When will the "allies" figure out Uncle Sam isn't worth the candle?

The current Ukraine situation was completely avoidable. 

Ukraine and its separatist regions negotiated the Minsk agreement seven years ago, in negotiations refereed by Russia, France, and Germany. It stipulated a degree of autonomy for the rebel provinces as a condition for the cessation of hostilities.

Unfortunately, although the deal was approved by the UN, it fell afoul of the folks who had engineered the coup of 2014 - the US government. 

And here we are!

The World Cop who worked tirelessly to prevent peace in Ukraine now leads the world in accusing Russia of an unprovoked attack on its neighbour! It has rallied its allies, also known as colonies, satrapies, stooges, dependencies, or flunkies, NATO and the EU, to stand strong against Russian aggression.

The European allies get to stand strong in Europe. They will make serious sacrifices. Double or treble heating bills for the average citizen. Billions of euros for the refugee wave soon to crash their borders, perhaps as large as the wave that came their way due to America's previous adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. 

In the event this little war goes sideways, as wars have been known to do, Europe will be in the soup.

America, which has driven this conflict since the '90s, is leading the charge against Russian aggression. It is leading with the declaration of sanctions from hell, the mother of all sanctions, etc.

It is leading from the other side of the Atlantic, thousands of miles away from the hot war it precipitated.

While the European allies are making sacrifices, the Americans are willing to sell unlimited billions in US military hardware to the EU and our NATO allies, and of course, to the Ukrainians. Nothing like a war to goose profits at Raytheon et al.

The Americans will also pitch in by selling LNG to the allies to replace the Russian gas Putin now is free to sell elsewhere. The price will be several orders of magnitude higher than the Russian gas now sanctioned, but that's due to the free market, not US policy.

It's only coincidence that US corporations profit massively while the allies make sacrifices to preserve America's role as World Cop.

What I find utterly baffling, is why the allies refuse see that the American Emperor is buck naked?

If Uncle Sam were a proper hegemon, he'd be doing more than sanctions. Sadly, at least for the American Empire, that's all he's got.

Sooner or later,  our allies are gonna figure out they're the only thing keeping the empire afloat, and then the jig will be up.

Canada joins US ballistic missile program

That's according to Michael Byers, writing in The Globe and Mail today.

If that's news to you, it's because our illustrious PM, he of the "feminist foreign policy," has brought Canada on board "on the sly," as Byers puts it. No public debate required, because we can't afford to waste precious time when freedom and democracy hang in the balance!

Make no mistake; freedom and democracy don't come cheap. Installing the AEGIS Combat System is projected to add over 500 million to the cost of each of our new warships. Given what we know about projections from military contractors, that should at least double by the time we actually fire a missile for peace.

Speaking of which, the current price for a single SM-3 missile clocks in at 15 million Canadian dollars. That's a lot of cake for a country that can't afford to provide decent healthcare, housing, and education for our Indigenous population.

Trudeau's embrace of the US government's weaponization of space upends almost forty years of Canadian resistance to American pressure to sign up, going all the way back to Ronald Reagan's Star Wars fantasies. Not even tough-talkin' commie-hatin' Big Steve Harper went there!

It's all for the good, though. We gotta "stand with our allies" against the Ruskies and the Yellow Peril, as the war-mongers never tire of telling us, and that means hundreds of billions flushed down the toilet in the name of "interoperability." If we want to be in Uncle Sam's posse, it is essential we buy his guns and bullets. 

Speaking of interoperability, we're also signing on for Cooperative Engagement Capability, "a remote firing system that allows a commander on one ship to launch missiles from another, without the latter being in the decision loop." In other words, if an officer from one of our Baltic allies sees a Russian threat, and they are really good at spotting Russian threats in Latvia and Lithuania, he could launch a Canadian missile (Raytheon) from a Canadian ship (Lockheed Martin, BAE). 

Ponder that for a moment. Talk about giving away our sovereignty on a silver platter!

I agree with Byers that our Prime Minister needs to explain these decisions that have been made without public input and could have grave repercussions going forward. 

Surely we have more important priorities than currying favour with Uncle Sam.

