better term—to Trump in the billions of dollars in hopes of keeping your tariff rate low. As we’ve seen with the example of the “deal” extorted from Japan, Japan essentially has no control over the monies it gives to Trump, nor is Japan likely to see any of it returned as “Hollywood-Pentagon” bookkeeping will be used to ensure no profits are made thus no reimbursement of the billions provided. Here’s how Dr, Michael Hudson described this criminality:

Trump used a similar bait-and-switch shakedown policy against Japan, threatening to create commercial chaos in its economy by imposing steep tariffs on its trade with the United States if it did not pay $550 billion in protection money for Trump to invest in projects of his own choice, keeping 90% of the profits for himself after Japan was reimbursed for its capital advance. The Japanese version of the original agreement indicated that the profits would be split 50/50, but the U.S. drafted a final version saying that that split would only govern the initial reimbursement of investment by Japan, not the profits.

Such was Japan’s desperation–-and abject surrender to U.S. demands, German-style–-that it accepted Trump’s tariff deal of “only” charging Japanese esports 15% instead of 25%–-the same deal that he had made with Korea. Japan was given only 45 days to pay up. The resulting slush fund was a political godsend to Trump, who is now able to use it as bait for his leading campaign contributors and supporters, while using the more than half a trillion dollars to help finance his budget’s tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans.

Trump also demanded a kickback on Japanese investment in U.S. steel production by Nippon Steel’s $15 billion purchase of U.S. Steel. The U.S. Government received a free golden share of the company’s stock to ensure U.S. control over the company’s operations.

Hudson’s essay also describes how Europe and South Korea were attacked in similar manner. Throughout September, Dr. Hudson’s appeared on a very large number of interview shows to augment the essays he writes and posts to his website. The posted transcripts also link to the videos and usually trail the original video by about one week. The most recent video transcript is from 16 September, “Late-Stage Barbarism Meets a Mixed-Economy Bloc,” where Dr. Richard Wolff also appears in the chat with Nima. Dr. Wolff offers a somewhat different explanation that coincides with what I wrote about Europe’s status in relation to the Outlaw US Empire shortly after Russia commenced its SMO—that Europe was now a colony of the Empire, a status to which President Putin agreed in a speech I reported upon at the time, “Putin Agrees: Europe Has Lost Its Sovereignty,” 17 June 2022. Here’s how Dr. Wolff explains the issue:

The problem of the United States is, it’s not in a position to get the lackeys it’s had since the end of World War II — Western Europe, Japan, and so on — to do what it needs to have them do. Michael is right. They should all now become colonies. And colonies, let me explain. Colonies, in the following precise sense: They are being charged to do business in the United States. You want to sell in the United States, you’re going to have to work out with the importing company, if you yourself don’t import into the United States. You’re going to have to pay a fee. It’s an entrance fee to the American economy. That’s what a tariff is. If you sell in the American economy, you’re going to have to pay the American government a fee.

And the American government is so desperate, it says: Either you pay it — the company abroad coming in — or the American importer pays it. We don’t care. We are equally burdening you and the American — that’s not something the American government wants to do. It wants others to pay, but it can’t get that. So it has to do a deal which hurts its own so-called program: Why in the world would you come here, if one of the things you’re going to have to do, as a business, is pay real high tariffs, which could be raised at any time, on the imported portion of whatever it is you produce here, which, at least for the years ahead, is going to be significant?

No, I think what I see is a declining empire no longer able to control huge parts of the world — China, India, Russia, BRICS — and therefore having to eat its own colonies — to savage Canada and Mexico, its major trading partners — doing God knows what kind of damage to those societies.

Pay the boss or we’ll destabilize your economy. The only difference is there’re no drive-by shootings with machine guns—yet. Instead, Trump kills unknown people traveling in speed boats off the coast of Northern South America taking to a new level the extrajudicial murders began by Bush in Afghanistan and continued by Obama, and followed on by Biden. And of course, there’s the genocide both he and Biden support in Palestine. So, if you’re lucky, you said no to Trump’s gangster foreign policies. Here’s Dr. Wolff’s remark at the end of his first segment of the chat:

And here’s a last point: a friend of mine is an industrialist in Europe. I can assure you, he understands perfectly what’s going on. And in my latest conversation with him, where I said: Is there any way that you might actually move your production to the United States? He said, laughingly: Are you crazy? And I said: Well, why? He said: Every day in our newspaper — in the country in Western Europe where he lives — we see pictures of American troops patrolling American cities. You’re a country that I wouldn’t move to in a million years. There’s too much turmoil. And then I watched your new army, your ICE army, closing down a South Korean battery plant in Georgia, out of the hysteria you have cultivated against immigrants. I’m not moving there. I’m not entering that crazy place that is occupying its own cities.

Sometime ago (I’m dating myself) a movie called Coming to America was produced and shown globally which went with the Cold War insistence that the USA was the Leader of the Free World and similar propaganda, and the above reaction related by Dr. Wolff made me think of the vast difference between now and then (1988). It wasn’t too long ago that Joe Biden was still invoking that old Cold War adage and trying to convince the world that the democratic systems of governance employed by Russia and China weren’t democratic.

Historically, Empires were autocracies usually controlled by an oligarchy. The Outlaw US Empire has an interesting term to describe its oligarchy—The Deep State—although some try to call it the administrative state to obfuscate reality. The truth is the USA via the Constitutional Coup of 1787 when the Articles of Confederation were ousted the government formed was very clearly an oligarchy. In Federalist #10, the main ideologist of the constitution James Madison argued that democracy was dangerous because it was susceptible to the straw man he thus created—Factions. Factions are political parties, which immediately formed once the 1787 Constitution was ratified. A close look at what US society was composed of in 1787 tells us why Madison lied in order to avoid telling the truth about what the US federal government would actually be—rich, landed slave owners like him deemed themselves exceptional—above the rabble lower classes—and thus naturally entitled to govern their lessers. By the time the Populists of the 1880-90s made common cause against what they deemed their Deep State—The Money Power—it was too late for any reforms to alter the Class situation and eliminate the Oligarchy. And that’s why we have one today, because it’s been here from the very beginning.

I find the term Money Power to be quite apt for it describes reality—look at the number of billionaires on Team Trump. Note that many are Libertarians who got most of their wealth via government largess—Elon Musk most notably. And the first act Trump made certain to enact was his giving even greater tax breaks to the already filthy rich. Yet, he then goes and complains about the size of the deficit, which is close to 200% of genuine GDP. As many globally note, that number is what’s driving Trump’s desperate actions, not because he wants MAGA—he’s not doing anything to even begin that massive chore. Instead, his actions are worsening the problem. Tariffs as noted above are a tax on Americans and work to reduce the amount of disposable income people have to spend on goods. Plus, many companies within the Empire have had to layoff workers because of those tariffs, thus decreasing aggregate spending even more. And when that happens, aggregate demand also decreases, and you have a recession. Now most Americans have dealt with genuine recession conditions since the Dot.Com bubble burst in the late 1990s. Income inequality is looking like the 19th Century, the Era Trump reveres. Internationally, the monies Trump’s extorting is a mere pittance against the $37 Trillion+ deficit. The dirty secret not being told to the public is the US won’t default on its debt since its owed to all those rich folk. Rather, the interest that’s being paid on the debt will eventually squeeze out all other spending—even on war—unless taxes are raised on the filthy rich. When that will occur can even be calculated. Indeed, here’s an AI generated answer:

According to the analysis by ChatGPT, in 2024, interest payments accounted for approximately 20% of federal revenues, but by 2028, this share is expected to increase to 65%. This means that nearly all revenues will go toward interest payments, leaving little for stimulus policies or deficit reduction.

