FTAC – Russia vs NATO – Freeze Frame

18 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Politics, Russia, United States of America

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foreign affairs, Russia vs NATO

Whatever the state of affairs may be, the staging is in for the next Administration.

Putin has reinvented Russia as a neo-imperial power with privileged classes anchored by the “New Nobility” (FSB) and the oligarchs with himself a level or two above all he has leveraged (in service to his own unlimited narcissistic supply).

The United States has managed to force Putin to attempt to produce a national economy based on other than oil revenues and skimmed proceeds from others states — and Putin has produced law for punishing the oligarchs from exporting their capital (capital flight in Russia over many years plus the loss of anticipated oil revenues plus sanctions have had good effects).

NATO has moved its machinery into place to stall additional inroads against former Soviet clients, and it has recently put on a demonstration of power against Russia’s own parading of nuclear might.

I got to tell you have so many years of tracking the Islamic Small Wars and discovering the “Phantoms of the Soviet” in contemporary foreign affairs, this is scary stuff!

Of course, there are “Phantoms of the Soviet” also in American domestic affairs.

Start with Black Lives Matter and the Chicago Coalition Against Racism and Political Repression along that line and end in the murky affection between V. Putin and D. Trump and the oddness of Trump’s having for his political advisor the same Paul Manafort as Ukraine’s deposed President Yanukovych.

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FTAC – Turkey (and Hungary) – Medieval Absolute Power vs Modern Distributions

18 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eastern Europe, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Turkey, United States of America

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21st Century Neo-Feudalism, authoritarianism, classical liberalism, Erdogan, fascism, foreign affairs, Orban, post-Cold War, post-Soviet Era, Putin

Let me suggest this: we see opposed medieval forces in “Russia vs Turkey” but we don’t so easily discern “Medieval vs Modern” in Russia and Turkey vs NATO (I know Turkey is a NATO member but it may no longer be what a NATO member should be — distributed power, secular, reasoning).

Peacocks vs The People

While NATO focuses on the military defense of the democratic open societies of the west, its opposition, including NATO members Hungary and Turkey, appear to focus on authoritarianism, corruption (encouraged), cults of personality, and the greater encouragement of medieval conflicts involving modern weapon systems.

Troika Putin-Assad-Khamenei-(Baghdadi) have produced a whole theater of politics and combat (BackChannels titles the production “Assad vs The Terrorists”, also “The Syrian Tragedy”), and while the analyst’s perception may be that of a wickedly callous totalitarian and tyrannical bid to control the public perception of events, the public appears to be buying it: those who have incubated ISIS have now to enjoy the glory of destroying it over as long a period of time as may please them.

With Putin having extracted an apology from Erdogan over the Turkish response to aggressive Russian piloting (akin to Netanyahu’s apologizing for the defense of Israel against the Gaza Flotilla and weapons stored aboard the Mavi Marmara), Erdogan has appeared to stiffen his resolve to destroy democracy in Turkey and replace it with himself.

Having alluded to Hungary’s Orban as being of similar “malignant narcissistic” type, two to a few recent titles might suffice for support: “Vladimir Putin’s Little Helper: Hungary’s Viktor Orban is abetting Moscow’s push to sow chaos in the European Union. But at what cost?” (by Paul Hockenos, The New Republic, April 19, 2016); “Putin’s Messenger Boy: Viktor Orban in Moscow” (Hungarian Spectrum, February 17, 2016). For good measure: Orban and Press Freedom; Orban and Corruption; Orban and Fascist Nationalism.

Posted to YouTube by “Russia Insider” June 24, 2016.

Listen / read what Putin has to say.

Also note the related YouTube feed.

By way of comparisons, what has the penultimate classically liberal democracy — my very own United States of America — to show for its values?

Hillary Clinton and Corruption

Donald Trump and Nationalism

This ain’t no Yankee Doodle election coming up.

However, it will still be free and fair with an entire electorate free to publish and speak as it may, demonstrate where it may wish (with equal and fair permitting and wondrous order, for the most part, considering the emotions involved), and talk itself through its own national issues and sense of purpose, which is not to “rule the world” but perhaps produce a world less given to self-aggrandizing tyrants.

