This Is What Empire Looks Like

 

This Is What Empire Looks Like

by C.A. Matthews

...Mark Twain, William Jennings Bryan, and all those early anti-imperialists understood America had a choice: It would be empire abroad or democracy at home, but it could not be both. The choice is now bitterly obvious.

This leaves Americans with nothing left to believe in, nothing worth lifting a finger or even raising a voice to defend. As our militarists mull whether to reinstitute the draft to fill the ranks of the reluctant, we should consider: This is what empire looks like. --Patrick Lawrence: The Dialectic of the Draft

What does “empire” look like to you?

When you spot a homeless person wandering the streets of an urban setting, bags in hands and perhaps pushing an old shopping cart full of their earthly possessions, does the word “empire” and all that it implies spring to mind?

Whenever you encounter a crumbling bridge or a pot hole the size of the Grand Canyon as you commute to work, do you think: Wow. Isn’t it great that the US has invaded so many other countries and forced them to give up their resources so we can enjoy the best of everything here?

After you’ve gifted your last twenty bucks to a friend’s GoFundMe to help him pay for an operation he desperately needs, but he can’t afford since he has no health insurance, do you jump for joy upon reading a headline stating that Biden has given another $24 billion dollars to an endless proxy war?

Are you anxiously awaiting your turn to join or be drafted into the army so you can experience “survivable nuclear warfare” up close and personal in Ukraine, Iran, China or...?

Do you still call Juan Guaido “el presidente” of Venezuela? Did you support the blowing up of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, because you believe the US should keep it’s European allies dependent on us for the fuel to heat their homes and run their factories?

Whenever you read how Israel just blew up a home in Gaza full of little children does it bring tears of joy to your eyes because you figure all Palestinian nine-month olds are terrorists?

Are you ecstatic whenever you see the price of gasoline has jumped by another fifty cents? Are you happy to pay significantly more for the same bag of groceries that you purchased last month? Is paying your landlord yet another rental increase the most beautiful thing in the world to you?

Do you think the “Climate Emergency” is completely made up? “Global Boiling” or warming isn’t even a real thing? That there’s never going to be a day of reckoning for what we’ve done to our planet?

Can’t wait to lock up all the “homos, drag queens, and rapist migrants”? Can’t wait to put women back in their rightful place—in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, with no access to abortion care or birth control? The world would be a happier place with everyone in their proper place, wouldn’t it?

Are you gathering up books right now for a good ol’ fashioned book burning? Are you keeping your kids out of the socialist public school systems that teach how all people are equal (CRT) when it’s more than obvious some just aren’t?

Do you believe in active censorship of social platforms, broadcast media outlets and the press? Can’t wait to shut down all opposition groups that defy those in power? Do you get a thrill out of kicking alternative party candidates off the ballot?

Voting? Really? It’s for the birds! Let the billionaires run the show outright from now on. It would save a lot of trouble holding pretend elections every so often, right?

Did you learn that freedom and capitalism go hand in hand? Do you still believe it even after you’ve been laid off from your job and thrown into debtors’ prison through no fault of your own?

Deep down, do you feel it’s gotta be your fault if you can’t make it in an economic system that favors those who are born in the “right” zip code with the “right” last name and the “right” network of friends and family members? Anyone can “get ahead” if they do capitalism right, right?

What’s your excuse? Oh, yeah, it’s those migrants who keep “stealing” our jobs by working for pennies on the dollar and the union members who keep insisting on a living wage. They’re making the bosses hire the “wrong” type of workers, right?

Have you figured out yet that agreeing to any or all of the above demonstrates you have no problems living in an empire?

This is what empire looks like. If you were born in the US, you’ve been living in one your entire life. You’re used to the harsh treatment of both yourself and your neighbors. That’s because an empire will try to pass itself off as a “representative democracy” or some related thing and tell you that you’re stupid if you think it’s otherwise. You’ll take the denials of your human rights and be satisfied.

It’s the ultimate Stockholm Syndrome. A co-dependent relationship where you feel you’re deserving of abuse. Bend over and take it and be happy that you don’t live in… wherever it is the propagandists are telling you where you don’t want to live in this moment in time because they don’t have “freedom and democracy” like Americans all think we do.