So, there’s what appears to be the source of the desperation. But is that correct? Wouldn’t an expansion of business—a genuinely growing economy—be a far better policy aim than shaking down the world and generating a recession? Where are the reasonable counter-arguments? The only action I see happening are the court challenges as to the constitutionality of Trump’s tariffs.

The solution Captain Kirk comes up with in A Piece of the Action is to become a bigger more powerful boss than all the others on the planet thanks to his technological advantages—using force and a bit of guile to overcome force. How will our planet deal with a desperate, fading, semi-fascist nuclear armed Empire run by a cabal of semi-megalomaniac billionaires? Let it feed on its own colonies until they revolt, and it becomes almost completely isolated while still having its own escalating internal problems? Perhaps solving the problem of the Genocidal Zionists and primary Imperial proxy will provide a pathway. Perhaps some historical irony will somewhat repeat itself—Al Capone’s crime spree came to an end when he was imprisoned for tax evasion, a money issue where he failed to payoff the bigger bandit—the Outlaw US Empire.

https://karlof1.substack.com/p/a-piece- ... ction-2025

The so-called 'Deep State' is not the oligarchy, rather it is an agent of some portion of the oligarchy.

The rich will never pony up, the senatorial class of the Roman Empire let the state crash rather than do so and they were proportionally richer(as personal income vs government revenue) than today's parasites.

Wealth, which is power, is never given, it must be taken.

[blindpig]

The Real Violent Extremists Are The Freaks Who Run The US Empire

I think it’s worth remembering this as the empire harnesses the emotional hysteria around Charlie Kirk’s death to whip up a moral panic about violent radical leftists in the United States in order to justify increased authoritarian measures to stomp out political dissent.

Caitlin Johnstone
September 26, 2025

The real violent extremists are the oligarchs and imperialists who run the US-centralized empire from both mainstream parties.

Not Antifa. Not trans people. Not anti-genocide activists. Not protesters against ICE.

The extremists who are inflicting the real violence and abuse in our world are the ones committing genocide, starting wars, backing blockades, imposing starvation sanctions, arming proxy conflicts, circling the planet with hundreds of military bases, and flirting with nuclear armageddon.


Donald Trump is a violent extremist. Joe Biden is a violent extremist. Keir Starmer is a violent extremist. Benjamin Netanyahu is a violent extremist.

Oligarchs who knit themselves into the murderous imperial power structure like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Miriam Adelson and Larry Ellison are violent extremists.

The Democratic Party is a violent extremist organization. The Republican Party is a violent extremist organization.

War profiteers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are violent extremist organizations.

Empire management firms which facilitate imperial violence and control like Palantir, Oracle and Starlink are violent extremist organizations.

There is no designated terrorist group foreign or domestic which can hold a candle to the death toll and human suffering that has been inflicted by the western empire.

I think it’s worth remembering this as the empire harnesses the emotional hysteria around Charlie Kirk’s death to whip up a moral panic about violent radical leftists in the United States in order to justify increased authoritarian measures to stomp out political dissent. The real violence is coming from the powerful manipulators who want you consenting to these measures. The call is coming from inside the house.

The US and its allies have killed millions of people in their wars of aggression since 9/11, and displaced tens of millions. Their cruel sanctions have killed tens of millions since 1970. Their policies of imperialist extraction force populations throughout the global south to live lives of endless poverty and toil. They are currently perpetrating a genocide in full view of the entire world.


These are the violent extremists. The only reason they are able to claim that some kid wearing a keffiyeh or a balaclava is a violent extremist while they themselves are not is because they control the narrative. The plutocrats who benefit from the imperial status quo own and control the media platforms and information systems which people use to learn about the world, and they use this narrative control to frame the imperial status quo as normal and any opposition to it as freakish extremism.

That’s the only reason a westerner who supports genocide, warmongering, militarism and imperialism gets to call themselves a “centrist” or a “moderate”. They live in an empire whose propagandists actively normalize imperial abuses while spinning any deviation from this violent madness as abnormalities on the radical political fringe.

But it’s a lie. Genocide is violent extremism. Mass murder is violent extremism. Siege warfare is violent extremism. Global tyranny is violent extremism.

Peace is moderate and normal. Justice is moderate and normal. Health is moderate and normal. Equality is moderate and normal. Equitable wealth and resource distribution is moderate and normal.

The genocidal, ecocidal, omnicidal nightmare we see before us in our world today is what it looks like when the violent extremists are in charge.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/09 ... us-empire/

Capitalism requires 'violent extremists', it is the nature and purpose of class. '

[blindpig]

U.S. forfeits its dubious privilege to host the United Nations

September 26, 2025

The United Nations is not U.S. property to be used and abused to satisfy unilateral political or personal whims.

The Trump administration’s ban on Palestinian delegates attending the United Nations General Assembly this week clearly shows that the United States has forfeited the privilege to host the world body.

Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency is bringing the U.S. and the UN into total disrepute. The blocking of the Palestinian delegation is just the latest in a series of wanton acts by the Trump administration upending international norms and peace, all of which show that the United States has openly devolved into a rogue state.

Trump’s ordering of extrajudicial killings by blowing up civilian boats in the Caribbean without any evidence, his aggression towards Venezuela, and putting a $50 million bounty on that country’s president, his bombing of Iran, and his slapping of illegal, unilateral economic sanctions on scores of nations – all demonstrate that the United States under Trump is out of control, beyond law and order and the UN Charter. For such a state to claim the right to host the United Nations – supposedly the highest international authority – is a travesty.

The flagrant hypocrisy of the United States is beyond bearable. The Trump administration announced that it was denying a visa to the State of Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides, preventing them from traveling to the U.S. to address the UN’s annual General Assembly. The reason given was that the Palestinians are allegedly supporting terrorism and constitute a “national security threat” to the United States.

This is while the U.S. is supporting a genocide against Palestinians committed by the Israeli regime. The Trump administration (like the Biden one before it) has thwarted every diplomatic initiative for a ceasefire in Gaza and to end the horrific suffering of civilians. Children are starving to death because of the Israeli blockade on food and humanitarian aid to Gaza, a blockade fully supported by the United States government. Israel’s psychopathic leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is permitted to address the UN General Assembly and spout his vile justifications for slaughtering 63,000 men, women, and children. Afterwards, Netanyahu will be warmly welcomed at the White House by Trump. Last year, while he was addressing the General Assembly, Netanyahu gave orders for Israeli warplanes to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on September 27, 2024.

