Maclean's Trans-European Project

We frequently use the acronym TPTB (the powers that be) in discussion of that trans-national polity whose activities play themselves out on the global scene and are rationalized to the public via a collection of conventional narratives. Easily the most sweeping and illuminating account of this polity that I have encountered here-to-date is James R. Maclean's Trans-European Project.

This series of posts is intended to introduce the concept of the Trans-European Project (TEP), a quasi-national entity that comprises Western Europe, North America, and some various settlements elsewhere in the world. The TEP in some respects can be described as a space of intra-colonial activities, in which the various empires of the past would constantly ebb and flow, like eras of glaciation.

Given that we are now in the midst of a period of historically unprecedented glacial flux, (at least in terms of scale and speed), it may prove helpful to have an encompassing map of the existing structures that will be melting down and flowing before our very eyes. Please read the TEP in its entirety.

Oil Rules

or The End of the World as You Know It …and the Rise of the New Energy World Order. Having now reviewed the underlying shape and motive forces of the world as you know it, Michael Klare presents a pithy synoptic preview of the new world order aborning - and it's quite different from what the normative political narrative (consensus reality) would lead to you to think that it is. This should be borne in mind as the pure comedy gold of the current presidential election cycle plays itself out while our existing socio-economic order disintegrates with shocking rapidity.

It's strange that the business and geopolitics of energy takes up so little space on American front pages -- or that we could conduct an oil war in Iraq with hardly a mention of the words "oil" and "war" in the same paragraph in those same papers over the years. Strange indeed. And yet, oil rules our world and energy lies behind so many of the headlines that might seem to be about other matters entirely.

Take the food riots now spreading across the planet because the prices of staples are soaring, while stocks of basics are falling. In the last year, wheat (think flour) has risen by 130%, rice by 74%, soya by 87%, and corn by 31%, while there are now only eight to 12 weeks of cereal stocks left globally. Governments across the planetary map are shuddering. This is a fast growing horror story and, though the cry in the streets of Cairo and Port au Prince might be for bread, this, too, turns out to be a tale largely ruled by energy:

I believe Maclean's incentive for formulating the notion of the TEP comes into play here;

My notion of the TEP was stimulated by an undergraduate research paper in which I sought to prove the truth of Norman Angell's claim, viz., that imperialism failed to contribute to the wealth of imperial powers. For example, I observed that the most impressive economic growth in 19th century Europe had occurred in countries that either had no colonies, or else, had them for a short time or had small colonial empires.

The Illusion of Crisis?

In this morning's Guardian commentary, a rhetorical point is raised;

How come Zimbabwe and Tibet get all the attention?

If a government wants to abuse human rights and rig elections, it needs to have the support of - or be - the western powers.

Nice serendipity given the Engdahl article on Mark Penn's abrupt defection from the Hellury campaign, his history with manipulating elections in client states, and his role in the global illusion making apparatus.

But, on the basis of the scale of violence, repression and election rigging alone, you would be hard put to explain why these conflicts have been singled out for such special attention. In the violence surrounding Zimbabwe's elections, two people are currently reported to have died; in Tibet, numbers estimated to have been killed by protesters and Chinese forces range from 22 to 140. By contrast, in Somalia, where US-backed Ethiopian and Somali troops are fighting forces loyal to the ousted government, several thousand have been killed since the beginning of the year and half the population of the capital, Mogadishu, has been forced to flee the city in what UN officials describe as Africa's worst humanitarian crisis.

When it comes to rigging elections, countries like Jordan and Egypt have been happy to oblige in recent months - in the Egyptian case, jailing hundreds of opposition activists into the bargain - and almost nobody in the west has batted an eyelid. In Saudi Arabia there are no national elections at all, let alone the opposition MPs and newspapers that exist in Zimbabwe. In Africa, Togo has been a more flagrant rigger, while in Cameroon last week the president was given the job for life. And when it comes to separatist and independence movements, the Turkish Kurds have faced far more violence and a tighter cultural clampdown than the Tibetans.

