Sanctions, Smoke and Mirrors From A Kindergarten
On LSD
The Saker
August
01, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- The
latest US sanctions and the Russian retaliatory
response have resulted in a torrent of
speculations in the official media and the
blogosphere – everybody is trying to make sense
of a situation which appears to make no sense at
all. Why in the world would the US Senate adopt
new sanctions against Russia when Russia has
done absolutely nothing to provoke such a vote?
Except for Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders,
every
single US Senator voted in favor of these
sanctions. Why?! This is even more baffling
when you consider that the single biggest effect
of these sanctions will be to trigger a rift,
and
possibly even counter-sanctions,
between the US and the EU. What is absolutely
clear is that these sanctions will have exactly
zero effect on Russia and I don’t think anybody
is seriously expecting the Russians to change
anything at all in their policies. And yet,
every Senator except Paul and Sanders voted for
this. Does that make any sense to you?
Let’s
try to figure out what is going on here.
First,
a simple reminder: like all US politicians, from
the county level to the US Congress, Senators
have only one consideration when then vote –
“what’s in it for me?”. The very last thing
which any US Senator really cares about are the
real life consequences of his/her vote. This
means that to achieve the kind of quasi
unanimity (98%) for a totally stupid vote there
was some kind of
very
influential lobby which used some
very
forceful “arguments” to achieve such a vote.
Keep in mind that the Republicans in the Senate
knew that they were voting against the wishes of
their President. And yet every single one
except for Rand Paul voted for these sanctions,
that should tell you something about the power
of the lobby which pushed for them. So who
would have such power?
The website “Business
Pundit: Expert Driven”
has helpfully posted an article which lists the
10 top most powerful lobbies in Washington, DC.
They are (in the same order as in the original
article)
-
Tech Lobby
-
Mining Industry
-
Defense Industry
-
Agribusiness Industry
-
Big Oil
-
Financial Lobby
-
Big Pharma
-
AARP
-
Pro-Israel Lobby
-
NRA
Okay,
why not? We could probably rearrange them, give
them different labels, add a couple (like the
“Prison Industrial Complex” or the “Intelligence
Community”) but all in all this is an okay
list. Any name on it jump at you yet?
One
could make the case that most of these lobbies
need an enemy to prosper, this is certainly true
of the Military-Industrial Complex and the
associated high tech industry, and one could
also reasonably claim that Big Oil, Mining and
Agribusiness see Russia has a potential
competitor. But a closer look at the interests
these lobbies represent will tell you that they
are mostly involved in domestic politics and
that faraway Russia, with her relatively small
economy, is just not that important to them.
This is also clearly true for Big Pharma, the
AARP and the NRA. Which leaves the Israel Lobby
as the only potential candidate.
“Israel
Lobby” is, of course, a misnomer. The Israel
Lobby has very little interest in Israel as a
country or, for that matter, for the Israeli
people. If anything, the Israel Lobby ought to
be called the “Neocon Lobby”. Furthermore, we
also have to keep in mind that the Neocon Lobby
is unlike any other lobby in the list above.
For one thing, it does not represent US
interests. Neither does it represent the
interests of Israel. Rather, it represents the
interests of a
specific subset of the US ruling elites,
in reality much smaller than 1% of the
population, which all share in the
one
common ideology of worldwide domination
typical of the Neocons.
These
are the folks who in spite of their 100%
ironclad control of the media and Congress lost
the Presidential election to Donald Trump and
who are now dead set to impeach him. These are
the folks who simply
use
“Russia” as a propagandistic fulcrum to peddle
the notion that Trump and his entourage are
basically Russian agents and Trump himself as a
kind of “Presidential Manchurian Candidate”.