Trump is enabling genocide and shielding the Israeli regime with impunity. Such a diabolical fiasco brings the United States and the UN into disrepute.

The American leader’s narcissism raises questions about his sanity. When he addressed the General Assembly earlier this week, Trump lashed out over a failing escalator and teleprompter, claiming that unknown people at the UN were trying to disrupt his attendance and make him look stupid. It turned out that the technical glitches were reportedly caused by Trump’s own entourage, but that didn’t stop him from demanding the arrest of UN staff. This is in keeping with Trump’s threats to shut down American news media outlets that are critical of his presidency.

The ban on Palestinian officials was no doubt in retaliation for several Western states declaring their recognition of the State of Palestine. Britain, Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, and others have now joined with Russia, China, and over 80 percent of the total UN members to declare formal recognition of Palestine. Netanyahu and other extremist Israeli politicians have vowed to destroy the last vestige of Palestinian territory, and the United States is sponsoring this criminal attrition. The United States is isolated and held in contempt globally. Out of loyalty to Israel and perhaps blackmail by Mossad over his friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Trump exacted petty revenge by blocking the Palestinians from attending the General Assembly – thereby preventing further pressure for an end to the genocide.

Trump’s disgrace is by no means the first time that the United States’ position of hosting the UN has been called into question. Over the past 80 years, since the UN was founded in 1945, the relentless warmongering and genocidal conduct of the United States (Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq, to name only a few) have made it wholly unfit to facilitate a body supposedly charged with upholding international peace and respect for nations. However, the blatant rogue-state conduct under Trump is making the incontestable case that the U.S. has finally forfeited any presumption of privileges.

The U.S. role of providing the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City was always a privilege, not a prerogative. Given the historic victory by the Soviet Union and China over fascism, the UN’s HQ could well have been in Moscow or Beijing. But such a concept is probably too challenging for consumers of Western news media.

In any case, a UN international treaty (1947) stipulates that the United States must grant unrestricted travel to the General Assembly for all member nations, including permanent observers (the current status of the Palestinian State), regardless of relations with the U.S. government. The UN headquarters has extraterritorial rights similar to foreign embassies.

Even during the height of the Cold War, the United States did not dare to block the attendance of Soviet or Chinese officials. Indeed, such a move would have been inconceivable due to its illegality. One recalls, too, how over the years, staunch critics of U.S. imperialism were free to address the General Assembly. Cuba’s Fidel Castro did so and berated the United States while President George HW Bush Sr was in the audience, even though the U.S. had sanctions on Cuba as a “terrorist state.” Another memorable, coruscating speech was that of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, who mocked George W Bush Jr for leaving a malignant odor at the speaker’s podium.

Trump’s ban on Palestinian attendees is a gross violation of the 1947 treaty to which the United States is legally bound. It is an unprecedented breach of UN rules and international law.

Given the lawlessness of the United States under Trump, and his narcissistic disorder, it can be expected that he will abuse the role of the U.S. to ban other leaders, who become labelled arbitrarily as national security threats. Will Trump ban leaders from Iran, Venezuela, Brazil, India, China, and Russia out of his egotistical petulance?

The United Nations is not U.S. property to be used and abused to satisfy unilateral political or personal whims. Its historic role of hosting the UN is anachronistic in a world of equal nations and with the shift of geopolitical power to Eurasia and the Global South. The five-member Security Council with its veto powers is another anachronism that should be replaced. The UN body should be located in a place where its founding noble principles and Charter are respected. The United States is not such a place.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/ ... d-nations/

[blindpig]

Today's 1984--Technofascism

Current Events in America
Karl Sanchez
Oct 07, 2025



Most Gym readers are familiar with Orwell’s 1984 and how he envisioned the role of technology in controlling the masses. Much of what he described is now reality, although some are unaware that your “smart” TV is capable of watching you. We have security cams placed with high densities inside cities, and almost every store starting with banks has a video surveillance system. Facial recognition is now a norm. Cellular phones have tracking devices within them so you can be targeted and bombed. Computer chips have backdoors allowing the so-called security agencies to discover what you’re doing. The GPS system in your car can also be a tracking beacon. I recall what the Supreme Court ruled years ago on the issue of privacy—you essentially have none. Highly tuned “ears” can hear what you say to your partner as you take a walk in the woods. Walls can now be seen and heard through. The eye way up in space can read the license plate on your car. The resolution’s so good that your lips can be read as you talk. With the age of the semiconductor and microchip, Big Brother arrived in ways only imagined by Sci-Fi authors and Mr. Orwell.

All this has become very important because it’s now being made into a threat to what freedom Americans have remaining. It’s not just ICE. It’s the fact that an enemy needed to be invented for ICE to be deployed—the dreaded immigrant, or what the Scorpions called The Alien Nation. Once upon a time it was Communists and Socialists, Labor Union organizers, and the workers themselves, all of which remain to be resurrected when needed. But the main instigator is the intrusion of Zionist control of the federal government and its need to control American public opinion. And here I defer to the awesome work done by the team at The Grayzone—Max Blumenthal and his comrades. What began as an investigation into the clear political assassination of Charlie Kirk has become an investigation into the deep subversive activities of Zionist-American Billionaires aimed at controlling—distorting if you will—American public opinion of Zionism and Occupied Palestine: The state committing Genocide with the active complicity of the US Government beginning with Biden and continuing with Trump that in reality began in 1948 with the first Nakba. The presentation of evidence by Mr. Blumenthal to Judge Napolitano during this 40-minute chat is an absolute must see if you want to know how your freedom and children’s future are threatened. I highly suggest watching it before continuing to read this article.

Now that you’ve seen and understood the insidiousness of what’s planned and grasped the fact that it will be close to impossible to halt, I suggest you stop and take the time to notify your close circle of what you’ve learned and where they can also learn what you now know. This isn’t about immigrants anymore; this is about the ability of Americans to be free from undo influence, to not be propagandized, to be left alone, and certainly not to be goaded into doing something that’s actually very un-Christian. They are trying to get commonfolk to support Genocide; to somehow see benevolence in Zionist actions. They’re going to track you via your phone so they can further harass you with propaganda, and who knows what else they’ll do to you. Look at what they did to innocent Lebanese with their pager and cellphone terrorist devices. And they laughed and applauded. Occupied Palestine is a land populated by a people lacking morals of any sort.

