Why Did Nancy Pelosi Go to Taiwan?

W.J. Astore

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan was a disaster. It angered China, provoking a military response (missile firings and the like) that could escalate into something far worse. It interfered with cooperative efforts between China and the U.S. on vitally important fronts such as climate change. And it featured a startlingly incoherent speech by the Speaker in which she implied Benjamin Franklin was an early U.S. president as she proceeded to misquote and butcher his sentiment on liberty and security. Jimmy Dore does an excellent job here of allowing Pelosi to slay herself with her own words:

So, why did she go to Taiwan? Putting aside her own conceit and vainglory, she went for two reasons. The first was domestic politics. Just as the Democrats have (falsely) accused Trump and the Republicans of being soft on Russia, the Republicans have (falsely) accused Biden and the Democrats of being soft on China. Pelosi’s trip was meant to inoculate the Democrats against charges of “softness” vis-a-vis China. Meanwhile, as both major political parties accuse the other of being “soft” vis-a-vis regional powers (China, Russia), the military-industrial complex continues to cash in with record-setting “defense” budgets.

The second reason is connected to the first. Pelosi’s trip has generated the response the military-industrial complex was looking for from China. Thus on NBC News today, you see the following article that touts a resurgent Chinese military and how it constitutes a major threat to U.S. imperial dominance in the Pacific. The conclusion you’re supposed to draw from this is simple: China is a big-time threat to America, therefore we must spend even more money to “rebuild” America’s military to meet that threat.

There’s possibly a third reason, and that is the unreliability of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as deliverers of a coherent message. Both Biden and Harris rely heavily on teleprompters; when they depart from the script, Biden is liable to blurt out inappropriate remarks that need to be “walked back” by aides, whereas Harris has a tendency to laugh inappropriately to cover her confusion. It’s doubly ironic that the Speaker of the House, sent to speak for America and the Democrats, spoke so poorly and confusingly.

This is no laughing matter, since diplomacy depends on clear communication. Certainly, the Chinese are speaking clearly with their military exercises and diplomatic warnings. That America’s leaders can’t speak clearly and exercise sound judgment is assuredly the clearest sign yet of U.S. decline, a decline that will not be arrested by throwing more money at the military.

Sound policy requires sound leaders. Whatever else one might say, the words of Biden, Harris, and Pelosi are unsound, marking them as not just ineffective leaders but dangerous ones.

I keep this globe in my office. It comes in handy to remind me of America’s “global reach” and “global power.” You can see how close Taiwan is to mainland China, and also how far Taiwan is from the U.S. But of course U.S. hegemony has no geographical limits, hence the presence of roughly 750 U.S. military bases globally. The world is not enough, since the U.S. must dominate space and cyberspace as well. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi should give her next muddled speech from low Earth orbit. Or the Moon?

75 thoughts on “Why Did Nancy Pelosi Go to Taiwan?”

  2. Both Mao and Chiang have long-since turned to dust. Much of “The Sand Pebbles” was filmed there in 1966. Beyond that … you would like to think the place is good for something beyond winning the Little League World Series now and again. “Freedom, Gawd-fearing and democracy-loving people?” Is that reason enough to play hardball with the Chinese? I’m not going to praise the Chinese and make bold claims of what their military can or can’t do – there are others here to do that. But one can’t help but wonder: Have we run out of Third World countries to muscle? Has the Pentagon finally convinced Congress & The White House that it’s past time we show what we can do against “a real power”, one who no doubt threatens not only all we hold near and dear, but also all the little nations – freedom, Gawd-fearing and democracy-loving all – plus outer space, the deep blue sea, and all those parallel/alternate universes theoretical physicists talk about? And then there’s the climate … Oh, yes. It’s time something were done.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. “Have we run out of third world countries to muscle?” . Good question. Maybe? I do think the neocon cabal who have been directing foreign policy for the last 20 years or so at least are, indeed, now at a point where they think they should put all their chips on the table at once in one huge, final gamble. It certainly seems that way.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Along with the other reasons she might have gone to distract from the news of her husband’s drunk driving legal problems.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. One more thing re Nancy Pelosi speaking gibberish: it’s no different than Republicans continuing to label Social Security an “entitlement” … people either don’t know any different and/or don’t care. A sad state of affairs when complete nincompoops are running the show.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. You’ve got a point. We’re at a stage where meaningless rhetoric is accepted without any question, and so why not gibberish? Who among the political class, or the masses who accept whatever their own tribal leaders say, even cares about meaning?

      Liked by 1 person

  5. The domestic benefits of Pelosi’s trip seem negligible, except among segments of the chattering MSM/Beltway crowd.

    However, internationally, her trip increases the perception that Joe Biden is even more inept and weak than previously thought – and that he’s not really in charge US foreign policy. The loss of direct communications between leaders in 1914 brought on The Guns of August and WWI. I have to believe neither China nor Russia knows today who can speak with authority for US foreign policy. That is terrifying.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. When’s the last time ANY President “spoke with authority on US foreign policy?”

