The RPI Challenge

As world tensions heighten over Ukraine, some fear this crisis might grow into a great geopolitical catastrophe. Certainly it could. But few recognize there is an even greater matter of conflict brewing between the US and Russia. It could quickly outpace the already-dangerous Ukraine war. Consider the following statement about the war: "This is not about Ukraine at all, but the world order." Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that, referencing the war. Oxford University professor...

The agreement announced on Friday in Beijing regarding the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the reopening of their embassies is a historic event. It goes way beyond an issue of Saudi-Iranian relations. China’s mediation signifies that we are witnessing a profound shift of the tectonic plates in the geopolitics of the 21st century.  The joint statement issued on Friday in Beijing begins by saying that the Saudi-Iranian agreement was reached “in response to...

For years, members of Congress have asked for access to suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to the Biden family’s foreign business deals. Those efforts were cut off by the Biden Administration and the Democratically controlled houses of Congress. Even after the GOP took over the House, however, the Treasury Department continued to refuse to turn over the SARs. While the GOP had to threaten hearings with Treasury officials, the department has finally relented. It now appears that time is...

I often joke that I survived Washington because I had low expectations, but last week’s hearing of the House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee would have tested the lowest of my low expectations. The purpose of the subcommittee is to look into the politicization of US government agencies and its effect on our civil liberties. But last week’s inaugural hearing of the committee was not at all a good look for the Democrats, who brought nothing but insults for the...

Friday’s announcement that Iran and Saudi Arabia had restored bilateral ties for the first time in seven years marks a major geopolitical development in the Persian Gulf. As the region’s two main powerhouses, Tehran and Riyadh had found themselves supporting opposing sides in conflicts in both Syria and Yemen over the past decade, resulting in tensions that would culminate in the ending of diplomatic relations in January 2016, following the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr by Saudi...

Let’s take a look at USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. The first thing to know: the agency is run out of the State Department. Its pubic relations cover is to provide “international development.” This is code for fomenting regime change and undermining elected governments not on-script with the neoliberal agenda. Second point: USAID is basically a cutout for CIA activity. David H. Price, in his “Cold War Anthology: The CIA, the Pentagon, and the Growth of Dual Use...

“When a problem arises either inside or outside a republic, and has become so serious that it has begun to terrify everyone, the safest policy to put off dealing with it rather than trying to eliminate it, because almost always those who eliminate it only increase its strength and hasten the harm that is expected from it…when you put off dealing with them, they either fade away by themselves or at least the evil is postponed for a longer time.” - Machiavelli [Discourses, I.33] There is a...

The House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government held a hearing Thursday on the Twitter Files, which are exposing pervasive federal browbeating to suppress free speech. Congressional Democrats championed the National Lampoon definition of censorship: Unless there is a photo of an FBI agent holding a gun to the head of a Twitter employee, the feds did nothing wrong. Twitter Files reporters Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger were on the witness stand. Though both are...

“Governments create money all the time. We do that for war.” “This whole notion that you run government like you run a household…is a complete myth”Economist Prof Mariana Mazzucato tells #Newsnight Government’s should address social issues through taxhttps://t.co/P0zxS1DNGF pic.twitter.com/I6NLtXgDqN — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 6, 2023 This is the argument for more money printing, and perhaps unlimited money printing, recently advanced by Professor Mariana Mazzucato on prime-time...

The people in charge have become comically deficient at spinning tales of ruling class heroism and international intrigue, as evidenced by their latest story about the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. From scripts declaring that bat (or pangolin) soup led to a “global pandemic,” to declaring that humanity had achieved a “miracle cure” vaccine (100% effective, said Pfizer) for the coronavirus, and now, distorted, source-free chronicles meant to boost support for the Slava Slush Fund, the...

Historian Henry Adams observed a century ago that politics “has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” President Biden confirmed this axiom in his raging speeches prior to the mid-term congressional elections. Throughout his career, Biden has relied on a two-step routine —first appealing to “our better angels” before demagogically vilifying his opponents. In December 2020, after the Electoral College had certified his presidential victory, he declared, “Now it is time to turn the...

It is generally observed that imperial powers like the United States frequently interfere in foreign governments in support of economic or hard political reasons. To be sure, Washington has refined the process so it can plausibly deny that it is interfering at all, that the change is spontaneous and comes from the people and institutions in the country that is being targeted for change. One recalls how handing out cookies in Maidan Square in Kiev served as an incentive wrapped around a...

US Joint Chiefs Chair, General Mark Milley (L) paid an unannounced visit to a US military base in Northeast Syria, March 3, 2023The sudden unannounced arrival of the top US military officer General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a dusty American base in Syria’s remote northeast on Friday may call to mind a famous quote by Dick Cheney, vice-president in the George W Bush presidency: “The good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically...

Below is my column in The Hill on the latest release of the Twitter Files and what it suggests about ever-widening scope of possible government censorship efforts. Here is the column: An old saying, attributed to Henry David Thoreau, maintains that you do not have to find a trout in your glass to know someone is watering down the milk. This week Americans found a veritable school of trout in their milk — and a demonstration by the Biden administration of why such a gathering of trout is often...

Now you see it … maybe soon you won’t.Over the last year, the seeming ability of stock values of many technology companies to keep rising forever met resistance. This was true even for the major technology companies known collectively as “big tech.” During the last 12 months, Meta (parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram), Amazon, and Alphabet (parent company of Google and YouTube) suffered layoffs and big declines in stock prices.These were the result of both bad decisions and...

The dash for the White House in Washington on Friday by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz remains a riddle wrapped in a mystery. Scholz landed in DC, drove to the White House and was received by President Biden in Oval Office for a conversation that lasted over an hour. No aides were present. And he flew back to Berlin.  Associated Press reported cryptically, “If any agreements were reached or plans made, the White House wasn’t saying.” Scholz had insisted while leaving Berlin that he and Biden...