endless money and resources and human energy thrown at the merchants of death, and the boys and girls who want to play GI Joe
It is pathetic, truly, that in 2023, we are in advanced stages of Dementia. Collective Dementia, with a good co-occuring bout of Stockhold Syndrome, and, well numbing:
Robert Jay Lifton, author of Hiroshima in America: A History of Denial (co-authored with Greg Mitchell), among many other books. Lifton describes psychic numbing as “a diminished capacity or inclination to feel” prompted by “the completely unprecedented dimension of this revolution in technological destructiveness.”
So, I can quote Lifton, but alas, he is generationally and democratic party numb to his own country’s ugly use of EVERY weapon in the book, including the nukes, yet he yammers on over at Tom Dispatch about how unstable Putin is.
The idea of psychic numbing tied to technological aspects of nuke bombs has to be applied to a larger arena — the numbing of people like Lifton and Mitchel and others to the fact the USA is the world’s terrorist outfit, and that all these armchair stupidities about Putin and Russia and Ukraine the innocent, well, can we call Lifton and Mitchell stupid, and then James Carroll? Yes, these three people are vapid, as it has been proven time and time again that Ukraine has been used for decades as a proxy to set up nuclear weapons and conventional weapons closer and closer to Russia.
These fuckers buckle under their own hubris and Americana-ism. Nuland-Blinken-Kagan-Neocons-Neoliberals, they are the worst of the worst, yet these two fools at Tom Dispatch just smear the world with more lies, and their own psychic and intellectual numbness just get played more and more for those Democratic Foolish Fools.
JC: But this is what I call in my piece, the great revelation of the war in Ukraine: that the human future has been put in the hands of an unreliable wielder of power like Vladimir Putin. And Putin, by making this extremity clear and explicit, may be doing us a tremendous favor. And so did Donald Trump, who also made palpable what might happen, should a feckless, irresponsible, deeply immoral person possess this absolute power unchecked. Putin and Trump together reveal how urgent it is that we dismantle this structure of nuclear power that can be so readily abused.
RJL: Absolutely. And one couldn’t think of two more appropriate figures for teaching us that. Putin, motivated by a version of Russian fascism, wanting a great mystical Russian empire. And Trump, with his solipsistic—or self-enclosed—evaluation of everything. There couldn’t be two better examples of the mortal danger here. (source)
Disgust is all I can say abougt this interview above. Now compare this reality below with this armchair rhetorical wizards, Lifton’s.
It is an open secret that Talisman Sabre 2023 is in practice a live action role play (LARP) for war on Australia’s giant Pacific neighbour, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This is not stated openly, but anyone can reasonably surmise that during the military exercises Norfolk Island will double as Taiwan, as part of the duplicitous attempt by Washington to break Taiwan away from mainland China – even if it means World War III. Talisman Sabre is officially aimed at improving “inter-operability” with the US military, meaning the Pentagon will lead the charge into conflict with the PRC, sooner or later, with other “partner” nations bringing up the rear. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles baldly states that Talisman Sabre aims at a “stable Indo-Pacific through an upholding of the rules-based order”.[2] Needless to say, the “rules-based order” is a euphemism for US (United States of America) led imperialism, which makes its own rules and expects all other nations to follow them – even if they are not informed what the “rules” are supposed to be.
Washington and its quisling satraps are desperately attempting to resurrect the dominant role it held over the globe during the 20th century. (source)
Psychic numbing includes all of it coming from the mouths of the techno-fascists, the surveillence fucks, the crypto thieves, all thoe Blackrocks and Propaganda Putrids that make a Lifton, et al, so smug, so psychically dead.
Smug, elite, just tools for their own alternative form of existing in the world. First World Hellions.
So these anti-Putin folk, who are actually pro-nuclear weapons folks, just do not get the rest of the world:
NATO and its defenders claim it is strictly an alliance of “collective Western defence” and not a belligerent organization. But a review of its history finds that it has, for its entire existence, plotted and backed military actions against liberation movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The press materials for NATO’s most-recent Strategic Concept claim that NATO is neither a “threat” nor a force looking for “confrontations.”
Yet, the document itself notes that NATO has an explicit mandate to enlarge itself—to surround the countries it claims “disrupt” the “rules-based international order” with “integrated” land forces, naval power, and aerial power.
From its earliest days, NATO directly aided its members’ colonial conquests, from Asia, to Africa, to Latin America.
Psychic Blindness to reality, that’s the ticket.
And, dead man and two dead women walking, there, at the end of the Vilnius summit:
When the rest of the world is trying to cool tensions, the NATO alliance continues to follow the script of imperial expansion with victims of the war not high on its list of priorities. Wojcik quoted the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Amy Gutmann:
“We will show beyond a shadow of a doubt the ability and swiftness of our allied force in NATO as a first responder. I would be pretty surprised if any world leader was not taking note of what this shows in terms of the spirit of this alliance, which means the strength of this alliance.”
Gutmann shows more proof that peace is not a priority for the alliance, despite reassurances from U.S. officials that the U.S. supposedly prioritizes an avoidance of nuclear war. It is very odd, and cynical, that further fueling the Russia-Ukraine war is at the same time a way to avoid nuclear war. Quite the contrary.