      As opposed to those who owned, operated, scripted, and controlled them and their buds up on The Hill at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue?

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  6. As I struggle with day-to-day life here in central Pennsyltucky,, amid ongoing family issues and the damned unrelenting heat that has become a too familiar occurrence, I admit to not always following the US politics as closely as I should. Thanks, Bill, for helping make sense of so much of it. This “trip” is one that has bugged me and trying to make sense of it given the touchy relationships we have with two major powers of late has only added to that struggle. However, money talks, and we (collective) appear to have more of it than we know how to spend–except when it comes to Mr., Mrs., and Ms. average citizen and their dependents. One thing always wins out over the pesky need to keep citizens healthy and cared for; “the military-industrial complex continues to cash in with record-setting “defense” budgets.”

    How do we fight that?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. How do we fight that? Stop sending politicians owned, operated, scripted, and controlled by the MICC, SSSP, Wall Street and the rest of the Deep State to Swampland. THAT’s how we fight that.

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  7. China is having economic problems right now, pretty serious from what I’ve read. With the visit from Pelosi and trouble at home, China’s leadership may launch some military adventure to rally the country and take the heat off domestic troubles. Wouldn’t be the first country to do that.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Excellent point. Sounds very close to the thinking of America’s leadership, wouldn’t You say?

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  8. The ultimate, bottom-line, bullet-hits-the-bone purpose of Pelosi’s jaunt to Taiwan was and is to give the American people something else to FEAR.

    To go along with looming hyperinflation and recession or worse, food and fuel shortages and power disruptions, weather/climate-related disasters, a resurgent Pandemic that kills young and healthy people and not just old and sick ones, and the possibility of World War III over Ukraine, we have now been gifted with the possibility of a second front in WWIII over Taiwan as we move to within three months of Election2022.

    And why should America pay any more attention to China’s clearly stated desires, goals, objectives, and intentions about Taiwan than it did to Russia’s equally clearly declared desires, goals, objectives, and intentions about Ukraine?

    But that’s what an Empire-in-Decline does, isn’t it? Defend itself against new guys on the block who have imperial designs and dreams of their own.

    The clearest sign of America’s decline is not the incompetent arrogance of its political “leadership,” but that the American people keep sending those incompetent, arrogant assholes to Swampland in the first place, and then keep them there. And that has been going on for a very long time.

    Liked by 3 people

  9. China’s non-military measures in response to Pelosi’s trip…

    CHINA SUSPENDS COOPERATION WITH US ON RANGE OF ISSUES, SANCTIONS PELOSI OVER TAIWAN TRIP by Jessie Yeung, CNN

    (CNN) China’s Foreign Ministry announced new countermeasures against Washington on Friday, including the suspension of climate talks, in response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, hours after it announced sanctions against the US House speaker.

    The measures include the CANCELLATION OF FUTURE PHONE CALLS AND MEETINGS BETWEEN CHINESE AND US DEFENSE LEADERS, for which future dates had not been announced, and the cancellation of annual naval meetings under the China-US military maritime consultation mechanism.

    China also suspended cooperation on THE REPATRIATION OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, LEGAL ASSISTANCE ON CRIMINAL MATTERS AND THE COMBAT OF TRANSNATIONAL CRIMES, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a briefing Friday.

    It suspended its ANTI-DRUG COOPERATION with the US, which has already been strained in recent years. The US has blamed China for failing to stop synthetic opioids reaching the US as both Beijing and Washington disagree on how to counteract the problem.

    China’s Foreign Ministry also said it would SUSPEND CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS, a major area of cooperation despite escalating tensions in recent years. [EMPHASES added.]

    Continued at https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/asia/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-china-tokyo-intl-hnk/index.html

    Liked by 1 person

  10. She went to Taiwan to pick up her medal. The Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon. This is Taiwan’s highest civilian medal and doubtless Nancy wanted one to add to her collection. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/03/nancy-pelosis-taiwan-award-what-is-the-order-of-propitious-clouds Doesn’t she look striking?! (Although next time Nancy lose the mask). She was really tickled when Zelenskyy earlier gave her a medal of the Order of Princess Olga. Specially commissioned is what I hear. One of a kind! And all she had to do was pledge unlimited and unending support for Ukraine against Russia! Such a small price to pay. So this is a new hobby – medal collecting. I’m guessing her doctor told her she needed to cut back on ice cream and chocolate and so she needed something else to occupy her interest. Where will she go next? We don’t know, but we bet there’s a medal at the end of that rainbow. Stay tuned.

    Liked by 3 people

  11. Another spot on perspective, William. As the #1 Elected Official to put together ever larger Defence Budgets, Corporate Media does not point out to the Public in a way that makes the People realize and understand the gulf between the powerful and powerless and the trend line clearly showing the Day of Reckoning is at Hand!

