Amos's River of Justice

Tag: the deep state

  • A Progressive View of the 2024 Election

    This article is a progressive view of the 2024 election. This is just the way I see it. It’s the result of watching the electoral process very closely since 2015, but I could be wrong on any point. It’s value to me is that it refutes many of the strategic mistakes I see in the political conversation. I think the following factors are important for decision-making in 2024. What do you think?

    • The political establishment is able to stop the progressive agenda in its tracks. Progressives should have learned this in the 2016 election.
    • Donald Trump is part of the establishment. That explains why the Biden Administration has continued many of Trump’s foreign policies. However, President Biden has cooperated with progressives in domestic policy. Biden achieved many important policy changes as a result. We seem to be looking at two different factions within the government.
    • Kamala Harris is a legitimate alternative to Donald Trump. However, Harris supporters of all political persuasions lament that she does not have the particular policies they want her to have. I believe this is evidence of a blindness to the reality that progressives were forced to learn in 2016, and which was repeated in 2020.
    • Biden and Kamala Harris as his VP have taken the progressives seriously. We don’t know if this will continue with a Harris presidency. Nevertheless, anyone who tells you that you have a choice in this particular election is leading you astray.
    • Kamala Harris is a good soldier, or she would not be the Democratic candidate for president. However, she may now have, or she may develop in the course of her presidency, a more nuanced agenda. We won’t know until we elect her.
    • Kamala represents a new generation of leadership. The entire political establishment is past its prime. Republicans admit this fact. The Democratic establishment still thinks it dodged a bullet in defeating Bernie Sanders.
    • The Green Party in the United States acts as an electoral pied piper for progressives. So does Donald Trump. Trump plays the part of the dancing fascist, partly as a way to distract the electorate.
    • It is well-known that Donald Trump has had ties with the Mob. This brings up some interesting questions. Mafias need states to make money. They earn money by providing services for these states. One of these services is helping certain candidates win elections. Therefore, it is very interesting that Trump is proposing to dismantle the US government bureaucracy. Trump’s Mob ties suggest the US ‘state’ is not going away. Apparently, Trump is serving its most extreme faction.
    • This extreme faction had no plan until the progressives developed their agenda in 2015. That’s how the right operates. Conservatives don’t propose new ideas. They only react to progressive proposals.
    • Trump is both a fraud and a real threat. He is an actor in someone else’s play. That has always been his role in the US government.
    • Mara-a-Lago has flood insurance through the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program. Trump once took a $17 million insurance payment for damage that no one remembers happening.
    • Trump put on quite an act when he teased us with the release of the JFK assassination files. Trump probably knows exactly who killed JFK and he doesn’t need the files to give him this information.
    • Donald Trump had a meeting with Bill Clinton immediately before he announced his candidacy in 2015. Perhaps the events are not connected. Bill should explain this.
    • Hillary Clinton received a large sum of money in 2016, after she was defeated. The Clintons used it to purchase the estate next to theirs in New York. Their daughter Chelsea and her family have the use of that estate when she visits her parents.
    • I believe the loss of the 2016 election surprised Hillary. It was a crushing blow. Trump was probably surprised as well. He thought he was only there to defeat Sanders. I’ll bet Bill was not surprised.
    • This does not mean that the 2024 election is not meaningful. If we fail to defeat Trump in this election, he will do exactly as he says he is going to do and no one will stop him. Trump will continue to behave as a fascist if he is elected, although he won’t have free rein.

  • The Deep State is in Ukraine and it’s Agribusiness

    Considering the agricultural benefits being secured by the EU through its Association Agreement with Ukraine, one wonders if NATO expansion in Ukraine was a bluff. The United States is getting everything it wants with Ukraine’s farmland and infrastructure. The deep state is in Ukraine, and it’s agribusiness. Cargill is a key player in Ukraine and other NATO countries. Cargill may have had something to do with the new members of NATO, Sweden and Finland. It may also have had something to do with Switzerland’s decision to sanction Russia.