There are other presentations of evidence by other people that have examined the ways and means of the Head Genocidal Zionist Netanyahu. One of them is the retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson who revealed a great deal in his chat today with Nima of Dialog Works that complements what Blumenthal revealed. Previous revelations by others have detailed the extent of Big Brother infiltration into American lives and those of the entire planet. Much was provided by Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Indeed, Wikileaks still provides a great deal of information the US government would rather you not know. Reading Snowden’s Saga is highly educational. Now the big issue is AI, which the Zionists employ in their Genocide and assassination programs. Recent US Supreme Court rulings have okayed racial profiling despite the fact that there’s only one Human Race. Given what the Outlaws are doing and getting away with, the Constitution is now what George W. Bush called it: Just A God Damned Piece of Paper. The Enemy Nation must constantly be reinvented. Trump now calls everyone who disagrees with him a terrorist, including members of Congress and judges.

What can citizens do now that they know they’re being targeted? The only real way to defend ourselves is to form community groups based on the neighborhood watch format while making it clear what the aim of the group is—to protect our Civil and Legal Rights from a federal government gone rogue. And it must be made clear that the D Party is just as complicit in this behavior as the R Party since both are controlled by AIPAC and Zionist Billionaire monies—Team Biden supported the Genocide just as much if not more than Team Trump. I’m not advocating going around with firearms. Just being in solidarity with your neighbors and community is enough, while also informing local government what you’re all about. Adopting a name like Citizen Civil & Legal Rights Brigade says what you’re all about to whoever you meet. Read the Second Amendment—being well armed begins with being well informed. Know that the military and almost all government officials at every level of federalism swears an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Implore those people to obey their oath, local police especially since they’re the ones your Brigade will come into contact with. I did, and I consider what I’m doing part of my neverending duty. One of our oddities here in America is that Naturalized Citizens must also take that oath but not native-born citizens. The Declaration of Independence says the duty of the citizen when confronted by Tyranny is to rebel to secure what were seen as Natural Rights.

IMO, it’s imperative you watch the talk between Max Blumenthal and Judge Napolitano and share the link with everyone you know. The only way to beat the foes we face is to act collectively, and that means everyone as every conceivable group is being targeted except Zionists and Billionaires.

https://karlof1.substack.com/p/todays-1 ... hnofascism

(These people....calling for organizing as though these things can happen in a void. Ya gotta have a Party, the Party has to have a solid ideology which steers it. Which means Marxist. Has PSL matured enough to step up?)

*******

‘Moving fast; breaking things’: A new doctrine takes root; a new era of coerced dominance

Alastair Crooke

October 8, 2025

Neither Europe nor the U.S. seemingly possesses the mettle for real war. And certainly, neither do their publics.

Creeping, thunderous changes are underway in the West. A new political doctrine has taken root: Western Conservative (and younger) populist thinking is being rebuilt as something rougher, meaner, and far less sentimental, or tolerant.

It aspires to emerge too, as ‘dominant’, deliberately coercive, and radical. Throwing components of the exiting order into the air to see if they can be landed in a beneficial way (i.e. greater rent revenues) for the U.S.

The so-called Rules-Based Order blueprint (if it ever truly existed beyond narrative) has been ripped up. Today it is war without limits – without rules; without law; and in complete disdain for the UN Charter. Ethical boundaries, more particularly, are dismissed in parts of the West as ‘weak’ ‘moral relativism’. The point is to leave opponents stunned and frozen stick figures.

In parallel, something profound has re-shaped Israeli and U.S. foreign policy: Ignoring rules purposively to shock. Moving fast and breaking things. Over recent months, Israel has struck with military force in the West Bank, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Qatar and Tunisia – besides Gaza. In June, these two nuclear states bombed the nuclear facilities of a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty under IAEA protection – Iran.

This ‘moving fast; breaking things’ phenomenon was clearly evident when Israel, with U.S. support, launched its sneak attack on Iran on 12 June. It was also evident secondly, in the bureaucratic speed which took many by surprise, as the ‘European 3’ members of the JCPOA – effected the ‘Snapback’ of all JCPOA-mandated sanctions on Iran. Iranian attempts at diplomacy were swept aside remorselessly.

The invocation of sanctions Snapback was clearly rushed through to pre-empt the imminent ‘sunset’ of the entire JCPOA framework on 18 October – after which the JCPOA will be ‘no more’.

Whilst Russia and China view the U.S.-orchestrated snapback ploy as illegal, procedurally flawed and, in their perspective, an ‘act’ that legally never took place – the reality is chilling. It funnels Iran inexorably toward an U.S.-Israeli ultimatum that it either capitulates fully to the U.S., or faces an overwhelming military onslaught.

This new power doctrine has emerged from a West in financial crisis – but being born of desperation, it may well fail. The wider western crisis of opposition to the establishment, however, is not as many Progressives or bureaucratic Technocrats think – simply resulting from an upsurge of regrettable ‘white’ pushback.

As Giuliano da Empoli has written in the FT:

“Until recently economic elites, financiers, entrepreneurs and managers of large companies relied on a political class of technocrats — or aspiring technocrats — from the right and left, moderate, reasonable, more or less indistinguishable from each other … who governed their countries on the basis of liberal democratic principles, in accordance with market rules, sometimes tempered by social considerations. That was the Davos consensus”.

The collapse of global liberalism and its illusions, together with its technocratic structure of governance, has – in the eyes of the new élites – simply confirmed that the technocratic ‘expert’ sphere was neither competent, nor grounded in reality.

So the ‘umbrella strategy’ of the Rules-Based International Order is over. The new era is one of coerced dominance – whether by Israel or the U.S. This doctrine is centred on Israeli ‘dominance’ – to which others logically must ‘submit’. This is to be achieved either by financial or military pressure. And is symbolised in the shift of nomenclature in the U.S. from Department of Defence to the ‘Department of War’.

“The new American technological élites, the Musks, the Zuckerbergs and Sam Altmans of this world, have nothing in common with the technocrats of Davos. Their philosophy of life is not based on the competent management of the existing order but, on the contrary, on an irrepressible desire to throw everything up in the air. Order, prudence and respect for the rules – are anathema to those who have made a name for themselves by moving fast and breaking things”, da Empoli elaborates.

By their very nature and background, the Tech overlords are more akin to nationalist-populist leaders (the Trumps, the Netanyahus, the Ben Gavirs and Smotrichs), and in a different way to the Evangelical faction (from which Charlie Kirk emerged), rather than to the moderate political classes of Davos whom they (collectively) despise.

Kirk believed that his calling from God was to be a fighter, a combatant in the culture wars. “Some people are called to heal the sick,” he once said. “Some people are called to mend broken marriages.” Kirk declared that his call was “to fight evil and proclaim truth. That’s it”. One commentator called it the politicisation of Evangelism to secure the domination of Jesus.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has said that “the day that Charlie died, the angels wept, but those tears have been turned into fire in our hearts. And that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand”.

What is the common vision to these seemingly disparate western factions now embracing this rougher, meaner, and far less sentimental, or consensual political doctrine?