The crucial difference, of course, and the reason why these conflicts and violations don't get the deluxe media and political treatment offered to the Zimbabwean opposition or Tibetan separatists is that the governments involved are all backed by the west...,

In order to get a grip on TEP bidnis and the machinations of its hegemonic illusion apparatus, the subrealist would have to go all bidnis intel and set up a global dashboard on which we could benchmark and track where the most flagrant economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights violations are occurring inclusive of a backgrounder on the historic links between the current oppressive regime and its historic and continuing TEP sponsorship.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov - Bio Weapons Briefing Sep 19 - Geneva

VK  |  A meeting of States parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons was held in Geneva from 5 to 9 September in connection with the violation of articles I and IV of the Convention by the United States and Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation.

The Russian Ministry of Defense analyzed the materials of speeches made by representatives of the United States and Ukraine, working documents of the participating states, joint statements and the final document of the meeting.

Recall that the Russian Federation was asked more than 20 questions concerning the illegal activities of Kiev and Washington in the framework of the BTWC. Here are some of them.

What is the reason for the choice of pathogenic microorganisms studied on the territory of Ukraine within the framework of the Threat Reduction Program and why the nomenclature of pathogens studied is not related to current health problems, for example, the Tep-6 project on the study of the glanders pathogen, cases of which have never been recorded on the territory of Ukraine?

How should the accumulation of highly dangerous strains of infections and their transfer to other countries contribute to improving the state of infectious diseases?

Why was the emphasis placed on studying natural foci and particularly dangerous infections, which according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists are considered potential agents of biological weapons?

What studies using infectious agents and toxic substances were conducted on Ukrainian military personnel and the mentally ill, who are one of the most vulnerable categories of citizens?

And finally, why do the United States and Ukraine hide the facts of cooperation in the military-biological sphere in international reporting under the BTWC, while the United States has blocked the development of its verification mechanism since 2001?

The meeting participants were presented with copies of real documents previously announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as material evidence confirming the implementation of military biological programs on the territory of Ukraine.

None of the delegations had any doubts about the authenticity of the submitted documents, including the accumulation of pathogenic materials in Ukrainian laboratories, including the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Institute.

In its speech, Ukraine acknowledged the fact that the institute was inspected by a commission of the Ministry of Health, noting that the QUOTE: "... 80 percent of violations were eliminated...". At the same time, the Ukrainian side completely ignored questions about the unjustified storage of dangerous biological agents on the basis of the institution and revealed gross violations of the conditions for their accumulation: storage of biomaterials in stairwells, the lack of a functioning access control system for pathogenic microorganisms.

No explanation was received regarding the nomenclature of accumulated strains of dangerous pathogens, although 19 studies aimed at studying potential agents of biological weapons (Congo-Crimean fever, hantaviruses, anthrax and tularemia) and economically significant ones have been implemented in Ukraine since 2008 under the projects codenamed "Yu-Pi" and "Tep". infections (African and classical swine fever, Newcastle disease).

Neither Ukraine nor the United States has provided convincing evidence that cooperation has helped improve the sanitary and epidemiological situation, which has steadily worsened over the past 15 years.

The practical results of the activities of the US Department of Defense's Office for Threat Reduction DITRA in Ukraine presented during the meeting were reduced to a demonstration of several photos of renovated laboratory facilities. Most likely, apart from these pseudo "achievements", no other results were achieved.

The explanations of the United States and Ukraine regarding the export of strains and biomaterials of Ukrainian citizens and compliance with ethical standards when conducting research on military personnel, low – income citizens, as well as on one of the most unprotected categories of the population-patients in psychiatric hospitals looked extremely unconvincing.

When discussing this issue, the American delegation acknowledged such facts, while noting that the transfer of samples of pathogenic biomaterials to the United States QUOTE: "...was infrequent...".

Apart from this wording, which does not allow estimating the volume and frequency of bioassays transferred abroad, no other explanations were provided to the meeting participants.

