I had this email today from Dave Hansell, a frequent Steel City commentator:
During the UEFA Europa League Round of 16 second leg football match between Red Star Belgrade and Glasgow Rangers at the Rajko Mitic Stadium, in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 18 2022, thousands of Serbian soccer fans displayed five huge banners listing over 20 countries which have been invaded by the US and NATO.
Can’t remember seeing this on any of the sports reporting in the UK.
Very odd. They are usually very gung ho about virtue signalling.
Photo: AFP
While we’re on the subject of the oddly selective, Anthony Blinken has suddenly noticed human rights abuses in India, declaring last night that:
we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials
Gosh, really! Whodathunkit? Narendra Modi and his right wing Hindu nationalist chums have always struck me as the last word in pleasantly accommodating.
You don’t suppose this sudden frosting of DC-Delhi relations might be related to India declining to join the lynch mob sanctions alliance against Russia, do you? Caitlin Johnstone’s post today cites this Bloomberg offering from last week:
President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser said the administration has warned India against aligning itself with Russia, and that U.S. officials have been “disappointed” with some of New Delhi’s reaction to the Ukraine invasion.
“There are certainly areas where we have been disappointed by both China and India’s decisions, in the context of the invasion,” the director of the White House National Economic Council, Brian Deese, told reporters at a breakfast Wednesday hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
The U.S. has told India that the consequences of a “more explicit strategic alignment” with Moscow would be “significant and long-term,” he said
Nah. Pure coincidence. Nothing to see here – move along please.
* * *
I remember when MBS of KSA were in talks with Russia re the sale of their defence system in preference to that of the US. The US was suddenly whirling around for any mud(other than the Yemen horror largely ignored by the very concerned west who had done nothing about it)to sling at MBS. Lo and behold, Jamal? Kashoggi got himself murdered apparently by the Saudis. And never one to miss an opportunistic event like the murder of someone they couldn’t give a flying **** about, the US made a right royal public scene about it and widely promoted with the deftness of adroit players in matters relating to accusing others of what they themselves are guilty of, made hay .
Needless to say, MBS decided to buy the much more expensive and pretty much useless THAAD system from the US, after which all was well and the unfortunate Kashoggi’s demise was effectively forgotten and swept under the carpet after weeks of headlining.
Would you believe it? (That was a rhetorical question)
Cheers Phillip
:)Susan
Yes, Riyadh’s last minute switch from buying Russia’s S400 system in favour of further enriching America’s military industrial complex hadn’t escaped my attention, Susan.
I dare say carrot was used as much as stick. I’ll hazard that, in addition to DC’s dropping its sudden bout of moral indignation over Khashoggi being turned into a jigsaw puzzle, Constantinople style, Riyadh was able to negotiate further goodies at the expense of US taxpayers.
At a more general level the global south – albeit its premier league economies – seems to be enjoying the leverage afforded by the fading, just two decades into the “Project for a New American Century”, of US exceptionalism in a unipolar dollarised world.
In similar vein on the current theme the cartoon in this recent tweet from Pepe Escobar says a great deal:
https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1513798440358195201?s=20&t=VlOcP2MVa_DsAlJT91vdEw
The Yandex translation being:
“In the face of so many hordes Europe cannot turn the other way!”
Google Translate gives me, “in the face of so much horror, Europe cannot turn away”
Thanks anyway Dave. I’ve gotten a post out of it!
Oh BTW. Pleasantly accommodating? Nearly fell of my chair laughing.
🙂
Susan
Hope you managed to remain seated. I wouldn’t want your cracked ribs on my conscience – I need my six hours a night!
Long due post but just wanted to let you know how much I now get from your posts and all the wonderful and articulate people that participate in this forum. It’s taken the scamdemic plus a lot of investigation and dropping of past conclusions to finally start to see with propre lenses what is really going on in this world and how a sad empire is staining everything it touches on this planet in order to fulfill its selfish needs. Like a vampire, its appetite for blood is never sustained for very long. I dare say that my views have been turned upside down and that it’s now starting to make sense. Thank you for your dedication and amazing ability to decrypt and transmit your understanding of what’s really going on behind the blooded curtains of deceit and lies that seem to have thickened like never before in recent times. Time for a multipolar World to emerge before we all suffocate and die under the duress.
To a multipolar world, Alain. I’ll drink to that.
Well said Alain and an honest chap to boot!
I didn’t start to rebel against the agitprop until I was in my late thirties and really did not fully understand what was actually going on and how I was being manipulated into believing white was black. Thankfully those days of cognitive dissonance are behind me and I am a devotee of people like Phil and others he also respects so greatly. I’m not proud of being an ignoramus for all those earlier years, but I like to think I have made amends for my failures since then.
We most certainly need that multipolar world and who knows?. Perhaps the US has gone too far this time. I shan’t read too much into the reports that Riyadh and UAE are refusing to take Biden’s calls because it is likely MBS is just playing the game to get the concessions he is after regarding Yemen. I realise I’m being daftly optimistic, but other signs of disobedience and servility towards the USA may indeed be a sign of the waning of US influence.