Is U.S. Geopolitical Strategy Experiencing a Monumental Shift?

 

The defining question about global order for this generation is whether China and the United States can escape Thucydides’s Trap. The Greek historian’s metaphor reminds us of the attendant dangers when a rising power rivals a ruling power—as Athens challenged Sparta in ancient Greece, or as Germany did Britain a century ago. Most such contests have ended badly, often for both nations, a team of mine at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has concluded after analyzing the historical record. In 12 of 16 cases over the past 500 years, the result was war. When the parties avoided war, it required huge, painful adjustments in attitudes and actions on the part not just of the challenger but also the challenged.

– From Graham Allison’s article: The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?

For the past two years, my geopolitical assumption has been that the Trump administration would more or less continue along with the reckless, shortsighted, and disastrous neocon/neoliberal interventionist foreign policy of the past two decades focused on undeclared regime change and proxy wars across the world, especially the Middle East. Given his strange obsession with Iran, I figured he’d start a conflict there and that this conflict would end up a bigger disaster than Iraq.

This is Your New (Acting) Attorney General

(Photo Credit: Matt Whitaker/Twitter)

 

Evangelical Christian former chief of staff Matt Whitaker can do things now-resigned Jeff Sessions couldn’t (besides football).

UPDATE: CNN is reporting that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has been summoned to the White House. The Justice Department says the meeting was “pre-planned.” One America News reporter Emerald Robinson, however, is reporting that sources have told her Rosenstein will resign as well “within next 48 hours.”

President Donald Trump announced this afternoon that Jeff Sessions has tendered his resignation, adding that he has appointed the attorney general’s chief of staff to serve in an interim capacity.

Uranium One: FBI Refuses To Release Three-Dozen Secret Memos Involving Clintons, Russia And Obama

 

The FBI has refused to declassify 37 pages of materials related to the Uranium One deal, citing national security and the privacy issues, reports The Hill‘s John Solomon. The documents are thought to contain information regarding then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s involvement, as well as the Obama administration’s knowledge of the controversial deal.

The existence of the documents became known after a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release of related material contained an entry entitled “Uranium One Transaction.” The publicly available portion includes benign material, such as public letters from members of Congress who demanded information on the Uranium One approval. 

Watching America’s Collapse

Existence is running out for America

In the 1950s and 1960s the United States was a vibrant society. Upward mobility was strong, and the middle class expanded. During the 1970s the internal contradiction in Keynesian demand management resulted in stagflation. Reagan’s supply-side economic policy cured that. With a sound economy under him, Reagan was able to pressure the Soviet government, which was unable to solve its economic problem, to negotiate the end of the cold war.

Mexican Radio to Beam Chinese Propaganda

 

U.S. probes links between buyer of Tijuana station and China’s Phoenix TV

A large Spanish-language radio station in Mexico will soon begin broadcasting in Chinese in a deal critics say will bring Beijing propaganda to Chinese Americans throughout Southern California.

A Federal Communications Commission filing on the sale of radio station XEWW AM 690 radio near Tijuana reveals the buyer has ties to Phoenix Satellite Television US, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Phoenix TV.

US Deep State Hits Putin-Trump Summit with Preemptive Strike as Russiagate Fizzles Out

 

In order to save face over an investigation that has failed to produce a smoking gun regarding charges of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the US elite have opted to indict Russian intelligence officials for election meddling. Yet the evidence, once again, is missing in action.

Amid harsh criticism at home for its failure to provide proof of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election, at the very same time that Trump is preparing to meet with Vladimir Putin for a summit in Helsinki, the US Deep State has resorted to playing spoiler with the most overplayed hand in modern political history: the ‘Blame Russia’ card.

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 12 members of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, also known as GRU, for “conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.”

Adam Schiff: FISA Memo Could Lead To Firings Of Mueller, Rosenstein

 

Stocks are red. Trey Gowdy is abruptly retiring from Congress. Everybody is laughing at what looks like drool dribbling from the edge of Joe Kennedy’s mouth during his rebuttal to last night’s State of the Union.

And along comes Reuters, dropping a bombshell headline that, if accurate, could shift the narrative of the multiple investigations involving Russia and obstruction of justice.

Rep. Gaetz: “We Are at Risk of a Coup d’Etat in This Country” Unless Mueller Resigns or is Fired

 

House Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) called on Special Counsel Robert Mueller — who is investigating alleged Russian collusion with the Trump 2016 campaign — to resign because there is an apparent conflict of interest involving Mueller and an alleged campaign to undermine the president and force him from office.

Rep. Gaetz also called for a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One scandal, the Clinton Foundation, and the Fusion GPS firm, which produced the “Russian dossier” alleging Trump-Russia collusion and which was paid by Obama for America’s law firm, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation is, in part, based on the Fusion GPS-provided “dossier.”