Or, everything’s up to date in Kansas City (still)…
Randolph Bourne was a radical journalist who was active during the time of the First World War. The phrase I used as a title to this post is from an essay Bourne wrote, opposing the U.S. entry into the war. He was considered to be one of the most brilliant members of his generation but died tragically at age 32 in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
If he was alive today, he would not be at all surprised at the hype and outright falsehoods used to justify America’s current proxy war in the Ukraine. I think he would be particularly angered at how the national security state has merged with the corporate oligarchy, creating a leviathan which ruthlessly suppresses all dissent questioning our open-ended involvement in that conflict.
Consider the following headlines from the last year and a half:
Defense Companies Secure Record Orders
1/24/23
Lockheed Martin in Talks With Pentagon on Ukraine Weapons
4/19/22
Ukraine War Spurs Arms Makers To Boost Production
6/16/23
Arms Makers Can’t Hire Enough Workers As Ukraine War Driving Demand
4/10/23
All these stories appeared in the Wall Street Journal, not in the Nation or The Guardian or in some other left-wing publication. Other sources have taken the question-cui bono? (who benefits?)- a step further.
Ukraine War Is Great for the Portfolio as Defense Stocks Enjoy A Banner Year ,Responsible State Craft,2/24/223. Defense Contractor Funded Think Tanks Dominate Ukraine Debate,Ibid,6/1/23. Who’s Benefiting from Russia’s War on Ukraine? Arms Dealers and Manufactures,LA Times,3/22/23
We can argue until the cows come home about what a saint Zelensky is and how Putin is “literally Hitler” to use a very popular but particularly bone headed expression on the Left these days. What is beyond dispute is that there is a not so hidden agenda behind this war. It is to divert attention from the obvious that the Deep State labels anyone who points this out as a Putin stooge.
This is why when Robert Kennedy Jr. makes these arguments and names names, i.e. the Wall Street firms-Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street that own these arms merchants-he’s a fascist foe of democracy.
Robert Kennedy spoke about this and a number of other critical issues when he was in Kansas City in August. He focused in particular on what may be the most disquieting aspect of the Deep State/ Oligarchy agenda in the Ukraine.
Kennedy and a handful of others have viewed with grave concern the disclosure that the U.S. government has funded the establishment of bioresearch labs in the Ukraine. All twenty some labs have been built by Kansas City’s own Black & Veatch engineering firm, starting back in 2008 during the Obama administration.
The usual excuse is that these facilities are dedicated to disease control. An alternative explanation I have heard is that they being used to create new strains of existing diseases, with enhanced lethality and contagiousness, in order to develop vaccine and other counter measures to these new deadly viruses in case our enemies develop bio weapons using the exact same strains and thus we will have the antidote ready.
In other words, you create a deadly new disease in a lab, so you have vaccines and therapeutics ready when your enemy attacks you using the exact same viruses you’ve developed.( How do you know which biological weapons they will use?)What could go wrong? How about the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
If all this was completely open and above board, designed to safeguard Americans’ health, why are we placing these labs in some place like the Ukraine, an American client state that will keep out nosy inquisitors? This is like the CIA black site prisons, conveniently placed in other former Soviet bloc countries-Poland, Romania, Kosovo, and Lithuania-that have now been incorporated into the American Empire. All this was obviously done to escape scrutiny by hiding these facilities in friendly dictatorships.
The existence of these labs has been openly admitted in Congressional testimony by State Department officials and in Black & Veatch press releases, boasting of winning multibillion-dollar contracts from the U.S. government to build them. There is nothing conspiratorial or paranoid in questioning the rationale behind these facilities, which at the very least are extremely dangerous.
Another issue I’ve shared with Kennedy is in some ways an even more chilling aspect of this senseless war. The U.S. Agency for International Development has been promoting the use of a Ukraine National Identity Card. It will be issued by the Ukrainian government and will be encoded with each citizen’s biometric health information, as well as their personal financial profile. It is also tied to an application that will allow card holders to report suspected Russian sympathizers to their government. (Talk about “Membership Has Its Privileges”! Move over American Express!) The card can also be used to reflect a Social Credit Score for every individual, based on only engaging in behavior condoned by the regime. You know, just like China.
Wait, there’s more! (As they say on these late-night TV ads selling gadgets!)
It’s that this wonderful new device is brought to you by VISA, one of our nation’s most beloved bank credit card companies. You know, the folks that brought you 26% annual interest. Yes, the same public service minded industry that rewrote the Bankruptcy Code-courtesy of Joe Biden-to limit consumers ability to get out from under credit card debt.
What could possibly go wrong with this proposal? I can’t wait to try it here state side! Isn’t it about time we brought the Deep State into the 21st Century?
The only thing more impressive than these high-tech instruments of social control is the ease and facility with which Progressives have switched sides. They are now championing a war that only serves the interests of the military-industrial complex and the ruling elite of late-stage finance capitalism.
How does this strengthen democracy, here or abroad?
Have you heard that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are dating?
Get outta town!
Now we’re talking!Seriously, that’s a good retort.
We’re well past the definition of “proxy war.”
We have top Ukrainian officials, rolling up to European cities in Lambos, buying huge estates for cash.
Our cash.
As for the labs, I can tell you an inside story next time we have coffee.
And unlike “Harley,” we’re both real people, have each others digits and know where to meet for coffee without saying it!
top hat. had an office at 47th street. meet there for coffee. As far as ukraine if we don’t stop ruskies there your great great great granchildren will be drafted to fight there. Of course some people get deferments for bone spurs and broken thumbs. Hope everyone is doing well and that hearnes move went well. Til we see each other at Prime Social (my new hangout along with travis and taylor) may you all be safe from the domestic terrorists taking over prairie village.
Seriously, H-Man, I’d love to meet you for coffee at Hi-Hat. Just call me at my law office in Westwood and let me know.
southy
would love to meet. But i shut down office at 47 and state. Saw tom/chi chi/lee/scooter/ray there but had to move. take care.
Hey Dwight: Here’s your chance for the Dream Man Date
A series of gotcha questions,each of which RFK Jr. answered succinctly and effectively. Some were outright dishonest,e.g. the FBI director did not testify that no FBI personnel were in the crowd on Jan.6th. He said,”Are you asking me if FBI people caused the violence on that day? The answer is no!” But that’s not the same thing as whether FBI people were in the crowd that day,is it? The oldest trick in the world is to answer some other question than the one you were asked to avoid having to answer the one you don’t want to. It’s like the student honor court in Animal House.
‘’Did we take liberties with our dates at Delta House? Aren’t you really attacking the greater fraternity system? Aren’t you really attacking the whole American system? Well, you can attack me, you can attack Delta house but I’ll not listen to you attack the United States of America.” Remember,it’s easy to vehemently deny allegations that were never made and a good distraction from what you don’t want to address. Losers? I’ll bet you have voted for every Democratic candidate every four years. That would include George McGovern, Jimmy Carter,Walter Mondale,Michael Dukakis,Al Gore,John Kerry,and Hillary Clinton. By your childish logic,that make you and every other Democrat “ a big ole loser”. Is that the best you can do? I recall vividly being chided for backing “losers” when I first was politically active. I pointed out that one such” loser”was Ronald Reagan,who had run in 1968 and 1976 before winning the presidency in 1980. I guess we both should just have given up before he was elected and reelected in historic landslides lest in the meantime morons like you call us “losers”.