Bulletins and News Discussion from April 15th to April 21st, 2024 - Between The Darkness And The Dawn, There Rises A Red Star

Image is of Iranian missiles flying over the Knesset, the Israeli parliament building in Jerusalem.

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I can’t find an article that explicits says so, but it looks like by my math every House democrat voted in favor of sending tens of billions of $ to Ukraine and Taiwan. So that includes AOC but also Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.
It could be as simple as these “progressives” don’t want to upset the apple cart with DNC leadership; or have to explain why they broke from the party. Possible - but unlikely - that these social fascists recognize how important US and NATO hegemony is the preserve imperial spoils.
Honestly though, I feel like the answer is as simple as:
USA good
Russia bad
China bad
I was watching the super lib “Handmaids Tale” last night (not really by choice). Gilead - the former USA turned into an evil religious conservative state - shoots down some planes from the old, “good” US government. One of the Gilead leaders says “we’ve already been congratulated by the Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans for sticking it to the Americans”. The episode finished with a schmaltzy scene of Americans reciting the pledge of allegiance. And made me think… libs really just see Russia and China as “bad”, and are utterly incapable of seeing the USA as anything other the good guys who occasionally get it wrong but it’s nobody’s fault, really. Russia and China bad because “authoritarianism” and any reason they have for hating us isn’t based on material reality but because they hate the goodness we represent.
I have met a few House reps in my life, and know people who know some of them even better. I can tell you with a high level of confidence that these people as group don’t have a level of geopolitical understanding that’s any higher than your typical college-educated American. This news megathread alone operates on a level these people will never think at. They cannot (and refuse to) see American imperialism. The US is good and these “authoritarian” countries are bad. NATO keeps the world safe. Taiwan should be free. These cliches are the terms in which libs - including those who make policy decisions - think at and it never goes beyond that.
- I can’t find an article that explicits says so, but it looks like by my math every House democrat voted in favor of sending tens of billions of $ to Ukraine and Taiwan.
  While all Democrats voted in favor of aid to Ukraine and all but Ms. Tlaib supported funding to Taiwan, 37 left-leaning Democrats defected to vote against the Israel aid bill.
  NYT
  So yes the "progressives" voted against Israel but for Ukraine and Taiwan. Tlaib voted for Ukraine but didn't vote on Taiwan.
  The episode finished with a schmaltzy scene of Americans reciting the pledge of allegiance. And made me think… libs really just see Russia and China as “bad”, and are utterly incapable of seeing the USA as anything other the good guys who occasionally get it wrong but it’s nobody’s fault, really.
  This has been pretty obvious to communists since WW1... Anyone to the right of communists is like this.
- I can tell you with a high level of confidence that these people as group don’t have a level of geopolitical understanding that’s any higher than your typical college-educated American.
  This is my experience with British MPs too. In fact, much less so that your typical college educated Brit now, because all they got taught then was end of history, totalitarianism defeated, freedom wins, prosperity forever. This isn't to let them off the hook though, because they choose to be fundamentally uncurious and are incentivised and rewarded for ignorantly spouting whatever their supposed betters in the political heirarchy tell them to.
- I can tell you with a high level of confidence that these people as group don’t have a level of geopolitical understanding that’s any higher than your typical college-educated American. They cannot (and refuse to) see American imperialism
  Michael Hudson was hired by a neocon institute to explain American imperialism and dollar hegemony to the US president, and the CIA was the largest customer base for his books explaining those things lol.
- When people meet Senators and House Reps, they come away with wildly different impressions. Some people come away thinking, "oh thank God that competent person is running that committee" (libs think this), others "Fuck that evil competent imperialist running that committee", others, "wow that person is just a fool".
  They're usually a little of all the above. Some are particularly competent or incompetent, malicious or just foolish, but most are a mix. They're "good" at some things, bad at most other things, and choose to do evil both knowingly and explicitly and knowingly due to deliberate incuriosity. They get into the habit of lying to their constituents because honestly answering hard questions might tank their next campaign. They learn who butters their bread very quickly and tell themselves that despite being sellouts if they weren't in office it would be someone worse. And of course some are purely self-interested and don't care about the politics or ethics at all.
  Anyways, there are House Reps and Senators that do have a much better understanding. They tend to chair or play second fiddle to the chair on the committees most relevant to funding for the imperial apparatus and manufacturing consent for war, sanctions, etc. They get their understanding from years of intel briefings and dodging hard questions from their constituents. They're not experts, and don't need to be - their benefit to the system is to do as they're told - but they do actually know that when they press the sanctions button it means dead children and when they bring home the MIC bacon to their district it's for offensive military actions. They know that escalation is not defense and that they're carrying out an effort to meet strategic goals that hurt other people in order to benefit US business interests. And they'll fight you to the death if you threaten their career.
  
  The key is that there's variation, it's not just one thing. The way in which there's one thing is that capital pressures all of them, but they can range from a lever-pulling fool to a competent technocrat intentionally helping the imperial machine.
  AOC is surely incompetent in many ways but she is also cynical and playing on "left" language to do her thing. That's not being a lever-pulling idiot. And she's been in the neighborhood of intelligence for some time.
  
  Yeah 100%. The house is for the pleb political class, lots are incompetent fail children that grab a few corporate sponsors and ride them the whole way.
  
  This was literally exactly what Madison Cawthorne was, except that guy was so fucking stupid and bigoted that he couldn't even be bothered to show up for the votes the local landlord coalition paid him to show up for.
  He just killed his position for clout then immediately got his leash yanked back and they euthanized him after one term. Can't even show his face in this district anymore and had to move to Florida.
  
  And so it goes right down to the local level, but instead of the "make war" button, they have the "unleash the cops" (murder homeless people) button, and instead of the "sanctions" button, they have the "defund anything that isn't a private subsidy" (destroy schools) button.
- American Civic Religion. It's a hell of a thing.

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