I’ve reserved “Fascist” from “Nationalism” with Trump because . . . he’s an American: BackChannels expects him to reject his role in the development of his own idolatrous cult of personality and to put Americans first in the representation of the many cultures, manners, and personalities that have co-produced America’s magnificent tapestry and its related wealth.

Immediately Related on BackChannels

“Cold War? –> Cold Struggle”, March 15, 2016.

Countercoup – On the Immediate Aftermath

Morris, Loveday, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Souad Mekhennet. “Turkey is expected to curb military power as purge expands.” The Washington Post, July 19, 2016.

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Snapshot – Churches and Mosque – “Great Days of Service” – Irving, Texas USA

10 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, North America, Politics, Religion, Syndicate Red Brown Green, United States of America

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community appearance, Great Days of Service, Islam, Islamic Center of Irving, political perception, religion, religious subscription, religious succession

Posted to YouTube by Eddie Shaw, an instructor in the Tae Kwon Do Club of the Islamic School of Irving, February 24, 2015.

Posted to YouTube by the Irving Masjid, April 29, 2016.

Great Days of Service (GDS), Irving, Texas, describes itself this way on its home page:

GREAT DAYS OF SERVICE IN IRVING, TEXAS, IS AN INTERFAITH ASSOCIATION OF FAITH COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS UNITED IN SERVING GOD AND COMMUNITY THROUGH RENEWING NEIGHBORHOODS AND AIDING HOMEOWNERS IN THE RESTORATION OF THEIR PROPERTIES.

And on its “About” page, this way:

Great Days of Service is a non-profit association of diverse Irving faith communities, businesses, and civic groups who are united in serving God and community by renewing neighborhoods and aiding homeowners in the restoration of their properties.

The GDS website supports pages displaying Church Partners (there are many — 14 churches listed and one mosque – the Islamic Center of Irving) and Community Partners, a melange of relevant government and the kinds of good-hearted private businesses that anchor the tapestry of small town America.

The Islamic Center of Irving featured recently in an Esquire article — “The Real Muslims of Irving, Texas: With armed protesters outside their mosque and freedom of religion and the right to carry crashing together on their doorstep, Lone Star Muslims just want to say howdy. Before somebody gets hurt” (by Colby Buzzell, May 9, 2016). Four months earlier, those armed protesters made the virtual pages of The Dallas Morning News (“Armed protesters gather outside Islamic Center of Irving” by Avi Selk, November 21, 2015). Work “Ahmed Mohamed”, the student who one day brought the clock-in-a-box to school and by the next, more or less, had achieved global notoriety, into the search string, and you might get this:

Screen capture, Google search, July 10, 2016.

Oh, my — and there’s still a $15 million Ahmed Mohamed vs City of Irving lawsuit on the docket.

BackChannels has heard that in the past year– and for the next — one or two churches have dropped out of the ranks of the multi-faith “Great Days of Service” in the wake of a “dust up” with the mosque.

Will details arrive?

Is the “skinny” really needed?

James Ragland writing for The Dallas Morning News (Muslims are now an organized political force in Irving”) noted the following back in May:

Those who keep tabs on voter rolls say the number of Muslim voters has jumped from about 150 two years ago to over 800 in the May 7 election. Of the city’s 92,000 registered voters, about 3,800 — slightly more than 4 percent — identify as Muslims.

But they made up nearly 18 percent of the ballots cast in an election where the turnout was low.

Possibly, this given the direction of those not-so-sacred numbers (indicating growth), it may not hurt the representatives of Irving’s Muslim community to share back into the Christian community the making and posting of participation-and-accomplishment videos having to do with those “Great Days of Service” –(added per the addendum at the top) nor would it hurt the churches to produce and post their own videos on the matter . . . or have a hand in the interfaith making of the next video.

Sigh.

In the medieval mode, religious succession — initially, the ascent or uptake of Christianity displacing (for most) Judaism (source of history and inspiration) and much else — accounts for bloodshed through many ages, but cue the angels (“Aaaaaaah”) and The Enlightenment arrives, the church divides and divides again — and fends off Islam’s incursions in what has become Europe– until within its many domains Northern Ireland quiets down and that seems the end of that part of the bloody story.