Another imperial shill from the U.S., Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, said on TV, and Wojcik quoted, that it is “clear to the world that the U.S. military is the fiercest and most powerful in the world with a capability of dealing lethal blows that is greater than anyone else’s lethality.” Bragging about your military might while ignoring a chance for peace? Wormuth also made no mention of the victims of the war, Ukrainian and Russian.
Fuck these elite, east coast psychic pains in the ass:
Quoting from Solidarity magazine, in a piece written by Adam Adelpour, Mircea Geoana, NATO Deputy Secretary General, said in June 2022 that “NATO is a defensive alliance whose primary responsibility is to protect one billion citizens in Europe and North America. And “NATO exists to deter any aggression, defend our people, our democratic values, prevent conflict, and allow people to have ideas, to prosper and to fulfill their lives and their dreams.” Compared to this rhetoric, Adelpour wrote, “NATO’s history shows this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
NATO’s history shows this couldn’t be further from the truth. The alliance was established in 1949 as a tool for the US to exercise its imperial might. Following the Second World War the US emerged as the world’s biggest military, economic and political power. But it also faced competition from Russia, which had demonstrated its own military power during the world war and emerged with control over Eastern Europe.
NATO established US military bases and political influence permanently in Western Europe. From here it could limit Russian influence and prevent any European countries challenging the US.
NATO’s first secretary-general, the British officer Lord Ismay said the purpose of the alliance was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down.”
NATO was anything but democratic. It included the Portuguese Salazar dictatorship amongst its first 12 members.
When the Greek military launched a coup and seized power in 1967 the right-wing Greek Colonels had the backing of NATO until they were overthrown in 1974. France waged bloody wars to defend its colonial empire in Algeria and in Indochina while it was a NATO member, with US backing.
NATO also interfered in the domestic politics of its member states. During the Cold War NATO was also used to attack the left.
In the name of preparing for a potential Russian invasion, NATO organised a secret network of armed groups called the “Gladio” network. The network had links to the far-right and fascist groups and attempted to destabilise member countries to prevent the left coming to power. The Gladio network has been accused of carrying out bombings and massacres in Italy, and Gladio forces joined the 1967 coup in Greece. (source)
NaziLandia:
Regardless of assurances from NATO members, the real reasons for NATO’s belligerence are hardly mentioned, but there are exceptions.
For example, Adelpour wrote in Solidarity that former Bill Clinton adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski revealed the goals of U.S. policy in relation to NATO:
This is “to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence amongst the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected and to keep the barbarians from coming together.” Brzezinski was referring to Russia and China as “barbarians.” (source)
Fuck Lifton, et al.
Mali, Burkina Faso and the CNSP based in Niamey have cautioned ECOWAS, France and the United States to refrain from any attempt to reinstall the administration of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum
General Abdourahamane Tchiane, the chairman of the ruling military administration in the West African state of Niger, has rejected the call by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to relinquish power to the former President Mohamed Bazoum. (source)
(source)
Psychic Stupidity: Lifton. The rest of the world wants nothing of your background: WikiCIApedia:
Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16, 1926) is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.
Lifton was born in 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of businessman Harold A. Lifton, and Ciel Lifton née Roth. In 1942, he enrolled at Cornell University at the age of 16. He was admitted to New York Medical College in 1944, graduating in 1948.[1] He interned at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn in 1948–49. He did his psychiatric residence training at the Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York in 1949–51.
From 1951 to 1953, Lifton served as an Air Force psychiatrist in Japan and Korea, to which he later attributed his interest in war and politics. He has since worked as a teacher and researcher at the Washington School of Psychiatry, Harvard University, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he helped to found the Center for the Study of Human Violence.
He married the children’s writer Betty Jean Kirschner in 1952, and they had two children. She died in Boston on November 19, 2010, from complications of pneumonia. Lifton has said that cartooning is his avocation; he has published two books of humorous cartoons about birds.
Syria military escalation as U.S. increases pressure and the Niger coup
In demonstrations since the early days of the CNSP coup, people have been burning French flags, attacking symbols of colonial and neo-colonial rule while many carried both the Nigerien and Russian flags. Although there is no indication that the Russian Federation or the Wagner Group had a hand in the ascendancy of the CNSP to power, President Vladimir Putin recently announced his opposition to a western-backed military intervention in Niger. Putin urged the resolution of the conflict in Niger through dialogue and negotiations.
Overall, throughout the Sahel and other areas within the West Africa region, the economic situation is worsening. In Nigeria, which is the most populous state in Africa and designated as the continent’s largest economy, a food emergency was declared by President Tinubu.
The specter of sharply rising prices and food shortages prompted the two largest worker organizations, the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), to stage a national day of protest across the oil-rich state on August 2. President Tinubu met with the leadership of the union federations and agreed to grant some of their demands. Reports in the Nigerian press suggest that the mass actions by the unions will not continue as previously threatened by the NLC and TUC.
Therefore, the newly inaugurated administration of President Tinubu in Nigeria could very well be aggravating the social situation inside the country by threatening to deploy troops to Niger. Even the Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, whose country has troops along with Germany, France and the U.S. in Niger, proclaimed that a military intervention by the West to bring down the CNSP would result in charges of re-colonization.
Anti-imperialist and antiwar forces in the western industrialized states must oppose the military interventions by France, the U.S. and other NATO countries in Niger. Another disastrous invasion and occupation by the Pentagon and NATO will only create more displacement, underdevelopment and political divisions. (source)
Paul Haeder, Author 