It’s easy letting your betters in the empire do all the thinking for you, isn’t it? Just nod and do as you’re told and you’ll be all right—that is, until they figure out you’re not worth keeping around anymore.

That’s the true beauty of running an empire. An empire can just ignore the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the unemployed, and the sick without the means to get well. Eventually they just die off from neglect by the state. By the hundreds of thousands, even millions. They call it, “Survival of the fittest.”

Are you “fit”? Are you sure? Do you really want to find out when the US military drafts you and ships you out to another war for oil or uranium or lithium or whatever it is the Empire is interested in this time around? When they neglect you in your time of greatest need?

This is what empire looks like.

The alternative to empire is practicing true democracy and equality for all. Folks caring for one another. Putting social programs and the needs of the people before the greed of the military-industrial complex. Putting the health of our planet and the well-being of our children above killing and stealing from fellow human beings in order to make a quick profit.

Dr. Cornel West promotes this better way of living. If you’re interested in leaving the US empire behind and building a democracy instead, check out his platform. But don’t wait. We don’t have long. The wildfires caused by our empire’s neglect of the planet and its people are burning everywhere. It’s time to help put them out by squashing the oxygen to the empire builders once and for all.

 

One huge obstacle to revolutionary change is that people can’t really see the depravity of the empire, because they’ve been conditioned not to look at it too closely, and because they’ve been habituated to it their entire lives. It’s possible to help them see it with fresh eyes. --Caitlin Johnstone, The Most Important Election Of All Time

 

Related Articles and Interesting Links:

It's Never About The US President, It's About The US Empire
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-never-about-the-us-president

Patrick Lawrence: The Dialectic of the Draft  https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/10/patrick-lawrence-the-dialectic-of-the-draft/

Biden Asks Congress for Additional $24 Billion to Spend on Ukraine War https://news.antiwar.com/2023/08/10/biden-asks-congress-for-additional-24-billion-to-spend-on-ukraine-war/ 

 

Capitalist Greed And Imperialist Policies Fuel Migrant Housing Crisis https://popularresistance.org/capitalist-greed-and-imperialist-policies-fuel-migrant-housing-crisis/

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - The Israel Lobby’s Useful Idiot

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/robert-f-kennedy-jr-the-israel-lobbys

Ohio voters reject referendum measure backed by anti-abortion forces https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/08/10/lxej-a10.html

The Illusory Truth Effect And The "Unprovoked" Invasion Of Ukraine https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-illusory-truth-effect-and-the

Defense Contractor Funded Think Tanks Dominate Ukraine Debate https://quincyinst.org/report/defense-contractor-funded-think-tanks-dominate-ukraine-debate/

How Swedish Love for the US Turned Deadly https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/10/how-swedish-love-for-the-us-turned-deadly/

New York Times Helps Marco Rubio Push Persecution Of Antiwar Leftists https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/new-york-times-helps-marco-rubio

More People Die Young in US Due to Health Care and Welfare Cuts, Study Findshttps://truthout.org/articles/more-people-die-young-in- us-due-to-health-care-and-welfare-cuts-study-finds/

Building Grassroots Power For National Universal Health Care
https://popularresistance.org/building-grassroots-power-for-national-universal-health-care/

The UN’s Vague ‘New Agenda for Peace’ https://consortiumnews.com/2023/08/08/the-uns-vague-new-agenda-for-peace/

Survivors Of Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test Are Still Fighting For Justice https://popularresistance.org/survivors-of-oppenheimers-trinity-test-still-fighting-for-justice/

109-year-old Tulsa Massacre Survivor Becomes Oldest Woman in the World to Release a Memoir https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/08/109-year-old-tulsa-massacre-survivor-becomes-oldest-woman-in-the-world-to-release-a-memoir/

In A Summer Of Record Heat, Striking Workers Are Making Climate Demands https://popularresistance.org/in-a-summer-of-record-heat-striking-workers-are-making-climate-demands/

Maui’s deadly wildfires burn through Lahaina – it’s a reminder of the growing risk to communities that once seemed safe https://theconversation.com/mauis-deadly-wildfires-burn-through-lahaina-its-a-reminder-of-the-growing-risk-to-communities-that-once-seemed-safe-211317

