Land Destroyer: US Media Sells Disorder in Eastern Syria

Land Destroyer: US Media Sells Disorder in Eastern Syria: US "progress" in eastern Syria is a prelude to protracted conflict, not peace and prosperity.  July 2, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - ...

Politics is done in the darkness audio for 5/19/17

https://johnyorks.tumblr.com/post/160891307813/j-politics-is-done-in-the-darkness-51917

Politics is done in the darkness for 5/4/17

https://johnyorks.tumblr.com/post/160301280858/like-to-do-things-different-ways-sometimes-so-for

The coup against Trump

politics is done in the darkness 1/27/17

From CounterPunch on Syria

"It is a flagrant and ubiquitous omission to talk about the Russian military intervention in Syria without mentioning the American threat that preceded it." link

Dr. Morris Berman: Welcome to Trumpland and the Post-American World

(S)election 2016 briefly

Haven't posted here in a while, and thought this was the place for a brief post about the upcoming elections. We are in big trouble. And, in spite of the overwhelming conventional wisdom that has Clinton as the lesser evil, that likely is not the case. As Assange stated, "A vote for Hillary is a vote for endless, stupid war." While Trump at least wants to get along with Russia, Clinton wants to establish a no fly zone over Syria, which will mean direct confrontation with Russia. This is very dangerous.

And Trump is a disaster in every other way..... We the people, no matter the outcome, have already lost this election.

James Corbet on R2p

This one was really good. And it is true that both Amy Goodman and Chomsky were terrible on the Libyan war....

politics is done in the darkness podcast #7

After far too long, here is the 7th (I think) politics is done in the darkness podcast.

Ellen Brown says "print the money"

This comes form information clearinghouse. Ellen Brown says she agrees with, of all people, Trump, at least when he says, "print the money." I used to be completely on the other side of that debate, but Ellen Brown and others have changed my mind a little bit.

For instance, and this a bit tangential, for too long Hamilton has been portrayed as the villain, and Jefferson the hero - but is that really so? Probably not.

My Two Cents #6

Latest "My Two Cents" political vlog style video.

Politics is done in the Darkness podcast # 6

I've decided to continue my "Politics is Done in the Darkness" podcast/ audio-cast, but as audio only, so not something with an accompanying YouTube video. I will still be making the "My Two Cents" videos, which I think of as specifically for YouTube, and also via blogs and such.

This latest covers topics such as the peace agreement in Syria, the ongoing tragedy of what the west did to Libya, and some open-ended thoughts on the level to which our votes count, or do not count.

The possibility of the predetermined presidential election

More than a year ago, because Webster Tarpley began talking about it on his show, and on other internet radio shows, I became aware of a politician called, Ben Sasse. The interesting thing about Ben Sasse is that there are those who claim, as far back as Sasse's college days, he would tend to introduce himself as the 45th President of the United States.

For a time, I didn't think too much about that story. After all, there was no sign of Ben Sasse on the radar as a candidate for president.

The days and weeks went on, and Trump became the front runner in the campaign on the Republican side. Suddenly, a low rumble began. One might just make it out coming through the media cacophony. It was the leader of the opposition to the Trump Republicans, Ben Sasse, gaining notoriety. Then came the movement to draft him into a third party, and run him as a candidate for president. As of this writing, he claims he would never do that.

Will he run for president after all? Will he become president? I don't know. I do know this video of Tarpley explaining the story about these allegations of a man who introduces himself as the 45th president long before the election campaign for that position is interesting to say the least.

Strange Geopolitical Relationships Continue To Unfold

Iran and Turkey call for joint efforts against terrorism Press TV tells us. What? Wait, were they not on opposite sides of the fence regarding the situation in Syria?

As an aside, but still relevant to the point,we are constantly told that Russia and Iran are, more or less, allies of of a sort. But is this true? After all, there were several times it was reported that Russia would sell the s-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran, but then didn't. It has recently been reported that the Russians will now fulfill the contract to provide the s-300 to Iran. Or, depending on which story one is to believe, perhaps they already have.  These things are hard to know with any certainty. The point is, the Russians had been dragging their feet regarding the s-300 sale to Iran for a very long time. Would they do this if they were such great allies?

Does it make sense that at the time Turkey is literally sending artillery shells into Syria, an ally of Iran, and Russia is at odds with Turkey as a result of the Turkish government's decision to down a Russian military plane several weeks ago, that Iran would discuss "joint efforts against terrorism?"

But maybe it does make sense in a way, as both Iran and Turkey, at various times and to various degrees, have had conflict with the Kurds.  After all, the Syrian Kurds are the ones that Turkey is mainly shelling.

But wait, now we see we must put Azerbaijan into the mix. Azerbaijan? It is a tangled web that is weaved as politics make strange bedfellows during the age of declining American power, and the rise of the multi-polar world. Who is on the side of whom?

(*note: This article captures what I tried to convey about the s-300 deal.)

Addition of podcast archive player in side links.

I've added a player that will play all of my archived podcasts. It basically will play one at a time in order, but one could skip through them as one likes, if one is inclined to take a listen. I've changed my mind slightly again, and I will continue doing the "Politics is done in the darkness" podcast, however - only in audio format. I feel inclined to focus more on this particular blog, as like many others, I feel it is important enough to document the slow decline of the American Empire. I believe this is a decline that will not be reversed, but I could be wrong about that. Either way, it is now important enough to me to do this, and have my thoughts on our decaying society documented, if only for my own benefit. (*See archive player in side links)

Analysis from David Stockman

Although I am not a supporter of the Trump, this article makes a lot of sense. And it was worth it for the historical background alone. Link here.

On the"refugee crisis"

In one of his essays, I seem to recall that Gore Vidal pointed out that to really solve a political problem, one has to get to the root of the problem. In fact, if memory serves, he had a really clever definition of the word "root," which went back to either the Greek or Latin, well, root. I can't remember the definition well enough right now to summarize it here.

At any rate, what is at the root of the so- called, "refugee crisis," is the fact that the US and some other countries decided that "Assad must go" and attempted to overthrow his government, using mainly the same methods they used to overthrow the government of Libya. As an aside, notice how they now have to send military aviation into Libya again to wreck the lives of those poor people even further. This suggests that perhaps they did not get the outcome in Libya that was desired from the first military operation, a military operation, by the way, which was disguised as the "Arab Spring."

So, to solve the so-called "refugee crisis" the US must decide it isn't really intent on overthrowing Assad, and then, at the very least, allow the Russians, Syrians, and Iranians to rebuild the country, which will allow refugees to return home. Very simple, except the US, for some reason, can not let go of the idea that "Assad must go." This, even after it would seem that they must not have gotten what they wanted out of their Libya project, as evidenced by the fact that they have to send military aviation into Libya again.

The real question(s) is/are: Why does Assad have to go? Why did Qaddafi have to go? And, even, why did they believe Saddam Hussein had to go? (Even I think Saddam was far worse than either of the other two.) The "refugee crisis" could not exist if the west stopped creating refugees.

Very true but ominous article on Syria

This article by John Wright from CounterPunch via Information Clearing house gives the past background, and puts the big picture into perspective. However, what will the American and European elite do next regarding Syria? Will we finally accept being a nation among nations in a multi-polar world, or will war be expanded?

politics is done in the darkness #4

This is the latest audio/YouTube video of my series of podcasts (audio-casts really) named after this blog.