Part III of Bill's Long Con - T3 Continues

Week before last, I had the privilege of linking T3's first installment of a deep mapping series on the longterm designs of very powerful elements within the TEP. After having read the current installment a few times - with the interim backstory linked over at his site - I believe I understand where he's going with this. Needless to say, I'm very much enjoying the unfolding of the data as he lays it out and draws our attention to various and sundry connections, and look forward to the big picture he promises to disclose.

"invasion of sovereign bodies" is a strikingly liminal allusion that is deeply sympatico with the subrealist approach. While it's clear that T3 is addressing himself to the who, what, when, and where of the thing, I'm equally if not more taken with the "what it do" aspects of his treatment. In a nutshell;

The emergence of biological and chemical research and experimentation which objectified Black and other bodies was part of a broader cultural framework. The value system of the scientists was consistent with broader societal beliefs and was framed within a pseudo-humanitarian “box” which condoned the invasion of the sovereign body in the same way that the notion of “civilization” and “democracy” and “capitalism” condoned the invasion of sovereign lands.[...]

The invasion of sovereign lands has always been a complicated endeavor for Europeans. The spectre of disease has always loomed large. Eradication, then, has been critical to support the managerial requirements of appropriating wealth from “hostile environments.” In most instances, stating that objective has been too bold for public consumption. Instead, Western philanthropists have emphasized the long-term needs of children versus the short-term needs of adults in their approaches to humanitarian aid. For children, the priorities are education (solution: build schools), healthcare (solution: provide vaccines), and security (solution: subsidize persons or groups promising democracy or at least access to markets and natural resources). For adults, the issues are a bit different - and adults are not the focal point of these efforts - except as it relates to testing. [...]

Resolving the critical needs of African adults - the care takers of African children - requires different solutions. For all the millions spent to cure the fourth leading cause of death, thousands of African communities continue to suffer from the THREE LEADING CAUSES of DEATH for lack of a 21st century WATER and SANITATION system.

Do these folks actually want to keep the baby, and throw out the parents with the bathwater?

Having been condemned for letting folks off the hook for their historical and continuing behaviors, (not like I or anyone else is likely to be able to hold major actors accountable anytime soon - if ever), I remain principally fascinated with coherent and falsifiable descriptions of what's happening that can be put to work to increase collective awareness of the same.

turd-blossom and TEP plot to stop mr. miracle...,

zerohedge |  "If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished," Romney said, in an apparent effort to play party elder. "If Donald Trump’s plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession," Romney continues, hitting Trump on the economy. "A few examples. His proposed 35 percent tariff-like penalties would instigate a trade war and that would raise prices for consumers, kill our export jobs and lead entrepreneurs and businesses of all stripes to flee America." 

We covered the story exhaustively, and for those who would enjoy a review of the verbal melee, see here, here, and here.

More important than what Romney said (after all, it's not as though he's the first person to essentially call Trump a demagogic lunatic who has no business being President) was what his speech represented: all-out panic on the part of the GOP establishment. 

This is it folks. Trump is on the verge of winning the nomination and although most still think he can't beat Hillary, the national election is a wildcard. If Trump can go from laughingstock to presumed GOP nominee in nine months, there's no reason to think he can't ride the populist wave all the way to The White House.

With diplomats the world over voicing their concern, and with America's reputation on the line (of course we can debate about what's left of that reputation after Bush and Obama) heavyweights from across America's political aristocracy and business community are scrambling to figure out how to derail Trump's momentum. In short, the Michael Bloomberg deus ex machina isn't coming and Joe Biden isn't likely to ride into the race in a red Camaro and save the day either, so what now?

That question, apparently, was on the agenda at the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum, a secretive affair held on Sea Island, Georgia.

Political Dot Connecting at Foreign Dispatches

A cautionary note to gung ho Black conservatives; ignorance of history is no excuse!

The world wide web serves as a nearly miraculous lens of bicameral information interchange. While it is certainly the case that the TEP has ready access to highly granular detail about each and every individual accessing the net - the vice is surely versa. As a democratizing force, the web has afforded the masses with the means to observe, correlate, and communicate otherwise disparate strands of governance activity. While it watches us - those of us who are interested - are empowered as at no other time in history to watch and understand it.