Keep in
mind that the historical record shows that while
the Neocons are fantastically driven, they are
not particularly smart. Yes, they do have the
kind of rabid ideological determination which
allows them to achieve a totally
disproportionate influence over US policies, but
when you actually read what they write and
listen to what they say you immediately realize
that these are rather mediocre individuals with
a rather parochial mindset which makes them both
very predictable and very irritating to the
people around them. They always overplay their
hand and then end up stunned and horrified when
all their conspiracies and plans come tumbling
down on them.
I
submit that this is exactly what is happening
right now.
First,
the Neocons lost the elections. For them, it
was a shock and a nightmare. The “deplorables”
voted against the unambiguously clear
“propaganda instructions” given to them by the
media. Next, the Neocons turned their rabid
hatred against Trump and they succeeded at
basically neutering him, but only at the cost of
terribly weakening the USA themselves! Think of
it: 6 months plus into the Trump administration
the USA has already managed to directly threaten
Iran, Syria, the DPRK and in all cases with
exactly zero results. Worse, Trump’s behavior
towards Europe and the anti-Trump propaganda
inside Europe has now put the EU and the US on a
collision course. This is absolutely amazing:
for the Russians the current tensions between
the EU and the USA are a dream come true and yet
they had absolutely nothing to do with it – it
was all done by the self-defeating stupidity of
the Americans who created this situation
completely ex nihilo!
So
while Kim Jong-un fires missiles on the 4th of
July, the Syrian Army is closing in on Deir
ez-Zor, the Ukraine is turning into Somalia, the
Russian economy is back to growth and Putin’s
popularity is as high as ever, the Neocons are
totally freaking out and, as is typical of a
person losing control, they don’t do things
which would make sense but do what they are used
to doing: slapping sanctions (even if they are
totally ineffective) and sending messages (even
if they are totally ignored). In other words,
the Neocons are now engaging in magical
thinking, the deliberately chose to delude
themselves about their power and influence and
they are coping with their full-spectrum failure
at everything by pretending that their votes in
Congress matter. They truth is – they don’t.
Here is
where we need to turn to the other misconception
in this matter, that the Russian reaction to
these latest sanctions is really about these
sanctions. It is not.
First, let’s tackle the myth that these
sanctions are hurting Russia. They really
don’t. Even the 100% russophobic Bloomberg is
beginning to realize that, if anything, all
these sanctions have made both Putin and Russia
stronger.
Second, there is the issue of timing: instead of
slapping on some counter-sanctions the Russians
suddenly decided to dramatically reduce the US
diplomatic personnel in Russia and confiscate a
two US diplomatic facilities in a clear
retaliation for the expulsion of Russian
diplomats and seizure of Russian diplomatic
facilities by Obama last year. Why now?
Many
observers say that the Russians are “naive”
about the West and the USA, that Putin was
“hoping” for better relations and that this hope
was paralyzing him. Others say that Putin is
“weak” or even “in cahoots” with the West. This
is all total nonsense.
People
tend to forget that Putin was an officer in the
foreign intelligence branch of the KGB, the
so-called “First Main Directorate” (PGU).
Furthermore, Putin has recently revealed that he
worked in the highly secretive “Directorate S”
of the PGU and he was in charge of contacts with
a network of illegal Soviet spies in
East-Germany (were Putin was under the official
cover of Director of the USSR-GDR Friendship
House). If the PGU was the “elite of the elite”
of the KGB, and its most secretive part, then
the “Directorate S” was the “elite of the elite”
of the PGU and its most secretive part. This is
most definitely not a career for “naive” or
“weak” people, to put it mildly! First and
foremost, PGU officers were “specialists of the
West” in general, and of the United States
especially because the USA was always officially
considered as the “main enemy” (even if most PGU
officers personally considered the British as
their most capable, dangerous and devious
adversary). Considering the superb level of
education and training given to these officers,
I would argue that the
PGU
officers were amongst the best experts of the
West anywhere in the world. Their
survival and the survival of their colleagues
depended on their correct understanding of the
western world. As for Putin personally, he has
always taken action in a very deliberate and
measured way and there is no reason to assume
that this time around the latest US sanctions
have suddenly resulted in some kind of emotional
outburst in the Kremlin. You can be darn sure
that this latest Russian reaction is the result
of very carefully arrived to conclusion and the
formulation of a very precise and long-term
objective.
