Time Stamps:
(0:00) Opening
(1:59) If We Don't Deserve Joe Biden
(2:47) Nikki Haley's Accountability Problem
(7:16) Haley Stumped on Nord Stream Pipeline Attack
(11:07) Did The US Blow Up the Nord Stream Pipelines?
(13:30) Pence's “Non-Concern” Rests On American Cold War Mythology
(17:21) Putin Vows to Avenge Kerch Bridge Attack
If We Don't Deserve Joe Biden
If we don't deserve Joe Biden, we deserve Joe Exotic.
I say this in jest, but RFK Jr:
Has "too much baggage."
Poses "too much danger."
Is the Wayward Son of the Establishment.
You are not to step out of line. Just ask our Fourth Branch of government.
If we get what we deserve from the Democratic Party, and end up with Joe Exotic, that's a vast improvement - and we should think the world of ourselves.
Nikki Haley's Accountability Problem
In The Room Where It Happened, Former National Security Adviser John Bolton recalls an unpleasant experience dealing with then-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley after the Trump Administration decided against imposing further sanctions against Russia.
On the Sunday-morning talk shows, however, Haley said Treasury would be announcing Russia sanctions on Monday. Immediately, there were red flags and alarm bells. Jon Lerner, Haley's political advisor. told Waddell that the US Mission to the UN in New York knew the orders on the Russia sanctions, and said, "She [Haley] just slipped, a breathtaking understatement. Magnetic attraction to television cameras, a common political ailment, had created the problem, but it was also a process foul: the sanctions were for Treasury to announce. The Ambassador to the UN had no role to play, except, in this case, mistakenly stealing the limelight.
Trump called me at six thirty p.m. to ask how the Sunday shows had gone, and I told him about the Russia mistake and what we were doing to fix it. "Yeah, what's up with that?" Trump asked. “This is too much.” I explained what Haley had done, and Trump said, "She's not a student, you know. Call the Russians and tell them.”
That I did, ringing Moscow's US Ambassador, Antoly Antonov, whom I knew from the Bush 43 Administration, shortly thereafter. I wasn't about to tell him what had actually happened, so I just said Haley had made an honest mistake. Antonov was a lonely man, since people in Washington were now afraid to be seen talking to Russians, so I invited him to the White House to meet.
This pleased Trump when I later debriefed him, because now we could start talking about the meeting he wanted with Putin. I also filled in Pompeo on Haley and the day's Russia events, and I sensed over the phone he was shaking his head in dismay.
Furthermore:
By Tuesday, the press was still baying away. Haley called me at nine forty-five, worried about being left out on a limb: "I'm not going to take it. I don't want to have to answer for it." She denied she or the US mission had been informed of the Saturday rollback. I said I would check further, even though her own staff had admitted on Sunday that she had made a misstep.
I had Waddell check again with Treasury, which was getting tired of being blamed. They emphasized they had made clear to everyone on Friday, including the UN Ambassador's representative, that, whatever Trump's decision, no announcement would be made until Monday morning…
Haley Stumped on Nord Stream Pipeline Attack
I would've loved to see Tucker push back if she dutifully said Russia did it. Nevertheless, he made a good point about how it's screwing the European allies over.
It happened near Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland.
Denmark is a NATO member. This apparent false flag attack was used to trigger a full-on war between NATO and Russia, were it to invoke Article 5.
Thus a formal war with Russia would be "justified."
The only attacks that invoked Article 5 were those that occurred on September 11, 2001, though a handful of other invocations have prompted an Article 5 threat.
Was it the United Kingdom? According to Richard Medhurst, this kind of industrial sabotage was their invention and remains their hallmark in warfare.
Did the United States Blow Up the Nord Stream Pipelines?
Was it the United States? Joe Biden promised to do it in response to a potential Russian invasion that the US sanctions failed to prevent.
According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Seymour Hersh and his anonymous high-level source, the Naval divers involved were trained in rural Panama City. And through a series of top secret meetings beginning in 2021, a discussion on how to respond to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Hersh's account, the CIA required the response to be covert in nature, and by early in the following year, they insisted they could blow up the pipelines.
By January of 2022, Under Secretary Victoria Nuland publicly warned at a State Department briefing that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline "will not move forward" if Ukraine was invaded.
Twenty days later, President Joe Biden reiterated the threat at a press briefing.
Pence's “Non-Concern” Rests On American Cold War Mythology
Former Vice President Mike Pence's signature criticism of Joe Biden is that he's been too slow to provide arms and resources to Ukraine.
A faster delivery would mean:
A faster depletion the supply of American military weaponry, the stated justification for the shift favoring the use of cluster bombs.
Less credibility for the notion that the United States is staying in the background and merely involved in a proxy war.
Tucker Carlson apparently took note of this when challenging Mr. Pence on cities across America being increasingly run down. It seems there were a thousand better outs than the one Pence took.
There's the soundbite interpretation, and there's one I hope to provide that may be more thoughtful, but neither will serve Pence for the better.
Pence stresses America's mythology above what is plainly seen: Americans struggling, facing inflation and wages that can't keep up. Basic upkeep that is assigned to government by default that fails to deliver. Corporations that seem less invested in serving their customers and more interested - or pressured - to bend the knee to activist investors. All in all, a country that has lost its way.
These are "Capital C" concerns at home, whether one believes either that…
By the doctrine of American Exceptionalism, we will be delivered.
The Ruling Class is constantly preying on those of us who foot the bill.
It must be duly noted to a Republican presidential candidate that the current face of American mythology is President Joe Biden, whether he is left to his own failing devices, or a puppet for a faceless and unelected band of bureaucrats.
In either case, it's a better bet to actually run against him than to hope against reality by stubbornly running on the fumes of Cold War era mythology.
External Resources:
Biden pledges end to Nord Stream 2 if Russia invades Ukraine by Andrea Shalal, Andreas Rinke and Jeff Mason
How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline by Seymour Hersh
Legendary journalist Seymour Hersh under fire for his reporting on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage by Luis Granena
Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin vows response after 'terrorist' attack on Crimea bridge by Antoinette Radford & Kathryn Armstrong
Share this post