Congress ADMITS U.S. Has Invaded Hundreds of Other Countries!
https://youtu.be/AEiSiozBHmM

New Study Finds Fracking Is Linked To Seismic Tremors https://popularresistance.org/new-study-finds-fracking-is-linked-to-seismic-tremors/

3-Year-Old Dies En Route to Chicago Under Abbott’s Anti-Migrant Bussing Program https://truthout.org/articles/3-year-old-dies-en-route-to-chicago-under-abbotts-anti-migrant-bussing-program/

Seen on (formerly known as) Twitter:

Joe Biden just announced another $13B to Ukraine. The total is now ~$130B. For that price Americans could have:

Ended Homelessness permanently ($20B)
Universal Pre-K ($35B)
Free Community College ($30B)
Fix all 45k structurally insufficient bridges ($42B)
= $127B

Priorities

— Robert (Durden) (@realrobdurden) August 10, 2023

https://twitter.com/realrobdurden/status/1689693557869674497 

Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog:  The Little Red Book of Revolution

How can you get your e-copy? The easiest way is to subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack as a paying subscriber. Choose what level you'd like to subscribe at: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

If you'd like to help out in the meantime, buy me a coffee!  https://ko-fi.com/therevolutioncontinues

More details to come. Power to the people! 

 

Does the US Deserve Redemption?

 

Hey, I've got a smart idea: let's make laws that require corporations to act like sociopaths, pursuing profit without any consideration for morality or human well-being, then let's allow our entire civilization to be ruled by corporations.

Oh cool, we already did that, good thinking. --Caitlin Johnstone, You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To

 

Does the US Deserve Redemption?

by C. A. Matthews

After that one millionth, “Oh, no, not again!” feeling, you begin to wonder “Why bother?” Why bother getting upset or angry or depressed or frustrated when you know that feeling will come again and again and again and again…

The United Nations Security Council on February 21 heard testimony from Professor Jeffrey Sachs and former CIA Intelligence Anaylyst Ray McGovern about the Nord Stream pipelines bombing. It’s obvious to everyone that the US (with the help of Norway) were the culprits, and it was an act of terrorism that should be punished. But nothing is going to be done about it. The UN refuses to condemn the bombers. They’ll pretend like it never happened, although it actually happened, and it destroyed several member nations’ property and caused the largest methane leak in history.

The United States is a Teflon-coated bully that can destroy the environment and drone bomb the world and nobody will ever stand up to the US because of fear of retaliation, probably. That “Oh, no, not again!” feeling never goes away when it comes to the amount bullshit the United Nations will allow the US to get away with, and all because we’re the only country to drop not one, but two atom bombs on another country.

I’ve had enough of it. I’m ready for somebody or somebodies to call us on our shit and take us out once and for all. It will come as a great surprise to some Americans that there are many countries who have been longing for the day when the United States of America is no more. It’s not like these folks necessarily nurse an irrational hatred of our people, our junk food cuisine, our insipid Hollywood movies and exported TV shows, or even our gas-guzzling, climate-changing cars. It’s that they’ve had enough of our imperialism. 

It’s our imperialism that makes the US a pariah around the world. The list of countries we’ve invaded, helped stage a coup d’etat, economically sanctioned, or simply bombed grows longer by the day. Here’s a list of the countries the US has attempted to overthrow since World War II:

(* indicates successful ouster of a government)