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I
submit that the key to the correct understanding
of the Russian response is in the fact that the
latest US sanctions contain an absolutely
unprecedented and, frankly, shocking feature:
the new measures strip the President from the
authority to revoke the sanctions. In practical
terms, if Trump wanted to life any of these
sanctions, he would have to send an official
letter to Congress which would then have 30 days
to approve or reject the proposed action. In
other words, the Congress has now hijacked the
power of the Presidency to conduct foreign
policy and taken upon itself to micromanage the
US foreign policy.
That,
my friends, is clearly a constitutional coup
d’état and a gross violation of the principles
of separation of powers which is at the very
core of the US political system.
It also
is a telling testimony to the utter depravity of
the US Congress which took no such measures when
Presidents bypass Congress and started wars
without the needed congressional authority, but
which is now overtly taking over the US foreign
policy to prevent the risk of “peace breaking
out” between Russia and the USA.
And
Trump’s reaction?
He
declared that he would sign the bill.
Yes,
the man is willing to put his signature on the
text which represents an illegal coup d’état
against this own authority and against the
Constitution which he swore to uphold.
With
this in mind, the Russian reaction is quite
simple and understandable: they have given up on
Trump.
Not
that they ever had much hope in him, but they
always strongly felt that the election of Trump
might maybe provide the world with a truly
historical opportunity to change the disastrous
dynamic initiated by the Neocons under Obama and
maybe return the international relations to a
semblance of sanity. Alas, this did not happen,
Trump turned out to be an overcooked noodle
whose only real achievement was to express his
thoughts in 140 characters or less. But the one
crucial, vital, thing which Trump absolutely
needed to succeed in – mercilessly crushing the
Neocons – he totally failed to achieve. Worse,
his only reaction to their multi-dimensional
attempts at overthrowing him were each time met
with clumsy attempts at appeasing them.
For
Russia is means that President Trump has now
been replaced by “President Congress”.
Since
it is absolutely impossible to get anything done
with this Congress anyway, the Russians will now
engage in unilaterally beneficial measures such
as dramatically reducing the number of US
diplomats in Russia. For the Kremlin, these
sanctions are no so much an unacceptable
provocation has an ideal pretext to move on a
number of Russian internal policies. Getting
rid of US employees in Russia is just a first
step.
Next, Russia will use the frankly erratic
behavior of the Americans to proclaim urbi
et orbi that the Americans are
irresponsible, incapable of adult
decision-making and basically “gone fishing”.
The Russians already did that much when they
declared that the Obama-Kerry team was
недоговороспособны (nedogovorosposobny: “non
agreement capable”, more about this concept
here). Now
with Trump signing his own constitutional
demise, Tillerson unable to get UN Nikki to shut
the hell up and Mattis and McMaster fighting
over delusional plans to stop “not winning” in
Afghanistan, the Obama-Kerry teams starts to
look almost adult.
Frankly, for the Russians now is the time to
move on.
I
predict that the Neocon-crazies will not stop
until they impeach Trump. I furthermore predict
that the USA will not launch any major military
interventions (if only because the USA has run
out of countries it can safely and easily
attack). Some “pretend interventions” (like the
ill-fated missile strike on Syria) remain, of
course, quite possible and even likely. This
internal slow-mo coup against Trump will absorb
the vast majority of the energy to get anything
done, and leave foreign policy as simply another
byproduct of internal US politics.
The East-Europeans are now totally stuck. They
will continue to haplessly observe the unfolding
Ukrainian disaster while playing at silly games
pretending to be tough on Russia (the latest
example of that kind of “barking from behind a
fence” can be seen in the rather pathetic
closure of the Romanian air space
to a civilian aircraft with Russian Vice-Premier
Dmitri Rogozin amongst the passengers). The
real (West) Europeans will gradually come back
to their senses and begin making deals with
Russia. Even France’s Emmanuel
Macron de Rothschild will probably prove a more
adult partner than The Donald.
