Free Trade, Free Enterprise—FREEDOM— reserved for US-select

… Or else suffer US attack

Among today’s headlines:

“US Senate committee green-lights sanctions against (Russia’s) Nord Stream 2 pipeline project”

Unfair competition USA

• Proponents: U.S. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
• Opponents: U.S. Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Tom Udall of New Mexico

H

eadline Recast:

U.S. Senators in another anti-Russia move vote 20 to 2 to impose sanctions against firms connected with “a natural gas pipeline stretching from Russia to Germany.”

From “leaders” 

who govern by bicker and blame, by threat and demonization, lying about and stealing from other nations all the while lining their own pockets; 

“leaders” whose character of lazy, self-centering self-important, corrupt “leadership” has chronically and deliberately failed to consider and fund innovation, new ideas, new economies and modes of employment from within; failed to prepare its population for the future

— this is the final straw (the epitome) in an egregious pattern of disgustingly reckless, belligerently unethical, unlawful, anti-internationalist (anti-universalist) abuse of one nation’s power.

This one nation of unchecked violators of the sovereignty and self-determination (indeed the right to life) of global nations — 

these same belligerent forces (public office holders and their partners) have at the same time criminally neglected U.S. domestic institutions, infrastructures, human rights and relations; thus accelerating the pell-mell plummet into a combat zone (as of U.S. leaders and their partners’ impact in the Americas (more generally), the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere) of unending chaos, disempowerment, division and decline.

T

he current U.S. president, following on the heels of his predecessors

• ♦ Bullies (browbeats, intimidates, coerces) other nations to buy U.S. “liquefied natural gas” (and/or other products)

• ♦ Demonizes nations producing and offering the same commodity (i.e., practicing free enterprise) at a lower price (engaging legally in free trade and competition); and, failing the first two (or simultaneously, with partners)

• ♦ Commits violence (often claiming, dishonestly, to “Protect” with bombs, belligerence, and/or with economic sanctions) against nations, regions and peoples; and against the right to life, liberty, and self-determination.

U.S. Leaders v. Free Enterprise, Fair Competition

Owned by Russia’s Gazprom, “the Nord Stream 2 venture is based in Switzerland, funded by five concerns including Germany’s BASF/Wintershall and the Netherlands Shell, and is fronted by former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder.”The last reportedly has “accused American exporters of

• ♦ sourcing their LNG (Liquefied natural gas) from fracking and

• ♦ trying to undermine Nord Stream 2”

Europe, Schröder said, has “a basic interest in obtaining ‘extra natural gas from Russia.’”

DW’s January report said at the time that this second Russian “natural gas pipeline across the Baltic seabed to Germany” was “just months away from completion” — despite purported concerns about “Europe’s energy security.”

Not among the U.S. leaders’ arguments against Nord Stream 2 (also in DW’s report) was this nugget:

“Along its (Nord Stream 2's) trajectory, environmentalists including Germany’s Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) claim that seabed wildlife will be ‘irreparably damaged.’”

W

hile exempting itself from the rule of law and free in its quest for world domination, the United States through successive leaders, on a variety a pretexts have applied force in the form of economic and financial sanctions against nations and people.

It is noteworthy the nations and people not on U.S. sanctions lists:

• Occupying Israel

• Dictatorships Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

U.S. Sanctions against Nations  

Iran (1979, lifted 1981, reintroduced 1987	North Korea (1950 - )	Syria (1986- )
Sudan (1993- )	Cuba (1958- )	Venezuela (2006- )

U.S. Sanctions against Persons in Countries

Noteworthy on the list are

• Poor countries or countries with arrested basic development (clean and running water, electricity, enough food, sustainable income, proper permanent secure shelter)

• Countries being occupied and/or bombed by U.S. forces (Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, is being bombed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia)

• Countries in disarray or conflict because of U.S. invasion, regime change, or other interference

• Countries the U.S. claims erroneously—none of these have threatened or bombed the United States — as enemies.

W

hile the U.S. has intimidated, bombed, destabilized, and plundered scores of countries—no economic or financial sanctions have been opposed against the United States of America or its people. No war has been waged against this land that we love.

U.S. Sanctions against Persons in these Nations

Yugoslavia (the former)	Belarus	Belize
Bolivia	Burundi	Central African Republic
China	Comoros	Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Equatorial Guinea	Eritrea
Gabon	Iraq	Laos
Libya	Mauritania	Myanmar
Nicaragua	Papua New Guinea	Russia
Somalia	South Sudan	Turkmenistan
Ukraine	Russia	Crimea
Venezuela	Yemen	Zimbabwe

 

W

hat is also noteworthy is that the United States is a nation of great wealth—in its lands, in its people and in its founding documents; an enormously rich nation. Yet the face, fact and act, the presence U.S. leaders extend to the world is one of unending hostility.

Would men (women) fight less if oil were left in the ground, coal on the mountaintop, and fuel in shale rock? I expect not. Delusional men (women) would still persist in a fool’s quest to conquer the mountain, and lord over all—

Faces lacking in graciousness, gratitude, respect, humility before the mountain…. Men/women bereft of the capacity to care beyond self!