What is the aim of tossing all the Middle East pieces up into the air with such brutalised effect, as is evident to the world from Gaza? Israeli regional hegemony and U.S. control over the region’s energy resources. Is that the aim? Certainly – yet it is more than that —

The new doctrine of Team Trump, the Israeli Right, and the Jewish billionaires supporting him, nevertheless have an overriding ‘war aim’. This is not just about Israeli ‘dominance’ and others having to ‘submit’, as U.S. Envoy Tom Barrack insists. It means “getting Iran under control” too – hence the Snapback is preparation for the ‘big war’ to subjugate Iran.

One U.S. Jewish billionaire, speaking earlier at a Zionists of America conference, was picturing a wider war extending to inside America: Rober Shillman’s said his ample funding of ZoA was intended for “confronting enemies of Israel and the Jewish people [wherever] – defending against Islamists who wish to destroy Israel – and radical Leftist Jew-haters who wish to destroy the Jewish people”.

Does this maelstrom across the Middle East nevertheless tie in with Trump’s apparently separate and distinct bellicosity towards Venezuela (and the coincidental sweetheart deal with Argentina)? Yes—the point is to bring the shale fields of Argentina and the huge oil reserves of Venezuela under U.S. control – to give U.S. global energy dominance with which to mitigate the threat from growing U.S. deficits overwhelming the U.S. government.

The Venezuela standoff connects to the Middle East project through being another aspect of a wider hegemonic project – consolidating the western hemisphere into America’s domain of interest, alongside the Middle East.

How did the West reach this bellicose, dominance-seeking point? The key underlying metaphysics of the shift towards anarchic radicalism (seemingly) owes to a period of American thinking about greed, fairness, liberty, and dominance. As Evan Osnos argues in The Haves and Have Yachts, over the past five decades, the Oligarchs and Tech overlords have increasingly rejected constraints on their ability to accrue wealth, disavowing the notion that their great resources entail any special responsibility towards their fellow citizens.

They have embraced a libertarian ethos which casts them simply as private individuals, responsible for their own fate, and entitled to enjoy their riches as they see fit. More significantly, they have not, however, forgone the prerogative of using their money to shape government and society to their techno-autarkic vision. The resulting pattern, traced in Osnos’ book, has been a “simple arithmetic — of money making money”.

The lesson the Tech overlords have assimilated is: when a state or any other entity becomes incompetent, the only historical cure for such political sclerosis is not dialogue, nor compromise; It is what the Romans called proscriptio – a formalized purge. Sulla knew this. Caesar perfected it. Augustus institutionalized it. Take the élite interests, deny them resources, strip them of property, and compel obedience … or else!

The Trumpian and Tech élites of today are enamoured by the ancient notion of ‘greatness’ – individual greatness – and the contribution that greatness can ‘offer’ to civilization. Typically, in this concept there is always a strong element of the ‘outsider’ being some kind of anarchic transgressor, who brings a new measure of energy into play which ‘expert’ insiders just cannot provide.

We all think ‘Trump’ as we read those words. There is clearly a not-so-secret affinity between today’s populist conservatism and anarchic radicalism. Which begs the question: Wild policy swings, constant uncertainty, erratic posts on Truth Social – is this in fact desperation as U.S. greatness visibly ebbs? Or are we being prepped for something yet more contrarian, more radical still – some attempt at a global financial makeover?

“From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly-restored Department of War is this: War fighting; preparing for war and preparing to win – unrelenting – and uncompromising – in that pursuit”, the U.S. Secretary of War told his gathering of Generals in Washington on Tuesday.

The world is on fire, and fear is being ramped up in Europe to high volume. It is ‘Russia, Russia’ everywhere, ‘under every bed’. Are we being truly ‘prepped’, or is this simply European scare brinkmanship intent on enlisting the U.S. in a project to weaken and dissolve Russia into distinct parts?

The collapse of the Soviet Union gave ‘old’ Europe – the great European nations – the huge markets of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and of the former USSR – and also gave Europe resources and cheap energy too. The EU project per se, effectively was bought with the smell of money – the enticement of easy affluence.

As that affluence pops (and Trump just markedly accelerated the bust), and without Russia’s market dismemberment, what price France, Germany or Italy retaining their former political clout or global influence? More to the point, European leaders are asking, ‘however can I get re-elected now’.

The Russia ‘threat’ brinkmanship is being pushed into the ‘red zone’ by Europe. But neither Europe nor the U.S. seemingly possesses the mettle for real war. And certainly, neither do their publics.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/ ... dominance/

( Blaming 'anarchic radicalism'(whatever that is...) or libertarians puts the cart before the horse. Rather it is the necessities of capitalism which draw forth these twisted philosophies as it drew forth Calvinism in another age. Trump himself is the result of capitalism, bound to happen, just like monopolies. Being the first makes him the Avatar of the rest of his class, whether they like it or not, it is true. )

[blindpig]

China’s Material Squeeze Exposes US Industrial Fragility
October 11, 2025


This artwork is a symbolic commentary on the state of American technological innovation and its dependency on rare earth minerals. The central focus is a cracked, transparent sphere with an American flag visible inside. Floating within the sphere are various electronic components, including computer chips, representing American AI expansion. A heavy, rusty chain labeled "RARE EARTHS SUPPLY" is wrapped around the base of the sphere, appearing to hold it in place and suggesting a potential constraint on the technology. A robotic arm labeled "AMERICAN AI EXPANSION" extends toward the sphere, and the entire structure rests on a bed of discarded circuit boards and other electronic waste in a barren, cracked desert landscape under a stormy sky. The phrase "CRIPLED INNOVATION" is written in red text above the sphere. Photo: Substack.

By Warwick Powell – Oct 10, 2025

Export controls over rare earths and other materials shows that reality has the final say

When Washington declared an economic war on China’s technology ascent, it assumed it held the upper hand. Tariffs, export bans, entity lists and chip sanctions were meant to isolate Beijing, choke its access to critical inputs, strangle its technological development and protect American primacy. Yet with remarkable precision, Beijing has now demonstrated that the United States is the one more deeply entangled in – and dependent upon – China’s command of critical material supply chains.

China’s latest round of export controls on lithium batteries, graphite anode materials, and rare earth technologies amounts to the most significant intensification yet in the global race for material sovereignty. The measures are framed in terms of “national security,” and necessities to meet China’s obligations to not accelerate arms proliferation. At the same time, the strategic timing and scope make clear their geopolitical intent: to again expose the material vulnerability of a country that has worked tirelessly to encircle, contain and repress China, but which itself cannot easily reconstitute its own productive base.

The New Controls: Materials that Power the Modern World
The new Chinese restrictions announced on 9 October 2025 extend beyond commodities to include the technological processes required to make them useful. This is a deft and also an important expansion of reach from mere resource control to technological chokepoint management.

In terms of graphite anode materials and lithium batteries, China will now require export permits for synthetic graphite and natural graphite materials used in the production of lithium-ion battery anodes. The restrictions also cover advanced production processes, including granulation, continuous graphitisation, and liquid-phase coating. These are all key technologies that determine battery performance and durability. These technologies are essential for electric vehicles (EVs), consumer electronics and grid-scale energy storage systems. China currently accounts for over 90% of the world’s graphite anode production and dominates every stage of the lithium battery value chain.