    NATO Expansion was a Bluff
    Ukraine War and Volatility of Food Prices Credit: simplehappyart

    The curious case of Switzerland

    On February 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, the only remaining neutral countries in Europe were Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. Now there are only three. Finland joined NATO in 2023 and Sweden joined on March 7, 2024. Today, there is support for NATO membership in each remaining neutral country. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is cited as a reason to give up neutrality. But a majority in each country values neutrality. Curiously, Switzerland resisted joining NATO, but it imposed sanctions on Russia. Some say this behavior is not consistent with Switzerland’s neutrality.

    The one thing that makes sense of the behavior of both Switzerland and the United States is agribusiness. Cargill has had a presence in Ukraine for more than two decades. Cargill is a private US company, but Cargill International SA is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Maybe Switzerland stands to gain from Ukrainian farmland. NATO expansion in Ukraine may be a bluff, but Ukraine’s real estate market is for real.

    Agribusiness is part of the deep state

    On January 12, 2014, pro-Western Ukrainians descended on Kiev’s Independence Square to protest President Viktor Yanukovych’s government. On the same day, Cargill paid $200 million for a stake in Ukraine’s UkrLandFarming. Two months later, in March 2014, J. P. Sottile identified the coup in Ukraine as a corporate annexation project. It can also be argued that it was a land grab. Under Yanukovych’s regime, the Ukrainian real estate market had been closed. Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened it in June of 2021.

    According to Sottile, agribusiness is part of the deep state. Normally the deep state is associated with the oil and defense industries, but this association ignores America’s heavy subsidization of agriculture. For two decades, the Cold War alliance between corporations and foreign policy has prepared the ground for Ukraine’s break with Russia.

    I would argue that companies like Cargill were instrumental in this preparation. This pattern was already established during World War II. In 1942, Cargill began to build ships for the US Navy and towboats for the Army. More recently, in March 24, 2023, Cargill CEO Brian Sikes met with USAID administrator Samantha Power to discuss “areas of collaboration in support of USAID’s efforts to bolster democratic bright spots, support farmers in Ukraine in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, and galvanize action on climate-smart food systems.”

    Business is good in Ukraine

    There have been claims of business instability in Ukraine, but these claims are deliberately misleading. Business activity in Ukraine is brisk. However, Morgan Williams, President and CEO of the US-Ukraine Business Council, has been claiming that Ukrainian businesses are not making future plans or expanding operations. He has to know this is not correct. Since 1992, Williams has been advising American agribusinesses on investing in the former Soviet Union. In addition to his position with the US-Ukraine business Council, he is Director of Government Affairs at the private equity firm SigmaBleyzer. Finally, Van A. Yeutter serves with him on the US-Ukraine Business Council’s Executive Committee. Yeutter is the Vice President for Corporate Affairs at Cargill.

    The UkrLandFarming investment wasn’t Cargill’s first purchase in Ukraine and Russia. In December 2013, Cargill announced the purchase of a stake in a Black Sea grain terminal at Novorosslysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast. Aside from its ability to scope out and purchase Ukrainian businesses, Cargill and other big agriculture companies, have benefitted from volatility in food prices, a direct result of the Ukraine War. Today, the Cargill family is America’s wealthiest agricultural family.

    Where do 21st Century Progressives fit in this picture?

    In 2015, I cited agribusiness as a key focus for progressives. I now believe everything that has happened since that time has been a distraction from this focus. When you also consider its nefarious activities in foreign countries, it is clear that agribusiness is a malevolent presence on the earth.

    Agricultural policies are central to human liberty, autonomy and survival. Without the ability to grow quality crops, we can’t provide the world’s population with its most basic requirement–sustenance. In addition, we can’t manage land and water resources or address climate change. Finally, we can’t plan community structure, or provide gainful employment for community members. Agribusiness corporations have usurped all of these functions.

    It’s good that this focus has become more clear. Unfortunately, now we know that no one is listening to us.

error: Content is protected !!