But the
real action will be elsewhere – in the South,
the East and the Far-East. The simple truth is
that the world cannot simply wait for the
Americans to come back to their senses. There
are a lot of crucial issues which need to be
urgently tackled, a lot of immense projects
which need to be worked on, and a fundamentally
new and profoundly different multi-polar world
which needs to be strengthened. If the
Americans want to basically recuse themselves
from it all, if they want to bring down the
constitutional order which their Founding
Fathers created and if they want to solely
operate in the delusional realm which has no
bearing on reality – that is both their right
and their problem.
Washington DC is starting to look like a
kindergarten on LSD – something both funny and
disgusting. Predictably, the kids don’t look
too bright: a mix of bullies and spineless
idiots. Some of them have their fingers on a
nuclear button, and that is outright scary.
What the adults need to do now is to figure out
a way of keeping the kids busy and distracted so
they don’t press the damn button by mistake.
And wait. Wait for the inevitable reaction of a
country which is so much more and better than
its rulers and which now desperately needs a
real
patriot to stop
Witches’ Sabbath
in Washington DC.
I will
end this column on a personal note. I just
crossed the USA, literally, from the Rogue River
in Oregon to East Central Florida. During that
long trip I did not only see breathtakingly
beautiful sights, but also plenty of beautiful
people who oppose the satanic ball in DC with
every fiber of their being and who want their
country to be free from the degenerate demonic
powers which have taken over the federal
government. I have now lived a total of 20
years in the USA and I have learned to love and
deeply appreciate the many kind, decent,
honorable and simply beautiful people who live
here. Far from seeing the American people as
enemies of Russia, I see them has natural
allies, if only because we have the same enemy
(the Neocons in DC) and absolutely no objective
reasons for conflict, none whatsoever.
Moreover, in many ways Americans and Russians
are very much alike, sometimes in comical ways.
Just as during the Cold War I never lost hope in
the Russian people, I now refuse to lose hope in
the American people. Yes, the US federal
government is disgusting, evil, ugly, stupid,
degenerate and outright satanic, but the people
of the USA are not. Far from it. I don’t know
if this country can survive the current regime
as one unitary USA or whether it will break up
in several quite different entities (something I
see as very possible), but I do believe that the
people of the USA will survive and overcome just
as the Russian people survived the horrors of
the 1980s and 1990s.
[Sidebar: after being accused of being a “paid
Putin agent” (Vladimir, please send me money!!),
a “Jew-lover” or even a “crypto-Jew” myself, a
Nazi and Anti-Semite (which decent and good
person has not been called an Anti-Semite” at
least once in his/her life), a Communist and a
Muslim (or, at least, a “Muslim propagandist”),
I will now be called an “USA lover”. Fine.
Guilty as charged! I do love this country very
much, as I do love its people. In fact, my
heart often breaks for them and for the immense
sufferings the Anglo-Zionist Empire also
inflicts upon them. In the fight between the
people of the USA and the Empire I
unapologetically side with the people whom I see
as friends, allies and even brothers.]
Right
now the USA appears to be plunging into a
precipice very similar to the one the Ukraine
has plunged into (which is unsurprising, really,
the same people inflicting the same disasters on
whatever country they infect with their
presence). The big difference is that immense
and untapped potential of the USA to bounce
back. There might not even be a Ukraine in 10
years, but there will most definitely be a USA,
albeit maybe a very different one or even maybe
several successor states.
But for
the time being, I can only repeat what
Floridians say when a hurricane comes barreling
down on them: “hunker down” and brace for some
very difficult and dangerous times to come.
The Essential Saker: from the
trenches of the emerging multipolar world
This
article was first published by
The Saker
-
The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