    William, maybe a little off Topic, but I’m sure you can add some personal perspectives to what Chris Hedges interviewing Andrew Bacevich on a new book, a collection of essays by combat veterans who excoriate the myths of war.

    Andrew says the US Military Academy’s are not the same as for enlisted personnel. They indoctrinate the the Future Military Leaders to believe in American Exceptionalism.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Yes, I listened to that interview, Ray. Bacevich knows of what he speaks.

      Basic training for grunts lasts a few weeks or months. West Point is four years (and you have to compete to get in, so it’s really more than four). Officers who come out of military academies are typically believers in their own special and unique qualities as well as America’s. As Bacevich notes, it took him a long time to overcome his “indoctrination” and his belief in the system and the rightness of the American cause. He now thinks of Vietnam as a criminal war; so too of the Iraq War; so too of the Afghan War, other than the initial attacks which he believed were justified as reprisals for 9/11.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Your WordPress Stats tell you what Nation your visitors come from, and mine tell me after the US, China is next in my Stats.

        No discussion the majority on the plane on 9/11 were SAWdi, the BIGGEST CUSTOMER of US Weapons of War. No mention of the Mossad Agents high 5ing and dancing watching from N.J. as the Towers came down.

        I see 9/11 from a different perspective and understanding and wrote about it.

        THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST: From 19/11 to 9/11

        Liked by 1 person

        1. So let me ask You a question, Ray.

          Does Your perspective and understanding of 9/11 include individuals, organizations, and/or institutions within the US government that planned, resourced, and facilitated that day? Or was it all pulled off by some raghead in a cave in Afghanistan, as we have been assured by our government and its media, academia, and entertainment sectors?

          Liked by 1 person

          1. I’m not God so I/m not privy to all those details you want, but this is the last entry in the link

            Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger
            By Ashton B. Carter, John Deutch, and Philip Zelikow

            IMAGINING THE TRANSFORMING EVENT

            In December 1998, Former US Defence Secretary Ash Carter, US Undersecretary of Defence John Deutch and Philip Zelikow, Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, colluded to write this in Foreign Affairs Journal,

            A successful attack with weapons of mass destruction could certainly take thousands, or tens of thousands, of lives. If the device that exploded in 1993 under the World Trade Center had been nuclear, or had effectively dispersed a deadly pathogen, the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it.

            Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949.

            Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either further terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks.

            I find it curious it happened just like that 3 years later, and one of the Authors was able to control what information the 9/11 Commission was able to see?

            Liked by 1 person

            1. That projection of a “transforming event” was amplified in September, 2000 when the Project for the New American Century’s manifesto “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” declared that “the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

              And one year later almost to the day on September 11, 2001, Da Boyz at PNAC got their “New Pearl Harbor.”

              And what is so curious about Zelikow ~ a long-time errand boy of Condoleeza Rice ~ being put in charge of the government’s long-delayed so-called “9/11 TRUTH Commission”?

              If the objective was to ensure that the American People and the rest of the Planet did not have a clue about 9/11 ~ How and Why it actually, really happened, and Who really, actually made and/or let it happen ~ he was the perfect candidate.

              Liked by 2 people

      2. i’m curious: Did Colonel Bacevich declare at which point in our war in Afghanistan those “initial attacks justified as reprisals” turned criminal? Was it before or after bin Laden’s “escape” at Tora Bora?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Fair question to Bacevich.

          Indisputably, what America’s recent wars have in common is massive killing and massive lying by the military and the state. We couldn’t even get the truth about Pat Tillman’s death; we were fed lies instead by the entire chain of command up to Rumsfeld.

          Those who try to tell the truth, like Manning or Hale or Snowden, are imprisoned or forced into permanent exile. Those who lie get promoted.

          Lying is rewarded. Is it any wonder why these wars are such disasters? Except, of course, for those who profit from them.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Lying by this government and its support troops in media, academia, and entertainment to get us into a war goes back to World War II and Pearl Harbor, World War I and the Lusitania, and the Spanish-American War and the Maine.

            And at about that stage of the Forever War in April, 2004 raging in both Afghanistan and Iraq, America desperately needed a “Hero-Martyr” for the cause, and what a better candidate for the role than an NFL Allstar turned Army Ranger? And all the Pentagon was doing in that case was following the script that worked so well ~ at least for a while ~ regarding My Lai back in another war our government lied us into.

            But the American people know all this. Or at least have the opportunity to learn about all this.

            But they don’t and they won’t. Not as long as they can be sold on the latest “threat” and “enemy” their government concocts in order to sell them that next war. Which today is easier than it has ever been given the internet, blogosphere, and social media.

            Liked by 1 person

  12. The title echoes the million-dollar question that so many of us have been asking from the start. Indeed, just what possible good did Pelosi imagine could come of her trip to Taiwan? After all, I find it hard to believe that no one advised her of the downsides. What were, to her mind and those among her advisers, the possible upsides that would outweigh the harms?