But wait: about here enters those “Red Brown Green” malignant narcissists — “Comrades, Nationalist, Islamists” but Kleptocrats (and subscription builders) most of all — and we’re once again on this potentially bloody — and still medieval — merry-go-round.

In the way of the web and YouTube, this video automatically followed the two cited and displayed above:

Posted to YouTube April 29, 2016.

Wikipedia on “Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan”.

Apparently, the fishers of souls continue to count their success in subscriptions and may adjust their talk to compete.

Addendum and Mild Retraction – July 10, 2016

There have been other “Great Days of Service — Irving” videos recent within the past two years. However, the top search results appearing on YouTube come up absent of productions posted by the Christian churches.

This is what BackChannels found:

“Interview: “Great Days of Service” – Post by the City of Irving, April 21, 2016.

“Great Days of Service at Irving 2015” – Posted by GDS Irving, May 18, 2015.

“Kizoa Video Maker: Great Days of Service 2015” – Posted by GDS Irving, May 18, 2015.

“Great Days of Service 2015” – Posted by The City of Irving, June 8, 2015.

Presented in the order noted:

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Political Myopia – Chilcot in the Post-Soviet Context

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, Fast News Share, Great Britain and United Kingdom, Iraq, Middle East, North America, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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21st Century Neo-Feudalism, Chilcot, commentary, foreign affairs, political perspective and time, post-Cold War, post-Soviet

BackChannels places conflicts involving Iraq in the post-Cold War framework and suggests that military engagements were part of “containment” and the “building down” of Soviet alliances that remained in character authoritarian and openly supportive of terrorism.

Note too that Russia today refuses to designate either Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorist organizations; that is has met in recent years with PFLP (easily looked up online), well recognized for the hijacking of airliners in the 1970s; and, sigh, that it is most responsible for allowing / enabling / encouraging Assad to incubate ISIS — by deselection for bombing and combat — in Syria as that conflict got under way.

Basically, Russia then and Russia today criminally manipulates foreign political constituencies to suit its own kleptocratic appetites. Hussein (and Gaddafi) were part of that enterprise, and perhaps as God willed it, both are gone (and thank God).

Yesterday’s BBC report on the Chilcot report keeps itself narrowed on the image of Iraq as an oasis of stability, however miserable, under the rule of a strongman, and the report itself reasserts at face value the idea that “regime change” in Iraq linked to direct threats posed by WMDs, which imbroglio BackChannels would shove into a bin labeled “Potential Convenient Pretexts” (sorry the same don’t really work out) and the more general “Global War on Terror,” which period of observation appears to start on September 11, 2001:

10. After the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 and the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in November, the US Administration urned its attention to regime change in Iraq as part of the second phase of what it called the Global War on Terror.

Source: “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary: Report of a Committee of Privy Counsellors: Ordered by the House of the Commons to be printed on 6 July 2016”, PDF, page 5, Item 10).

It is unfortunate that governments most devoted to “classical liberalism” and democracy should feel the need to resort to manipulating their “masses” (instead of free constituencies) because they have failed to publically educate the same in the longer-lived themes of geopolitics and history — or worse, lost that battle to the New Old Now Old Far Out and Lost Left that relies on short memories to promote their own ultimately authoritarian, fascist, and totalitarian outlooks.

I don’t know what BackChannels is going to do when the 25th Year Anniversary of the Dissolving of The Soviet passes on December 26, 2016, but as that day is still coming up, it’s going to harp on it with the hope that other “English” and Europeans and others less free or more so catch a glimpse of Putin’s Excellent World (PEW), the world from which it has emerged, and the malignantly narcissistic worldview it continues to promote or install wherever it may.

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Putin – Yanukovych – Manafort – Trump

27 Friday May 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, North America, United States of America

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21st Century Neo-Feudalism, Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, Vladimir Putin

The hint came through a review in the New York Review of Books:

On February 22, Yanukovych fled to Russia. (Two years later, his political strategist, Paul Manafort, would resurface in the US, playing the same role for Donald Trump.)

Snyder, Timothy. “The Wars of Vladimir Putin.” Reviews of books by Paweł Pieniążek, Karl Schlögel, Peter Pomerantsev. The New York Review of Books, June 9, 2016 Issue.