In a pair of posts this week, Abiola Lapite has begun to reduce to its essence two of the key ingredients in the fascistic governance stew. These posts nicely summarize much of why I believe the resurgence of eugenic pot boiling in the public sphere should be a cause for serious public concern. From where I sit, he points out why it is a jarringly and stunningly discordant thing to read fascistic political pronouncements coming from even nominally Black-identified folk. Please make a point of reading them both.

The Genetic Seduction:

Although I didn't mention it in my recent post on a certain A. Hitler, one of the reasons why I've been investigating the man's career is because it's long been clear to me that there is a direct line connecting the pseudoscience "justifying" Hitler's brutality and the pseudoscience being flogged in our day under the rubric of "genetics": not only can one trace the continuity of certain ideas over the decades, but often one finds that the actual institutions pushing these ideas, and even the very individuals who man them, are directly connected on an intimate level. To put it plainly, a lot of the hype being generated about genes "for" homosexuality, IQ or this, that and the other today is the handiwork of people who have been mentored or sponsored by actual honest-to-goodness Nazis, war criminals many of whom escaped justice only because they were shrewd enough to burn the evidence of their crimes when they saw the writing on the wall. The one time practitioners of "eugenics" and "racial hygiene" are the forefathers of today's "race realists" and self-styled advocates of "human biodiversity."

Making Sense of a Madman:

That a long-oppressed minority should be attracted to an ideology which promises to radically break with the past and usher in an age of total equality is no more surprising when the oppressed are European Jews than it is when they are black American or African intellectuals, very many of whom have been drawn to communism from Paul Robeson and W.E. DuBois through far too many 1960s African leaders to name right down to the ANC leadership today; nor would a rational and unprejudiced mind leap from the finding that Jews were overrepresented in the leadership of communist revolutions to the conclusion that all or even most Jews look favorably on communism, just as it is only the bigots who seize upon the fact that black Americans are convicted of more crimes than their white fellow citizens as "proof" that "blacks" as a whole are criminals by nature. Seizing upon some group or other's "disproportionate" participation in some unfavorable activity or other as "evidence" of an innate malevolence is deeply irrational unless one can establish that this evil activity is driven by the core beliefs of said group

That there are common denominators in the background of conservative politicking in America should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention. Sadly, a lot of gung ho Black conservatives don't or won't......,

Mission Accomplished?

The seizure of Iraq is widely perceived to be have been a blunder. From the strategic standpoint of the US elites it was no such thing. The oil reserves contained within Iraq are gigantic, and thus its acquisition was a major economic and security leap forward for the United States. In this piece, a compelling case is made for U.S. Global hegemony. Please go read the entire article, it's lengthy but well worthwhile.

According to their logic the US elites have good reason to feel pleased with themselves following the successful takeover of Iraq, even if the general public in the United States is unable at this stage to grasp what a "glorious achievement" it is. Iraq is known to have over 100 billion barrels of oil reserves. In addition to this the country is still relatively unexplored and there are an estimated 200 to 300 billion barrels more waiting to be discovered. Given that this is largely light crude, the most valuable type of oil, it doesn't take much effort of the imagination to figure that US forces have seized control of one of the world's greatest treasures, whose value dwarfs the cost of the invasion. The invasion of Iraq would therefore be a strong contender for an entry in the Guinness World Records as the greatest act of piracy in the history of the world. It makes the exploits of Blackbeard and Captain Jack Sparrow look decidedly tame. With this being election year in the US, various politicians try to curry favor with the voters by talking about "bringing the troops home". So let's be clear about this - the troops are not coming home until the infrastructure has been built to fully exploit Iraq oil resources, and to this end to partition off the local population who might otherwise interfere with production. In fact, a background level of violence is actually desirable at this time, in order to provide the excuse to keep the troops there. We should also not overlook the reality that the US elections are pure spin anyway, a charade. The United States is not a democracy and has not been for a long time. Its political system is a duopoly of power, with the same plutocratic forces controlling both the Democrat and Republican parties, the election being a 4-yearly circus to fool the masses into thinking that they live in a democracy. In one sense democracy is an absurd concept anyway - how can you allow ignorant, uneducated people the same vote as intelligent, discriminating people? The answer is that that you can - and then you program them to do what you want them to anyway via their favorite entertainment and media inputs. If you spend an hour of your time going down to the polling station to vote, you have just wasted an hour of your life, except that it can be amusing to watch the other fools wasting their time lining up - thinking that they are going to make a difference.