    We’ve all had ample reasons to be disgusted with Pelosi over the years; but this – this insanity or idiocy or just plain recklessness- is pushing that a step further. And there it is, right on camera – she seems to be trying to make Biden’s own often-demonstrated cognitive decline pale in comparison.

    There are plenty of indicators suggesting the weakness and decline of American Empire; but the words of our own ‘leaders’ , from both sides of the aisle, make it all the more strikingly apparent.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Ray mentioned that WordPress provides stats on visitors to this site and the country in which they’re situated. Perhaps BV readers might like to see the top 25 countries for this site:

    United States 626285
    Canada 55765
    Australia 16604
    United Kingdom 16534
    Taiwan 16444
    Netherlands 12688
    Germany 11340
    New Zealand 10716
    France 6313
    Mexico 4172
    Ireland 3655
    Brazil 3195
    Philippines 2981
    India 2696
    Italy 2608
    Japan 2258
    Poland 2250
    Sweden 2108
    Norway 1710
    South Korea 1667
    Spain 1630
    Vietnam 1448
    China 1426
    Thailand 1373
    Singapore 1300

    China is at #23. I obviously need to go to China.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. Off Topic; but not really…

    Seventy-seven years ago today ~ August 6, 1945 ~ the children, women, and men of Hiroshima, Japan, understood exactly what Robert Oppenheimer was talking about when, upon witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945 at Los Alamos, he declared: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Two days later, the children, women, and men of Nagasaki would experience the same thing.

    Thus began the next phase of what would become known as “The Cold War,” as carefully conceived, planned, implemented, and executed by Roosevelt and then Truman, Stalin, and Churchill to ensure that their respective military-industrial complexes and colonial empires still had something to do now that Mussolini, Hitler, and Tojo had been disposed of.

    https://globalpress.hinduismnow.org/featured/now-become-death-destroyer-worlds-story-oppenheimers-infamous-quote/

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  18. The rest of the World is not fooled.
    They see this for what it is – grandstanding by a corrupt American politician.
    While she does literally nothing for the people who voted for her!

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Jacinda has her detractors, but compare her to someone like Nancy Pelosi … Jacinda is the All Blacks rugby team and Pelosi is your local club team (with apologies for the insult to local club teams).

      Liked by 3 people

      1. PM Jacinda Ardern has called for ‘dialogue and diplomacy’ with China after US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan. Well said Jacinda , it’s not NZ’s trouble

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Even our Aussie friends across the ditch know all this is a bunch of bullshit.
          And that accomplishing nothing is a US politician’s greatest work.
          And Pelosi accomplished just what was meant to accomplished – the heightening of tension in the region.

          Liked by 1 person

  19. Consortium News has an article about Pelosi actually trying to get Taiwan’s largest chip company , TSMC to stop trading with China and put a factory in the US or something like that. If that’s true in any sense, then its no wonder China is furious! If I were China I’d be furious too. So now the senile old lady (who Jimmy Dore tells us is now a $100 millionaire – probably based on insider trading all these years) is actually a real threat to the world’s peace and tranquility. I’m pretty sure she didn’t think this ploy up on her own, so now we know why Biden didn’t give her a strong request to stay home. On top of everything else, I am really tired of the lies and double dealings (we call them “games”, but they are dangerous ones) the US uses so constantly to foster distrust and enmity with other countries while pretending that we are completely innocent of any provoking. Aren’t you? Aren’t all of you?

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Obviously, Ranney, the overwhelming majority of Americans are not in the least bit tired at all of all the “lies and double dealings” as regards this nation’s Foreign Policy.

      Why else would they keep sending the same people owned, operated, scripted, and controlled by those who benefit the most from all those lies and double dealings to Swampland?

      After all, if nothing else, it enables them to ~ for the moment, at least ~ forget about all the lies and double dealings that constitute the driving force behind America’s Domestic Policy, particularly as regards economics and finance; let alone justice and inequity.

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Moon of Alabama – How Pelosi’s Visit Hurts Taiwan

    When Nancy Pelosi made her ‘woke’ flight to Taiwan the U.S. seemed to hope for a Chinese military reaction to it. It positioned an aircraft carrier and two amphibious landing ships in the region. It also shipped additional fighter planes to Japan and South Korea.

    Chinese and international commentators drew up potential scenarios for a clash like a forced diversion of Pelosi’s plane. However, the Chinese government kept its calm. The reintegration of Taiwan into China is not an urgent matter. It had planned for longer term measures designed to press the pro-independence government in Taiwan into obedience.

    Chinese military exercises will now be held around the island without regard for what Taipei claims as its borders. These missile launches, sea and air maneuvers will not be threatening enough to cause a dangerous military confrontation. But they will be repeated over the next years and will steadily move closer and closer to Taiwan’s coast………………………………………………………………..

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/how-pelosis-visit-hurts-taiwan.html

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Moon concludes his article with “Eventually the people of Taiwan will vote for another party and unification will again come into sight.”

