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Musings from Margins:The NATO and Putin Summits, Plus High Crimes, Misdemeanors and Liberal Madness
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
18 Jul 2018
Musings from Margins:The NATO and Putin Summits, Plus High Crimes, Misdemeanors and Liberal Madness
Musings from Margins:The NATO and Putin Summits, Plus High Crimes, Misdemeanors and Liberal Madness

“The liberals posing as radicals have been exposed and their sentimental pro-empire proclivities revealed.”

“…we’ who inhabit marginal space that is not a site of domination but a place of resistance… I am speaking from a place in the margins where I am different, where I see things differently. I am talking about what I see.”(Bell Hooks)

Trump visits the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

+Reactionary Democrats are defending NATO, and something called the "Western alliance," further exposing them as a war party and a party committed to upholding white supremacy.

+NATO is a key component of the U.S./NATO/EU axis of domination, the global structures of the Pan-European white supremacist, colonial/capitalist patriarchy. The fact that some individuals could self-identify as progressive, or even more incredibly, as radical, and then make an argument in support of NATO reflects the right-wing character of Western leftism.

+The NATO declaration said that the Russians were responsible for all sorts of actions including: “aggressive actions …the threat and use of force to attain political goals,” that challenged the Alliance and undermined “Euro-Atlantic security and the rules-based international order” -- sounds like they were really describing the U.S.

+Trump raised the question that if Russia represents such an existential threat to Europe why is it that they haven’t devoted more resources to European security, and why are they still willing to trade with Russia.

Trump – Putin And Liberal Madness!

+There was a time in United States politics when it was supposed to be accepted that domestic politics stopped at the shores and all would either fall silent or never utter a critique of a U.S. president while he was abroad. But with the Mueller indictment of Russia intelligence officers on the eve of the summit between Trump and Putin, that ethos became another practice that in past times sustained the nations’ self-definition, relegated to the realm of myths.

+Mueller's indictment beautifully set Trump up. Trump knew they were setting him up and he was not going for it but in not going for it he was going to open himself up to a frontal attack from those elements attempting to undermine him. They used his ego against him, a brilliant move.Does it have anything to do with issue of collusion, of course not. But none of this really had anything to do with collusion, it was and is a classic disinformation campaign meant to de-legitimize and eventually force from office someone who the elite never dreamed could have won because if they did they would not have promoted him through their media outlets.

“They used Trump’s ego against him, a brilliant move.”

+When the Central Intelligence Agency created the term “conspiracy theory,” it was conceived of as a weapon exactly for a moment like this when official state criminality was being exposed. The premise was that when fact-based information and/or analysis emerged that challenged the official narrative or interpretation of a specific event that might prove dangerous to the state and entrenched elite interests, an intervention could be orchestrated with “counter-facts” and a diversionary and implausible conclusion of both sets of facts that would deride and call into question the credibility of the whole theory.

+There seems to be a complete psychotic break with reality in the U.S. as a result of the Trump-Putin summit.Liberals are hysterically calling for impeachment and even so-called radicals are quoting ex-CIA criminal John Brennan and branding Trump a traitor. The good thing about all of this is that the liberals posing as radicals have been exposed and their sentimental pro-empire, pro-American proclivities revealed. Unfortunately, though, the reactions to the summit has also revealed a secret that many of us knew, spoke about but did not dare focus too much attention on it, and that was the reality of how right-wing Black America had become.

+The Russians today, the Chinese tomorrow, Putin's a devil while Benjamin Netanyahu is honored even though his hands drip with the blood of unarmed Palestinians. It is very dangerous, especially for the oppressed, when the rulers know how easy it is to manipulate public opinion.

+The real final word on Ocasio-Cortez:I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt and took a lot of heat for it. I don't regret that because I can take the heat, that is what you get when you don't run with the herd. But it is really sad that she does not have the confidence or political understanding to recognize that the times call for clear, consistent, principled politics and that if you really stand for something the people will stand with you. The other read is that she may have known something that some of us didn’t completely perceive until today, and that is how incredibly conservative and conformist the public is in the U.S.

Ajamu Baraka is the national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and was the 2016 candidate for vice president on the Green Party ticket. He is an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and contributing columnist for Counterpunch. His latest publications include contributions to“Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi. He can be reached at: Ajamubaraka.com

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