• China 1949 to early 1960s

• Albania 1949-53

• East Germany 1950s

• Iran 1953 *

• Guatemala 1954 *

• Costa Rica mid-1950s

• Syria 1956-7

• Egypt 1957

• Indonesia 1957-8

• British Guiana 1953-64 *

• Iraq 1963 *

• North Vietnam 1945-73

• Cambodia 1955-70 *

• Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *

• Ecuador 1960-63 *

• Congo 1960 *

• France 1965

• Brazil 1962-64 *

• Dominican Republic 1963 *

• Cuba 1959 to present

• Bolivia 1964 *

• Indonesia 1965 *

• Ghana 1966 *

• Chile 1964-73 *

• Greece 1967 *

• Costa Rica 1970-71

• Bolivia 1971 *

• Australia 1973-75 *

• Angola 1975, 1980s

• Zaire 1975

• Portugal 1974-76 *

• Jamaica 1976-80 *

• Seychelles 1979-81

• Chad 1981-82 *

• Grenada 1983 *

• South Yemen 1982-84

• Suriname 1982-84

• Fiji 1987 *

• Libya 1980s

• Nicaragua 1981-90 *

• Panama 1989 *

• Bulgaria 1990 *

• Albania 1991 *

• Iraq 1991

• Afghanistan 1980s *

• Somalia 1993

• Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *

• Ecuador 2000 *

• Afghanistan 2001 *

• Venezuela 2002 *

• Iraq 2003 *

• Haiti 2004 *

• Somalia 2007 to present

• Honduras 2009 *

• Libya 2011 *

• Syria 2012

• Ukraine 2014 *

From William Blum’s Overthrowing Other People’s Governments: The Master List

And the US continues to get away with these sordid kinds of things. We actually don’t get sanctioned, boycotted, bombed or nuked in return. We love to claim certain “baddies” are out to get us with their “spy-surveillance-lost-weather-balloons,” but no, that’s more of our own paranoia reflecting back at us. Luckily, most other nations are wise and mature enough not to fall for the US provoking hostilities and ignore Americans slurs made against them as a people. 

So, what if one day the US actually did get “caught in the act”? (We’ve been caught red-handed before and nothing happened, but what if?) What if one day the United Nations actually doled out an ample punishment for our imperialistic ways? Not a slap on the wrist, but an actual penalty to drive the point home that nobody likes a bully? What would that be like?

I, for one, would love to see the most polluting, most corrupt, and most violent American military machine put out of business. Forever. The UN could confiscate their facilities and re-tool them to do more productive and peaceful activities. At the end of the day, there would be no more military-industrial-Congressional complex. Good-bye Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing… Total death to the War Machine! It's time to end the most polluting, environmentally damaging organization in the world, the US military! 

It also would put an end to all the well paid lobbyists and the kickbacks they give to the Congressional part of that MIC complex. No more huge piles of money buying off the loyalties of American politician-puppets. The idiots in Washington DC and our state houses would have to actually work for We the People and live only on the wages they’re given as an office holder. (Watch the current crop of politicians abandon ship like rats when the corporate money dries up.)

I hope the UN will enact sanctions against our “Death Industry” as well. Sanctions would put an end to the Big Pharma/Big Health Insurance cartel that has caused more unnecessary American deaths than every war we’ve legitimately taken a part in. Imagine every American having access to health care when they need it, not when or if they can afford to purchase it. Imagine! No more tricking young men and women into joining the military simply to gain health care coverage, either. People poisoned by a chemical spill and burn caused by a private corporation will have one less worry when it comes to treating their chronic illnesses.

The UN could also hold the US accountable to follow all the treaties we’ve ever signed that recognize human rights for all people. These human rights would include not locking up persons of color for decades and slapping life sentences/death sentences on them for the same crimes a rich white person with money might commit and receive only a slap on the wrist. This would mean allowing asylum seekers into the country who are searching for safety, instead of kicking them back into the dangerous border region of northern Mexico. This would mean the US government would have to follow all the treaties they've broken with Native American tribes.

So many good things would come about if the corrupt socioeconomic system of capitalism, the thing that drives American imperialism, was wiped off the map. Completely. Forever. 

But what would replace it? And, more perplexing still, do Americans as a people, a country, a nation, even deserve redemption?

Can a country whose Constitution holds that enslaved African Americans were worth 3/5 of a person for census purposes ever be absolved of that sin? Can a nation that committed outright genocide against its indigenous population ever be forgiven for their inhumanity? What reparations have we made to persons of color? What land have we given back to Native Americans without strings attached? Have we really wiped away the taint of “otherness” from those of Japanese descent whose grandparents we locked up in concentration camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor? If so, why are hate crimes against Asian Americans on the rise? 

I could go on here about other minorities who have been treated poorly both in the past and in the present day, but you get my meaning. What is worthy of redemption in a country that treats/have treated persons of color, the migrant, the indigenous, the working poor, the sick and disabled, the differently gendered with such scorn and contempt? 

