The Disintegrated States of America

USA IN DECLINE

Pepe Escobar

Thankfully, considering its urgent message, Martyanov’s book is finally being widely read. It’s already an Amazon bestseller.

Andrei Martyanov is in a class by himself. A third wave baby boomer, born in the early 1960s in Baku, in the Caucasus, then part of the former USSR, he’s arguably the foremost military analyst in the Russian sphere, living and working in the US, writing in English for a global audience, and always excelling in his Reminiscence of the Future blog.

I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing Martyanov’s previous two books. In Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning, nearly three years ago he conclusively proved, among other things, how the missile gap between the US and Russia was a “technological abyss”, and how the Khinzal was “a complete game-changer geopolitically, strategically, operationally, tactically and psychologically”.

He extensively mapped “the final arrival of a completely new paradigm” in warfare and military technology. This review is included in my own Asia Times e-book Shadow play.

Then came The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs, where he went one step beyond, explaining how this “revolution”, introduced at the Pentagon by the late Andrew Marshall, a.k.a. Yoda, the de facto inventor of the “pivot to Asia” concept, was in fact designed by Soviet military theoreticians way back in the 1970s, as MTR (Military-Technological Revolution).

A Journal of People report

WATER SCARCITY IN USA

Two Indigenous communities in New Mexico are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a revised federal rule that lifts protections for many streams, creeks and wetlands across the nation, saying the federal government is violating its trust responsibility to Native American tribes.

The pueblos of Jemez and Laguna are the latest to raise concerns over inadequate protections for local water sources in the desert Southwest. The challenge filed last week in federal court follows a similar case brought in 2020 by the Navajo Nation, the nation’s largest Native American tribe, and several environmental groups.

Ultra-Wealthy Evade 20% of Taxable Income

CAPITALISTS IN USA 

POLITSTURM | April 01, 2021

According to new research published in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the wealthiest Americans are more successful at evading taxes than was previously expected. The paper suggests that due to the use of sophisticated techniques, the sampled data of random audits do not capture the true amount of tax evasion. The authors estimate that the top 1% shelter 20% of their taxable income. 

Audit data showed a very small amount of tax evasion for the wealthiest Americans which can be explained by the use of foreign intermediaries (ex. Foreign bank accounts) and pass-through business entities which serve to complicate detection efforts.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: The homeless and ‘no sit, no lie’ ordinance near Seattle

FACE OF AN ECONOMY 

A Journal of People report

On March 16, 2021, Everett City Council, Washington, a city 30 miles north of Seattle, passed a local ordinance, which will bar people from sitting or lying down in a ten-block belt of the city. The controversial ordinance passed in 5-1 vote.

The ordinance covers a section of the city’s industrial area. Violators will face either a $500 fine or 90 days imprisonment.

The majority of city council members, Everett’s mayor, and the business community in the 10-block area supported the ordinance.

The ordinance, detractors say, criminalizes and discriminates against homeless individuals.

Almost half of Americans think someone else is making the president’s decisions

U.S. POLITICS 

A Journal of People report

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Biden is really doing the job of president. The same number (47%) says others are making decisions for Biden behind the scenes.

The poll results released on March 16, 2021 raise an eyebrow, given the widespread discussion of Biden’s mental state ahead of November’s election.

The poll responses also raise questions about the role of Kamala Harris, who was so widely disliked as a presidential candidate in her own right that she actually dropped out of the Democratic primaries before states began voting, after Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard exposed some of the stains on the California senator’s record on the debate stage. In a year where the country’s reckoning with police abuses featured front and center among election issues, Harris’ term as California’s top prosecutor suggested she was in every way the wrong woman for the job.

FACE OF A POLITICS: Counting Crowd: A View From U.S.

FACE OF A POLITICS

A Journal of People report

Gatherings in a society tell about the society. It is an issue of politics. To the parties concerned with society, gathering is an issue to examine.

A Los Angeles Times report – “Thousands of pro-Trump crowds have gathered since he took office. No state has had more than California” by Rahul Mukherjee said:

“Despite its reputation as a leader of resistance, California saw more pro-Trump crowds than any other state during the president’s term in office.

“That’s according to the Crowd Counting Consortium, a project from the University of Connecticut and Harvard University that documents political gatherings of all kinds. By combing news reports and social media, the group has cataloged some 4,500 pro-Trump gatherings nationwide since he took office in 2017. Of those, 417 events were in California. Florida was a distant second, with 253 events.”

Trump & Biden White House: Break up Big Techs AND do not Sanction Saudi Prince

POLITICS

A Journal of People report

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has called for breaking up giant technology companies and taking away their Section 230 liability protections.

Trump argued that the Big Tech mutes conservative voices like his own.

Trump said Sunday at the CPAC conference in Orlando: “The time has come to break up Big Tech monopolies and restore fair competition. Republicans, conservatives must open our platforms and repeal section 230 liability protections.”

Trump argued: While in the past the public had a chance to hear both sides of the argument before making an informed decision, the big tech censorship disproportionately targeted conservatives, depriving them of the right to be heard. “You would win, you would lose. But now there is no debate, because they refuse allow our side to even speak or to be heard,” said Trump.

FACE OF A STATE: Tillerson’s tactics with Trump

U.S. POLITICS

A Journal of People report

A Huffpost report – “Rex Tillerson Reveals The Tactics He Used To Make Trump Focus On Important Matters” – said:

“Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered a damning verdict on Donald Trump in a recent interview, saying the U.S. is in ‘a worse place’ globally because of the outgoing president.”

The outgoing president mentioned in the report is now former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The January 15, 2021 report by Lee Moran, reporter, HuffPost, said:

“Tillerson, who Trump fired via tweet in March 2018 following a controversial 14 months leading the State Department, told Foreign Policy magazine this week that Trump’s ‘understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of U.S. history, was really limited.’”

LIFE: Post-snow storm: Over a million Texans are still without drinking water

WEATHER CRISIS IN U.S.

A Journal of People report

Over a million Texans are still without drinking water. Smaller communities and apartments are facing the biggest challenges, said reports. And oil refineries, chemical plants and other industrial operators emitted 3.5 million pounds of excess pollution during the winter storm and power crisis in Texas, according to an analysis of company notices provided to state regulators. The recent snowstorm created havoc in the life of the people in Texas. Mainstream media reports have documented the life there in Texas.

A report by The Texas Tribune said:

“Over 1.4 million Texans still faced water disruptions on Wednesday afternoon, more than a week after Texas’ winter storms wreaked havoc on the state’s power grid and water services.

Minorities and the Poor are the Worst Affected By COVID-19 in the US

COVID-19 IN U.S. 

Peoples Dispatch | February 25, 2021

On February 22, the US recorded 500,000 COVID-19 related deaths. While the pandemic has had a devastating effect on US citizens everywhere, it has affected the most underprivileged racial minorities, African-Americans, Latin Americans and Native Americans, the hardest.