What a pity.

Sources

RT “US Senate committee green-lights sanctions against Nord Stream 2 pipeline project” July 31, 2019 https://www.rt.com/news/465487-us-committee-nord-stream-sanctions/

DW “Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to open by November: Russian gas will be piped direct to Germany from November despite the project’s detractors, a project engineer has asserted. Critics have said Europe will be left vulnerable and climate goals will be undermined.” January 29, 2019 https://www.dw.com/en/nord-stream-2-gas-pipeline-to-open-by-november/a-47277058

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Reality Beyond One

Fame-throwing Louts and Racialists are Distracters, Enablers, Denialists of U.S. Decline

Low Bar leads to Lower and Lower bar

The current president—unlike his smooth-talking predecessor who presided over, ordered and or left Americans homeless, veterans sick, foreign nationals dead, thousands of migrants deserted and deported — is an out loud boorish man, a rude and inappropriate leader (arguably a mentally ill man), an un-“presidential”  (a corporate media label) president—except when it comes to killing people in foreign countries.

H

owever, it is also true that the U.S. House and Senate have become a rest home (in wait of a funeral home) for a large number of very powerful, lazy, self-important, corrupt, entrenched men and women who should have been removed (voted out of) or should have tendered their resignations years ago. Some are below. 

Name any of the states of the (no longer) “United” States of America in disorder, decline, desertion and gross neglect. Include among them Schumer’s New York, Feinstein’s California, and, yes, Cummings’ Maryland.

For a long time, entrenched public officials have pandered to narrower and narrower interests, serving no other interests except 

(a) trends, and endlessly

(b) their own interests.

And they have stayed and stayed and stayed in office—fed by (and feeding on) both public and private sectors.

Entrenched members of the U.S. House and Senate, indeed entrenched members of the U.S. Supreme Court, are as dangerous as Trump — all of them in the misguided presumption (spoken or not) that they are above:

• Above others
• Above and more important than fundamental principles of decency and care;
• Above and more important than law laid down by wise founders in the Constitution of the United States; and
• Above and more important than international laws, declarations and conventions laid down by the wisdom of hundreds of countries to ensure the peace of the world.

But what is really important is always greater than “one”:

beyond “self”

beyond “you” and “me”

beyond “me and mine”

Americans tend to fall in love (as of teddy bears) with “their” politicians. They become a “fan base” of mindless sheep (zombies) of this or that “do-no-wrong” personality.

What they should be doing is finding common ground as a citizenry and working together to improve this land we love. This isn’t “socialism” (another flame-throwing charge), ladies and gentlemen. This is “we the people” “Americanism.”

A

mericans must fall out of love with personality, ideology and longevity—killers of independent thought, fresh thinking and ideas, new perspectives, and progress

Old-timers’ time to go

U.S. House and Senate

Don Young (H) Republican 44 years	Patrick Leahy (S) Democrat 44 years
Chuck Grassley (H, S) Republican 44 years	Ed Markey (H, S) Democrat 42 years
Richard Shelby (H, S) Democrat 40 years	Jim Sensenbrenner (H) Republican 40 years
Ron Wyden (H, S) Democrat 38 years	Pat Roberts (H, S) Republican 38 years
Chuck Schumer (H, S) Democrat 38 years	Hal Rogers (H) Republican 38 years
Chris Smith (H) Republican 38 years	Steny Hoyer (H) Democrat 38 years
Dick Durbin (H, S) Democrat 36 years	Marcy Kaptur (H) Democrat 36 years
Nancy Pelosi (H) Democrat 32 years	Elijah Cummings (H) Democrat 23 years

Old-timers’ time to go

U.S. Supreme Court

Clarence Thomas 27 years	Ruth Bader Ginsburg 25 years
Stephen Breyer 24 years

 

U

nderneath it all, the U.S. body politic, the public (“we the people”) have shirked our responsibility, failed in our stewardship as keeper of the land we love, the laws and standards (national and international), and basic morality concerning global affairs and America’s “common defense” and “general welfare” (as the U.S. Constitution stipulates).

I

 don’t know from “racism” (apropos the Trump-Cummings episode) but I do know this.

“Racism” is a too-easy call-to-react-flame-thrower-on-flame epithet and tactic that serves to distract the populace and government officials from their self-annihilating, cannibalizing contribution to the decline and fall of and failure to serve and improve The Republic.

We must stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated by this or that — by persons, parties or personalities; by rudeness or crudeness, by social media or smart/dumb phones, by insults or thin skin, playing either “victim” or “king.”

Reach deeply for true discernment. 

Do not be diverted from true North: the true nature of things and our true path and responsibilities.

I

nstead of reacting, act together, locally and globally, for the common defense (not endless wars of aggression!) and the general welfare.  

Sources / news peg

PressTV “Trump attacks black congressman in new racist tirade” July 28, 2019 https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/07/28/602111/US-Trump-Cummings-racism-squad

Wikipedia

“Supreme Court of the United States” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

Members of the United States Congress by Longevity of Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_longevity_of_service

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress “CUMMINGS, Elijah Eugene” http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000984

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