As Black History Month comes to a close, it’s time to take account of all the ways Americans have caused harm to the human beings on this planet. A massive methane leak caused by a terrorist act on a Russian/German LNG pipeline only exacerbates the climate emergency and will only hurt ourselves in the long run. Destroying our neighbors' property is not a positive action, and it doesn’t encourage mutual cooperation and peace among the nations. Why do We the People allow sociopaths to become our political leaders and make such heinous decisions for both the US and the world?

So many Americans claim they follow the “Golden Rule,” but do they? Do they love their neighbors as themselves? We seem to hold back our love and wish evil upon them, but why? Fear? Greed? Selfishness? Laziness? 

Americans need to take a good look around at all the war, violence, and chaos we've caused and are still causing. If we wish to be deemed worthy of redemption, then we need to start putting things right and fix the wrongs that we've done. Today. 

It's simple: Shut down the War Machine. Start peace talks. Stop taking advantage of the economically oppressed and lock up the sociopathic oligarchs for their crimes against humanity. We the People know, deep down, these are the right things to do. We can’t keep kidding ourselves with all this “freedom and democracy” nonsense if we don’t practice what we preach. 

Related Links:

UPDATE: Hungary Calls for a UN Investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline attack: https://popularresistance.org/hungary-demands-un-investigation-into-nord-stream-pipeline-attack/

Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern at the UN on the Nordstream 2 Sabotage https://popularresistance.org/jeffery-sachs-and-ray-mcgovern-at-the-u-n-on-the-nord-stream-2-sabotage/ 

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern Address the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream Investigations (video) https://youtu.be/R_EX-VwKjng 

Ray McGovern Interview - The Nord Stream Pipeline Attack (video) https://www.youtube.com/live/LsjcVv2l8wU

You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/you-have-to-be-trusted-by-the-people 

 

Overthrowing Other Peoples' Governments: The Master List

https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list 

 

How Many Countries Has the US Invaded https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/how-many-countries-has-the-us-invaded

 

US Wars and Hostile Actions: A List  https://davidswanson.org/warlist/

China Report Excoriates ‘US Hegemony’, War Crimes, CIA Coups, 400 Foreign Interventions https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/22/china-report-us-hegemony-wars-coups-intervention/

Why and How to End the War in Ukraine https://popularresistance.org/why-and-how-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/

More Evidence Emerges that US Wanted Russia to Invade https://popularresistance.org/more-evidence-emerges-that-us-wanted-russia-to-invade/

How US and Ukraine's Far-Right Made Pro-Peace Zelensky a 'No Peace' President https://mate.substack.com/p/how-us-and-ukraines-far-right-made

 

How Can the Peace Movement Be More Effective?

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/25/how-can-the-peace-movement-be-more-effective/ 

 

There Has Never in History Been A Greater Need for a Large Anti-War Movement  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/there-has-never-in-history-been-a

 

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil! https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/pay-for-your-own-wars-big-oil.html

 

Poisoning America For Profit: A Brief History of Norfolk Southern's Greed  https://popularresistance.org/poisoning-america-for-profit-a-brief-history-of-norfolk-southerns-greed/

 

American Chernobyl  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/american-chernobyl.html

Seen on Twitter:

Why hasn't ANY congressperson introduced articles of impeachment over Joe Biden’s unilateral, illegal terror attack on NATO Germany’s Nord Stream pipelines?#Ukraine #Russia #Kiev #NordstreamSabotage #WWIII #Crimea #Bakhmut #Artemovsk

— JRkiefer1 🇭🇹 🇸🇾 🇾🇪 🇻🇪 🇮🇷 🇵🇸 (@josephkiefer77) February 23, 2023

pic.twitter.com/BhUxsGP3s0

— Broken Soldier⏳🇾🇪 (@DavidJSoldier1) February 27, 2023

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil!

 

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil!

by C.A. Matthews

Did you get a chance to read Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh’s excellent exposé on who and how and when the Nord Stream LNG pipelines were blown up? If you haven’t read his article yet, you really owe it to yourself to do so now. Go on, click on the blue link. We’ll wait. 