Complete control of the Mid-East, which the United States and the major oil companies are now close to having achieved, of course confers massive power over the rest of world, in particular over rising economic powers such as China and India and the immense leverage that this will in time afford can be used to steer these countries in whatever direction is desired. The US is believed to be involved in a strategic race against time to corner the bulk of the world's remaining oil reserves, the control of which can then be used to dissuade countries like China from resorting to the wholesale dumping of dollars or US Treasuries, along the lines of "Try it and we'll cut off your oil supply", which one would expect to be couched in more diplomatic language. Because of its gargantuan levels of debt the US is acutely vulnerable now, but with time it plans to tip the scales back in its favor partly by sales of its recently acquired plunder. Anyone who has watched those David Attenborough nature programs about seal colonies on beaches will know that the US is like the "beach master", the huge bull elephant seal, taking possession of all of the females on the beach and jealously guarding them, while China and Russia are the other strong contenders, who don't quite have the strength or size to try to assert dominance and as a result can only make gains when the beach master suffers some drastic reversal of fortune. The irony is that China now has the power to stop the US in its tracks, by dumping its vast dollar and Treasury holdings, which would send the US economy straight over a cliff, but it is unlikely it will do this because it can't stomach the consequences to itself or its people of doing so.

It's a dazzling assessment of the geostrategic current state. Fundamentally, it's about the consolidation of power rather than an increase in the wealth of the nation, much less the world. Furthermore, it is very consistent with the logic and history of TEP intrigues. You be the judge...,

livestock management tension in the TEP?

NYTimes | In the face of mounting economic troubles, Russia cut off deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine on Thursday after Ukraine rejected the Kremlin’s demands for a sharp increase in gas prices.

A similar reduction in supplies to Ukraine in 2006 caused a drop in pressure throughout Europe’s integrated natural gas pipeline system and led to shortages in countries as far away as Italy and France.

But with a recessionary drop in demand, ample supplies and assurances from both countries that gas would flow westward without interruption, there were few signs of the near hysteria in Europe that accompanied the 2006 cutoff.

The authorities in Poland and Italy issued soothing statements on Thursday, noting the existence of high reserves and the distant likelihood of an immediate effect on gas supplies.

Even Ukraine, which says it has enough gas in reserve to last through the winter, took Russia’s action in stride, underscoring how the political potency of the Kremlin’s energy card has plunged along with the price of oil and gas. Its normally fractious political leadership rallied together in the face of the supply cutoff, united in their demand that the Kremlin pay more for the right to transship gas through Ukraine.

Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, likened its actions to a utility cutting off service to a deadbeat customer. “The message is very simple,” Ilya Y. Kochevrin, the executive director of Gazprom’s export arm, Gazexport, said in a telephone interview. “If you receive a product, you have to pay for it. If you don’t pay, you don’t receive it.”

But energy experts said that the Kremlin’s decision to employ the gambit again in a pricing dispute with Ukraine was an indication as well of Russia’s deepening economic woes.

As tensions such as these mount, it is essential to understand the reality of the world. When you look at a map of the world, you are not looking at countries, but farms.

You are allowed certain liberties - limited property ownership, movement rights, freedom of association and occupation - not because your government approves of these rights in principle - since it constantly violates them - but rather because "free range livestock" is so much cheaper to own and so more productive.

It is important to understand the reality of ideologies. State capitalism, socialism, communism, fascism, democracy - these are all livestock management approaches. Some work well for long periods - state capitalism - and some work very badly - communism. They all fail eventually, because it is immoral and irrational to treat human beings as livestock.