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Oh yes he did.
One of my weekly listens is the interview of Stephen F.
Cohen at the John Batchelor Show. The
discussion, as you know, regards the situation of the New Cold War, Russia-gate,
etc. Cohen is one of the few prominent
academics and voices that consider a) that in many ways it is the US government
that is forcing the issue toward a New Cold War, and b) so-called Russia-gate
is a big fat nothing-burger.
This week they are discussing the supposed Russian meddling
in the election, social media, etc. At
the 17 minute mark of
part one, Cohen offers:
Being a person of Jewish origin, as
we say, I’ve been mindful that Israel has meddled in our elections ever since I’ve
been eligible to vote. Many candidates
seek the endorsement of the Israeli action groups here in the United States;
they pay homage by going to Israel; they think that that’s an important part of
their campaign.
Israel has always meddled big time. The protest has been rather low level.
For a far less important point, he goes on to point to an
academic study of US meddling in foreign elections:
He goes on to conclude that were
number one!
Also, in part
two, they discuss the US meddling (during the Clinton Administration) in
the 1996 election of Yeltsin. But these
points are secondary, and not even controversial: Time Magazine, at the time, proclaimed the news.
In the late 18th century Americans drove British colonists out of America. In the middle 19th century Russians tried to drive Turkish colonists out of Crimea. America supported Russia in its efforts to liberate Russians from Muslim rule in the so called Crimean War - and subsequently helped her become an industrial power - partly as a foil against the British, who supported the Turks in Crimea. [ The Charge of the Light Brigade commemorates the British military's attempt to PREVENT Christian Russians from getting free of Islamic rule. ] By the early 20th century however, the US itself was emerging as the major industrial power. Now Wall Street sought to weaken, rather than strengthen, nascent industrial Russia. So, as historian Antony Sutton remarkable research demonstrates, Wall Street bankers funded the Bolsheviks knowing full well that a communist revolution would severely weaken Russia as an industrial competitor. Such vicious and destructive US 'meddling' in Russia a century ago consigned her to 75 years of mass murder and grinding impoverishment. Finally in the 1990s Russia through off communism and atheism and returned to its former capitalism and Christianity. Now that Russia is once against a nascent industrial power, the Wall Street bankers who control the US government have sicced the US military and its NATO subsidiary against Russia. The takeaway is that capitalists are not necessarily free marketers. Quite the opposite often. In fact they willingly support their own taxation precisely in order to fund a bureaucrato-militarizied system of centrally 'managed trade', which includes among other things the bureacrato-legal regime of patent enforcement, coup d’etats against independent regimes, and finally armed intervention, all as a defense against laissez faire capitalism.
ReplyDeleteHi Victor,
DeleteGreat historical example of US meddling. And thank you for reminding me of Antony Sutton's works and the funding by Wall Street of socialism, national and international.
Your closing remark about "capitalists" is spot on, though I wouldn't consider these cronies to be capitalists at all. But then again, I don't consider the term capitalist to be an invective, even if it's meant to be. Tom Woods once made mention of the difference between free market entrepreneurs and "political" entrepreneurs, like the ones you describe here. A very useful distinction to make and easy to use in debates with "anti-capitalists".
Speaking of Tom Woods.. you replied to the blogpost about his views on immigration and asked me to clarify a few things, which I did (eventually). Perhaps you've already read it. If not: here goes
Cheers from Amsterdam,
Richard
Thanks, Richard, for your thoughtful response to my migration question which I'm re-reading as I re-think the whole migration question. Totally agree that capitalism is a good thing provided it is divorced from political control. The great Israel Kirzner points out that a capitalist is merely anyone with capital. A homeless person with twenty dollars in his pocket is nonetheless a capitalist :)
DeleteWhere political power exists, producers will inevitably use it to prevent competing producers from entering the market - just as the less productive (poor) will inevitably use political power to take from the more productive (rich).
G-d Bless Stephen Cohen!
ReplyDeleteI think about individuals like Stephen Cohen, Lew Rockwell, Jordan Peterson, Murray Rothbard...
DeleteHow one person can make such a difference; how much less light there would be in the world without such individuals.
And what is amusing is that those exact commodities have never been cheaper or more available.
ReplyDeleteLook at the insanity over petrol. The USA is running roughshod over the Middle East spending trillions, getting thousands killed on their side, getting hundreds of thousands killed locally, keeping in power the worst dictators in history and what is there to show for it? Oil is being found all over the place and the price is being set by fracking in South Dakota not in the Middle East.
The Middle East issue never was about oil as a real commodity but about a) the Petrodollar and b) Israeli interests.
ReplyDeleteNotice how countries who drew the ire of the US are exclusively either Shia or secular, while Saudi Barbaria and their pals in the Gulf are allowed to spread Salafism/Wahabism all over the world and right into the hearts of America and Europe.
"The Middle East issue never was about oil as a real commodity but about a) the Petrodollar and b) Israeli interests."
ReplyDeleteThe Middle East was an issue before the petrodollar and before Israel. I think both are "excuses" for the bigger game, the game explained very well by Mackinder, the game that also explains Central Asia and the Far East.
Oh, I agree that the underlying issue is the policy of the Anglo-American Empire to disrupt and control as much as regions of the "world island" as possible.
ReplyDeleteThat said, these two issues been important considerations for the direction for the direction foreign policy has taken in the ME for the past 20 to 30 years.
On a unrelated note: Did you ever read Preparata's Conjuring Hitler? I think it would complement your "Timeline to War" quite nicely.
I'm sure you're already aware this, but in the latest episode of the tom woods show, Lew Rockwell gave you a shout out on your work on libertarianism and culture.
ReplyDeletehttps://tomwoods.com/ep-1107-lew-rockwell-on-standing-against-the-tide/
It's around the 30min mark
Dave
Thank you for sending this. I have not listened yet to this episode; I usually go on a binge of 2-3 episodes at a time to catch up when I have some time.
DeleteMaybe today, certainly over the weekend.
All right, who of you dear readers gave Dr. Woods the softball pitch question so that Mr. Rockwell could hit it out of the park and even honor bionic mosquito at the same time?
Delete-M