Here’s a quick excerpt from it for those in a rush:

Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. (…)

Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible. – Seymour Hersch, How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline

And for clarification, in case you've come across persons attempting to besmirch Mr. Hersh’s distinguished career:

[Hersh] went to Vietnam and covered the war as a freelance reporter. In 1969, he heard about an Army lieutenant, William Calley, who had been secretly court martialed for his role in a massacre of Vietnamese civilians, and, after investigating it as a freelance reporter, he broke the news of what became widely known as the My Lai massacre, in which he wrote, “The Army says Lieutenant Calley deliberately murdered at least 109 Vietnamese civilians during a search and destroy mission in March 1968, in a Viet Cong stronghold known as Painesville.” Hersh 's story was picked up by 33 newspapers through the wire service. He was working as a freelance reporter when he revealed that. 

That incident took place in March 1968. It involved the deliberate killing by company Sea First Battalion, 20th Infantry, of South Vietnamese civilians. The U.S. Army originally denied all of his claims, insisting that they were all made up and were all fiction but they ultimately ended up admitting most of his revelations, including the fact that Lieutenant Calley was convicted of murder of 22 civilians and was sentenced to life in prison, though he was pardoned in 1974. For that reporting, which prompted not mean tweets, but threats of all kinds of violence from many serious sectors, Hersh won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.—Glenn Greenwald, Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline? System Update #39 (February 10, 2023)

Seymour Hersh is one of the most highly respected journalists in the world. He won the Pulitzer Prize, the top award in Western journalism, for his reporting on US war crimes in Vietnam.

He has spent decades building up sources inside the US government. Hersh has also earned accolades for exposing US atrocities and cover-ups targeting Iraq, Iran, and Syria. —Ben Norton, US blew up Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia to Germany, journalist Seymour Hersh reports

Things are making a whole lot more sense now—at least they should to those who have been watching and/or reading mainstream media outlets and fell for the “Russia blew up its own pipeline!” nonsense. The rest of us who regularly follow independent journalists online and nurse a healthy sense of skepticism toward anything coming out of the mouths of US government spokespersons weren’t surprised at all by Hersh’s reporting. But I realize that there is still a lot of head scratching in the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” crowd. Some of these heavily propagandized folks are willing to admit that they couldn’t fathom why any country would destroy its own profitable pipeline, even if they are ruled by “Bad Man (not Orange) Putin,” a man portrayed in the mainstream media as a combination of Trump and Stalin.

The most surprising thing to me in Hersh's article was the Norwegians’ uncontained enthusiasm for the sabotage plan. They were happy to go along with planting the concrete-covered C4 explosives on the Nord Stream liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipelines. No one had to twist the Norwegians’ arms to drop the sea buoy that boosted the signal from the US to detonate the bombs three months after they were planted. The bombs then exploded and destroyed three out of four of the pipelines. (Hey, nobody’s perfect, and the surviving pipeline has since been turned off. Mission accomplished!)

I wonder if the Norwegians realized that by helping the United States destroy property belonging to oil companies from the EU, Germany, France, and several others (49%), and Russia (51%) that they were, to all intents and purposes, participating in an act of war. Think about it. Blowing up a liquefied natural gas pipeline that doesn’t belong to you is a very aggressive act. It’s not something one country should do to another without expecting to experience some serious consequences in return.

In the past, as soon as one country discovered their property had been destroyed by another country, a call for war was issued and fighting ensued. Perhaps we should count ourselves lucky that nowadays the Big Oil companies sit down at the boardroom table and discuss how they’ll proceed from this point onward before they come to blows.

Big Oil companies? Did you actually think I meant to type “the US, Germany, Russia, and Norway need to sit down and talk things over” in regard to blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines? No, I meant to type Big Oil, and you'll see why in a moment.

We’re intelligent adults here, so I feel I can speak frankly with you about this matter. We both know that the US government wasn't ultimately in charge of this pipeline sabotage operation. Oh no. Whenever human beings are discussing anything to do with the largest multinational corporations on the planet like Big Oil, we have to admit that they, the corporations, are the ones exercising all the power. Simply put, it is the corporations who are calling all the shots. Big Oil is our ultimate ruler.