      On what basis does he assume that The People of Taiwan ~ if given a real choice ~ want unification? Are there any public opinion polls confirming this claim?

      And i also note that Moon does not address the issue of what America and the rest of the world are supposed to do about those People of Taiwan who do not want to be part of the People’s Republic of China?

      Even if blockades, embargoes, and other PRC measures to strangle and suffocate them succeed.

      Which can and will happen ONLY if the rest of the Planet allows the PRC to get away with that.

      And wouldn’t it be interesting to see the results of a Referendum in Taiwan on Reunification?

      Liked by 1 person

  21. Pingback: Why Did Nancy Pelosi Go to Taiwan? – Understanding Deep Politics

  22. One of the biggest differences between the foreign policies of China and America is that Americans conceive of it as a game that is a cross and combination of Chess and Liar’s Poker, and the Chinese regard it as just another game of “Wei Chi”; aka “Baduk” in Korea and, more familiarly in the West, what the Japanese call “Go.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game) for further information.

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    1. “The Sinophobic matrix predictably dismissed Xi’s reaction to the fact on the ground – and in the skies – in Taiwan, complete with rhetoric exposing the “provocation by American reactionaries” and the “uncivilized campaign of the imperialists.”

      This may be seen as Xi playing Chairman Mao. He may have a point, but the rhetoric is pro forma. The crucial fact is that Xi was personally humiliated by Washington and so was the Communist Party of China (CPC), a major loss of face – something that in Chinese culture is unforgivable. And all that compounded with a US tactical victory.

      So the response will be inevitable, and it will be classic Sun Tzu: calculated, precise, tough, long-term and strategic – not tactical. That takes time because Beijing is not ready yet in an array of mostly technological domains. Putin had to wait years for Russia to act decisively. China’s time will come.

      For now, what’s clear is that as much as with Russia-US relations last February, the Rubicon has been crossed in the US-China sphere.”

      Pepe Escobar is a columnist at The Cradle, editor-at-large at Asia Times and an independent geopolitical analyst focused on Eurasia. Since the mid-1980s he has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore and Bangkok.

      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57160.htm

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Mr Escobar does not make clear his basis for declaring that “[t]he crucial fact is that Xi was personally humiliated by Washington and so was the Communist Party of China (CPC), a major loss of face – something that in Chinese culture is unforgivable. And all that compounded with a US tactical victory.”

        How was Xi “humiliated” by Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan? Because he didn’t order her plane shot down?

        And how does Escobar define “tactical,” if he is declaring Pelosi’s trip a “victory.”

        Like i said earlier: while the US and the West are playing Chess and Liar’s Poker, the Chinese are playing Wei Chi/Baduk/Go. And have been doing so for some 2,500 years.

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        1. Jeff, did you read Pepe Escobar’s entire article…….you need to read between the lines. Read his entire article and think about what he is saying. He agrees with you that the Chinese are playing Wei Chi/Baduk/Go.

          “This is the way the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) ends, over and over again: not with a bang, but a with a whimper….
          ….the Chinese Sun Tzu maneuvering ahead will essentially concentrate on a progressive economic blockade of Taiwan, the imposition of a partial no-fly zone, severe restrictions of maritime traffic, cyber warfare, and the Big Prize: inflicting pain on the US economy”

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          1. i would not have commented on it, Dennis, if i had not read the entire article.

            And he did not make clear at all the basis for his assertions that Xi was “humiliated” or that Pelosi’s trip was a “victory.” Nor did he make clear exactly For Whom it was a “victory.”

            And i will have to go back and check to see how Sun Tzu would regard blockades, embargos, no-fly and -shipping zones, cyberwar, and, particularly, inflicting pain on the US economy as the “Big Prize.”

            Particularly when the Chinese economy is so dependent on American and other Western consumption of its goods, products, and occasional services.

            That’s what our perpetual Balance of Trade Deficit with China is all about, isn’t it?

            And just curious: Have You read any Sun Tzu at all to know if Escobar knows what he is talking about?

            Liked by 1 person

  23. On the other War Front – Believe it or Not! I believe a lot of it.

    “One less traitor”: Zelensky oversees campaign of assassination, kidnapping and torture of political opposition

    While claiming to defend democracy, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has outlawed his opposition, ordered his rivals’ arrest, and presided over the disappearance and assassination of dissidents across the country.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has framed his country’s war against Russia as a battle for democracy itself. In a carefully choreographed address to US Congress on March 16, Zelensky stated, “Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided. The destiny of our people, whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy.”

    US corporate media has responded by showering Zelensky with fawning press, driving a campaign for his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and inspiring a flamboyant musical tribute to himself and the Ukrainian military during the 2022 Grammy awards ceremony on April 3.

    Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia……….

    https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/17/traitor-zelensky-assassination-kidnapping-arrest-political-opposition/

    Liked by 2 people

  24. Do you then find yourself more in agreement with Colonel Macgregor’s point of view more than Pepe Escobar’s Jeff?
    I find the Colonel to be a sane and pragmatic.
    And I for one think it would be beneficial if more American people paid attention to his perspective!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Having done no more that watch that video, and knowing nothing further about Col Macgregor ~ ie, where he came from and what he did during his career [other than a scan of Wiki revealing that he was appointed the Senior Advisor to Trump’s last Acting Secretary of Defense] ~ yes, i agree much more with what he had to say on that video than what Mr Escobar said.

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  25. Earlier, i challenged the basis for Moon Of Alabama’s assertion that ““Eventually the people of Taiwan will vote for another party and unification will again come into sight.”

    And asked the question: “And wouldn’t it be interesting to see the results of a Referendum in Taiwan on Reunification?”

    Well, here’s a very recent [albeit pre-Pelosi boondoggle] look at that very question… .

    TAIWAN’S DESIRE FOR UNIFICATION WITH CHINA NEAR RECORD LOW AS TENSIONS RISE
    by John Feng July 14, 2022

    The Taiwan public’s declining desire for political union with China fell further to a near-record low in the first half of 2022, the island’s leading pollster said on Tuesday.

    In a biannual update to its surveys on core political attitudes in Taiwan, National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center (ESC) found only 1.3 percent of respondents wanted unification with mainland China “as soon as possible,” while a similarly low 5.1 percent desired formal Taiwanese independence at the earliest possibility.

    The appeal for both scenarios, which the ESC has tracked since 1994, remain near all-time lows. The latest figures published Tuesday, represented a 0.1 point drop for immediate unification and 0.7 point drop for immediate independence—two extreme viewpoints that tend not to weigh too heavily on the democratic island’s regular elections.

    Continued at https://www.newsweek.com/taiwan-china-politics-identity-independence-unification-public-opinion-polling-1724546

    One can only wonder how that poll would turn out now post-boondoggle, what with the sanctions, boycotts, blockades, military exercises [including missiles allegedly flying over the countryside], No Fly and No Ship zones, and so forth.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. And this severely challenges Col Macgregor’s declaration on that video that close to 50% of the Taiwanese people ~ those linked to what’s left of America’s Good Ole Boy Chiang Kai Shek’s KMT ~ do want unification.

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    1. Anybody care to guess how much all this is costing the American taxpayer, starting from when Pelosi left the States and headed west?

      No wonder everybody up on The Hill is so enthusiastic about it. Just like they love our war with Russia in Ukraine; and for exactly the same reason: Because every dime it costs is going into the pockets of American workers, supervisors, managers, executives, board members, and shareholders of the MICC.

      And it all goes on Uncle Sam’s credit card, so it’s actually FUTURE American taxpayers who will be footing the bill once they start coming due and can be avoided no more.

      That’s why Americans haven’t raised a peep about any of this bullshit in Eastern Europe or East Asia: Somebody else is going to pay for it.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Others are already paying for it, over there, in blood. And the American populace is also already paying for it in other ways, such as by foregoing adequate health care, infrastructure & other public services; by increasing economic insecurity; by the gradual breakdown of civility and violent outbursts that suggest worsening mental health and social decline.
        And that’s even before we see the fallout from the weakening of the dollar amid all that insupportable debt.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Well stated. People all over the planet have been paying with blood for America’s actions since the end of World War II.

          All that is happening now is that some Americans are being able to experience directly what the rest of the Planet has been suffering with and from as a result of America’s actions all over the world for the past 77 years.

          And it promises to only get worse the closer we get to Election Day.

          Liked by 1 person

  27. It’s astonishing that the Afghan War ended and the U.S. military budget increased by roughly $50 billion. Now it’s going up another $50 billion or so.

    Why? Russia! China! A proxy war in Ukraine fills the coffers of the weapons makers. Ditto rising tensions with China. And war and fears of war reinforce authoritarianism in the U.S.

    Amazing how Americans are supposed to defer to the “experts” when it comes to war. Because “we” don’t know enough, and it’s all classified because of “national security.”

    The experts are paid shills for the weapons makers, but, you know, they’re the experts because they were wrong about Vietnam, wrong about Afghanistan, wrong about Iraq …

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Sorry, Bill. But i have a hard time being “astonished” in any way or even at all about America’s booming national security/defense budget after Afghanistan.

      Given the history of the so-called “Peace Dividend” after the Soviet Union and European Communism disintegrated 30+ years ago, what’s the surprise?

      And Americans are raised, trained, educated, and programmed to defer to and trust all those “experts,” especially those in the government. And not just in the realm of protecting the Fatherland from enemies, foreign and domestic.

      After all, it was our “experts” who guided, directed, and controlled this nation’s response to The COVID Event. And we see how well that went: With just over 4% of the world’s population, the US has suffered 16% of the Total Cases and 17% of the Total Deaths. And look what happened to the economy under the guidance of those same wizards.