Why lookee here at this beautiful lede:

Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s palace, is impressive by the standards of Palm Beach—less so when judged against the abodes of the world’s autocrats. It doesn’t, for instance, quite compare with Mezhyhirya, the gilded estate of deposed Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych. Trump may have 33 bathrooms and three bomb shelters, but his mansion lacks a herd of ostrich, a galleon parked in a pond, and a set of golden golf clubs. Yet the two properties are linked, not just in ostentatious spirit, but by the presence of one man. Trump and Yanukovych have shared the same political brain, an operative named Paul Manafort.

Foer, Franklin. “The Quiet American: Paul Manafort made a career out of stealthily reinventing the world’s nastiest tyrants as noble defenders of freedom. Getting Donald Trump elected will be a cinch.” Slate, April 28, 2016.

And here at this disclosure:

Manafort was a principal at the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone, and Kelly (along with another top Trump ally, Nixon alum Roger Stone), a K Street powerhouse with close ties to the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, as well as top Republicans on Capitol Hill.

But over the years, they made millions by representing a rogue’s gallery of clients far away from D.C.’s genteel corridors of power: dictators, guerilla groups, and despots with no regard for human rights—including one man responsible for mass amputations, and another who oversaw state-sanctioned rape.

Woodruff, Betsy and Tim Mak. “Top Trump Aide led the ‘Torturers’ Lobby’: Paul Manafort and the partners at his firm made a fortune repping some of the most despicable dictators of the 20th century.” The Daily Beast, April 13, 2016.

Welcome to the Age of Image.

Who is that precious vote going to — the candidate or the candidate’s handler and stage manager?

The Woodruff and Mak piece rolls around to this from Yanukovych’s election in Ukraine:

At the time of the election, Manafort had spun that Yanukovych was merely misunderstood, and that “the West has not been willing to move beyond the cold war mentality and to see this man and the outreach that he has extended.”

Recall the web site Yanukovych Leaks.

Ukrainians had developed cause for pique at the potential for the endless validation of corruption had they not risen to revolution for the rule of law.

Another gem —

That Trump would choose the Center for the National Interest as the place to premier his new seriousness on foreign policy has Manafort’s fingerprints all over it. For Manafort and the Center have something very important in common: both have ties to the Russian regime of President Vladimir Putin, (whose ambassador to the United States sat in the front row for Trump’s address).

Kirchick, James. “Donald Trump’s Russia connections: Realists with Moscow ties are lining up behind Republican frontrunner.” Politico, April 28, 2016.

BackChannels had gotten the sense that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump appreciated one another as strong men but had no idea how close that molecular bond might be through the agency of a quiet but major political operator in the figure of Paul J. Manafort.

Addendum – October 24, 2016

According to The New York Post, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and ex-”core” aide Rick Gates have financial ties to a biometric security company that lobbied the Putin administration on behalf of technology that would help it spy on its own citizens.

Manafort was a major early investor for EyeLock — and owned up to 10 percent in the company, the Post reported — while Gates was an independent contractor hired to build business for them in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Rozsa, Matthew. “Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was lobbying Vladimir Putin through a company he owned.” Salon, October 24, 2016.

Additional Reference

Ames, Mark, Ari Berman. “Kremlin Whores: How McCain’s Staff Served Putin’s Empire.” The Exiled Online, October 1, 2008.

Burns, Alexander, Maggie Haberman. “Mystery Man: Ukraine’s U.S. fixer.” Politico, March 5, 2014.

Gingerich, Jon. “Trump Hires Manafort for Delegate Push.” O’Dwyer’s, March 29, 2016.

Ho, Catherine. “From Ukraine to Trump Tower, Paul Manafort unafraid to take on controversial jobs.” The Washington Post, April 17 2016.

Kincaid, Cliff and Mark Musser. “Trump Hires ‘Fixer’ With Soviet Connections.” Accuracy in Media, April 20, 2016.

Lake, Eli. “Trump Just Hired His Next Scandal.” Bloomberg View, April 13, 2016.

Sourcewatch. “Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc.”