As for rare earth-related technologies China has added a sweeping range of rare earth technologies to its export control list, including those involved in mining, smelting, separation, magnetic material manufacturing, and secondary resource recycling. These underpin the manufacture of permanent magnets used in wind turbines, electric motors, guided missile systems, fighter jets, satellite components and semiconductors. China refines nearly 90% of global rare earth oxides and produces the vast majority of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets used in high-performance electronics.

Together, these measures strike at the heart of the clean energy, defence, and semiconductor industries. In other words, the very sectors the U.S. has spent billions trying to re-shore through the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act under the Biden Administration, and which are central to the Trump Administration’s vision for America’s techno-military future. (The focus on clean energy has been dropped.)



The Immediate Impact: A U.S. Industrial System Built on Imported Foundations
The material and temporal constraints are impossible to downplay. The U.S. simply does not have the capacity, time or industrial ecosystem to replace what China supplies within a period of time that will be meaningful.

According to the Pentagon, over 78% of U.S. military systems rely on materials sourced directly or indirectly from China. Rare earths are used in everything from jet engines and precision-guided munitions to radar systems and nuclear submarine components. A disruption in Chinese supply chains would delay weapons production and maintenance schedules. The U.S. has some rare earth deposits but lacks refining and metallurgical expertise; ironically, these were offshored to China decades ago. Rebuilding domestic refining capacity could take 5–10 years and cost billions, even before environmental approvals and workforce training are considered. Against this backdrop, China’s export restrictions can be seen to be a massive boost to world peace.

While U.S. policymakers focus on lithography and chip design, the less glamorous but critical material inputs – rare earths, gallium, germanium and graphite – remain overwhelmingly Chinese. Rare earth magnets are essential in chip fabrication equipment and data centre cooling systems. Restrictions on graphite and high-purity processing technologies will squeeze the semiconductor value chain from the bottom up, affecting everything from consumer electronics to AI compute clusters. This has wide-ranging implications. Without the rapid expansion of AI capital development in 2025 (data centres and the like), the US GDP growth for the first half of 2025 would have been, according to some estimates, no more than 0.1%. Put another way, the American economy writ large is flaccid at best, and AI-related capex is keeping its head above water. Disruptions to the input supply chains needed by the AI sector will jeopardise the sector’s expansion; it will also increase costs due to supply side disruptions. The impacts of China’s restrictions are double-barrelled: they go to the resources needed for augmenting the US electricity supply sector on the one hand, while also creating bottleneck risks in the supply of semiconductors. The Wall Street AI bubble may well be exposed to the sharp needle of Chinese export restrictions.

The EV revolution in the U.S., if indeed one could even call it that, depends on a Chinese battery ecosystem that dominates both upstream materials and midstream processing. China processes two-thirds of the world’s lithium and over 90% of the world’s graphite. U.S. automakers have only recently begun investing in local cathode and anode production, but the know-how and equipment still come largely from Chinese firms. Supply disruptions will increase EV costs, reduce availability, and slow decarbonisation timelines.

In short, America’s green and digital transitions are built on Chinese foundations. Now those foundations are shifting, or perhaps worse, those foundations have simply been removed

A Problem of Time, Capital and Capability
It is one thing to announce subsidies and grand industrial acts; it is another to rebuild entire production ecosystems hollowed out over 40 years of offshoring. The United States faces a threefold constraint: time, resources, and knowledge. In terms of time developing new mining, refining, and magnet manufacturing capacity is not a matter of quarters or even years; it’s a decade-long process. Environmental permitting alone can stall U.S. projects for years, while Chinese firms are already vertically integrated and continuously upgrading. As for material resources, even if the U.S. opened every known domestic deposit tomorrow, it still lacks the refining and separation facilities to make those materials usable. Mining without refining simply shifts the bottleneck. Lastly, the US faces knowledge and equipment constraints. China’s near-monopoly on rare earth processing equipment and graphite treatment technology means that even friendly suppliers – Australia, Canada or Brazil – depend on Chinese machinery and expertise. The U.S. does not have the skilled labour force or capital goods base to replicate these processes quickly.

The result is a structural dilemma. No amount of rhetoric or subsidy can compress industrial time. The U.S. can print money, but it cannot print metallurgists, engineers, or processing plants. As I argued in May, the US can keep its dollars; China has the dysprosium.

Strategic Blowback: Isolation by Design
Ironically, the U.S. has engineered its own isolation. By attempting to exclude China from global technology networks, Washington has incentivised Beijing to constrain the very supply chains the U.S. once took for granted. China, for its part, has pursued a measured escalation strategy; first restricting gallium and germanium exports in 2023, now broadening to rare earth technologies and graphite. Each move demonstrates both restraint and capability: China can choose when, where, and how to tighten the tap.

For the U.S., this is more than an economic inconvenience. It is a geostrategic humiliation. The self-declared arsenal of democracy is now dependent on the industrial capacity of the very nation it sought to cripple.



Europe and the Global South: Opportunity Amid Disruption
While Washington scrambles, others are positioning to profit from the fracture.

The European Union, long caught between U.S. pressure and Chinese supply dependence, can use this crisis to accelerate its own reindustrialisation, if – and, frankly, this is a very big if – it had the policy, political and institutional dexterity, acumen and wherewithal to do so. It could, for instance, boost investment in refining and magnet production. Projects in Sweden, Finland and France are already developing local rare earth refining capacity. China’s tightening gives the Europeans both urgency and bargaining power. The EU actually gains some leverage over Washington. The U.S. may be forced to look to Europe for certain high-tech inputs and cooperation. Brussels could trade that support for concessions on subsidies, tariffs and technology sharing. At the same time, Europe can pursue a more pragmatic approach – diversifying without decoupling – preserving access to Chinese supply while building local resilience.

In essence, Europe can extract strategic rents from U.S. vulnerability while reinforcing its own industrial base under the banner of “strategic autonomy.” Whether the present leadership in Brussels is open to these possibilities is another story altogether, however.

For resource-rich states in the Global South, this moment is potentially transformative. Countries like Indonesia, Chile, Brazil and the DRC are already leveraging resource nationalism to demand local processing and value addition. China’s industrial footprint provides them an alternative to U.S.-led models – offering investment, technology and infrastructure without geopolitical lectures. The U.S., arriving late with conditional offers and limited capital, cannot easily compete.

For once, the Global South holds some real cards. Some countries of the global south control the inputs of the 21st century economy. They can sell to China, partner with China and / or Europe, or engage in some strategic hedging.

The Inevitable Reckoning
The United States is discovering that it cannot “sanction” the world while remaining sanction-proof itself. Its industrial capacity, the envy of the globe in days gone by, has been hollowed out by decades of financialisation, offshoring and short-termism.