      And it was our “experts” who brought about the 2008 Too-Big-To-Fail financial ““¢risi$,” and have led us into our current looming hyperinflation coupled with a recession, if not depression. But Wall Street is doing better than ever. Gee, what a surprise, eh?

      It is certainly going to be a very interesting 3 months to Election2022, currently scheduled to occur on November 8.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Fair points, Jeff.

        For me, Mr. Spock on “Star Trek” was my role model as a teen. I admired his logical approach. And I suppose that’s what I mean. Logic would dictate that weapons and war spending should and would decrease when wars end and rivals prove weaker than we’d thought, e.g. the Afghan War, Russia vis-a-vis Ukraine.

        But logic simply doesn’t matter in America. Fear and profits do. Fear is stoked so the profits can keep flowing upwards to the few who already have so much.

        It may not be logical, but it sure is America.

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        1. And this illogical America has worked very well for those Special Interest Ruling Elites who own and operate, script and control America’s politicians and bureaucrats in DC and State capitals.

          The problem is that it is working less and less well for the benefit of the American people, or anybody else on the Planet. Except, of course, for those other Special Interest Ruling Elites in other national capitals and centers of economic, financial, and informational power.

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  28. Note: “Bata kusai” is a Japanese term originated back when Westerners first showed up in Japan referring to “whatever the Japanese found in Westerners to be coarse, insensitive, gauche, or gracelessly assertive, and literally means “reeks of butter.”

    Patrick Lawrence elaborates in his article “Reeking of Butter” [extracts]:

    I have long treasured the Japanese idiom for its earthiness and, the important thing, because it is A REMINDER OF HOW WE WESTERNERS TEND TO BE UNAWARE OF THE WAY WE COME OVER TO OTHERS. John Wayne was bata kusai. Huge American cars with chrome fins were bata kusai. The Marlboro Man was bata kusai. Ronald Reagan was bata kusai.

    And Nancy Pelosi, bringing the Japanese phrase into the wider Asian context, is emphatically bata kusai. THE HOUSE SPEAKER HAS JUST GIVEN OFF A REEK OF BUTTER THAT SEEMS TO HAVE SENT THE WHOLE OF EAST ASIA IN SEARCH OF HANKIES.

    It is obvious now that Pelosi knows absolutely nothing about diplomacy as it is conducted at the other end of the Pacific. For my money she knows nothing about statecraft altogether and anywhere, but let us set this aside for the moment.

    Asian diplomacy is very different from Western practice. There is much that Westerners would consider informal about it. Something of the Roman principle at times comes into it: Qui tenet teneat, he who holds may go on holding—in other words, let us proceed from where we are. Unwritten understandings are central to the process. Confrontation is a very last resort. Mahogany tables, fountain pens, and formal agreements come only after all the easily attainable objectives—the symbolic gestures, the low-hanging fruit—have been achieved. There is typically no rush in Asian diplomacy.

    Pelosi is asleep to these differences. To East Asians she has come over as a butter-smelling clod—clumsy, indelicate, incapable of nuance, not the slightest interested in the perspectives of others, ignorant of how she was looked upon. Given she has offered the world a display of how American diplomats and administration officials conduct our trans–Pacific relations, WE MUST CONCLUDE THAT AMERICA IS DESTINED TO GET NOWHERE IN THE WORLD’S MOST DYNAMIC REGION IN THE COURSE OF OUR CENTURY. THOSE PURPORTING TO SERVE AS OUR STATESMEN AND STATESWOMEN SIMPLY DO NOT HAVE THE INTELLIGENCE OR THE CRAFT.

    Full article at https://scheerpost.com/2022/08/07/reeking-of-butter/ [EMPHASES added.]

    Liked by 1 person

  29. WESTERNERS THINK THEY ARE FREE-THINKING INDIVIDUALISTS AND IT’S EFFING ADORABLE [Extracts]
    by Caitlin Johnstone

    In an authoritarian regime, you do what the powerful want you to do. In a Free Democracy™️, you do what you like, and it’s only by pure coincidence that what you like just so happens to always align perfectly with what the powerful want you to do.

    THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE BRAINWASHING EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC PROPAGANDA IN THE WEST, THE MORE ADORABLE IT IS WHEN YOU SEE WESTERNERS TALKING ABOUT THEMSELVES AS FREE-THINKING INDIVIDUALISTS LIVING IN A FREE SOCIETY IN CONTRAST WITH THE CITIZENS OF NATIONS LIKE CHINA.

    A CIVILIZATION WHOSE INHABITANTS ARE CONTINUOUSLY INDOCTRINATED WITH POWER-SERVING BELIEF SYSTEMS FROM CHILDHOOD UNTIL THEIR DYING BREATH IS NOT INDIVIDUALIST, IS NOT FREE, AND IS NOT THINKING. ITS INHABITANTS ONLY THINK THIS IS SO, AND THEY THINK THIS IS SO BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO.