Axis of Evil redux

Whatever else David Frum accomplishes in his charmed life, he will be forever remembered for coining the phrase "axis of evil."

The son of a Toronto dentist who gave up pulling teeth for a far more lucrative career developing strip malls, Frum has become a leading Republican NeverTrumper. Can't say I blame him. After all, there's a new Axis of Evil loose in the world today, and Donald Trump is its quarterback. His go-to receivers are MBS and Bibi.

This is a far more toxic axis of evil than the Iran-Iraq-North Korea combine Frum was talking about. Two out of three have nuclear weapons and the other one has more money than God, a fact both Trump and Netanyahu fully appreciate.

It's hard to believe that any serious person imagines any good could possibly come from such an alliance, yet I don't see a lot of calling-out in our mainstream media. No, MBS is cast as a "reformer,"and when IDF snipers pick off unarmed Palestinians at the Gaza containment fence, we are solemnly reminded that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. As such, we must never impair her ability to "defend" herself by shooting dead unarmed protesters.

Any criticism of Israel is of course antisemitism, and no right-thinking journo who values their career is gonna go there.

And for all the splashy protests the NeverTrump resistance has pulled off, there's been not the slightest sign of a course correction from the White House, nor has the anti-Trump crowd offered any genuine critique of the over-arching arc of US foreign policy, which by far pre-dates Trump.

Instead, we see all manner of hand-wringing over the fact that America, under Trump, can no longer be relied on to lead and protect Europe!

Well, it's about time!

Europeans are a remarkably stupid people. Except for a few voices on the fringes of polite society, they haven't figured out that their "refugee crisis" is the direct result of US foreign policy. Instead, they natter about Trump being twelve minutes late for his date with the Queen.

Seriously?

Get the f@ck outta here!

A few years ago I set up a petition on one of those petition websites to get Canada out of NATO. Unfortunately, I was somewhat into my cups at the time, and I could never recall the password I used, so I was unable to check on its progress.

But I think we're at another crossroads where the time may be ripe for a lot of NATO members to ask themselves who they're following and where they're headed.


By the way, all the big US military contractors (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, etc) enjoyed a nice spike in their share prices last week after Mafia Don suggested NATO members aim for spending 4% of GDP on defence instead of 2%. If you want to know who Trump is really representing, look no further.

59 Tomahawks prove Trump's a team player after all

There's a new tone all around the MSM today. Hey, maybe Donny J is not in Putin's pocket after all!? (although I did notice that a handful of your more implacable warmongers in the American political firmament are pouty that the Ruskies were afforded a heads-up re the 59 incoming - guess they'd rather skip the foreplay and go straight to nuclear Armageddon.)

All the important leaders in the Nations of Virtue were quick to offer Trump props on a job well done; Merkel, May, Hollande, Netanyahu.

Shares of Tomahawk manufacturer Raytheon got a Trump bump today, as investors bet that this opening volley of 59 portends great things for the future.

Saudi Arabia, the foremost ISIS/Daesh sponsor, thanked Trump, as did spokesmen for the terror outfits themselves.

Even Canada's lovable mop-topped hippy-dippy peace-loving PM Justin is all-in for America's unprovoked and completely illegal attack on yet another predominantly Muslim nation.

Amazing how such a diverse cast of characters can come together in praise of US aggression!

These may be dark days for humanity, but it's nothing but blue skies for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon!

Check out this story at CNN; The US is running out of bombs to drop on ISIS.

Whee-haaa!!! That can only be good news if you're fortunate enough to hold Raytheon and/or Lockheed Martin in your portfolio!

Back in 2000, in the pre-9/11 era, shares in either of these companies could be had for less than twenty bucks. Post 9/11, as America lurched from one foreign policy debacle to the next in Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and Syria, those share prices have soared into the great blue yonder!

Raytheon closed at $124 yesterday - and that's before CNN reported the bomb shortage!

Lockheed Martin is well over two hundred dollars per share.

As the horizon darkens for humanity, the prospects for the bomb-builders just keep getting brighter!

So next time some pinko whiner pesters you about the bleak outlook for the US economy, just refer them to this story!