China’s new controls have revealed the underlying asymmetry of the global economy: one side makes things; the other makes narratives. The real economy of thermodynamics and materials trumps the economy of fictitious capital and simulacra. The U.S. may still dominate finance, media and military power projection, but without access to the materials that make advanced technologies possible, these advantages are increasingly performative.

Washington tried to isolate Beijing. In doing so, it isolated itself. Presidents Trump and Xi are slated to meet on the sidelines of APEC in South Korea later in October. That will be a very interesting conversation, indeed.

https://orinocotribune.com/chinas-mater ... fragility/

[blindpig]

The Dark Underbelly Of Politics & Geopolitics

Olof Palme and many, many others
Roger Boyd
Oct 13, 2025



Much of modern social science research is about studiously not talking about the elephants in the room. In mainstream economics its all about ignoring ruling class power and the fact that the “market” and “money” cannot be separated from the realm of politics and power. Why political economy was replaced with the disembodied politics, sociology and economics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; like quivering separated pieces of the ontological body that if put back together will reveal forbidden truths.

International relations is very much the same, with its mainstream theories of realism, liberal internationalism and subjectivism that studiously stay away from how the geopolitical sausage is really made. As Gramsci notes, a very large chunk of the academy is there to create, recreate and sell an elite-serving hegemonic culture designed to produce a false consciousness in the general population and to utterly obfuscate the central role of the ruling class. The very last thing that it is there for is to really tell you how the sausage is made.

An exception is Ola Tunander, an academic who has published a series of articles on the assassination of Olaf Palme on his substack, part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4, who was the Swedish Prime Minister from 1982 to 1986. Mr Palme kept a strict non-aligned foreign policy and supported many liberation movements and Third World governments; for example, the ANC and Cuba. He also very directly criticized US foreign policy, and his dialogue with the Soviets was roundly attacked both at home and abroad; putting him at odds with the US oligarchy as well as the oligarchy at home. At the time of his election, Sweden was being subjected to an utterly fake series of “Soviet submarine intrusions” to turn the Swedish population against the Soviet Union. Palme seemed to understand that these were Western submarines not Soviet ones, and also stood in the way of NATO using Swedish airbases in the case of a NATO war with the Soviets.

Yes, Sweden has an oligarchy; most especially the Wallenberg family that dominates so much of Swedish society, along with the Perrson and Rausing families and a number of other individual billionaires and family dynasties. While Sweden has a quite egalitarian income distribution compared to many other countries, the concentration of wealth within it is extreme; it is an oligarchy with a performative democracy and a monarchy. Much of this is old money, as stated here:

Contrary to its egalitarian branding, Sweden’s political economy is instead characterized by concentrated wealth within a small number of influential families and prestigious industrial groups. The vast majority of this accumulated wealth is held by as little as seventeen major dynasties and groups, among which fourteen are eminent families who can trace their riches to either the immediate postwar era or even further back to the late nineteenth century.

From a Gramscian perspective, the Swedish oligarchy put in place a performative democracy together with limited social progressivism to facilitate efficient capitalism through cultural hegemony and to stave off any radical challenges to its power and wealth.

In the social sciences the study of elites and their dynamics and power relationships has been shoved into a dark corner, not quite an “acceptable” area of study that will help drive an academics career. Left to a small group of “Elite Studies” scholars and a subset of the Marxists who have not disappeared into the post-modernist cleverness cul-de-sac. Even in such groups there are blind spots, such as Chomsky’s absolute refusal to deal with the dynamics and impacts of the Kennedy assassination. There is also the academic slur of believing in a “Great Man” theory of history while ignoring underlying societal dynamics; supposedly missing the wood for a few interesting trees. The reality is that even with underlying dynamics, “great” men and women do have outsized impacts; especially at critical junctures. To kill them / blackmail them / threaten them into subjugation / ruin them is to change the course of history. What would the Congo be like now if Lumumba had not been assassinated by agents of Western governments? Africa is of course full of progressive anti-imperial politicians cut down in their prime. Just like in South America with a long list that includes Arbenz of Guatemala, Allende of Chile, and Gaitan of Colombia.

It may be somewhat acceptable to write about such things in the neo-colonies of Africa, Asia and South America but it is utterly unacceptable to say that such things happen within the West. Gough Whitlam of Australia being intentionally coup’d by the British and US security services, please …! But at least that was in the ex criminal colony not in the Old World! That is where Tunander’s work crosses a huge academic line, talking about assassination in Sweden, a core part of the “liberal” Europe and Scandinavia. There are others of course, such as Aldo Moro kidnapped just as he was about to bring the communists into government in Italy or the more recent attempted assassination of PM Fico in Slovakia.

As Tunander states, the assassination of Palme had all the hall marks of a professional hit by a well trained and equipped assassin:

On 28 February 1986 at 23:21, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead in central Stockholm after having been to the cinema with his wife. He was shot at a distance of 20 cm through the trachea, the aorta, and the spinal cord, and the ammunition used was capable of penetrating bulletproof vests. This looks like a professional operation. Several witnesses saw the killer, but he disappeared immediately and was never found … The problem has not been a lack of information but rather the huge amount of largely credible evidence pointing in different directions. This would also indicate a professional operation.



…

The autopsy found that Olof Palme had been shot in the back (through the spinal cord, the trachea and the aorta) at a distance of 20 cm. He was hit at “exactly the right place” … Witnesses describe the killer as calm.

The British security services were operating with a Stay Behind network within Norway and Sweden, the following is a 1992 BBC investigation of the Italian Stay Behinds, Operation Gladio:


It is amazing that this documentary was ever made given the veil of secrecy around this subject and the general media and institutional opprobrium heaped on anyone writing about this subject. The whole of area of the Italian Strategy of Tension is wildly ignored in Western social science; especially in the English speaking parts. As Tusander notes, the problem with Palme was that he did not seem to have any skeletons in the closet that could be used to blackmail or discredit him.

We must understand that many, many of the senior courtiers have such things as corruption, the usage of high end prostitutes and other issues in their past. It is one of the jobs of the security services to know about these things, or even set up “honey pots” etc. to create such things, about domestic and foreign political and corporate figures. As with the infamous files of J. Edgar Hoover, the greatest use of them is as a latent threat to anyone stepping out of line. A good case is that of Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York, who was threatening to pull back the curtain on the mass law breaking and corruption involved in what became the Global Financial Crisis; something that Obama fully covered up. Spitzer had a history as Attorney General of going after corporate criminality, which of course put him directly at odds with the oligarchy. In early 2008, it became public that Spitzer had frequented a high end escort service (run by an Israeli citizen) and he had to resign as governor with his political career destroyed.

An article in The Guardian in 2011 put the reasons for Spitzer’s takedown extremely well:

Long before there was Barack Obama there was Spitzer. While Obama toiled unknown in Illinois, the Bronx-born Spitzer won himself a national reputation as the “Sheriff of Wall Street”. He was New York’s tough-talking attorney-general, who fought banking corruption, enforced environment law and won rights for low-paid workers. He used that fame to enter politics and in 2006 became governor of New York: a perfect springboard for the White House. Before America fell in love with its first black president, people wondered if it was willing to embrace its first Jewish one. Spitzer could have made history.