    Freedom of thought and freedom of speech only exist on the fringes of western society, in such small numbers that they make no difference. The mainstream population whose numbers could be used to effect revolutionary change are herded into political factions which are designed to prop up status quo power at every turn and corresponding media echo chambers which keep them from providing any meaningful resistance to the machine.

    AS A WHOLE WE ARE MARCHING IN PERFECT ACCORDANCE WITH THE WILL OF OUR MASTERS: VOTING HOW THEY LIKE, THINKING HOW THEY LIKE, SPEAKING HOW THEY LIKE, WORKING HOW THEY LIKE, SHOPPING HOW THEY LIKE, AND LIVING HOW THEY LIKE. IT IS ONLY THE POWER-SERVING NARRATIVES PUT IN OUR MINDS BY OUR EDUCATION SYSTEMS AND OUR MEDIA WHICH TELL US WE ARE FREE. AND IT IS ONLY THOSE POWER-SERVING NARRATIVES WHICH HAVE TRAINED US TO LOOK DOWN OUR NOSES AT PEOPLE IN NATIONS LIKE CHINA.

    Full article at https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/westerners-think-they-are-free-thinking [EMPHASES added.]

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  30. WAPO OP-EDS ON PELOSI’S JAUNT TO TAIWAN: An opportunity to put both arguments side-by-side and compare and contrast

    Washington Post Op-Ed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Why I’m leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan”
    August 2, 2022 https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/8222-3

    Opinion by Chinese ambassador to U.S. Qin Gang: “Why China objects to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan”
    August 4, 2022 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/china-ambassador-op-ed-pelosi-taiwan-visit/

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  31. I just read as much of The Speaker of The House’s WaPo OpEd as I could stomach and it’s all clear to me now: from her description, Taiwan is everything the U.S. is supposed to and claims to be. Thanks, Nancy! Appreciate it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Very well said, Bill.

      Unfortunately, there is not a single American politician who could run on ~ let alone get elected with ~ a platform that calls for the elimination or even the reduction of nuclear weapons.

      And You explained that when You asked “Why then do we persist in building yet more missiles and bombs?” Because all the right people have made, are making, and will continue to make all kinds of money building them.

      And the American people will never go along with it as long as somebody reminds them of Condi Rice’s warning about Saddam’s “WMDs”: “The smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud.”

      Like

      1. Yes. So tired of our collective immaturity and foolishness as a country. Our unreasonable fear of everything and our desire to wipe all “enemies” off the face of the world.

        And those “enemies” keep changing, much like in “1984,” as you know. But it’s the enemy within we must truly focus on.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I think many of us feel much the same- both as to our ‘leaders’ as well as to what seems to be the mass of our particular culture.

          “Our fear of everything” and need to have a sterile / ‘safe’ world seems to extend not only to the peoples and governments of other states, but also seems related to how we collectively treat the natural world. There seems to be some drive to wipe out anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the image of whitewashed perfection that we’ve been sold.

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  33. With regard to the Jimmy Dore segment that opened this column, I would say the person I have sympathy for is the Chinese translator tasked with translating Pelosi’s speech to the Taiwanese leaders. I suspect she got fired, on the grounds that since no world leader could have possibly said what Pelosi did say that therefore the translation was in great error. The translator is still lucky, though. On the mainland she would have been given 10 years at hard labor.

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  36. First Pelosi’s trip, and now this… . exactly 90 days before Election2022.

    WELCOME TO THE THIRD WORLD: The FBI really better have something “pulverizing” on Trump, because otherwise we’ve just witnessed one of the dumbest moves in the history of politics by Matt Taibbi

    “[The Justice Department] must immediately explain the reason for its raid and it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives, or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation and legitimacy of January 6 investigations.” — Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

    Headline from Politics Insider this morning: “Feds likely obtained ‘pulverizing’ amount of evidence ahead of searching Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, legal experts say.”

    Pulverizing! Hold that thought.

    We’ve reached the stage of American history where everything we see on the news must first be understood as political theater. In other words, the messaging layer of news now almost always dominates the factual narrative, with the latter often reported so unreliably as to be meaningless anyway. Yesterday’s sensational tale of the FBI raiding the Mar-a-Lago home of former president Donald Trump is no different.

    As of now, it’s impossible to say if Trump’s alleged offense was great, small, or in between. But this for sure is a huge story, and its hugeness extends in multiple directions, including the extraordinary political risk inherent in the decision to execute the raid. If it backfires, if underlying this action there isn’t a very substantial there there, the Biden administration just took the world’s most reputable police force and turned it into the American version of the Tonton Macoute on national television. WE MAY BE LOOKING AT SIMULTANEOUSLY THE DUMBEST AND MOST INADVERTENTLY DESTRUCTIVE POLITICAL GAMBIT IN THE RECENT HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY.

    Continued at https://taibbi.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-third-world

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