In short, Joe Biden wasn’t the first to express a long-held desire to blow up Russia's profitable LNG pipeline. It was the Western Big Oil companies that have wanted the Nord Stream put out of commission for some time now. Chevron signed a deal and made some comments about cornering the market in Ukraine’s fossil fuel industry back in 2013, right before the US overthrew Ukraine's popularly elected president, Viktor Vanukovych, in the Maidan Coup of 2014. Unfortunately for Mr. Vanukovych, he expressed an interest in doing business with a Russian oil company over Chevron, a US oil company. (Interesting coincidence, the timing of the Maidan Coup, don’t you think? Well, it did get then Vice President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, a cushy job at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Nothing to see here, move along, please.)

 Investigative journalist Ben Norton points out:

Just hours after Nord Stream was sabotaged, NATO members Norway, Denmark, and Poland announced the official opening of a new natural gas pipeline, the Baltic Pipe. (...)

Since the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up, Norway has replaced Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of pipeline gas.

Norwegian gas shipments to Germany in particular have reached record highs. In 2021, Norway had provided Germany with less then 20% of its gas supply. By 2022, that figure had shot up to 33%.

Meanwhile, the United States has also become the world’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) exporter (tied with Qatar).

European imports made up the “lion’s share” of US LNG exports in 2022, quickly replacing Asia as the new top market.  —US blew up Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia to Germany, journalist Seymour Hersh reports

Putting competitor oil corporations and pipelines out of business is how capitalism works. You didn’t think it was all about “sharing the market” and “friendly competition” among these mega-billion dollar corporations, did you? Competition is for suckers! Building a monopoly in a commodity market is where it’s at in the sick and twisted socioeconomic system of capitalism.

 Getting rid of your competitors forever is a good enough reason to have your favorite puppet government sabotage and blow up an LNG pipeline and risk a nuclear war by doing so. These psychopathic/sociopathic Big Oil CEOs don't seem to worry very much about the fate of humanity. If they ever did, would they have covered up fossil fuel's part in causing greenhouse gases and exacerbating the climate catastrophe for the past half century?

Helping out your fellow CEOs at Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and the rest of the military-industrial complex to make mega-profits is a good idea, too. Military equipment uses a lot of fossil fuels to run and be maintained. So helping them sell more and more armaments will help Big Oil's bottom line. And it's always a great idea to cooperate with the War Machine, that is, if we haven’t nuked the entire planet into a cinder before then.

Trillions of dollars in profit for Big Oil CEOs and their shareholders is worth the political fall out from causing what could be the largest methane leak in human history. (You didn't think blowing up the Nord Stream wouldn't have a massive environmental impact, did you?) Really, it was worth it. It’s not like the oil companies themselves deal much with the press, the irate public, the environment, and the maligned pipeline owners. That’s what their bought-off politician-puppets are for. 

That’s right. That’s why Big Oil lobbyists give so much money to politicians worldwide. Politicians are tasked with creating the circumstances where capitalists can do what capitalists do best: Create monopolies and make themselves evermore increasing profits. And if it takes a war and causing an environmental disaster... then so be it.

As the great Ralph Nader says:

No other institutions consistently Rule over as Much in the World as the Giant Global Corporations – not governments, not armies, not religions and certainly not trade unions. These fictional corporate entities have largely achieved transcendent imperial status, as they amass coordinated control over capital, labor, technology and governments because they have secured the rights bestowed upon human beings. In a confrontation or a conflict or even a contract, it is no contest: mere people don’t have a chance.

As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis warned in 1933, we have created a “Frankenstein monster” in our midst, whose unifying lust for power and control on behalf of their profits know few limits. From How to Rescue Our Democratic Society: Constitutionally Render Corporations Unequal to Humans

I’ll venture to say that Big Oil knows zero limits on their power. These avaricious corporations dictate both domestic and foreign policy for the US government. And our paid-for politician-puppets obediently do as they're told.

There was never any question about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. The half-owners, Gazprom of Russia, could have just turned off a valve on the pipeline and shut it down. There was no need for them to waste expensive and dangerous explosives to stop the flow of liquefied natural gas. Any rational adult could reason that the Russians had no motive to blow up the Nord Stream. It was highly profitable. Only the owners of the new Baltic Pipe (built by Poland, Denmark, and Norway) and the US-aligned oil companies had the motive. And they're all making money hand over fist, charging four times last year's cost for LNG to heat homes in Europe.