Wikipedia. “Paul Manafort” (as viewed August 14, 2016):

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FTAC – New Game! Terrorism with Reference to the Post-Soviet “Reset”

04 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, United States of America

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anti-Jihad, domestic terrorism, guns, Islamic moderates, nationalism, San Bernardino

This is just not a story about a hothead who had an argument with someone at work, steamed home to get his gun, came back, and shot the bastard with whom he’d been fighting. This is a story about a couple with a developed arsenal, pipe bombs, and bomb-making supplies. Add: her passport; his recent beard; foreign travel.

The White House has consistently refused being drawn into the position of the “crusader west”, and we as a nation, so I hope, have refused agitation from the Left / Far Left and the provocation of division such acts promote; however, people take steps that aggregate to alter the political landscape.

The Putiin-Khamenei assault on NATO involves — just my opinion — the encouragement of fascist nationalism (as has been seen in Hungary throughout Orban’s leadership and made more clear in relation to that state’s treatment of the Syrian refugees) in line with the feudal statement implicit in Russian, Syrian, and Iranian politics — “mafia states” each one. Few things promote a Far Right response quite like events associated with “Islamic Terrorism”. The “Feudalists” use someone else’s terrorist ambitions (model: “Assad AND The Terrorists”) to manipulate the political atmosphere in the states they have targeted.

One expects authorities to drag out the call on the deadly assault in San Bernardino, but BackChannels would be surprised if the tactical costuming, the SUV gunship, and the arsenal at home turned out to be hobby related. 🙂 Nonetheless, one expects and therefore leaves the involved governments to lead in criminal matters and any associated foreign affairs.

On BackChannels, mention of KGB-style political theater in “Assad vs The Terrorists” AKA “Assad OR The Terrorists” and now “Assad AND The Terrorists” has developed its own packet of online analysis, some on the blog, some elsewhere, e.g., Kyle Orton’s “How Assad Funds the Islamic State” appearing in The Syrian Intifada, November 29, 2015.

Regarding the phrase, ” . . . people take steps that aggregate to alter the political landscape,” BackChannels had in mind Florida Gun Supply’s refusal to sell arms to Muslim customers.

Political timbre:

Posted to YouTube 11/8/2015.

Motivation?

On Wikipedia: “List of Islamist Terrorist Attacks“; from the anti-Jihad “Religion of Peace” web site, “Islamic Terror Attacks on American Soil” (the chart already includes the shooting in San Bernardino).

What is the public supposed to think?

How is the public supposed to respond?

As noted in the excerpt From the Awesome Conversation, the national response to injury is to swell — as does the body with a wound — but with nationalist pride and determination.

Also taking place today: the outcome of the American Forum for Democracy’s Summit in Washington, D.C., press conference at the National Press Building, which started 30 minutes ago.

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FTAC – Syrian Mass Migration – Tough Measures or Programmatic Ones?

18 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, North America, Northern Europe, Politics, Syria

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Islam, mass migration, political attitudes, Syria

It’s too late for “tough” and as demonstrated by Hungary, the same plays to the fascist nationalism and medievalism promoted by Putin and Khamenei.

The way to handle waves of immigrants is simply to program ahead, determined to filter criminals and criminal jihadists from the ranks and produce a path for “acculturation, acclimatization, and assimilation.”

The other part is to go back to the “stink” that’s driving immigration and quell it. That too in Syria and Iraq needs must be done.

Will the west “hold off” on Syria? For how long? — And at what price?

Related on BackChannels: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2012/10/19/mobarak-haider-blasphemy-and-civilization-three-youtube-clips/

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BackChannels

~ Conflict, Culture, Language, Psychology

Category Archives: North America

FTAC – Russia vs NATO – Freeze Frame

FTAC – Turkey (and Hungary) – Medieval Absolute Power vs Modern Distributions

Peacocks vs The People

Immediately Related on BackChannels

Countercoup – On the Immediate Aftermath

Snapshot – Churches and Mosque – “Great Days of Service” – Irving, Texas USA

Addendum and Mild Retraction – July 10, 2016

Putin – Yanukovych – Manafort – Trump

Addendum – October 24, 2016

Additional Reference

FTAC – New Game! Terrorism with Reference to the Post-Soviet “Reset”

FTAC – Syrian Mass Migration – Tough Measures or Programmatic Ones?