Foreign policy should always be about what’s in your national interest. Strategic treaties should be entered into with the idea that both sides gain some benefit, but the benefits might be different to both sides. We might make a mutual defense treaty with a country and the other country thinks they are gaining the protection of the United States, while our goal is to control the other countries potential belligerence or merely to expand our global reach.
When all is well, everyone is happy and the treaties never get tested. When things get “testy” we learn that both sides had very different ideas about what the mutual defense really means. When you have a country like the US that makes lots of treaties, we sometimes have to make hard decisions that upset our partners. The North Korea conflict right now is stressing our treaty relations.
Obviously we have treaties with South Korea and Japan. In responding to threats from North Korea, we can’t just negotiate with North Korea without dealing with our treaties with South Korea and Japan. In the defense of South Korea and Japan what happens if we can’t defend them both?
Japan is starting to have serious discussions about whether they can depend on the US, or do they need their own independent capability. While many in the US might say that this is a good thing, we need to understand politics in Asia. Most Americans don’t realize that in the run up to WWII, Japan occupied EVERY country in Asia except one (Thailand). Polls throughout Asia consistently show that Asians welcome the US military in Asian as a counterpoint to Japan! Asians have longer memories than Americans.. …
RT America is the American arm of the state owned Russia Today news outlet. It operates just like the BBC (a state run news outlet), Germany’s Deutsche Welle (stated goal to convey Germany as a liberal state, as part of the government’s foreign affairs function), and many others.
A strong argument can be made that as important as it is for countries to share what they think is important about them, it’s even more important for America to learn what foreign countries to think is important. Heck America must have thought it was important seeing as the CIA has been funding and operating 20 monitoring stations around the world to monitor, translate and disseminate openly available news and information from media sources outside the United States. It used to be called the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and now it’s called the Open Source Center.
Now our government has decided that this information is only for them and not for us. Our government has decided that RT needs to register as a foreign agent that is disseminating propaganda in the United States/ I’m sure this will end well. The repercussions from Russia will surely include similar sanctions against American news outlets like Fox, CNN, ABC, etc.
Does anyone really think this is good for Americans? It certainly is good for the Neos and the deep state. Knowledge is good. Restricting knowledge is never a good thing.
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Catalonia used to be its own country but lost wars to Spain and became part of Spain in 1716. It’s the economic powerhouse of Spain and has had many revolutionary uprisings over the past two centuries. They use their own language. In the 1930s Spain allowed them autonomy. During Francisco Franco’s rule, the autonomy was revoked and they were even forbidden from using their own language. After Franco’s death in 1975 Catalonia adopted a new statute of autonomy. Spain contested this. In 2014 92% of the people of Catalonia passed a referendum for independence. The referendum included a plan for secession by 2017. Spanish courts declared the vote and plan illegal. A recent vote on 1 Oct was an independence referendum. The vote was met with much violence by the Spanish government to include shooting people who tried to vote and physical beatings of women on the street who tried to vote. I’m sure the deep state governments around the world watched closely to see how much violence they could get away with in civilized society.…
Politician screws up and resigns. Not really news. What I want to address is the parting comments from the Speaker of House, Paul Ryan to the resignation. For those who aren’t aware, Pennsylvania GOP Rep Tim Murphy was having an affair She got pregnant and this staunch anti-abortion foe asked her to get an abortion. Here’s what Ryan had to say upon the resignation: “We thank him for his many years of tireless work on mental health issues here in Congress and his service to the country as a naval reserve officer.” In other words, we’re sorry you got caught and we’ll miss you. That’s what’s wrong with Washington and politics. No honor, no shame. Here is the text of what I would have said: “Rep Murphy resigned today. In his 15 years of service he authored and pushed through some laws that were good for America. All of that goodness does not overcome the fact that he dishonored his wife and family by violating the oath of marriage. He dishonored the US House of Representatives, and is a disgrace to the great people of Pennsylvania. If it was within my power, he would be stripped of all future benefits that is associated with true and faithful service as a US Congressman. As Congressmen we all must be held to the highest ethical standards, and in this case Representative Murphy failed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family at this time.…
As the days pass since the Vegas shooting, knowledge of the “who, what, where and why” seems to be trickling out slowly. In our society that just leads to tons and tons of conspiracy theories and other ideas and suggestions. Here’s ours.…
These folks are not "conspiracy folks". In fact, they are some of the more reasoned folks on the web. When they see flaws, it’s time to pay attention.…
I’ve been one of the few bloggers out there that has been covering the Catalonia issues. As is usually the case, this is much bigger than merely Spain and its citizens. This has the potential to destroy the EU, and the deep state is scared to its core.…
The move by many in the world to get away from the US Dollar standard continues. Unlike the US and it’s financing arm, the IMF, the Chinese usually demand extra collateral from loans and investments.
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International relations and geo political crisis usually have ramifications that go well beyond what we’re shown or lead to believe. The “crisis” with North Korea has preoccupied the media for years now. In the past few months, it’s threatened relations between the US, China, Russia and South Korea. And it’s distracted South Korea from its internal economic problems. Problems that got their President impeached and jailed. Who wins when South Korea’s economy flounders?…
I have some friends that legally immigrated from Pakistan many years ago. For those who are old enough to remember the Cold War, Pakistan used to be one of our best friends in the region. We talk about politics from time to time and one time he asked me a question, “why does the US allow lawyers to be politicians?” He went on to tell me that Pakistan didn’t allow that. That society works best when people understand the law. Lawyers want people to be ignorant of the law so that they can make money. Words of wisdom.
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