Their motive here is greed, pure and simple—the greed of the US and EU oil companies who didn't like cheap Russian natural gas flooding the market. And who suffers? Just the people in both the Europe and the US this winter who can't afford to heat their homes. Just the people of Ukraine caught in the middle of a shooting match. Nobody really in the eyes of the multinational corporations.

It's the greedy oil corporations who are the "bad guys” in this story. They ordered their puppet, the US government, to destroy a pipeline belonging to Russia, a fellow nuclear power. The saddest thing is that sabotaging another country's pipeline (or even shooting down another country's weather balloons) could lead to a grave misunderstanding, spark World War III, and get us all killed.

You know what? Big Oil can pay for its own wars from now on. They can afford it—they make trillions of dollars in profits, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be without money anytime soon. Since they are so good at buying politicians, they can go ahead and buy mercenaries (which make up a good percentage of those fighting for Ukraine currently) to do the warring for them. Better yet, let’s tell Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to use their private spaceships to transport all the CEOS and their mercenaries to the moon or Mars where they can fight over who gets to rule the LNG market without interruptions. We’ll all be much safer and happier here on Earth if none of them ever come back.

 

Related Links:

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream

US blew up Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia to Germany, journalist Seymour Hersh reports
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/08/us-nord-stream-pipelines-seymour-hersh/

My Sources Corroborate Sy Hersh's Nord Stream Report
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/my-sources-corroborate-sy-hershs

Seymour Hersh’s exposure of the Nord Stream bombing: A lesson and a warning https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/10/pers-f10.html

Sen. Mike Lee ‘Can’t Rule Out’ That the US Blew Up Nord Stream
https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/10/sen-mike-lee-cant-rule-out-that-the-us-blew-up-nord-stream/

Glenn Greenwald: Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline? System Update #39 (February 10, 2023)

INSANE: US Confirmed to Be Behind Nordstream Pipeline Attacks: Seymour Hersh  https://www.youtube.com/live/DUwfPWJQ7Pc

Nord Stream pipeline & sabotaging peace w/Jeffrey Sachs
https://www.youtube.com/live/ySNyAaw4VEI

Here's How US Blew Up Nordstream Pipeline (NEW PROOF)
https://rumble.com/v28vpee-heres-how-us-blew-up-nordstream-pipeline-new-proof.html

Seymour Hersh reveals how the US blew up Nord Stream 2 https://mate.substack.com/p/seymour-hersh-reveals-how-the-us

How The United States Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline https://youtu.be/A68z2iQHUhE

Sy Hersh and the Way We Live Now https://popularresistance.org/sy-hersh-the-way-we-live-now/

Ukraine Signs $10 Billion Shale Gas Deal with Chevron https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-chevron/ukraine-signs-10-billion-shale-gas-deal-with-chevron-idUSBRE9A40ML20131105

Sitting in the Dock at the Hague (Ukraine War Series) https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/03/sitting-in-dock-at-hague.html 

Biden covers up plans for US shooting war against Russia in State of the Union address https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/09/pers-f09.html

How to Rescue Our Democratic Society: Constitutionally Render Corporations Unequal to Humans https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/11/how-to-rescue-our-democratic-society-constitutionally-render-corporations-unequal-to-humans/

How A Pipeline Company Paid Minnesota Millions To Police Protests https://popularresistance.org/how-a-pipeline-company-paid-minnesota-millions-to-police-protests/

Zelensky Admits He Refused to Implement Minsk Peace Deal https://popularresistance.org/zelensky-admits-he-refused-to-implement-minsk

Former Israeli PM Bennett Says US ‘Blocked’ His Attempts at a Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/08/former-israeli-pm-bennett-says-us-blocked-his-attempts-at-a-russia-ukraine-peace-deal/

Why Are We Repeating History? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/why-are-we-repeating-history.html

Seen on Twitter:

According to the US Navy Underwater Destruction Team, the Nord Stream Pipeline committed suicide when the prison guards fell asleep.
(Pic: "Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 8, prepares mock explosives😂 for a pierside training event")https://t.co/ATwZRUaYd8

— Andy Seaward (@Beatle_Ed1) February 9, 2023