The article mentions the documentary Client 9, that delved into the oligarch and courtier interests that benefitted from the fall of Spitzer.
(Video disabled.)

The oligarchy wanted the fake populist Obama, not someone who would actually challenge corporate power. Now, it would be extremely easy for the authorities to raid such escort services and gain evidence to charge the people using them. But of course, this would destroy a significant chunk of the political and corporate class. Much better to hang such information over the same people’s heads in case they stepped out of line. Of course, we currently have the multi-administration cover up of the activities of the Epstein and Maxwell (the daughter of the Israeli operative Robert Maxwell) child sex honey pot ring.

Olaf Palme was just too damned clean, so he had to die when he kept stepping out of line; especially with a Reagan and a Thatcher in power in the US and UK, fighting the “evil empire”. Tunander writes that:

The IB/Lingärde document is relatively detailed about the early planning of the assassination on the Swedish side. He claimed that in late 1970s, a few senior officers started a build-up of a military network at the military districts with local units to be activated “in case of a socialist seizure of power”. These networks were developed in parallel to the regular Stay Behinds and out of control for Birger Elmér. They were run by a staff of trusted military security and intelligence officers. Several senior officers considered Prime Minister Palme a socialist, and in the 1980s one had started to activate this “parallel Stay Behind network” in the “Northern Military District – South” (“Militärområde Nedre Norrland”) to be used in an operation against Olof Palme. This network would have been initiated by the District Commander in late 1970s, later Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Per Rudberg.

Rudberg was the Swedish liaison to the US. It is standard practice for the US to infiltrate and co-opt members of the security services of even its allies to facilitate hegemony over them. In the post-WW2 period, this was done extensively with the German, Italian, Danish and other security services. The Australian security services are very heavily integrated with their US counterparts, as part of the “Five Eyes” intelligence agreement (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand). These comprador security services are an incredibly useful tool for spying on, manipulating, and taking down if necessary, local politicians. A veritable security services fifth column.

Tunder continues:

Lingärde also claimed that the decision to eliminate the Prime Minister had been taken by four senior officers: the former chief of the Security Service, SÄK, Per-Gunnar Vinge (who had been forced out of his position by Prime Minister Palme), the former chief of the Military Intelligence Service, Major General Bengt Wallroth, by Wallroth’s predecessor as Director General of FRA (the Swedish signal intelligence service) Lars Ljunggren, and by Rudberg’s successor as Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Bengt Schuback (a former Chief of Defence Staff and former Chief of the Southern Military District, where he succeeded Lieutenant General Sven-Olov Olson) … To me, it seems unlikely that they would have acted with such a self-confidence if they hadn’t had the backing from the Americans and the British … These senior officers would have known that they had the full backing of the Western intelligence community and its covert state networks.

He notes the activities of the Italian stay behinds in the “De Lorenzo Coup” in 1964, the “Borghese Coup” in 1970, and the “Sogno Coup” in 1974 that were used to transform Italian politics. Each preceded by bomb explosions to create chaos and drive demands for a more authoritarian state and “emergency measures”.

An inquiry was set up into the Palme assassination and its first head went completely off on a “Kurdish conspiracy” hypothesis, which was not supported by any real evidence, until he left after a year. The inquiry then came up with the most ridiculous suspect given the professional nature of the killing, a violent alcoholic and drug addict who had never previously used a gun. He was very obviously railroaded into a conviction after all other leads of inquiry were dropped, in July 1989. But in November 1989, a higher court found him not guilty.

The Swedish police force also did seem to be implicated:

The Palme case might have been easier to solve if the Police Operation Center in Stockholm had sent a car immediately to the place of the shooting and not demanded confirmation. Instead, they sent a police car to deal with a quarrel between drunken people at the railway station and to stop a careless driver. Only a couple of minutes later did they send a car to the place of the killing, which gave the killer time to disappear. For this very night and only for this night, Ulf Helin was taking over as one of the responsible officers at the Operation Center. He was a close colleague of one of the main suspects, Carl-Gustav Östling.

There was most definitely a group of right wing police officers within the police force, with many belonging to the same shooting club and some having ties to the South African security services. They were heavily involved with the inquiry, giving them the ability to manage a cover up.

Tunander reminds us that the Swedish UN General Secretary, Hammarskjöld, was killed in 1961 when his plane was shot down over Ndola in North-Rhodesia at the border to Katanga/Congo. He was on his way to negotiate a peace in Congo that could have saved Lumumba.

The first UN representative who saw the body of Hammarskjöld, the Norwegian late Major General Bjørn Egge, told me that Hammarskjöld had been able to escape from the burning plane. He had grass between his fingers, and it looked like a bullet hole in his forehead, but it was whisked away from the photos. Egge claimed that the British had acted very suspicious. Similar to Olof Palme, Hammarskjöld was probably shot because the British and the Americans would not accept his policy of dialogue with the Soviets. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission spoke about British, South African and U.S. preparations for eliminating Hammarskjöld.

The Swedish Folke Bernadotte (the UN Envoy for the Palestine-Israel negotiations in 1947-48) was shot by the Israelis in 1948. The man who held the gun was Yehoshua Cohen, later bodyguard of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Tunander also mentions JFK and the attempts to kill independent-minded French President de Gaulle. Also, Mattei, the head of the Italian state oil company that was open to dealing with the Soviets and was establishing independent deals with the Middle Eastern powers. Also, the Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh who was stabbed to death in 2003 in Stockholm. Plus numerous others who were discredited, such as German Chancellor and pusher of Ostpolitik Willy Brandt.

This is the dirty underbelly of politics and geopolitics, because in reality each nation is run by a relatively small elite and international relations are between those elites organized in hierarchical relationships. Any courtiers, or even vassal elites, or even members of the elite of the hegemonic power, who step out of line and don’t accept correcting “advice” are dealt with. Either discredited and possibly ruined, or jailed, or killed; with a possible escalation through those options until one works. Its a dirty business, that certainly does not find its way into mainstream political and geopolitical discourse and academia, but it has a huge impact. Recently, we saw the major operation to take down a Jeremy Corbyn who threatened to become a British Labour PM who would actually act like a Labour PM. We saw the attempted assassination of Slovakian PM Fico. The lawfare taking out of the probable winner of the Romanian presidency and a few years ago the lafware against the Brazilian president and then against a Lula who threatened to win the presidency. As the situation gets more and more difficult for the US and European oligarchies both at home and abroad we should expect an escalation through those three options, with the possibility of outright fascism to imprison and kill oppositional forces. As in South America in the 1970s and 1980s. As I write this, President Trump is musing about “taking out” the Venezuelan president.

https://rogerboyd.substack.com/p/the-da ... litics-and